@dramatistsguild @duellwilliam

Let’s say you’ve never or rarely been produced and you’ve tried every plausible theatre in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. What about Houston?

This report is no substitute for a master class on getting produced in Houston, but if you consider yourself relatively unknown, you might treat it as your CliffsNotes for learning where to consider submitting your play or musical. And just like each CliffsNotes I remember from high school (back then, grammatically correctly named “Cliff’s Notes”), which always managed through its compression to leach out all the pleasure, nuance and complexity of the work itself, this list is bleached. I’ve omitted college and community theatres, theatres less than two years old or undergoing reconstruction, theatres outside Houston proper. I’ve left out theaters that mount only staged readings even though, sometimes, these readings lead to a local production. Each entry provides a mere impression of the theatre and the creative talents behind it. It’s really just a cheat sheet, so you still have quite a bit of homework to do.

From its website (http://www.blacklabtheater.com), you’ll learn that Black Lab Theatre “is committed to producing great plays that are new and relevant … from up and coming and established playwrights whose work represents the finest contemporary theatre.”

Cone Man Running Productions (http://conemanprod.wix.com/home) produces new traditional-format plays but also tweaks the format in various ways and produces the results. One example is a play festival of shorts that are created within 24 hours, ready or not. Two of the founders describe their interests in an interview in the May/June 2013 issue of The Dramatist, which is also on tumblr at: http://dramatistsguild.tumblr.com/post/49358747740/dg-regional-report-houston-by-william-duell.

As its website (http://www.ensemblehouston.com) states, the venerable Ensemble Theatre produces plays and musicals “devoted to the portrayal of the African American experience by local and national playwrights and artists.” The Ensemble’s Performing Arts Education program also sponsors artists-in-residence.

Express Children’s Theatre (http://expresstheatre.com), Houston’s oldest and largest performing and arts education organization, produces plays, musicals and other culturally diverse, family-friendly events at various venues throughout Houston, as well as in their own 90-seat theatre.

Playwrights whose work has been produced recently at The Landing Theatre Company include Rachel Axler and Aleks Merilo. The Landing focuses on “extraordinary American playwriting” and hosts an annual New American Voices Play Reading Series (http://www.landingtheatre.org).

Main Street Theater (http://www.mainstreettheater.com) typically produces established playwrights but on occasion premieres original plays and musicals by relatively new or unknown dramatists. It “creates theater that challenges its audience to think and its artists to grow.”

To understand what’s of interest to Artistic Director Jennifer Decker of Mildred’s Umbrella Theater http://www.mildredsumbrella.com, check out her interview in the May-June 2014 issue of The Dramatist, which is also on tumblr: http://dramatistsguild.tumblr.com/post/84068252613/dg-national-report-houston-by-william-duell. Mildred’s focuses on female playwrights or plays with strong female protagonists. It also produces in association with Wordsmyth Theater an annual showcase of shorts called the Museum of Dysfunction.

On occasion, Stages Repertory Theatre (http://stagestheatre.com) produces up-and-coming dramatists. Producing Artistic Director Kenn McLaughlin explains what types of plays and musicals he’s passionate about in the Jan-Feb 2014 issue of The Dramatist, also on tumblr: http://dramatistsguild.tumblr.com/post/71110995085/dg-national-report-houston-by-william-duell.

Part of Stark Naked Theatre’s (http://starknakedtheatre.com) mission is to provide local artists competitive pay to encourage them to stay in Houston, but it does produce playwrights who aren’t local. For example, this season it produced the regional premiere of All Girls by New York playwright Anna Greenfield.

Gerald LaBita at Theater LaB (http://www.theaterlabhouston.com) is practically a landmark institution himself, having produced over 120 contemporary plays here (most but not all by established playwrights). Productions take place at the 75-seat black box in Obsidian Art Space.

Playwright and artistic director Denise O’Neal and Watch My Groove Entertainment, LLC. (http://www.mslilysgroove.com/FTB.html) are two of the forces behind Fade to Black, an annual production of shorts by black playwrights. To learn more about Denise and the festival, check out her interview in the September-October issue of The Dramatist (to be posted on tumblr in the near future).

wduell@dramatistsguild.com