Arts & Leisure

MACo showcases collaboration in new plays

PLAYWRIGHT DANA YEATON and director Melissa Lourie work through their ideas about how to stage “Aristotle’s King,” a play by Yeaton and Colston Merrell that will be one of three Vermont works staged in the Middlebury Acting Company’s New Play Festival on Aug. 17 & 18. Independent photo/John S. McCright

Fundamental to creation of a play is collaboration. Directors impose a vision, actors inhabit their characters and perform their lines, technicians light and dress the actors and stage — even the audience plays a part by reacting to the action they see in front of them. A central but sometimes overlooked component of the collaboration is the playwright.