Your play may be the next Pulitzer Prize winner or the next counter-culture hit, but to get there, it will probably require public exposure in advance of a full production. The reasons are twofold: You'll get feedback, some of which may even be relevant, and you may draw word-of-mouth that will attract attention to the piece.
Let's face it‹submitting blindly to a theatre or ensemble can be a problematic experience, especially if they've never heard of you. Like an actor's headshot, the playwright's script can languish at the bottom of a slush pile for months or even forever. Sure, the writer can invest some money, rent a loft, find an eager troupe, and put on a show as soon as the last page rolls out of the computer printer. But was the play in its best possible form? Often, the writer can't see the tapestry for the weave, and it takes another eye to pick out the more effective structure to make the script sail, make it salient, and make it sell.
Intuition will carry one only so far. Some kind of structure and organic order may need to be imposed, even if the play is a surreal foray. So, the developmental process becomes the spiritual equivalent of an actor doing scenework in classes. The play in its founding moments is critiqued positively, one hopes, until the piece is finally assembled, and at last, read for the public.
Of course, everything in moderation: A play can be overdeveloped‹read in public too many times, too many cooks listened to, leaving the piece with blunted edges, its content made slick and overly commercial. Watch out for development hell‹it's up to the writer to develop the personal judgment to recognize which comments work, and which notes will hinder. And unlike films, the playwright always has the final word, if he or she hasn't yet signed a contract. (That final word can be "no.")
To that end, it's a benefit to have the play read aloud, in its many incarnations. Join a group or submit to a reading series, where the attendees are familiar with play structure.
A.S.K. Theater Projects
One of the most prominent play development organizations in Southern California is A.S.K. Theater Projects.
"Our mission is to take a work in progress and ask the writer what he or she needs at this particular stage of its life," said Mead Hunter, A.S.K. director of literary programs. "And we act as an advocate for future productions. About 80 percent of our plays go on to production, one place or another‹or to further development."
Another boon of A.S.K. is that, unlike most other groups, they pay you‹if you get involved in one of their programs. A small stipend goes to writers, and sometimes, director and actors. And there's no membership ensemble to join before submitting a play. (The deadline for the fall public reading series is June 1.)
And let it not be said that development groups aren't nurturing. One feature of the A.S.K. readings is that no public critique session is conducted. "We don't want to put the playwright on the spot," said Hunter, adding that some people tend to give too much advice about rewrites. At A.S.K., instead, there's a conversation between the playwright and staff members the next day about the work.
In terms of advice, Hunter said: "The best thing is for playwrights to become fully collaborative with other disciplines (and learn) how they can contribute to other forms... dance, the director's process, and other theatre disciplines. The old model we had was of a playwright working in isolation, and sending in a script. The playwrights now work intensively with other people in theatre."
Asked about trends in style, Hunter said he'd noticed one change: "Playwrights seem to have gotten freer in terms of using stage space, and [showing] less of a debt to TV, and that's great. It's difficult for us to do readings, because plays are becoming more performative [needing to show visual or physical action]. That's why we evolved the Common Ground Festival, for plays that need more rehearsal." This June, the fifth public festival from A.S.K. will be presented.
Mark Taper Forum
The Taper offers a number of workshops geared toward ethnic and special-category playwrights. Pier Carlo Talenti, literary manager at the Mark Taper Forum, pointed out there are six workshops or programs offered: the Asian Theater Workshop, BlackSmyths, Latino Theater Initiative, Other Voices (writers with disabilities), the Writers' Workshop, and the annual New Work Festival. The Writers' Workshop is by invitation only; the others are open to application. Call (213) 972-8033 for submission information.
"Writers get to work with very talented theatre artists in an environment that helps them discover their plays, and the value of their plays. It's about creating a supportive environment for the writers," said Talenti. "Part of the mission is to make sure that voices are heard from disparate groups, to bring new audiences in, and expose all the communities of Los Angeles to theatre."
Among those plays that have gone onto production are Angels in America by Tony Kushner, The Kentucky Cycle by Robert Schenkkan, and The Waiting Room by Lisa Loomer. "All were developed through the New Work Festival," Talenti said.
Open to playwrights at large, the annual festival is one of the more prestigious theatre reading/workshops in town, given that it's sponsored by the Taper. Featured are eight readings and eight workshopped plays, according to Robert Egan, the Taper's producing director. "All the plays have to be in process," he said. "We surround the writers with wonderful actors and dramaturgs; we give rigorous feedback‹we hope the play takes a step in the proper direction."
As with A.S.K., there is a stipend for writers and other members of reading programs associated with the Taper. "The benefits of the workshops are twofold," said Egan. "Either someone is going to be produced at the Taper or through CTG (Center Theater Group). The great majority of things we develop here get produced somewhere else."
For example, Taper alum Lisa Loomer's play, Expecting Isabel, could not be fit into the full season at the Taper. "So we worked hard to help Lisa find a production‹and it got done in New York.
How good are the chances of a theatre workshop leading to a production at the Taper? Said Egan: "Everything possibly leads to a production at the Taper. There is ongoing development throughout the year at the theatre."
Those development processes include adaptations of novels, embellishment of ideas, and readings of new plays. And not just by the new, but by the established playwrights‹like Neil Simon, whose work has been performed at the Music Center in the past. When he had a new play, and wanted to hear it read aloud recently, he brought it to the Taper, Egan explained.
Lynn Manning, California Arts Council artist in residence with Other Voices, now helps run the workshop for other writers with disabilities, focusing on playwriting and performance. His disability is lack of sight, stemming from an act of violence. "I was shot in a bar about 20 years ago, on Vine Street in Hollywood," said Manning. "I had been writing some poetry and prose‹and I was a visual artist, a painter."
In 1990, he began to write plays, and was invited into a workshop called Available Light at L.A.T.C., run by Irene Oppenheim, whom Manning termed his mentor and friend.
"During most of my playwriting career, I've been in workshops sponsored by the Taper; I would venture to say that most of my playwriting skills and experience have come through their workshops," said Manning. "For me, there's the sharing of the creative experience, and the camaraderie that comes from other people who are struggling with the same problems and issues, and gives us some methods of solving the [writing] problems."
He also was part of the BlackSmyths Workshop and attended the Taper's invitation-only Mentor Workshop, in which Manning got to work with playwrights including Paula Vogel, John Steppling, and Irene Fornes. "That was priceless," said Manning, "particularly for someone who hadn't studied theatre in school. This was the best alternative theatrical training."
Manning's adaptation of Buchner's Woyzeck was workshopped at the New Work Festival in 1994 and '95, and produced by the Actors' Gang in 1997. The original character was turned into a former gangbanger in Manning's contemporized version.
He's also been commissioned to write plays, including a character study of post-L.A. riot animosities, The Last Outpost, for the New York Public Theater.
Playwrights Kitchen Ensemble
At the Playwrights Kitchen Ensemble, T. Jay O'Brien is one of two workshop moderators who hold back the thin critique line from overwhelming the playwright.
"It's not our job to tell him how to rewrite it, but to give our honest impressions of what we heard‹it's up to the writer to apply them to rewrites," said O'Brien.
The ensemble meets weekly‹members participate in readings and critiques offered Tuesday nights by O'Brien and on Thursday nights by Richard Zavaglia. O'Brien described it as a performance-oriented lab, with a good deal of actors present to read the work. Afterward, the actor and writer members critique the work. O'Brien tries to steer it away from advice on how to rewrite the piece, and focus on how to improve what the writer has created.
Some of the plays in the lab (and from outside) go up for more elaborate development, and are read in the Monday night PKE playreading series, started nine years ago by PKE artistic director Dan Lauria. That reading series, open to the public, often has professional actors reading the scripts. The series is at the Coronet Theater, 368 N. La Cienega Blvd., at 8 p.m. on Monday nights.
Writers must submit a full-length work to the workshop. For information, call (310) 652-9602.
First Stage
One of the longest-running groups in the Southland is First Stage, which has offered readings for more than 16 years, according to literary director Dennis Safren. The group offers free, weekly readings, Mondays at the United Methodist Church on Highland and Franklin. It all began when a trio returning from the Sundance Playwrights Lab‹actors Didi Conn, John Phillips, and Virginia Morris‹decided to start their own development program‹First Stage. Safren came in about 14 years ago, he said.
The group is dedicated to the development of new work for stage and screen. "We get submissions from all over the country‹the criteria is that it's unproduced and that it deserves a reading," said Safren. "We take in every genre, from performance art to Jewish comedy‹and you don't have to be famous. We're looking for good plays."
Many of the plays do go on to production on both coasts. "We also try, if we can, to assist the playwright and find a venue, and suggesting [the playhouse] read it, which helps, so it doesn't go on a shelf," he said. Recently, First Stage held its annual "Playwrights Express," presenting more than 100 short plays over two intense weekends in late March.
With all the material that he sees, Safren said he's noticed a couple of trends: "You seldom see the old-fashioned, well-made plays. A lot of people like to keep you guessing, and there's a lot of breaking the fourth wall."
The other trend is in terms of gender and numbers. "There's a lot more women playwrights submitting," he said. "I think women are getting out there now. That's good news. And there are a lot of older roles being written in general, now. It used to be that everything was young, young, young."
That's good news for older actors in youth-driven Hollywood. BSW