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In Austin, a 2015 graduate of The University of Texas MFA directing program, Jess Hutchinson, has founded a new theater company, groundswell (www.groundswelltheatre.com) devoted to the development of new work. I asked Jess to tell me about groundswell.

JESS: In the same way that some of the other great theatre schools—Yale, Brown, UCSD for example—have professional companies directly affiliated with their MFA programs, we saw an opportunity to create that kind of company here in Austin, separate from but certainly st ill in conversation with UT. We also wanted to provide a place where the kind of rigorous development and experimental productions of new plays that we all enjoyed as students could continue after school, utilizing the shared vocabulary that geniuses like Steven Dietz, Kirk Lynn, Liz Engelman, and Suzan Zeder have taught us, and continuing to build on the important relationships we forged by being Longhorns. groundswell is our attempt to do all of those things, while continuing to bring Austin into the vital national new play conversation.

News about her new company was impressive enough, but groundswell—with guidance and support from UT’ s Chair of the Department of Theater & Dance, Dr. Brant Pope, and his faculty—have already organized their inaugural conference for playwrights: groundswell playwrights conference/GPC. This conference, at the time of writing this report, was on the calendar for January 17-23, 2016 in Austin on the UT Campus. The conference was founded on the notion of selecting writers rather than selecting specific scripts. Three playwrights—a UT alum, a faculty member, and a current graduate student—were invited and offered time and resources to work on whatever they want for a week after which there will be a final marathon day of readings and discussions open to the public…and it’ s all free.

JESS: Many play development opportunities are all about the play you submit. We want to champion writers we love, and trust them to bring in whatever strikes their fancy—a passion project. UT has a great thing going with its MFA programs in playwriting and directing but there’ s no established pipeline between UT and the professional world. We’ ve borrowed elements from other development conferences we love—places like PlayPenn, the O’ Neill, and the New Harmony Project—in order to craft what we hope will be a valuable week for all the artists involved, and for our audience, too.  

I asked Jess if the company and its conferences will remain a pipeline strictly for UT affiliated playwrights.

JESS: I’ m not sure just yet. This really is a beta-testing year to see how it goes. The desire to showcase UT folks certainly is strong, so my gut is that it will remain an invited conference that focuses on UT, but we might decide to change course after this year.

I really admire this young director who has the energy to solve a national problem by offering solutions in her own community.

JESS: There is not yet a widespread enough community that values new work; especially new play-type plays (as opposed to more avant garde or devised work) in our region. It’ s hard enough to be an artist at all in Texas, right? But I’ m encouraged. The national conversation about how and why we are making this work in the broadest sense feels like it’ s turning. I think it’ s more important than ever for artists to be vigilant, come together, and start getting even more creative about how we’ re getting our work heard and how we’ re considering our communities and our audiences as we do it. I’ m hopeful that the GPC will be part of that push. Ambitious? Absolutely. But I come from Chicago where I was taught to make no small plans.

srinear@dramatistsguild.com