A young playwright stares at the computer screen, fingers at the keyboard letting plots unfurl and characters unfold at whatever speed and style the dramatist chooses. Yet, as in any work of art, obstacles to the progress or completion of the piece may appear -- problems a more experienced playwright might easily solve. But where is that figure when the young playwright needs it most?
The answer can be found in mentor-playwright programs, which are becoming increasingly popular tools for theatre groups developing new plays and playwrights. They take many forms, from formal, funded operations that pair up plays and playwrights to informal roundtables and workshops in which assessment and advisement can freely flow. Either way, this is for certain: The passage of knowledge, wisdom, and craft from an established playwright to a less experienced playwright is helping to forge a whole new generation of exciting work.
The five-year-old Cherry Lane Mentor Project, for example, was created by an accomplished triumvirate: playwright Michael Weller, who has mentored young playwrights privately for over 20 years; producer-director Susann Brinkley, formerly of Alice's Fourth Floor and the Cherry Lane; and Angelina Fiordellisi, the Cherry Lane's artistic director. Project participants have enjoyed great success, from Bridgette Wimberly's "Saint Lucy's Eyes," produced Off-Broadway by Women's Project and Productions, to Christopher Shinn's "Four," mounted by, among others Manhattan Theatre Club.
And while there are similarities between the Cherry Lane Mentor Project and play development programs at many other theatre companies -- such as the offering of readings, staged readings, and end-of-season productions -- the core of the Cherry Lane's efforts is found in that special relationship between mentor and playwright. Indeed, the mentor actually chooses the play he or she wants to work on, culling from submissions made by a nationwide nominating committee. Working one-on-one, questions of technique and style can be asked and answered, and dramatic hurdles can be overcome. Only three plays are selected annually; the current group includes: Allison Moore's "Urgent Fury," mentored by Marsha Norman and directed by Richard Caliban; Anton Dudley's "Slag Heap," mentored by Ed Bullins and directed by Erica Schmidt; and Bathsheba Doran's "The Parents' Evening," mentored by Michael Weller and directed by Irina Brown.
"Each mentor-playwright relationship is different -- like every play," Weller says. "When I worked on Eliam Kraiem's 'Sixteen Wounded,' here was a writer with a wonderful central idea who was more of a film writer at heart, so he required lots of line-by-line, how-you-make-something-into-a-scene discussions." Doran, however, is "an evolved playwright who knows exactly what's going on. So this was more about encouraging her not to change things that don't need changing."
Doran readily confirms the observation. "Mike is very aware of me in relation to my writing. I rewrite a lot, and I know he thinks I rewrite too much, so he wants to draw me back to where I began. He'll say, 'Are you sure it's better?' after I revise something."
It's a calculated question on Weller's part, for while Doran's play has "a carefully wrought plan, which creates nice architecture for a play," there are also "wonderful accidents" that illuminate Doran's style. Such "accidents," he says, "are hard to recreate outside the heat of the moment. Some people chisel away and only write when they've mulled something over. With others, something pops into their head and then they wonder if they had the right 'pop.' "
Mentored playwrights also reap benefits beyond the writing of the play itself. "Being in the Mentor Project has given me a production -- one of the few times I haven't had to be partly responsible for producing my work," Doran says. "And it's so nice to be given guidance about playwriting -- it's an act of generosity to share your secrets."
According to Fiordellisi, Mentor Project playwrights receive a $5,000 stipend "so they can eat, pay rent, and evolve their scripts." It's important to keep in mind, in addition, that "these are raw, unfinished products, with us birthing them in front of their first audiences." For more information, check out www.cherrylanetheatre.com.
In the Loop of a Group
Saviana Stanescu, a Romanian-born playwright who is currently writing her first play in English, says the Lark Theatre Company's Playwrights' Workshop has given her something she's rarely found in any language: good professional feedback. Headed by Arthur Kopit, each four-month workshop cycle brings together eight playwrights whose work will be read, discussed, and possibly rewritten. Kopit's presence, along with his industry stature and the guest playwrights who attend each session, is what brings a distinct, mentor-playwright flair to the process. Recent guest playwrights include Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, David Ives, and Tony Kushner.
"It's not only Arthur and the guest playwrights facilitating discussion of your play," points out Stanescu. "It's the fact that it's discussed in a professional way. They don't suggest how you should write your play -- they talk about dramatic tension, about how a scene is too long, too short, or if there's too much or too little subtext. It's knowing these people have so much playwriting experience, yet you never feel anyone imposing their vision on you. You feel you're among friends."
Such a sense of freedom extends to the manner in which the playwrights can utilize the workshop; writers can bring in a single piece or try out many different works. Another current member, Ed Napier, characterizes the workshop as "an environment where everybody owns the notion that drama is bigger than everybody in the room, and there's an incredible respect for an attempt to create a play."
Napier goes on to illustrate how the mentor-playwright dynamic in the workshop has benefited him. "With one of my plays, Tina Howe said -- and I paraphrase -- that she wanted the characters surprising her more. I found that illuminating. The next week, Tony Kushner made some equally wonderful remarks about the same play -- he said the surprises were there, but were subtler. Granted, they heard different parts of the same play, but frankly, I agreed with both of them. Tina was critical and she was right; Tony was defensive of my attempt, and he was right."
Such a curious sense of in-between could also describe the presence of Theresa Rebeck in the current group. The playwright is hardly a stranger to the theatre: her plays "Spike Heels," "Loose Knit," and "The Butterfly Collection" have run at such venues as Second Stage and Playwrights Horizons, and she is a frequent and prolific television writer. Yet, she's not in the workshop as a guest playwright, but as a specially designated "writer-in-residence."
"I'd been aware of the Lark for some time and I asked Arthur and John [Clinton Eisner, the producing director] if I could be in it. They said, 'Well, aren't you beyond this?' and I said I didn't know if I was, but I know artists do better in communities -- we're communal animals. And the more we talked about it, the more sense it made. If the workshop's first idea was for younger writers to be embraced and in lively discussions with established writers, then wouldn't it be good for someone to be in-between -- a midcareer artist, if you will."
And as "someone still in the trenches, but at a different place," Rebeck acknowledges that she can see things from both the perspective of the young playwright and the mentor playwright virtually simultaneously.
"I bring to the discussion the fact that I've been writing for 15 years and if you work at anything for 15 years you're bound to get better at it. So here's someone who can show these young artists that if you work, day in and day out, you can be a master craftsman." Part of craft, she adds, also relates to hearing and interpreting criticism as well. "People need to feel safe in discussions -- Arthur really sets it up so you do. Now, occasionally younger writers don't get the rules; that's just going to happen. But generally the workshop is all about trusted colleagues having a dialogue with you -- and you knowing you don't have to listen to notes that don't make sense to you. At a time when it's too easy for artists to feel isolated and divided by the vagaries of this business, the fact that there's this incredible place I can go to be with other artists -- playwrights I've revered my entire life -- is just remarkable." For more information on the Lark's Playwrights' Workshop, check out www.larktheatre.org.
Minority Mentoring, Harkening to History
While the Lark and Cherry Lane programs continue blossoming, changes are underway in other industry projects. At New Dramatists, under-30 minority playwrights have benefited from Van Lier Playwriting Fellowships, which awarded $10,000 stipends and opportunities to work with mentors. According to Todd London, artistic director of New Dramatists, while that program has been defunded, the Howard Gilman Foundation has stepped forward to support something new: the New Dramatists Playwriting Fellowship, a one-year program that specifically aims to preserve that playwright-mentor dynamic.
"The new fellowship," London says, "isn't keyed to a specific piece of work; they'll likely work on one or more plays. But there's going to be different contexts for the mentorship. For example, we'd like to emphasize the personal relationship -- whether it's finding an agent, meeting industry people, or handling production issues, we think playwrights are the best advocates for each other, not based on superior experience, but on the experience of history."
And history, finally, might be equally applied to the Rattlestick Theatre, which began the playwright-mentor trend with the company's first production, James Edwin Parker's "Two Boys in Bed on a Cold Winter Night."
The year, says Artistic Director David Van Asselt, was 1994, and the mentor was Terrence McNally, who "set the standard for mentor playwrights." Indeed, McNally not only lent his time and expertise to the play for months in pre-production, but attended callbacks, rehearsals, and sat through previews. The play ultimately received raves and put the group -- and their mentor concept -- on the map. Edward Albee, Zoe Caldwell, Arthur Kopit, Marsha Norman, and Robert Whitehead soon volunteered to mentor multiple projects.
Yet while Rattlestick still matches new playwrights and mentors, Van Asselt says the idea has pitfalls and that the company is employing the concept on far fewer shows. "Using mentors in the beginning helped us create a niche and an identity for ourselves -- for the first four years, all but one or two shows were mentored. But then I began feeling the idea wasn't as successful as we'd like. There really has to be care taken in the pairing of people, because if things don't work out, can you just throw a new mentor at a playwright? Who would you listen to?"
Still, next season Rattlestick is producing a new play by David Folwell called "Boise," and Craig Lucas, who has been working with Folwell in a mentor capacity for over a year, will be directing. Van Asselt adds he expects to work with McNally again, and perhaps Kopit, too. But the projects are more likely to come from the mentors themselves, from scripts they happen upon over time. "We think a mentor is most successful when a new play intrigues them. Which is why, in the end, a young playwright is going to benefit."