“If I can’t find a fun or compelling or imaginative musical voice with which to write the score to a musical theatre work, it tells me that something is fundamentally wrong with the basic assignment. It might be a perfect project for someone else. But it’s not for me.”
– Alan Menken on composition
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“What can the Dramatists Guild do for me?” I’ve heard this question a few times over the last year. Before I was acquainted with all that the Dramatists Guild provides to writers, I admit I asked the question myself. The answer is multitudinous, but for one playwright in Pittsburgh, a Dramatists Guild event led to a world premiere of his play.
In 2010, Jamie Slavinsky, artistic director of the Organic Theater of Pittsburgh, got together with the Guild and then-regional rep Tammy Ryan to organize “From the Ground Up”. At this innovative event, twelve DG playwrights read five minutes of their work for an audience of smaller and mid-sized Pittsburgh theater companies. The artistic directors of the companies then had five minutes to introduce their companies to the audience of playwrights. In the lobby afterward, playwright Philip Real met Vince Ventura, artistic director of 12 Peers Theater, who expressed interest in the play from which he had read: Cactus. Real gave Ventura a copy of the play that night. A few days later, Ventura sent an email saying he wanted to produce Cactus. Real was impressed by the ease of the exchange, “For someone like me who has sent in unsolicited scripts to theaters and heard nothing for months or longer, this was a delightfully immediate experience.”
Even after a few readings and rewrites, Real knew the play needed further refinement. At another Dramatists Guild event focusing on dramaturgy, Real got the idea of hiring a dramaturg to help guide the process toward production. He suggested this to 12 Peers and they offered the job to fellow Dramatists Guild member, playwright, director and dramaturg Kyle Bostian. As they worked together, it became apparent that the dramaturg would make an effective director for the world premiere. Bostian remembers: “Collaborating with Phil was an absolute pleasure. He’d never worked with an ‘official’ dramaturg before and was understandably a bit wary of how it might go. I think one of the reasons he approached me about the project and the main reason our process was as successful as it was is that he trusted that – as a playwright and DG member myself – I would be committed to realizing his vision. As we moved forward, he saw that my directorial vision was an extension – a supportive enhancement – of his own.”
The play, a re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet starring vampires and tackling issues surrounding border control, is essentially a family drama and love story with characters who happen to be vampires. Bostian adds, “The situations and relationships are very human, and the story explores socio-political issues and broader existential ideas that apply to all of us.”
As every playwright knows, there’s no substitute for a full production. Real avers: “I can’t imagine going through the huge effort this has been for me to keep writing and re-writing without the goal of a production. Vince provided the impetus by being encouraging along the way, telling me to take the time I needed while reassuring me this was all moving toward the goal of production. After having been in a room alone writing, to finally have actors on their feet reading the lines brought all sorts of new ideas about the story and characters for me to work on.”
The show runs from June 27th to July 13th at the Grey Box Theater in Pittsburgh’s hottest neighborhood, Lawrenceville. Real says he is a grateful playwright working with great designers, a supportive theater company and a director who brings a fierce passion and insight to the process: “The production is a beauty.”
gcody@dramatistsguild.com
“The surprising beauty of what a character says often comes from how they say it. ‘How’ something is said is so deep and complicated that it resembles playing jazz on a piano.”
– Theresa Rebeck on dialogue
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It’s Fall and that means Back-to-School. In honor of students everywhere sharpening their pencils and staring at blank pieces of paper or computer screens, I thought I’d take a look at some of the opportunities for young playwrights in our state. Seeing the amazing work being presented by young artists in our state alone is enough to quash any fear of theatre’s demise.
The New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest and Festival was influenced and inspired by Young Playwrights, Inc.’s national competition, founded in 1981 by then DG President Stephen Sondheim. The NJYPC, now in its 31st year, is currently a partnership between Premiere Stages and Playwrights Theatre. The winning plays, submitted by students in 4th-12th grades, receive staged readings at Kean University with the writers invited to work with professional dramaturgs (this year’s included playwrights Pia Wilson and Martyna Majok), directors and actors throughout the rehearsal process. In addition to the elementary, junior high and high school levels, this past year the Festival also added the Revolutionary Plays Category for plays focusing on the 350th anniversary of the founding of New Jersey, and the Living With Disabilities Category for plays written by young playwrights or about characters with disabilities.
Jim DeVivo, the Director of Education for Playwrights Theatre and the coordinator for the New Jersey Writers Project residencies and the statewide and local Young Playwrights Festivals, is actually writing his dissertation for his PhD in Educational Theatre on the impact of arts education participation on former student-writers in the Festival. Probably the biggest impact that Jim has found is how empowering it is for the students.
Talia Green, a winner for her play Ink Never Dulls, talked about how “it was a rather indescribable feeling, watching real people recite my text as serious as though it was a work by a published playwright.” Emily Donegan, a winner for her play Mechanical Advancement, echoed these sentiments: “When I had written my play, I thought it was just a silly little throwaway assignment that wouldn’t get much further than my teacher’s desk. Knowing that other people had read it and liked it enough to work on making it better gave me a sense of confidence in my writing that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
(A side note, but one deserving further exploration is that the majority of former winners (68%) is female – in the 2014 contest, all but one of the thirteen total winners in all categories was female. With so much current discussion on gender parity in plays being produced, this is a startling, but extremely noteworthy statistic).
There are a number of other competitions in the state including those run by Bergen Community College, Cranford’s The Theatre Project and Princeton University’s 10-Minute Play Contest. In addition to the contests, many of our theatres have playwriting residency programs where teaching artists go into schools and work with students on creating new work, including McCarter Theatre’s Youth Ink, Playwrights Theatre’s New Jersey Writer’s Project and New Jersey Rep’s Young Playwrights Project, which highlights students from communities affected by Hurricane Sandy.
So, other than being incredibly inspiring, how does all of this impact those of us over eighteen years old? DeVivo encourages more established playwrights to get involved with younger writers because “even if we’re not training future artists, empowering them with natural creativity is something that sometimes gets lost. I’m surprised by how many young people will come in and say they just don’t have the chance to express themselves creatively. So whether it’s through an organization like Playwrights Theatre or something in your own community, offer your expertise to young people as it has a reach far beyond simply creating new plays.”
Also, be sure to put down Wednesday, October 16th in your calendar for the first NJ Dramatists Meet and Greet hosted by Luna Stage followed by an opportunity to see member Nikkole Salter’s new play Lines in the Dust. More information to follow.
skaplan@dramatistsguild.com
Photo: (above) The High School Winners of the NJ Young Playwrights Festival
Photo: (above) The winners and actors
Photo: (above) Dan Pellicano and Timothy Regan in Mechanical Advancement
Photo: (above) The Elementary and Junior High School Winners
“Especially interesting to me are characters that desperately want two things that live in opposition to each other. Look for these dichotomies and all the subtleties and secrets they evoke.
– Beth Henley on character
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It is amazing how well our regional Guild members shone in the fringe of summer. It might not seem too noteworthy, considering more than twenty fringe festivals take place in seventeen states in America every year. What seems remarkable, however—after realizing Missouri is one of only three states producing multiple fringes—is taking note of how much national success has resulted for many of our local dramatists. With fringe festivals held in both St. Louis (StLou Fringe, in June) and Kansas City (KC Fringe, in July), and each venue welcoming acclaimed writers from both coasts, I believe our Guild’s local talent of playwrights and composers seem to garner more than a measurable amount of praise.
Established playwright Vicki Vodrey must love the KC Fringe Festival and the success this festival has birthed in her career. Her dark comedy, Hanky Panky, one of the top-rated and most popular plays here in 2010, was later performed at the Midtown International Theatre Festival (MITF), receiving nominations for three MITF awards in the process. Vodrey’s Thank You Notes: Headed to Heaven with Flat Jimmy Fallon became a KC Fringe standout in 2012, encored at the 2012 MITF, and was a finalist for inclusion in this year’s MITF lineup. This year Vodrey, one of five inaugural playwrights at the new Midwest Dramatists Center, debuted her newest play entitled, A Hard Day’s Night. It just might be her next ticket to ride.
Girl on Girl was a creative and zesty performance at this year’s KC Fringe, a trio of plays that included the newest work by playwright Michelle T. Johnson. During the 2012 Fringe campaign, her one act play, As the Guiding Light Turns, was a noteworthy, standout. In 2013, another one act play, Wiccans in the ‘Hood was not only popular at the KC Fringe, but performed also at New York’s Midwinter Madness Short Play Festival. Earlier this year Philadelphia’s BrainSpunk Theater produced an evening of Johnson’s work, presenting the playful and uplifting Wiccans with her much more existential and dreamlike one-act, Trading Races: From Rodney King to Paula Deen—a play nominated for three separate New York’s Connections Theatre Festivity Awards. Johnson, who is also an inaugural playwright of the Midwest Dramatists Center, is bound to become a KC Fringe favorite. My guess is Ms. Johnson is simply pleased they love her in Philly: she’s just been named BrainSpunk’s new Playwright in Residence, with includes their commitment to produce a new play by Johnson in its upcoming 2015 season.
This year’s KC Fringe also featured the new work of five additional regional Guild members who are becoming established as playwrights in their own right. The proficient and talented Bill Rogers—whose work has been featured at the Guild’s Friday Night Footlights—had his newest work, a musical entitled, Dangerous to Dance With, presented. Rogers, a playwright, lyricist and librettist, has had much of his work produced in this region, including four previous plays that debuted in the KC Fringes of 2009, 2010, and 2011. Catherine Browder, Glendora Davis, Lezlie Revelle and Nancy Parks had their own group of short plays produced in Turning Points, a striking consideration of how people face life-altering situations. These women have also collaborated for KC Potluck Productions. Potluck showcases scripts by emerging women playwrights from all over the United States through professional readings and staged productions.
The St Lou Fringe was privileged this year to feature the work of St. Louis Guild member Christopher Limber. Riffs in a set of 10 was a stylish and spicy fusion of jazz and poetic interludes. Joined by an ensemble of musicians and St. Louis club performers, Limber arranged a wonderful cabaret tribute reflecting and celebrating 1940’s jazz greats. This overwhelmingly talented playwright and composer is the Education Director for Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, where his contributions as a playwright earned local awards for Outstanding Productions in 2010 and 2011.
hwright@dramatistsguild.com
“It gives substance to our words and creates the imaginary spaces that audiences believe, for however long, represent a unique reality called ‘The Play.’”
– Charles Fuller on setting
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Western New York Regional Rep Donna Hoke and I launched the New York State Roving Reading Series in May with our first event, a staged reading of Guild Member Darryl Schneider’s play, Clean Break. The reading was held at The Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca, a lovely and recently renovated downtown theatre with a strong community following and a long history of supporting playwrights and new work. The reading was deftly directed by Samuel Buggeln and featured the acting talents of Dean Robinson and Jennifer Herzog; all three are veterans of the Ithaca theatre community and have also worked extensively outside of the area.
Unlike many reading series, all the plays in the New York State Roving Readings have had at least one production. As such, the mission of the Roving Readings is not so much to help playwrights develop new scripts as it is to provide valuable increased exposure for a play and its playwright in the wider New York state theatre community. By matching participating writers with theatres outside their own hometowns, we hope to serve everyone by fostering new relationships.
Darryl Schneider’s play, a taut two-hander about a gambling man’s up-and-down relationship with his grown daughter, originally received its world premiere at Road Less Traveled Productions in Buffalo, where it won the Emanuel Fried Award for Outstanding New Play. For the playwright, this was about revisiting the work from a fresh perspective as well as building community: “The Roving Reading Series let me hear my play read by actors outside of my comfort zone (Buffalo) and allowed me to build a new relationship with a theatre; always a great big plus.“
Certainly the reading of Clean Break at The Kitchen on May 20th provided an opportunity for Guild members and Central New York theatre practitioners to come together as a community. And they did. The audience drew from Kitchen Theatre regulars, out of town Guild members, local actors, writers and directors, and theatre professionals teaching at Ithaca’s two big universities.
After such an auspicious start, we’re excited to continue the momentum and keep building our state’s relationships with our next two readings: The Scavenger’s Daughter by Buffalo’s Gary Earl Ross, September 8 at Geva Theatre, Rochester; and Happy Birthday Tina Marie by Watertown’s Craig Thornton on September 15 at Road Less Traveled Productions in Buffalo.
Guild members and theaters have responded positively to the series and plans are already in the works for a second series next year. With several more theaters keen to join the program and plenty of Guild members excited by the idea of forging new connections and expanding their sense of community, we look forward to this program’s future. Meanwhile, if you are able to join us at either of the September readings, be sure to come up and introduce yourself.
astratford@dramatistsguild.com
@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
“I believe all great stories are many, many strange mathematical layers from all the stories of your family, as well as childhood, school games, songs, lessons…”
- Adrienne Kennedy on story
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