CREEDE— HBMG Foundation presents the National Winter Playwrights Retreat. A playwright based retreat, the National Winter Playwrights Retreat (NWPR) prioritizes the playwright, not the work being produced.

Playwrights have an opportunity to have work read or sung, conversation over dinners and coffees, sightseeing in the San Juan Mountains and an introduction to local theatres. The retreat provides respite and renewal for playwrights. However, the artist's rejuvenation inevitably finds its way into her art. In enabling the playwright freedom from expectations, HBMG Foundation enables the art.

HBMG Foundation's team of a Latino playwright/director and a female actor/writer, Manuel and Ann Zárate are passionate about diversity. As founders and directors, they seek especially to empower playwrights of all ethnicities and gender. Additionally, diversity of experience and age is considered in the selection of playwrights each year. Furthermore, HBMG Foundation empowers communities. In Creede, the Zarates seek to improve the “off season” economy by bringing over 50 artists to the tiny town in the dead of winter.

"Really, it’s more a movement than just a retreat” said NWPR 2017 Playwright Tom Coash from New Haven, Conn.

Three types of retreats are planned for 2018 artists.

1. NWPR Creede Coops: artistic directors, dramaturgs and playwrights retreat in community, while working on individual pieces. Playwrights may elect to have their work read aloud by professional actors in a private salon setting. "It didn’t take me long to realize what an incredible gift it was to be in Creede, surrounded and supported by such incredible energy and generous artists.” NWPR 2017 Playwright Jennie Webb, Los Angeles.
2. NWPR Winter Workshop: in 2017 HBMG Foundation contacted 85 of the previous years' playwrights inviting them to submit scripts to be workshopped in Creede in 2018. Plays were evaluated by a jury and the top ranking five scripts were sent back to the playwrights who had to choose the winning script! Two tied for "Workshop This In Creede!" As a result both D.W. Gregory and Heidi Kraay will be workshopping their plays “Memoirs of a Forgotten Man” and “How To Hide Your Monster” with direction and dramaturgy by Jeni Mahoney and Manuel Zarate! Performances are Jan 26 at 7 p.m. and Jan 27 at 4 p.m. at Big River Music in Creede, and Jan 28 and 29 at 7 p.m. at Pagosa Lakes Clubhouse in Pagosa Springs.
3. Playwright Sponsored NWPR in Pagosa Springs: from a conversation... came an idea... and then an offering... and now there’s a new program - Playwright Sponsored NWPRs! For 2018, NWPR 2017 Playwright Sarah Lawrence has offered two homes for HBMG Foundation’s use to bring NWPR to Pagosa Springs.

For more details, visit hbmgfoundation.org

About HBMG Foundation

The National Winter Playwrights Retreat is a program of the HBMG Foundation, a 501(c)(3) corporation established in 2004 and located in Austin, Texas.

HBMG Foundation programs seek to nurture, develop, and provide professional benefit to emerging artists and innovators, and give the community a first look at the future of the arts, technology and business, and their economic impact.