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Link to WordBRIDGE 2001 Plays & Playwrights

I want to say what a peak experience WORDBRIDGE is for all of us - the community of people that converge for those 2 weeks feeds a basic artistic drive for all of us - in a way that is rich, fulfilling, necessary, and hard to find in other venues - I can't tell you the number of times over dinner or rehearsal or walking the campus that we marveled over it - we all felt extremely lucky to be a part of it.
Ellen Graham, Director WB '94,’00, '01

In ancient Greece folks made pilgrimages to sanctuaries and mountains where they could fall asleep and awaken in search of a vision…. The WORDBRIDGE process generates a space in which people can continue crossing over into zones sacred, forbidden, or off the map. Playwrights and their various attendants slip into the interstices, dreaming things they couldn't otherwise imagine.
Ronald L. Grimes, Resource Artist WB '01

Those two weeks (all too brief) did something for me that I am certain no playwriting class in the country could have done: WORDBRIDGE helped me uncover my own creative process, and as an added bonus, I learned more about playwriting than I could have thoughT possible in such a short period of time. I got to play, make big ol' messes, take some risks, and find gold in what I thought was trash. It feels like I have traded in my box of 16 Crayolas for the monster box of 64 with all the cool colors and the crayon sharpener built right in, and that box of crayons will serve me for years to come.
Marisa Wegrzyn, Playwright WB ' 01

WORDBRIDGE gave me the courage and the conviction to walk every path and open every door in my writing. The people around me could not have been more talented, knowledgeable, supportive, or caring. They gave me the strength I needed to turn my script from a collection of ideas into a coherent communication with the audience.
Jeremy Basescu, Playwright WB '01

WORDBRIDGE partakes of a special geography. Like the campus on which it unfolds, itself a virtual island among channels leading to the Gulf, WORDBRIDGE is an island of creativity, possibility, visions. It is an island that invites one to risk playing now the clown, now the sufferer and later the source of suffering. Like Moreau's island, it has transformations. Like Crusoe's, it requires examination of one's true self. Like Gulliver's, it has miniatures, giants, silliness and wisdom. Like Patmos for John the Divine, this island inspires visions.
Mark Fearnow, Dramaturg WB ‘01

It was so refreshing to work on these new plays. It's such an incredibly creative process. Not just for the playwright, but for me as an actor as well. As professional actors, we don't get many opportunities to play and experiment like that.
Maureen Van Trease, Guest Artist WB '01

I came to WORDBRIDGE with a script that I felt was close to finished. While I was there, I discovered new ways to make the script better that would have never occurred to me otherwise. The director and dramaturg I worked with were first-rate, and everyone was extremely determined to help make my script the best it could possibly be. It's rare for any playwright, especially a student, to have the opportunity for this kind of intensive and well-supported developmental work without the constraints of production pressures or academic deadlines.
Justin Warner, Playwright WB ‘01

The WORDBRIDGE Play development workshop is one of the most productive and positive processes I have encountered in my forty years as a Theatre professional - actor, director, producer, and teacher of playwriting. The WORDBRIDGE experience is unique in that the emphasis and focus is so totally on the playwright and the process of writing plays. I have seldom seen that process employed in such a generous and enabling format.
Warren Hammack, Director/Guest Artist WB '01

At WORDBRIDGE I felt like I had permission to try ANYTHING. And, in fact, I tried almost everything. We rehearsed the play in a circus ring made of tombstones, and I wrote a prologue consisting almost entirely of mathematical formulas (cut the next day). I cut characters, changed names, put the ends of scenes at the ends of scenes rather than at the beginnings of scenes(!), and wrote dialogue in the middle of a story-telling episode that I myself thought was pretty snoozy. And I never even got to Act II!
Liz Fentress, Playwright WB '01

WORDBRIDGE is unique in my experience. Nowhere else in my professional life have I seen so much talent and energy focused, with so little ego, on a single worthwhile task. The playwrights whose works were developed may be rightly grateful, but probably not as grateful as I feel to have been a part of this wonderful unfolding. Long may WORDBRIDGE live!
Ron Satlof, Director WB ’01

These past three weeks have been the most intense weeks that I can remember. For 14 hours a day I have been involved in the WORDBRIDGE process; it has been physically exhausting and time consuming. I can’t wait to do it again next year.
Kim Sassine, Apprentice WB ’01