@dramatistsguild @suzemallen

What an exhilarating time I had in New York City this February. I got to attend inspirational Regional Rep meetings, the annual meeting with the prestigious DG Council, and the Dramatists Guild Awards. The awards were particularly exciting as Jeffrey Sweet presented our own San Francisco playwright Lauren Gunderson with the Lanford Wilson Award, which is given to “a dramatist based primarily on their work as an early career playwright.” This is the first time the Lanford Wilson Award was given to a playwright outside of the tri-state region.

I got the chance to talk with Lauren after we both got home from NYC. While she is no stranger to awards (2014 Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for her play, I and You, also a Susan Smith Blackburn finalist, a Jane Chambers Award finalist, and winner of the Berrilla Kerr Award for American Theatre, Global Age Project, Young Playwright’s Award, Eric Bentley New Play Award and Essential Theatre Prize to name a few), the Lanford Wilson Award has special meaning for her.

“The main overwhelming honor of it is that it comes from the Dramatists Guild, which, since I was fourteen, has been a part of my life and a marker for real playwrights and real playwriting community. To know that it came from fellow writers and such preeminent ones means more to me than anything. I certainly think that what is so moving about this award is what Stephen Schwartz said [in his acceptance speech], the fact he even mentioned me in his speech is amazing and kind of freaked me out, but he said, and I agree, that it is high time for people to recognize that community building theatre, revolutionary theatre ideas and the new plays that define our nation and our time don’t have to come from New York solely. That my getting this award as a San Franciscan continues the enlightenment that there is a lot going on all over the country and that theatre, especially theatre, should represent our whole crazy, myriad of ideas country.”

Ms. Gunderson has been in San Francisco for seven years. She came here to work with Marin Theatre Company and discovered the diverse theatre community in the Bay Area and met the man who would become her husband.

“I was deeply impressed with and still am so proud of the theatre community here, it is so rich and so diverse and so constant. There is so much going on here especially when it comes to new plays. It’s kind of my secret, the Bay Area, which I am happy to share with everyone. There are major players in Broadway transfers and renowned regional folks. Amazing—kind of everything you want in a theatre town.”

In 2015, American Theatre magazine named Lauren Gunderson one of the most produced playwrights in America and in the Bay Area alone her work has been presented at

Playwrights Foundation, SF Playhouse, Crowded Fire, TheatreWorks, Aurora Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, and The Magic Theatre. Ms. Gunderson gives back to the community by mentoring high school playwrights as they transition into college and by working any fundraising events she can for the theatres that produce her work. She has been a playwriting instructor at Playwrights Foundation and Playground.

In March, Ms. Gunderson spoke with local DG members about working beyond your own backyard and bridging the gap between local and national playwriting communities. More on that next time.

Lauren Gunderson, receiving her Lanford Wilson Award from DG Council member Jeffrey Sweet. Photo by Walter Kurtz

sallen@dramatistsguild.com

@dramatistsguild

Most Houston dramatists know that in 2014-15, the Alley spent $46 million renovating its building, focusing much of this effort on the Hubbard Theatre, the backstage areas and the public spaces. The results are breathtaking, and beautiful. The redesigned Meredith and Cornelia Long Lobby is brighter, feels much loftier and gives me the sense when I walk through it of wanting to hold my head high, as if in a vaulted church. The Hubbard Theatre stage is much larger than before. It commands your attention and, because of this, the theatre actually has a more intimate feel.

The Alley set up an Extended Engagement Capital Campaign and through it received the requisite private and public contributions to fund the renovations. What Houston dramatists may not know is that Artistic Director Gregory Boyd decided to include as part of the campaign an Artistic Enhancement Fund to develop new work year-round, and to kick off this Alley All New initiative as soon as the building re-opened. The Alley has reopened and, as I write this, the inaugural Alley All New Festival, a presentation of workshops and readings of new plays and musicals in process, has just completed.

I talked to Elizabeth Frankel, Director of New Work, and Skyler Gray, Literary Manager, about the fest just a few days after it completed. Liz came to the Alley from the Public Theater where she worked as literary manager, leading the literary department and the Emerging Writers Group. One of her first tasks as director was to hire Skyler, who had worked most recently at William Morris Endeavor in New York. Both are thrilled to be able to create a comprehensive new works program, of which the festival is a part, at one of the oldest, most respected theatres in the country.

“The Alley All New Festival is an exciting intersection of artists, industry professionals and local audience members coming together to celebrate the development of new work,” Skyler told me. “This year’s Festival was a fantastic kick-off to our new play initiative and is the first of many exciting things to come.”

They explained that three plays received one or more readings: Cleo by Lawrence Wright; The Harassment of Iris Malloy by Zak Berkman; and Songs from Ms. Mannerly (score by Michael Moricz, lyrics by Jack Murphy). Three plays received three or more workshops: Miller, Mississippi by Boo Killebrew; Roz and Ray by Karen Hartman; and Syncing Ink by NSangou Njikam. You can imagine how excited the playwrights were. Zak Berkman wrote about festivals in general and the Alley All New in particular, “you feel at the center of a creative exchange that is empowering and rejuvenating…I have never been to Google or visited the campus of a Silicon start-up, but I fantasize this is what it’s like for those employees every day: one idea ricochets off another idea until there is a whole new molecular entity that could have only been discovered in such an interactive setting.”

“We’re focusing on great writers, nationally and internationally, not just well known names. This includes Texas writers, too, of course,” Liz added, “Lawrence Wright from Austin was one of the six in this inaugural fest. And we’ve opened the submission process to Texas writers who don’t have an agent.”

They are not stopping there—Alley All New is a year-round initiative. The Alley will now commission more writers and engage in new play development activities on an ongoing basis. Upcoming seasons will have more world premiere productions, in addition to the Alley All New Festival.

The Alley will continue to produce reinvigorated classics and regional premieres, as well. Fans of new work will be happy to learn that as of this publication date they can buy tickets to The Christians by Lucas Hnath and The Nether by Jennifer Haley. Also, check out Remote Houston, an interactive theatre experience and the result of the Alley’s collaboration with the University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts and Rimini Protokoll, a group of German and Swiss artists sometimes credited with being the inventor of the newest wave of documentary theatre. If you want to attend Remote Houston, wear your walking shoes – it starts out at Evergreen Cemetery.

Actor Kevin Mambo as Banga and Kara Young as Sweet Tea in the workshop performance of NSangou Njikam’s Syncing Ink at the Alley All New Festival; photo credit – Peter Yenne

wduell@dramatistsguild.com

@dramatistsguild  @robflorence_rob

While the Dramatists Guild was hard at work on The Count, Lafayette, Louisiana’s Acadiana Repertory Theatre was planning an all-female playwright season, including DG members Bridgette Dutta Portman and Kat Ramsburg. Clearly Acadiana Rep was working on the same page as the Guild, though at the time they were unaware of The Count. The following interview is with their Founder and Managing Artistic Director, Steven R. Landry.

Rob Florence:  How would characterize your theatre company?

Steven R. Landry:  Acadiana Repertory Theatre was founded in 2010 and was born out of a desire to be a place where artists from various backgrounds could come together and work as a resident group of artists—a family if you will—and produce theatre that was new to the Acadiana region. Acadiana Rep’s original mission did not include purely new works, but plays that had never been produced in the area. At the end of our 2013 season, after circumstances led to us producing a developmental production, a world premiere, and two regional premieres, I, along with my Associate Director, felt compelled to change our mission to focus solely on the development and
production of new works. We now function as an incubator for plays, with our four-show season consisting of plays with limited to no production history. We are truly passionate about the idea of new works and new voices in American theatre, and we feel honored to work with playwrights from across the country to assist in the development of their work.

RF:  What is your approach to developing new work?

SRL:  We try to create a place where playwrights feel comfortable and safe to have their work developed by people who have the utmost respect and passion for the words and the playwright
who wrote them. We involve the playwrights every step of the way. We have had playwrights
come to Lafayette for just one night to see their show. We have had playwrights with us for up to
two weeks, making changes, cutting, adding, and refining right up until final dress. We feel that our place at the current moment is to be a place for these works to be in a lab of sorts. Our directors
are all very good about working hand in hand with each playwright to make them feel comfortable with what is happening with their play. We believe in the idea of service-oriented theatre—service to the playwright and the script, service to fellow artists, and service to our audience. We want nothing more than to see these shows go on to have successful world premieres and long lives in the theatre after their time with Acadiana Rep. 


RF:  What inspired you to produce an all-female playwright season?

SRL:  In 2015, we produced a show about Aphra Behn, the first professional female playwright in England in the 16th century, and the struggles of female artists were in the forefront of our minds. In keeping up to date with trends in American theatre, and hearing so many of our playwrights discussing the lack of parity, we felt as though to truly be a safe place for playwrights to get their voices out there, we also needed to bring attention to the fact that some voices are not being heard. So, here we are! In addition to our four-show season of shows by female playwrights, we are also a supporting producer for The ONSTAGE Project, a nationally recognized festival and competition of short plays by women. It’s been a wonderful year for us already and we have been overwhelmed by the support we have received from playwrights—both male and female—and by our community because of this decision. This is just another way
to fulfill our mission, and we’re grateful for the support we’ve gotten here in Acadiana and beyond.

Acadiana Rep accepts submissions from May 1 to July 1. For complete information, visit: www.acadianarep.org

rflorence@dramatistsguild.com

@dramatistsguild @teresacwash

In 2012, Dramatists Guild member Elaine Liner sat down to pen Sweater Curse: A Yarn About Love, a really smart play about love, loss and hope that infused some of her personal experiences. One year later, at the age of 59 years (she gave me permission to disclose that), Elaine made her debut as a solo performer and playwright at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, the largest arts festival in the world. Every year thousands of performers take to hundreds of stages all over Edinburgh to present shows for every taste. From big names in the world of entertainment to unknown artists looking to build their careers, the festival caters for everyone and includes theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre, circus, cabaret, children’s shows, musicals, opera, music, spoken word, exhibitions and events. In 2014, Sweater Curse was among the line-up of theatre performances receiving a professional production in Scotland at the Fringe. Liner spent a year raising funds for the trip, holding workshops in churches, rehearsing in small theatres and practicing in her friend’s living rooms to ensure the play was ready for its international debut. The show only requires a small, mobile set (music to any Executive Producer’s ears) and appeals, mostly, to an older audience so according to Liner, Sweater Curse is still receiving its fair share of productions. I had the good fortune of seeing it in January of this year at the Aaron Family Jewish Community Center in North Dallas. To my surprise, a large part of the audience was engaged in needlework throughout the performance but that was by design. “I always invite the audience to bring their stuff. What other theatre piece can you knit during?”

But aside from being a profound playwright, Elaine is a marketing mastermind—she brings new meaning to old adage, find your tribe. Months before she landed in Scotland, Elaine connected with knitting clubs, individual crafters and yarn stores in and around Edinburgh via social media to invite them to see her play at the Fringe and to remind them to BYOY (bring your own yarn). She found her audience, and they came in droves, full houses…in London! Elaine clearly has a niche for writing plays about seniors but she firmly believes you have to tell your niche market that you exist. “You must know who is your audience and where are they.”

What’s encouraging about Elaine’s story is it affirms that playwriting doesn’t have a shelf life. There’s no reason why any of us should sit idly by our computers waiting for an acceptance letter. There are simply so many unorthodox opportunities available to us. Elaine’s goal is to write plays for veteran actors who are being sidelined because the unfortunate reality is there is a dearth of substantive work for seniors. Her recent piece is titled Cappy & Monty (short for Capulet and Montague), the story of two older people who fall in love at first sight, jump right into bed, have great sex and their adult children try to keep them apart—sort of a Romeo and Juliet in reverse. These stories are reflective of what Liner says she hears from seniors who reside in assisted living facilities. One thing is for sure, Elaine Liner knows how to command attention and pack a room. She has graciously offered to share her marketing secrets on how to be unique as playwrights in the landscape of the never ending submission process. Be sure to connect with us on our DFW Dramatists Guild Facebook group page and look out for possible workshop dates.

Elaine Liner in Sweater Curse: A Yarn About Love, New Orleans production 2014

twash@dramatistsguild.com

@dramatistsguild @cheryl_coons 

Why is Chicago leading the country in productions of work by writers of color?

According to Jamil Khoury, the Founding Artistic Director of Silk Road Rising, “The reality of our lives here in Chicago is that we’re constantly interacting with people who are different from us. From the minute you leave your house you’re engaging in cultural interchanges, consciously or not. I think it’s important for our theatre to reflect the reality of our day-to-day lives, which is a polycultural one. The idea that cultures are regularly intersecting, are in constant conversation with each other, can be challenging, even threatening for some. The good news is that we’re always learning, growing and changing as a result.”

Silk Road Rising is a company that creates live theatre and online videos that tell stories through primarily Asian American and Middle Eastern American lenses. Besides being the company’s Artistic Director, Khoury is a playwright, essayist, film writer, and a member of the Dramatists Guild. His play Mosque Alert premieres at Silk Road Rising this spring. “We’ve been making the case that representation begins at home. There’s something important about playwrights of non-white backgrounds telling their own stories, and owning their representation.”

Sam Roberson, Artistic Director of Congo Square Theatre, inaugurated a conversation series called Owning Our Worth. “These conversations started because African American theatres are closing around the country,” says Roberson. “I was curious about how we can work together as theatres of color to create a new narrative around what we do and why we do it. It’s important to have institutions of color to continue to grow the American canon by playwrights of color.” One panel included three women: Sarah Bellamy, Co-Artistic Director of Penumbra in Minneapolis, Sade Lythcott, CEO of National Black Theatre in New York, and Chicago playwright and Dramatists Guild member Lydia Diamond. “These women spoke so eloquently about the need for theatres of color to give an authentic voice to playwrights of color. When I looked out over the audience, I could see all these young women looking up in admiration. I realized that I had been playing a part in the patriarchal essence of what theatre can be. We decided to dedicate this season to women of color in the theatre.”

Congo Square began its season with Dramatists Guild member Pearl Cleage’s What I Learned in Paris, and continues with a young playwright’s first production: Lekethia Dalcoe’s A Small Oak Tree Runs Red. “Lekethia came to us through our August Wilson New Plays Initiative, where we ask playwrights of color to submit their work for development and possible production. Lorraine Hansberry wasn’t Lorraine Hansberry until she was. There are people who took chances on her, helped her become who she became. I think that Congo Square is that sort of place.”

Isaac Gomez, Literary Manager of Victory Gardens Theater and a playwright, sees community engagement as an opportunity for Chicago theatres. “We have artistic leaders here who are committed that the kind of works they are producing reflect the diverse communities in Chicago. In this country the majority/minority gap is exponentially decreasing. Now is the time to capitalize on that, not just as a moral model, but as a business model.”

Gomez credits Victory Gardens’ commitment to community engagement with expanding its audience. An example of this took place during the theatre’s recent production of John Logan’s Never the Sinner. “The play is about two young white men in Chicago who commit a terrible crime,” says Gomez. “We had an Encuentro, a gathering for the Latino community, where we invited ensemble member Tanya Saracho to discuss her work on the series How to Get Away with Murder. The parallels between the issues she raised in that conversation and Never the Sinner were quite remarkable. We had huge Latino audiences who came to see the show because they wanted to participate in the conversation.”

ccoons@dramatistsguild.com

@dramatistsguild @mkconroy 

The Boston theatre scene is thriving with great theatre. I open with this because I was recently asked how many times a year do I go to New York to see shows. I didn’t have to think more than a second. I don’t. No offense, Broadway, but I don’t need to leave my own backyard for quality productions. As a matter of fact, Boston was the home to critically acclaimed world premieres this year. The musical Waitress had its world premiere at the American Repertory Theatre to sold out audiences. This spring the Shubert Theatre will offer the world premiere of Crossing, an American Opera. And if you head outside of the city, you are bound to find great theatre in every part of the Commonwealth.

Now that we know we can see great theatre, the million-dollar question remains: How does a local playwright get a theatre company to produce their play? I get more emails asking that question than I do spam mail. I have my own theories but I felt it would be best to hear from someone who works full time in the theatre community, who is a playwright and also a proud member of the Dramatists Guild. Walt McGough is the Administrative and Artistic Associate for Speakeasy Stage Company. His plays have been produced in Boston and throughout the country not to mention he was a Dramatists Guild Lanford Wilson Award finalist this year. I asked Walt about the beginning of his career path and what he did as a new playwright to get one of his plays produced. The first thing he did was read mission statements of local theatre companies.

Mission statements give you a real sense of what a theatre is looking for. Every theatre company has a mission statement on their website. He would also go out and show his face, meet other writers, but more importantly, meet producers and directors. If a theatre company offered a reading series, he would go. Chances are high that theatre company’s decision makers are going to be in attendance of a reading. Walt became a familiar face at one specific readings series and eventually had a conversation with the assistant artistic director who then (and this may be luck) asked Walt to send her some of his work. He did and thus began their relationship. It didn’t hurt that he wrote and rewrote his play to a level of professionalism that was noticed. He also stressed that the fringe theatre scene is a great place for new writers. They look to invest in the writer and involve them in the collaboration process. Make note new writers, this is good advice. Walt works for SpeakEasy Stage Company, which is a mid-size theatre company that looks for a fresh voice and a writer to collaborate with. I asked Walt what he looks for in a script (considering he’s the guy that reads the submissions). He said he looks to see if the writer is excited to send their script to SpeakEasy and has done their homework on what type of plays SpeakEasy produces. For example, they don’t do one person shows. Any writer that researches the theatre company they are submitting to will learn the type of plays they produce; theatre of the absurd, period pieces, diverse casting, one person shows, etc. During the reading process, two questions arise for Walt, one, “Is this play exciting to me as an artist?” and two, “Is this play exciting to SpeakEasy and their mission?” Part of the SpeakEasy mission is to produce plays that invite the audience in and challenges them all the while giving them something to hold on to at the end of the night. Walt poses an interesting question. “What is the conversation the audience is having on the way out the door?” I had to think about that. More often than not, as writers, we solely think of our characters and our story. When do we think about the audience? Do we? We write great plays that deserve a home. What happens after you write, ‘the end’? Perhaps engaging in relationships, research, and the resources of your theatre community will help you and your hard work find a production.

I leave this report with more information about a wonderful project that Walt advocates for and is passionate about, as well as the websites for theatre companies that take open submissions from New England playwrights.

The Boston Project

Last season, SpeakEasy put out a call for proposals for two plays set in contemporary Boston. We selected two plays—Ward Nine by Bill Doncaster and Born Naked by Nina Louise Morrison—and spent the season working with the two writers as they wrote and developed their drafts. The project culminated in a two-week workshop process with local directors and actors, and invited staged readings of both plays on February 20th. The project was made possible by exclusive support from the Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. We’re still finalizing the posting for next season, but we’ll be soliciting proposals for as-yet-unwritten full-length plays set in contemporary Boston (which, for our purposes, means plus or minus ten years).

SpeakEasy http://www.speakeasystage.com. Also check out: Company One https://companyone.org and Fresh Ink http://freshinktheatre.org.

mconroy@dramatistsguild.com

@dramatistsguild @duanekelly 

           Last year Seattle saw academia emerging – at least partially – from its ivory tower and becoming more engaged with our busy, multifaceted theatre scene. The two institutions with the largest theatre programs here are Cornish College of the Arts and the University of Washington. While both programs are centered on performance, they also address playwriting in various ways. Cornish has a history of deeper engagement, due largely to its tradition of hiring faculty who are local practicing artists. When the Guild’s Executive Director for Business Affairs, Ralph Sevush, visited Seattle last year, he met with students at Cornish to explain the Guild’s mission and the challenges facing playwrights today.

           Since Todd London moved to Seattle in 2014 from New Dramatists in New York to lead the School of Drama at the University of Washington, he has been building more connections between UW (as it’s known here) and our larger theatre scene. In November, Todd’s department convened a symposium that examined the founding visions of Seattle theatre companies. Misha Berson, longtime theatre critic for the Seattle Times, served as moderator.

           Cornish, under the leadership of Theatre Chair Richard E.T. White (himself a UW alum), has been increasing its involvement with new plays and local playwrights. The fall (October-December) season at Cornish consisted of six plays organized around the theme of adaptation. Three of the plays were by Guild members Octavio Solis (Quixote: Book One, adapted from Cervantes), Edward Mast (Jungalbook, adapted from Kipling) and Karen Hartman (Wild Kate: A Tale of Revenge at Sea, adapted from Moby Dick). Jungalbook and Wild Kate were new plays, and Solis was doing some rejiggering on Quixote, which premiered in 2009 at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, where he lives. All three writers met with Cornish students so as to expose them to real work of writing scripts and then getting them up on stage. Cornish’s mission is to train its students to be artists, citizens and innovators. Chair White sees this engagement with local writers and their play development processes as making an important contribution to that mission. White also recently instituted a gender parity policy whereby at least half of the plays Cornish students perform will be written by women.

           Another recent development in Seattle region was the appointment of Braden Abraham as Artistic Director at Seattle Repertory Theatre. He was given a four-year contract. Abraham has spent his entire career at the Rep, where he’s worked since 2003 in several artistic capacities. Most recently he served as acting artistic director, following the sudden death in 2014 of Artistic Manager Jerry Manning. Abraham’s appointment is good news for Seattle playwrights as he has been a champion of local writers and new plays. In 2012, he launched the Rep’s “Writers Group” residency program, modeling it after initiatives at Public Theatre, Huntington, Ars Nova and Playwrights Center. When he was named Artistic Director, Abraham reaffirmed his commitment to producing new work at Seattle Rep. He plans to further expand what the Rep is already doing in that area, including launching a program of new play readings and workshops, to be titled “The Other Season.”  

dkelly@dramatistsguild.com

@dramatistsguild @suzemallen

           Gender Parity has brought forth many theatres and organizations in the Bay Area like Yeah, I Said Feminist, Works by Women San Francisco, The Mothertongue Feminist Theatre Collective, 3Girls Theatre, all aiming to right the wrong for women playwrights and get them produced as much as their male counterparts. Those Women Productions is one such group in the East Bay.

           Founded in 2014, on International Women’s Day, by Carol S. Lashof and Elizabeth L. Vega, Those Women have a mission to “[explore] hidden truths of gender and power and to bring marginalized voices to the center of the stage, to ask bold questions and instigate conversation.” Those Women like to turn patriarchy on its ear by focusing on women’s voices and perspectives in the stories of Dead White Guys like Homer and Chaucer, Shakespeare and Sophocles.

           Their recent offering in September, In Plain Sight, an anthology of six original short plays with fresh takes on classic stories, ran for three weeks at The Metal Shop Theater in Berkeley’s Elmwood neighborhood. Founder and Playwright-in-Residence Carol Lashof and Producing Artistic Director Libby Vega invited directors Norman Johnson and Christine Keating to collaborate. The plays, send-ups of Cinderella, Medea, La Llorona, Briseis, Chryseis and the Wife of Bath included: Palace Watch by Kat Meads, Pankhadi and the Prince by Patricia Reynoso, Lee Brady’s Mississippi Medea, Mimu Tsujimura’s My Name Is Mother, and Carol Lashof’s When Briseis Met Chryseis, and After the Prologue.

           East Bay audiences love Those Women’s mission so much that were named “Best Year Old Theater Company of 2015” by The East Bay Express. Look for a full-length World Premiere coming in 2016. And be sure to visit their website http://www.thosewomenproductions.com.

sallen@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