New Jersey Stage 2016: Issue 12 | Page 32

theatre. It’s invaluable and it’s rare. It’s so rare to have a theatre take these kinds of risks on a play, develop them, and then say I’m going to charge money for them now.” Madeleine George knows how difficult it is for a theatre to survive doing new works. For about a decade, she was part of 13P (13 Playwrights, Inc.) - a company formed in 2003 by 13 midcareer playwrights concerned about what the trend of endless readings and new play development programs was doing to the texture and ambition of new American plays. Together they took matters into their own hands with the idea that they weren’t going to develop plays, they were going to do them. They produced one play by each member playwright during their run. They presented their final production in the summer of 2012 and then immediately imploded. The website 13p.org tells their story and offers a possible roadmap for artists to fol- Watch Madeleine George look back at her time at 13P NJ STAGE 2016 - ISSUE 12 INDEX NEXT ARTICLE 32