2024 CREATORS LAB

The Creators Lab is SFBATCO's incubation space for the development of original theatrical works by emerging creatives. We’re thrilled to continue this program for a third year in a row.

This summer/fall program is a creative space for developing concepts or initial drafts of theatrical works, with the intention of completing their first 15-30 pages, the first performable 15-30 minutes of music or choreography, or a full first draft. The Lab will operate in a virtual/in-person hybrid model.

All participants will receive a $500 stipend for their participation. After the development process, participants will have an opportunity to present a staged performance or reading of their piece with actors at SFBATCO’s New Roots Theatre Festival this November 14-17, 2024.

Check out last year’s Creators Lab here >>

KEY DATES
Jan 22, 2024: Application Opens
Feb 23, 2024: Application Closes at 11:59PM PT
Mid-May 2024: Interviews
Late May 2024: Applicants Notified

Jun 24, 2024: Orientation Meeting
Jul 2024: 1-on-1 Check-ins with Aidaa
Aug & Sep 2024: Cohort Session 2x a week
Oct & Nov 2024: Rehearsal for Stage Reading
Nov 14-17, 2024: Staged Reading at SFBATCO’s New Roots Theatre Festival

2024 Cohort

Featured
Maya De La Rosa-Cohen
Maya De La Rosa-Cohen

The First Three

Three queer trailblazers take on an unprecedented legal battle in 1990’s San Francisco. What will they give up to gain guardianship over their daughter?

Hasti Jafari
Hasti Jafari

Homing Pigeons & Co

Two friends develop a weekly ritual of attending the Iranian diaspora protests in San Francisco every weekend, to try to prevent their countrymen from being executed in the Islamic Republic prisons. But their differences become more disastrous with each passing day, and as activism takes a toll on them, it takes everything they got to not murder each other.

Christina Li
Christina Li

Clay Street, Chinatown

A newly arrived Chinese woman learns that all forms of freedom come at a cost in 1870s San Francisco.

Ashley S Raggs
Ashley S Raggs

Bay Dreaming

A young African American girl from San Francisco’s dreams of being an actress become a distant memory when she loses her mother.

Edith Castorena
Edith Castorena

Named For My Mother

The impact of fathers and lovers on three generations of women linked by their magic, San Francisco fog, and one name.

 

What our 2023 Creators Lab participants had to say:

 
“The Creators Lab is exactly how it sounds — a space to experiment with your own work, and to start to discover what works best for you. What helps you create expansively and imaginatively? Creators Lab provides the tools and space to find out. I can’t speak highly enough this program, and how much help it was.”
— Reed Flores
“Unlearning institutional effects that still live in my body will be a life long process. But nothing will accelerate and aide that journey more than doing it in community. This space has been so essential to me after trying to navigate how to reenter theatre in our new world. Having the opportunity to play in the ideation stage of a process is so valuable. And SFBATCO invests in that stage. I hope other spaces will follow suite in this endeavor. ”
— Lilia Houshmand
“The Creator’s Lab gave me an opportunity to explore my art in a way that I’ve never done before and I will always be grateful for that. It was amazing to see how people reacted with my excerpt and I am excited to continue this piece. ”
— Jamey Williams
“I entered with the tiniest kernel of an idea and left with a first act. If you’re willing to commit to the process, lay your inner saboteur to rest, and write, write, write, SFBATCO’s Creators Lab can help you get your idea up on its feet in no time flat.”
— Bacilio Mendez II