@dramatistsguild @hartplaywright

Dramatists Guild member Kevin Ferguson’s newest play, Orders, debuted at the Tesseract Theatre in St. Louis last November. Ferguson’s opening night kicked off a weekend committed to emerging playwrights and the promotion of new work. I joined the two-time KCACTF ten-minute award winning playwright for an afternoon hosted by the Tesseract which featured a workshop on playwriting and a Town Hall meeting for the Guild. The event also included a discussion regarding the process of devised work and the rights and nuances such writing has need to respect. Devised writing is becoming an important issue among a lot of fringe artists in St. Louis, in part due to the diverse and daring mission of Tesseract Theatre, which challenges and pushes traditional boundaries. Tesseract produces experimental theatre, promotes innovative approaches, is driven by ensemble performances and understands the significance of multi-racial casting.

Every playwright in this region would be wise to consider submitting work to Tesseract Theatre. It’s one of the few stages truly committed to the entire process of play development. The company provides opportunities for ten-minute productions as “curtain openers,” open playwriting workshops, and finances playwrights in residence. Tesseract Theatre takes pride in producing and developing local dramatists and supporting them by building an artistic home around them, partnering them with local professionals to work with, and making a financial investment in their artistic growth. Readers who aren’t in this region need not feel excluded, however. Tesseract accepts all new work and loves to mix the new writings of local artists with those from writers across the nation. Ferguson, for example, is from Myrtle Beach, and in April, the theatre will produce Age of Bees by Dramatists Guild member Tira Palmquist, who lives in Orange County, California.

Creative artists in Mid-Missouri last November had the privilege of sitting in on an informal workshop and conversation featuring Richard Everett, a talented and diversified dramatist from the United Kingdom. This playwright read some of his newest work, shared insights about his writing, and talked about the challenges and celebrations we have in common in our passion for creating new work—regardless of whether the stage is “here” or “there.” Everett helped develop and served as the Artistic Director for The Upstream Theatre in London, has received eight full stage play productions, written three plays for BBC Radio, and has written multiple film and animation productions. Richard Everett’s experience in creating work for the theatre and other media (albeit overseas) benefits us as we begin to explore alternative ways of storytelling while continuing to create work for the theatre.

In keeping with the theme of this issue, it seems wrong to close this report without providing a brief highlight of emerging Kansas City playwright Teresa Leggard. Her one act play, Grace Period, won second place in the Comedy division at the 2013 DC Black Theatre Festival. At the time, Leggard had only been toying with the craft of playwriting for a few months. She’s obviously now making it more than a hobby. Last August, Leggard won Kansas City’s third edition of Project Playwright, a competition wherein five local playwrights rival one another with their writing skills over the course of three rounds and a final. This may sound easy, until you realize the playwrights are given a writing task in the evening and, in less than 24 hours, must submit a finished ten-minute play to a director and cast, develop it from the page to the stage, and perform it before an audience and panel. Project Playwright, which was developed by Kansas City playwright Dave Hanson and stage director Erich McGrew, is a concept I’m hoping to present in Mid-Missouri, Southern Missouri, and St. Louis throughout the course of this year.

I’m looking forward to this year’s events and initiatives which will continue to meet our needs and help support one another as artists.

hwright@dramatistsguild.com