The most extensive of CPT’s development programs, Catapult is intended to move projects that are outside the mainstream and align with CPT’s aesthetic from early to mid-development phase to being “production-ready.” Each process is customized and unique to the artist’s to the work. Projects may receive a series of readings, significant rehearsal time, and workshop productions.
THE NORD FAMILY FOUNDATION PLAYWRIGHT FELLOWSHIP
Playwright/Creators of Catapult projects will receive the Nord Family Foundation Fellowship and, while developing their work, will play an active role in the life of the theatre.
The Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellowship is a 12-18 month program for playwrights and creators from Northeast Ohio that offers opportunities to develop work through readings, staged readings, and workshop productions. Now in its sixth year, the Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellows program is funded by a multi-year grant from the Nord Family Foundation.
Catapult is about striving to advance a project to the point of being production-ready and is intended to engage with projects that are at different stages of creation—from early concept to completed script. As part of the selection process, we will provide support and work with the artist to create a plan for development of the project. Catapult projects are likely to need specialized development work, but other CPT new work development series will be available to Catapult artists as tools. For example, a show might be developed as part of SoftLaunch and then have a series of follow-up readings or workshop performances later in the season; or a project may be in rehearsal for weeks at CPT, with some private showings, and then culminate as part of the Test Flight series. It is also possible that some projects will develop totally independent of our other series.
Past Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellows:
Juliette Regnier – 2013/2014 season – S Plays
Andrew Kramer – 2014/2015 season – Cut it Out
Arwen Mitchell – 2014/2015 season – (Style Is) The Answer to Everything—A (Subversive) Women’s Programme (Across the Century)
Gail Nyoka – 2015/2016 season – The Waters
Stuart Hoffman – 2015/2016 season – Canon Fodder
Greg Vovos – 2015/2016 season – Well Beings
Eric Coble – 2016/2017 season – The Family Claxon
Melissa Crum – 2016/2017 season – Everything is okay (and other helpful lies)
Caitlin Lewins – 2016/2017 season – Everything is okay (and other helpful lies)
Cassandra West – 2016/2017 season – Mira La Mer
Lisa Langford – 2018/2019 season – How Blood Go
Nina Domingue – 2019/2020 season – The Absolutely Amazing and True Adventures of Ms. Joan Southgate
John Dayo Aliya- 2020/2021 season – Our Lady of Common Sorrow
Siaara Freeman - 2021/2022 season- Don’t Start no Séance, Won’t be no Séance
Jeanne Madison - 2021/2022 season- Black Bougie
NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT AT CPT
CPT is proud to be a leader in providing platforms for new work and emerging artists.
CPT has led the community in producing new plays by local and nationally recognized playwrights. In the past 10 years, CPT produced 107 staged readings and showcases, 98 workshop productions, and 55 full productions of world premieres—in addition to hundreds of community-created plays read, workshopped, and performed through our education and community programs.
PROGRAMS INCLUDE:
SOFTLAUNCH + THE PILOT PROJECT | Jan 23-26, 2025
a weekend-long festival/conference for experimental performance and not-quite-plays that reinvent what theatre can be, plus the learning community that provides a pipeline into the festival
TEST FLIGHT | Feb-Mar 2025
local and national artists are offered the keys to the theatre and the opportunity to self-produce workshop productions of new works, presented in a multi-week series
CATAPULT | YEAR-ROUND, ONGOING
a customizable fellowship program that was developed to move projects from early to mid-development phase to being “production-ready”—made possible through support from the Nord Family Foundation
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT SPONSORS…
