PROGRAM HISTORY
A look back regarding the milestones, challenges, and triumphs on this metaphorical ladder.....
2019
Next Rung Productions: Origins
Friend of the program Sarah Lanton created a logo that changed the world. This image was based on a loose title I used over the years, and it inspired me to create this program to make something more long-term and impactful. She accurately captured my body from my more athletic days, and I am grateful she left out my anxiety from being on actual physical ladders.
2020
First Year
Jeannette Brown was the program's first playwright, which was a whirlwind in learning how to help a then-stranger write her first play which was a drama about a topic I didn't know much about: Vietnam. A pandemic came early in the year too, immediately reshaping expectations about how every meeting would go the rest of our time together. By the end of the year, however, her play MUTATION received compliments from both civilians and military veterans nationwide during the program's first digital reading.
2020
New Logo
Friend of the program Delaney Merriman created a new logo. These eight shaded rectangles represent a space for everyone to climb higher with Next Rung. The hype of new artwork coupled with this website launching and the success of the first year led to a new increase of applications and interest ever since then.
2021
New Playwright
Deb Eberle was our next playwright, and immediately I faced the fact that not every playwright writes the same way. Deb wrote in bits and pieces out of chronological order, which is not my usual method. This made for a nice revelation though when her family drama WITHOUT A MAP came together into one fully-connected story. It connected audience members on the charged feelings that come from grief and secrets, and it did so with just two gender-blind roles as siblings.
2022
New Events
This was the year I realized there were more positive impacts ahead for the program than just one mentorship a year. The year began with a silent writing pop-up series called SCRUFF DRAFTS, providing a space for writers to create "alone together" and then discuss afterward. This was once a month for a few months and will return again in the future. In addition, local writers came together in response to leaked news from the Supreme Court about abortions. This led to Next Rung's first non-mentorship performance -- ROE V WAIT A MINUTE. The evening weaved a combination of personal and fictional stories in an effort to support reproductive rights.
2022
New Cast Size
Sherridan Smee came in and quickly found big goals for her dramedy called HOME BASE. This script dealt with the writing challenges of a seven-person cast when the program up to this point only mentored scripts for up-to-four-person casts. In addition, the characters largely needed to show both how they were back then and how they are today. After workshopping all year, it turns out her cast resonated as real at our first in-person table reading. It was produced in River & Rail's Old City Performing Arts Center and even featured her former high school theatre teacher as a co-moderator in this play about a class reunion.
%20VERTICAL.png)
2023
New Educational Outreach
Next Rung hosted a free online writer's panel for the first time. This brought together all of the playwrights I have mentored through this program so far. Six ten-minute lessons and a Q&A session helped local writers with tips, writing exercises, and networking opportunities. Lessons included topics like co-writing, dialogue, genderblind roles, twists in a story, trying to find your lightbulb moments, how combining text messages can create characters, and seeking inspirations from the people around you.
%20-%20program%20banner_edited_edited_edited.jpg)
2023
New Sense of Scale
Barry Wallace entered the program with an idea about Scottish folklore that required more dramatic flair for a production than other plays thus far in the program. We're talking about swords swinging, time skipping, thunderstorms striking, and actors double-casting. I had to pay extra attention to details like stage directions and deck crew changes between scenes. It resulted in a larger-than-life historical fantasy that spans across six hundred years to tell its story on such a large scale.
2023
New Need to Reflect
Next Rung was ambitious this year, mentoring two playwrights instead of just one like usual. This was also the first year a playwright who entered the program did not complete their goal of finishing a new play. Now, there is terrific news here since this person needed to drop out due to being accepted into grad school -- a very worthy cause, and I'm proud of their decision! Still, as a mentor experiencing this for the first time, it was important to reflect. I have since researched how to better support future playwrights in similar situations. The program also scaled back to one annual playwright the next year, just in case I was overstretched and not aware of it. It was a moment to refocus instead of expand.
2023
New Plays of My Own
I've been writing for years, but I never debuted any of my own writing in Next Rung Productions since forming this program four years ago. I decided to share a combination of plays -- a comedy called WAS IT MINE and a drama called HOPE IN MISSISSIPPI. They both center around how national news on reproduction rights can affect personal lives, so I combined them together under the new title TWO BAD DAYS. Our audience was engaged with discussion afterward, and Planned Parenthood even volunteered with a table in the lobby.
2024
New Adaptations
JP Schuffman entered the program with an idea for adapting a classic Greek story into a more modern southern gothic context. Greek literature is not where a lot of my training and experience comes from, however, so I was a little worried going into this. Instead of worrying too hard though, I followed the fear and helped him tell this story universally as he blended poetic Chorus-like prose with language anybody from the rural South will recognize. What came from this was JP's play ALAS AJAX, a crushing tragedy about what a person's pride and shame can cost you if you can't control yourself in your worst moments.
2025
New Annual Guest Workshop
Next Rung started a new teaching tradition called A NEW VIEW. Each year, a guest instructor will provide a recorded writing workshop. This is initially just for Next Rung alums, then its recording will be available for the public. This new annual event began with Harrison's original playwriting mentor Kali Meister.
.png)
2025
First Grant and First Double-Feature
The Share Our Stages grant was made possible through the East Tennessee Foundation's Arts Fund for East Tennessee. We used this for the Lambert Recital Hall at Maryville's Clayton Center for the Arts to allow our first double-feature. FOUR STEPS FORWARD brought local writers and actors together to write and act quickly for monologues before then speaking up for the non-profits they each believe in. AFRAID OF THE STORM was Harrison's first psychological horror about work and responsibility -- it took five years, but this table reading finally reached the public. Together, we made a memorable day that also fed our audiences.
2025
New Year Ahead
Lots can happen in a year. This year features Helena Jordan, and everything else this program does this year will be discovered along the way. Let's get it.