Meet Amber Bradshaw of Working Title Playwrights

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Bradshaw.

Amber, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m from Atlanta, born and raised in the city. I attended public school in the metro area. I’ve been performing since I was ten years old and was part of the Performing Arts magnet at North Atlanta High School.

I began writing poetry and prose around the same time and followed my passion for theater and creative writing to college. My alma mater, Knox College in Galesburg, IL. is a small liberal arts school with an emphasis on diversity, international communities, and dialogue. There I found my mentor, Liz Carlin Metz, who encouraged me to try directing in the small, student-run Studio Theater. I directed three shows in three years and fell in love with working with actors and diving into the language and world of a play.

When I returned to Atlanta, I was eager to find an artistic home where I could intern. I went to shows all over town and found my place at Actor’s Express, run by then Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis (now at Marin Theatre in CA). It was a crash course in new development, as Jasson is dedicated to new voices and new stories, and claimed he would never direct Shakespeare again. His influence remains strong in me today, as I work daily for local playwrights to find their space onstage both in Atlanta and Nationally.

From the incredibly hard work of the AE internship, where I was able to perform and direct many shows, I moved on to work with Synchronicity Theatre. Helmed by the tireless and passionate Rachel May, I enjoyed interning with her for two years. I worked closely with the Synchronicity team on the SheWrites Playwriting Competition, and as an AD, SM on many productions and was given the opportunity to direct my first professional production as part of The Night/Light Series (I directed Tone Clusters, a one-act play by Joyce Carol Oates).

Soon after that, with a sudden focus on new development (thanks to the heavy influence of Jasson and Rachel) I began working as a dramaturg/director for Peter Hardy’s Essential Theatre. The Essential produces a festival of plays by Georgia writers each year, and they are all world premieres. I directed and developed several plays through the Essential Bare Essentials Reading Series (Daryl Lisa Fazio’s SPLIT IN THREE among them), and curated for a few years. I directed two full-scale productions of World Premieres for the Essential by Theroun D’Arcy Patterson and Derek Dixon (also members of WTP).

During that time, I did quite a bit of self-producing and creating all sorts of original work with artists I admire and connect with. I created a piece with choreographer Jerylann Warner with her company Gathering Wild Dance, called Circa 50. I collaborated with puppeteers from the Center for Puppetry Arts on two very successful pieces that premiered in the annual Xperimental Puppetry Theater Festival (Time to Eat the Dogs – as a puppeteer, dramaturg, writer & Learning To Fly – as co-writer, c0-producer, co-creator). One show went on to perform in Canada at a fabulous festival produced by Les Sages Fous.

The next show I did was very personal and designed to fully define myself as a multi-hyphenate theatre artist. I collaborated with friend and well-known drag performer/choreographer Corian Ellisor for a show we created together called Identified: A Queer Variety Show!. In this show, I performed monologues, modern dance, burlesque, and drag. I also came out fully and publicly as a queer Southern artist.

In 2016, I began working with WTP when I was hired by then Managing Artistic Director Jill Patrick of Working Title Playwrights to direct an Ethel Woolson Lab workshop, several Monday Night Critique Sessions and another reading as part of the On Demand program (Now called The First Light Series). That winter she and Board President Hank Kimmel approached me about applying for the job of Managing Artistic Director of WTP. Jill was looking for a successor.

Since January 2016, I have been running the growing organization that is Working Title Playwrights. I have found incredible joy in working as the Managing Artistic Director for WTP and find that this role in the world of new plays is my passion. I am driven by dialogue, collaboration, and connection. The audience is a living, breathing entity that experiences the play together, in tandem. I am deeply honored to be a part of the community that creates the work that lives on our stages.

It’s in these development rooms surrounded by talented, compassionate people that I find my best self. I love the opportunity to create a safe vessel for our playwrights to work within. Safe spaces/rooms/environments are extremely valuable parts of any development process. As a moderator and facilitator of discussion, I hope to influence the way in which people lead the discussion in the arts, to design a better feedback experience for artists.

Moderation gets a bad name, and I think that’s because we can do it better. From moderation to the structure of the workshop -I am dedicated to making the WTP development experiences the most positive of the playwright’s career.

Has it been a smooth road?
Finding a way to pay my bills and realizing I couldn’t be a full-time artist was definitely a struggle. The day to day grind of searching for funding dollars is a full-time job for anyone raising money for a non-profit.

I’ve struggled with co-creating partners that have taken my work and called it their own. Overall, I’ve been very lucky and am grateful to work with and know so many amazing artists.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Working Title Playwrights story. Tell us more about WTP.
I am the Managing Artistic Director of Working Title Playwrights (Since January 2016).

Founded in 2003 by a group of six playwrights, WTP is proud to serve a membership of over 85 and an Actor’s Ensemble of the same size. The work and scope of our member playwrights is growing, as are the opportunities we offer to members and affiliate theatre artists in Atlanta and throughout Georgia. We are unique in that we do not produce full productions. For this reason, our overhead is low, and our pay is above average.

Working Title Playwrights offers staged readings, master classes, intensive development labs, and bi-monthly critique sessions to create opportunities for playwrights to develop their plays and their craft. Previously Managing Artistic Director Jill Patrick laid the groundwork for the organization to grow and prosper. It’s my great honor to get to move WTP forward into a new phase in the Atlanta landscape. With the growth of the entertainment industry and the boom of transplants in the city, the theatre community embraces the opportunity to expand and thrive as a change maker and dialogue creator.

As a person who works with playwrights, dramaturgs, and directors as they hone their craft and forward their careers, it is a joy to watch their evolution and growth. I’m also proud of the addition of our Actor’s Ensemble (credit due to 2016-2018 Board Member Cynthia Stillwell), which has given our actors in the room the confidence and encouragement to join us in discussion and be a part of what we do all over town.

WTP aims to become the leading organization in the southeast for new development. We are also on our way to establishing ourselves as leaders in the effort to make our theatre community more equitable, inclusive and diverse by putting together a community-wide EDI Workshop for our theatre leaders and producers. That workshop takes place on November 7th at Studioplex (conference room). I’d love to talk more about this workshop as well if you are interested.

This is a new part of what we do at WTP, developing and expanding into the community to create more widespread change. We believe that these EDI initiatives will open doors to all those that may previously have been locked out.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The welcome boom of the film and television industry means very positive things for the Atlanta theatre community. There is no more work for our hard-working actors, designers, directors, stage managers, etc. There are new artists moving to Atlanta every day, looking for opportunities in both the film and theatre worlds.

We are happy to welcome them and offer them a means of maintaining their artistic careers full-time. There is also a solid influx of young people graduating from universities and colleges in Atlanta every day, changing the landscape of this city by leaps and bounds with their passion and creativity. It’s all. VERY exciting.

Contact Info:

• Address: 245 North Highland Ave NE, Suite 230-233, ATL, Ga. 30307
• Website: www.workingtitleplaywrights.com
• Email: managing@workingtitleplaywrights.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/workingtitleplaywrights/

Image Credit:
Alli Royce Soble, Danyale Taylor, Branden Le Fountain, Daryl Lisa Fazio

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