Founder Derek Walcott
About Our Theatre
Founded in 1981 at Boston University by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, Boston Playwrights' Theatre is an award-winning professional theatre dedicated to new works. At the core of our five programs is the Playwriting MFA offered as part of Boston University's prestigious Creative Writing Program. Our award-winning alumni have been produced in Regional and New York houses as well as in London's West End, and our alumni productions have garnered several regional and Boston awards, including regular "Best New Script" nominations for Elliot Norton and Independent Reviewers of New England Awards.
We are located at 949 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA, and produce under a New England Association of Theatres Equity ("NEAT") contract. We are a Boston University program.
What We Bring to the Stage - Our Programs
Workshops and Productions
Our nationally known faculty hold workshops during the fall and spring academic semesters. Click here to learn more about our Playwriting MFA and how to apply. In the Spring we produce the Ground Floor Reading Series - staged readings written by our current matriculating graduate students. Each year we produce three or four new works in our Season of New Plays. From the class workshops to the productions, we employ the best of New England's professional actors, directors and designers to bring the playwright's vision to its first audience.
Black Box Fellowships
When we are not producing plays, we continue our mission of supporting new works by donating theatre space to other New England theatre companies producing new work. Click here for an application to our Black Box Fellowships.
Annual Events: New Noises and the Boston Theater Marathon
In collaboration with the Boston Children's Theatre, we produce New Noises: Massachusetts Young Playwrights' Project every Spring. Area high schools work with professional playwrights, directors and actors to see student works on stage for the first time. Fifty local theatre companies join us for the annual Boston Theater Marathon, a showcase of new ten-minute plays by New England writers chosen yearly from over 400 entrants. Each play is produced by a different New England theatre company and produced in one 10-hour event with all net proceeds going to charity.
