The process of creating a play from scratch takes the combined efforts of actors, writers and directors — and sometimes even that’s not enough.
With the arrival of Pig Iron Theatre Company, PlayMakers Repertory Company has been putting its Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant to use. The visiting ensemble will be hosting a presentation of its work Thursday in the Center for Dramatic Art at 7:30 p.m.
The $200,000 grant, awarded in November, is meant to fund a residency program that will help incubate the developmental processes of three different theatres through the summer of 2013.
The first of the ensembles, Pig Iron, arrived in Chapel Hill on May 23 and is currently in the early stages of development.
“A lot of what they’re doing here is exploratory work, deciding how they want to tell the story they want to tell,” said Jeffrey Meanza, associate director of PlayMakers.
Dan Rothenberg, artistic director at Pig Iron, said that by expanding to include members of PlayMakers, the ensemble is forced to clarify its process. This definition offers the group a new energy, he said.
“I think it’s good for experimental theatres not to be off in a room by themselves, but to be in touch with other makers, and makers of more traditional works,” Rothenberg said.
Pig Iron’s small cast is accompanied by famed Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada. The two parties are in the midst of their first of several collaborations in hopes to finish their production by fall 2012.
Rothenberg said he enjoys Okada’s interesting style, one that involves long descriptive monologues, and that this period has served to get them get better acquainted.
