In 1980, in Bloomington, Iniana, the Bloomington Playwrights Project (BPP) was founded by two MFA students at Indiana University Bloomington, Tom Moseman and Jim Leonard. They sought to create a venue more hospitable to local playwrights than the staid university, and the theater became a scrappy and lively space where shoestring productions came together very quickly for short but energetic runs. Early productions at the BPP included Leonard’s And they Dance Real Slow in Jackson and Queen of Bakersfield by Greg Owens. The theater endured despite the constant turnover of personnel and participants that comes with being set in a college town, eventually establishing itself as the only theater in Indiana—and one of few theaters in the country—dedicated to producing only new plays.