Brad Slavik, President of First Run Theatre, recently announced that their board of directors approved a proposal that allows the company to become a non-equity professional theater company.  This change becomes effective with the first production of their sixth season, scheduled for the last half of April.

Mr. Slavik, who was elected president in January, 2006, following the death of the company's founder, Donald Weiss, explained that this transition will allow the company to compete effectively with the large number of theater companies in the Greater Saint Louis area for directors, designers, and actors  The main reason the board felt that this was necessary is that, while the other theater companies produce mostly established plays by published playwrights, First Run Theatre is the only Saint Louis company that devotes itself solely to presenting world premiere productions of plays by Saint Louis-area playwrights.  Being able to offer compensation to the actors, designers and directors will, hopefully, attract a larger cadre of non-equity theater professionals to the company.

First Run Theatre's core purpose is to provide a vehicle for Saint Louis-area playwrights to produce original, unpublished, never-produced works, while constantly maintaining a core set of values that includes: professionalism, artistic integrity, education, training, and development.  It strives to provide an environment that offers the playwrights freedom of expression while presenting a quality production to its audiences.  First Run Theatre is an equal-opportunity company that, unless dictated by a script, does not tolerate discrimination based on race, religion, nationality, gender, ethnicity, age, or disability.

The selection process each season begins with an open invitation to all Saint Louis-area playwrights to submit their plays to the company.  These plays are then distributed anonymously to the play-reading committee members.  The members read and critique all plays and recommend at least six plays for a public reading. The readings take place before an audience in January.  Each reading is followed by a Q&A period.  Following the play reading festival, the board of directors meets to choose the plays for the coming season.  The season's plays are presented in April/May, July/August, and January.

As part of its education, training, and development commitment, First Run Theatre offers several seminars each year in the areas of playwriting, play production, auditioning, and acting.  Additionally, through its affiliate, The St. Louis Writer's Group, it offers both new and experienced playwrights the opportunity to have their developing plays publicly read and critiqued.

First Run Theatre also presents a Spectrum of short plays (ten to thirty minutes in length) in June as an additional education tool.  Playwrights are invited to submit these plays separately.  The selection process is the same as for the season's plays, except that there are no public readings of the plays.  A volunteer director auditions volunteer actors for each selected play.  After casting, the plays are rehearsed and then presented on stage for at least three times with a minimal set and minimal costuming.