@dramatistsguild @anita8119

Everyone knows that Michigan is shaped like a mitten, but did you know we have our own play incubation center? This month I focus on the MITTEN Lab, a new playwright’s support organization founded by Rachel Sussman and Katherine Carter. Their goal is to nurture artists who are emerging in their practice, seeking a pipeline into Michigan theatres for their plays. The Lab offered its first residency program in September 2016, inviting three local playwrights, Monet Hurst-Mendoza, Emilio Rodriguez and Zoe Sarnak, to northern Michigan. The Lab intends to re-establish Michigan as a fertile, sustainable ground for new and exciting theatrical work. Sussman and Carter explain their passion for founding the lab: “We grew up doing community theatre in Michigan. At the professional level, there are not a lot of theatres. There is really not a connection between them and they are not producing a lot of new work, rather they are doing old standards. Why do you have to leave Michigan to have a career? We don’t live in Michigan so we can’t solve its problems. Instead, we have conversations with existing professional theatres like Theatre Nova, Detroit Public Theatre or Parallel 45.”

These three professional Michigan theatres have a track record of producing new plays and are committed to advancing the work of playwrights at all stages of their career. 

I interviewed playwrights Monet, Emilio and Zoe about their current projects and their residency plans. Monet’s new play, Blind Crest, has been in development for two years. The play deals with the many fraught and biased issues surrounding class and race in our criminal justice system, and grapples with black identity in white America. A dark twist on a “boy-meets-girl” story, Blind Crest is inspired by the unfolding true story of Ronell Wilson, a current Death Row inmate, and the female prison guard he had a relationship with and impregnated. As an artist, Hurst-Mendoza is passionate about creating a platform for untold stories about people of color and the challenges they face in her work. She once interned at the Dramatists Guild in NYC and she fondly remembers culling research for the directory that would later feed her career. 

Playwright Zoe Sarnac spends her time at the MITTEN Lab looking at song moments within a new work commissioned by Transport Group. She strongly supports the Dramatists Guild and believes it’s crucial for writers have a way of organizing to provide support on the business side. While not all of the writers live in Michigan, they all appreciate the opportunity for work space without distractions. Monet sums it up when she writes: “The Michigan air is crisp and the landscape is lush with greenery - you could not provide me with a more inspirational place to incubate and test out my ideas as a playwright! Best of all, the retreat will allow me to fully dedicate myself to my craft - something that I can forget to do for myself in the city. That freedom and support, in turn, will make me a stronger, more focused artist that I hope will carry me forward to other opportunities and institutions where my work can be heard and experienced… did I mention they’re going to have popcorn and peanut butter?”

The MITTEN Lab (www.themittenlab.org)

agonzalez@dramatistsguild.com