The WRIGHT Way Series program helps the winners of the Creative Artist Award fully develop their plays in the fall and produce them in the spring. Each year, students submit their original work to either the music, theater or dance category for the chance to win the award.

Winners receive $500, recognition in the following year’s Arts NC State magazine and extensive writing and production assistance. Additionally, a $1,000 grant is given to the appropriate program or department to assist in the production of the selected work by the Music Department, Dance Program or University Theater. The selected winners’ work will then be performed the following academic year. 

Joshua Reaves, Director of University Theater at NC State, said the program started back in 2020 in order to help provide student playwright winners with the proper pre-production work as one would have in the professional world of theater. The program also incorporates cast and stage crew positions open to all students.

“Beethoven didn’t work on his symphonies with an entire symphony, you know, he sat down at a piano and worked it out on the piano and paper before it was applied and seen by a full orchestra,” Reaves said. “That’s kind of what our approach to WRIGHT Way is, essentially taking those Creative Artist Award winners and showing them the right way of how to create and develop these works.”

The program arranges readings open to all students who are interested in not only hearing the play but also participating in real time feedback and collaboration with the playwright to improve the work. 

“What’s most exciting (about the readings) is the engagement and they’re seeing the process of theater making and not just production; an actual finished, polished piece of work,” Reaves said.

Students of all majors and any experience level with theater or playwriting are encouraged to participate in the WRIGHT Way Series. This year’s play, titled “Muse,” written by 2022 Creative Artist Award-winner Gaven Bell, is in full action with the program now that operations are a lot closer to normal since the program launched in 2020. 

Bell, a fourth-year studying biology, first got involved with the WRIGHT Way program by attending a reading of Static, the play written by 2020 Creative Artist Award Winner Aysia Slade. After working as a stage manager for the production, she decided she wanted to continue with the program and submit her own work.

She received the 2021 Creative Artist award for her play “A Case of Salt,”  which premiered this spring in March. This year, her 2022 award-winning play is a contemporary rendition of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth that explores the relationship between art and science. The readings of the play are open and free to all students who can register online, and the finished production will premiere from March 31 to April 2. 

“I’m so grateful that not only have I gotten to do this with one play but now I’m getting to do it with a second one,” Bell said. “It’s kind of mind blowing to me.”

All full-time students can apply for the Creative Artist Award. Bell said she encourages any student who is considering submitting their play to go for it.

“I’d say just try to shut down that inner criticism of it and just have fun writing a play and something that you’re proud of,” Bell said. “Even if you think it’s bad, just go ahead and submit it and see what happens. … The whole fall semester is spent workshopping and refining the piece, so it doesn’t have to be perfect or a Tony award-winning play when you submit it.”

For more information about how to get involved with The WRIGHT Way Series, click here.