New Play Blog

Dropping Truth Bombs: the Field-Shaking Study "Outrageous Fortune" on #NewPlay TV

Tuesday, March 16: 2pm-6pm EST (18:00-22:00 GMT). 

The Live Event will be streaming on New Play TV, click here on Tuesday: http://livestream.com/newplay

Place the tag #newplay in your tweets to comment on what you are seeing and to participate in the Q&A. 

Join the New Play Institute at Arena Stage, the National New Play Network, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company for a broadcasted presentation of OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE NEW AMERICAN PLAY this Tuesday. The convening about the field-wide study will be moderated by Todd London (Artistic Director, New Dramatists and author of OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE) and Victoria Bailey (Executive Director, Theatre Development Fund).

[UPDATE: The book's other co-conspirator, Ben Pesner, is joining the conversation in DC today.]

Theatre Development Fund has been presenting the findings and facilitating the beginning of a conversation in which participants can identify possible ways to improve conditions for playwrights and for the production of new American plays, community by community. This is the first live video streaming of the tour, opening it up to a global audience.

Marching Orders: On Tap This Month

by David Dower

Hard to believe that we're heading into March already! Got a big agenda around here for this month.

Resident Playwright Selections We'll be finalizing the Resident Playwrights selections. The process hit a wonderful snag when we got significantly more interest than we expected from the short list of people Molly Smith invited to consider it with us. We're now trying to figure out how to accomodate as much of what came back from that invitation as feasible without diluting the program or overwhelming the rest of the Arena Stage staff.

NPDP Round 2 Application Reading/Screening Assignments have been made for the Readers and Screeners of the Round 2 applications. Each applicant will receive 5 preliminary reviews from a group of nearly 100 participants. We will also be finalizing the selection panel this month and get organized for them to gather here in DC in May to pick the two Outstanding New American Plays and the five Distinguished New Play Development Projects.

New Play Map Beta The beta period for the map will continue this month. The focus remains on the NNPN constituent theaters who have volunteered to serve as the testers for us. We'll expand the group to include more sites and projects throughout the month.

Convening Reports This month will be all about finishing up the Convening Reports and getting them released to the public.  The monograph will likely be available online in May. I am editing the Black Playwrights report now, while Janine is embarking on the Devised Work report. We should have a draft of each out to the participants before the end of the month. Meanwhile, Institute staffers are working on publishing the video content from the public events.

Just to give you a sense of the whole picture at Arena Stage, read this post about production-related activities in March as well!  We're in full swing now as center for the production, presentation, development, and study of American Theater.

 

The #Newplay Convenings: Next Steps

by David Dower

OK, so we've now completed the first three #newplay convenings of the AVNPI. Thank you to everyone who has participated thus far, both live in DC and online. It's been a real privilege to chair these discussions. And all of us working with the Institute program here at Arena Stage are committed to making sure the energy of so many people over the past three months is a catalyst for action; that it doesn't just evaporate now that the last of the guests have gone home and we've put away the vacuum cleaner.

The plan from here, for those following along:

-- First up, there will be a comprehensive report from each. These will be compiled into a single monograph and released to the public this Spring. We'll include a list of the proposed next steps from each so we've a public record of what was requested. (If you were a participant in any of the convenings, you'll get a draft version of the report for your comments before we finalize.)

-- Then, we'll form a "task force of the willing" around each topic from the people who participated. They'll help us prioritize the "next step" recommendations in each convening. We can't do everything, of course, and not all at once. This step will create a path for advancing as a field.

-- It will be the responsibility of each of the convening producers (Amrita, Travis, and Ronee) to then direct the process of moving through that list of priorities. Over the coming twelve months we will endeavor to make measurable progress on the challenges and opportunities expressed in the priorities.

It is our hope that we will be able to reconvene within the next twelve months-- this time as a committee of the whole that comingles these three groups with the other Institute program participants: the resident playwrights, the Round 1 and Round 2 NPDP folks, and the beta group for the New Play Map-- to chart and celebrate the progress everyone has made in 2010 and to recalibrate the priorities and opportunities in each program area.

That's a huge undertaking of course. And we're not yet certain we have the money to mount it, but I put it here because it's our goal and our intention-- and even though it's hard we want to commit ourselves to the attempt.

Thanks for your interest and support. Stick around. We're just getting started...

Why call it 'Devised work'?

by Ronee Penoi, Institute Fellow

As Travis's blog posts suggest, everyone's heads are full-up with the deep discovery and concentrated conversation made by our wonderful group this past weekend at the convening on Devised Work. So, instead of trying to respond to all of it, I'm going to toss out there one thought that popped up for me in the days following.

'Devised work' is always going to be a tricky term for 'this kind of work.' And that's because any term is going to be problematic. As soon as anyone attempts to unite a collection of work that belongs there because of its uniqueness, it becomes clear pretty quickly that it can't be codified collectively. So why try? A beautiful and  unexpected benefit of the past weekend, is that many artists felt a sense of community that isn't often made apparent. It isn't why we gathered, but it suggests at least to me, that maybe there's more benefit to finding similarities than differences here. Maybe there's a way to unite while still cradling that sense of uniqueness - to expand the sense of what 'devised' means, so that instead of the response being, 'oh, I don't do that' its 'yeah, I'm in that community.'

It may be a little 'kumbayah', but there it is.

Devised Works: Post-Convening

Posted by guest blogger Travis Bedard from the Devised Work Convening

The final formal section of the convening (before the demonstrations) was a moment of reflection on all of the discussions, and then the participants were asked to share conclusions and next steps. Some of those next steps as well as a few important points that got repeated along the way. In nothing like a hierarchical order:

• The fact that there is a “we” is important.
  There is a support network for the work, you just need to reach out (and be available).
• Don’t just reach out to your community when you want to sell tickets, be in the community.
• “We were planning on a potato, but we can use this parsnip”
  Things happen and resources and people come and go. Stay flexible.
• Devised Work artists and supporters need to lobby Equity to that recognize the duration of process on the work to create contracts that allow it.
• “How can we free the product from the architecture?” 
  Theaters are built with a specific product in mind (even black boxes) how can we free the thinking about creation from that restriction?
• There was a desire for more festivals (or even microfestivals) of devised work nationally, both to present work more often and less expensively, but also to keep an eye on what everyone else is doing.
• There was a loud call for a central source listing available resources (space, grants, duct tape, whatever) and ways to connect to those resources.
• Technology. There was no fear of technology in the room, but there was a lack of clarity on how it could best be leveraged, especially social media.

There were three very clear calls for action, none of which were actually raised during the final sharing session, rather they echoed throughout ALL of the sessions.

1. There is a large need for language around the sector. Despite a dislike for labels, communication to funders and audiences requires something.
2. Presenters/producers/funders and the artists need to close the circle and develop audiences holistically as a unified group not as separate units. That sort of repeated engagement doesn’t help the art and can turn off an audience member.
3. Long term relationships need to be forged between all parts of the devised work sector. Those long term relationships will enable better communication less drenched in grant-speak, and fewer outsized expectations about process or product.

I would like to close my reporting from this convening with a pair of questions:

What would you do to improve the lot of devised work artists and ensembles? What is one thing you can do to make a difference in this sector in the next year?

Saturday Night’s All Right for Devising

Posted by guest blogger Travis Bedard for the Devised Work Convening:

After two days of talking about theatre, four of the participants gladly grabbed their chance to get back “into the room” and actually make some theatre.

Kirk Lynn, Andy Parris, Geoff Sobelle, and Barney O’Hanlon each took a turn at demonstrating a process or exercise used in their ensemble work on stage with Georgetown students the eager guinea pigs.

     

Devised Works Convening: Day 2

Posted by guest blogger Travis Bedard for the Devised Work Convening

The second day of the devised work convening was a grueling, giddy day that passed far too quickly. It was a day that lasted from roughly 9AM until midnight. It was tightly planned and the few gaps were filled with introductions and more conversation. I honestly needed to be removed from it all to get any sort of hold on the ground that had been covered.

As David Loehr explained, the participants were exploring the questions posed by David Dower’s four prompts in three circles. The first circle a group composed by Mr. Dower based on the prompt being answered, the second comprised the remainder of the participants cast as active listeners, and the third made up of invited local artists, the Art Dev. staff, and the formal observers. This approach worked wonderfully to focus discussion. It gave participants clear roles during each segment and kept each question from being a free-for-all lost in the larger group. It also served to relieve the tension of participating in a passionate debate for 10 hours.

Day 1 of the Devised Works convening

Posted by Travis Bedard from the Devised Works convening -

I have been an active follower and participant in the discussions around these #newplay convening since the #newplay tag popped up for the Diversity convening. What I can tell you as someone experiencing it “in the room” for the first time is that what hasn’t translated in the online discussions around these meetings is the size of the group discussing these broad topics, and the pure passion that these people have for the advancement of theatre. That’s not to say  that the Diversity or Race discussions weren’t obviously passionate, it’s simply that outside the room, following the interpretations of one person typing on the fly in one window on your computer doesn’t adequately capture it.

Today’s work in the room broke down into two distinct parts, as loosely mentioned in the earlier “in the room posts”, actually getting everyone in the room, and then talking about their upcoming projects. Firmly rooting where we are, so we can look confidently to where we might be headed.

As David Dower mentioned in his post previewing this convening, this branch of the #newplay discussion has been going on amongst many of these same players for years. Many of the participants have worked with one another in one capacity or another in the past and the greetings as they arrived reflected that, as they caught up with one another,

This informal reconnection flowed easily into the more formal introductions of the group with the observers and reporters introducing themselves and then the bulk of the afternoon spent with participants explaining where they (and their groups) are now, and what is next. The breadth and depth of the ambition and collaboration of the participants is breathtaking.

The development process of a devised work that is iterated over and again requires bursts of support in the way that a single author traditional piece doesn’t. A commission at the beginning of the process and a check for production would leave a woefully doughy middle of a devised piece. It was made clear as companies, funders, presenters, and support organizations each outlined their next steps that they are working desperately to get solid footing under each part of that development process. Working in concert with the producing companies to support a work from conception to production.

Introductions finished (and remember that there are a lot more people in the room than you think there are) Mr. Dower began a broad group discussion around the question of whether companies considered themselves “lightly institutionalized”, or “institutionalized” at all (Lightly institutionalized in this case referring to the structure and operation of the companies). It quickly became clear that groups were hesitant to accept the label and the general sentiment expressed was that it was the institutional side of the work that was leading to burnout (or risk of burnout) in most cases.

This segued into a final burst of discussion about the frustrations of the Sisyphean production/funding cycle, and looking for ways to correct the balance of time spent being grantwriters, and fund raisers versus time spent in the rehearsal room building the art…

When the dinner bell rang.

Where does that leave us?

We are set up perfectly for the long day tomorrow. The room is fired up and ready to go; The participants feel safe talking to the group about things that are really bothering them about the system or the process or their situation; and the prompts that lead tomorrow’s discussion are very straightforward. I encourage you to review them for yourselves, and join in in the comments section here, or follow the action on Twitter by searching or following the #newplay hashtag.

Second: Who are you and what are you doing?

posted by Travis Bedard from the convening room -

The beginnings of this convening are about getting a hold on our present to take our steps towards the future. We are hearing from the companies in the room about their current projects and their next steps.

What work are you building from the ground up? What is you next step? Join the circle and introduce yourself and what you do.

First: Talking about talking

Posted by Travis Bedard from the convening room -

One of the very first problems that arises when discussing “devised work” is that there is little established vocabulary around the niche. There is no monolithic style of “devised work” production, indeed part of the success of devised work is avoidance of the pitfalls of the monolithic production styles of single authorial voice pieces. 

But go ahead and talk to folks who create collaboratively about their opinions on devised work. I have. I drafted up a list of questions about devised works and sent them to devised companies in my circle of acquaintance in Texas to begin a conversation and the first answer from all of them was that they “don’t do devised work, they do X”. Which was of course an answer that encompassed how they made what they made not a catch-all term for which specific “bucket” they belong in. The broad questions then become:

If you don’t fit into a category how can systems fund you appropriately?

If, as many devised works do, you produce then iterate, how do you get development money from systems that are built to support finished projects?

How do you get your audience to buy in to supporting iterations of a developing work?

But let’s start at the beginning:

How do you define “devised work”?

The Online Audience of the #newplay Devised Work Convo knows how to Party!

Calling all 'Devisers' in Southern California: For the past two #newplay convenings, there have been three circles of participation. In the convening room, there's a rotating seating configuration where an inner circle speaks and an outer circle listens. The third circle is the online audience that follows and participates in the conversation that is provoked by a micro-blogger who's reporting from inside the room.  Up to now, the third circle participants have been behind their laptops or mobile units, tweeting and tracking alone in twitterverse.  But why be alone? Twitter's not supposed to be anti-'social'. A group of people in L.A. are already asking just that - shouldn't we just hold a mixer, watch the live broadcast on #NewPlay TV together and tweet the Q&A all together? Yes, you can!  This fun mixer going to be hosted by Son of Semele Ensemble in L.A. on Saturday evening. Bring your tweeting gear and tag #newplay. Click here for more information and to RSVP

#NewPlay Map: the Radical Transparency Archive - Audio

posted by Vijay Mathew

As we're building the New Play Map, we're at the same time documenting its development from beginning to end for everyone to peek into. The main reason why we're doing this is because it's an "open" project that will find its legs in relation to the engagement of its contributors/users: you.  The more we keep this open, the more you'll be able to contribute, take ownership of it, and add value to it.    

Plus, we're having a blast spying on ourselves (yes, we're in DC) and continuously challenging our habit for organizational conversations to be private vs. opening up to the public that is a true stakeholder in the project.  That's the second reason why we're opening up: It's a great opportunity for investigating our own culture and conventions in managing institutional projects. Through the course of the project's development, we'll be laying out all the discussions, milestones, decisions, and choices that have been integral in making the Map - and laying out our own learning about our own organization's way of operating. 

So, we'll start this archive here with all of the telephone conversations that we've had with Quilted since the start of development and we'll continue to upload these conversations inside of this post:  (Once Quilted catches their breath, they'll explain in a post about the development methodology called 'Agile Scrum' - strategy from Rugby!? - which will explain the funny titles for the following telephone conversations.)

#NewPlay Map: The Original Impulse Behind It

posted by Vijay Mathew

We can point to the installation 'Electronic Superhighway' by Nam June Paik in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery as being the major source of inspiration for the concept guiding the New Play Map project.  Our viewing of it came at a moment of thinking about what it means for Arena Stage to radically transform itself from a producing theater focused on American work to becoming a 'Center for American Theater' whose activity will not just be locally focused on producing shows but on opening up widely to presenting other companies' productions from all over the nation, to developing new work for the entire field, and to the study, implementation, and dissemination of effective practices for the American theater. The word 'Center' in the 'Center for American Theater' being the operative word here that implies creating a gathering place, a forum, an 'arena-stage' where the nation can congregate in person and online to experience the broad canvas and diversity of American theater from a multiplicity of perspectives. - No small feat to accomplish!

Look Who's Talking: Devised Work Convening Participants - #newplay

by Ronee Penoi, Institute Fellow Producer: Devised Work Convening

We've got a great group coming up this weekend for the Devised Work conversation - wowzers! - check it out:

The Participants

Neil Barclay, CEO National Black Arts Festival
Rachel Chavkin, Artistic Director, the TEAM
Stephen Earnhart, Artist 
John Eisner, Producing Director/Lark Play Development Center
Susie Farr  Executive Director, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at Maryland
Kamilah Forbes, Artistic Director, Hip-Hop Theater Festival
Sandra Gibson, President and CEO, Association of Performing Arts Presenters
Sabrina Hamilton, Artistic Director, Ko Festival of Performance/Network of Ensemble Theatres Board 
Christopher Hibma, Associate Director, Sundance Institute Theatre Program
Dan Hurlin, Artist
Morgan Jenness, Creative Consultant, Abrams Artists
Melanie Joseph, The Foundry Theatre
Andrew Kircher, Under the Radar (NYC)
Kelly Kirkpatrick, Center Theater Group Los Angeles
Thomas Kriegsmann, President / ArKtype

Jim Lasko, Resident Artist Redmoon Theater
Kirk Lynn, Co-Producing Artistic Director, Rude Mechs
Sam Miller, President, OAM Company, Inc
Jennifer Morris, The Civilians
Barney O'Hanlon, SITI Company
Andy Paris, Artistic Associate, Tectonic Theatre Project
Ann Rosenthal, Executive Director & Producer/MAPP International Productions
Dan Rothenberg, Co-Artistic Director, Pig Iron Theatre Company
Steven Sapp, Universes
Vincent Scott, Program Producer/National Museum of the American Indian
Leigh Smiley,    Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at University of Maryland
Geoff Sobelle, Co-Artistic Director, Rainpan 43
Lisa Steindler, Executive Artistic Director, Z Space
Nick Stuccio, Live Arts Festival
Alex Torra, Associate Artistic Director, Pig Iron Theatre Company
Meiyin Wang, Under the Radar (NYC)
MK Wegman, President and CEO National Performance Network

We're also thrilled to have Travis Bedard blogging at the convening, and David Loehr tweeting all weekend long. Follow online here, on twitter at @NEW_PLAY_BLOG, and use #newplay

"What Are They Talking About?" The Devised Work Convening

by David Dower

Next weekend we'll be completing the Convening Trifecta here, with the gathering of people engaged in the development, production, presentation, and touring of devised work. Here's a [long] introduction to the conversation we'll be having over the two days.

This conversation will build on a whole range of discussions that have been taking place in a variety of settings over the past several years.

Nighthawks at the #Newplay #2amt Diner

by David Dower

I've been following along with this conversation over the past couple of weeks. OK, so I've not been following it live. It breaks out in the middle of the night. So I come in on it in the morning to catch up. But if you find yourself up after midnight and eager to chat with theater makers about theater, often about new work but not always, there's a late-night gathering place on Twitter at #2amt. And it carries over to the 2AMtheater blog.

What Makes a #NewPlay "New"?

by David Dower

As is often the case, Issac Butler started a discussion over at Parabasis that got people talking. This time, he's got people trying to define what a new play is. And it's surprising how much of a challenge it is. I find I don't really know how to define it, and I talk about new plays all day-- have for more than a decade!

Meaning matters, though, and we see the unintended consequences all over the #newplay sector of having not properly defined "emerging artist" or "artist-focused", for example.  So it's in our best interest to know what we want it to mean. Yet, when I try to deal with defining stuff in this work I often find myself tied up in linguistic knots. I want to be precise and I want it to be true. So the result is often impenetrable. (Which is why I'll never write a play!)

But, I'll risk it.

Time Out NY series on the #newplay Black Playwrights Convo

Helen Shaw has interviewed the bloggers from the Black Playwrights Convening here. Three separate interviews.And a picture of J. "99 Seats" Holtham in the bargain! 

See It. Clone It.

by David Dower

So, continuing the theme of "Find the Bright Spots. Clone Them."

Take a look at this "Scenic Co-op" that's getting underway in Austin, TX.

Where else are you seeing particularly effective resource-sharing around the field?

San Francisco Bay Area's Outrageous Fortune #newplay Convo

by David Dower

Here's a link to Karen McKevitt's live-blogging of the conversation that happened yesterday with the Bay Area #newplay community as part of the Outrageous Fortune book tour. Theatre Bay Area did an excellent job creating online access to the discussion. Twitter users can follow the #newplay thread for 2/9/10 and see the mad pace at which Clayton Lord tweeted the whole thing as well.

At the end of the summary post, Karen recalls this Fast Company article about seemingly insurmountable problems and how they're solved-- by focusing on isolated things that seem to be working already in spite of the long odds against. The actual quote:

As the authors of Outrageous Fortune pointed out, many things that we're doing in the Bay Area are working. Many theatre people and companies in the Bay Area have the solutions at their fingertips, and those solutions may just be impacting one "family" (company, or group of artists), but if the rest of us could learn what they are, we can adapt them. And maybe the success will spread. And maybe the success will stay with us for the next generation, and the next.

The article Karen's referring to contains the rationale for the inquiry here at the American Voices New Play Institute: an excerpt from this book, it apparently* chronicles the path to solving any systemic, seemingly insurmountable problem (malnutrition among rural Vietnamese children) by focusing on the techniques of those mothers that were keeping their children healthy. "Find a bright spot. And clone it." This is a much more effective way of communicating our purpose here: "advancing the infrastructure for new plays by testing, developing and disseminating promising programs, practices, and processes blah blah blah..." [It's OK to make fun- I wrote that stuff-- what dramaturg Jocelyn Clarke might call "that insoluble pancake" of geek-speak.]

#NewPlay TV

Watch the LIVE BROADCAST public event: "How the Devising's Done: Theater Mavericks Talk Process" at 8pm EST / 5pm PST on Sat, Feb 20 on #NewPlay TV at http://livestream.com/newplay 

Add this event your calendar.  

In this free public lecture-demo, four artists will talk about and demonstrate their ensemble and devised processes and techniques. These artists include Kirk Lynn from Rude Mechs, Barney O'Hanlon from SITI Company, Geoff Sobelle from Rainpan 43 and Andy Paris from Tectonic Theater Project. Click here for more details.

Outrageous Fortune Barnstorming Tour #newplay

by David Dower

If you've been following the Outrageous Fortune discussions online, you may want to come out and discuss it live when the authors arrive in your town. They've already been through Chicago, Minneapolis, and Atlanta. (Sorry we didn't let you know in advance!) Some upcoming opportunities for dialogue with Todd London, Victoria Bailey, and Ben Pesner include:

February 9th: San Francisco Bay Area (This one will also be live tweeted, and you can follow along through #newplay.)

February 16th: Philadelphia (Diane Ragsdale and I will be joining the authors in conversation at this one. I think this one is full, but you can contact the Philadelphia Theater Initiative to see.)

March 1st: Seattle

March 16th: Washington, DC (We're putting this one together with NNPN at Woolly Mammoth Theater from 2p - 6p. RSVP here)

They are planning other stops, and we're hoping to stream some of these at New Play TV. Watch this space for updates as we have more news.

Whaddya mean: "Devised Work"? Countdown to the next #newplay convening starts now...

<--Kirk Lynn, Rude Mechs

posted by Ronee Penoi, Institute Fellow

It's been so long, hasn't it?  Yes, the Institute is ramping up for the next conversation, and it's on DEVISED WORK -- February 19th and 20th. "What do we mean by 'devised'?"- you might ask. Well, that's one of the things we're hoping to discover, as well as what the challenges and obstacles are to championing, supporting, and talking about devised, ensemble, interdisciplinary, and [insert your adjective here] work in a system that's primarily built on a playwright-driven model. 

As with 'Defining Diversity' and 'Black Playwrights' - we'll be on Twitter all weekend, so remember #newplay to add questions and follow along. We'll also be live broadcasting on #NewPlay TV a free public event on Saturday, February 20th, at 8pm. We have a line-up of fabulous theater mavericks doing a lecture-demo on their processes and techniques, such as Kirk Lynn from Rude Mechs, Barney O'Hanlon from SITI Company, Geoff Sobelle from Rainpan 43, and Andy Paris from Tectonic Theater Project. Click here for more details.  

<--Barney O'Hanlon, SITI Company, Geoff Sobelle, Rainpan 43-->

Stay tuned...

#Newplay Dramaturgy on the so-called "Old Plays" !

posted by Jamie Gahlon, American Voices New Play Institute Coordinator

[Editor's Note: Playwright Karen Zacarias is the first of three AVNPI Resident Playwrights to begin her residency at Arena. As we've discussed here before, she's elected to start by focusing on her current body of work-- on four plays that are receiving productions this upcoming season somewhere in the country that she feels each are "one rewrite short of finished". For this part of the residency she's hired Jocelyn Clarke as her dramaturg, building on the relationship the two established during the development and premiere of her play The Legacy of Light here at Arena Stage last season.]

"It is actually a relief when someone can articulate what's been gnawing at you."  -- Karen Zacarias on the importance of an authentic Dramaturg-Playwright interaction

A few weeks ago, the Artistic Development Staff had the pleasure of sitting down with Resident Playwright Karen Zacarias and dramaturg Jocelyn Clarke.  Jocelyn will be working with Karen for the first year of her residency as the "dramaturg in her back pocket," while Karen works through re-writes on plays which have been, are, or will be in production. Both Jocelyn and Karen shared some incredible insights on the importance of their relationship.  I couldn't help but take down some sound bites that I want to share with you.

Karen detailed some of her own experiences with new play development, and how crucial getting work into production is to the development of her craft. As she explained it, when she has a play moving toward production, she will in some ways be more open to doing the work that needs to be done, even if it requires massive re-writes and changes, in her words she "needs to do this heart surgery because the patient is on the table." Jocelyn added that "As a dramaturg, you need to let your playwright go and make mistakes."  He continued, "Fundamentally, what playwrights want from their dramaturg is 1) a critic 2) a collaborator and 3) a cheerleader."  Karen added, "They want a sense that they are actually there for you."  Once that trust is there, the dialogue can be honest, and even sometimes brutal.  In situations where a play must be imagined from top to bottom, Karen underscored the "importance of a diagnosis- it gives you purpose [to your writing and] a production gives you the will to live." 

Jocelyn talked about shaking up the discourse around "new play development"- the importance of playwright development over play development. He stated that "if you are a theater that is charged with a national mission, like Arena, you need to rethink new play development..."  These words did not fall on deaf ears.

Karen summed up her feelings about getting the opportunity and support to re-write plays in the context of a field where the new is fetishized.  This yen for the new is like marriage, Karen said, where her partner "is only interested in the baby we had together.  The other step-kids are not invited to Christmas," while getting a chance to re-work plays is opening arms to bring "all to the table."  It's like saying "the whole family is welcome."

Playwrights and Residencies: The View From Here

by David Dower

It's the morning after the NEA New Play Development Program application deadline. And the weekend that the responses are due from the short list of playwrights Arena Stage invited to consider participation in the first round of Playwright Residencies managed through our American Voices New Play Institute. And I stumbled onto this post, in which the always inspired Gus Schulenberg maps a national collaboration around residencies for playwrights.

So, this question of homes for writers is on my mind. Better said, my head is spinning with this convergence. To wit:

NPDP Deadline: January 29th @ Midnight!

from David Dower

I'm sitting here at my desk listening to Vijay Mathew answer questions from people working on their NPDP Applications and it's a really cool view of the breadth of participation around the country in this program. Calls are coming from all over the map. Mostly the same questions about whether the deadline is for real (yes, it is); whether it's an EST deadline (we'll be soft and say it has to be time stamped by midnight PST); and how to make the most compelling case in the work samples (these questions seem to be too specific to generalize from for this forum...)

But I just wanted to say good luck to everyone who's pouring themselves into this application process this time around. It's going to be a great pool.

If you are not, in the end, going to be in the pool, don't forget we need readers and screeners to help in the selection process so there is still a way to be part of the fun. If you've only applied in one category you can still participate in the selection process in the other.

Proud to be part of the #newplay sector!

Headed to The Valley - Black Playwrights #NewPlay Convening: Part 3

by Adam Thurman, guest blogger

Since J. Holtham covered the recommendations that came during the end of Day 2, that leaves me a bit of room to talk about my favorite part of the weekend, the evening performance where playwrights read excerpts of their work.

The evening began with Jennifer Nelson reading Suzan-Lori Parks "The New Black Math".  Parks words reminded the audience that there is no such thing as a "black play".  It was the perfect way to start the evening because, one after another, the playwrights demonstrated an incredible range of stories and viewpoints.

I'll highlight three that really stood out to me.

Lydia Diamond read a piece from her yet untitled play.  After five minutes of preamble about how she was still working through the play, how unfinished it is, etc. Lydia then proceeded to deliver a stunning ten minutes excerpt of her work.

The untitled play revolves a white neurosurgeon who is actively pursuing a "genius grant" for his research.  The only problem is that his research conclusions are just a tiny bit controversial.  His research concludes that white people are inherently racist.

The scene Lydia read featured the surgeon and his wife discussing the explosive impact of his work.  Two minutes in and I could see the entire scene in my head.  When the play is finished, it is going to be incredible.

----------------------------

I had heard of Rha Goddess but had never seen her perform.  I was in awe as she used a single prop - a chair - to present the story of a mentally ill drug user, her pain and the fantasy world she escapes to. 

Rha broke past the stereotypical addict image to present a fully fleshed out human being.  I know people like the woman she portrayed.  Maybe you do too.  But I rarely get to see the mixture of humanity and despair that I saw during her performance.

-------------------------------

And then we went to the Valley.

Pussy Valley.

Yes, Pussy Valley.

Katori Hall's look into the world of pole dancers - call them strippers at your peril - had the entire room laughing out loud.  As Katori bounced back and forth between four characters, all with distinct voices and personalities, I could see the vivid world she created.

It's the sort of play that many theatres wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, not because the piece isn't good, but because they don't have the courage to produce it.

So often when we talk about new plays and why they are, or are not, produced we place the blame on the writers.

The plays aren't good enough, we say.

If you would have been in DC that night you would have realized how ridiculous that statement is.

From the neurosurgeon to the addict to the dancer, writers are creating plays worthy of the stage.

To me the real question is this:

Is the stage worthy of those plays?

Do theatres have the courage and commitment to broaden their range of what a "black" play is?

We shall see.

Imagine...THE NEW PLAY MAP - #NewPlay

by Jamie Gahlon, American Voices New Play Institute Coordinator

Imagine if you will, a comprehensive map of the new play development infrastructure.  Imagine a bird's eye view of all new play producing and presenting theaters and development centers nationwide.  Now, imagine being able to track a new play's journey through the infrastructure, through time- all the while seeing the relationship between artists, institutions, and the new work.  This, is essentially the guiding impulse behind the New Play Map, one of the American Voices New Play Institute's pilot programs. 

The New Play Map will be an real-time, interactive map that aggregates all new play activity from across the interwebs into one user-friendly hub where theater practitioners- producers, playwrights, presenters, developers will be able to congregate to see the new play sector work-it in real time.

Last fall we hired Quilted, a web development and design cooperative, to develop the platform for the New Play Map, and in late November Ben Mauer and Colin Sagan came to DC for a two-day planning session.  We talked about our goals for the project, its functionality, and gave the Quilted team a crash course in the complexities that make up the millions of pieces of the new play sector.  We wrote everything down.  Here are some photos we snapped throughout the process:

 

From this meeting, we developed four high level goals for Version 1.0 of the project:

1) Make the new play infrastructure visible

2) Make new play activity visible within the infrastructure

3) Make the journey of a new work through the infrastructure visible

4) Automate mapping the journeys of new work

The building has begun, and in a few weeks we launch into beta-testing with a small group of organizations. In the meantime, though, expect to hear a lot more about this project from myself, Vijay Mathew, and Ben and Colin.  We aim to make this process as transparent and accesible as possible and have invited Ben and Colin to blog as much as they want about the journey.  Hope you'll join us for the ride!

Reflection on the Black Playwrights Convening, Part 3 #NewPlay

From J. Holtham, guest blogger

October 2^nd, 2009 marked four years since the death of August Wilson. Like I mentioned here a couple of days ago, the thought of that sent me reaching out to other black playwrights to get a sense of the community and the field. It’s so easy to feel disconnected from other writers, to feel like you’re the only one pounding your head against walls, to feel alone.

At the Black Playwrights Convening, I found the answers to a lot of those questions and feelings, and many others there did as well. At the end of the weekend, six of the participants read sections of their works-in-progress for a packed auditorium. The excerpts were funny, passionate, smart, engaging and all radically different, in tone, style, voice, subject matter. Each told a vital story, stories we haven’t heard, stories that were powerful and human, and all very black. (Whatever you think that means.) After a long weekend of passionate discussion, some argument and a fair amount of frustration, it was a great finish.

In the final session of the convening, David asked each of the participants to come up with ideas for moving forward. The responses were wide-ranging and comprehensive, from editorials to festivals to the very personal commitments to each other and our own work. It was a powerful list of ideas and a swirl of energy, that may be best summed up by advice Robert O’Hara got from a mentor: “Do what you do and if they run you out of town, lead the parade.”

Some of the other ideas and questions were:

-   How to connect black theatres to black wealth? With stars like Usher, Jay-Z and Will Smith providing support for Broadway shows.

-   Lobbying African-American art museums to accept plays as art (It was noted that there are 254 African-American art museums in the country).

-   Build bridges between black theatres and help figure out ways to connect the theatres to new work

-   Encourage a publisher like TCG to do an anthology of black plays of the 20^th Century to introduce them into the “canon.”

-   More critical and scholarly writing about the work

-   Look at what is working in terms of black theatre and try to emulate that

-   Cultivating black directors by choosing to work with them as often as possible.

It was an incredibly fruitful and exciting weekend and I was glad to be there.

This was my second straight MLK weekend in Washington, D.C. On Monday, I went into the city and, for the first time in my adult life, went to the Museum of American History. I went to an exhibit on African-American culture in D.C. as photographed by the Spurlocks and then, in the next room over, saw the flag that inspired The Star-Spangled Banner. I watched the crowds, walking the Mall, the sea of human faces, all colors, all races and kinds. After the weekend, I don’t know if I ever felt more a part of it all.

What's Working - #NewPlay Observations from Day 2 of the Black Playwright's Convening

by Adam Thurman, guest blogger

As Day 2 began, David Dower selected a group of Playwright's and asked a powerful question:

What's working?

It was an important way to start the roundtable discussion.  It's so easy for people, myself included, to talk about what's not working in theatre.  It was nice to begin the day on a positive note.

Here's what's working:

1.  Mentorship is alive and well - Often, participants in the room mentioned how someone else in the room had provided career guidance, advice and much need words of encouragement.  It's cliche to say that no one can make it alone, but it's also very true.  Informal mentorship does exist in the field and it's helping many people find their way.

2.  Some theatres get it - Playwrights mentioned several theatres, both large and small, that were building healthy relationships with playwrights, building relationships with diverse communities and marketing work effectively.

3.  Interesting work is being written - One of the highlights of the conversation was playwright's talking about projects they are working on.  Both the conversation in the room and the presentation that happened later on in the evening served as a reminder that people are writing the sort of work that will move the art form forward.

Reflections on the #NewPlay Black Playwrights Convening, Part 2

by J. Holtham, guest blogger

After the foundation was laid on Day #1, the conversation really took flight on Day #2 of the Arena Stage Black Playwrights Convening. We’d had an outing the night before to see Lydia Diamond’s play, Stick Fly, currently being produced by Arena Stage, which I enjoyed very much. The next morning, my head was still spinning from the first day, a terrific dinner, the play, a long, slightly odd cab ride back to our hotel, the conversations that were spilling out all over the place. At that terrific dinner, the talk had bounced from the history of minstrelsy, the state of indie theatre in New York, marketing and (I think) the films of Jerry Bruckheimer. To say that I was primed to come back to the circle would be an understatement.

The next day turned out to be, in many ways, the meat of the weekend. We came into the rehearsal room to the sounds of some very cool tunes (provided by Christina Anderson, whose DJ skills are second only to her playwriting skills) and you could feel the energy bubbling up. We were all ready to get into it. And into it, we got!

RTWT #NewPlay

by David Dower

I'm going to push at the boundaries of my "positive inquiry" mandate here at the New Play Blog to spout off a bit for a moment.

I've been watching the theater blog world all week with a growing sense of dismay. I love the energy- it gives me energy to see people all over the country and all over the terrain (aesthetic, generational, cultural) writing with passion and regularity about new plays. And to see what Isaac has organized at Parabasis around Outrageous Fortune, and the thoughtful, wide-ranging contributions of his guest bloggers on the topics raised in the book.

Reflections on the Black Playwrights Convening, Part 1 #NewPlay

J. Holtham here, the formerly anonymous blogger of 99 Seats. Arena Stage invited me and Adam Thurman of Mission Paradox Blog to join them for the Black Playwrights Convening and blog about our thoughts, responses and reflections. Here's the first installment from me...

As I wrote here, when I got the invite for the Arena Stage’s Black Playwrights Convening, and I saw the list of participants, I pooped my pants a little bit. It was the most incredible collection of playwrights, artists, storytellers, administrators I could imagine, all in one place. (On the train down, Isaac Butler joked that, if a missile hit the train, that would be the end of black playwriting in America.) But I wasn’t prepared for actually being in the room.

It was simply the coolest room I’ve ever been in. Well, okay, being at the inauguration last MLK weekend was pretty cool, too. Not a bad yearly tradition.

Crowded into a rehearsal room in the Davis Performing Arts Center at Georgetown University, first there was meeting and greeting, catching up with old friends. Playwrights had come from all over the country (well, mostly New York, but more on that later). Most knew each other from festivals, theatres, schools, but hadn’t seen each other in a while. Finally, we settled in to the work at hand.

Arena Stage gathered us as a part of a series of convenings on the state of new plays in America. This is obviously much on the minds of, well, everybody these days. This particular convening was about black playwriting, but it became much, much more.

Interestingly, a few months ago, I sent the following e-mail to a group of black playwrights I knew, many of whom wound up in the room with me here:

Tomorrow marks the 4 year anniversary of the passing of August Wilson. A lot has gone down in the last four years, a lot has changed and some things have very much not. This summer, a kind of mask slipped aside, again, and we got a glimpse at the underbelly of our country, still there, still angry, still ready to bite.

I've been thinking a lot, in the last few months, about being a black playwright in America today and what that means, both for me personally and for the field at large. What is the state of black theatre and black playwriting today, what's changed, what hasn't. How do we confront these turbulent times in our work?

And that, it turns out, is what was going on in the room this weekend. We started off with a rollicking discussion, bouncing around the room, responding to an excerpt from Outrageous Fortune, The Ground on Which I Stand by August Wilson, and New Black Math by Suzan-Lori Parks, some of the suggested readings. It was a day of questions, first principles, some anger and frustration, a lot of agreement and shared experiences, a lot of overlap and a lot of divergence.

One writer made a distinction between "African" plays, steeped in African-American storytelling traditions and aesthetics and "American" plays, appealing more to the "mainstream." Another wondered if we were being "ahistorical" and not looking enough at the writing of figures like Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson, who were wrestling with these very issues in the '30s and '40s. As his grandmother told him, "You ain't the first black man to read." Others, though, spoke eloquently and passionately about finding their own voices and stories to tell and having to fight to be heard, in particular the female playwrights, one of whom has been told that "black women playwrights have a problem with structure."

So, yeah, there was some frustration in the air. Frustration at institutions that are happy to have a black writer in the house, happy to have a black audience in the house, but won't market to their "regular" audience for those shows. Frustration at the coverage in recent Playbills and other places about how Broadway is addressing race...solely in plays and musicals written by white men. Many folks, though, even rejected or challenged the notions of "white vs. black," asking if, when Kenny Leon became the artistic director of the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, did it become a black theatre?

Out of the frustrations, though, one of the major themes of the weekend began to emerge early: self-reliance. We would come back, again and again, to the idea that a black artist needed to find their own audience and bring them into the institutions. At least one person said there was a crisis in marketing to black audiences. So much of that affects the audiences and so much of that falls on our backs. There is work there, and an obligation, but also a lot of control and empowerment. We can and should develop our own audiences, know who they are and how to reach them and bring them along with us. It was something we would keep coming back to over the weekend.

We laid a good foundation to start off the weekend. There was much, much more to come.

Time For Some Action - Black Playwright Convening - Day 1 - #NewPlay

posted by Adam Thurman, guest blogger for the Black Playwrights Convening

As the room began to fill for the first day of the Black Playwrights Convening, there was a shadow hanging over the room.

That shadow has a name, Outrageous Fortune, the book that chronicles the life and times of the American playwright.The book is, to put it mildly, a bit of buzzkill.  So I expected a bit of a damper in the room because of it.

I was wrong.

Over the course of the first day you could feel a spirit of optimism and - dare I say it - hope, from many of the participants in the room.

That's not to say the participants didn't present a myriad of issues that they have with institutional theatres, here are just a few:

1.  The relationships between theatres and playwrights - One participant said it best when she said "I want to work with a theatre that loves my work".  Many participants noted that it's become more and more difficult to build healthy, mutually beneficial, relationships with theatres.

2.  The burden of expectations - When a black playwright sits down to write, do they have to produce a "black play".  What in the world is a black play anyway?  Are theatres and audience members putting subtle, but very real, pressure on these playwrights to conform to a standard of what black writing is . . . and isn't? There was a complex and challenging discussion about when and whether black playwrights are writing American work. And whether American work by black playwrights was black work at all. And whether the Obama era changes the expectations and perspectives of black work.

3.  Unclear marketing - Many participants observed that theatres still struggle with how to "sell" black playwrights to their audience, particularly if that audience is majority white.  They also observed that many theatres still struggle with consistently bringing black audiences - and other audiences of color - into their venues.

Despite these issues, I could feel a warm and positive vibe in the room.  There was a feeling that things could get better, not just from advocacy but from action.

Some playwrights discussed actively building their own audience and producing their own plays.

Others discussed the merits of working within institutional theatres and promoting change from within.

It became clear to me that there are a thousand different paths to "success" that these playwrights could take and that it would be important from them to not only pursue their path but to help others with their own journey. "My father always used to say to me 'Don't sleep on your brother's dream'", said one writer. "As long as we share vision, we can support each other's dreams."

As Day 1 ended and everyone headed out to dinner I couldn't help but feel encouraged by the energy, good ideas and passion of everyone in the room.

Day 1 set a very high bar. It was going to be interesting to see if Day 2 could surpass it.

Photos from the Weekend #NewPlay Convening

While we wait for the notes from the convening this weekend, here are the group photos from the two days. More to come...

Day One: 

Day Two:

 

Where's The Black Playwrights' Convening? #newplay

If you're wanting to follow the discussion with Black playwrights this weekend at Arena Stage, you can follow along live on Twitter by reading the #newplay hashtag.

Longer entries will start to show up here over the next few days. And Parabasis, Mission Paradox, and 99 Seats will all be posting their own views on the proceedings.

You can also tune in for a live stream of the public event tomorrow night at New Play TV as Lydia Diamond, Rha Goddess, Paul Anthony Notice, Marcus Gardley, Katori Hall and Daniel Beaty all read from their new works.

There will also be a full document of the weekend posted on this blog within the month.

The Minneapolis Adventures of a Las Vegas Girl: Part Two #newplay

by Amrita Mangus, Institute Fellow

Synergy is at work here.

After concluding my enriching "observership" for the development workshop of Sherry Kramer's Bay of Fundy and the Playwrights' Center, I learned that Todd London, Ben Pesner, and Victoria Bailey would be hosting a panel discussion on Outrageous Fortune at the Playwrights' Center the very next day! Having recently read the book and referring to it as my bible, I was eager to dive into a discussion face to face with the creators who spent many tireless years exploring the state of new play development from the perspectives of the playwrights, artistic directors, and theater practitioners in institutions and organizations nationwide.

The panel began by presenting some of the key findings from the research, and emphasizing the alignment between the Outrageous Fortune study and David Dower's The Gates of Opportunity study through the Mellon Foundation. They detailed the logistics of obtaining the research, which involved receiving approximately 250 surveys from playwrights throughout the nation, holding roundtable discussions, and corresponding with key practitioners in the field like Morgan Jenness, Bill Raush, Molly Smith, and Elizabeth I. McCann. They then highlighted the chapters in Outrageous Fortune, starting with "Dialogue in the Dark: Playwrights & Theatres". The conclusions drawn from this chapter reflected on "a collaboration in crisis," where the playwrights and theaters discussed very different ideas of how they were being served, or underserved in the theater ecology. The next chapter, "The Lives and Livelihoods of the Playwrights" revealed statistics of the playwrights' income, the distribution of that income, and much more on the lives of 250 playwrights. This presentation was easily the most depressing and consequently eye-opening of them all, stating that the average playwright makes between $25,000 - $39,000 per year, with a small fraction of that income coming from their plays! The panel then talked about "The Way of the Play" and "New Plays Onstage: Producing in the Real World," showcasing the negative effects of "premieritis" and how literary departments have become the "buffers" between the artistic director and the playwright. After that, the conversation landed on the audiences and presented the question about whether playwrights should be involved with the marketing of their work. We wrapped up this section of the panel with a conversation about the next steps and a Q&A session. One of the questions that stuck out in my mind was presented by freelance dramaturg Sarah Slight: "Did you ask the playwrights if they viewed themselves as successful, regardless of the amount of money they made or which jobs they were taking on to support themselves?" (for the record, she articulated the question way better than I did). It showed us a completely new perspective, and created a great segue for us to ponder while breaking out for lunch.

During lunch, I met up with Aditi Kapil at Pizza Luce to share our thoughts on the invigorating panel and enjoy some delicious pizza and salad. We then recovened at PWC for the next section of the panel, which focused on a series of break out sessions to brainstorm our ideas for next steps. Some of the ideas that came out of those break out sessions included: involve your playwrights in conversations with all of the staff, especially the marketing, development, and production teams, have a playwright on staff, incorporate more social media techniques, like the video trailers the Playwrights' Center offers, and most importantly, share ideas between companies, artists, and organizations on all levels. It was refreshing to see that Arena has quite a few of these ideas in place with the playwright residencies and convenings.

We ended the day feeling excited, enlightened, and eager to see where this conversation will lead. Todd London, Ben Pesner, and Victoria Bailey plan to travel to multiple cities and hold similar panels and conversations, so look for them at a city near you!

What Was That All About?

by David Dower

One of the strangest little #newplay brouhaha's to arise in the aftermath of the publication of Outrageous Fortune was this odd little article by the Wall Street Journal's Terry Teachout and the fallout and defenders it attracted. It's all over the blog world and zoomed around Twitter right after publication.

Only got time to read one response? Make it this one. Here's the very smart Ed Sobel, now Associate Artistic Director at The Arden, on the hole in the Journal's numbers. The logic gets a bit more convoluted over here, as Ed and Terry try to pin down the methodology.

As I wrote here, I expect we're going to move quickly through this period of wild defensiveness in the wake of the TDF Study. I don't think I saw the critics as being the first to rush in, but that was just an oversight on my part. Of course they're part of the system under the microscope, and of course they are going to use their positions to defend their place in it-- for now. I'm betting there will be more cogent, thoughtful analysis from this quarter down the line as well. When it comes, we'll share that as well.

The Minneapolis Adventures of a Las Vegas Girl: Part One #NewPlay

by Amrita Mangus, Institute Fellow

 

It's day four of my visit to Minneapolis, observing the workshops, events, and panel discussions at the Playwrights' Center. Despite the frigid cold temperatures (we reached a high of 3 degrees my first day in the city), I have remained warm and enlightened by the exciting work at PWC and the support and love they shower on their playwrights.

On my plane trip to the land of 1,000 lakes, I completed Outrageous Fortune (if you haven't read it yet, order your copy NOW) and was dwelling on the notion of "a home for the artists" as opposed to "home for the art." As soon as I set foot in the Playwrights' Center, I could easily see how it would be described as a home for the artists. I commenced my stay by observing the workshop rehearsals for Sherry Kramer's Bay of Fundy, one of the plays selected for the 2009-2010 Ruth Easton New Play Series. Sherry, dramaturg  Liz Engelman, director Hayley Finn, and the cast engaged a reading of the new play and an open, candid discussion about the world of the play and questions they had relating to it. It was nice to see such a free flowing dialogue take place, with Sherry jotting down the actors' insights and comments, the actors' remarking on the greater themes of old money vs. new money within the play, and Liz keeping us focused and encouraging Sherry to "keep the funny parts." Another nice addition to the process was sound designer Andy Mayer, who incorporated background music and sound effects to allow the viewer to delve further into the world of the play. I learned later that each of the Ruth Easton New Plays incorporates one designer selected by the playwright - a concept that the playwrights love (according to Sherry at least). 

After concluding rehearsals each night and retreating  to the administrative offices to retrieve my winter gear, I would inevitably run into Kris Diaz, Reggie Edmund, Deborah Stein, Mat Smart, Kevin Anthony Kautzman, or one of the other playwright fellows at PWC. Each of the fellows are living proof that the environment at PWC welcomes them as they hash out their new plays on one of the seven guest computers, hold classes or meetings in the rehearsal studio, or spontaneously partake in debates or discussions in the middle of the offices. All of the staff knows them intimately, and they know the staff. It's the kind of symbiotic relationship that creates a stronger understanding between the artist and the organization.

I can't wait to see what the rest of the week holds! There will definitely be more to come.

"Outrageous" Blogging Alert in the #Newplay Sector

by David Dower

So, the discussion around Outrageous Fortune has liftoff in the blogosphere. There's a discussion group of major theater bloggers being coordinated through Isaac Butler at Parabasis.

Though the conversation will be much richer for you once you've read the book, we encourage you to get in the mix early and often. Be forewarned: these are deep and troubled waters. Grab a cup of coffee and park yourself at the computer for a spell...

Thanks, bloggers, for all your work on this! We'll keep pointing people in the direction of the discussion.

NEA #NewPlay Program: Weekly Phone Chats! & Round 1's Successful Applications Published Here

For those of you that are in the process of writing your applications for the NEA New Play Development Program, we will be holding weekly Telephone Chats! (yes, old-school style) where you will be able to ask us any questions about the application, the selection process, and the program.

Here are the Dates and Times (also found here on the Calendar):

Friday, January 15:  3pm - 4pm EST -- click here to add this event to your calendar

Wednesday, January 20:  3pm - 4pm EST -- click here to add this event to your calendar

Monday, January 25:  3pm - 4pm EST -- click here to add this event to your calendar

Dial-in Number: (218)-862-1300, Conference code: 314596

In Round 1, these weekly chats proved to be very helpful for many of the applicants.  We noticed that several of the representatives of the selected projects had participated in these chats which probably helped to make their applications a little stronger.

Here are excerpts from some of last Round's selected applications. Included are the synopses, the play descriptions, and the development path descriptions. A big thanks to these organizations for sharing!

California Shakespeare Theater - Round 1 - Example

The Children's Theatre Company - Round 1 - Example

Rude Mechanicals - Round 1 - Example

The Foundry Theatre - Round 1 - Example

Top Blog Sites (besides this one) to Follow the Defining Diversity #NewPlay Conversation

by Amrita Mangus, Institute Fellow

Weeks after the Defining Diversity Convening concluded, I'm still dwelling on the fantastic roundtable discussions, insights, and next steps to push this conversation forward. Thankfully, I'm not the only one. Like Alice venturing down the rabbit hole, I started to identify all the blog sites and bloggers who are commenting, questioning, and debating on the defining diversity convening and the numbers kept on growing. Curious? Here's my list, David Letterman style, of the top ten blog sites to follow the defining diversity conversation.

10) CultureFuture - A response to Scott Walters' and 99 Seats' posts on the "quality" of diversity that tackles the MFA stats presented after the convening by David. I'm all for more opinions on the table.

9) Tarhearted - I dig Joshua Conkel. His blog on "Theater and the Real America" really touches on geographic diversity and aligns wells with Scott Walters' commentary on a lack of rural themes, characters and productions in new play development.

8) A Poor Player - Tom's blogs always leave me enlightened and curious. His post on why he's not jumping into the diversity fray featuring the social entropy of ideas by Robert L. Payton reveals a new layer to the greater diversity conversation and the theater ecology as a whole.

7) The Flux Theatre Ensemble -  Gus' "12 Holiday Wishes for the Theatre" would give any cynic a boost of optimism, and his thoughts on increasing diversity are right on ticket.

6) On Theatre and Politics - Matthew Freeman's insights on affirmative action in the theater emphasize the role of the individuals in the theatre and not counting colors. Be sure to read the comments on this blog post, which are equally as provocative as the post itself.

5) Cambiare Productions - Travis Bedard has remained an avid blogger and tweeter for the diversity convening, with his stake in indie theater evident to all of his readers. He articulates and analyzes his opinions on theater very intelligently, stimulating my mind long after I've perused his posts.

4) 99 Seats -  J. Holtham has maintained and fueled the diversity conversation, particularly on racial diversity, exceedingly well. I can't wait to meet him at the Black Playwrights Convening.

3) Theatre Ideas - Scott Walters' blows my mind on a daily basis with his compelling work on CRADLE and mission to empower rural and local communities. He shines a light on an element of diversity most people ignore is easily one of the most  brilliant conversationalists I've ever met.

2) & 1)  Mission Paradox and Parabasis - Ok. So I just couldn't choose one blog since Adam and Isaac have been consistent with moving the diversity conversation forward, even after their work during the convening. They introduced this discussion to more people than I could have ever imagined and help maintain a solid progression of idea on diversity from multiple facets.

Be sure to stay tuned for a white paper on the convening, detailing more of the internal conversations that took place.

This is Amrita Mangus, signing off for now.

Photos from Defining Diversity Convening

by Amrita Mangus, Institute Fellow

I still feel so fortunate to have met the incredible theatre artists, artistic directors, administrators, and practitioners who participated in the Defining Diversity Convening. We talked. A lot. We laughed. We pondered. We made new friends. We learned from each other. Check out the photos below capturing some of these moments during the Defining Diversity Convening.

Regional Revisited

by David Dower

So, I stumbled on this post yesterday from various sources. It's actually the second essay in Paul Mullin's attempt to incite an outbreak of a world-class, locally grown theater scene in Seattle. You might want to read along.

I referenced it on my Twitter account and got into an exchange about the whole "locally grown" movement. Movement? It doesn't really get to that level yet. It's more like an attempt to cite positive examples of the practice, since this is a blog of "positive inquiry into the field" and it's my 2010 resolution to do more of it more regularly...

I wrote about this local focus a bit back in the Spring, coming out of the 2009 Humana Festival. And its a frequent topic at Scott Walter's blog and at Tom Loughlin's. I'm sure others are writing about this. Let us know about them in the comments thread.

I'm sure others are working in this way. Let us know about them in the comments.

Why I moved to the blog, in the middle of the back and forth on Twitter, was that it's a complex idea that was being made reductive in that 140 character form.

Here's the gist: @dloehr, in response to my tweet referencing Mullin's piece, responded thus:
@ddower Crazy idea, but it would be great if the major regional theatres produced more work indigenous to their regions. #newplay

Watch Out World! Here Come the Black Playwrights #NewPlay

By Travis LeMont Ballenger, Institute Fellow

The second convening of the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage, focused on Black Playwrights is fast approaching, on Saturday January 16, and Sunday January 17th.  This convening will be hosted at the Davis Performing Arts Center on the campus of Georgetown University as part of our continuing partnership with Georgetown. Participants of the convening include: 

Christina Anderson, Neil Barclay, Daniel Beaty, Pearl Cleage, Kia Corthron, Lydia Diamond, Karen Evans, Kamilah Forbes, Farrell Foreman, Marcus Gardley, Sandra Gibson, Danai Gurira, Katori Hall, Paul Carter Harrison, Jackie Lawton, Jennifer Nelson, Paul Anthony Notice, Lynn Nottage, Robert O'Hara, Psalmayene 24, Rha Goddess, Nikkole Salter, Dominic Taylor, Regina Taylor, David Emerson Toney, Shay Wafer, Talvin Wilkes, and Tracey Scott Wilson.  

On Sunday, January 17th at 7:30 at Georgetown University's Gonda Theater at the Davis Performing Arts Center, selected playwrights will read excerpts from their new plays. The playwrights include:  

Rha Goddess, Paul Anthony Notice, Lydia Diamond, Marcus Gardley, Daniel Beaty and more... 

Can't make it to DC for the reading? Then watch it live at New Play TV

Adam Thurman, Isaac Butler, and J. Holtham will be joining us to blog and tweet the entire convening, both Saturday, January 16th and Sunday, January 17th. Search the hashtag #newplay on twitter to follow along and let your voice be heard.

Blog Roll: Here Comes the New

by David Dower

It's turning into a full time job just tracking the discussions that are unfolding with the New Year. As I wrote last week, this feels to me like a moment where real progress is underway, the year we'll look back on as the starting point of another generation of the inquiry that launched the regional theater movement.

Grab a cup of coffee and park at your computer for a bit. Read this. Read this. Read this. Read this.  Follow all the embedded links in those posts. Read the comments. Follow those links. Scroll the #newplay thread on Twitter. See what I mean? It's a lot!

My first wish for the New Year, as we all rev ourselves up for the new, is that we'll start to truly understand, celebrate,and promote the diverse approaches and perspectives on the form itself, not just the aesthetic or cultural diversity but the diversity of passions. Scott Walters is going to focus on his passion-- which has much to do with arts in rural settings. Travis Bedard is going to focus on his passion-- making "the theatre that needs making". Todd London is going to be barnstorming the country stoking conversations about the findings in outrageous fortune, not as a publicity tour but as step three in this quest for a more effective field for new plays and playwrights, (Step One: Research It; Step Two: Publish It; Step Three: Discuss It. Step four will require others-- to move into action around the information.) At Arena Stage, we're going to be focusing on production, presentation, development, and study of American work-- with a special emphasis on developing the infrastructure for new work nationwide.

As Travis points out on his blog, there is a whole world of activity outside what people are referring to (far too casually for my comfort) as "the system". When I was an information management consultant to schools of nursing around the country I used to say "there's no such thing as no system, there's only varying degrees of effectiveness of the systems you are working with". So, while I don't think any of the activity that Travis is calling for or spotlighting is actually "outside the system", I know what he means-- it is largely outside the main frames of the discussion and the major support structures built to sustain and advance the form.

I tried to call for more attention to this world of activity with that Gates of Opportunity research. And I made a real pain of myself through years of convenings and panel discussions on "new works, new ways" always pointing out that there is a rich and high octane world in the American theater that neither orbits New York nor is especially interested in what happens there.

At the same time what happens in New York, and what reverberates from there, has a huge impact on the ecology of our theater. And what happens under the radar within New York impacts the field, often without directly engaging what happens in the institutional New York world-- which is the part of the field  people are generally talking about when they talk about New York's influence on the rest of the field.

And what happens in the universities and colleges around the country impacts the whole environment. We need people of intention, purpose, and integrity at work in those settings to build effective approaches to advancing the form through training and scholarship. While we are unsettled by the narrowing of the on ramp to career opportunity for playwrights, we have to also keep in mind the importance of on ramps and opportunities to study. Even if we're more authentically building our audiences of the future through these academic programs than creating careers in the business, as Ian Garrett writes in his comments on this post.

At several gatherings over the past few months I've heard Under the Radar's Mark Russell talk about the burgeoning presence of the amateur, of "participatory" forms that blur the lines between the audience and the performer by making the audience the actor. And up at American Repertory Theater, Diane Paulus is turning the audience expectation inside out with her "Shakespeare Exploded!" festival. (Her first official subscriber show really messed with the notion of the "fixed seat"-- she programmed Punchdrunk's Sleep No More in an old school building in an entirely different neighborhood and the audience had to chase the performers all over the building to see any of the play!)

At the same time, I hear of and see very traditionally produced and structured theater events-- some with celebrities, most with journeymen, that are packing in audiences in venues of all sizes all around the country. Not all venues all the time, but there are still significant successes which we ignore or sniff at to our own detriment. And I see new works in shockingly diverse aesthetics succeeding in fancy presenters' venues and homegrown black boxes. Just look at The Foundry as an example of how unpredictable even a single institution can be: from Telephone to a bus tour of the South Bronx and now David Greenspan's Myopia-- all of that is one company, stems from one vision of how to identify and support an artist and invite the public to the table.

So, while I detect a note of "my way or the highway" in a lot of this early blogosphere talk-- people saying "this is the way because it's what I'm passionate about"-- I have faith that it is an early step in the process of organizing for effective collaboration around change. In the end it will be much more like putting on a show: who has the barn? who has a ratty old couch? who knows how to fix ratty old couches? who has time to hang the lights? who wants to bake the brownies for the concessions? Each of our skills is needed. Each of us bringing what we're passionate about into the mix. Maybe Morgan Jenness's metaphor about the Depression-era stews is more apt. You got carrots? Bring carrots. You think its all about the beef? Bring your beef. You think it's the onions that make it or break it? Bring the onions.

Each of us, bringing to it what we love, contributing what we have, starting from where we start, sharing what we learn, learning from what's shared-- that's my wish for this new year.

 

Can We Talk About Commissions? #newplay

by David Dower

Now that the Mellon papers are available to the public and outrageous fortune is published, it feels like the right time to pick up a practice I jumped the gun on with this blog of focusing on one issue area at a time.

BTW: In case you haven't read it, I significantly edited my section on the fungibility of the language around our #newplay sector before The Gates of Opportunity was published. I think the section clearer than what I posted here in the Spring and more what I meant to convey from my travels. (Thank you, Ben Pesner and Diane Ragsdale, for your patience and support on that!)

COMMISSIONS
There are, among these sources, three separate discussions of the role and practice of commissions. Many provocative things are said, many questions raised, and assumptions challenged.

One that sticks with me is the comment from the 2007 convening documented by Ben Pesner for Mellon:

The danger with commissions is that they encourage the writing of  unnecessary plays, plays that the playwrights don’t really care about, plays that the theaters don’t really want to see. It’s basically a $20,000 greeting card. If you are going to create something that isn’t going to be done and doesn’t matter to anybody, you should write some TV or do something that makes more money. You shouldn’t use your precious craft to do the work nobody really wants…. We need to find a way to ask for the urgent play, and then reward that with a production.

This comment came from a playwright. In my travels, many playwrights spoke of the commission as something they understood was not authentically an invitation to write a play for production at that theater. "It's money we're paid to go away quietly", said one. Said another, "It's money that validates that I'm a professional playwright, and it's important to me for that reason. But, no, I don't expect they're going to produce it. Ever." There was a storm of discontent among writers at the degree to which a commission entangled the rights for the play, especially in terms of the length of time the commissioning theater could hold it up for production elsewhere. "If they know they are not going to produce it, why don't they just let me have it back? They waited the full time period to commit to their decision and by then it was too late to find a production that season. It cost me two years, when they knew from the first draft we'd not connected."

Ready, Set, Go!

by David Dower

Welcome, 2010. You're just in time. We have got some work to do!

First things first: Karen Zacarias starts her 3-year stint Monday as one of three resident playwrights of Arena Stage's American Voices New Play Institute. The other two will be named next month, to begin in the summer. One of the underlying assumptions about these residencies is that the playwrights will each design their own, and it's noteworthy that Karen Z. is starting hers, not by starting on a new play, but instead by focusing on plays she's already got in production that she's not quite ready to say are "done". She's brought dramaturg Jocelyn Clark to the table with her to focus on finishing The Book Club Play, which has had two popular productions already and is circling a bunch more. She's also polishing Legacy of Light, (with Jocelyn and Artistic Director Molly Smith).  Arena premiered Legacy last season, and it's heading into a second production this season, and again there are more theaters in the wings for this one. And she's already a presence in the Institute's convenings, staff meetings, and new play seminars.

Convenings galore: With the dust not yet settled on the first Institute convening, we're coming up on the second: What Are Black Playwrights Thinking? A stunning line-up of more than 25 Black playwrights will gather in DC on January 16th and 17th to dig into the current state of the infrastructure for Black plays and playwrights. Again you can follow along on the blog and on Twitter, where we'll be working the #newplay hashtag to death once more!  The "Defining Diversity" paper will be released this month, as well. Then next month, a third convening will gather dozens of #newplay professionals focused on "devised work" to discuss the state of the field for supporting the development of plays and projects that break form and blur lines if we only talk about playwrights. These three convenings, taken together with the publication of outrageous fortune and the release of the Mellon papers, will form the foundation of the year's AVNPI inquiry here at Arena.

NPDP Round 2 selections: Also in January, we'll hit the application deadline for the second round of the NEA New Play Development Program. Applying? Stay tuned for details about online chats to help you make your best case with your application. More than half of the projects selected in Round One had participated in these chats before applying last time around, so I highly recommend you set some time aside!

But Wait, There's More! In February, we're not only going to convene s'more and announce the final residencies, but we're also going to get our first look at the New Play Map in beta. We're working with a small group of #newplay sites initially to develop the look, feel, and function of the Map. By Fall, 2010 you should be able to interact with the map online and help us develop and refine the thing.

In the summer, we will be moving into our permanent home: The Mead Center for American Theater. For the first time in decades, all of Arena's programs will be under one roof. The new Resident Playwrights will begin their journey with us. NPDP Round 2 selections will be announced.  Filming on the documentary of Round 1 will be complete and it will be in the editing room. We'll be selecting the second group of New Play Institute Fellows as well. Interested in spending a year honing your skills and deepening your understanding of new plays and the development process? Watch this space. We'll also post application details on the blog when we're ready to open the selection process.

And before we ring in the next New Year, we'll be up to our elbows in planning the NPDP Round 1 Festival, in which we present all seven projects (in our new theater, the Kogod Cradle), screen the documentary, unveil the Map, and gather the #newplay sector to chart the next priorities for the Institute's inquiry. We'll also have produced the various activities generated by the Resident Playwrights, made public the papers for the first convenings and the NPDP Round 2 panel process, begun the documentation and support process for the Round 2 projects, and designed the last of the Institute programs to launch: the audience-focused Theater 101 New Play Seminar.

So, hello I must be going... I'm already behind for the year and it's only the second day. There are a myriad of ways for you to participate, as you can see. I sincerely hope to see you at any number of these discussions, events, and milestones, whether live or online.

A Call for #newplay NPDP Readers and Screeners

So, now that we know who is applying for Round 2 of the NEA New Play Development Program, we move on to the next logistical hurdle: lining up qualified and interested readers and screeners for the first stage of the selection process.

Here's the process:

Stopping by the #Newplay Sector on a Snowy Evening

by David Dower

It's the day after the deadline for filing an Intent to Apply for Round 2 of the NEA New Play Development Program. There was quite a flurry of last minute entries. This deadline came smack on top of digging out from the Defining Diversity convening, which was itself bouncing off the rehearsals for our production of Lydia Diamond's Stick Fly where director Kenny Leon was taking the cast through discussions about race and class in the play and in the field. Producing Fellow Ronee Penoi and I followed that with a trip to the Native Theater Initiative conversation at The Public, where the focus was on building both intention and infrastructure for new works from Native theater artists. And threaded through it has been the planning for three additional Institute convenings, one of them a whopper should we get the greenlight on it. Amid the hurly burly of that schedule, I finished Todd London and Ben Pesner's book outrageous fortune: the life and times of a new american play. And it's snowing like mad in DC- what people are variously calling the "Snowpocalypse" or "SNOMG". So, let's see if I can dig out of this avalanche of activity in the new works sector.

What's principally on my mind today, as I contemplate the #newplay blizzard, is that I have a profound sense that things are actually changing. As though, after all the years of meetings and all the reading and the writing and all the various initiatives that have been launched around new works, there is suddenly traction. Action. A critical mass of data, inquiry, and investment that's turning the whole sector toward the next thing. I've written about Buckminster Fuller's notion of being a trimtab. I feel like the trimtab has done its job, and what we are now seeing in our sector is the movement of the rudder itself. It's an amazing feeling. By the end of 2010 I'm betting you'll look up and actually see the ship itself changing course. (Fitting that we're producing a play about Buckminster Fuller this summer, in what's fast becoming a full-on Bucky-fest of art, design science, architecture, and sustainability.)