Exits Stage Left and Contemplates Action

I recently read a playwrighting blog about stage directions. This playwright believed it was a great idea to “spice up” stage directions, that stage directions like, “He drinks his tea and silently destroys the universe, in his head”, are a great way to develop characters. It’s the classic debate about whether or not stage directions should be as minimal as possible. Many people say no, that greats like O’Neill wrote lofty stage directions, but I say, yes, keep it concise. Before you disagree, consider your audience.
Ultimately, all writers should be writing to an audience– if you’re not, go get a journal. No writer will ever please everyone, but it is very important to please someone. As playwrights, you have to please your first reader, and nine times out of ten that first reader will be a director. Here is where stage directions really matter. Every director I have ever met is directing because they feel they have something to say, and they don’t want it said for them. Complex stage direction can be considered “directing from the page.” Since a director will probably be the first person to read your play, don’t insult them.
The most valuable thing I learned as a playwright, from a directing course was that directors are taught to ignore stage directions. Almost every stage or set design is unique, and the scene you envisioned in your head will probably look different– if you’re lucky enough to see it. Directors can’t begin to recycle old stage directions because most of the time they won’t work. You can save yourself a lot of time if you just worry about the essential actions. That’s all that will survive, anyway.
So maybe a director will love your witty stage directions and want to direct your play. You have only just started to run the gauntlet. The designer will not care what you think the set should look like because that’s his/her job. They aren’t concerned with custom tailoring the set to your specific instructions, so, once again, don’t waste your time. Okay, so you’re hardheaded. Guess what? Actors aren’t concerned with nuggets of contemplative thought either. It is their job to establish their own set of motivations for every word they say and move they make, and they won’t be looking for help within the stage directions.
The final audience the playwright writes for is the audience. Audience members don’t sit in the house and follow along with scripts in their hands, and ultimately, if the audience can’t see something, it doesn’t exist. Eugene O’Neill is not considered a great playwright because of his stage directions, and no playwright ever will be– no matter what they think. If you can’t get over this fact, and you really want your stage directions to matter, learn to write for the screen.

Good News

I got news today that my ten minute play Louisville Swinger is going to be published in a volume with two other plays by One Act Play Depot.
One Act Play Depot is a small play press that is publishing a lot of new work. Check them out:

http://oneactplays.net/

Ten-Minute Play Festivals: Easier To Produce Than You Think

Last year marked the inaugural run of the Longwood Ten-Minute Play Festival. Over four hundred submissions reviewed, five winners picked, and three packed performances later, I can honestly say producing a ten-minute play festival is easier than you would probably think. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a lot of planning, a whole lot of reading, and just as much work as any theatrical endeavor, but ten-minute play festivals are a great way to cheaply produce a lot of new work.

 

When I started talking out the idea, for a play festival with fellow co-founders Mary Carroll-Hackett and Brett Hursey, I had some reservations. I wondered how we would get the money to build sets. I worried about the quality of the scripts we would receive, and I really wasn’t sure anyone would send anything in. We had a good idea, no money and endless reservations, but we did it anyway.

 

Now that the air has settled and plans are being made for the next festival, a number of people have approached me about starting their own festivals. My response has been the same: it’s easier than you think. So I’ve put together a plan for producing a ten-minute play festival.

 

• Hone the details of the festival. Will you have a special topic or theme? Will you offer a prize for the finalists? Will you charge a submission fee? With our festival we decided not to have a theme. We offered a DVD as a prize for the winners, and we did not charge a submission fee.

 

A note about submission fees: Many playwrights will not submit to your festival if you charge a fee, and many forums will not post a call for submissions with a fee attached.

 

• Write up a call for submissions. For an example go here:

 http://www.stageplays-forum.com/view_topic.php?id=1847&forum_id=10&highlight=Longwood

Post the call for submissions on various playwrighting forums. This is a cheap and very effective way to get your festival noticed. Here are some good forums:

 

 

http://www.stageplays-forum.com/

 

http://enavantplaywrights.yuku.com/

 

http://www.aact.org/cgi-bin/webdata_contests.pl?cgifunction=Search

 

• Make a list of the plays you receive and the dates they are received. Should a playwright call wondering if their script arrived, you can say “yes, it came on this date.”

 

• Establish readers who will reject or accept the scripts. This process is called slushing. The readers will eventually narrow the choices down to the best fifteen or twenty scripts. Give yourself at least a month to do this.

 

• A final judge narrows down the set number of winners. (In our case we choose five.)

 

• Cast the plays accordingly and rehearse them.

 

The Longwood Ten-Minute Play Festival ran all five plays back to back for three evenings. The production was a huge success. Some of the playwrights involved were extremely grateful, and many of the audience members commented that they did not know theatre like that existed.

 

In the end it took us four months, and three hundred dollars to produce five new plays – three of which were world premiers – and we filled roughly ninety percent of our seating capacity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who Says You Can’t Produce New Work?

The trend, it seems, is professional theatre companies producing well known plays and musicals in hopes of a more commercial success, and Universities producing obscure, important works like Ubu Roi. (A play I love, but typically leaves audience scratching their heads and wishing they had stayed home to catch “Flavor of Love” which, ironically, has a very similar protagonist.)

 

So where is the middle ground? What falls between the important classics and the commercial plot-less wonder? Why can’t I get Six Feet Under on stage?

 

It’s because new work is being ignored. Great playwrights like Martin McDonagh, Connor McPherson, and David Auburn have answered my call for the “Middle Ground” of theatre, but their work has only been noticed because it was picked up on Broadway. Unfortunately, there is only room for about four new dramas on Broadway each year.

 

Don’t wait to be the first theater in your area to reproduce this work. Dig up your own gem. Yes, some of your patrons will be weary to pay full price to see something they don’t already know. Guess what, new work is cheap – or even better, free. Playwrights are dying to get their work produced, and they may very well let you produce it for nothing more than a playbill and a free seat.

 

Sure, theatre production is expensive– so cut the production costs, get back to basics and explore simple representational design. (The bare bones designs of Ming Choe Lee are some of the most influential scenic designs in the American theatre to date.) Seek out plays with small casts that don’t require much. The less money you put in, the less you need to get back out– the margin for profit is higher, too.

 

Hopefully, your theater has produced a quality of work that the audience trusts. Consider yourself a brand name. Don’t forget what got you going, but remember to put out new products. It is the direction that theatre has to move toward, so you might as well help start the new trend.

What’s Next For the American Stage?

With rising gas prices, and an economy in decline, Americans are being forced to pinch pennies, and the fate of the American stage looks dim. Theatres across the country might be concerned that their loyal patrons won’t be able to spend precious gas and dish out thirty dollars to kick back and watch their favorite musicals.But are these their favorite musicals, and haven’t they seen that one already, and most importantly do they even like musicals? What age group is coming to the theatre? It’s the generation that grew up watching variety shows, a generation that just wants more of Ed Sullivan’s brand of wholesome singing, dancing entertainment. Sure they are the retired generate with extra money to spend, and with the economy and the price of gas people are cutting back, but are they really?

The price of television has increased about twenty dollars a month since the advent of HD TV, and if you pay an extra twenty you can get the basic movie channels. Another twenty will buy you the extra movie channels, and if you are willing to give up your first born you get to have a TiVo and nine hundred channels. So with gas prices and the economy what it is, why do I still know people that pay hundreds of dollars a month for television who have never stepped foot inside a theatre?

If the American theatre can’t beat reality television, then it really is doomed, but I don’t think it’s a fight theatre can’t win. If theatre companies want to start filling seats again they are going to have to stop producing tired, old musicals and start looking to newer work that appeals to younger generations.