The Playwrights' Center

The Playwrights' Center

Theater Begins Here
The Playwrights' Center in 2014
Type	Non-profit
Industry	Theatre
Founded	1971
Headquarters	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Number of employees	13 (2012)
Website	Official website

The Playwrights' Center is a non-profit theatre organization focused on both supporting playwrights and promoting new plays to production at theaters across the country. Its mission is to champion "playwrights and new plays to build upon a living theater that demands new and innovative work." It is located in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Playwrights' Center was founded in 1971 by a group of University of Minnesota undergraduate and graduate students, including Greg Almquist, Erik Brogger, Tom Dunn, Barbara Field, Gar Hildenbrand, and Jon Jackoway. These playwrights conceived of the Playwrights' Center (initially called the Minnesota Playwriting Laboratory) as a place where writers could have the opportunity to hear their work read aloud by professional actors, to hear comments and criticism from peers and audience members, and to develop their scripts with the help of artistic collaborators and working professionals. After becoming a not-for-profit company in 1973, the founders held a series of play readings, discussion series, and one-acts performed at various venues in the Twin Cities. The focus was on a continued playwriting conversation and aiding works-in-progress. These ideals continued to be the mainstay of the center as membership expanded. In 1979, the center moved into the Olivet Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis, which remains its home today.

Since its founding, the Center has grown into a national resource for script development, and currently provides a range of services for writers at all stages of their careers. Jeremy Cohen serves as the producing artistic director, and the center is further supported by a full staff, an eighteen-member board of directors and a national advisory board of theater professionals. Members of the Playwrights' Center include nationally distinguished artists such as August Wilson, Lee Blessing, Ping Chong, Paula Vogel, and Jeffrey Hatcher, Suzan-Lori Parks, Jordan Harrison, Carlyle Brown, Craig Lucas, Melanie Marnich, and Kira Obolensky. The work of Center playwrights has won every major recognition the field offers, including two Pulitzers and the Tony Award, and has been seen nationwide on such stages as Yale Repertory Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, the Guthrie Theater, Goodman Theatre, and many others.