@dramatistsguild @LaurieFlanigan

Workhaus Collective kicked off its season this fall with a world premiere of Joe Waetcher’s Lake Untersee. Produced in association with Illusion Theatre in Minneapolis and directed by Jeremy B. Cohen, this play marks the seventeenth world premiere from Workhaus members, all based in the Twin Cities, since the emergence of the Collective eight years ago.

Workhaus members Trista Baldwin and Dominic Orlando have written about the Collective in in-depth articles for HowlRound – highly recommended reading in which Trista explains what it means for the Collective to produce each other’s plays for the good of playwrighting and for the good of the audience, and Dominic ruminates on Workhaus’ origins at the Collective’s five-year mark. (Trista’s article can be found here: http://howlround.com/collective-growth-reports-from-the-continuum-of-a-playwright-s-collective-theater and you can find a link to Dominic’s article from there.)

The Workhaus model is special in that it is entirely playwright-centric, and the members of the Collective function in administrative and production roles when they are not on deck with a production of their own. The playwright with a play currently in production takes over as Artistic Director and is empowered to make every artistic and budgetary decision in relation to his or her own work, from choosing the director to shepherding the marketing to making budgetary decisions that trickle (or flood) down to casting and design decisions. If the budget requires more resources, it is up to the Artistic Director to raise the money with help from the acting finance director. When I asked how this model breeds success or failure, Collective member Stanton Wood explained that it is liberating – by making the playwright involved and in charge of decisions that affect the artistic process, any compromises that may normally be imposed on a production by an external source are actually factored in by the playwright and either overcome or worked out with the whole integrity of the piece in mind.

This led to a very interesting discussion of how producers sometimes see playwrights as unrealistic about the producibility of their work, operating under the belief that playwrights aren’t envisioning design elements or casting requirements when they create their “sacred text.” Carson Kreitzer pointed out a propensity for producers to narrow the playwright’s vision to the text alone. As she says, “Playwrights have visual imaginations too. When you put the playwright in charge of the artistic process, it doesn’t deny collaboration – quite the opposite – it fosters collaboration.”

I just revisited the article from the Writer/Director May/June issue of The Dramatist, in which Doug Wright says “To say that a playwright is writing for actors is like saying Beethoven only wrote for the strings. You’re writing for an entire orchestra of collaborators, from the sound designer to the prop master.” This quote embodies the discussion Stanton and Carson and I had over coffee, where Carson gave a great example of the success she had with the Workhaus premiere of her play Flesh And The Desert, which called for Vegas-style headdresses. At first glance this costume element could render the play unproducible from a budgetary standpoint. (Who can afford those giant headdresses?) When it was produced at Workhaus under Carson’s Artistic Direction, the budgetary realities (which Carson controlled) led to the creation of the very look she had conceived in the first place. As she said, “I was well aware they could be done cheaply, but no one trusted me. All you need is a genius costume designer, in our case, the fabulous Annie Cady. It was a thrilling and rewarding collaboration.” I love this example of how the Workhaus model allows for the playwright to make decisions that he or she is very capable of and interested in making. There is no need for an intermediary when the playwright is empowered to make decisions and execute them. And because the playwright is conducting the entire score, all the parts of the orchestra are following her baton. There is no “sacred text” with design elements added on. The score is whole.

The members of Workhaus Collective did not begin self-producing as a means to be produced (member productions are happening all over the country), but rather as a way to empower themselves and each other in the process of being produced. It’s really joyful to see how these playwrights have supported each other and created an entirely new structure for the production of new work in the Twin Cities. The Collective is a company-in-residence at the Playwrights’ Center but have branched out with Waetcher’s production of Lake Untersee at Illusion, and soon they will be producing as a resident company in the Southern Theater’s exciting ArtShare program. (More on that later.)

When it’s time to pick the next play up for production, the Collective asks questions: Who has something ready to be produced? Who is available? Who has put in the sweat equity and is due for a production? Rather than picking a season based on external factors, the baseline becomes: who needs a production right now and has the time and space to make it happen while we all support it, heart and soul? How great is that?

Current Workhaus Collective members are: Trista Baldwin, Jeannine Coulombe, Joe Waetcher, and DG members Alan Berks, Christina Ham, Carson Kreitzer, Dominic Orlando, and Stanton Wood.

lflaniganhegge@dramatistsguild.com

Photo: (above) Flesh and the Desert by Carson Kreitzer. Photographer: Richard Fleischman

Photo: (above) A Short Play about 9/11 by Dominic Orlando. Photographer: Johnny Hoffner