THE PLAYGROUND

Welcome to The Playground! A year-round educational opportunity for Middle and High School aged writers of all experience and skill levels to tell their own stories, connect with other young writers, and receive encouragement and guidance from professional mentors. This program will be directed by Nate Eppler. The Playground will consist of workshops and educational opportunities for young writers, a short play festival of student work, and a Theater Bug production of a student written play - fully realized and brought to life on stage for Nashville audiences.

Playground Workshops

Introduce young writers to the fundamentals of dramatic storytelling, engage their imaginations, and encourage them to tell their own stories on stage. Writers will develop the practical tools of dramatic writing, including character, dialogue, and dramatic structure. Workshops will encourage young writers to explore writing for the stage and beyond including screenwriting, narrative podcasts, and digital theatre.

The Playground Short Play Festival

Is an open-submission new play festival featuring short plays by young writers. Participating writers are given the opportunity to improve their writing, cultivate new skills, connect with professional mentors, and see their work from idea to development to performance.

A Student Play Production

One young writer is selected by the Theater Bug to develop and expand a short play into a fully realized production presented as part of The Theater Bug's season. The young playwright will receive professional mentorship throughout the course of development of the play and individual support tailored to the project. The young writer will participate in casting, rehearsal, and production as a professional playwright and get to see their brand-new play come to life on the Theater Bug’s stage.

Let’s Play!

Nate Eppler is an award winning, playwright, screenwriter, and teaching artist originally from Flint, MI, and now working in his adopted hometown of Nashville, TN. Nate’s interest and work as an arts advocate is to improve and connect communities through the arts with a focus on narrative storytelling. He is a recipient of the American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award along with numerous other awards and honors for his work. Mr. Eppler’s plays include The Ice Treatment (Winner M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award, Finalist Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award,) Primary User (Ashland New Play Festival; Neukom Literary Arts Award shortlist) and Long Way Down (Semi-Finalist Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award) Nate has participated as a teaching artist for The Bug since 2014 in their Extreme Playwriting Program, Playwriting Workshops, and the creation of the stuldent written musical: Quaranteened. The Theater Bug has also produced two of Nate's youth plays, Snowderella, and Sarah and the Secret of the Cellar.