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I cut my theatre teeth in community theatre enough years ago that I am not going to say when it started. And, currently sitting in Nebraska, teaching at the incomparable University of Nebraska Omaha low-residency MFA in Playwriting, I decided to check out Omaha community theatre. Did you know that Henry Fonda began his acting career at the Omaha Community Playhouse at age twenty, when his mother’ s friend, Dodie Brando (mother of Marlon Brando), recommended that he try out for a part in an upcoming production? How wonderful is that little tidbit? 

The American Association of Community Theatre has an inspiring website quote from Robert Edward Gard’ s 1968 Theater in America: appraisal and challenge for the National Theatre Conference. Gard states “Community Theatre occupies a peculiarly important position in the American theater picture…It engages more people in theatrical activity, albeit part-time, than all the rest of the American theatre put together, including schools and colleges.” And while I, and many of us, now also enjoy time in the professional realm of theatre, the geeky, retainer-wearing, chunky junior high-schooler that I was, who first tripped across the boards at The Warner Theatre (never mind how long ago) appreciates that community theatre did and does exist.  

As I swing back into Connecticut, I don’ t have enough room here to list the number of incredible community theatres in our state, ranging from Desultory Theatre Club to Barnyard Theatre Ensemble, Westport Community Players, and the list goes on and on. I asked my fellow Connecticut Dramatists Guild members for their thoughts and experiences with Connecticut community theatres.  

Bill Squier writes: I’ve benefitted greatly from Connecticut theaters that are either community-based or semi-professional. Curtain Call in Stamford has been a terrific place to either try out my new musicals in main stage readings or small productions on the second stage. The Spirit of Broadway Theater in Norwich (now the Chestnut Street Playhouse) premiered four of my musicals in full productions and commissioned me to write a fifth. Both theaters gave the shows runs from two to five weeks and at SBT I was encouraged to try revisions out up until the last performances!  

Kato McNicle states: I used to run a community/Connecticut based new play development project called the Local Playwrights Festival, with space donated by The O’ Neill it was modeled on the National Playwrights Conference. It nurtured a hands-on community for developing new work, used 50-60 local actors, and developed up to eight plays each year. I am still working with many of the folks that I met through that initiative. 

I echo my fellow CT DGers in that my experience with community theatre in Connecticut has been good in building a community of theatre artists that I am honored to be a part of and support. However, seeing as this is the reality check issue, I think more can be done. One of our members brought forth the reality that some theatres simply don’ t produce works by local dramatists. They cultivate a community of talented actors, directors, designers, and the like, but they don’ t offer the same for local writers. And while reality is such that community theatres work hard to raise funds to keep the ghost light on, there is something to be said for leaving the light on for local dramatists, as well. So here’ s my challenge for any and all Connecticut theatres:leave one slot a season, or make a new summer slot, or find a weekend, to produce a play from a Connecticut dramatist. Email me and I’ ll even advance it all – gather the scripts, form a reading committee, select plays, and put you in touch with brilliant writers. Your role: make productions for Connecticut dramatists in your theatre, community and professional, a reality…check! 

Keith Paul of Desultory Theatre Club. Photo by Mandi Martini – © The Warner Theatre 2015

 cdonaghy@dramatistsguild.com 

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Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company cares about playwrights who have kids. Of course, yeah, they care about other playwrights, too. But BETC Generations is the company’ s play writing competition and workshop opportunity for dramatists who have children under eighteen years old. 

 The venture has evolved. The first incarnation of Generations was a different idea entirely (then called The Generations Project). A couple of us would meet with a group of seniors over the course of several weeks, simply to help document stories from their lives. Then we split up and massaged these stories into a site-specific play. It was a successful event, and since Generations has morphed, it definitely feels more at home with the Boulder Ensemble family. 

 “Coming out of that, we were looking for a way to put more of an emphasis on new play development,” Producing Ensemble Director Stephen Weitz said. “We identified a funding source called Sustainable Arts Foundation which supports artists and writers specifically with families. It was a great connection to who we are as a company, so we switched it into an open play competition.”

The subject matter of the plays does not need to have anything to do with parenting. Other than the having-young-kids requirement, there are few limitations. The play must be a full-length, unproduced play requiring fewer than seven actors. 

 “That’s just to keep it to a level so that it’ s something that we could conceivably produce,” Weitz said. “Developing a play is like looking for a house. We look for a strong structure and strongly drawn characters. Clear narrative arc. When I talk to the writers, the first question I ask them is, ‘ for you, what is this play about? What do you want us to leave thinking about?’  And then, with a little guidance and love from our creative team, we’ re going to help mine the best story…I hear from a lot of playwrights. Other competitions are helpful, but a lot of them are not workshopping the plays in detail. Writers have told us that it’ s really exciting to get to work with a group of actors for a week, and to spend a little more time with the words of the play.”

I asked Heather Beasley, Director of Programs and Grants, how BETC Generations differs from other writing competitions. 

 “A fair number of other competitions offer the winning playwright a residency and a staged reading with public feedback,” Beasley said. “But we’ re the only one that offers a childcare stipend during the residency…I also think the quality of our residency experience is unique. We put in roughly 30 hours of table work, director/dramaturg/playwright script meetings, and staging time prior to the public reading, over just six days. The two playwrights who have completed the residency so far have both spoken about the intensity of our focus on their own goals for their work. Our creative team serves the winning play by making space for the playwright to rewrite, hone, and strengthen the script at the residency’ s center.”

And, music to many writers’  ears, BETC does not require submission fees—a factor that Simon Fill, the Generations winner from 2015 can appreciate. The program helped him “provide that elusive affirmation so many playwrights have to contend with,” Fill said. 

 “Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company’ s professionalism, passion for my new play Burning Cities, their genuine desire to make the play as strong as possible while keeping my artistic vision and voice intact, their lack of ego—all these qualities permeated the play development process…Stephen, Heather, and the actors provided a great deal of feedback. I was present for every rehearsal, and revised during them. I did larger revisions day and night when not in rehearsals. The atmosphere at rehearsals was warm, passionate, and honest. There was a total focus on improving the play.”

Heather Beasley, again, emphasized the importance of including parents of young kids as writers. “Want more successful women playwrights and playwrights of color? Make sure more playwrights can keep writing, and cover their basic expenses while doing it, so they can keep writing through their parenting years…Parent playwrights need to tell the stories of our young families, or caring for our aging parents and kids at the same time, or the pressures parenting puts on a marriage, and all the many stories of middle age. Because they’ re our stories to tell.”

For more information, or to eventually submit to Generations (BETC starts accepting submissions again sometime late in the summer), visit http://www.boulderensembletheatre.org/. Overall, Generations has been fantastic for BETC, and Stephen Weitz feels like it’ s “a good mirror to who we are as a company,” adding…“All the members of our staff have young children. We fight that battle between doing good creative work, and supporting our families. Developing plays is important. If theatres don’ t take on the development of good work, then we as a company shouldn’ t be surprised if we can’ t find good BETC plays.”

jhartwell@dramatistsguild.com 

@dramatistsguild​

Last year my ambassador, Katie Ganem, moved out of the region. I’ d like to introduce my new ambassador, Ann Fraistat (FRY-stat). 

Ann is a Maryland/DC-based playwright, director, and actor. She has co-authored several full-length and ten-minute comedies with her brother, Shawn. These include Romeo & Juliet: Choose Your Own Ending, which won Best Comedy and Best Overall Show at the 2010 Capital Fringe Festival, and which has been published by Playscripts. Short works have been performed in DC by Pointless Theatre, Pinky Swear Productions, and Rorschach Theatre, and in London by Etcetera Theatre. Ann received her B.A. in theatre and English from the University of Maryland, College Park. 

Brent: Can you describe a theatre experience that shaped you as a writer? 

Ann: When I was a kid, my dad took me to a production of Noises Off, and it blew my mind. The experience of being in this packed theatre, everybody laughing and grinning, stuck with me. All these strangers walked into this room and, with each joke that made them laugh together, became more of a community. Plus, they staged the show with the director character sitting in the audience with us, yelling through a megaphone. It hammered home even more this idea that we were all in this together—the audience and the people in the show. So, yeah, I’ m a comedy writer, and when I direct, I ignore the fourth wall.

Brent: Are there themes to which you find yourself returning in your work? Ann: Shawn and I love to mash comedy up against other genres, which have varied from horror to Shakespearean romance. One constant, though, is that our plays tend to explore how people can be changed by their relationships, for better or worse. When it ends up for the better, it often becomes about how people can find the power of hope and redemption in each other. Brent: Which theatre companies in your area provide outstanding support for dramatists? 

Ann: The one I’ d most like to highlight is Venus Theatre (in Laurel), which accepts open submissions and produces only new works. With every show that opens at Venus, a new play debuts, and that’ s really exciting—especially because so many are written by female playwrights, who often receive fewer opportunities than their male counterparts. 

Brent: What led you to join the Dramatists Guild? How have you used its resources?

Ann: In 2011, I joined the Dramatists Guild on the advice of a more seasoned playwright. My brother and I were interested in trying to get a play published. When we received a publishing offer, the DG offered us wonderful advice about how to move forward with the contract and how to work with our publisher to bring it in line with industry standards. Their sample contracts have been a huge help in understanding what our rights are as playwrights, and how to work without accidentally giving those rights away. We also use the DG Resource Directory to find opportunities. That’ s how our ten-minute piece Of Mice & Madness was selected for the London Horror Festival!

 Brent: Why did you agree to become a DG Ambassador? 

Ann: Writing is so often a solitary activity, but theatre is inherently collaborative. It can be hard to know how to bridge the gap. When I first graduated from college, I was doing a lot of self-producing, so I had a built-in outlet for my and Shawn’ s plays. More recently, I’ ve been self-producing less, and Shawn and I have begun to feel that gap more. How do we take these plays we’ ve created on our hard drives and help them find their way to a stage where they can live and breathe? I know we’ re not the only ones trying to puzzle this out, and I love the idea of trying to help create more opportunities for other local playwrights to workshop their plays. Readings and workshops are vital because when we see our shows on their feet, that’ s how we can best learn, grow, and feel inspired to keep on creating.            

Ann Fraistat. Photo credit by ClintonBPhotography

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In Austin, a 2015 graduate of The University of Texas MFA directing program, Jess Hutchinson, has founded a new theater company, groundswell (www.groundswelltheatre.com) devoted to the development of new work. I asked Jess to tell me about groundswell.

JESS: In the same way that some of the other great theatre schools—Yale, Brown, UCSD for example—have professional companies directly affiliated with their MFA programs, we saw an opportunity to create that kind of company here in Austin, separate from but certainly st ill in conversation with UT. We also wanted to provide a place where the kind of rigorous development and experimental productions of new plays that we all enjoyed as students could continue after school, utilizing the shared vocabulary that geniuses like Steven Dietz, Kirk Lynn, Liz Engelman, and Suzan Zeder have taught us, and continuing to build on the important relationships we forged by being Longhorns. groundswell is our attempt to do all of those things, while continuing to bring Austin into the vital national new play conversation.

News about her new company was impressive enough, but groundswell—with guidance and support from UT’ s Chair of the Department of Theater & Dance, Dr. Brant Pope, and his faculty—have already organized their inaugural conference for playwrights: groundswell playwrights conference/GPC. This conference, at the time of writing this report, was on the calendar for January 17-23, 2016 in Austin on the UT Campus. The conference was founded on the notion of selecting writers rather than selecting specific scripts. Three playwrights—a UT alum, a faculty member, and a current graduate student—were invited and offered time and resources to work on whatever they want for a week after which there will be a final marathon day of readings and discussions open to the public…and it’ s all free.

JESS: Many play development opportunities are all about the play you submit. We want to champion writers we love, and trust them to bring in whatever strikes their fancy—a passion project. UT has a great thing going with its MFA programs in playwriting and directing but there’ s no established pipeline between UT and the professional world. We’ ve borrowed elements from other development conferences we love—places like PlayPenn, the O’ Neill, and the New Harmony Project—in order to craft what we hope will be a valuable week for all the artists involved, and for our audience, too.  

I asked Jess if the company and its conferences will remain a pipeline strictly for UT affiliated playwrights.

JESS: I’ m not sure just yet. This really is a beta-testing year to see how it goes. The desire to showcase UT folks certainly is strong, so my gut is that it will remain an invited conference that focuses on UT, but we might decide to change course after this year.

I really admire this young director who has the energy to solve a national problem by offering solutions in her own community.

JESS: There is not yet a widespread enough community that values new work; especially new play-type plays (as opposed to more avant garde or devised work) in our region. It’ s hard enough to be an artist at all in Texas, right? But I’ m encouraged. The national conversation about how and why we are making this work in the broadest sense feels like it’ s turning. I think it’ s more important than ever for artists to be vigilant, come together, and start getting even more creative about how we’ re getting our work heard and how we’ re considering our communities and our audiences as we do it. I’ m hopeful that the GPC will be part of that push. Ambitious? Absolutely. But I come from Chicago where I was taught to make no small plans.

srinear@dramatistsguild.com

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It’ s two days into the new year and Manuel’ s Tavern, the iconic soul of in-town Atlanta since 1956 has shut down for renovations by a new “outsider” owner. I’ m scared. It won’ t be the same. Then, I remember an interview with author Ray Bradbury who preached that life should be about standing on the edge of a cliff, jumping off, and then making wings on the way down. Okay. Scary can also be exhilarating: a new beginning. 

With this in mind, I’ d like to acknowledge the changes happening at Working Title Playwrights as Managing Artistic Director (and DG member) Jill Patrick steps (jumps!) down to focus on her own writing projects. She has been director since 2006, and with the conviction that it is time for new “blood” will officially transfer from staff to board member by February 2016. 

A commanding and charismatic presence, Jill has increased both membership and community relations while developing expanded programming such as the Ethel Wilson Lab and the 24-Hour plays. Now Patrick’ s successor, theatre director Amber Bradshaw, is ready to take her own leap and there for the ride is DG member playwright Paul Donnelly who joined the board in 2013. As part of a writers’  community “from the late ‘ 70s until [he] left the DC area in 2009,” Donnelly credits WTP as an important part of his re-engagement into writing and makes assurance that the “Monday Night Critic Sessions…are invaluable and will always be the core of what we do” [springing from] “the impulse to serve writers.” But Donnelly admits that he is most excited about finding ways to “enhance the community of artists participating…expanding the range of voices we serve…whether that’ s generationally or artistically.” He mentions the support that theatres such as the Alliance and Essential have given to WTP and says that increasing that roster of collaborative partners is likely to be part of the new strategy as is further development of financial sponsors and “enhancing [our] public profile.” Personally, he hopes to help with strengthening WTP’ s administrative structure. “The greatest enemy to any of these plans,” says Donnelly, “is being discouraged by the fact that it isn’ t easy.” Amen, Brother. www.WorkingTitlePlaywrights.com.

Another DG member taking the leap was Nedra Pezold Roberts who decided five years ago to trade her extensive teaching and academic writing career in favor of becoming a playwright. “I just couldn’ t juggle creative writing” [along with everything else] so I ‘ retired’ .”The first two years were pretty tough, but “I seem to be finding lots of traction over the past threeyears.” Now Roberts’  name just keeps popping up everywhere, from a recent reading of Wash, Dry, Fold at Essential Theatre, which is now scheduled for production at Chicago Street Theatre in May-June 2016 after winning the AACT 2015 NewPlayFest, to earlier news that Vanishing Point won the AACT 2013 NewPlayFest and the 2013 Southeast Playwrights Competition, to an article “Thoughts on the Playwright’ s Experience” in both The Purple Pros on-line magazine and The Atlanta Writers Club eQuill. There are many more productions, readings, and awards, including Roberts’  note that “the craziest thing was in June 2015 when I had not one but two plays running simultaneously in New York City.” Maybe she knows crazy by way of being a native “New Orleanian”–“I passed my childhood and early adult life falling in love with my city”– who calls it “the touchstone for my soul.” At least one of her plays takes characters “straight out of the New Orleans I know,” though she says that all of her plays begin with “voices in my head, snatches of conversation…that won’ t leave me alone…” Roberts has taken to heart a quote from Lillian Hellman (my paraphrase) that when stage lights come up they come up on trouble, and also one from Athol Fugard that “The playwright’ s job is to figure out what to tell and when to tell it.” In response to the latter, she adds “I think my obligation to an audience is to engage their minds as well as their emotions.” Perhaps the “mind” part comes from learning “early in my teaching career that I needed to pay attention to what my students were hearing when I explained something…to anticipate their confusion and short-circuit it with clarity.” As for the emotion part, take note of an audience who had fallen in love with her “Uncle Slack character” (a Vietnam P.O.W.) in Wash, Dry, Fold and “became very vocal in their objections to his dying at the end of the play (reading, Dayton Playhouse’ s 2014 Future Fest). Afterward, a stagehand who was also a Vietnam veteran came up to Roberts with tears in his eyes and said, “Don’ t listen to them. You did the right thing. You gave Slack the only way to get out of his cage. You set him free.” Making wings. www.nedrapezoldroberts.com 

Playwright Nedra Pezold Roberts, photo credit Cati Teague Photography

Skydiving Playwright – Jill Patrick - photo credit Perry Patrick

Jill Patrick headshot – photo credit Perry Patrick

pturner@dramatistsguild.com

@dramatistsguild @gabcody 

           For seven years, the Dark Nights Playwrights of Pittsburgh have met, as their name suggests, on Monday nights. The meeting provides a weekly opportunity for local playwrights to have actors read aloud their latest pages. Many of the writers are members of the Dramatists Guild, including novelist Sharon Dilworth, and award-winning playwrights Bill Cameron, Dennis Schebetta (former DG Regional Rep in Seattle), T. Scott Frank and Ginny Cunningham (who is having a star-studded season – Martin Sheen performed a reading of Ms. Cunningham’s play about the Kennedy assassination, Noah’s Ark, in Dallas last year).

           The rules for Dark Nights are pretty relaxed. Each week every writer is encouraged to bring in new pages. Toward the end of the week the group starts emailing: “Who has pages?” “Who is coming this week?” What sets Dark Nights apart from other writing groups is the instant gratification of having actors read their developing work. Ms. Dilworth compares the process to novel writing: “Different than a fiction group – you bring something the actors will be excited to read. And you begin to tailor the pieces to the actors.”

           Nancy Bach, who joined the group as an actor, says, “For me, it was partly that I wasn’t acting at that time, so there were these Monday nights of wonderfully supportive people who wanted me to work. It was never like I was being taken advantage of, it was a chance to be around supportive people and do the thing I want to do.” Now Ms. Bach is working on her own play. She credits the other playwrights in the group with aiding her transformation from actor to dramatist: “I have learned how to write (plays) from these guys, just listening to what they say to each other.”

           Veteran playwright Bill Cameron also finds the group helpful. When not in production, playwrights often bemoan their forced isolation. By opening up their process to the collective, they’ve built a supportive group of friends and colleagues. “Community has always been a big part of it,” he says, “it seems to be inseparable from the theatrical process. Wonderful, insightful, sensitive collaborators; I love to go because I love to see these people and to be part of the community.”

           Dark Nights presented their first reading for the public this past September. Ms. Dilworth believes the reading format allowed audiences to be more honest about their reaction to the work. Their first audience liked seeing the nuts and bolts of theater making and enjoyed the readings, but they also felt more free to offer opinions. She remembers, “They said, ‘We didn’t have to feel guilty for liking or not, because it wasn’t a full production.’”

           Ms. Bach says with a laugh that they are just as honest with each other: “Please don’t bring that play in, I don’t want to hear it again!” But Dark Nights is as much about friendship as it is about writing. Ms. Bach looks forward to a long collaboration: “I’ve become very close to these people, I can’t imagine not seeing them.”

gcody@dramatistsguild.com

@dramatistsguild @schlueter_j

         Julie Whitney Scott exudes leadership. A vibrant, persuasive woman, Scott is the dynamo behind the Columbus Black Theatre Festival “Everybody was going out of town, to Detroit, to Atlanta,” she says, “and I thought: why not here?” Scott, herself a writer and director, poured her considerable energies into building the Festival from the ground up. Now in its fourth year, the Columbus Black Theatre Festival (CBTF) returns to the Columbus Performing Arts Center in July 2016 to present the work of local and national playwrights engaged in dramatizing the black experience.

           Scott has kept a strong focus on community engagement at the core of CBTF by organizing it around a different social theme each year. For example, in the first year of the Festival, the focus was “family;” in the third it was “addiction and suicide prevention.” This year, in 2016, it will be “mental illness.” 

           CBTF has grown across its first three years from presenting four plays to seven. Throughout, Scott has provided performance venues, marketing, and staffing for all selected productions. Playwrights retain full creative control over their work.

           Critically, the Festival supports playwrights at all levels of experience. Seasoned playwrights, like Dramatists Guild member Nanette Marie Hodge, have been presented there. So too have writers new to the stage but with experience in other genres, like Charlay Marie. Ms. Marie, author of the novel Under the Peach Tree, says of her experience with CBTF, “[Scott] truly cares about the art and is for the people.”

           Scott built CBTF with family audiences in mind. Tickets are always free for children under thirteen; she also offers a family pass for full access to all Festival events. Keen to opening her work to the widest possible audience, Scott points out that many people “won’t come because they can’t afford to spend $10 per ticket for a family of four” and that theatre cannot and should not be “only for the rich.” Adamant that no one be left out of the live theatre experience, and focused on the fact that we “must introduce youth to the theatre,” Scott strives to make it possible for everyone to access CBTF work.

           In addition to presenting plays, CBTF underwrites workshops. In 2015, festival-goers could attend workshops on writing and on improvisation. These workshops extend the reach of the Festival into the local community, connecting with individuals interested in art-making, no matter what their experience or background.

           Submissions are currently being accepted for this year’s Festival, which unfolds July 8-10 2016. Visit the Columbus Black Theatre Festival website at www.colsblacktheatrefestival.com for more information

jschlueter@dramatistsguild.com

@dramatistsguild  @bystephenkaplan

           How many of your New Year’s Resolutions include writing more? It’s certainly top of my list.

           Motivation tends to be the most common obstacle I’ve found and, from experience, one of the best motivators is having someone else hold you accountable. That’s where writer’s groups come in.

           Writer’s groups come in all different shapes and sizes and no two are exactly alike –each has its own temperament and personality and is not a fit for everyone.

           This month I wanted to highlight two writer’s groups that DG members belong to and the great work that they’re doing.

           The Theater Project: Based in Union County and led by TPP Artistic Director Mark Spina, the Playwrights Script Development Workshop includes many DG members like Susan Barsky, Stephanie Griffin, Luigi Jannuzzi, Ed Lataro, Joe Vitale, and Mary Jane Walsh. Members meet privately once a month to read scenes from works-in-progress, giving the writers the opportunity to discuss their scripts with other playwrights, actors and directors. Each month, one play is chosen for a public script-in-hand presentation at the Cranford Community Center, which includes a discussion between the author and the audience.

           In November and April, TPP offers ten-minute play festivals made up of work from the group, along with one or two selections from their annual Young Playwrights Competition (TPP authors help judge and offer free tutorials to students). The group also runs THINK FAST, a competition for adult writers who are not part of the group, which is a way for new writers to introduce themselves to the group.  

           Member Mary Jane Walsh writes, “Right off the bat, when I joined TTP, my strange little solo play, My Sister’s Back Is Killing Me, was up and running in the Project’s first short play competition. That was two years ago, and the pace hasn’t slowed down since. There are always TTP production and public reading opportunities that motivate me and others in the Project’s playwriting group to keep on working. Nothing stagnates. Group members offer each other insight and expertise to help get around the snags and over the bumps that obstruct our work. The encouragement is sincere, the critiques are kind and the results can be seen on stage.”

           For more information on being part of TPP, visit them at www.thetheaterproject.org and e-mail Mark Spina at mark@thetheaterproject.org

           The Grange Playwrights: Based in Howell, The Grange Playwrights grew out of The Grange Playhouse, located in a 19th century schoolhouse. The Playhouse is now the home of a collective of producers, writers, directors, actors, musicians and designers, and produces a new show each month.

           Led by executive producer and artistic director Jade Greene, The Grange Playwrights meet quarterly to delve into the scripts that each member is working on and read by actors attending the meeting. Writers critique each play, and DG member Pam Munson Steadman, who’s been part of Grange since the Playhouse first produced her play, HomeFront: Between the Lines, says, “This is the very first group that I have worked with where animosity does not rear its ugly head.  It truly is the most supportive group that I have been involved with in my many years of writing and playwriting.”

           Among its many productions featuring work from the writer’s group are thematic one-act festivals and a yearly sampler show that highlights five pages of writer’s scripts and audiences offer feedback and help guide future theatre programming. The Playhouse’s audience has grown greatly over the past few years, attributing their attendance to the fact that they enjoy seeing original plays as opposed to the more familiar plays performed by other regional theaters close by.

           One additional special feature of the group is an e-publishing catalogue, offered as a tool for The Grange playwrights to put their plays available for others to read and produce.

           For more information on The Grange, visit them at http://www.thegrangeplaywrights.com or http://www.thegrangeplayhouse.com and e-mail Jade Greene at cafetheatrenj@gmail.com

           These are just two of the many groups that NJ hosts – if you’re a member of another  group, please e-mail me and I’d love to feature you and your group in a future Report.

Happy New Year and happy writing!

           [photo caption:  TPP Writers: Front Row (L-R): Mary Jane Walsh, Jewel Seehaus Fisher, and Susan Barsky, Back Row (L-R) Luigi Jannuzzi, Mike McGoldrick, Chuck Denk and Joseph Vitale]

           [photo caption:  The Grange Playwrights: Company of Work]

skaplan@dramatistsguild.com

@dramatistsguild @AoiseStratford

           The start of the fall has been a busy one for playwrights and Guild members in central New York. Here’s a quick round up of some of the happenings:

           Last night I drove up to Rochester for the third reading in the CNY/WNY Roving Reading Series: Spencer playwright George Sapio’s Fault Lines at Geva Theatre. The reading was nicely done, well-attended, and followed by an insightful talk-back with the many playwrights and Guild members in the audience. This reading followed Syracuse writer Donna Stuccio’s elegy in blue at Know Theatre in Binghamton, and Buffalo playwright Bella Poynton’s thought-provoking The Aurora Project at The Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca.

           This year, the roving reading hosted by Geva was part of their Festival of New Theatre–a fabulous weekend of readings of new work that featured plays by Guild members Andrea Lepcio and Joe Calarco.

           The latest installment of the Rep On The Road program saw me driving through the beautiful upstate New York Fall foliage to Schenectady, where I met with a small but enthusiastic group of playwrights from the Albany area in the delightfully quirky Moon and River Café. We exchanged information about local theatres, and got to know each other over tea, chatting about proposed upcoming programming for far-flung members. Plans are now shaping up for a workshop on getting your play out there, an Albany area writer’s group scene night series, and an event with literary managers and artistic directors from area theatres.

           A new Ithaca area theatre company, The Cherry Artspace, was launched earlier this fall with their first production, A Cherry Timedive, taking place on the banks of a canal in Ithaca where the new Cherry Artspace will be built. Timedive, a collectively written and wonderfully elliptical piece of site-specific theatre that brought together the voices of four very different writers (including Guild member Wendy Dann), established the company’s mission to do innovative work that is both local and far-reaching.

           Hot on the heels of the Cherry’s launch was Civic Theatre Ensemble’s community written project On The Corner, which built on their earlier production exploring race relations and asking the question, how did we get here? Both On the Corner and A Cherry Timedive are notable for achieving gender parity in their collaborative construction, and with the Kitchen Theatre Company’s 25th season featuring more plays by women than by men (not for the first time), Ithaca is proving to be a home for equitable and innovative theatre.

           Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany is getting ready for their four-day Next Act! New Play Summit. Next Act! In the words of Capital Rep, this event “highlights the process of new play development and affords an opportunity for playwrights, directors, actors and composers to share their ideas and passion for the craft of theatre with the audience.” Alongside Geva Theatre’s Festival of New Theatre, it is encouraging to see some of central New York’s bigger stages turning their attention to new work this fall. It’s a delightful season up here–for theatre, as well as for foliage.      

astratford@dramatistsguild.com

@dramatistsguild 

I had the pleasure of meeting, getting to know and interviewing Ted Swindley (Always…Patsy Cline, Honkey Tonk Angels), the guest of honor at the Texas Playwrights Festival at Stages Repertory Theatre last summer, and the founder of Stages as well as the original Texas Playwrights Festival. I learned from Ted how culturally and theatrically influential Stages has been in the Houston region since its first season in 1978. It was the first theatre to mount Houston, regional or world premieres of a variety of ground-breaking works, both plays and musicals. Here are just nine from its first five seasons: Bent (Martin Sherman, 1982), Buried Child (Sam Shepard, 1979), The Diviners (Jim Leonard, 1981), Getting Out (Marsha Norman, 1980), The Gin Game (D.L. Coburn, 1982), No Exit (Jean-Paul Sartre, adapted by Paul Bowles, 1981), Red Rover, Red Rover (Oliver Hailey, 1978), Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You (Christopher Durang, 1982), and both male and female versions of Whose Life Is It Anyway? (Brian Clark, 1981). I had to debate with myself over which of the premieres to include given that, during these years, Stages mounted 51 full-length productions, not including its touring productions or the shorts it produced during the first playwrights fest in 1982.

           Will Duell: How did you do it? Some seasons you were producing sixteen to nineteen full-lengths!

           Ted Swindley: We were crazy! (laughs) Well, we were crazy, young, ambitious and in love with good theatre. When I started Stages, I looked at the landscape: There was the Alley and not much else. I was shocked that a city this size didn’t have anything like Off Broadway or cutting edge theatre or a theatre promoting new works. I decided we should and I will. I wanted Stages to stimulate thought regarding racism, ethnicity, sexual evolution, international politics, and I wanted not just the Texas Playwrights Festival but some of our regular season to focus on Texas writers, so that we lived up to the name of a regional theatre.

           But we were crazy! When we started out, in an old brewery near downtown, we would sometimes perform nearly to midnight, have excited people in the audience stay till 1:30 AM or later, then get up the next morning and do it all over again. A receptionist used to answer the phone for us, “Hello, this is Stages, your 24-hour theatre!” And we really were!

           We knew what we were doing, but we wanted to do it all. I wanted to direct Paul Bowles’ version of No Exit. This was during an economic downturn. I told our managing director I wanted to close the season with it. He said, “Ted, you’re going to close the theatre with it.” But I did direct it, it was a hit and we ended up extending it.

           Still it was the support from the theatre and playwriting community that gave me the confidence to try anything. Marsha Norman was a mentor and an inspiration who, by the way, dedicated Stages when we took over the new two-theatre facility in Houston’s historic, renovated Star Engraving Building on Allen Parkway. After seeing a performance of Getting Out that I directed, when I was lacking confidence about keeping the theatre afloat, she told me, “Ted, if you know the what, the how will take care of itself. And you know what theatre is.” This helped me a lot; it’s stayed with me ever since. These are words to live by. I’m very pleased with all we did, very content with everything that happened and that I’ve spent my life in the theatre.

           WD: Any words of wisdom you’d like to offer playwrights to live by?

           TS: Three words: Tell great stories.    

wduell@dramatistsguild.com