Playwrights in Mind Kicks off

Playwrights hard at work in the "Haiku" workshop this morning

It's about 10:30 am and I'm about to head over to the Mason Inn Conference Center for Day 2 of the first ever national Dramatists Guild conference.

Last night kicked off with some workshops and panels in the afternoon--I went to one about getting a Fulbright--and then a "Conversation with Christopher Durang", followed by the first keynote speaker, Molly Smith, Artistic Director of The Arena Stage.

To say that she was inspiring and eloquent in her praise for writers is an understatement.  She seems to be the ideal artistic director--committed to theater as a social practice, as something the community needs and something that needs the community in return.  Her ideas are somewhat revolutionary and require a shift in thinking across the country. She also made a call to us playwrights to be revolutionary in our thinking as well.  We should not shy away from blossoming our own ideas and alternatives to deal with the economic issues of developing and producing new works.  We should make our own partnerships and connections.  In short, we should hustle.

Today is Todd London's keynote, author of Outrageous Fortune.  Then more panels, workshops and later a conversation with Edward Albee and Emily Mann.

The only problem I see with this conference right now is that there's too much going on--not enough time to hang out with all these fabulous playwrights!

Can't Make it to DC for the DG Conference? Watch it on your TV!

So this is cool...if you're a playwright in the middle of Arkansas or Kansas or wherever and you don't have access to Edward Albee or Marsha Norman but want to watch them on TV talk about their craft...then check out the Arena Stage's New Play TV!

http://www.livestream.com/newplay

For schedule of what might be broadcast from the conference, check out the New Play blog.

If you watch, maybe you'll see the back of my head!

(Ooooh, I know, I know, so exciting...)

Can You Make a Living as a Playwright?

There’s an old joke about playwrights.  They say “you can make a killing, but you can’t make a living”.  And it’s true.

What they mean is, if you have the good fortune of the theatre gods smiling on you (a big IF), then perhaps you will get a BROADWAY production which may garner good reviews and a Tony award.  This play will then be published and consequently produced in every regional theater for the next two years and then possibly be performed in some summer stock and/or community theaters for a few years after that.

It is the playwright equivalent of winning the LOTTO.

And you have about the same odds.

 

There has been much blog buzz about the recent statements made by Tony Kushner in a Time Out interview.  

Mr. Kushner is perhaps the greatest American playwright living and working today (Angels in America, pt I & II) with major productions going on, on Broadway, and off, with tons of commissions and has garnered many awards. 

Here’s the comment that brought about the buzz:

“I make my living now as a screenwriter! Which I’m surprised and horrified to find myself saying, but I don’t think I can support myself as a playwright at this point.”

This comment was picked up and commented on by Seattle playwright Paul Mullin 

And then also responded to by the Arena Stage New Play Blog

First of all, we have to ask, is this even an accurate statement for Mr. Kushner?  What does he mean by make a living?  Yes, he’ll make more money writing for HBO, but Mr. Kushner has done quite well for himself solely as a playwright with Broadway productions, publications, grants and commissions. 

Second of all, why should we expect that playwrights could make a living?  There are far too many actors out there who don’t “make a living”.  The average take home pay of a professional Equity actor is probably not more than $20,000 - $30,000 a year (from theater, not from TV and film, mind you).  And I would gather that’s a high albeit rough estimate. 

Is that making a living? And let's be honest, there are many professional actors who aren't making anywhere close to $20,000/year.

I think all of us would agree that all artists should be paid for their work and should be paid well enough to not have to have a full-time or part-time job doing other things besides their art.  Unfortunately, we live in the U.SA. which is not a nation that believes in or supports the arts.  I would love to change that, but don’t see that happening any time soon.

Many people in this country are surprised that you even have to pay for royalties for a play.  What? You pay the playwright to do the show?  And you pay your actors?  People don’t just do art for free? For the “love of it”?

Having a playwright on salary and giving them health benefits is a radical idea.  Thank God for Arena doing something just like that.  They have five mid-level playwrights on salary for three years each.  They will produce at least one of their plays that they write during that period.  That’s pretty awesome.

But again, that’s like a mini-lottery.  Who decides those five playwrights?  There are thousands of writers to choose from.  The amount of playwrights in the Dramatists Guild is somewhere around 6,000.  Now, we have to admit, not every playwright deserves to be on salary, just like not every business major graduating from college deserves to be a manager or CEO or a corporation. No, let’s say only about %10 might be really good and/or mid-level.  That’s still 600 playwrights.  If you had to choose six people out of that, you’d have a 1% chance of getting a salary position.

These are the odds. 

I’m not saying we shouldn’t make money.  I’m not saying we shouldn’t get paid for our work.  I’m saying maybe we should reevalaute our expectations given current circumstances.  Would I like to live in a country that pays playwrights and other artists decent wages?  Yes.  Will I make efforts to change that in our country.  Of course.  Will it happen over night?  No. 

There's been a lot of discussion in the theater world about this very topic--especially given the recent publication of Todd London's book Outrageous Fortune.  Molly Smith, of Arena Stage, will be at the Dramatist Guild national conference, as will Mr. London, so I'm sure it will be a topic if debate this coming week.  

A few years ago, I was interviewing an established award-winning playwright, who was also writing and directing movies, and said something about making a living as a playwright.  He responded, "That's like saying you're going to make a living as a poet.  No one makes a living."  

So it's not just Tony Kushner saying these types of comments.

I don't believe we should think of writing plays in the same terms as playing the LOTTO.  I do feel there should be more avenues to make money doing theater, in general.  But for now...well...If you’re writing plays because you think you can make a living, I’d have to say to you….um, don’t give up your day job.

 

Playwrights in Mind: A National Conference June 9-12

Looks like June will be almost as busy a month as May and to kick things off, I’m traveling to Washington D.C. to the first ever national conference of The Dramatists Guild of America.

I’m fortunate enough to live close enough to D.C. so that this trip is not too expensive for me.  I’m sure we won’t see to many playwrights from west of the Mississippi coming to town.  The idea of this conference, though, is that it will travel from coast to coast, city to city, thoughout the years, so that all members of the Guild will at some point make it to a conference.

I’ve been to my fair share of conferences, both academic and professional, and this is exciting just for the fact that it’s the first one ever for this almost 90 year old organization.

Guests planning to appear and/or give workshops include Edward Albee, Marsha Norman, Christopher Durang, David Ives, Julia Jordan, Doug Wright, and Jeffrey Sweet.  Plus, I’ll get the chance to see an old faculty member from my UNLV days, Julie Jensen, in addition to other Dramatist Guild Regional Reps.

While some skeptics may be wary of this gathering, as playwrights are known to grumble about not enough productions, I think it will be a positive and empowering experience.  As I’ve said before when I was a regional rep in Seattle, never underestimate the power of a group of playwrights in a room.

After the DG conference, then we move into The Underground Readings at the Grey Box in Lawrenceville.  My play THE ALBATROSS will be having a reading on June 20^th, directed by Lisa Jackson-Schebetta and featuring Jeffrey Carpenter and Mark Southers.  More on that later. 

And at some point, I’ll be working on a new full-length play.  Not the robot play.  A new idea of a story set in the Pacific Northwest about two feuding sisters.

The Dramatists Guild is coming to town

Exciting events are planned for this weekend!  

The talented and prolific playwright, Tammy Ryan is the regional representative of the Dramatists Guild of America and she has compiled a weekend packed full of events for dramatists, librettists, directors and other theater folk interested in the state of affairs concerning developing new works. 

Needless to say, I’ll be attending many of these functions, but here is a list of the events below:

Friday, October 22

Dramatists Gild Town Hall Meeting with Executive Director, Gary Garrison, 6-7:30 pm at Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Arts Education Center, Pierce Studio (805/807 Liberty Ave)

Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company presents: The Theater Festival in Black and White, 542 Penn Avenue ($10.00 tix to DG members!)

Saturday, October 23

11:00 am to 1:00 pm, The REP at Point Park University presents a Panel Discussion on the Status of Women in Theater, with Gary Garrison, moderator.  Panel will be at the Rep, 222 Craft Avenue in the Rauh theater

2:00 pm The REP presents a performance of La Ronde, directed by Robin Walsh at the Pittsburgh Playhouse (1/2 price tix for DG members).

6:00 pm to 7:30 pm, Bricolage Theater (937 Liberty Avenue) hosts a discussion on Writing for Radio with Tami Dixon, Co-Artistic Director, actor, writer and genius behind Midnight Radio

9:00 pm, Bricolage Theater presents Midnight Radio featuring H.G. Wells War of the Worlds ($15 tix for DG Members).

Sunday, October 24

10:30 am, Pittsburgh Public Theater hosts a wrap up discussion with Gary Garrison and Rob Zellers, Education Director at 621 Penn Avenue

2:00 pm, Pittsburgh Public Presents The Royal Family directed by Ted Pappas (1/2 price tix for DG members, call box office for tickets).

To RSVP for any of the Dramatist Guild events, please email Tammy Ryan at tammyryanplays@gmail.com.  

For tickets to the shows, please contact the theaters directly.

As you can see, with all these discounts, it pays to be a member of the Dramatists Guild. 

(It pays in other ways, as well, but that's for another post.)

Summer is here!

Last night Lisa and I went to see the Quickies Festival at LiveGirls! Theatre, a great evening of short new works, all by women playwrights. I wrote about it for The Dramatist, which will run next month (See below for the full column). I'm always encouraged and inspiried when I see an evening of brand spanking new plays. Even if the plays aren't brilliant or particularly spectacular, its always good to see playwrights at work. And these plays were of a consistent quality--some more than others--and it also helps that the acting and the directing were top-notch. I'll be looking forward to seeing more shows there this season.


Below is what will run in The Dramatist magazine next month:

I’ve lived here just long enough to know that when the sun pokes its shiny head out of the clouds even for a nanosecond, Seattleites don shorts and sandals and head to Green Lake or Gasworks Park for some fun in the sun. So when summer days get longer and warmer and the sunlight gets so soft it’s reminiscent of the Mediterranean, everyone rushes outside to enjoy it.

Well, not everyone.

We have no shortage of theatre-loving fools who willingly stay indoors to do theatre.

What we do have a shortage of in the summer is play festivals. Unlike New York City, which seems to have a new summer play festival pop up every year, in Seattle they’re few and far between. With much dismay, the Seattle Fringe Festival closed up shop a few years ago and has yet to be revived, despite a lot of talk and desire to see it running again. But some wounds may need to heal first (and from what I hear, some people still need to get paid). Theatre Schmeater valiantly tried to mount Open Stage as a slimmed-down version of the festival, hoping to attract those companies already going to the Vancouver Fringe Festival, but unfortunately they received only half the applications they needed to make it happen.

There are those who feel it’s best to just let the Fringe Festival rest in peace, claiming that it was rife with shoddy productions. But even though the quality of the festival may have been inconsistent, we lost a critical venue for dramatists. It was a wonderful sandbox to play in, to develop new works, experiment with new forms, take some risks, and most importantly, an opportunity to interact with the theatrical community. I was excited to hear about the festival when moving here, only to become disappointed when I looked up the website to find it nonexistent. I’ll gladly buy a round of drinks for the theatre company that revives it. I know it’s not much of an incentive, but I hope somebody takes me up on it.

Just because the Fringe Festival isn’t around anymore doesn’t mean theatres are completely empty. There’s one festival that’s still going strong after eight years, the Quickies festival at LiveGirls! Dedicated to producing and developing new work by women since 1999, LiveGirls! premieres plays by national and local playwrights and continues to create workshops and readings to support script development. Meghan Arnette, Artistic Director of LiveGirls! calls the “short and sassy” festival an excellent and exciting showcase for short plays from dramatists not just in the Pacific Northwest but all over the country. It’s a yearly trademark for the Ballard-based theatre company and kicks off their season.

Aside from festivals, there are a few world premieres from the big houses this summer. It’s a busy year for Craig Lucas. Not only did he adapt Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya for Intiman, but that theater will also premiere his new play Prayer for My Enemy, directed by Bartlett Sher (their third-time collaboration). No doubt the next stop will be Broadway. And you can get your dose of prime poetry in action with the premiere of First Class at ACT—A Contemporary Theatre. This one person show about the legendary poet (and UW professor) Theodore Roethke is written by renowned local poet David Wagoner and stars Seattle actor John Aylward.

When you run out of Saturday BBQs, venture down to the Jewel Box theatre nestled in the Rendezvous Bar in Belltown for the Seattle Dramatists Open Box. The first six playwrights that sign up get ten minutes of material read by professional actors. The time limit doesn’t deter commitment to longer works; Kelleen Conway Blanchard wrote Small Town by bringing in each scene, ten minutes at a time. The real bonus is you can grab a microbrew from the bar and soak in some drama instead of sunshine.

Speaking of brews, I hope next summer I’ll be giving a toast to the saviors of the Seattle Fringe Festival.

Cheers!