JACK WELCH RESIDENCIES
The Jack Welch Fund for Playwrights provides endowed funding to Boston Playwrights' Theatre’s budget annually, and reflects the theatre’s mission to offer continued support to develop playwrights’ visions for new work.
Jack Welch was an ‘angel’ to all of us in the Theatre community in the Boston area but most especially to playwrights. His endowment speaks to his unequivocal commitment to their future. We hope to support our writers with the same compassion and understanding that Jack showed to all of us so that his legacy may live on undiminished. Boston Playwrights’ Theatre is honored to be a recipient and a distributor of his largesse.”
—Professor Emerita of the Practice of Playwriting Kate Snodgrass
This season, the Fund will allow BPT to host two alumni projects from December 1-11, 2026. One project will be selected for each of the below opportunities:
The Jack Welch Developmental Residency supports a promising new play that is early in its developmental trajectory. Playwrights may apply with a play that is in a very early draft or even one has not yet been completed. The play must have had no more than one previous reading or workshop. The Residency includes dramaturgical consultation and support, 30 hours of development time in residence for the playwright to explore and evolve the play with a full cast and director, followed by a public reading.
The Jack Welch Developmental Fellowship supports a play that is further along in its development. The play has gone through multiple drafts and rewrites already, and the playwright feels the next step is to learn from hearing the play aloud in front of a live audience. The Fellowship includes dramaturgical consultation and support followed by a public reading with a professional cast and director.
If you are an alumnus of the BU Playwriting Program (MA or MFA) and would like to apply, the form is available here (deadline April 15, 2026).
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The creation of the Fund was the wish of Jack Welch—a longtime, tireless supporter of Boston’s theatre community through his work with Baker’s Plays, StageSource, the Massachusetts Young Playwrights’ Project, and the Boston Theater Marathon—who died in 2017. Welch’s estate seeds the Fund. Born in Exeter, New Hampshire, Welch was best known for his three-decades-long association with Baker’s Plays—first as a proofreader and clerk early in his career, and later as managing director and editor. Welch was a graduate of Emerson College who quickly immersed himself in the Boston theatre scene, including an early-career stint at Cape Cod’s North Shore Music Theater. He was a founding member of American Premiere Stage, The Boston Resident Theater Alliance, and the theater community service organization StageSource, where he served as a board member for 25 years. Welch was the recipient of the first “Theater Hero” Award bestowed by StageSource in 2000.
Banner: Public reading of Kill the Magistrate by Abbey Fenbert (Jake Belcher Photography)