"Bachelorette" Industry Night February 12th at 6:30 p.m.
by Jeremy Gable
posted: 2012-02-06 13:27:57
JUST ANNOUNCED: Industry Night for Leslye Headland's "Bachelorette" at Luna Theater is Sunday, Feb 12th at 6:30 p.m. at the Skybox in the Adrienne. Online and walk-up tickets for industry folk are only $13 (includes fees). For tickets, reviews and to view the trailer, go to www.Lunatheater.org Join the party!!!
Comments:
"Microcrisis" at InterAct
by Pat McGeever
posted: 2012-02-06 13:18:54
I highly recommend PDC members try to see "Microcrisis" at the Interact, now in its last week. Mike Lew's play brilliantly but entertainingly dissects how the great economic collapse of '08 came about, and Seth Rozin and Interact do a stellar job of staging it. At the talk-back yesterday, Seth commented that this play has brought more viewers to talk-backs than ever, and for longer periods (ours, with PDC's Tom Tirney, lasted an hour). That's because the play is highly topical and highly stimulating.
Comments:
Liam Castellan said on 2012-02-06:
I agree with Pat, though I'm biased. I had the privilege of being the assistant director on the production, and it's an extremely funny play. A great example of making an "issue play" entertaining, and a razor-sharp satire with a talented cast. Less than 90 minutes, too.
Submission Fees
by Pat McGeever
posted: 2012-01-18 06:27:15
The latest newsletter from the Dramatists Guild, edited by Roland Tec, features a diatribe against festivals, theaters, etc., that charge submission fees. The official position of DG is that it opposes them as an unwarranted and unfair burden on playwrights, many of whom are very low-income. The DG RESOURCE DIRECTORY, and the newsletters nevertheless list submission opportunities that charge such fees. Their policy is to leave it to the playwright whether or not to enter and pay the fee. But Tec would like to see more playwrights writing to theaters to say, "I'd love to enter your contest, but I decline because of your fee."
On the Opportunity Calendar of PDC, which I edit, the same policy prevails. You will find submission opportunities for which no fee is charged, and others for which one is. You decide. (Personally I have submitted to both kinds.)
Of those theaters, etc. that charge fees, some explain how the fee money is used, and some don't. If you are thinking of submitting but find no explanation for the fee, you might write to the person in charge and request an explanation, and that the explanation be included in the next announcement. If a lot of writers do that, it might put pressure on such theaters to at least explain themselves. I noted recently one festival that charged a $20 fee to enter a 10-minute play. Sounds unreasonable to me.
I recently wrote to the Telluride Festival in Colorado to protest what I find a particularly odious wrinkle in their submissions policy. I said it was bad enough that they have a submission fee at all, but much worse that they required the fee to be paid through Pay Pal. Pay Pal is one of those institutions that have been trying to put WikiLeaks, producer of the "Collateral Murder" video, out of business by refusing to forward contributions people make to it. I suggest that those who value freedom of expression not do business with Pay Pal. Yet the Tulluride Festival, with some enlightened folks on its board, continue to do this.
What do you think?
Comments:
Pat McGeever said on 2012-01-19:
Good comments all around, thanks. Here's a tip on mailing scripts less expensively that a helpful USPS worker gave me recently. If the contents of your envelope are all paper (maybe paper clips, etc.), ask the counter person to mail it "media mail." It's way less expensive, although slower. Often what counts is when it's postmarked rather than when it arrives, in which case you're OK with media mail.
donald drake said on 2012-01-18:
An important question that must be answered before deciding whether to accept submission fees or not is this. Would we have less reading or production opportunities if submission fees were eliminated. My concern is that many theaters, hanging by a thread, would eliminate the festivals or competitions and sharply reduce our opportunities. I've gotten many more productions and readings from theaters that charged fees than those who don't. And I have made slightly more money from winning competitions than I spent in submission fees, which I consider a business expense like postage and copying.
Ken Kaissar said on 2012-01-18:
I think it would be worth us all banding together if only to target the O'Neill. They charge a really steep fee ($35 I believe, geez!). I pay it because it's the O'Neill. It's an important conference, and I can't afford to not to give myself that opportunity. But I'm not gonna lie to you, it hurts every year I submit. You would think that one of the most prestigious opportunities for writers in the country would be more sympathetic to the plight of the artist. But no. They could learn a thing or two from PlayPenn.
Henrik Eger said on 2012-01-18:
Excellent, Pat, and a very fair presentation of the various aspects of this issue. I have heard several people at theatre conferences who told me that one of the reasons for charging playwrights a fee for the "privilege" was to keep kids and students from overloading a theatre's submission desk with non-serious work. Frankly, as a reader (dramaturg, artistic director, script committee member, etc.) I much rather plow through an extra set of scripts than miss out on a good one that could strengthen my theatre. Once more many thanks for a fine article and vielen Dank for all your good work.
PDC Board Report
by Kristen Scatton
posted: 2012-01-08 15:15:20
Greetings PDCers, and Happy New Year!
Welcome to the PDC Board Report, the first in a regular series of blog posts that will keep members updated on what projects and plans the Board is currently working on.
It remains a priority of the Board to find a permanent place for PDC to call home, a multipurpose space that can be used as an office as well a place to hold readings, rehearsals, meetings and other events. The Board has been researching several possibilities within Philadelphia and the surrounding area, including the Community Education Center (CEC) and Summit Presbyterian Church in Mount Airy. Once enough information has been gathered, a general membership meeting will be called and all options presented to members before a final decision is made.
The search for the new Executive Director continues, with three candidates being brought back for a second round of interviews on January 7. While Wally Zialcita left some big shoes to fill, we look forward to naming his successor in the coming weeks!
The next Philly's Primary Stages, "Heart Attacks!" will be held February 21 and 22, 2012, at the Shubin Theater. A great showcase for PDC members, whether they are writing, directing or acting, Primary Stages is still accepting submissions for "Heart Attacks!" Full submission guidelines are available in the PDC Weekly Announcements, but hurry! There's only one week left to submit your tale of love gone wrong.
The writers of the PDC @ Plays & Players Residency, Jeremy Gable, Brian Grace-Duff and Jeff Stanley, all report that the residency is going well. The residency, in its second year and under the direction of Daniel Student, focuses on artist development, and gives the residents a chance to learn, explore and meet with other artists and creative thinkers from around the city. Events will be held throughout the residency; keep a lookout in the PDC Weekly Newsletter and Plays & Players web site for announcements about upcoming events.
Finally, the Board is in the early stages of planning a fundraising event to be held this spring. As PDC looks to expand and find a home, fundraising will take on a greater significance for the organization. The Board looks forward to announcing details about this event in the near future.
That's about all for now. The next PDC Board meeting is scheduled for January 21, so check back for a new Board Report following the meeting!
Kristen Scatton
President, PDC Board
Questions? Comments? E-mail me at kmbs129@yahoo.com
Comments:
Philly's Primary Stages needs directors now!
by Todd Holtsberry
posted: 2011-11-07 06:09:16
PDCers,
Philly's Primary Stages, the premier staged reading series of 10 minute plays, needs you to DIRECT for our upcoming readings entitled "Family Matters!"
This is a script-in-hand series that is entering it's 8th year of blurring the lines between a night of plays being read script-in-hand, and a fully produced night of theater. We rehearse a few times to find the moments that make the plays work. We also use simple lights, sounds, sets (think theater cubes and chairs), props and costumes.
All this is done in the intimate setting of the Shubin Theatre, in South Philly!
Since the number one goal of the program is to help writers develop their plays, and in their craft, you will work in collaboration with a writer, actors and the audience.
Our upcoming readings will happen over two nights, Tuesday and Wednesday, 11/22 or 11/23, with two different sets of plays being performed...i.e. the play you direct, will be read on ONE of those nights. You would also be expected to come to a very short tech on Monday, 11/21.
This is a non-paid gig but you will be rewarded with a VERY satisfying experience in a VERY cool program that makes staged readings rock so hard we even make it a party with beer, wine, soda, bottled water, chips, dips, vienna sausages, and puddin' packs being served. We even throw in a pre-show set, and live outro music, from our house band, Hot Breakfast!
In short, this is a great series in which many directors have developed in their craft over the years. Shouldn't you be one of them?
If interested, please forward your resume and contact info to Todd Holtsberry, Producer, at toddzz@hotmail.com , or call him at 267-231-8394.
Philly's Primary Stages is Co-Sponsored by the PDC, Secret Room Theatre, and the Shubin Theatre.
Comments:
Vote for Wolf!
by Walter Vail
posted: 2011-10-08 21:13:20
With the rent for space at The Wolf Building down from $800 to $250 per month (Amazing! How?) I am urging those WC attendees who voted against locating there to change their vote to YES. We have had a great tenure at CEC, but the future of PDC must take priority. PDC must be allowed to grow for the sake of our younger members and future member playwrights in Philly. We need our organization to represent all of us in the Philly Theatre Community if we are to be recognized as serious writers.
Yes, each playwright is always on his/her own in terms of acquiring skill in the craft--each playwright competes with all others, including thousands of dead playwrights when it comes to finding a theatre and a production--but in unity we gain stature, in unity we learn, in unity we teach each other. Some playwrights love collaboration, some love to go it alone--all of us need an organization.
I am in the 84th year of my life and am an active playwright. My plays are being produced, and I continue to write new plays each day, each month, each year. I hope you all will be as fortunate as I have been in playwriting. I love to write plays, and I've worked with young playwrights for many, many years. I look to the future for all of our talented writers, young and older. The only difference among us is that some like myself have lived through decades of history. I saw Laurette Taylor play Amanda in the original production of THE GLASS MENAGERIE. I bought the first printed edition of WAITING FOR GODOT. I was two years old when the market crashed in 1929, and I starved my way through the Great Depression of the thirties. I learned most of what I know about playwriting from Arthur Miller's work. And from Ibsen, O'Neill, Williams, and others. I acted and sang the role of Mr. Peachum in THREEPENNY OPERA at Society Hill Playhouse in the play's first Philly production. Etc., etc., etc.
I look to the future of PDC, the growth of PDC--we should vote to make the move to The Wolf Building and hold Writers Circle there and do more of the things we all want to do: table readings, staged readings, talkbacks that help all of us with our work. Not productions--theatres do productions--playwrights organizations support the growth of playwrights and plays.
Walt Vail
Comments:
Don Drake said on 2011-10-09:
Once again I have to agree with Walt. If we pass up this opportunity, we might not get another one. For years we have been talking about finding a home and nothing has come from the talk until now. I don’t know if the PDC could afford to make the move if it had to pay for both Wolf and CEC, if we didn’t move Circle. So Circle’s decision on what to do could have far reaching consequences. I think many of the concerns voiced at the last Circle meeting are worrisome, but not enough for us to pass up this opportunity. It’s quite possible that Wolf will become an important performing arts center and if it does it would be a shame not to be part of it. If it doesn’t work out, we can always go back to CEC.
Bill Hollenbach said on 2011-10-09:
This is a great description of what the role of PDC should be in all of our creative lives. We work hard. We have ambitions. Sometimes we get productions, but always we create our work alone. But as all attendees at the Writers Circle know, it is from the collective input of other artists that our work and our creative selves grow. As Walt points out we all have had various degrees of success. We are all of different ages, but we all strive for the same common goal: the creation of theatre pieces that reflect our vision that will come to life for others. A home in the Wolf Building will offer us a chance for greater exposure for our work in its developmental stages. We will have a home for others to hear our work -- at the Writers Circle, at Writers Table, in full readings. Now we usually get the productive feedback of our fellow playwrights in PDC and our friends. With a move to the Wolf we will gain a visibility that may bring in other theatre artists in the city. New voices with new eyes and ears. With luck we may all grow to achieve at least a small amount of the success Walt has seen.
What You Need to Know About Why It’s Important to Attend the Annual PDC General Meeting October 15
by Kristen Scatton
posted: 2011-10-08 12:45:52
What You Need to Know About Why It’s Important to Attend the Annual PDC General Meeting October 15
Board Urges Membership: YOU Decide on Proposal
to make PDC Home Base at Wolf Underground Arts.
The 2011 General Membership Meeting is coming up Saturday, October 15th. It will be held at 4 p.m. at the Wolf Underground Arts Building, 1200 Callowhill Street. And should there be a rumor afloat that there will be a special presentation and open discussion about a pending project that can have a pivotal and strategic impact on the PDC, the Board of Directors now hastens to put that rumor to rest…
By acknowledging it’s true.
“This is one General Meeting nobody wants to miss,” says PDC Board Vice-Chair Todd Holtsberry.
The proposal: Make the Wolf facility the new PDC home base.
“It’s a biggie,” says PDC Board Vice Chair Todd Holtsberry. “The potential for creating an operational home base is huge. And with a track record for successful operation at an established base, we’ll be in prime position to apply for grants that can open up a whole new vista of opportunity for PDC members. Grants equate with a broader range of programs to help theatre artists develop their skills and advance their careers.
“This event, if the move is made, means that our organization is on the verge of going to the next level. And along with the new opportunities comes new responsibilities for all of us.”
An initial proposal for the move called for a rent charge of $800 a month. As a kind of “focus-group” effort to test the waters, the Writers Circle was invited by the Board to hold a session at the facility, tour the building and check out the neighborhood.
The proposal got mixed reviews. The vote among WC was close, but the decision was to continue WC sessions at the CEC. A Q&A (shown below) provides some insight into the reasons WC members – even though potential benefits to PDC and its members generally were acknowledged and appreciated – felt that the financial challenge was an issue.
Board members, based on points of critique and comments offered by WC members, reassessed the proposal. Board member Bob Wuss, who is CEO of his own theatre-based company – and who personally invested months of research and negotiation with Wolf Management – reshaped the proposal and announced the specifics to fellow board members at a planning committee meeting on October 6. His new proposal effectively reduces the PDC rent costs to $250 a month.
“This is a dramatic development that brings the new venture into the realm of reality from a fiscal viewpoint,” says Board Secretary Kristen Scatton. “However, it is still a major innovation, and even though the PDC Board has the authority to make this commitment, we feel the ultimate decision belongs to members at large.”
Thus, at the General Meeting, members will receive presentations covering the full range of contract specifics, and they will be asked to participate in a secret ballot straw poll to indicate their level of enthusiasm and support for the project.
“Board members recognize that there has been, in recent years, some distance between PDC members and members of its board of directors,” says Vice-Chair Todd Holtsberry.
“We want members to know that we consider it a major priority to close that distance, and to make it clear we see ourselves as servants of their interests. As the organization grew in recent years, it became increasingly difficult to keep that close relationship. But we now recognize this is among the highest of priorities.”
“This is perhaps the most promising venture that has come down the pike for the PDC since I’ve been a member,” reports member Wally Zialcita who nears the end of his seven years’ service as Executive Director. “It’s going to call for a concerted effort by more than board membership and the dedication of just a few people like Bob Wuss.”
It was Bob who for months locked in on research and negotiation efforts with Wolf Building co-owner Gary Ruben in the effort to forge contract specifics. “Right now,” he says, “We can define the nature of the challenge in terms of tactics, chores and logistics. But we just can’t put a limit on potential benefits to individual member playwrights, directors, actors and techies who want to operate on a bigger stage in Philadelphia’s theatrical culture.”
“We also need to make it very clear that the ultimate success of this project going forward will depend on the ability and willingness of members to step forward and volunteer to serve on the board and in staff positions that will be reporting to the new Executive Director.”
Ballots will be counted in the presence of the membership and results will be announced on the spot. Election of new board members will then take place as part of the normal procures of the annual General Meeting.
Below are questions submitted to the board by WC member following their visit to the Wolf facility. Members are encouraged to submit additional questions and comments via the blog spot that will be answered there; thus, the Q&A shown below will grow between now and the October 15th General Meeting.
FINAL NOTE FROM THE BOARD: Please plan to attend this very important General Meeting. For too long, the PDC Board has been toting the load of too few people making decisions and implementing innovations for growth without the involvement of the membership at large. That is not the ideal operating culture for a community of theatre artists; too many career-oriented opportunities become available to organization leaders that for practical reasons (our thin ranks perhaps the most significant constraint) do not always transfer to the membership, to the individual member who may indeed hone his/her craft in various programs but who leaves the destiny of the PDC in the hands of others. We believe this is the moment for the membership to take hold of its own collective destiny. The Board needs your leadership. So do you.
Below are some of the questions received from the Writers Circle, following their visit to the Wolf facility, regarding the initial proposal; questions that are not relevant to the new proposal have been adjusted or dropped:
Q: I have concerns about the status of our relations with the CEC –- no matter how we resolve the relocation issue. I am concerned that the CEC learn of our plans for departure directly from us in a considerate and respectful way in keeping with our past, and possibly future, relations. That includes not having CEC feel they are the last to know, that, if we relocate, we continue a comradely, supportive relation with CEC, that we leave the door open for return if relocation to the Wolf Building does not work as hoped…that we not burn any bridges…that money be left in reserve beyond the November Wolf Building relocation, so we are not left homeless….You get my drift….
Q: I am concerned that the Wolf Building presents practical problems for general use, and particularly for use by the disabled. The building itself seems to be a large, complex maze hard to navigate on one’s own. How will this be addressed for general entry? Will there be a guide/information desk available to the public at all times? Certainly this would be necessary when we invite the public for rehearsals and performance…..
Q: Will due consideration be given to the fact that the prospective PDC space, in its present incarnation, seems very confined and claustrophobic? It did not feel very inviting, so any entrance and lighting features and the configuration of the office component will be very important in making the space more welcoming and even usable for the multiple purposes we contemplate. While it gives PDC a home base, a potentially permanent “space of its own,” does the available space fulfill our physical needs for good rehearsal/performance/meeting/office space?
A: Since the space is not completely set up at this time (when WC members visited), or cleared of construction debris, it is admittedly uninviting to the eye. Improvements are underway at the moment. The absence of windows cannot be remedied unless the PDC moves to a different space that would come at a higher cost. However, we feel the rehearsal space, without visual access to the outside, provides a kind of privacy that is beneficial to the rehearsal process, so we don't see that as a disadvantage. Folks working in the office area may feel a bit closed in, but they will hopefully adjust to that..
Q: I am concerned about availability issues. For example, at the time of our tour of the premises, an important component of the tour – the large performance space/auditorium -- was in use, and we were unable to see it. Will this kind of overlap be a problem?
A: Scheduling at the time of the WC visit was problematic. Keep in mind that construction and clean-up were, and are, still underway, and nobody stepped into a bucket of paint. But if the majority of members support the proposal, we will, over time, get better at arranging schedules to avoid closed doors and hallway collisions. Keep in mind also, that we very much WANT this to be a communal effort and process so that suggestions for improvement and innovation will be appreciated from all members.
Q: We do not currently have sufficient funding from dues to continue all of the existing programs and also cover the rent charges. Does this mean we must raise dues? If so, by how much?
A: The board has discussed the possibility of asking PDC members to be approving of some hike in the dues, which have not changed since the founding of the organization, and still amount to less than one dollar a week. But you can be assured that no dues hike, if one is necessary, will be more than some modest amount. And even if they go up to as much as $65/year that would still be only $1.25 a week. Alternatively, we should be discussing the possibility of a series of fund-raising events during the course of the year that are mounted by members collectively.
Q: I suppose it all boils down to: are we biting off more than we can chew?
A: The question, a good one, was more relevant to the initial proposal that called for $800 a month for rent; $250 a month is much more manageable. But there remains the necessity get PDC membership more actively involved in the organization itself by filling the open seats on the Board of Directors, playing leadership roles and contributing time and energy to operations. This is why it is so essential for maximum attendance of members at the General Meeting of October 15!
Comments:
PDC Annual Membership Meeting October 15, 2011
by Kristen Scatton
posted: 2011-10-03 11:46:13
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The annual general membership meeting of the PDC will be held on Saturday, October 15 at 4 pm at the Underground Arts at the Wolf Building, 340 N. 12th Street (12th and Callowhill streets).
Elections for new Board members will be held at this meeting. Also, the proposal for the PDC to rent space in the Wolf Building for an office/rehearsal room will be discussed, and a straw poll taken to gauge membership support for the project. We will also be recognizing outgoing Executive Director Wally Zialcita for his hard work, service and dedication to PDC. Following the meeting, there will be a reception for mingling and refreshments.
There are several open seats on the Board; anyone who is interested in running is asked to submit a brief (1-2 paragraph) statement of intent outlining your reasons for running for the Board, any goals you would have as a Board member, and what strengths you would bring to the Board, to Board Secretary Kristen Scatton at kmbs129@yahoo.com no later than Thursday, October 6.
The Wolf Building is located on the corner of 12th and Callowhill streets. There is a lot across the street with free parking on weekends; metered street parking is also available. Members taking public transportation can take the Broad Street subway line to the Race-Vine Station and 1 1/2 blocks north on Broad and 2 blocks east on Callowhill, or take the Market-Frankford line to 13th Street, and walk 5 blocks north on 13th Street, and 1 block east on Callowhill. The 23 and 61 buses also make stops within walking distance. For more information, visit www.septa.org.
Hope to see you there!
Comments:
DEADLINE EXTENDED - PDC Seeking New Executive Director
by Kristen Scatton
posted: 2011-10-02 14:22:54
Following seven years of dedicated service, PDC Executive Director Wally Zialcita has chosen to step down from the position. Therefore, the PDC Board is currently in the process of searching for and selecting a new Executive Director, and would like to extend the opportunity to all PDC members to submit themselves for consideration for this role. The Executive Director is a key member of the organization, and plays a large role in the development and fulfillment of PDC’s mission.
Comments:
Interested in Applying for PDC Board of Directors?
by Kristen Scatton
posted: 2011-10-02 14:14:46
It's that time of year again - PDC is seeking candidates to run for its Board of Directors.
Comments:
PDC Seeking Candidates for New Executive Director
by Kristen Scatton
posted: 2011-09-12 12:43:09
Following seven years of dedicated service, PDC Executive Director Wally Zialcita has chosen to step down from the position. Therefore, the PDC Board is currently in the process of searching for and selecting a new Executive Director, and would like to extend the opportunity to all PDC members to submit themselves for consideration for this role. The Executive Director is a key member of the organization, and plays a large role in the development and fulfillment of PDC’s mission.
Comments:
Greg Romero said on 2011-09-12:
As PDC looks for its next Executive Director, I want to first THANK WALLY ZIALCITA for his outstanding leadership and vision. Wally is probably the biggest reason I joined PDC in the first place, because I believed in his originality, creativity, and willingness to listen and try things out in previously untried ways. I think Wally deserves many kudos for establishing and re-establishing many programs and relationships b/w PDC members and Philadelphia-area organizations and artists, and creating so many opportunities for PDC Members. It is my hope that PDC finds a successor equal to Wally's competence, creativity, and commitment, and I'm sure we will. In the meantime, I am excited that this transition may allow Wally to work more closely on his own creative projects, which will undoubtedly contribute to the Philadelphia-area theater community in new and important ways. Congrats to Wally, and looking forward to the next phase of PDC. Sincerely, ROMERO
A Success Story
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2011-07-15 10:57:28
PDC member (and Philadelphia newcomer) Melissa McBain met director Jane Stojak at our February 2011 Directors/Dramatist social at Quigs Pub. Lo and behold, five months later they began a partnership to bring one of Melissa's plays to life for the Philadelphia Live-Arts Fringe Festival.
Says Jane: "Melissa told me about a script she had written, Altar Call, which intrigued me because it was about 'coming out' and I have a gay son. A few months later, she sent me the script for Going Back Naked. She was thinking of producing it for the Fringe and asked if I would read it. I did and found it to be beautifully written."
The play follows the Depression era childhood of Melissa's mother, Ann Fountain and her coming of age as a child star from Moorestown, NJ. Ms. Fountain was a piano prodigy and won several performance competitions including a prestigious Steinway-Julliard event.
According to Melissa: "When I met Jane at Plays and Players I was immediately impressed with her respect for playwrights. When she introduced herself to the group she addressed meeting playwrights' intentions and demonstrated a zeal for challenges. With her background as a theater owner and psychologist she clearly knew how to market plays and interact effectively with writers."
After Jane and Melissa agreed to collaborate on Going Back Naked, they raised $2,500 through a www.kickstarter.com campaign and began generating interest with the local-setting of the play. Melissa moved to Liberty City last year from Moline, IL, "Meeting Jane was a great introduction to the Philadelphia theater scene."
****
PDC is hosting another social on July 27 at 7:30PM, again at Quig's Pub (upstairs at Plays & Players). As is the way of these things, everyone will be introduced quickly with mimimum ceremony and then have 5-8 minutes with each other to talk about projects, work, interests. We're going to time these interactions and make sure everybody has an opportunity to meet and speak with one another. Yes, it's speed-dating. But for the artistic set.
Afterwards, we can all hang out at the bar or klatch separately. This is the third such event PDC has put on since last fall. They've been popular...and successful.
Furthermore, I will be circulating a bio on everyone beforehand to cut down on exposition. We don't really like too much exposition in our plays so we can eliminate it here too
We will likely have 20-25 people attending but we don't yet have the full complement of writers. Please RSVP to tt@pdc1.org with your bio. We only have a few slots left. Can you make it?
Comments:
Melissa McBain said on 2011-09-16:
Thank you PDC and Plays and Players for hosting the Dramatist/Director Exchange which brought this partnership together. Our show, GOING BACK NAKED, closes tonight at Plays and Players but my collaboration with Jane Stojak will continue. And thanks to Tom for supporting our show while his own show, TEACH YOUR CHILDREN, is up and running.
Dramatists Guild of America, National Conference Day 3
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2011-07-11 10:06:13
There were three packed Self-Production panels in the morning, one-after-the other from 9AM to noon. Such demand from the conference led me to several thoughts:
1. Writers for the stage have to be involved at some level of production—possibly all--to realize the work on stage since few opportunities t exist for a third-party to put it on for them.
2. Writers need to have other skill-sets (and another occupation!) than crafting a decent sentence. Although many, many, many writers I meet bemoan this necessity, it is a fact of live arts; if you’re not adept at directing, fundraising, publicity, stage management, acting, or other supporting functions, you ought to have a working knowledge of it and not shun the grubby business-aspect of the show.
3. If you are self-producing, the writing comprises the easiest part of the process.
I began writing plays five years ago and came very late to this compared with my peers. Ever since, I’ve held the notion that the dramatist requires a penchant for showmanship which other kinds of writing do not. The need for self-promotion, chutzpah, and recruiting others to share your vision may exist more blatantly for the playwright than, say, the novelist.
****
Adaptation/Translation with Marsha Norman, Doug Wright, and Carol Hall
Three playwrights gave their perspectives on the process using their own works as case studies: Marsha Norman spoke about her experience adapting The Color Purple, Doug Wright with Grey Gardens and The Little Mermaid, and Carol Hall from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
What I loved about this talk was that each of the panelists talked about how scrupulous, meticulous, and faithful one must be with the source material. And then they proceeded to explain, perhaps unwittingly, how they break that directive.
Carol Hall’s inspiration for her beloved musical derived from a Playboy article whom a friend filed about the Chicken Ranch in La Grange, Texas. The predominating notion Carol tried to keep in mind was respect for characters, even if they turned out to be hypocrites. “There are degrees of hypocrisy” she said which seemed to imply that everyone is a hypocrite.
Perhaps it takes a Texan to write a play set in Texas. I can’t imagine this musical being written today without some preachy political statement or contempt for the small-minded, bigoted Southerners ruining the overall effect.
Doug Wright kept his comments mainly to Grey Gardens and the Little Mermaid. His contribution to Grey Gardens is readily apparent when placed side by side with the documentary. Personally, I was more interested in his work on the Little Mermaid though it seemed a stretch to call this an adaptation. I couldn't tell what Doug Wright's artistic contribution to this piece was and I saw the show one week after opening. Did he suggest the in-line skates? No. Were there any particular lines that he added that he was proud of? My notes do not show that. Did he have any inputs on the tremendously expensive and weird sets (including Ariel's grotto which evoked nothing less than a gigantic, translucent anus)? He didn't say. Of course, he did enjoy working with Disney and the unlimited expense account for the show.
Wright didn't say it...but I'll say it for him: I believe if he had been given more creative license with this property, it is likely that it wouldn't have been such a commercial flop.
I loved Marsha Norman's name dropping and anecdotes regarding the adaptation of The Color Purple. Plenty of Hollywood and New York goss there. But what struck me in her discussion was the need to find just a few scenes evocative of the entire novel and ascribing one or two lines to lay out the development of a character which took several hundred pages.
My own view on adaptation takes the extreme view of expediency. Unless the artist holds out that the story he tells is true, then the artist has every right to bend the material to his wishes. Every work of art for the stage represents a fiction even if the dialogue is taken directly from a transcript or a recording. Isn’t it the height of irresponsibility for artists to say their work is true or “actually happened”; it obscures the truth in the art itself.
With the exception of Carol Hall, I think these playwrights couldn't talk about some considerations of their work because they were ultimately secondary collaborators. I suspect that there were many choices and paths they disagreed with in working with other artists. I respect that they cannot talk about those things in a public forum but that would have been damned interesting.
****
David Ives is just like his plays: sharp, funny, unexpected, and adventurous. After listening to him talk about his work and ideas, it made me want to run out and re-read all of his stuff again. His attention to the craft of playwriting—constructing a line or architecting a laugh—is acute. And unfortunately, I had to run out of the interview to make an obligatory appearance at a Dramatists Guild meeting.
On growing as a playwright:
“Early on, I had been writing these one acts that required some kind of transition at the end of a line. So, you’d have a couple talking over a dinner and one of them would finish the scene and I wrote in that a bell sounded. This turned out to be funny to audiences and I incorporated it in a bunch of plays. By this time, I had met Stephen Sondheim and he become somewhat familiar with my work and he introduced me to some people as ‘Oh, this is David Ives, he writes those plays with bells in them.’ After that, I never wrote a play with a bell in it again.”
On jokes:
“Iambic pentameter is too long a line for jokes. In English, an ideal joke is 8 syllables.”
On translating Feydeau:
“One has to take steps to make the play readable language and producible. The language is not the most important thing in an adaptation or translation. The play is. You have to find language to support everything underneath the play. It may not be literal or even close to it.”
****
Many thanks to the sweet and hardworking staff of the Dramatists Guild of America who made this excellent first effort at a national conference happen. It was a success. I hope there will be many more of these and that I shall see more of you there at the next one.
Comments:
donald drake said on 2011-07-11:
Tom’s report on the need for self-producing is not surprising but still depressing. All of the needed skills for self-producing -- such as networking, fund-raising, publicity and acting -- are skills that I don’t have and activities that I shy away from. You might even say hate. What is depressing is that Tom is probably right that this is what’s needed to get produced in the current climate. It’s a shame to think that a good P.R. man will be more successful than a talented playwright. What has discouraged me from self-producing other than the high cost and demand for such skills is the conviction that it is impossible to achieve much with a self-production other than the fun of working with other artists and the ego satisfaction of seeing my stuff on stage. It’s almost akin to vanity publishing. One of three things are necessary for a commercially successful production -- an established theater with a large subscription base and big advertising budget, a very well known actor, or a very well-known playwright. A self-production has none of these things. You may be able to fill the seats with family and friends and if you are good at networking with some colleagues but it’s more than likely that the empty seats will be a blow to your ego. I hope there are playwrights in our group who can convince me that I’m wrong and can cite instances of self-production successes or other ways they are rewarding and worth the cost and effort. But I’m not counting on it. Playwriting is a joy for me and all the rest would be an unbearable chore. There’s a reason the file name for my list of submissions is “lottery.” In this environment, the chances of getting a production is about the same as winning the lottery. Though I have gotten productions in the past, the responses from theaters have dropped markedly in the last couple of years. There was a time I cheered when I got an acceptance letter. Then I was happy if I got a rejection that indicated the someone had actually read the play. Now I’m excited if I get a form rejection letter, indicating that someone took the time to rip open the envelope and find out my address. (The only silver lining to this depressing grey cloud is that theaters now want electronic submissions greatly reducing the high cost of submission and rejection.) So like the people who buy lottery tickets every week, I send out my plays with the hope that one will be a winning ticket, but I really doubt it. Still I wake up every morning, eager to get back to the computer and move forward with another play with the same enthusiasm that people buy their lottery tickets.
Luna Theater's Solstice 10-Minute Play Festival Seeking Submissions
by Jeremy Gable
posted: 2011-07-03 08:53:49
Comments:
bill rolleri said on 2011-07-03:
Ditto thanks for the notice. My question: Why discrimate against actors over the age of 30?
Greg Romero said on 2011-07-03:
Jeremy, Thanks so much for posting this. As someone interested in Luna's work, I'm interested as well in sending something for consideration. I just received this post as well through the PNPI list-serve as well, which got me thinking of a question. This particular forum might be a good place to have this conversation: Q: Why is there no compensation offered to the playwrights? Are the other contributing artists to be paid? thank you! my best, ROMERO
Seeking Play Submissions
by Ken Kaissar
posted: 2011-06-27 08:55:43
Jerry Hyman, in actor on the television show BOARDWALK EMPIRE and movies like FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, is running a ten-minute play reading series in a French restaurant on the Jersey Shore. He is seeking ten minute plays to be read.
Plays should be "PG". Language should be family friendly, and sexual content should only be in the form of innuendo and "double entendre".
Please submit ten minute plays to Jerry diretly at jhyman1122@gmail.com.
Also read more about Jerry at www.jerryhyman.com.
Comments:
Dramatists Guild of America, National Conference Day 2
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2011-06-17 09:10:03
Jesus God, it is hot and humid and jungly down here. Why did we move the capitol to this accursed, stifling land?
First seminar today: Jane Beard on Unblocking Creative Energy and Writers Block. Unless you've experienced an acute bout of block, it's easy to dismiss many of these meditative techniques as hokey or New Age or plain silly. Imagine: an entire class room cradling their heads to create a "magnet"; repeating meaningless mantras for stress relief; engaging in several small and harmless physical movements to break any number of personal preoccupations.
I watched with bemused bewilderment at first but much of these exercises have a point and most of them work to boot. I'm a skeptic by nature but nevertheless, when I'm blocked, I will piss on a spark-plug to get going again. Jane's ways are much less painful. I'm not a devout believer though I plan to follow up on some of these techniques. Check Jane out at www.invisiblelight.com
****
Dramatists on the Web with veteran bloggers Roland Tec, Tim Bauer, Andie Arthur, and Robert Ross Parker. This was blogging 101 and doesn't need much explanation. Surprised at how basic the talk was. Anyway, you all know how blogging works. I'm still stupified at how many writers know nothing about blogging: an entire classroom of people, holding themselves out as writers, and ignorant of one of the best tools for promoting work and engaging the wider community.
Ironically, some of these folks are just in time to participate in a trend rapidly ceding ground to Twitter. Even Roland Tec mused that long-form blogging was "passe."
****
Todd London, Keynote Speaker
Inspirational language, poetic and personal words...and yet so gloomy that I can't stop thinking about it. London's book Outrageous Fortune is essentially a crisis of confidence about the future of playwriting. Although Mr. London is a hopeless lover of playwrights (even married one) he admits to being an anachronism in a "roomful of anachronisms still manufacturing buggy whips."
London actively "questions his faith" and the "enterprise itself" even though he finds a great deal of satisfaction in his work and beauty in the art. He summarized the points in his book about marginalization of theatre, unresponsive institutions, and the impossible economics of writing for stage. Much of what London talks about is true and can't be refuted. For a career, "playwriting is not the answer."
Unfortunately, London doesn't have a solution to this nor do I suspect anyone else. I have to re-read the book and have a big think about it. My thoughts about this subject have too many cross-currents--London isn't exactly making an argument--his book is reportage more than anything else. My opinion tends to focus on the writer. Not the playwright, not the stage, and certainly not the "theatre.'
As a writer, do you identify with the theatre or with the writing? It strikes me that the theatre as an institution has a separate and possibly exclusive set of goals than the writer who writes for it. One identifies oneself as a playwright by preference but in a wider context, a decent playwright can easily excel in other modalities. Is this what dramatists should pursue? And though Todd London never says this, I wonder if the "reality of the landscape" as he calls it, leads him to this conclusion as well?
****
A Conversation with Doug Wright
Wonderfully moderated by Faye Sholiton, Wright is as delightful in person as his plays. Maybe more so. The author of I Am My Own Wife, Quills, and Grey Gardens is a natural and enthusiastic ranconteur. We in the audience never stopped laughing. I'm just going to throw out some of the choicer quotes:
"Far more than politics and theology, I think art is the most uncompromising moral force we have. By exposing our foilbles and holding our feet to the fire, art is more instructive in how we should attempt to mark our time on the planet than all of those institutions erected to give us guidance."
On Grey Gardens:
"It was Scott Frankel's brainchild who approached me about making a musical on the documentary. And I said, 'It's impossible!' He asks, 'Why?' I said, 'The most thrilling aspect of the film is its verisimilitude. They are utterly real for the camera in every moment. Employing all the artifices of the stage will rob it of its authenticity.' And Scott says 'Great. Let's get together with my lyricist next week and you can expound on why it's a terrible idea.' And after two years of these lunches, we had a draft."
On Quills:
"When I wrote this, I was motivated by the controversy surrounding Robert Mapplethorpe and the condemnation they received from Senator Jesse Helms. In the culture at large, Helms and Mapplethorpe were painted as adversaries. The Senator found something to demonize to get re-elected and Mapplethorpe went from obscure photographer to Barnes & Noble coffee table books. This was working for both of them. When you look at radical artists, who is the most reliable Muse? It's always the censor."
On working on the book for Little Mermaid:
"There are a lot of things problematic in this movie to women given that this girl sacrifices so much for a fella. But among transgendered people this story is extremely important because the heroine has to change everything below the waist to find love. Little Mermaid has more significance than the audience realizes."
Comments:
Another Round Opens Tomorrow
by J. Adam Russell
posted: 2011-06-16 10:34:13
Dear All:
I’m excited to share my work with PDC as well as the Philadelphia community. If you’re kind enough to attend the show, Another Round, I’ve worked on two offers to reduce the ticket price. For the first four performances, tickets will be sold at $10.00 on Phillyfunsavers. http://www.phillyfunguide.com/funsaver/print_offer/7460. You'll need code HSS947V
I will continue to offer PDC members the $12.50 purchase price using the code PDC36 on brown paper tickets.
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/172043
We were also fortunate to have the cast inteviewed on Rep Radio. http://actingout.repradio.org/
I had the additional fortune of talking to Jack Shaw on Stage Magazine about the play.
http://stagepartners.org/2011/06/another-round-an-interview-with-playwright-j-adam-russell/
If you decide to see the show, please make certain to let me know your thoughts. With my first stint at producing it’s been a thrilling experience, and I’d love to get feedback on your impression on the play, the production, your experience. I hope you’ll be able to attend.
Thank you for your time.
Best regards,
J. Adam Russell (John)
www.jadamrussell.com/another-round.html
Comments:
marilyn edney said on 2011-06-20:
Just writing to say that my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed your play last Friday night. Having had no prior knowledge of you or the upstairs venue at the Walnut Street Theatre, we were pleasantly suprised by the calibre of the production, both in terms of the actors' abilities and the compelling dialogue. We particularly liked Gutch. We wish you much continued success. Please keep our email address in your file and contact us with any new material, both yours and others.
MM Wittle said on 2011-06-16:
I'm coming to see your show on the 25th and I'm so excited to see your work. Best wishes to you.
Dramatists Guild Conference: Day 1
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2011-06-14 19:04:45
More of a travel day than anything, the events began late in the afternoon. Missed the excellent David Faux on his The Artist as CEO. Faux is the Director of Business Affairs of the Dramatists Guild and he’s a speaker I’d like to invite to Philadelphia for this particular talk. The first big thang happened at 6:00PM where Christopher Durang was interviewed on stage.
What a let down.
But not because of Durang. I felt the interlocutor simply hadn’t prepared enough. The author of Marriage of Bette and Boo, Beyond Therapy, Vietnamization of New Jersey, and Sex and Longing spent far too long on the oft-told background to Sister Mary Ignatius Tells It All For You.
Been there, man.
Durang can be heard on several podcast interviews (Downstage Center, Theatre Talk, others) revealing this as well. Honestly, who doesn’t know about this stuff? There was nothing on his writing habits, his consistency, what he’s working on now, nor much on Why Torture is Wrong and the People Who Love Them playing at the nearby Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. These are all things that an audience of writers would want to hear and learn.
I did discover that Durang (along with his colleague Marsha Norman) try out drafts on his students at Julliard. But that was the only new bit of information. It’s nice to have a captive focus group attentive to your needs and thoroughly familiar with your work. We all need that.
I had hoped to hear more of Durang’s evolutionary thinking since Why Torture premiered in 2009. Afterall, this is one of his most recent works. I recall an interview he gave before the play went up and he seemed so angry and indignant, it was uncharacteristic. Is he just as angry with a different administration in the White House? Is this political style of writing bearing more fruit in his artistic work. Is it important to him anymore? This is all cool, new stuff.
It’s hard to categorize Durang as an activist-playwright since he doesn’t consider himself one but in an unusual twist, he has gotten angrier with age. This development in the artists’s life and work is interesting. Do we have to go back and re-hash so much of Durang’s early successes from the 1970’s? C’mon. It was a privilege to have Durang speak live but can’t stop thinking the interview was a missed opportunity.
****
Molly Smith, Artistic Director of Arena Stage keynoted Friday night. I hate to say that my knowledge of Arena Stage, its extensive programs and generously endowed coffers is scant. But Arena is hardly a household word or common knowledge…yet.
Naturally, the subject of her talk was the New Play Institute there. With a $1.1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, this program was launched in 2009 to hire playwrights and put them on staff at the Arena for a period of three years. Moreover, the Institute was created to be a center for research and development, best practices, and effectiveness in new play development. A visible thought bubble appeared over the audience with the wish that all theatres could staff and pay writers.
So far, Arena appears an anomaly—albeit an important one—in that other theatres, even the ones as well funded and successful as Arena haven’t followed suit. And even Molly admitted the new plays that premier at Arena don’t make money and don’t garner large audiences. However, just a glimpse at the website overwhelms you with the hive of activity down there in DC. It is so very impressive I’d recommend a trip to the Capitol just to see Arena's facilities. Substitute the obligatory granite graveyard tour that is the Mall and tour Arena.
Comments:
Pat McGeever said on 2011-06-15:
Thanks for doing this, Tom. I understand the Kennedy Center is worth touring for its state-of-the-art accessibility to people with hearing or vision handicaps, and to people in wheelchairs.
Our Philadelphia Playwriting Community
by Ken Kaissar
posted: 2011-06-10 13:15:40
Yesterday, I was invited to a Playwrights' Convening at the Lark Play Development Center in New York for playwrights who deal with the Middle East. My play about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict called THE VICTIMS or WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO ABOUT IT, earned me an invitation. I spent all day talking with other MIddle East playwrights, including Yussef El Guindi, about how we can go about empowering ourselves to get our work produced rather than waiting around for a theatre company to call.
It was a given that we were all encouraged to self-produce. Sigh!
This is not new advice. We've all heard it a million times. For the last several years, I've been procrastinating taking such action, hoping like hell for a miracle.
This year, I decided to wait no more. Over the last six months, I've launched an extensive fundraising campaign, and on June 16, 2011 at 8pm, I am opening the world premiere of my newest play THE MAN STANLEY at the Walnut Street Theatre Studio 5.
I was talking to Tom Tirney a few months ago, and he asked me, what is it that I was hoping to gain from PDC as a member. I told him my main objective was joining a community of playwrights. Being surrounded by other writers whose work I could routinely hear and see, and sharing my work as well and getting feedback from a large group of peers.
So on the eve of the opening of my first self-produced show, I have a few hopes and goals. Clearly, I would like my show to be well attended. If this proves to be a financially self-sufficient way to get my work out there, I will be encouraged to do it again. I will probably self-produce my next play, and the one after that, and see all of my plays come to life that way. If this proves to be a financial disaster, I will probably relegate myself back to postage submission hell.
But I would say that my second most important goal is to introduce myself to you! Since I've only been in the Philly area since 2009, I have not had the pleasure of meeting the vast majority of you, and I've exchanged writing with virtually none of you. So I hope that you will take this production as an opportunity to investigate my work. And not just that, but introduce yourself to me in person, and let's use this as an opportunity to begin a writer's exchange. Come see the work, form an opinion, share your opinion with me, and invite me to your work so that every show in our careers can be the continuation of a dialogue. We have a community. Let's use it more!
So I'm afraid I'm asking you for a little more than just come see my show. I'm asking you to share your feedback with me. And feel free to do it publically on this Blog. I don't mind. Let's talk about it. Let's grab drinks and discuss where the show succeeded and where it failed. And then respond to my writing with an invitation to see one of your shows, and we will begin a wonderful, professional dialogue as colleagues for the remainder of the time that we reside in the Philadelphia area.
I am extending a special PDC discount to all members for all performances of my show. When you buy tickets just enter the code PDC1 and you will have the opportunity to buy a $15 ticket.
To read more about my show and/or to purchase tickets please visit www.themanstanley.com.
I hope to see you all at a performance of my show, and I hope to begin a very open and meaningful dialogue with every member of this community.
Comments:
Kerri Kochanski said on 2011-06-12:
I really enjoyed your post! I feel a lot of the same things you do. I self-produced my work and the work of fellow playwrights in the past, and really enjoyed it. I also believe in taking matters into my own hands and using the resources I have to make art happen, rather than waiting around for years for someone else to produce it (or maybe not produce it). It is a lot of work, but self-production can be very empowering, and the best thing about it is that your work gets to live on the stage -- and no one can stop it (or you). I also like the idea of a strong local playwriting community that does not look to the national stage, but comes together to make its own corner of the world something to be reckoned with. I am sorta new to Philly, too and I hope to meet you soon. For now, congratulations on your play and your first job as a producer. You did it!
Wally Zialcita said on 2011-06-11:
I've assumed for years that DIY was the best way to go. For me, though, it's about control over the development process. I want it.
Ken Kaissar said on 2011-06-10:
Hi Don: Thanks for the warm welcome. I guess what I'm realizing is that we don't need anyone else the way I always thought. Perhaps its just up to us to put it on ourselves. The way I imagine Shakespeare did it. At any rate the show runs June 16 - July 3 and performs on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm and 7pm. Please visit the website www.themanstanley.com to purchase tickets and to read more about it.
Don Drake said on 2011-06-10:
Hello Ken, Welcome to the PDC and Philadelphia, the most under rated city in the country. Your message, with its subtext of frustration if not desperation, is felt by many of us. The name of my file for play submissions is "lottery." (The chances of getting a production equals the chances of winning the lottery.) If the major leagues found new ballplayers the way theaters select plays, no one would be watching the game. Imagine picking pitchers and fielders on the basis of how well they networked or what graduate baseball school they went to. I suspect you can see a little frustration and desperation in what I have just said. In any case, I'm not clear when your play will be presented. The first and last days are listed. What available dates are there in between?
A National Conference For Playwrights Birthed in D.C.
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2011-06-07 20:02:02
An exciting experiment will take place this Thursday in Washington D.C. The Dramatists Guild of America throws its first conference for members and the profession. Perhaps the only comparable event involves the Theatre Communications Group where the emphasis falls upon non-profit theatres and not the dramatists. It’s a positive sign that writers for stage now have a national forum to gather, exchange ideas and toot their own horn.
The three day affair has three tracks of seminars and panels full of giants from the stage. Christopher Durang kicks it off in a Thursday session followed by a Molly Smith keynote; Edward Albee will be in conversation with Emily Mann on Friday preceded by a Todd London keynote; Stephen Schwarz teaches a musical theatre seminar on Saturday; and more and more and more.
Below is the full schedule and link:
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http://www.dramatistsguild.com/confschedule2011.aspx
Apart from soaking up the aura of Durang, Smith, Albee, Schwarz, Wright, Norman, etc., I plan to hit the separate talks on copywright, Fair Use, agents, and finally contracts. More entries to come during and following the conference.
Comments:
Wally Zialcita said on 2011-06-11:
This looks great, the start of something of value to us all. I look forward to hearing how it went.
Get down to the big bad Wolf
by Pat McGeever
posted: 2011-05-20 07:00:51
This weekend or next, try to get to the Wolf Building (12th & Callowhill) for the Shakedown Project's REVOLUTION AND A SANDWICH, for several reasons. 1. You'll get a look at the large underground performance space, upstairs from which PDC is looking at a possible new home (that part's in destruction mode at present). 2. You'll see, and possibly see yourself in, an experimental format exploration of how to make a revolution. 3. You'll be offered a terrific sandwich!
Not to be missed!
Comments:
Richard Kotulski said on 2011-05-20:
Hey Pat,
I think your meant currently in "DISCUSSION" mode, not "DESTRUCTION" mode...
At least, I hope so...
-Richard
Talent Show At Bristol Riverside Theatre
by Ken Kaissar
posted: 2011-05-09 12:07:02
The Bristol Riverside Theatre is auditioning for its talent show this weekend. The winner gets $5,000. A great opportunity. Tell all your performance friends, and anyone with a special or quirky talent especially encouraged:
We're looking for all talents (all safe, PG, human talents that is). StarPower 2011 is for singers, dancers, actors, musicians, jugglers, comics, contortionists, gymnasts, and just about anything else you can think of. The winner receives $5,000, second place is $1,000, and third place is $500! To enter, click here. Entry fee: $20. OPEN CALL AUDITIONS Saturday, May 14 from 9am - 8pm at Truman High School All competitors have 5 minutes to show their stuff to a panel of pros. You'll get constructive feedback from those judges and 24 competitors will be chosen to move on to the semi-finals. SEMI FINALS Sunday, May 22 from 3pm - 7pm at Bucks County Community College At the semi-finals 12 acts will be chosen by a combination of audience and judges scores to move on to the finals. FINALS Thursday, May 26, 7:30pm at Bristol Riverside Theatre At the finals - one will be crowned most talented and take home a $5,000 grand prize. Second prize is $1,000. Third prize is $500. Click here to read about the judging. Questions? Click here or call 215.785.0100. Follow us:
Win $5,000 in StarPower!
This spring Bristol Riverside Theatre is searching to find the most talented person and pay them $5,000. Is it you?
How it works . . .
Comments:
Shakespeare and As You Like It
by Chris Braak
posted: 2011-04-25 08:02:03
So, hey, anyway: I have some thoughts/questions on Shakespeares dramaturgy in As You Like It, and I thought I would solicit some opinions on the subject. Full article is here.
Short version: how do you make a romantic comedy likable when one of the lovers is a complete bonehead?
Comments:
MEE said on 2011-07-03:
EPIC man! comparing shakespeare to the simpsons besides love is blind...and dumb..and deaf..
Eric B said on 2011-05-20:
Check out any episode of The Simpsons. Homer is an epic bonehead, but he's very likable and the romance between him and Marge is convincing and real.
braak said on 2011-04-25:
Well, then I guess I'm not going to watch a play about you.
Pat McGeever said on 2011-04-25:
Speaking on behalf of boneheads everywhere who marry smart women, I don't see no problem.
Is There Such a Thing as Conservative Theatre?
by Eric Balchunas
posted: 2011-04-14 11:08:55
Hi PDC-ers,
Comments:
Eric Balchunas said on 2011-04-22:
Wow, lots of great comments! I really admire everyone's restraint with such a hot button topic. Many times when it comes to political issues people instantly go into attack mode. I think I agree that in the end the play needs to be good and entertaining, regardless of what political side it's coming from. I will check out some of the pieces you mentioned as well. And, for the record, I'm not writing a positive play about Dick Cheney. Not a fan. However, this got me thinking that a play about a writer trying to get his Dick Cheney play produced is ripe for comedy and point-making at the same time. Hmmm. - Eric
Pat McGeever said on 2011-04-15:
And by the way, it's not the case that conservative plays can't or don't get produced. Jerry Sterner's "Other People's Money" contained paeans of praise for predatory capitalism of the 1980s, and it ran off Broadway for two and a half years, and has been staged and revived all over the country. When I saw it, committed lefty that I am, it gave me temporary pause about some of my convictions. But not for long, and certainly not after witnessing the capitalism-caused meltdown of recent years. So if you want to paint Dick Cheney as a hero, good luck. If you make it as entertaining as Sterner's play was, maybe it'll get produced. Unless theaters are just too broke to try anything new.
Pat McGeever said on 2011-04-15:
Do we need more conservative plays to balance or at least offer an alternative to the many liberal playwrights in the theater today? Depends on who the "we" is. Bear in mind that theater is not a closed world. Most audience members go to a play once in a while, but can if they wish watch Fox News every other night of the month, so they don't need an alternative voice in the theater. In fact, most audience members, esp. at the big-ticket shows, are probably better off financially than most folks, just as the U.S. electorate is. And bear in mind that this comfortable electorate put Ronald Reagan in office, the senior Bush, and then god help us George W.! (OK, not the first time, but the second) More recently, they voted into Congress enough Republicans to break any liberal bones that are still to be found in Obama's body. Do these people need you to write a conservative play? Nope. They're doing just fine without you.
Liam Castellan said on 2011-04-15:
A few small theories that might contribute to this: 1. It's hard to write a good play without empathy for your characters. I would argue that empathy (especially for those worse off than yourself) is easier to see in liberal policies/politics than in conservative politics. 2. The arts community, at its best, embraces everyone and celebrates difference, which is one of the reasons why there's a long tradition of (for example) gays in the arts. When you hear conservatives lament that we've "lost our way" as a country and need to "get back to those family values", Bill Mahr makes the point that most of them are really talking about the 1950s, a great time in America... to be a white Christian male. 3. Good plays/drama frequently come through analyzing and understanding moments of change. Conservatives frequently don't like change (social mobility, acceptance of gays/immigrants, etc.). 4. Once there's a liberal bias (or perception of it), and word gets around, conservative plays are less likely to get written because why bother if it's got such slim chances to get produced? So it self-perpetuates to a degree. I suppose you could write a play about unnecessary environmental regulations crippling someone's livelihood (farmer? logger?) or someone taking on lazy and backward union thugs, but even that would be cherry-picking extreme examples of positions generally seen on the left. Hmm. Just yesterday and today, I read two plays by Tom Gibbons that began his "race trilogy". All three present compelling and equally strong viewpoints on an issue related to race, including some "conservative" viewpoints. They aren't conservative plays because they explore both sides of complex issues fairly evenly, but I mention them as examples of effective/fair presentations of conservative viewpoints on stage. They're marvelous in they way they end in a way that doesn't push one side over the other, and forces the audience to walk out dealing with the questions. Very unsettling. All three are published by Playscripts.com
Chris Braak said on 2011-04-15:
You seriously want to see a play that explores the intricacies of American fiscal policy? "Well, this is a good play, but what it could really use is more feasibility studies..."
How would you even dramatize something like that without grotesquely oversimplifying it? The entire problem that Terry Teachout is ignoring is that you can't even bring a complex political discussion to the table without taking a position on it, because when you're dealing with verifiable phenomena then any honest investigation is going to essentially force you to take a position.
But, well, whatever, man. If you want there to be a play about the dangers of universal healthcare, just write one. There aren't any rules.
Ken Kaissar said on 2011-04-15:
I gotta tell you. I'm all for hearing the conservative viewpoint. There was a time when I would have identified as a conservative. But since the Bush administration, being conservative has become synonymous with being a homophobic, racist, Arab-hating person who hates to read. This is an identity that I just can't get down with, nor am I interested in that point of view. I think the conservative approach has historically offered some interesting ideas in government. Ideas that I think could be good for the government. But these ideas are often not given the time of day by the liberal theatre community, and I fear it's because it's labeled "conservative" or "Republican." So as theatre artists, I would argue that we could afford a little more critical thought, and a little less taking stock in labels. But restricting the civil rights of the gay community, hate mongering, and being racist, is not something I want to be open to in any way. Your biopic of Cheney sounds interesting, but it also makes me nervous. He is the embodiment of everything I hate about what being a conservative has become. I want to see a play that maybe argues that universal healthcare could be a bad thing, or a play that argues for the cutting of the NEA. But I don't need to see some play that argues in favor of being afraid of Muslims. That's the kind of "open mindedness" that I am simply not open to.
Chris Braak said on 2011-04-14:
Also, if blame is to be laid for the fact that there's no biographical play about Dick Cheney, it should be laid squarely at his own feet for being a bitter, charmless ogre.
Chris Braak said on 2011-04-14:
Oh, what the hell, man? I have to put paragraph spacing in manually?
Chris Braak said on 2011-04-14:
Well, this is a whole muddy thing, not the least of which because of the Conservative/conservative/Republican/republican and Liberal/liberal/Democrat/democratic conflation. I mean--and first, let me say, I generally don't have a lot of respect for Terry Teachout; I think he's kind of an idiot, and a boring man with boring opinions in the best case. I can't fault him for sometimes being boring, though, because he's got to write that damn column. Anyway, you can see him be boring: look how he closes his article up, dismissing three thousand years of theater, much of which was purposefully politically and philosophically assertive, by defining it wholly in terms of a playwright who's got barely a hundred years on him. Good Terry, right, thanks. Let's all be more like Chekhov. But let's say for the sake of argument that there is at least one general means to an end that's an acceptable position for a piece of art to take, and it's not "put a piece of the world onstage" (because how ridiculous a person would you have to be, as a playwright, to imagine that you'd successfully created something that was devoid of your own perspective? At best, maybe you're putting several conflicting perspectives onstage, but the world is still a long way off). Let's say, and we can disagree with this if you want, let's say that one essential quality of art is that it kindles in us a recognition of our shared humanity. So, let's take a divisive, conservative/liberal issue, something like, say: gay marriage. If we treat an issue like this with the basic sense of human compassion and decency that our art demands, we're basically left with the conclusion that it's pretty reasonable for a gay person to say, "You need to recognize our shared humanity by calling what I do with my life partner by the same name that you call what you do with your life partner; that is, when we pledge our fortunes and our futures together, that is marriage." And the argument that a religious fundamentalist might make, that "You need to recognize my humanity by letting me systematically refuse you the right to call yourself by the same terms that I use for myself" is specious, disingenuous, and frankly, kind of shameless. How, then, would you recognize the difference between good art -- which perforce demands we recognize gay people as human beings, too -- and liberal ideology, which includes the idea that gay people are human beings? So, the data is skewed a little bit in the first place, right? But worse than that, we've got to accept that sometimes, certain positions are just wrong. The idea that a "balance" of information, on subjects like, for instance "global warming", implies that information has validity by virtue of its existence, which it doesn't. Only good information is valid, and therefore the presentation of bad information simply because it exists in contrast to good information is specious. Which means there are certain subjects where one side or the other is just going to be flat-out wrong, and any honest examination of the subject is going to yield that as an inevitable conclusion. Of course, there are some Liberal/Conservative differences that are muddier just by virtue of their complexity, and it's true that you don't see a lot of plays about Conservative tax policy, but you don't see a lot of plays about Liberal tax policy, either, and that's because who the hell wants to see a play about tax policy? All that said, I was just looking around at the plays that are up onstage in Philadelphia now -- and I know Colin Mitchell wrote his piece a couple years ago -- and I'm not seeing any inundation of Liberal or Democrat ideology. Maybe the one about the nuns can qualify as liberal, but I'm suspicious. And for the same reason that I'm suspicious about the idea of Doubt qualifying as a conservative (or Conservative?) play. What's conservative about it? It's wildly, WILDLY fallacious to suggest that anything that ends up being about or in support of organized religion is Conservative. In America, anyway, most Liberals are also Christian (and while many of the irreligious are Liberal, many others are Conservative [not conservative], what with irreligion being a central tenet of Objectivism), and there's nothing about the Liberal platform that in any way opposes it to organized religion -- friction comes wholly from the fact that the Liberal ideology on social issues coincidentally puts it at odds with some religious institutions. This is not, however, to say that Liberals oppose religion, rather Liberals oppose many of the things that certain religions want. All of which is to say: good plays are often going to look liberal, and sometimes honest plays will look Liberal, and finally, a lot of the things that we think of as being Liberal/Conservative conflicts aren't really that at all. And all that said, if someone wants to write a radical Conservative play, they should just do it. This is life, you can do whatever you want. You'll have a hard time casting it, and finding an audience, but that's just the Free Market at work, and who am I to argue with the Free Market?
Colin Mitchell said on 2011-04-14:
Hey thanks for the link. I was wondering why this two year old article of mine was suddenly getting so much traffic. It's an interesting topic to me, some, not so much. Check out the latest comment back at our site. Anyway, appreciate it. Keep checking in and comment any time. Colin
Plays & Players Celebrates 100 Years
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2011-04-07 13:08:01
Plays & Players Theatre celebrated its 100th year anniversary on March 20th and it was a touching event. The staff presented ten decades of history for patrons marvel at in the form of scrapbooks, playbills, photographs, and old poster boards. These displays only hinted at the accomplishments of the theatre as well as the innumerable participants that kept it going through lean years and flush. From beginning to end, the event was suffused with the child-like wonder of having come so far.
As is the way of these things, the party also looked to the future. Plays & Players--which owns and produces at the 1714 Delancy Place theatre-- has always been a pillar to its community and the event showcased a staff in the process of revitalizing a Philadelphia institution. While the front office continues to produce crowd-pleasers every season to satisfy its incredibly loyal following, it also has underwritten world premieres by local playwrights (e.g. Nick Wardigo’s Concrete Dinosaur and P. Seth Bauer Early in the Mourning) and even controversial material such as Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out. All three of these plays were featured in the 2009-2010 season.
Beyond that, P&P established a Playwrights Residency with PDC last year and has thrown open its doors to artists of all stripes. P&P remains remarkably accessible for artists to hone their craft, use the space, and network with collaborators. The Skinner Studio on the third floor is a hotbed of artistic ferment and the adjacent bar at Quig’s Pub supports much of this activity as a place for artists to meet, talk, hang, argue, and drink.
That’s community.
Indeed, when thinking about the future of theatre and stagecraft in this country, I envision the survivors and thrivers of the next ten decades to be institutions such as Plays & Players—not because it is well funded or underwrites expensive productions. On the contrary, one could argue that P&P is neither well funded nor has the capacity for high production values. It is precisely because the entity engages artists and gives them a stake in the theatre. Compared to the gleaming taxpayer funded gems on Broad Street, Plays & Players is a rambling, rickety piece of real estate outmoded for the demands placed upon it. However, if you have ever been involved in any of P&P’s productions or have used the facilities as an artist, the immediate contrast is this: a direct and tangible connection to an artistic community in constant motion. That’s exhilarating. And there aren’t many places like it in the city.
These accomplishments are in no small part due to the Homeric efforts of Bill Egan who first became involved with P&P as an actor at the age of 18 (he turns 40 April 22nd so put it on your calendar). Since then, Bill has directed and produced for the P&P stage as well as served on its Board and managed the front office.
Over time, Bill has become as instrumental as anyone at P&P for its programming choices and fiscal health. In the course of his acting career and free-lance work, he met a young director Daniel Student, who became heavily involved in the theatre in 2008; artistically and as a member of the Board. Dan spearheaded a 5-year strategic plan to change the management model from a Board-run community theatre to a staff-run professional organization.
When Bill became Board President three years ago, it was Bill's vision to bring in a younger group of managers and artists, including a first-ever Producing Artistic Director for P&P; a position to which Dan was appointed in January 2011.
****
The party ended with a peroration by long-time Board Member John Cannon who became involved in P&P during the late 1960’s when a manager pitched him thusways: “We produce plays that aren’t very good but the plays are something you might like.” In spite of the lakcluster sales job, John dove in with rare dedication and shepherded the theatre through two harrowing decades of financial strain and scarcity.
Before finishing his speech, John directed his appreciation to the audience, to the artists, and to the folks that make P&P run. Then he took out a crumpled piece of paper and read from a list of twenty-five names-- now ghosts of the theatre—as a gesture of thanks to all those unacknowledged people that made P&P what it is.
And right there was a reminder that the theatre is really a community of souls—not a building or an abstract corporate entity--whom the living commemorate in their performances and memories.
Comments:
How we function
by Bill Hollenbach
posted: 2011-03-31 08:59:27
We struggle. We sit alone at our keyboard. We drink coffee by the urnfull. We birth a vision that is ours. Sometimes it is still born and as much as we shake it and will it to breathe, no theatre picks it up. And so we pick ourselves up and move on to a new idea, a new project a new play. But once in a while the play we've conceived comes alive. Some literary manager/midwife declares: "It's a play! ... and we'll do it." What next? They snatch our baby away and give it to a father figure: the director. Sometimes this director welcomes our input. Other times not. Our play has become his/hers.
Here's a great reflection -- posted on HowlRound --on how the playwright might function in a new relationship. I think it's great reading.
Jayne Benjulian Bio Page I spend most of my time thinking about playwrights: discovering them, reading their work, talking to them, working with them on their scripts, asking them what they think about and why they’ve made certain choices. I have often wondered about the permissions and prohibitions we give playwrights, both spoken and unspoken, when we’re working on their plays. There is no manual that could possibly prepare them for what they will encounter. Each time they enter a theater, they enter a culture with new rules. For the most part, this culture is a director’s culture; we teach playwrights the rules of behavior and not the other way around. I was therefore moved by a response to Lisa D’Amour’s articlein HowlRound by a commenter who said, “the whole company (small or large) has to respond to the playwright as a leader. It can be dangerously easy for a company to think that it’s going to produce ‘for’ the playwright, or even to assume that the playwright doesn’t know how to produce,” and by another who mentioned “the playwright as leader.” Many of the theaters I admire call themselves “playwright-centered,” but that is not the same as playwright-led. In a playwright-centered theater, the artistic team looks for scripts that ignite the imagination of the theater-makers so that they might come together, envision a play on stage and make that script live. The works starts with a brilliant script. Playwright-led is something else altogether. There are dozens of small companies around the country, some, like 13P, successful at driving production for the work they’ve written. What, however, would a theater where playwrights are equal collaborative partners in production look like? How would that be different from most of the theater environments in the US today? Nearly all of the theaters I know are director-driven. The Artistic Director (a director, actor, or dramaturg turned director) articulates and embodies the theater’s vision. Whether the artistic team introduces playwrights to the artistic director and/or playwrights are cultivated over the long-term by artistic directors themselves, playwrights are chosen for a season because the Artistic Director: (1) falls in love with a play; (2) thinks the play will make money; (3) is loyal to the playwright; (4) sees that the play is a perfect match for a director with whom she wants to work; (5) believes directing the play will present a new creative challenge that will elevate her skills; and (6) any combination of the former. What happens when the playwright and director arrive at the theater has as many outcomes as there are artistic directors. Maybe the right director for the project has been chosen, maybe not. Maybe the playwright is a pain in the ass, maybe not. In one common model, the playwright is a contractor, perhaps a supremely happy one, but, although never referred to as such, she is a contractor offering a service and product nonetheless. To whom is the playwright a contractor in principle? Contractually, to the theater and therefore the artistic director; in practical terms, she reports to the director. Even in theaters that are nominally dedicated to the playwright, the director remains the authority in the rehearsal room and in all matters of the play. On the other hand, there are playwrights who demand to be equal partners with their directors. These playwrights are known as “difficult.” Now that I have met several of these writers and know their work, I challenge that assumption. “Difficult” in this context means a playwright questions the authority of the director about specific choices. Here is what playwright Bill Cain would call “the cognitive dissonance of theater”: On the one hand, the playwright is told that theater is uniquely a writer’s medium; on the other, he is told to sit in the back and shut up because the actors may be confused by conversation with both the playwright and the director. Theresa Rebeck reminds us in her book Fire Free Zone, “in the rehearsal hall, the playwright is often asked not to speak directly to the actors because that could ‘confuse’ them—in other words, it might undermine the director’s authority.” That caution rests on a supposition, Cain says, that actors should not be confused. Might confusion serve as a productive force early in rehearsals? Might actors be more engaged in the process of the play’s meaning? Typically, the playwright makes comments in sanctioned moments during rehearsals or to the director during breaks or over drinks at night, and then, the playwright goes back to his hotel to rewrite, sends fresh scenes in the early hours of the morning (and for fast, overnight rewrites, the playwright receives kudos), and so on and so forth with infinite variations on the process. How has this come about? It is a result of the economies of power: she who wields the money—and in a world where there is little money, exposure is currency—holds the power. Artistic directors, who are mostly directors, distribute the currency. “The anthropology of modern theater is a divine right monarchy,” says Cain. The problem is, even genius directors are maybe geniuses every other show. Add to this reality the fact that many directors do five shows a year, and you can see why it might make compelling sense for a playwright to work as a full partner in the collaboration about his own play. I am surprised how seldom they do. While I am not advocating a television model—that is, after all, a completely different economic model—it is presumptuous to think we have nothing to learn from TV, most especially now, when so many talented playwrights write television scripts for shows to which so many of us are addicted. All of these playwrights working in TV are now experienced in different ways of collaborating, including as writer-producers; they demonstrate it is possible, and not unusual, for writers to run things—and to wield power. True collaboration might take as many forms as there are writer/director teams. Accomplished playwrights in mid-career or at the apogee of their careers—writers with a track record or whose economic power entitles them to authority with theaters may want—and have the skill—to function as equal collaborators. In a theater in which playwrights are full collaborators, it is conceivable that a writer would function more as executive producer of her own work, to use a television model, than as contractor. In practical terms, perhaps the director and playwright both give notes to the actors in the presence of the other: “There is no pretense of being invisible and working through the sock puppet of the director. I come in with a yellow pad.” So says Bill Cain, who worked with Bill Rauch in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival production ofEquivocation and Kent Nicholson in the Marin Theatre Company production of 9 Circles. “Everyone reports to the play; everyone is fully engaged. The aesthetic of the play is a shared one.” Cain will publish a book about his collaboration with each director on five different productions of the same play: Shakespeare, Equivocation and a Writer’s Year in the American Theater: One Year, One Play, Five Productions, Five Directors, Five Casts. Polly Carl’s comment in this journal about titles in theater questions our working proposition about making plays: titles are indications of the artistic silos we have built. Some of us are just fine with our silos, and some of us would like to experiment with stepping out and inviting other people in. Could a writer serve as an artistic director of a theater? Why not—as long as that writer understands enough about production and direction to make strong choices in those hires. Why aren’t more playwrights artistic directors? The two most important things an artistic director does are plan the season and hire brilliant artists; a playwright with enough practical experience in theater might be a fine choice. Would boards of directors consider a playwright as an artistic director? If not, is that because boards, too, have inherited the “divine right monarchy” model of theater? Producing collaborative art that is a collaboration of equals is not the same as producing collaborative art that is the vision of one person orchestrated by other artists—the symphony conductor model, if you will. “Wait!” some theater directors will say, “Wait, I’m collaborative. Playwrights love me.” Maybe so. Here’s the litmus test: What do you do if a playwright disagrees with you on the effectiveness of the staging of certain scenes? May your playwrights speak to the actors during rehearsal? Which playwrights will you not invite back to your theater? Why? No one will hand power to writers. Can theaters make space for playwrights with a full voice in the rehearsal room? Can we shift the economy of power in theater?Playwrights: Collaborators or Contractors? by Jayne Benjulian
Comments:
Ed Shockley said on 2011-04-03:
I, unfortunately, have had both experiences. The talented directors and actors have analyzed my works, brought them to life and often discovered things that have inspired revisions or exceed my vision of the play or film. Others have arrived with the dreaded word, "concept", and altered the entire meaning of a piece by placing empahsis on moments thorugh stsge business that misdirects the attention of the audience. An example is in a production of ROLL OF THUNDER HEAR MY CRY a director had the character of Mr. Morrison bow his head and cowtow throughout the play. This painted a completely different image of a man who was willing to die rather than accept indignity. his one onstage confrontation then seemed like a moment of madness rather than the expression of his character. Similarly I allowed a quite talented director to experiment on one of the developmental productions of my award winning play, BOBOS, and he presented a Bob Fosse approach to the work. Watching drug dealers gyrate was a nightmare but worth seeing so that he and I could be on the same page for the equity premiere. A year later though it required my first and only expletive laden production meeting explosion to make the produce and director honor my vision of the script. (Afterward two key cast members thanked me. I learned that they had been miserable and embarrased by the Las Vegas approach of the earlier experiment). I have had more good experiences than bad but still too often encounter incompence of arrogance in directors.
Walt Vail said on 2011-03-31:
I guess I've been lucky. As a playwright, I've never had a problem with a director in a professional theatre. In amateur theatres, its a different story--anything can happen where amateur egos are at stake. Of course, I've been an actor, and a few times, a director--but I don't like directing because I'm not really good at it. In New York, at the Open Eye Theatre, my play and I were treated with great respect. In Philadelphia, at The Festival Theatre for New Plays--again a wonderful director who fully involved me in all rehearsals and who treated my play like a precious gem. In Greensboro, NC--recently--a terrifically talented director who brought my play fully to life. At Vagabond Acting Troupe, a truly gifted and professional theatre, my plays were beautifully produced and directed. So wherever I encounter professional directors, I don't see the "problems" that "playwrights" are complaining about. I guess I've been lucky--but then, most of the revising I usually do in rehearsal are minor changes--my plays usually work pretty well by the time I consider them ready for production. Walt Vail
Secret Room Theatre seeks short plays for "Lickety Skits"
by Alex Dremann
posted: 2011-03-25 12:35:05
Calling all playwrights! Secret Room Theatre is looking for short plays for "Lickety Skits" to be produced the Philadelphia Fringe Festival September 2011. The past two years, with the hugely successful "4Play" and "Dirty Laundry" we concentrated on longer plays, but this year for "Lickety Skits," we're we are only looking for short-short plays under 5 minutes. No other themes or restrictions-- anything goes as long as it runs under 5 minutes. Keep it short and tight- you don't need to use all 5 minutes! For more info about "Lickety Skits" and Secret Room, go to www.secretroomtheatre.com.
LICKETY SKITS SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Plays must run five minutes or less.
Electronic submissions only (.pdf, .doc, or .rtf).
Please help our record keeping by naming your electronic file in the format "Author Name (Play Title)"
For example: "William Shakespeare (3 Minute Hamlet).pdf"
Make sure full author contact info with email, snail mail address, and phone number appear on the title page of the script.
Feel free to submit plays with previous productions, but plays must be royalty-free.
Limit 3 submissions per playwright.
Our website: www.secretroomtheatre.com
Email scripts to: alex@secretroomtheatre.com
Deadline: 5/1/2011
Comments:
Funding New Plays
by Ken Kaissar
posted: 2011-03-15 07:09:14
Funding Our Work!!!
By Ken Kaissar
As we find ourselves in the midst of this horrible economic climate, playwrights continue wondering two things: how do we get our work produced, and what can we do to counter the fact that opportunities for playwrights are disappearing every day?
According to Obama's latest budget proposal, the NEA is about to be no more! Theatre companies are losing more and more of their funding as foundations are cutting back and as their finances remain in the toilet.
The Cherry Lane in New York has recently closed its doors. The Virtual Theatre Project is gone. Who's next?
It's time that we, as playwrights, get real. Gone are the days when can merely mail off our scripts and hope we get picked up. That reality is becoming more and more of a pipe dream.
And we all know that seeing our work on its feet is not just healthy for our careers. It is vital to our craft. We cannot hone our craft without an opportunity to see how what we write is playing in front of an audience. To write a play without ever seeing it performed is like a baseball player constantly confined to a batting cage. We can only truly know what our work is doing, when we watch an audience interact with our play.
It's clear that our response to the economic climate as playwrights has to be a more proactive approach in which we get involved and put our work up ourselves.
To that end, my friend and colleague, John Russell, and I have launched an experiment to see if we can break ground on new methods of fundraising to produce our own work. We have launched what we call the Ultimate Apple iPad Raffle. Here's how it works. We sell $20 raffle tickets which enters the buyer into 3 separate raffle drawings: one for an Apple iPod Nano, one for an Apple iPod Touch and the big Kahuna prize: an Apple iPad!!!
Along with the three drawings, the raffle ticket entitles each buyer to one free ticket to the show. So in effect, the raffle is not the biggest draw. We are actually raising money for the play by preselling the tickets. The raffle becomes a fringe benefit. Just icing on the cake to help motivate the sale sooner rather than later.
So far this system has been wildly successful. We have collectively sold over 200 raffle tickets, which will pay for the raffle itself and cover our space rental. But we are not done yet. We have a long way to go.
Our next priority is to pay all of the artists involved! The future of quality American theatre will only be viable if actors, designers, directors and stage managers can be compensated for what they do. Therefore, our budgets put artist salaries above production values. I would rather see a naked stage with a few pieces of furniture and very simple costumes if it means my collaborators are all being paid as close to a living wage as we can afford.
Therefore, at this point, our fundraising campaign marches on in order to raise money to pay our collaborators.
So why am I sharing this with all of you? As I said before, this entire enterprise is an experiment, and one that happens to be working for the time being. But if we can pull this off and actually produce two successful shows by preselling tickets via a raffle, it will mean new things for independent playwrights in Philadelphia. If we succeed, I know I will be empowered to produce my own shows whenever I feel I need to see them on their feet. I will still submit my plays to theatre companies, and still apply for grants. But in the few years in which I am not finding any luck or success, I know I don't just have to remain in my office by myself waiting for the phone to ring. I can "take up arms against a sea of troubles" and produce my own work. I don't have thousands of dollars of my own money to throw at these productions. But what I do have is a pretty good model for raising money from my supporters.
We hope that if we succeed, that you will be empowered as well. If our shows go well, we hope that you will be inspired to give this model a shot. That's why we believe that our success this June could be your success as well.
For that reason, I am encouraging all of our PDC colleagues to support our experiment by buying a ticket. Enter the raffle to win an iPad, which will be drawn on April 12, or an Apple iPod Nano, which will be drawn on May 26. And with each ticket you buy, you will receive a free ticket to see either ANOTHER ROUND by John Russell, or THE MAN STANLEY by Ken Kaissar.
To support John Russell's play visit www.jadamrussell.com. To support Ken Kaissar visit www.twoguysmakingtheatre.com. To support both of us, visit both sites, and then call me at 917-386-3870 and I will buy you a drink!!!
We're all in this together, fellow playwrights. If ever there was a time when play producing in America needed a revolution, that time is now. Help us succeed, and let's prove together that all we really need to get our work up is just a group of friends who are willing to support us. We can't wait to share our work with you, and we can't wait to see your work as well!!
Comments:
MM Wittle said on 2011-03-15:
Thank you for posting this. It is true a playwright needs to hear his or her play. Seeing it on the page is only half the process. I hope those who can support this cause will. I went to a talkback with Theresa Rebeck and someone in the audience asked her what advise she had for new playwrights. The person asked if one should grab some friends and rent a barn to have the play produced. She said that is exactly what should be done because it is so important for a playwright to hear what an actor can bring to his or her work. Best wishes always.
Philly's Primary Stages...Marches On! NEXT WEEK!
by Todd Holtsberry
posted: 2011-03-09 19:12:04
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Philly's Primary Stages is back and as usual, it marches on in it's effort to develop new plays right here in Philadelphia, with it's next installment, aptly entitled, "Marches On!", this upcoming Tuesday and Wednesday nights, 3/15, and 3/16, at The Shubin Theatre!
Philly's Primary Stages primary goal is to help writers develop their plays, and in their craft, through a collaboration between a writer, director, and actors. In tha...t collaboration, we like to think that the directors and actors develop as well. This script-in-hand 10 minute play reading series is like no other that you've attended. It's a down and dirty series in which we just don't do a boring cold read of a play...that's your father's play reading series...if he had one! We rehearse the plays a few times, getting up on our feet, finding the moments that make the play breath and incorporate simple sets, props, costumes, lights and sound. In short, we blur the line between a script-in-hand play reading series, and a fully produced night of theater! The audience becomes the 4th wheel of this collaboration as the play is read and the writers get a sense of how they play is working with a live audience. In order to make the night a fun one for all, and to ply the audience into coming, we feature the best house band of ANY staged reading series...Olive Juice...Philly's hottest ukulele and stand-up bass combo! They rock out the covers, and originals before, during intermission, and they even play live outro music for each play after it is read. What other staged reading series does that?!?!? Don't answer that, it's rhetorical...NOBODY! As a matter of fact, we think our house band could kick your house band's ass! That's easy to say because no other staged reading series in Philly has one!!!!! As usual, each night...once again Tuesday, 3/15, and Wednesday, 3/16, starting at 7:30pm...will be a totally different line-up of plays. This edition of "Philly's Primary Stages...Marches On!" will feature the following line-ups of plays, writers, directors and actors: Tuesday, 3/15: ** - "Crazy, Crazy on You", by Karuna Lynne Elson, directed by Ilana Vine, and featuring Nick Troy and Rachel O'Hanlon Rodriguez. - "Up, Up, and Now Way!", by Sharon B. Kling, directed by John D'Alonzo, and featuring Theresa Leahy and Chris Davis. - "Entitled", by Michael Schwartz, directed by Ray King Reese, and featuring actors that the director will tell us about eventually. - "Something is Something", by Leyla A. Eraslan, directed by Darin Dunston, and featuring Andrew Tardif, Rory Donovan, and David Stanger. - "Once Upon a Time", by Sebastian Cummings, directed by Todd Holtsberry, and featuring Sebastian Cummings, Justin Torres, Angela Harmon, and a few others that the director will tell us about eventually. - "David Austin", by Pat McGeever, directed by Georgie Keveson, featuring actors the director will tell us about eventually. Wednesday, 3/16: ** - "Family Tradition", by Josh McIlvain, directed by Rebecca Balauger, and featuring Carolina Millard and Zachary Chiero. - "The Clearing", by Josh McIlvain, directed by Lise Raven, and featuring Frank Brückner, John D'Alonzo, and Gregory Wolmart. - "Three Wishes" by Susan Cain McQuilkin, directed by Joe Nevin, and featuring Brittany Holdahl and Nick Troy. - "String Enough Memories", Robin Rodriguez, directed by Chris Davis, and featuring Kate Black Regan and - "Some Place", by Ken Kaissar, directed by Mike Durkin, and featuring Kevin Chick, Tyler Hoffman, and Leeanna Rubin. - "Bye", by Chris Davis, directed by Abby Whacker, and featuring Michael Stimson, and Denise Shubin. Both nights feature the awesome Stage Managing ad board operating talents of Ms. Molly Edelman too! **Please note - these are the nights the plays will be read, not the exact order of the nights. Twelve great new plays, by 11 playwrights, featuring the work of 12 directors, a whole lot of great directors, and one kickass house band aren't all you get in these great night... We even put out what we like to call the Philly's Primary Stages Buffet, with beer, wine, soda pop, bottled water, an ocassional bottle of liquor, chips, dips, Vienna sausages and puddin' packs! You get ALL this...all for just a small suggested donation of $5...that's ONLY FIVE AMERICAN DOLLARS people!!!! So come on down with $5 (or more, we won't hate you for being overly generous) in hand, to the beautiful Shubin Theatre, next Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30pm and be ready to have a great time and support new play development in Philadelphia! Philly's Primary Stages is co-sponsored by the PDC, Secret Room Theatre, and The Shubin Theatre, and would not be possible without their generous support! The producers are Todd Holtsberry, Bill Rolleri, and Adam Rothstein who work hard towards keeping this series alive for the last 7 years. Molly Edelman just rocks and if you try to take her, we'd be giving you a good what for and a punch in the nose to boot! So come on out and be prepared to be blown away! |
Comments:
The Internet and Writing Opportunities
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2011-02-12 14:35:20
Last week I accompanied my girlfriend to a blog event hosted by TravelZoo for travel-foodies writing on ’dem Internets. She took me along as her “opener”; Dana can’t stand confabs and schmoozing so I stood in to start the small-talk, build her up, and then bring her in after the conversation is good and going.
A tiny minority of bloggers attending sustained themselves from their websites but most were simply running their sites for the joy and pleasure of it, hoping at some point to break-even on expenses. As it goes with these events, the participants all had a passion for their niche: there was a blogress devoted to eco-Manhattan eateries, a site providing nutritional information regarding high-end restaurants, and others too esoteric to mention.
When we talked about the business of blogging, a common theme developed among these entrepreneurs—writing is difficult; creating an interesting piece day after day is doubly so. The most common problem among them was how much time and effort it takes to do primary research in order to provide information not readily available to readers.
No, duh.
But that is exactly required not only to maintain a successful blog, but it’s just as important for any good writing. And guess what? It’s labor intensive. By the same token, here is another opportunity for writers scraping by. It may be too much for writers to create their own blog and gather a following to pay bills. However, bloggers who do run commercially-driven sites have scarce resources to keep the blogrolls fresh. Why not ghostblog? Why can't this be an opportunity for my pecunious playwright pals. Or any writer.
Writing for various outlets on the Internet—e/magazines, blogs, theatre reviews, criticism, essays, reportage, commentary, etc.—helps build a portfolio, provides credibility, and gives a writer instant references for their work. It may not be a living wage...but it can add to one.
Comments:
PDC Residency @ Plays & Players
by Valdemar Zialcita
posted: 2011-02-02 15:53:37
It has been a good start for this pilot program.
We kicked off with a reception to introduce our Residents--Joy Cutler, Quinn Eli, and Greg Romero--to members of the theatre community who might want take an interest in the work generated by the Residency. Afterwards, Dan Student, representing Plays & Players, and I sat down with the playwrights to discuss their goals and interests. Since then the focus of our work has been on meeting with a variety of people intended to help move our Residents outside of their respective artistic boxes. We've met with Robert Smythe, who introduced the Residents to a conceptual framework surrounding the creating of work for puppets, as well as leading the writers through some puppet-making techniques. We met with Alan Turner, a landscape architect who presented an alternative paradigm for how an artist might see his relationship to his working conditions, his audience/clientele, and his work. And we have met with Isaiah Zagar, the mad genius behind the Magic Gardens and other outsider artwork around town. We also took the opportunity to present a private reading of a play by Joy Cutler, something she had been working on during the Residency.
Later this month you will have an opportunity to speak directly to the Residents about their experiences. Stay tuned to your mailing list notices! An announcement if in the offing. In the meantime, here are the Residents in their own words, acronym-style ....
The acronym is RESIDENCY.
Greg Romero:
ROMERO:
Everybody
Says
"I
do".
Each
Night=
Creativity.
Yes!
Joy Cutler:
Right-brained
Exploration
Stirs
Imaginative
Developmental
Endeavors
Not
Cramped
Yearnings!
Ripe'nready
Explorers
Shake-up
In-house
Dull
Energy
Neatly
Causing
Yahweh'sYammering
Quinn Eli:
Re-imagining
Existing
Strategies
In
Drama,
Expression,
Narrative &
Collaborative
Yarn-spinning
Greg Romero:
Reminder:
Exploring
Shit
Is
Damn
Exciting!
Now
Create,
You
Reorganize
Every
Situation
Inside
Dan's
Energetic
Nerd
Calendar.
Yee-Haw!
Robots,
Eat
Shit!
I
Don't
Even
Need
Computer
Yokes
Comments:
Todd Holtsberry said on 2011-02-02:
Sounds like good things are happening with the program. Please continue to report the great happenings and experiences of the residents and the residency program. I want to see cool programs like this thrive in the PDC and think it would be a shame not to toot our collective horn about the great work and resources of the PDC, as well of those of our writers and other members. Here's hoping to more informative reports like this about this exciting new residency done in collaboration with Plays and Players and a fine group of writers!
The Broad Street Review Celebrates Its 5th Year This Thursday
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2011-01-30 17:48:55
The Broad Street Review celebrates its 5th anniversary as Philadelphia’s virtual salon for the cultural cognoscenti this Thursday, Feburary 3rd. The party starts at 5:30PM at the Franklin Inn Club. Space is limited so book as soon as you can. Tickets can be had at the following link:
http://broadstreetreviewbirthday.eventbrite.com.
The founder and editor of the BSR, Dan Rottenberg has created a highly accessible and acutely local commentariat on issues involving the arts. The website provides criticism, essays, and opinions on music, theater, opera, dance, and cinema; almost all of the contributions come from Philadelphians and/or regional writers. And of course, any scribbler can contribute.
A unique feature of the BSR is simply the existence of the editor. Too many “open-source content” websites--even the ones considered massive successes such as Huffington Post-- frequently contain vacuous opinionating or invective masquerading as thought. While all are encouraged to write for the BSR, what guarantees the posting is good writing, intelligent commentary or incisive opinions. The random screeds and the back-and-forth free-for alls don’t exist here. Thank God.
Nonetheless, the BSR is one of these websites that has endless potential but hasn’t quite hit its stride yet. It’s not the quality of writing—Toby Zinman contributing NYC theatre reviews, Dan Coren writing on classical music, and the erudite Prof. Robert Zaller opining about everything—nor the editorial selection; Dan Rottenberg does an admirable job of ensuring intelligent and thought-provoking posts. It simply needs more content…in this it shares a deficiency that the PDC has with its own website. It leads me to a question I’ve been asking ever since interviewing Dan Rottenberg for the In Conversation series: why aren’t we seeing a proliferation of writers sending material to Dan? Do playwrights or screenwriters think criticism is beneath them? Is writing about art and culture too difficult?
I don’t know the answers. But I do know dozens of writers who hold themselves out to be artists who aren’t writing on a daily basis but could be doing many, many things to hone their talent. BSR is just one outlet. I’ve always thought PDC members could provide a charge to the Philadelphia cultural conversation missing from established outlets such as the Inquirer, Daily News, or City Paper. Certainly, the BSR is one way to do it.
Rottenberg has ambitions for the site to be much larger; he’d like to add books and architecture as categories. Ultimately, he sees the website growing into a broader version of the New York Review of Books, where the subject in question (a book, a play, an exhibition) becomes a jumping off point to talk about a wider concept. Good to see such big thinking still happening in Philly.
See you at the party.
Comments:
Philly's Primary Stages - MARCHING ON! is seeking new 10 minute plays now!
by Todd Holtsberry
posted: 2011-01-25 08:01:41
Hello PDCers, I am getting this out with only 3 weeks deadline, so wanted to get it out to you in different forms to make sure you all saw this call for entries...sorry if you got it twice...please read below.
Since we are about to enter February, Philadelphia’s New Play Month…Philly's Primary Stages is back and wants your plays!!!
Philly's Primary Stages is a down and dirty, script-in-hand 10 minute staged reading series, in which we blur the lines between a script-in-hand staged reading and a fully produced night of theater. We rehearse, so that we may find the moments, and bring these readings to life. We get up and move and use simple lights, sounds, costumes, sets, and props...we even act!!!
This is a series that is collaborative in nature with the primary goal being to help writers develop their plays. Writers work closely with directors and actors and, at times, make revisions to their plays, even prior to the readings. The final stage of collaboration is bringing in an audience to see how they respond to the plays. While the primary goal is to help writers develop their plays, we find that directors and actors develop as well as they work collaboratively with the writers, as well.
This Philly's Primary Stages is intended to explore the theme of "March"...whatever that means to the writer.
It could be a noun, a verb, the month, the military act, March Madness, a German name, the Eids of March, St Patty’s Day, spring, rebirth, marching to a different drummer…whatever “March" might be to you...let your mind MARCH you wherever that suggestion leads...
We want to know!
Here are the guidelines for submissions:
1) Plays must be submitted electronically, via e-mail to toddzz@hotmail.com. Subject line should read "Philly's Primary Stages Play Submission - March".
2) Plays should be approximately 10 minutes in length...please don't send 3 or 30 minute plays...read "10 minutes approximately".
3) Plays can deal with all subject matters, themes, styles, orientations, experimental theater is fine, and desirable, so is the more conventional and absurd. In short...we like to mix it up...we aren't just doing sketch and like to mix the serious and dark with the funny and light...anything will be considered...we are pushing boundaries here...
4) Playwrights must be ok with collaborative efforts and the process of developing their plays as such...that is one of the main goals of Philly's Primary Stages.
5) Plays should be newer in nature and must not have been fully produced somewhere else. Staged readings, writer's circles, and the like, are acceptable though.
6) These staged readings will take place at the Shubin Theatre, on either Tuesday, 3/15, or Wednesday, 3/16. Please understand that we will set what plays will be read on what night a little closer to the readings and that we ask for your flexibilty.
7) The deadline for all submissions will be Tuesday, February 15th, 2011. It's only 3 weeks away so start writing and e-mailing those scripts to us now!
8) Once the scripts are received, they will be electronically distributed to directors that will make the final decisions on play selection. We like doing this, so that they feel a connection to the play and will have more of a commitment to helping in its development.
9) There is a 3 script submission, maximum, per playwright.
10) PLAYWRIGHTS WILL ONLY BE NOTIFIED IF THEIR PLAYS ARE SELECTED.
We are looking forward to seeing, and MARCHing to help you develop your great play submissions, through the collaborative efforts of writers, directors, and actors working together to prove just how great of a new theater town Philadelphia truly is!
So go ahead and MARCH to "Philly's Primary Stages – MARCHING ON!", the script-in-hand staged reading series that loves you back...
Any questions, please email me at email address above, or call me (Todd) at 267-231-8394.
Happy writing!
Todd Holtsberry
Denise Shubin, Alex Dremann, Bill Rolleri, Molly Edelman, and Adam Rothstein,
Co-Producers of Philly's Primary Stages
Co-Sponsored by the PDC, Secret Room Theatre, and the Shubin Theatre
Comments:
Todd Holtsberry said on 2011-01-26:
Hello PDCers,
A concerned member of the PDC contacted me regarding the call for entries I posted for “Philly’s Primary Stages – MARCHING ON!”.
The concern was that the title and theme of this upcoming Philly’s Primary Stages…MARCHING ON!...would potentially lead one to believe that Philly’s Primary Stages, it’s Producers, and Co-Sponsors (The PDC, Secret Room Theatre, and The Shubin Theatre) are left leaning politically, and that the title “MARCHING ON!” might be too provocative and suggesting some connection with a similarly named organization….
I want you to know that the call for entry was meant only to solicit new play submissions with some connection to the theme of “March” and whatever that meant to the writer…and that for SEVEN years now Philly’s Primary Stages has been MARCHING ON in the development of new theater, right here in Philadelphia!!!
We are thinking of calling the next Philly’s Primary Stages “A Basket of Kittens” to avoid any further controversy… although being controversial is kind of fun…
Please see the call for entries above.
Todd Holtsberry
Co-Producer of Philly’s Primary Stages
Co- Sponsored by The PDC, Secret Room Theatre, and The Shubin
The 17th Edition of the DGA's Resource Directory is Now AVAILABLE
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2011-01-22 16:27:02
Two weeks ago, the Dramatists Guild of America (DGA) mailed the 17th printed edition of its Resource Directory to members. The DGA provides many services, but this treasure trove of information is worth the dues alone.[1] Naturally, significant parts of the book are already available online (such as the Dramatists Bill of Rights as well as play contests via The Loop), but having a comprehensive listing of grants, foundations, theatres, deadlines, and helpful advice at one’s finger tips is invaluable.
Remember the Yellow Pages?
If you do, this is better than that.
The Guild has also added significantly to new-ish categories such as 10-minute play contests, volunteer posts, and LGBT opportunities. These entries hadn’t existed five years ago in the Resource Directory and their appearance demonstrates how the theatrical world has evolved in such a short period of time.
The implicit thrust of the book is to be your own advocate. Indeed, the entire book lays out as a self-help guide not only for the budding stage artist but also the seasoned, career-minded playwright. Gary Garrison’s chapter on agents is sage advice for learned hands and novices alike. Roland Tec’s chapter on Synopsis Writing contains insights from professional writers, literary managers, and artistic directors. The bibliography, Books on Writing for the Stage, contains real heavyweight (and useful) tomes. And the summary of contest deadlines may be the biggest reason why this book is so coveted. I ripped those pages out and put the entire calendar on my bulletin board.
Lastly, I’d like to highlight the Dramatists Bill of Rights, a unique feature promulgated by the DGA to remind playwrights about the special privileges afforded to them for a stage manuscript. These rights are not always self-evident when working with theatres and collaborators. For example, the section on Ownership of Incidental Contributions is particularly enlighteningTo wit, that “neither dramaturgs nor directors (nor any other contributors) may be considered a co-author of a play, unless (i) they’ve collaborated with you from the play’s inception, (ii) they’ve made a copyrightable contribution to the play, and (iii) you have agreed in writing that they are the co-author.” This especially comforting to a playwright considering the proliferation of workshops and the sheer number of dramaturgs paired with writers to develop a stage-worthy play.
At some point in the near future, the DGA will save the money and blast this out electronically. But I imagine the folks at DGA will likely provide a more in-depth resource with the addition of hyperlinks and digital annotations.
Maybe next year.
In the meantime, get your hands on it.
[1] Annual dues are as follows: Member $130, Associate $90, Student $45.
Comments:
Pat McGeever said on 2011-01-24:
BTW, the "Act for Charity" Short Play Festival at the Shubin, with a deadline of 2/15 on the Submissions Calendar, has now announced its charity for this year: H.O.M.E., an organization that does outreach to homeless people.
Pat McGeever said on 2011-01-24:
I wanted to second Tom's suggestion on the value of the DG Resource Directory. For the PDC Submissions Calendar elsewhere on this site, that is mainly what I use in posting opportunities. Liam, the main difference is that DG is annual and Dramatists Sourcebook is biennial. Things do change year to year. Everybody, before you submit, call them to make sure the info is still accurate. Sometimes the dates change or the event gets cancelled.
Liam Castellan said on 2011-01-22:
Is there much difference in the content/value between this and TCG's "Dramatists Sourcebook"?
PDC Happy Hour at Play's and Players' Quig's Pub on Monday, 2/28/11
by Todd Holtsberry
posted: 2011-01-11 14:37:15
Come one, come all, to the first ever PDC Happy Hour at Quig's Pub!!!
Featuring Special Guest Bartenders from the PDC Family, including Todd Holtsberry and a second TBA...
ALL TIPS BENEFIT THE PDC...
February 28th, 2011
6-8pm
Quig's Pub at Plays and Players...3rd floor
1714 Delancey St, Phila., PA
Looking for further announcements on other fun activities that will be happening at this PDC Happy Hour...all designed to get as much of your money as possible...
...all to benefit the PDC and it's many programs!!
For more info, contact Todd Holtsberry, PDC Board Vice-Chair
by phone: 267-231-8394
by email: toddzz@hotmail.com
Comments:
Todd Holtsberry said on 2011-01-12:
We are looking for items or services to be raffled or secret auctioned off at this event...all to help raise money for the PDC! Do you have any items, or services that you might donate for this event? Do you know somebody, like a friend or family member, that might be able to donate...maybe a gift certificate to a restaurant, a massage, acting lessons...whatever! Also, do you know a well known Philly writer that we might be able to get to do a shift, anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours? Please contact Todd Holtsberry at 267-231-8394, or by email at toddzz@hotmail.com if you can donate something. Thanks!
Submission Opportunities
by Pat McGeever
posted: 2011-01-07 16:45:25
I'll be filling a small part of the lacuna left by Richard Kotulski's departure, by managing the "Submission Opportunities" calendar. So far I've posted the ones I could find and which seemed relevant to at least some of our members, for the remainder of January. As the items say, be sure to visit the website or contact the administrator before you submit--these were listed in the DG Resource Directory, 2010, and changes may have been made.
In the future, I hope to expand my sources. If you happen across a submission opportunity you'd like to share with your fellow members, please funnel the info to me and I'll update the calendar once or twice a month.
Thanks, and best of luck!
Pat McGeever
Comments:
Worth seeing: A Small Fire by Adam Bock
by Richard Kotulski
posted: 2011-01-07 13:14:48
Just a few days ago I had the fortune to see Adam Bock's new play, A Small Fire, at Playwrights Horizons. I've followed Adam's work for a number of years now--and several years back I had a chance to work on The Thugs while it was in development at Portland Center Stage--and I've much admired both his ear for dialogue and his ability to create charming characters in usually unusual circumstances. His latest effort follows in the same vein, but I think drives deeper into the heart of the character's humanity than many of his previous efforts.
Spoiler Alert!
Don't read any further if you don't want to have the play's events revealed...
The story revolves around Emily Bridges--a powerful and in-charge woman who runs her own contracting business. She's somebody who has always been in control of her and her family's life. She brash, loud, and a little overbearing. In the first couple of scenes she's abrasive to the point of unpleasantness. But her life is in for a dramatic change as she loses first her sense of smell, then her sense of taste, her sight, and finally her hearing.
Suddenly this in charge woman is thrown into a world she has no control over. People have to take care of her, have to help her, and it's a heartbreaking and humbling experience for her.
She struggles with whether or not she can actually continue to live through each day--she feels broken. Ultimately, she and her husband develop a connection between one another that they haven't ever felt before--and a genuine love is kindled between them.
It ends on a beautiful note--and ultimately it's a play that speaks to the resilience of each of us--even those of us who fall quite a long ways.
It's definitely worth seeing if you have the chance: visit the Playwrights Horizons website to learn more.
Comments:
martha said on 2011-01-07:
I have tickets for next week. I have heard wonderful things about this play already. I kinda fell for Pawk when I saw her for the first time in the still-being-reworked-and-now-retitled Sondheim musical "Bounce". She shines. I look forward. I'm seeing a great deal, often 3-4 shows a week -- this weekend it's two more entries in the "Under the Radar" festival (saw "Ameriville and "Diciembre" this week already, and then "Gruesome Playground Injuries" at Second Stage. Just to let you know that your old Resident Dramaturg is seeing stuff. Pawk and Birney together work the price? Yeah, I expect so ...
Sidney T Rifkin said on 2011-01-07:
$70 tickets, though... ouch... Is it really worth it?
Introducing the PDC Literary Staff
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2010-12-31 07:35:37
The Dramatists Center is presently replacing most of its older programs for members with a process to shepherd the playwright and his text to the most appropriate setting and venue. We discovered over the years that PDC had no capability of workshopping plays or matching playwrights with collaborators for non-public readings. Aside from Writers Table (a weekly program for short form work or scenes), our most consistent and well-regarded program for members was Readings in Restaurants. RinR was designed for full length plays to be heard in a public setting. Unfortunately, PDC had nothing on offer for the in-between stuff. We had no programs for developing unfinished full-lengths, one-acts, or sketches beyond 10-15 pages. And this is what the Literary Staff proposes to do for our members.
Because the Literary Staff consists of several volunteers (members and officers), it should spread the workload across more shoulders and improve its effectiveness and responsiveness. Furthermore, it should allow a greater variety of ways to develop new work.
The staff makes the writer’s intention the guiding principle; it isn’t there to judge or reject a text. Obviously an unfinished play of thirty pages won’t serve the writer or the text with a full scale rehearsed reading. A clutch of alternatives exist for sketches to one acts; from half a play to a full length rough draft. In fact, it is rare for PDC to conduct a full length reading that requires a staged reading. The staff helps set up the most appropriate venue for the play (fragment, sketch, dialogue, etc.) submitted.
Let me give you an example of how this works. I have a full length play recently finished and it requires a heavy integration of projection. How the projection is done remains to be decided. Do we use front projection, rear projection, or a large flat-panel for the readings? We don’t know.
Furthermore, I have a public reading coming up in January so the timing of the projection and the dialogue requires rehearsals and workshopping. Frankly, I don’t even know if this play will “work.” Lastly, the play will require one stage manager and three actors--one to read stage directions and the other two to play all nine characters. The casting may be problematic as well. The main female character is a seventeen year old girl and the main male character is a 44 year old man. There are also two more seventeen year old characters, three more mid-forties characters and one in her mid-twenties. Finding the right and versatile actors could be an issue at this stage.
This is where the Literary Staff shines. Having a partner to work on these issues with you not only is a relief but helps you learn more about your piece as you go along. I sent my piece in to the Literary Staff via Wally Zialcita and heard back shortly from Brian-Grace Duff who volunteered to help me execute Teach Your Children. Simultaneously anxious and excited, I’m moving forward on this with confidence because I’m working with a skilled and sympathetic person from the Literary Staff.
The success of the Literary Staff depends upon two things: the zeal of our volunteers and the volume of work they need to process. The volunteers are doing their part. I ask members to examine their portfolio of writing and choose pieces that need work; a play or a piece of dialogue long abandoned because it was too difficult to finish. Select a finished text that needs polish. These are exactly the kind of problems the Literary Staff can help resolve.
Please send your piece to the Executive Director, Wally Zialcita (literary@pdc1.org) and one of the following volunteers will contact you about establishing a time, date, place, and collaborators for the piece to be heard:
Quinn Eli
Brian Grace-Duff
Michael Schwartz
Wally Zialcita
Jeff Von Staley
Krissy Scatton
Robert Castle
Bill D’Agostino
Tom Tirney
Felicia Rivers
Happy new year.
Comments:
Richard W. Kotulski said on 2011-01-03:
I think this is a great direction to start moving in.
"Sister Sex" this Thursday
by Pat McGeever
posted: 2010-12-26 09:29:09
Come to a table reading of "Sister Sex," a sitcom about the only sex therapist in the nation who is also a Catholic nun.
Thursday, Dec. 30, 8:00 PM, Plays & Players, 1740 Delancey, 3d floor, by Quig's Pub
After the blizz.
Info: Pat McGeever, patplay.mcg@gmail.com
Thanks!
Comments:
The Perfect Reading: Two Artistic Directors Talk About Readings and New Play Development
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2010-12-12 08:56:11
It may take years for an artist to acclimatize hearing his own work but the reading is a necessity in advancing a newly created play. And after you’ve done the writing, the editing, and the re-writing; you’ve got to book a space, find a director, cast it, and then have the reading itself. And all these activities ought to be done with an acute detachment to recognize where the play succeeds and where it fails.
In many respects, a finished manuscript for a stage play is only a starting point. The solo effort of the writer ends and the actions of third parties begin to inform the potentialities of the script. The development process involving actors, dramaturgs, directors, and others establishes a feedback mechanism for the writer to polish and hone the piece until it’s truly complete. A few elite writers don’t need this…but for the rest of us, it’s the best way to perfect one’s writing.
This is not an easy process. Doing this stuff consistently on your own takes rare fortitude. It helps to have help. Two Philadelphia-based artistic directors-- both dedicated to staging and developing new work--agreed to talk about their approach to conducting readings of new work.
Seth Rozin, Artistic Director for InterAct Theatre
Co-founded InterAct in 1988, and has since directed over 35 productions, including Israel Horovitz's Lebensraum, Gibbons’ Permanent Collection, and It’s All True. Seth has also directed for the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, Blue Heron Theatre and the 45th Street Theatre in New York, as well as regionally with Act II Playhouse, Venture Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Paul Meshejian, Artistic Director for PlayPenn
Paul Meshejian is the Founding Artistic Director of PlayPenn. Since 1989 he has been a company member at People’s Light and Theatre (PLT) where he has both acted and directed. In the 1980’s he was the founding artistic director of Stage One: Collaboration, a professional theatre in Minneapolis/St. Paul devoted to new and rarely produced works. Paul is on the Acting Faculty at University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
On the Utility of Public Readings
Seth Rozin
“I’ve come on a long journey on this in my time developing new work. I don’t find public readings very useful. They could be useful as programming i.e. another offering from a theatre aside from a full production but the public reading tends to be overvalued to playwrights in general.
If your thrust is value to the playwright, I find a public reading more dangerous than helpful:
A) If the audience responds positively, the playwright often takes that for validation for a full production. The impulse is to proceed much sooner to that end and the writer may simply have mistook the response for generosity of spirit from the audience.
B) If the audience responds positively, the playwright may conclude that the piece needs no further work or refinement.
No matter how much you tell the audience the play is a work in progress, they will generally conclude it’s a finished work and judge it accordingly. Therefore, if the audience gives it a negative response, it can be demoralizing for the playwright. Wholesale changes may be made that don’t need to be made wherein the reading may not have had the right actors or there was not enough rehearsal time.
Way too many readings will be judged using the audience as a barometer and that probably does not serve the playwright. I’ve seen playwrights give up with a bad response and seen them give up for other reasons with a good response. ”
Paul Meshejian
“You know, there is more than one kind of reading. You have readings for subscribers or members (programming) and there are development readings. With the latter, we don’t know what we have so we need an audience to find out. The audience makes the best teacher and in my opinion, it’s the primary collaborator.
If you were making any product and bringing it to market, you would test it before putting it on sale. I don’t fully subscribe to this but you get the picture.
Most playwrights don’t want to hear from an audience. I’ve developed 45 plays at PlayPenn and only one playwright asked to have an audience feedback session. I think the audience question and answer can be useful but playwrights will learn what they need to learn by watching the audience during the reading.
Furthermore, things are tough to control with audience feedback. It requires a skilled individual to field these questions and ensure they’re appropriate and not confrontational. “
On Developing New Plays
Seth Rozin:
“I disagree with theatres that think play development is readings. In my mind, play development connotes close collaboration between a writer, director, actors and others working on the same thing together…privately. In a private reading, you can bring together people and try out things and there is nothing at stake. That’s how progress is made.”
Paul Meshejian
“When I created PlayPenn, I thought of ways to best serve the writer. At the same time, I’m a pragmatist and want to advance the idea of new play production in Philadelphia.
I give playwrights as much involvement as they want when it comes to the process. It’s in their hands really. I’m a deep believer in the artist as grown up. When we have development hell, some artists abdicate responsibility to other people. Responsibility means making decisions but that’s hard. This includes the space, the director, the actors, the time—it’s an organization job. It could take a week to pull together. Or a month.”
What Makes a Successful Reading?
Seth Rozin
“Actors and directors want to make good art. If they are good at what they do, they can mask the flaws in the play. This is not necessarily the in the interest of writers. In a best case scenario, the reading allows the strengths to shine through as well as bare the weaknesses. Takes a real lack of ego (for the part of the dir and actors) to let that happen. You’ve got to be helpful to the writer.”
What’s the Most Important Thing When Conducting a Reading?
Seth Rozin
“The single most important thing (for any reading) is getting good actors: moreso than having a decent director. Why? Even with no prep time, good actors can simply wing it. It’s especially useful if you’re doing a cold reading.”
Paul Meshejian
“The reading needs to have a purpose aside from just having an audience hear it. If you’re having a reading to learn from the audience about what’s working and not working, the public reading is a useful tool but it’s just a tool. The writer needs to get more out of it than just an audience reaction particularly if it’s not a finished work.”
On Staged Readings
Seth Rozin
“A fully staged reading isn’t so useful. You can’t do in a reading what you can do in the production. There is no way to really evoke the physical world of the play in the reading. And this is particularly true of comedy. Why go a quarter of the way in the reading? You’re better off with a concert-style reading than that.”
Final Remarks
Seth Rozin
“Every playwright wants readings but that’s not exactly helpful to have one for every script. I think the optimal process means collaboration and fine tuning. You want exposure with a reading when it’s needed and then you keep at it until its ready for production.”
Paul Meshejian
“In a reading you want to do service to the playwright but give artistic directors a chance to hear something that might otherwise pass on it if they read it on the page.
Sometimes I wonder at the whole idea of readings. They are everywhere. I wonder if they are as purposeful as they might be. I try to organize something that satisfies the first purpose (playwright/process) and secondarily on getting it produced; giving those decision makers who see it enough of an impression to make a decision."
Comments:
MM Wittle said on 2010-12-12:
I just want to thank you for this blog post. I am currently in the process of writing my thesis for grad school which is a full length play and reading this blog helped clarify things for me. Again, thanks.
New York Magazine's Grand Suck-Up to Tony Kushner
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2010-10-31 16:09:27
The Signature Theatre in Manhattan devoted its Fall 2010 season to the works of Tony Kushner and kicked it off with Angels in America. The event occasioned an article in the October 25 issue of New York magazine entitled The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Himself. And just in case the reader wasn’t sure how to think, the subtitle reads:
Tony Kushner is one of the last public intellectuals left standing in the theater—or America. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
I should have stopped there but kept on hoping the reporter, Jesse Green, could give me a tour of Kushner’s public intellectualism or provide something other than a frivolous puff-piece about one of our most important playwrights.
I urge you to read the story if only to understand how vapid high-brow reportage of the arts has become. If Mr. Green represents what we get when we pay for print, then my advice is to keep trolling the net for interesting blogs. Sometimes I think publishers deserve their fate. And journalists by all means.
CRITIQUE
If the suck-uppedness of the writing wasn’t apparent in the first two paragraphs( Tony is smart! His current reading list includes Oxford Book of Death, Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, The Theory of Revolution in Young Marx, and Dionysus the Pseudo-Arepagite…OMG), it’s apparent when Green refers to our “greatest living playwright” as “St. Tony.” There must be a word for two hyperboles in one sentence. And just in case you didn’t get it the first time, Green states later that "Kushner really is a saint.”
Drivel.
Albeit, forgiveable drivel. To have an exalted if un-nuanced opinion of Kushner’s work is no crime. I think he's great, too.
What’s especially bothersome for those of us interested in Kushner and his opinions (not flattering him into bed as Green does) is that the article routinely dismisses Kushner’s more provocative statements with no elaboration or analysis. When Tony Kushner says the following:
“The primary thing I should do apart from being a good husband, brother, son, and friend is to be a citizen activist.”
Really?
What the hell does that mean? What about the writing? Is progressive political activism more important to Tony than contributing to the stage? Kushner after all is only 54. Does he mean advocating certain political issues that are near-and-dear to him or does it encompass a more comprehensive approach to politics? Would he ever run for office?
We want to know! Ahh, but we’ll never know. Mr. Green chooses to leave such pregnant statements unexplored. Instead, a large part of the article is devoted to the fact that Kushner is gay. Wait, didn’t you know that?
Since homosexuality is ever present in Kushner’s work (and ever present in this article), the enormous influence that Kushner has had on the topic (in arts, in politics, in general attitudes) is summarized with the statement that Tony Kushner is still loyal to “gay themes” and that "gay fantasia on national themes" merited a reference in The Simpsons.
What's unfortunate about Green's composite is that he undermines the whole "public intellectual" bent of the piece. Allowing Kushner to contort himself into a strange and inscrutable defense of President Obama—and by extension, the Democrats—makes him look like an unsophisticated and even unthinking partisan. Try this one on:
“There are lies, and those should not be tolerated. But there’s a degree of rhetorical finesse that’s required to maneuver through very treacherous waters.”
So I guess lying is OK and should be tolerated? Kushner struggles to clarify:
“Do I think [Obama] should have lost the election for the chance to say he supported same-sex marriage? No. Given that we would have had John McCain and Sarah Palin, I would have said, ‘Say anything you need to.’
Now I’ve got it. Lying is OK!
“St. Tony”?
Pleez.
I personally disagree with him. Obama most certainly would have gotten elected either wholeheartedly endorsing same-sex marriage or supporting it with vague statements of letting the courts, the legislatures, or referendums decide the matter. At any rate, President Obama and the Democratic Party have clearly let Kushner down:
“We’ve [the LGBT community] been asked to eat oceans of shit by the Democratic Party; we’ve been 75% loyal for decades without a wobble and without a whole lot of help from these people.”
And yet, the support is still there. What’s the reason for that? Again...silence.
Kushner loathes the other end of the political spectrum (the “counterrevolution") and calls it “anarchism-libertarianism that meshed perfectly with Ayn Rand and all that nonsensical malevolent crap.” But undoubtedly he and the LGBT community can learn from it.
The Tea Party, for instance, has had enormous influence on entirely compromised (in their view) Republicans such as Arlen Specter, Bob Bennett, and Mike Castle. In other words, the movement succeeded in kicking them out and getting their own guys in. And they've taken a big risk in substituting Pat Toomey, Mike Lee, and Christine O’Donnell for those experienced incumbents who make their constituents eat oceans of shit.
Yet, they’ve done it anyway. Surely this ought to be reason for encouragement to Kushner’s stifled aspirations for political change. It seems to me that he ought to trust the grass-roots support for the very community he helped strengthen so much.
In spite of Kushner’s serious commitment to progressive politics and gay rights, it’s rather sad to see the weighty brow of this creative titan conform to a childish “my side right or wrong” when it comes to activism. It won’t persuade anyone who hasn’t already made up their mind—which is the point of being a public intellectual. Such is the mantle on the shoulders below the heavy head that wears the crown these days.
Comments:
Revolution and a Sandwich; making the sandwich
by Bob Wuss
posted: 2010-10-18 14:16:06
Over the last year the PDC has brought numerous opportunities and inspring projects into my life. As a recent college graduate in this wonderful city, I am constantly looking for something to make me feel alive and involved, while challenging everything about myself. I am currently the Artistic Director of a new West Philly production company called The Shakedown Project, which is well underway on a new show written by PDC member Jeremy Gable. Artists like Jeremy dive into organizations like the PDC looking for the next big undertaking, a revolution within and a fight to be had with the world. I am honored to collaborate with such a talented writter and owe alot to the PDC, as I met Jeremy in his Reading In Restaurants version of his play "Bad Monster". I also owe all my graditude to members like Wally and Tom for their constant support of new works and young talent.
With the annual PDC meeting coming up next week I would like to place my name in the hat for PDC Board. I believe that as artists we constantly need to face our fears and throw ourselves completley into what we are working on. I know that I am young and have much to learn about survival in this industry but I feel that there is really something special about the environment that PDC creates and the energy involved. I recently saw Greg Romero's collaboration at Upenns Campus for "Material v. Memory" and was completley stunned at the number of collaborators and companies invovled. I believe that this sort of networking and collaboration is something the PDC does very well and I would like to continue this legacy by continuing to reach out to young aspiring artists and colleges. I know I could keep momentum moving and would be honored on behalf of the PDC to database and network those who inspire us.
In this post I would also like to add some shameless self promotion;
My company is hosting a major fundraiser on October 27th at MIll Creek Tavern on 42nd and Chester in West Philadelphia. We are hosting 5 bands, monster face paint, and a dance party atmosphere to get people excited about being in Philadelphia for such an exciting time.
Monster Mash!
Who: Abstract Verses, Caboder, Wild Rompit, Taco, Kevin and The Shapes, DJ Treal
What: Monster Mash!
Where: The Mill Creek Tavern, 42nd and Chester Ave., Philadelphia PA 19104
When: October 27, 2010, 8 pm
Cover: $7 (21+)
www.theshakedownproject.com
I would be thrilled to see some PDC members at our fundraiser helping to keep the momentum going!
We are also announcing auditions on November 6th and 7th for Jeremy's play "Revolution and a Sandwich"
Anyone and everyone is welcome to come out to the Mandell Theater green room between 32nd and 33rd on Chestnut St. between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM both dates. Those auditioning need not bring anything but an open mind and be prepared to do some cold reading.
I am honored to be involved with such a creative and inspiring organization and look forward to being completely immersed with you all.
Bob Wuss
Comments:
The Importance of Being Networked
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2010-10-13 13:46:23
On Tuesday the 12th, I attended a Directors/Dramatist Exchange hosted by the Dramatists Guild of America at Plays and Players on 17th and Delancey. This event matches a number of directors to an equivalent number of dramatists and gets them to talk about their ideas and aspirations. It’s like speed dating for the theatre set.
This is the second event I’ve attended of this nature. I can’t fathom why it’s not done more often. And we could use a little bit of it ourselves.
The dirty rotten secret of theatre arts is that plays get produced on the merits of a writer’s networking skills just as often as the writer’s ability to write. Your theatrical collaborators—be they directors, producers, or dramaturgs—want to know what kind of person you are apart from the kind of art you’d like to create. After all, if collaborators like your work, they want to know ahead of time with whom they will be working. And don’t we all want to work with people we like?
Networking is a significant aspect to the success of a dramatist. Theatre classes, texts, and guidebooks never pay enough attention to this vital activity in a playwright’s life. Unless you are willing to underwrite and produce your own work all the time, you better get to know local directors and those who can help champion your stuff.
There are many reasons why playwrights have difficulty selling themselves but it stems from this fundamental truth: it’s work. It isn’t fun and games. It takes time and effort. The question is…are you prepared?
1. Have you summarized each one of your plays in four sentences or less?
2. Can you succinctly state what you like to write about it and what kind of writer you are? Again, it helps to do this with extreme brevity.
3. What is most important to you when working with a director? Are you a collaborator or a tyrant?
4. Do you have ready-made samples of your work to send to interested parties?
Writers must be their own activists, advocates, and agents. The more folks you know in theatre, the more opportunities you will have for your writing. Last night, I met three directors in Philadelphia with whom to explore possibilities for my newest pieces. It’s going to be fun.
Comments:
Make a Difference, Run for the Board
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2010-10-10 10:47:12
The PDC Annual Meeting and Board election will take place this month on October 25 with a location yet to be announced. And I urge member writers to attend as well as get involved. All-volunteer organizations, such as ours, rely heavily on member participation to for its programming; the Board’s burden of responsibility looms larger than for a typical non-profit. Board members not only provide the obligatory oversight but also become personally responsible for executing programs, starting new initiatives, and raising funds.
For fiscal 2010, the Board numbered ten people and included three of our officers. Everyone worked hard and contributed generously of their time. This Board has done a great deal with scarce resources but before we grow into a more professional organization—which assumes a working staff and a physical home—PDC will need more volunteers and more Board members. The PDC By-Laws allow up to 21 members on the Board. We have far more capacity for volunteers than we currently carry.
While more money is always great to have, we could accomplish much more with additional manpower. Indeed, I’m very encouraged for PDC’s future based upon this experience. Happily, the PDC relies more upon the energy, dynamism, and creativity of its members than capital. And the money we do put to work is used judiciously and for maximum effect. If anything, this year’s Board has demonstrated how far PDC can stretch a dollar and bodes well for any future fundraising or grants that come our way.
Lately, I’ve heard some fantastic ideas coming from our artists regarding what PDC can do. For instance, a healthy minority of our writers do film work or multi-media mixed with live art. Is there any reason why we can’t bring our writers together with Philadelphia’s healthy indie film scene? Why can’t we have events or programs that bridge the gap between film and live art? Another idea that has been kicking around concerns our relationship with the regions high schools and colleges—it is non-existent. We can certainly augment outreach to students whose institutions aren’t equipped to give them a conduit to the theatrical community or programs designed to nurture individual work.
If these or other ideas animate you, please volunteer. Come to the Annual Meeting. Run for the Board. We could use you.
Comments:
Melissa McBain said on 2010-10-27:
Who Wants the New Kid on the Block?
Congratulations to the newly-elected board members. I have been following PDC on Twitter for the past few months in anticipation of my return to Philly after a decades long absence. (My first teaching jobs were at Simon Gratz and Radnor Jr. High.) Now I am back and eager to answer Tom's call for volunteer service to PDC and the larger theatre community. ( In my former life I was a college professor of theatre and education at Augustana College in Illinois. I also founded and produced the Quad City Playwrights Festival for ten years while acting in and directing numerous contemporary, original, and classical plays. ) With four produced plays to my credit I am now a full-time playwright. Where can I be of service to PDC? Perhaps I could participate in the docent program. Although I am not offering myself up to the first bidder I do want to explore how my skills, experience, and passion might dovetail with the needs of PDC.
Katie Clark Gray said on 2010-10-11:
As a board member for 2009-10, I highly recommend the experience. You gain a much greater understanding and appreciation of what PDC is and how it can serve its membership. Better yet, you can have a hand in shaping what it will be in the future.
Resurrecting Writers Table
by Bill Hollenbach
posted: 2010-09-24 06:02:05
In Tom Tierney’s excellent blog on the recent accomplishments and future plans of PDC, he referred to Writers Table as being dormant, and Pat McGeever lamented that dormancy. However, to be vital again all Writers Table needs is a playwright who wants one, a date, a space, readers and publicity on the PDC website.
Historically, the goal of Writers Table has been to get a group of actors and/or interested playwrights around a table to read a new script that was completed in the sense that it had a beginning, a middle, and an end, but which other than that was a script the playwright recognized may have had a long way to go before truly being ready for the public. These informal, cold readings offered the playwright the opportunity to listen, get feedback, and make that evaluation. We used to meet primarily at Abraccio before it became unavailable, but always it has been the activity, not the place which defined the Writers Table. I have attended Writers Table’s which have been held in the playwrights home. Anywhere will do.
Don Drake when he was coordinating Readings in Restaurants at Abraccio used to schedule the Writers Tables at Abraccio. The playwright merely had to notify Don of the desired date and time, and Don booked Abraccio. The onus was and remains on the playwright to get actors or other playwrights to read and provide feedback. These Tables are extremely informal.
Abraccio is no longer available, but we can have Writers Tables anytime we like.
If Pat would like I offer my house and the purchase of a couple of pizzas and some beer for a Writers Table reading of his “Sister Sex”. I’ll post the date on the much improved and active PDC website, and any and all will be welcome.
I can be contacted directly at 610-446-4438.
Comments:
The PDC: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2010-09-21 11:39:45
The Philadelphia Dramatists Center turns 17 in 2011 and like a gawky teenager, the organization still struggles now and then to get its bearings. Nonetheless, the PDC is at the cusp of maturity.
Since I joined in September 2008, PDC has undergone a revitalization led by Executive Director Wally Zialcita and former Board Chair Richard Kotulski. I’d be remiss not to mention Donald Drake, Walter Vail, Katie Clark-Gray, Jacqueline Goldfinger, John Russell, and Bob Castle who have maintained, improved, and introduced important programs for our writer-members.
In two years time, the organization has accomplished the following:
· Grown paid membership from less than 28 to over 80
· Implemented a policy to pay actors and directors for our readings programs
· Established grants for self-producing playwrights showing work at the Fringe Festival
· Sponsored Theatre Tours where a docent guides participants through a season of plays
· Introduced a re-designed website, expanded its content and improved applicability
And there are other achievements. PDC has been active in supporting events in addition to our core programming; theatre opportunities that give our members a chance to hear their work or create something new. This includes a renewed alliance with Primary Stages, one-of-a-kind happenings such as The Preservation Project, the Producers’ Panel, and underwriting a winning entry from our membership at the SPARK Showcase.
Furthermore, we’ve improved our relations with local theatres and advocacy groups. Last year, we hosted or co-sponsored events with Theatre Alliance of Philadelphia, Plays & Players Theatre, PlayPenn, and the Dramatists Guild of America. We should be proud that our all-volunteer PDC can hold its own and gain the respect of these long-standing, professional organizations.
That isn’t to say that everything we did last year rocked. We learned a few things concerning programs that fell short of our goals. We experimented with one program called The Lab; an 8 week development process which paired three of our member playwrights with directors and actors for an intensive workshop. Certainly the Lab was successful for those selected playwrights—Quin Eli, Anne Belc, and Jacqueline Goldfinger—but the expectation of having the works staged or holding a public reading was never realized.
Two of our core programs, The Gym and Writers’ Table remain dormant and it’s unclear if we will be able to resurrect them this year. Another staple, the Play Reading Marathon didn’t take place last year either.
These are just a few of the issues the officers will be working on next year. But more importantly, I believe the Board is ready to take up two challenges PDC has talked about for years: improving our fundraising capabilities and finding a home.
Membership dues provide the bulk of our income and Anonymous Theatre contributes between 25% and 33% of revenues. The organization has grown to the point where we can and should augment our income with grants, donations, and a dedicated fundraiser. We are targeting 2011 as a year to begin applying for grants and matches as well as brainstorming another event that compliments Anonymous Theatre and plays to our strengths as a creative organization. Ideas are welcome.
Just as important, PDC needs a modest amount of space where our officers can work, members can gather, and writers can write. We envision smallish office space somewhere accessible in Center City with a few cubicles and a conference room for readings, meetings, and other small-scale events. I believe this goal can support a lot of our programming efforts and help keep PDC relevant for its members trying to make a career as writers.
Comments:
Pat McGeever said on 2010-09-21:
I'm very disappointed to learn that Writer's Table, which must have virtually no dollar cost, has gone dormant. It's been most valuable in the past, and I've been working for a year to have my latest play, "Sister Sex," ready for just this opportunity.
"Meg and Rob Show" - PHIT's Side of Sketch 8pm
by Eric Balchunas
posted: 2010-09-19 05:13:58
Before the Meg and Rob Show even started I was already into it. Why? Because the price was cheap at $10, the temperature in the theatre was comfortable, and the running time was 60 minutes. I love it when shows are around an hour long. For me, unless it’s mind-blowing theatre, 60 minutes is right at the point where I become antsy and look at my watch and start debating what flavor ice cream to get on the way home, or which college football game I might catch the end of. Maybe I’m weak-minded, but it’s the truth.
Comments:
Samuel Felman said on 2010-09-19:
I'm going to try to come and see this!
Inside look into Olive Prince Dance
by Bob Wuss
posted: 2010-09-17 14:29:59
Over the past few months I’ve had the opportunity of working on Olive Prince Dance's I DESIRE which premiered as part of Live Arts eight/ eight new choreographed works. Led by Artistic Director, Olive Prince, I DESIRE takes a look at our deepest desires and current needs. The performance, which took place in the Live Arts Studio space, delivered an explosive piece where time seemed to melt from moment to moment as bodies clung to their individual spaces. My task during performances; hang up a tree structure composed of ropes and stitched brown fabric onto a beam clamp in the air.
Months ago Olive had approached me and asked if I wanted to take the challenge of helping her with administrative tasks as well as consulting on future creative projects. At first I was hesitant because I’ve never been a part of a dance company before, but after a few meetings I found Olive to be as strong willed as the dance she creates. I was then challenged to create a marketing campaign using post cards to gather information of people’s greatest desires. I found myself in neighborhoods such as Old City and Northern Liberties, even Clark Park , approaching strangers to simply write on the cards. Olive had asked friends to do the same as well as her students at Drexel University. I then took those cards and created a stop motion animation of the cards constructing themselves into a tree encased in chicken wire and interesting shapes, while Olive constructed a dance inspired by the content on the cards.
The video http://vimeo.com/14344786
then was available via the Live Arts Blog a few weeks ago. It is still there if you want to look for yourself. My video was inspired by Michel Gondry style animation and Wes Anderson’s sincerity.
Olive’s I DESIRE featured 4 dancers( including herself), composer Chris Farrell, and many other collaborators who found themselves spiraling gracefully into the festival. Rehearsals were long but I was always interested in what in the dance would be repeated the next day. My observation in the creation of Olive’s piece is that it has a very living and organic nature to it, as movements evolve (or are eventually cut). Every rehearsal had it’s own unique grasp of theme and motive. It’s almost like a kinetic musical riff. Some dancers rest in the pocket like a fat funky snare beat, while others create ornate saxophone melodies. In my opinion Olive drives the tempo with her snare beat, as Maria Brown lays down a punchy bass line with Nora Gibson on a jazz grand piano,Lindsay Browning wailing her sax. (packed image) Coltrane style.
The insight provided by everyone on the project has definitely given a lasting impact; Every day with everything we do, will always bring something new. Only ourselves can stop our desires from coming true.
Comments:
"Iron" - Theatre Exile
by Jeremy Gable
posted: 2010-09-12 20:58:15
Comments:
"Between Trains" - Gas & Electric Arts
by Jeremy Gable
posted: 2010-09-11 22:40:53
I wanted to love Gas & Electric Arts' Between Trains, which I saw on Saturday night. After all, the cast was fantastic, the staging was consistently engaging, and its premise had a great amount of promise. However, when the 90-minute piece ended, I felt that neither my brain nor my heart had been reached.
Comments:
"The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade" and "The Madwoman of Chaillot"
by Valdemar Zialcita
posted: 2010-09-11 13:49:07
I want to say amen to Greg Romero, writing to playwrights about dance. In the same spirit, I celebrate Philadelphia's two companies dedicated entirely to the Modern tradition: The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium and Egopo. I see the works of both companies as often as I possibly can. The 20th Century, it seems, still pushes me out of my complacency.
These productions are opportunities to think about what can be wrought.
Jean Giraudoux's Madwoman, still sharp and timely in its themes, invites playwrights to crowd a stage--in this case the intimate stage of Walnut Street 5. Crowd. Cram. Close enough to sit on your lap, and yet close in an entirely different way. Because the fullness of the thing on stage is not simply about the body count (17 actors playing 25 characters, by the way). It's about ideas. Sometimes, when you write about the thing you know best, you find yourself writing from a point of view, not from the edge of a kitchen sink. Let a Madwoman show you how it can be done, and damn the financiers. Damn the subtext, too.
Marat/Sade damns much the same things, bless its heart, with the added reminder, in bold, that a play happens in space, texture, and motion, just as dance does, and not simply within a picture frame, as seems to be the case for the overwhelming majority of productions in Philadelphia. This may not be your father's Marat/Sade (since theatre is not strictly a playwright's medium), but it's big and splendid (thanks to an echo-y Rotunda, played like giant toy piano by director Brenna Geffers), as we should all aspire in our heads to be.
Comments:
TAKES/Nichole Canuso Dance Company
by Greg Romero
posted: 2010-09-11 12:32:08
In addition to TAKES continuing to spark some of the questions ignited from my experience of SANCTUARY, this multi-dimensional, multi-media collaboration between choreographer Nichole Canuso, media designer Lars Jan, sound designer Mike Kiley and performers Canuso and Dito Van Reigersberg brought out a series of new questions as well.
As with Sanctuary, Takes is performed in an open warehouse space (the same building, in fact). Takes has transformed the space, however, by placing a polygonal performance area (perhaps 12-15 feet by 12-15 feet?) in the center of the warehouse, with sheer curtains that hang suspended above each side of the playing area, opaquely enclosing the dancers in a sort of living box while simultaneously projecting both real-time and recorded images of the dancers on all four sides of the screening.
Surrounding/encircling the performance area an almost continuous single-row of folding chairs for the audience.
As the audience enters, we're confronted with choices-- where do we look? Where do we sit? I began to think about the question-- what do people do when given an open space?
In fact, just before the performance begins (but as the recorded music and recorded images have been playing on a continuous loop) a disembodied voice tells us to turn off our phones, but that we are allowed during the performance to walk the space. We are given the freedom to witness the performance from all different sides of the space.
At that time I wondered if the audience would take the creators up on their offer (they did) and what relationship the movement of the audience would create with the performance (I am still unsure, but interested in continuing to think about it).
Other big thoughts popped for me during this performance:
** How does performance change space and time? I found myself many times during TAKES to come in and out of different levels of awareness. I'm not sure if it was due to the repitition of some of the movement, or music, or the overload of images and information (and realities?) that made my brain sort of skip a beat.
** What effect does a naked body have on an audience?
** What does the performance achieve by offering the gift of participation and/or intimacy to the audience?
And a big question about the creation of dance as compare to the creation of a performance of a script--
** How does the learning process effect the work? Meaning-- most times in dance, the choreography is learned through an oral and muscular process. Dancers/movers learn and work from the process of storing information in their bodies and the body becomes the place to access memory. This is different than a script, which is an object, outside of self, that can be referred to and is more fixed. How different is it to learn and re-learn through communication with the body/self versus through a document? And how do these different approaches effect the people looking for discovery?
Comments:
Wawapalooza 4: Damaged Goods at Society Hill Playhouse
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2010-09-11 07:34:55
And thus, the fourth installment of Eric Balchunas’s Wawapalooza, a sketch comedy show that takes aim at all things local and all things ridiculous, is underway. There is no narrative thread; the local angle only loosely informs the evening. Each sketch contains it’s own little world. Wawa moves swiftly and the laughter doesn’t stop until the curtains go down. Only the last sketch—a highly scatological pub dinner where the patrons spout about the “supreme pleasures of life”—fell flat for me.
Eric mixes up the evening with live sketches and filmed shorts. My favorite live sketch consisted of two vegan couples striving to out-green each other with extreme reductions in their carbon footprint and eating habits.
The strongest pieces are the filmed shorts which can be compared favorably to any professionally filmed comedy appearing on the Internet. Or TV. Eric himself takes a star turn as a citizen-reporter talking good-naturedly about his grandmother being a better environmental role model than Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Thom Yorke. It’s witty without being snarky. One can imagine Green-Nazis such as Carol Browner and even Al Gore himself chuckling.
Much of the art seen in the Fringe blooms for a short time and is then gone forever. It’s rare to see productions repeat. For four years in a row Balchunas, aided by his wife Trang, have been staging a brand new show every year. They take their comedy seriously; conducting focus groups and vetting material through a tight circle of friends. I’ve seen their shows from previous years and can see an improvement in the pacing as well as the choice of material. By now, Eric and Trang knows what works and doesn’t work. And the payoff is there for the audience.
What’s rarer still for Fringe shows are those that break-out of the festival altogether. Certainly, Eric and Trang and their ensemble have the talent to go pro. There is no reason why something like Wawapalooza couldn’t have its own (successful) run outside of the festival and it certainly calls to mind the work of 1812 Productions. I can only think of a handful of shows out of dozens in the Fringe where I can make the same statement.
Comments:
"Thom Pain" and "Superheroes Who Are Super!"
by Jeremy Gable
posted: 2010-09-10 22:55:00
On Friday night, I witnessed two shows that used minimal staging to conjure up entire worlds, one through a fantastic performance and the other through sheer energy and abandon.
Comments:
Playwriting Rules in the Fringe--Romeo & Juliet
by Robin Rodriguez
posted: 2010-09-10 13:47:41
Writing good dialogue supposedly means leaving out the extraneous crap that people actually say. Yet The Nature Theater of Oklahoma has successfully made shows solely from recorded phone conversations. They so faithfully recreate the speech of their friends and relatives that the actors hear the recordings through earpieces and follow the pacing of the original, including all repetitions, side-trips, “umms” and awkward pauses.
Why does it work?
For one thing, they’ve not abrogated the responsibility of shaping their work even if it’s not classic structure. Most conversations didn’t make it in. Their show “No Dice”, seen at the 2007 Philly Fringe, was four hours condensed from a mind-boggling one hundred hours of recorded speech.
Also, as mentioned in a talkback for this year’s “Romeo & Juliet”, there’s the reality-show aspect of it. We know the conceit going in. We can identify with, and laugh at, people just like us screwing up as they try to remember Shakespeare’s play. Or in the case of the previously-seen “No Dice”, as they try to tell a story of any sort and end up rambling on about the silly details of daily life.
And the actors are wonderful. Anne Gridley, who plays Juliet, can stretch her face in ways that are often laugh-out-loud funny.
Mostly though, I think it’s contrast. For R&J it’s, as Tom Tirney said in another blog entry, “the juxtaposition of antiquated theatrical histrionics and contemporary vocabulary.” In general with this company, gestures and grimaces are overdone. Words get stretched out, sounds played with, sincere ideas intoned with wide-eyed incredulity or disbelieving sneers, absurd things uttered with huge sincerity. The familiar is made strange without completely losing its familiarity. Primarily actor-driven here, but there are many ways to create bizarre juxtapositions in a script.
Or maybe the thing to take away from theater that technically shouldn’t work is: if you’re going to break a rule, don’t just chip off a corner or two, smash the whole, damned thing to bits.
Comments:
SANCTUARY/Brian Sanders' JUNK
by Greg Romero
posted: 2010-09-10 09:00:12
In my journey towards becoming a playwright, it is my experience with modern dance that has guided me as much as anything.
This became clear to me when collaborating with choreographer Ray Eliot Schwarz seven years ago while creating a project called The Book of Remembrance and Forgetting, in which we created a 25-minute performance piece in collaboration with an electronic music composer (Mike Vernusky) and five really talented dancers.
The performance I witnessed of Brian Sanders’ SANCTUARY brings me back to that place of original revelation, in which these truths offer themselves to me again, even more naked this time:
1. ** Live performance is about action
2. ** There are very few things more majestic than the human body expressing itself to its full imaginative possibilities—witnessing the body pressed to its limits and beyond is enlarging and transformational
3. ** There are many forms of expression that are both beyond and more expressive than words
4. ** The creative use of space opens up worlds, over and over again, that were never here before
5. ** Artists don’t need to be enslaved by the chains of narrative
In my own observation, these points are at the heart of what is indigenously theatrical. And the tragedy for me is that these truths are ones that many (most?) playwrights either aren’t aware of, or choose to ignore. And the result is that most plays I see don’t capture my imagination at all. It makes me ask big questions about how and why this has come to be. I am working on discovering my own answers, but in the meantime I know that I almost always feel more alive while watching dance and listening to live music than I do while watching plays.
It makes me wonder how other writers feel about their own experiences with the live event. Are we all just pretending—creating a shadow of something that is less expressive, more obedient, than other performance forms?
A few thoughts specific to SANCTUARY:
** Upon entering the space (which is a converted warehouse with a performance area sectioned off by a long, narrow river-like trough of water bordering it and the temporary risers), there are signs posted on the first two rows of seats which read:
“Audiences seated in the front row will have best view of SANCTUARY, however may experience a momentary sprinkling of water during the performance”.
If you take in this performance (which is what I wish for you) I encourage you to sit on the front row as you will experience the joy of feeling the performance—you will become part of the communitas.
** The human body itself becomes a glorious work of art
** Finding how best to express/capture sex is a work of art as well
In short, SANCTUARY offered me a return voyage to some important discoveries I have made but too often forget. And it made me want to live more deeply connected to my own body, and then write a new (old?) kind of play (ritual?)—the kind of play/ritual that demands bodies, space, and offers the gift of transformation.
Or it makes me want to quit writing plays and begin dancing again.
--ROMERO
ps: I cut and pasted from a Word.doc, so please forgive any possible formatting eyesores (perhaps the document is dancing).
Comments:
Romeo & Juliet at Plays & Players Mainstage
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2010-09-10 08:56:14
This isn't Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet but a derivative. An actor and actress deliver a series of spoken transcripts. The monologues are from the cast's coterie of friends describing the play R&J. All of this is delivered in 19th century stentorian stage diction. This mostly hilarious 100 minute piece from the Nature Theater of Oklahoma looks to be one of the standout productions of this year's fest.
While a knowledge of the story helps, it isn't necessary to have read or seen Shakespeare to enjoy this show. Conceived and directed by Pavol Liska and Kelly Copper, each recollection of the play takes the audience back to an oral tradition of storytelling but in a modern guise. Much of the humor derives from the juxtaposition of antiquated theatrical histrionics and contemporary vocabulary; as well as the universal neurotic tendency to self-edit.
Every re-telling reflects the individual voice but also takes the audience deeper into the familiar themes of the play itself: young love, true love, individual will vs. society (or the family), the consequences of violence, and reconciliation. And rather surprisingly, a few current themes are foisted on Shakespeare that have nothing to do with the play itself: pop culture, 9/11, and sexual obsession.
The remaining shows are Friday 9/10 at 8PM and Saturday 9/11 at 8PM. Keep your eye on Nature Theater of Oklahoma (based in NYC)...this play will likely be touring.
Comments:
NPL's FREEDOM CLUB. Freedom... Freedom... Freedom..
by Bob Wuss
posted: 2010-09-10 07:56:27
As the nature of live productions becomes more demanding by the audience, the true power of collaboration keeps breeding sensations that are waiting to be discovered.
Darlings of the experimental theater scene in Philadelphia, New Paradise Laboratories , Artistic Director Whit MacLaughlin, has teamed up with Princeton’s The Riot Group lead by Artistic Director Adriano Shapin, in the creation of a dark and mystic FREEDOM CLUB. The show features 3 founding members of New Paradise and 4 members of The Riot Group, as the plot forms itself into a central aesthetic of the show. The teaser exclaims “America! You need an actor to save you”, as Wilkes Booth’s vision of revolution unfolds around the dark and depressed Lincoln. The second act mirrors tails of revolution as the actors find themselves in 2015 Virginia (post assassination of Barack Obama).
What makes this production so special is that NPL and Riot Group have found a very inspiring relationship, feeding off of Whit’s knowledge of spatial directing and Adriano’s weight of words. Over the last few years NPL has worked with college and high school students searching for an identity as founding members have dissipated to other experiences. It’s not that FATEBOOK or PROM fell short without the founding members, on the contrary these shows truly showed the producing power of such an extraordinary company. I have had the pleasure of working on numerous NPL shows these past years and am always amazed on their ability to acknowledge that the worlds they create are governed by laws they have discovered in process. Whit has always talked about the meteorology system that stems from creating a specific world. Space reacts to the actors like droplets of rain on a windshield. Space is created by not only what the audience see’s but what they hear and can practically taste. FREEDOM CLUB took the traditional acting form of The Riot Group and expanded on Suzuki acting technique, as physical gesture becomes part of intensity present in the air. The set, just a square line of white gaff tape and a movie screen acting as a cyc, seemed to always be changing as actors positioned themselves against the backdrop. Silhouettes became part of an alternate reality, governed by rules created in the rehearsal process. Each moment is filled with texture, intent, and an overwhelming visual aesthetic.
Most companies enter tech with a clear set agenda. NPL usually takes a complete different view, as tech becomes more of a workshop of discovery for everyone involved. Each moment is ripped apart and reassembled, as this becomes the perfect time to understand the connections between actors, space, and character. All elements need to be present in order for the story to react to the mysteries of the space (world they are creating, like a dream). Tech for most companies usually goes from two 10 hour days, but in NPL’s case months of tech workshops full of questions and of course the best answers. Over many different tech periods, each workshop yields new continents of emotion and exploration.
As Designers of theater I believe it is very important be constantly reminded that we are indeed constantly creating an alternate world. A world that breathes and grows. It has color and smell. It listens to us as we listen to it. A world can come in any shape (even a simple square) and when cared for with action and intent the world becomes alive and gains consciousness. Even though we think we have all the responsibility to nurture our Frankenstein monster, we must remember that we have a family (collaborators, audience members, friends) who are there to help shape and build our worlds. A toast to them and the bonds we make in the journey.
Comments:
M@& Improv Comedy at the Adrienne Mainstage
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2010-09-09 13:51:39
Although Mr. Holmes was handicapped by a small audience--comedy works much better as the volume of laughter increases--he made a game of it with a tall, good-looking, Philly girl. This young lady had a great attitude and played a series of personas chosen by Mr. Holmes.
The first sketch saw them both try on horrific Mexican accents so that Mr. Holmes could take her to task for writing a crap thesis on the Chupacabra phenomenon. This segued into a conversation where Mr. Holmes played a bitchy schoolmarm to his audience member's recalcitrant Catholic schoolgirl (who retained a penchant for channeling her inner Mexican now and then). Then they switched to a tween-girl banter. And on and on.
I must say that Matt Holmes can do an excellent American tween girl. Probably better than the real thing.
Pacing could improve a bit but it was fun and I will undoubtedly look for more of Holmes's stuff in the future. M@& is only one of seven shows sponsored by the Philly Improv Theater (PHIT) this year at the Fringe. As explained to me before curtain, PHIT is the only long-form improv troupe in Philadelphia. Founded in 2005, the organization is influenced by Chicago's Second City and New York's Upright Citizens Brigade. PHIT has a weeklong residency at The Shubin Theatre each month and offers classes year round.
M@& plays Sep 8 at 10PM, Sep 11 at 7PM, Sep 12 at 7PM, and Sep 16 at 8:30PM. Other PHIT shows include King Friday, Activity Book, Fletcher, PHIT's Improv Tasting, PHIT's Side of Sketch, and The Improvised Soap Opera.
Comments:
7 Sins in 60 Minutes at the Adrienne's Playground
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2010-09-09 06:49:56
The title of the production describes the well-worn conceit. Also, each scene that depicts a sin was penned by a different female author. Thus, the show has seven voices for the seven mortal sins of Catholic doctrine. Lastly, each writer must use the same characters.
To review, the sins are as follows:
1. Sloth
2. Greed
3. Lust
4. Gluttony
5. Anger
6. Envy
7. Pride
There are four characters in the show or two couples: Amadea and Mike, Dante and Willow. While it was easy to follow the scenes and the sins each one explores, it was much more difficult to discern a narrative thread or understand what the artists and the director (the show was conceived by the director Melanie Sutherland of AAI Productions) wanted to say about each them.
For instance, in the first scene, Mike's "sloth" results in his decision to become a homeless beggar after quitting his teaching job--to the apparent shock of his erstwhile girlfriend, Amadea. He spouts a kind of street wisdom about freedom that smacks of Jainism. The third scene describing Lust, is a black out where the Dante and Willow characters have noisy, unprotected, life-affirming sex. The climax after the climax has Willow opining that she must be ovulating.
Are the sins supposed to lead the characters to wisdom? Do the characters flirt with the deadlies and overcome them through their own relationships? Ultimately, I couldn't tell if the characters were the same or fundamentally changed as they tracked the course of the sins.
Part of the problem may lie with a lack of understanding of what the sins are or why the church doctors promulgated them in the first place. The Deadly Sins are so classified because they were seen as destroying life or one's ability to attain grace. Any sin in excess had the power to send a soul to hell. The play's characters merely flirt with the sins so we can believe at heart that they aren't bad, just wayward. This does not save them from damnation of a kind: indifference from the audience.
There are some truly funny scenes in this play--greed and lust, in particular--and in the end, the writers and the director keeps things light. One wishes for more coherence with characterization and plotting although that doesn't seem to be the point.
Remaining shows are Friday at 8:30PM, Satuday at 2:30PM, and Sunday at 5:30PM. The venue is the Playground Theatre at the Adrienne. Expect a moderately rehearsed reading. Stage directions are read.
Comments:
Welcome to the PDC Fringe Blog
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2010-09-08 07:07:33
Welcome to the Philadelphia Dramatists Center’s Fringe blog.
From September 3-18, Philadelphia plays host to the 14th Live Arts and Philly Fringe; which includes over 150 performances of (mostly) new and experimental work. The Philadelphia Dramatists Center will be chronicling this year’s festival on these pages with entries contributed by our member writers, officers, and dramaturgs.
It’s hard to know where to start. By the time you read this, a number of shows will already have premiered and closed. The sheer number of productions coupled with the extremely limited running times means that finding shows to recommend is nothing more than a trial and error process. The 2010 festival has 17 shows participating as Live-Arts partners and roughly 150 productions in Fringe. While there are slightly more Live-Arts shows in 2010, the number of Fringe participants tracks to a similar number from the prior year.
Let’s begin with our own members. This year, three of our members are self-producing at the Fringe. There is Wally Zialcita’s Zacherle, Eric Balchunas’s Wawapalooza 4: Damaged Goods, and Alex Drehmann’s company, Secret Room Theatre is producing a number of shorts including one of his pieces called “X”
Wawapalooza 4: Damaged Goods--$15/tkt, remaining shows@8pm 9/9, 8pm 9/10, 6pm & 8pm 9/11
Eric Balchunas exuberantly skewers everything local in a production that features short films, live sketches, music, and artwork. Taking satirical aim at environmentalists, mustaches, Taser victims, sex, vegans, Wawa Food Market, and sports-mad Philadelphians, this 65 minute show was dubbed "terrifically abnormal" by the City Paper.
I saw Wawapalooza 3: The Dark Roast last year and commend Eric's commitment to a high production values (particularly his short films) and his "I'm just an average Joe" approach to the weirdness of the tri-state area. As Eric puts it, “I want to write a show that is like a postcard to someone who doesn’t live here.”
Each of his Wawapalooza shows is designed like an album with eleven "tracks" which average about 5 minutes each. This year's Wawa looks like this:
1. Straight to DVD (stand-up)
2. Torturing the Audience (play)
3. A Clockwork Green (play)
4. Suburban Scorpians (play)
5. environMENTAL (play)
6. The Accidental Environmentalist (short film)
7. The Fear of Intimacy (play)
8. Birdwatchers (play)
9. Too Much Cheese in the Mousetrap (play)
10. The List (short film)
12. Shitheads (play)
The show runs to 70 minutes and is at the Society Hill Playhouse. Wawa will sell out at the door in spite of the large theater.
Dirty Laundry--$15/tkt, remaining shows@8pm 9/9, 6pm 9/10, 6pm & 2pm 9/12
Playwright Alex Dremann has assembled five short comedic plays, mostly from our member writers but all from Philadelphia playwrights. This 75 minute production is taking place at the 3rd floor of Plays & Players. Every play runs approximately 10-15 minutes although Alex's is 20 minutes long and the theme of each one is laundry.
Alex's Sally Sock was featured at the Spark Festival at Plays & Players in July 2010.
I saw it. Funny and strange.
The other shorts and playwrights are as follows:
Chris Braak, Mamet: on Mamet
Katharine Clark Gray, Mr. Squeaky
Quin Eli, Running Amok
Elle McComsey, 100% Cotton
The show's promotional material succinctly sums up the evening: "We’ve got sock puppets, passive aggressive t-shirts, a laundromat musical, and much more in our laundry basket. Come clean. Leave dirty."
Word has gotten around. While the space can seat up to 60 people, Dirty Laundry turned away twenty or so patrons on Monday. The upstairs at Plays & Players is also a fun hangout; the adjacent room to the stage is the fully stocked bar, Quig's Pub.
Zahcherle--$15/tkt, 7pm 9/12, 7pm 9/14, 7pm & 10pm 9/15, 10pm 9/15, 10pm 9/16, 1pm & 4pm 9/18
Wally Zialcita's Zacherle has yet to open and will premiere Upstairs at the Adrienne. The play is inspired by Gothic horror as well as old horror movies...though Wally says it's not a horror play. The figure of John Zacherle was a TV host for "shock" theater and creepshows in the late 50's. Wally calls his play an
Comments:
9 Plays x 9 Days = $290.00
by Thomas Tirney
posted: 2010-09-07 13:11:18
Back in May, the former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Vaclev Havel was interviewed at the Wilma Theatre. Here was a Communist dissident and Cold War icon; the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (and the last), a key player in post-Soviet Eastern bloc reconstruction and an internationally renowned playwright talking to a packed house about his life and art.
For free.
For theatre lovers, does it get much better?
One quibble: I was disappointed my friend Richard Kotulski (Wilma’s Casting Director) wouldn’t sneak me into the after party which included the representatives of the Czech mission to the UN as well as Madeline Albright. The Czechs are famous for resisting tyranny and drinking. And I’ve seen Madame Albright at “Janet Reno’s Dance Party” on SNL—that broad can kick it. The fest went on until 3AM so I’m told.
In any case, the talk was an outstanding event; the only thing I lost was time. Subsequently, two things came to mind.
First, I had to support the Wilma and purchase a subscription.
Second, I wondered about the economics of seeing all the theatre there was to see. Surely it would break the bank. I began to study ways to mitigate the hit to the pocket book while seeing more shows.
As theatre artists, we should all have a discount at the box office as a perquisite. To my shock and chagrin, this is not the case. There is no such thing as an industry rate in this town. Which is unfortunate. Happily, we have other resources for saving our dollars.
Below was my itinerary for nine days in May and June 2010:
Troupe or Other Expenses:
Title Venue Discount Price Booze, M&M’s, Etc.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom PTC Rush $25 $15 for wine, M&M’s
516 Studio5 PDC* $15 $ 3 for M&M’s
Leaving Wilma None $40 $12 for beer and M&M’s
The Screwtape Letters Lantern None $20 $ 0, brought my own M&M’s
Nightshift (reading) Time N/A Free $21 for absinthe
Sunday Park George Arden PDC* $15 $ 3 for Peanut M&M’s
The Gravedigger B. Someday None $12 $ 0
Black Pearl Sings! Adrienne None $27 $ 0
Carousel Plays&Players Fun Guide $15 $15 for beer, $12 parking
Improv Comedy The N Crowd None $15 $25 for wine, beer, whiskey, M&M’s
*Philadelphia Dramatists Center Theatre Tours program
Total Costs = $290
I wouldn’t recommend squeezing all this theater into such a short time unless you see it as a kind of cultural purgative. It’s hard work. But the above list proves you can definitely see as much theater as you want in Philly even if you don’t necessarily want to see that much. In any event, the truly useful information gleaned from my manic experiment concerned saving money. Let me share five observations with you:
1. Use the Philly Fun Guide
This ought to be your first stop when hunting for tickets and shows: www.phillyfunguide.com. The best way to find theatre discounts is to sign up for Funsavers which is half-price ticketing via email. Every Thursday, an email goes out to subscribers regarding up to 35 arts events offered at 50% off the regular admission price. Not all of it is theatre—Funsavers also includes music, museums, lectures and other cultural events.
According to Anthony Tanzi, the Electronic Marketing Assistant at the website, the majority of theatre companies in Philadelphia participate in Funsavers.
2. Join the Philadelphia Dramatists Center or the Theatre Alliance… or Both
The PDC’s Theatre Tours program has arranged for participants to see 4 different shows this coming Fall season for $14 each. This year’s schedule includes Macbeth at the Wilma Theatre, The Early Bird at Inis Nua, That Pretty Pretty at Theatre Exile, and Run Mourner Run at Flashpoint. More information here: http://www.pdc1.org/page.php?p=12
Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia also has a membership discount program to thirteen participating theatres in town: http://www.theatrealliance.org/member-discounts
Individual memberships to the PDC and the Theatre Alliance are $55 and $50, respectively.
3. Buy a Subscription to a Theatre You Like
When you subscribe to a season with one theatre company, you receive discounted tickets anywhere from 25%-50% the listed price. The discounts are higher if you are a senior citizen, student, or educator. In any case, the percentages vary from venue to venue. For instance, the Wilma Theatre offers seven different kinds of subscriptions and each one of these subscriptions has between two and four discount schedules. The Arden has a combination of 27 subscriber packages as well as a similar number of discount schedules. If you care about your cash, it helps to pay attention to the myriad subscription levels and the ticket policies. Believe me, theatres do accommodate the audience with respect to prices and choices.
4. Go at the Last Minute
If your schedule permits, taking advantage of rush tickets before a show could mean up to 50% off the box office price. It’s hard to obtain statistics on this, but in my observations, few shows at any Philadelphia theatre sell out on weekdays and for Sunday matinees. These are exactly the times when you want to inquire about rush tickets. Rush tickets are generally available for purchase 30 minutes prior to curtain. You have to be present at the theatre and buy them in person at the box office and many theatres only make them available in limited quantities.
5. Enroll in a Class
Student ticket pricing is by far the best way to keep your expenses low at the box office. Unfortunately, I’m not a student anymore but I plan on becoming one very soon. Student price levels are often 35%-60% off the listed ticket price. Furthermore, as a student you can score rush tickets that go for 80% off the list price!
If all else fails you can ask for an industry discount and the box office may take pity on you.
But I wouldn’t bank on it.
As a theatre artist (and PDC Board Chair) I don’t see it as my job to promote local theatre. That may be a by-product of what I do, but it isn’t my goal. My objective is to see more of you have your names attached to the productions I’m seeing.
And so, on your way to a fully-staged production, you ought to be patronizing the theater.
Why?
It’s R&D for your creative P&L. You can’t know what is going on among your contemporaries without seeing or hearing writing in 3-D. It inspires, enhances, and hones your writing. Live theatre serves as a feedback mechanism for your own ideas on stage. Aside from filling up blank pages with ink (and then cutting it down to a pointy point), what else will keep you sharp?
Comments:
Paula Diehl said on 2010-09-21:
Since I live at least 45 minutes from the city, this is the kind of information I like to have stored in my mind for future reference, especially since some good venues in music and drama do not include the cost of a ticket or the means to get that information. I'd like to add that the writing style almost demanded that I read the blog. Perhaps some one will also post the reason I had to ". . . Verify the Text . . . ' It seems to be an important concern to some of the drama groups.
Robin Rodriguez said on 2010-09-10:
I would add signing up for TAGP’s (The Theater Alliance of Greater Philadelphia) free email listserve. You’ll receive, among other mostly-theater things, information about industry nights and specific-show discounts. Choosing the Daily Digest can lessen the many emails. Subscribe at theatrealliance-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
And for the math impaired, Tom actually saw 9 plays plus 1 reading, so 10 total, with the theater cost at $184. The $106 spent on food/alcohol is obviously optional.
Payment For Playwrights
by Walter Vail
posted: 2010-07-11 05:43:25
There's no doubt in my mind that anyone who writes a producible script for the stage deserves to be paid something, when that script is chosen for production by a theatre company. The playwright deserves to be paid as much as any theatre personnel, be it actor, director, or technician. However, my mind is the mind of a playwright--that's what I am now, although in the past, I have been an actor, director, and a theatre technician. But let's think about this: In today's theatre, at all levels, a mindset has developed that doesn't believe that the playwright deserves to be paid. Is that because of "play development?" Is the new, unproven playwright seen as one who must be trained by people of the theatre? It's true in many cases, not true in others--and I think the reason might be that no one, in or out of the theatre, can read a script and predict whether or not it will work onstage. It might be the powerful, funny thing one thinks it is, or it might not.
Think about casting actors. If one doesn't know the work of an actor, having never seen it, the actor is also an unknown quantity--but seeing the actor audition often gives the director or producer a feeling that the actor should be hired, cast, and paid--even when the theatre company is small and can afford only a token payment. The actor who is cast will spend three weeks rehearsing, and a week or more performing, so just in terms of time, that worker deserves payment. (The playwright has also spent much time working on the script, but the playwright chose to do that on his own.) The actor also has a resume', containing training and theatre experience; the beginning playwright has one, too--with training and previous readings, etc.--but is not represented by any audition process--unless the theatre company has staged a reading and an interview. So actors, technicians, and directors tend to be seen as deserving to be paid, but playwrights--well, they are in a different category.
Is it a matter of supply and demand? Today there are many, many persons writing plays, whether trained to do so or not. There are many, many scripts floating around in space from theatre to theatre--and there are many less production slots for these scripts to fill. So the beginning playwright is certainly lucky to find a production--is that why a theatre company feels that the playwright doesn't need to be paid? Does the company feel that the beginning playwright is being given experience as pay? That certainly could be true--the experience can be valuable, if the experience is a good one. It could also be destructive of a playwrights reputation, if the experience is a bad one.
Of course, many theatre companies work with the playwright on the basis of a written contract--today, usually a contract that offers payment, but demands payment back on future productions. Having chosen a script expected to be successful, a production is seen as adding value to the script--although if the play fails for any reason, (Bad acting, bad staging, bad directing?) the production might detract value from the script--the process is like giving payment with one hand, and taking it away with the other.
Then, too, there's the business of maing the playwright an employee of the theatre company--so that the whole effort is "collaborative," and the playwright "works with actors and director to create the script." This, of course, makes the playwright no longer an independent entrepreneur, no longer a writer who owns the copyright of the play, but a writer "for hire." And the copyright law says that writing "for hire" makes the script the property of the person or entity who "hires." This is the Hollywood model, and it results in a loss of ownership for playwrights for which we fought de