A Writer’s Theatre At Heart
The Magnetic Theatre
The Magnetic Theatre is an intimate black box theatre located in Asheville, NC that seeks to connect audiences to original, artist-driven theatre. We support emerging local playwrights to produce exciting work that has not been seen in this region. We work to encourage new perspectives by illuminating the human condition through diverse, challenging projects and cultivating a passionate creative community.
Our theatre is unique because we support original work in a variety of different formats (new plays, improv, sketch, variety show nights, etc.) and strive to put the artist first during the process. That’s why we also have classes for adults working in the field so that artists can consistently continue their education and hone their craft. At The Magnetic, we believe that you’re never done learning and that every work is a work in progress. Find out more about our upcoming Magnetic U programs here. At our heart, we’re a writer’s theatre, and producing original work is the core of what we do. What does that mean?
“We work to encourage new perspectives by illuminating the human condition through diverse, challenging projects and cultivating a passionate creative community.”
Original Works
Original work simply means that the final product is new in some way. This could be an entirely new play idea or a creative adaptation of existing work, ultimately resulting in something new. At The Magnetic, we keep this definition flexible because we want to be inclusive and to encourage creativity.
For The Magnetic, this means that we focus on work that has either never had a full production or perhaps has only had one or two previous productions, outside of the WNC area. When The Magnetic was originally founded, it was meant to be a home for Asheville playwrights to have their work produced onstage, as other venues were less likely to produce new work at that time. Since then, The Magnetic has experimented with doing some existing works, but we ultimately have gone back to the original mission because we believe in supporting works by and for the WNC community.
We want to create a record of what people were thinking about, right here and now, and to see how that manifested in creative expression. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with producing existing works, but we find that this is more exciting.
“…We believe in supporting works by and for the WNC community.”
Writer’s Theatre
Being a writer’s theatre means that we cultivate playwrights and support their work at every stage of the process, which includes:
Taking submissions from anyone who wants to submit.
Enrolling promising playwrights in our New Play Development Program (which involves working with a team to develop plays through feedback and collaboration during the rewriting process).
Presenting staged readings of works in progress.
Providing a dramaturg for productions to help with play development, production research and communicating the play’s core concepts or background material to the audience.
When possible, having playwrights present for some rehearsals, so that they experience their production in the fullest possible way.
Typically, for a new work, the playwright is at least somewhat involved. The director and actors can ask them questions about the material and alterations can be made with that cast and crew, depending on what happens in rehearsals. For a show that’s had many productions, directors, cast and crew are still creative with the material as much as possible, but the script should not be altered without explicit permission for any writer’s work that is still in the public domain. Of course, with writers of long ago like Shakespeare or ancient Greek theatre, directors often take liberties with cuts and additions, essentially creating adaptations of these existing works.
“Being a writer’s theatre means that we cultivate playwrights and support their work at every stage of the process.”
Our community gets to experience work at The Magnetic that they won’t see anywhere else and that’s the way we like it. To see what events we have coming up, click here.
At The Magnetic Theatre sharing the process with our community is important to us both as a way to document history in the making and show audiences the work our incredible community puts into each production on and off stage. To stay up to date, be sure to follow our story on Facebook and Instagram.