SERENBE, GA.: Serenbe Playhouse and AIR Serenbe (an artist-in-residence program) have formed a new play development program, New Territories Playwriting Residency, focusing on outdoor, site-specific theatre. The inaugural recipients are Joe Calarco, Liz Duffy Adams, and David Hilder.

The three will travel to Chattahoochee Hills, Ga., to develop their plays Jan. 17–30, and Serenbe will further develop one or more of the plays in the subsequent season.

“After the premiere of my play Ten Mile Lake at the Playhouse, I realized that Serenbe would be the perfect place for a writer’s residency,” said playwright Tira Palmquist in a statement. Palmquist helped develop the residency alongside Serenbe Playhouse artistic director Brian Clowdus and AIR Serenbe’s director, Brandon Hinman. “The [Playhouse’s] mission to produce site-specific theatre could provide the perfect inspiration for new work.” Palmquist will serve as the New Territories on-site dramaturg and program facilitator. The Playhouse’s acting company will also be on hand for cold reads and table work.

“The playwrights are coming with a blank page,” said Clowdus in a statement. “They’ll explore Serenbe and choose a location that inspires them. That inspiration will spark their pen to paper, creating a work that goes hand in hand with the environment they have chosen with the long-term possibility of developing it into a fully realized production as part of our mainstage season.”

This new residency is part of a continuing partnership between Serenbe Playhouse and AIR Serenbe. Last year, the two hosted Broadway set designer Adam Koch. “It was exciting to see Adam have the space and time to dig deeper into the land here in Georgia, cultivate his own practice, and elevate the caliber of the Playhouse’s future productions,” said AIR Serenbe’s Hinman in a statement. “An ongoing commitment of our program is to provide residencies for artists—some who have never done a residency—at pivotal spots in their careers. It is this deep investment in the creative process that grounds our vision. We like to say the work of AIR Serenbe is to nurture critical moments of imagination. New Territories will do just that.”