Although playwright Mike Lew has had his work produced at Alliance Theatre before, the news that his new play would receive a world premiere on their main stage blew him away. “They were asking what I was working on, and I gave them a script,” he says. “Tiger Style!,” Lew’s comedy about a brother-sister duo getting in touch with their Chinese roots, kicks off the Atlanta theater company’s 2015–16 season. “It never happens like that. I was shocked.”
It’s yet another instance of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center earning its label as the launchpad for American theater. Lew’s play was one of six selected for the 2014 National Playwrights Conference, the Center’s founding program geared toward developing new work with some of the country’s top theater-makers. As “Tiger Style” evolved (“We tightened it,” Lew says, “ruthlessly cutting what didn’t work.”), he continued to update Alliance Theatre with drafts. The company’s artistic department liked what they saw; “Tiger Style!” began performances Sept. 30 and runs through Oct. 18 under the direction of Moritz von Stuelpnagel.
“I’m really open about inviting designers and actors and the director to come play with me,” Lew says of his process. The three weeks that selected playwrights spend at the O’Neill’s seaside campus in Waterford, Conn. encourages that collaborative spirit, making the program a perfect fit for Lew. “At the O’Neill, it’s all about exploring and working with the script. I welcome questions.”
One actor working with Lew’s script at the O’Neill asked him about rebalancing and cleaning up her character’s arc. “I think playwrights are focused on creating a world, and on having some sort of political or thematic point,” he says. “I think actors are looking at each role through the lens of individual characters, which means their understanding of the play is much deeper than mine in some areas.” For that reason, actors working on new works should feel comfortable approaching the writer with issues or thoughts.
Francis Jue, Jon Norman Schneider, Ruibo Qian, and Emily Kuroda in the Alliance Theatre’s 2015/16 world premiere, “Tiger Style!” Photo by Greg Mooney.
“Just having a space to fail is really important,” adds Lew. “I was in this art world for a month, and I was only thinking about my play and the other writers’ plays. And you don’t get that separation very frequently.” The fact that the O’Neill has helped develop some of the most widely produced and award-winning shows over the last half-century is significant too. “You’re tapping into this history of the American theater. There’s something really striking about being on the campus and watching the continuity of careers, from the interns to the people in residence to these veteran performers who’ve been there for years to these apprentices. I think theater is a discipline that’s built on mentorship.”
Submissions for the 2016 National Playwrights Conference are open until Oct. 16, so playwrights with a full-length draft should consider going for it. “They find plays based on the writing alone,” says Lew. “I had applied pretty much every year since undergrad. So continue to apply!” For information on all the O’Neill’s programming, visit their website.
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