The 24Seven Lab is an organization driven by the sole desire to develop new plays in a way that will benefit playwrights. Through a year-round series of multi-week workshops, we aid our fellows in their quest to turn great ideas into full drafts and full drafts into great plays. We don't lecture, preach, or teach. We provide emerging, independent, proactive playwrights with space, actors and dramaturgical support. We give them motivation when they’re feeling lazy, encouragement when they’re feeling stuck, feedback when they ask for it and copies when money is tight. We are always ready to work and happy to play, never limiting opportunities for past participants or closing our doors to new ones.
The 24Seven Lab is sponsored by Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions to Fractured Atlas may be earmarked for support to The 24Seven Lab and are tax deductible to the extent permitted by the law.
History
The 24Seven Lab was founded by Sharon Freedman, Edith Freni and Sarah Hayon, all graduates of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. The Lab’s inaugural session was hosted by the LES bar 247 Eldridge and ran for four weeks in February and March 2004. Over the last three years, The 24Seven Lab has aided in the development of vital new work by graduates and attendees of the Brown, NYU, Columbia and New School MFA playwriting programs, the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Wing at Juilliard, and members of the LAByrinth Theatre Company, the MCC Playwrights Coalition, Partial Comfort Productions, and Youngblood, the Ensemble Studio Theatre's emerging playwrights unit. Our actors have worked locally on Broadway and off, regionally, internationally and in film and television.
Submissions
The 24Seven Lab does not accept unsolicited submissions. Fellows are selected by nomination process or by direct invitation from the co-creators. In the case of nomination, candidates are asked to submit one full length play for consideration. The 24Seven Lab accepts 4 playwrights per session.
Rounds
The 24Seven Lab workshop rounds consists of 8 sessions that run approximately three hours long. Writers are urged to bring in new projects,though some choose to refine extant works. It is important that our writers concentrate on ONE play per round. The developmental process can be frustrating as it often forces playwrights to confront what’s NOT working dramaturgically. The 24Seven Lab provides its fellows with the support necessary to work through those frustrations, implement creative solutions to tricky structural/thematic problems and stave off that all too common desire to “give up” and start something new.
Process
Each playwright is allotted 45 minutes per session. The first time we meet, pages are read but not commented on in order to familiarize participants with the voice of each playwright. During the following four sessions, playwrights may do as they wish with the time allotted. Some choose to use the entire time for the presentation of work while others present smaller portions of their play and leave time for discussion. The discussions, lead by the playwright and a group dramaturg, are open to the entire room and most useful when playwrights come armed with specific questions. The final two sessions are used to hear larger portions (and sometimes complete drafts) of work.
Company
The workshop company is comprised of four playwrights, two dramaturgs, 10-15 actors and all three co-creators. Most actors are asked to read in at least two of the four plays. Company members are expected to attend each meeting during session for continuity, and in an effort to create a safe working environment. Actors are asked to return from round to round as casting needs dictate.
