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Playwright Tony Finstrom sits in the second row of the vast Wold Performing Arts Center. It’s a large theater nestled in a beautifully landscaped corner of Lynn University in Boca Raton. There is no one else in the 750-seat house. The space is calm and relatively quiet. Onstage, actors are still marking their scripts as they go over some last minute changes with the director. “Tony?” Finstrom looks up at the young lady playing the lead in his play. “This line at the end of the first act. Can I change it to ‘I couldn’t do that’ instead of ‘I could not do that’? He nods yes. “Thank you Tony. You’re the best,” she smiles and blows him a kiss.

It’s good to be the playwright.

Later on that night, over 500 people will arrive at the venue to watch a staged reading of Finstrom’s play Glamour Girl. 500 people. That’s a lot. Especially for a reading. But, after four years, “Jan McArt’s New Play Readings at Lynn University” have generated enough buzz to garner this kind of attention. What started as a small temporary experiment has grown into one of the staples of the South Florida theater community.

As the audience watches the reading, Finstrom, sitting towards the back of the house, watches the audience. They seem to be enjoying themselves. Still, Finstrom watches them like a hawk. With no props, costumes or sets and minimal blocking, the actors are given the challenge of transporting the audience into the world of the play, using little more than their talent and the words of the playwright. After all, that is what this is all about: The words. And the audience knows that. They know that the work being presented is still in-progress. They understand their job is to simply attend and react. To show the playwright – as audience members – what they like, what they don’t like, what parts of the play are hard to follow, what parts need to fall away, have they been entertained. And they let him know. They give the reading a standing ovation. Still, Finstrom says that there is much work to be done. “I learned so much from this. I know what I have to do now.” There is no talk back, there are no comment cards. The entire night is to simply gage the audience as they watch the show, and for the playwrights to use that, as well as their own reactions as a guide on how to continue writing.

Created by Jan McArt, Director of Theatre Arts Program Development at Lynn and a beloved fixture of the South Florida Theater scene for decades, the series was created to give Florida playwrights an opportunity to actually workshop a new script. Readings are fairly commonplace in South Florida, but full-blown workshop programs are few and far between. “Usually, when you do the reading of a new play, the cast and director come in and read through it in the afternoon and present it to an audience that evening, but this series is much more ambitious.” says Finstrom,

When the series was first conceived, there were serious questions about whether or not such a program could sustain an audience for more than one season. But tenacity and the hard work of McArt’s four person staff paid off and the reading series – which now includes musicals – is thriving. “If there’s one thing I love, it’s making things happen,” McArt says. “I’m working as hard as I ever did.”

As the program has grown, so has its audience and, perhaps more importantly, so has its legacy. To date, three plays which received a workshop at the Jan McArt New Play Readings series have gone on to full productions, including my drama Daniel’s Husband which just ended a run at Island City Stage in Fort Lauderdale and Christopher Demos-Brown’s Stripped which will receive it’s World Premiere at Zoetic Stage in Miami in November. Regional playwrights are delighted to “get the call,” asking if they are interested in presenting a script.

This is how it works: Four Florida playwrights are invited to have a workshop of their work each season. The work must be a completed piece, unpublished and unproduced. The workshops usually happen in November, January, March and April. Over the course of six days, the chosen play is given the full treatment. The first two to four days consist primarily of table work.  Really delving into the script, the characters, the arc of the play. What works and what doesn’t. Actors are encouraged to ask questions. During this time it is not unusual for a playwright to come in with new pages every day. The work is constantly changing, evolving. It’s very exciting to watch happen. Up next, the piece is blocked – with no sets or props – just to give the playwright the sense of staging. The play evolves even more as the actors get on their feet and start moving around. I personally have learned as much at this stage as I have from doing table work. The final day is spent as an adjust-to-stage, with actors doing a final run through before the audience arrives that night for the performance. The entire process is thrilling, a little terrifying and, ultimately, extremely rewarding.

After the reading of Glamour Girl, back in the green room, Finstrom is still writing down notes from the evening’s performance. Next to him, sits Wayne Rudisill, resident director of the program and the director of Finstrom’s play. “I remember Joe Papp telling me how important the workshop process is,” he says, “It’s the first step in shifting the play from inside the playwright’s head to the stage.” Finstrom shushes him and continues writing notes.

mmckeever@dramatistsguild.com