The Dramati - Dramatists Guild

Transcription

The
MAY/JUNE 2016
www.dramatistsguild.com
The Journal of the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.
$5 USD
€8 EUR
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2016
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VOL. 18 No 5
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
MAY/JUN 2016
2
4
8
12
14
16
17
Editor’s Notes
Op/Ed
News
Ten Questions – ANAÏS MITCHELL
18
What Are the Obligations of Writing Outside Your
Own Ethnicity? with KIRK LYNN, DONNETTA LAVINIA GRAYS,
The Craft – DIANA SON
DRAMATISTS BILL OF RIGHTS
Inspiration – MICHELE LOWE
LISA KIRAZIAN, SUDIPTA BHAWMIK, JUDYLEE OLIVA, MIN KAHNG,
DARRAH CLOUD, MILTA ORTIZ, BIANCA SAMS,
CLARE MELLEY SMITH, and IDRIS GOODWIN
30
The Ethics of Ethnic 2016 with KIA CORTHRON, C.A. JOHNSON,
DEBORAH ZOE LAUFER, MIKE LEW, and LLOYD SUH
38
On Race:
A Conversation with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
by CHRISTINE TOY JOHNSON and JOEY STOCKS
45
51
Shuffle Along and Ethnic Humor: “The Proper Push”
by SANDRA SEATON
Taxation and Artists, Part Two
by RALPH SEVUSH with
GARY GARRISON, MICHÈLE RITTENHOUSE, THOMAS GARVIN, and
ROBERT OBERSTEIN
57
DG Fellows: MARK SONNENBLICK & BEN WEXLER, and
64
76
79
80
81
85
87
88
National Reports
From the Desk of Business Affairs by RALPH SEVUSH
From the Desk of Creative Affairs by GARY GARRISON
From the Desk of Dramatists Guild Fund by TESSA RADEN
Dramatists Diary
The
New Members
is the official journal of
Classifieds
Dramatists Guild of America,
NAVEEN BAHAR CHOUDHURY
Dramatist
Why I Joined The Guild
by JEFFREY SWEET
the professional organization of
playwrights, composers, lyricists
and librettists.
It is the only
national magazine
devoted to the
business and craft
of writing for
theatre.
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E D ITOR’ S NOT E S
Dramatists Guild
of America
PHOTO: WALTER KURTZ
OF F IC E R S
S
ince no single issue of The
Dramatist can be the definitive edition on any topic, we
sometimes repeat themes.
In 2010 we published The
Ethics of Ethnic (one of our
most requested issues, now available to
Guild members via our website). After
six years, our Publications Committee
decided to revisit this topic and include
some things the previous issue didn’t.
I’m thrilled to share the nineteen terrific contributors in this edition, but I
can’t help wishing for more voices, more
pages, more time.
For those of you who enjoyed the first
half of our Taxation and Artists article in
our Reality Check Issue (another theme
we’ll likely revisit in the future), the second half is here. It will also be available
on our website along with the handouts
mentioned in the article.
What topics are you interested in
reading in The Dramatist? Email me and
let me know. Our Publications Committee is comprised of Guild members just
like you who volunteer their time to help
guide the content. They take your ideas
into consideration and discuss them in
our monthly meetings.
Sometimes I get questions about The
Dramatist, so I thought I’d share some of
the answers with you. This magazine is,
first and foremost, a member service.
As such, only current Guild members
are included in the Dramatists Diary, In
Memoriam, Ten Questions, The Craft,
Inspiration, Dear Dramatist, and Op/Ed
pieces.
Each issue closes two months before
the cover date. In other words, this issue’s content was finalized March 1st.
Dear Dramatist letters are printed in
the order in which they are received and
must be 500 words or fewer. We have a
strict policy against printing anonymous
writing. Op/Ed pieces are also printed
in the order in which they are received.
These pieces must be 1,000 words or fewer and are reviewed by the Publications
Committee before publishing.
Our News section includes (but isn’t
limited to) In Memoriam, major awards
and accolades received by members,
notes from Dramatists Guild Council
meetings, major Guild announcements,
and a semi-regular article from the National Coalition Against Censorship.
Currently, our Inspiration series is
contributed by a different member of
our Publications Committee and our
Why I Joined The Guild feature is written
by a different member of Council.
Finally, The Dramatist has two people
who work on it part time—Associate Editor Tari Stratton and Art Director Bekka
Lindström—and one full-time employee:
me. Is there something else you would
like to know about The Dramatist? Ask
me. My email address is in every issue.
JOEY
[email protected]
Doug Wright
President
Peter Parnell
Vice President
Lisa Kron
Secretary
Julia Jordan
Treasurer
STAF F
Ralph Sevush
Advisor to Council,
Executive Director of
Business Affairs
Gary Garrison
Executive Director of
Creative Affairs
Caterina Bartha
Director of Finance
& Administration
David Faux
Associate Executive Director of Business Affairs
Roland Tec
Director of Membership
Tari Stratton
Director of Education & Outreach
Deborah Murad
Director of Business Affairs
Amy VonVett
Executive Assistant
to Business Affairs
Rebecca Stump
Manager of Member Services
Zack Turner
Director of Marketing & Online Media
Jennifer Bushinger
Office Manager, Chief Archivist
Sheri Wilner
Fellows Program Director
Nick Myers
Receptionist
Bekka Lindström
Graphic Designer
Jordan K. Stovall
Administrative Assistant
Nathan Liu
Emily Ryan
Membership Interns
2 | The Dramatist
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Dramatists Guild
of America
CONTRIBUTORS
THE DRAMATIST
Joey Stocks
Editor
Bekka Lindström
Art Direction
Tari Stratton
Associate Editor
Mark Krause
Cartoonist
Walter Kurtz
Contributing Photographer
Dan Romer
Contributing Illustrator
Amelia French
Publications Intern
P UBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
Amanda Green
Interim Chair
Lynn Ahrens
Kirsten Childs
Daniel Goldfarb
Adam Gwon
Tina Howe
Quiara Alegría Hudes
Chisa Hutchinson
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Christine Toy Johnson
David Johnston
David Kirshenbaum
Michael Korie
Deborah Zoe Laufer
Michele Lowe
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lynn Nottage
Jonathan Marc Sherman
Rebecca Stump
Zack Turner
Amy VonVett
CHRISTINE TOY JOHNSON is an awardwinning writer,
actor, filmmaker,
and advocate
for inclusion.
She leads the
discussion “On
Race” with
Branden JacobsJenkins on page
38 and is a
proud member
of the DG Council, ASCAP, AEA, SAGAFTRA, Asian American Composers and
Lyricists Project (founder), and BMI
Workshop (alum). Her current projects in
development include Barcelona
(book & lyrics with composer/lyricist Jason
Ma), The Secret Wisdom Of Trees (The Barrow
Group), Diary of a Domestic Goddess (with
Kevin Duda), and Guilty Until Proven Innocent
(Assaulted Caramel Productions). www.
christinetoyjohnson.com
DEBORAH ZOE LAUFER’s plays, End
Days, Informed
Consent,
Leveling Up, The
Last Schwartz,
Out of Sterno,
Sirens, Meta,
The Three
Sisters of
Weehawken,
and Fulfillment
Center have
appeared at Primary Stages, EST, Steppenwolf
Theatre Company, Cleveland Play House,
Geva Theatre Center, Cincinnati Playhouse in
the Park, and The Humana Festival. She leads
our Ethics of Ethnic roundtable on page 30.
DeborahZoeLaufer.com.
SANDRA SEATON contributes “Shuffle
Along and
Ethnic Humor”
on page 45. Her
recent plays
include Music
History, about
college students
caught up in
the civil rights
struggles of the
sixties; Estate
Sale, whose
protagonist must confront memories of her
father; and her Civil War play The Will. Seaton
wrote the libretto for William Bolcom’s solo
opera From the Diary of Sally Hemings.
ON THE COVER
Photo and hand lettering by Joey Stocks.
Model: Jay Acey.
POLI CY STATEMENT
The Dramatists Guild from time to time provides opportunities for its
members to publish letters or articles of interest to playwrights and the
general theatrical community. However, the Guild does not necessarily
endorse the positions taken or the views expressed in such contributions. All such contributions are subject to editing by the Guild.
The Dramatist (ISSN 1551-7683) is published bimonthly, six times per year, by
The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., 1501 Broadway, Suite 701, New York, NY
10036-5505. For subscriptions, call (212) 398-9366. Application to mail Periodicals postage rates is paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Annual
membership dues of $90 include $30 for a one-year subscription to The Dramatist.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Dramatist, The Dramatists Guild of
America, Inc., 1501 Broadway, Suite 701, New York, NY 10036-5505.
Printed by Spectra Print Corporation
© 2016, The Dramatists Guild of America Inc. All rights reserved.
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D E A R D RA MAT I ST
Dramatists Guild
of America
Dear
Dramatist,
I
have not been able to get past
page nineteen of the Jan/Feb
issue without writing. Several
things were disturbing to me.
The first letter to the
editor (Virginia Mekkelson)
repeats questions that many of us
have been discussing for YEARS
– and in a way that is not constructive, if not actually condescending.
Gender parity in the theatre has
been addressed by ICWP, 50/50 in
2020, Women in the Arts and Media,
NYC Playwrights, Guerilla Girls on
Tour, the Dramatists Guild Women’s
Initiative, StageSource (Boston)
Gender Parity Task Force, and others.
The Count has many predecessors,
including a New England regional
report through StageSource that
came out in June 2015. Why wasn’t
Karen Eterovich’s letter printed first,
someone who is excited and positive
about the issues?
Then, where did the two Op/Eds
come from? Did somebody solicit them? They are both about The
Count, both by men, and the second takes over an ENTIRE page for
what, exactly? Doesn’t the Kentucky
information belong in the Regional
Reports section? And where are the
women’s opinions? I, for one, was
glad to see the graphs, the texts, the
exacting amount of work that went
into this study. Kudos to all who
D G COU N C IL
worked on it.
It’s hard for me to believe I
could get more annoyed/discouraged/pissed off, but what made me
absolutely crazed were the pictures
accompanying “Inventing Language.”
Three panels of a dynamic, gesticulating white woman, accompanied
by an attentive yet getting ever
smaller/more compressed woman
of color. Initially I thought, this is
just unfortunate, and the dynamic,
gesticulating woman of color will be
shown on the next pages while the
white woman politely listens. No
such thing. Did no one think of the
overt message being portrayed? Did
the layout people notice? And where
is Tina Howe? Panel reports usually
have pictures of all the participants.
I am beyond disappointed in DG.
These pages actually reinforce the
named disparities in The Count,
whatever its faults. I know editorial
choices get made, but we have been
discussing gender and race in the
theatre for too long for such thoughtlessness to be promoted within our
own Guild.
Dismayedly,
LYNNE S. BRANDON
Watertown, MA
Lee Adams
Lynn Ahrens
Edward Albee
Kristen Anderson-Lopez
David Auburn
Susan Birkenhead
Craig Carnelia
Kirsten Childs
Kia Corthron
Gretchen Cryer
Christopher Durang
Jules Feiffer
William Finn
Stephen Flaherty
Maria Irene Fornes
Rebecca Gilman
Daniel Goldfarb
Micki Grant
Amanda Green
John Guare
Carol Hall
Sheldon Harnick
Mark Hollmann
Tina Howe
Quiara Alegría Hudes
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Christine Toy Johnson
Julia Jordan
John Kander
Arthur Kopit
Michael Korie
Lisa Kron
Tony Kushner
James Lapine
Warren Leight
Mike Lew
David Lindsay-Abaire
Andrew Lippa
Robert Lopez
Emily Mann
Donald Margulies
Terrence McNally
Thomas Meehan
Alan Menken
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Marsha Norman
Lynn Nottage
Peter Parnell
Austin Pendleton
Theresa Rebeck
Jonathan Reynolds
Robert Schenkkan
Stephen Schwartz
John Patrick Shanley
David Shire
Stephen Sondheim
Lloyd Suh
Jeffrey Sweet
Alfred Uhry
John Weidman
Michael Weller
George C. Wolfe
Charlayne Woodard
Doug Wright
Maury Yeston
4 | The Dramatist
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DEA R D R A M AT I ST
Dramatists Guild
of America
DG REGIONAL
REPRESENTATIVES
Suze Allen
Gab Cody
Mary Conroy
Cheryl Coons
Allyson Currin
Dewey Davis-Thompson
Charlene Donaghy
William R. Duell
Brent Englar
Rob Florence
Nancy Gall-Clayton
Josh Gershick
Jacqueline Goldfinger
Anita Gonzalez
Josh Hartwell
Laurie Flanigan Hegge
Donna Hoke
Julie Jensen
Stephen Kaplan
Duane Kelly
Andy Landis
Michael McKeever
Francesca Piantadosi
Sheila Rinear
Jennifer Schlueter
Kim Stinson
Aoise Stratford
David Todd
Pamela Turner
Teresa Coleman Wash
Hartley Wright
DRAMATISTS GUILD FUND
Andrew Lippa
President
Carol Hall
Vice President
Kevin Hager
Secretary
Susan Laubach
Treasurer
Rachel Routh
Executive Director
Seth Cotterman
Director of Marketing & Outreach
Tessa Raden
Program Coordinator
Jamie Balsai
Development Coordinator
Paige Barnes, Tori Hidalgo, Orian Israelsohn
Interns
The Dramatist is funded in part with major
support from the John Logan Foundation,
through a grant from the Dramatists Guild
Fund.
Dear Dramatist,
T
he “Inspiration”
of David Johnston
[The Dramatist, page
13, Jan/Feb 2016]
brought back an
inspirational experience of my own. Like his, it took
place in a religious setting with no
bolts of lightning or voices from
mountaintops. At a time when race
riots were spreading throughout
America, I was asked by the Rabbi
of a Reform Synagogue I belonged
to if I would create a special service
shedding light on the riots and their
causes. Me create a service? It scared
the hell out of me. I hadn’t been to
many services since my bar-mitzvah,
but the challenge was great.
Bolstered by the realization that
a religious service is closely related
to theater, I was able to create one
that had power. It contained news
photos of the riots projected onto a
natural brick wall of the synagogue
which then was under construction.
In between the actual riot scenes, I
had the temple’s Cantor sing short
excerpts from the Bible, such as “Am
I my brother’s keeper?” The result
was unmistakable. The congregation
members were impelled to think
about their own behavior towards
minority races, and to question
whether they could have done more
to prevent such riots from happening. When the service ended, there
was silence throughout the room,
conveying a sense of unease over
what we had made them feel. A black
actress who had been my co-narrator
was puzzled by the coldness she felt
coming towards us. “Those excerpts
from the Bible that were sung,” she
said, “don’t they believe them?”
Her question was heard by the
Rabbi who was highly pleased with
our presentation. He told us about
the Jewish tradition of the Fringe,
those people who keep the important values of the religion alive, even
though they must often do so on
the outskirts of the population. He
looked at us closely and warmly, and
said, “You are the Fringe.”
Who would not be inspired?
JEROME COOPERSMITH
Rockville Centre, NY
Dear Dramatist,
I
n regard to the Jan/Feb Issue
and the “Writing Verse” segment with Johnna Adams and
David Hirson. I had a really
hard time getting through
that interview. I closed the
pages of The Dramatist several times
as I struggled to finish reading what
stood in stark contrast to all I believe
in and struggle for. I’ve been writing
verse drama for over fifteen years,
and I consider myself a modern
writer dealing with contemporary
issues in this beloved, even dinosaur
form, but I have never considered it
a choice. I don’t know how to write
any other way. Plays don’t leap into
my head saying “I should be in verse.”
If they leap into my head at all, that
is how they come out. And for me,
character drives the dialogue, even
May/June 2016 | 5
3/31/16 5:13 PM
D EAR DRAMAT IST
in verse. I worry that by constantly
looking back to the old forms and
listening to the old voices, we
inadvertently confine ourselves to
old themes, stories, and styles. I’m a
firm believer in the rhyming couplet,
but I also believe in the language
of modern poetry and the power of
blank verse, and I feel that it is not
the fault of the form that the telling
of a modern story using it is seemingly lost. I don’t believe William
Shakespeare wrote verse on a whim
and, while I am no Shakespeare, it
troubles me nonetheless, as someone dedicated to the promise of its
modern incarnation, that even those
who are successful seem to present
it as a novelty far less than a niche. I
cannot help but worry that it makes
my life’s work as a playwright that
much harder when they incidentally
reinforce the image of it as an archaic
form precluding a modern reality.
The paintbrush has been used to
paint the walls of caves, the flowers
in the fields, and the colour blue.
Even now, when we sit at the computer to Photoshop an image, the
tool used is still a brush. This is no
less true for verse drama, and though
we may use it to paint the portraits of
times long past, there is no reason it
cannot also be used to paint the trials
of today. I eagerly hope we discover a
resurgence of this magnificent form,
because it speaks with a voice full
and unchained in a time when we can
lose so much depth to a stream of 140
character lines. I write this because I
eagerly hope to be among those who
show the world that verse drama is
not so archaic after all.
Kind regards,
NEAL ALEXANDER LEWIS
Oceanside, CA
Dear Dramatist,
T
o my knowledge, not
one of the Democratic
or Republican candidates running for
president has said one
word in their debates
or in their TV/radio interviews about
the arts in America. Shameful and disgraceful! I don’t expect them to put
the arts before more pressing issues
like Common Core and wind power,
but even Thomas Jefferson played the
fiddle and had musical evenings at
Monticello. Other founding fathers
played the fife, viola d’amore, pianoforte, and wrote verse and books.
What’s more regrettable is that
not one of the candidates has had
anything at all to say about playwrights who, as everyone knows—
with the exception of the candidates
themselves—perform a service to
the public with their unique talents
that outlasts any candidate’s political platform or speeches. Sophocles,
Shakespeare, Moliere, and Ibsen are
still around, but who remembers the
politicians of their day who once
made so much noise but whose clamor followed them to their graves?
It is therefore imperative that
playwrights—and the Guild itself—
consider leaving the country if any of
the crop of current candidates wins
election next November. Perhaps the
Guild can publish a list of countries
that are more accepting of the aspirations, needs, and desires of artists
in general, and of playwrights in
particular.
Sincerely,
STANLEY TAIKEFF
Coming So
WE HEA
Plainsboro, NJ
6 | The Dramatist
3/31/16 5:13 PM
O P/ E D
ming Soon...
WE HEARD YOU!
Print-On-Demand
Hold-In-Your-Hand
DRAMATISTS GUILD
RESOURCE DIRECTORY
Over one-thousand submission opportunities,
educational opportunities, and writer resources
at the tip of your fingers in a new 8½ x 11 inch
spiral-bound, print-at-your-request edition.
May 2016.
Don’t Let A Bad Review
Un-Inspire You!
BY LUDMILLA BOLLOW
I
nspiration for a playwright descends in many ways. A good review can
be most inspiring and a bad review a complete disappointment. But
reviews shouldn’t be the ultimatum for your play. Continue seeking the
goals you perceived when you first began your script.
I’d like to share an inspiring ending, following a bad review.
My full-length comedy, In The Rest Room At Rosenblooms, had over
191 US and Canada presentations, including a run at dinner theatres, several
English villages, and good reviews, before it was published by Samuel French
Publications in 2008. More productions followed.
In 2013, Theatre in the Round, Minneapolis, MN, scheduled twelve weekend shows with great publicity. I corresponded with director, actresses—and
all were excited about the play. But opening night, a newspaper reviewer wrote
a scathing review that was printed on numerous sites.
I felt pure devastation, mostly for the cast and crew. I expressed my dismay
about the review to my editor at Samuel French, citing probable hindrance
of future productions. He kindly wrote back, “Reviews are a crazy thing you
know. Ultimately reviews are one person’s opinion and I could show you countless instances where stellar shows have received very less than stellar reviews
by unqualified reviewers… Your attitude that the show goes on is absolutely
the right one.”
The cast and others maintained it was a great show. But, the review did halt
performances as requests dwindled to nothing.
Then lo, Gulfport Players of Gulfport FL announced Rest Room was scheduled for performances on Jan. 17-24, 2016 in their Helen Pickford Theater. Living in Wisconsin, I couldn’t attend but truly wanted a first-hand review. Thus
my daughter, her husband, and two other couples who attend lots of theatre,
flew to Florida, promising to give me an “honest review.” Quick report was
that the cast was excellent, staging wonderful, and all enjoyed it. They even
talked with cast after, who loved their roles, the lead expressing, “It was my
most favorite role I ever did.”
I felt the play was redeemed once more by theatre and cast. Gulfport’s
Facebook had many good comments. The greatest was the final notation: “Our
most well-attended show to date!” Those words resurrected new hope and
inspiration.
So don’t give up on your play because some reviewer didn’t find it to their
liking. Keep faith in your work and know that each production is a special
inspiration not only to you but to all who worked on it and the audience who
viewed it. Theatre is a cumulative effort, and reviews cannot erase your initial
inspiration with their words. Inspiration is also expressed in your words that
flow creatively from your fingertips.
May/June 2016 | 7
3/31/16 5:13 PM
NE W S
MATT MURPHY
Korie
Receives
Blitztein
Award
New York, NY—MICHAEL KORIE will receive the Marc Blitzstein Award for Musical
Theater from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The award, totaling $10,000,
was established in 1965; composers, lyricists, and librettists may receive the award,
which is given to promote the creation of works of musical theater and opera.
WALTER KURTZ
Nottage Awarded 2016
Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
New York, NY – On February 22, LYNN
NOTTAGE was awarded the Susan
Smith Blackburn Prize for her play Sweat.
The prize celebrates women playwrights
and was founded in 1978. It is awarded
annually to one woman playwright who
has written a work of outstanding quality
for the English-speaking theatre.
Nottage was presented the award of
$25,000 and a signed and numbered
print by artist Willem de Kooning on
February 22 at the National Theatre in
London. This year over 150 plays were
submitted to an international panel of
judges for consideration.
HANDY
RECOGNIZED
BY 2015 TANNE
AWARDS
Somerville, MA – In recognition of
artistic achievements, Guild member
PETER HANDY has received a 2015 Tanne
Foundation award. This year marks the
eighth annual Tanne Foundation Awards
and the largest year of grant giving so far.
The awards, totalling $52,000, honor
eight artists and one organization. In
addition to his was a founder of First Light
Productions in Portland, Oregon.
Winners Announced
for 2015 Clauder
Competition for
New England
Playwrights
Portland, ME - Portland Stage has
announced the winners of the 2015
Clauder Competition for New England
Playwrights. Among the three winners
is CALLIE KIMBALL who received
a Gold Prize for her play Sofonisba. In
addition to receiving a cash prize, each
winning script will be workshopped
at Portland Stage’s 27th annual Little
Festival of the Unexpected, which runs
from May 11-14, 2016.
8 | The Dramatist
pp8-11 News.indd 8
3/31/16 5:14 PM
NE W S
Miranda Wins
2016 Edward
M. Kennedy
Prize
New York, NY – LIN-MANUEL
MIRANDA’S Hamilton has
received the Edward M.
Kennedy Prize for drama inspired
by American history. Jean
Kennedy Smith, ambassador
to Columbia University, created
the prize to honor the legacy of
her brother, late Senator Edward
M. Kennedy. The prize, totaling
$100,000, was awarded to Mr.
Miranda on February 22, Senator
Kennedy’s birthday.
Mr. Miranda was voted
unanimously to win the award
by the prize’s jury. Each year the
jury is comprised of playwrights,
composers, educators, scholars,
lyricists, and librettists. The prize
is given annually to contribute to
the exploration of American history
among dramatists.
Signature Theatre honors
Weidman with Stephen
Sondheim Award
New York, NY – JOHN WEIDMAN will receive
Signature Theatre’s Stephen Sondheim Award,
which was established in 2009. Weidman has
been nominated for and received multiple
Tony Awards and has won over a dozen
Emmy Awards for his work on Sesame Street.
He also served as the President of the
Dramatists Guild from 1999-2009.
The Stephen Sondheim Award is
given annual to an individual whose career
contributes to interpreting, supporting, and
collaborating on Sondheim’s works. Weidman,
who began collaborating with Sondheim in 1976,
will be the seventh recipient of the award.
HARNICK AWARDED DRAMA LEAGUE SPECIAL RECOGNITION
New York, NY—Grammy, Tony,
and Pulitzer Prize winner SHELDON
HARNICK will receive the 82nd Annual
Drama League Award for Distinguished
Achievement in Musical Theater. The
Drama League Awards are the oldest
theatrical honors in America. The Awards
recognize distinguished performances,
productions, and career achievements.
Jacobs-Jenkins wins
Windham-Campbell Prize
New York, NY – The nine winners of The Windham-Campbell Prizes at Yale
University have been announced; each is the recipient of $150,000 for his or her
accomplishments or potential in the worlds of literature and theatre. One of three
Drama prizes was awarded to playwright BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS.
The prizes have no submission process, meaning writers are judged anonymously
and unaware that they are in the running or a recipient until they receive the
phone call from Michael Kelleher, director of the prize. For more information visit
windhamcampbell.org.
This year’s Drama League Awards
Ceremony and Luncheon will be held on
May 20, 2016.
Winners
Announced for
2016 Rodgers
Awards
New York, NY—The winners of the
2016 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical
Theater were announced by the American
Academy of Arts and Letters on February
29, 2016. TIMOTHY HUANG’s Cost
of Living and PATRICK and DANIEL
LAZOUR’s We Live in Cairo were awarded
Staged Readings, and ANAÏS MITCHELL’s
Hadestown won a Production Award. The
Rodgers Award was endowed by Richard
Rodgers in 1978. It provides its recipients
with financial support for staged readings
and productions of original works of
musical theatre.
May/June 2016 | 9
pp8-11 News.indd 9
3/31/16 5:14 PM
N EWS
Dramatists
Guild Council
Election
Results
New York, NY—After the highest
voter turnout in recent DG history, the
2016 Council Election results are in.
All incumbents have been re-elected.
Additionally, we welcome BRANDEN
JACOBS-JENKINS, LLOYD SUH, and
CHRISTINE TOY JOHNSON as new
Council Members. The seating of the
new council will commence at the March
Council meeting.
Branden
Jacobs-Jenkins
is a Washington
DC native and a
Brooklyn-based
playwright, whose
recent works
include Gloria
(Vineyard Theatre),
An Octoroon (Soho
Rep), Appropriate (Signature Theatre)
and War (forthcoming at Lincoln Center/
LCT3). He is the recipient of the 2015
Steinberg Playwriting Award, the 2014
Obie Award for Best New American Play,
the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, the
Helen Merrill Award, and the inaugural
Tennessee Williams Award. A former
New York Theatre Workshop playwriting
fellow and an alum of the ArsNova and
Public Theatre Emerging Writers Groups,
Branden is currently a Residency Five
playwright at the Signature Theatre and
serves on the board of Soho Rep. He
holds an MA in Performance Studies
from NYU and is a graduate of the Lila
Acheson Wallace Playwrights Program at
the Juilliard School, where he currently
teaches in the drama division.
Christine Toy
Johnson is an
award-winning
playwright,
librettist, lyricist,
actor, director,
and advocate
for inclusion.
The Library of
Congress inducted
a collection of her work into their
Asian Pacific American Performing Arts
Collection in 2010 including The New
Deal (developed at Roundabout Theatre
Company), Paper Son (Queens Theatre
in the Park, past part of the Multi-cultural
Drama curriculum at the University
of Michigan/Flint and the Playwriting
curriculum at Wesleyan University),
Internal Bleeding (Atlanta Black Theatre
Festival, Crossroads Theatre Company),
and Adventures of a Faux Designer
Handbag (Leviathan Lab, past part of
the Playwriting curriculum at Wesleyan).
Other plays include The Secret Wisdom of
Trees (in development with The Barrow
Group), Barcelona (libretto and lyrics with
composer/lyricist Jason Ma, developed
at the Weston Playhouse, CAP21,
and Village Theatre), My Boyfriend Is
An Alien (And I’m Okay With That!)
(libretto and lyrics with composer Bobby
Cronin, Prospect Theater Company)
etc. Co-director of the award-winning
documentary feature, Transcending The Wat Misaka Story. Alumna of the
BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre
Writing Workshop. Founder of The
Asian American Composers & Lyricists
Project. Board member/Secretary:
Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts. As part
of the elected leadership of Actors’
Equity Association since 1992, she has
served as National Chair of the Equal
Employment Opportunity Committee
and National Chair of the Equity News
Advisory Committee. For the Dramatists
Guild, she serves on the Publications
Committee, has contributed articles
to the magazine, initiated and/or
participated in roundtables (“Images of
the Other,” “Is it Too Late to Emerge?
Finding your Voice Later in Life,” “Writing
for Disability”) as well as many panels
during the 2015 National Conference.
Christine is the 2013 recipient of the
Rosetta LeNoire Award from Actors’
Equity Association for “outstanding
artistic contributions to the universality of
the human spirit in the American theatre.”
Lloyd Suh is the
author of Charles
Francis Chan Jr’s
Exotic Oriental
Murder Mystery,
American
Hwangap, The
Wong Kids in
the Secret of the
Space Chupacabra
Go!, Jesus in India, Great Wall Story, and
others, produced with Ma-Yi, Magic
Theatre, EST, NAATCO, Children’s
Theatre Co, Play Co, La Mama, Denver
Center, East West Players and others,
as well as internationally at the Cultural
Center of the Philippines and with
PCPA in Seoul, Korea. He has received
support from the NEA Arena Stage
New Play Development program,
Andrew W. Mellon Launching New
Plays Into the Repertoire initiative via
The Lark, NYFA, NYSCA, Jerome, TCG,
Dramatists Guild Fellowship program,
and residencies including NYS&F and
Ojai. His plays have been published by
Sam French, Playscripts, Smith & Kraus,
Duke University Press and American
Theatre magazine. He is an alumnus of
Youngblood and the Soho Rep Writer
Director Lab. From 2005-2010 he served
as Artistic Director of Second Generation
and Co-Director of the Ma-Yi Writers
Lab, and was a Founding Member of the
Consortium of Asian American Theatres
& Artists, serving on the Executive
Steering Committee that created
the National Asian American Theatre
Conference and Festival. He has served
since 2011 as Director of Artistic Programs
at The Lark.
10 | The Dramatist
pp8-11 News.indd 10
3/31/16 5:14 PM
NE W S
A Play Falls Victim
to the Clash of
Political Passions
A
Florida theater’s production of Julia
Pascal’s Crossing Jerusalem was,
as one local newspaper headline
put it, “designed to spark conversation.” It
did—too much, apparently.
Crossing Jerusalem opened in February
at the Cultural Arts Theater (J-CAT), which
is affiliated with Michael-Ann Russell
Jewish Community Center in North Miami
Beach. But midway through its run, the
JCC announced that it was canceling the
show in response to criticism that it was
“inappropriate and troublesome.” Pascal
called the decision to cut the show short a
form of censorship. Dozens of artists and
theater professionals joined the National
Coalition Against Censorship and our
partner, the Dramatists Legal Defense
Fund, in calling for the decision to be
reversed.
As a drama about an Israeli family set
in 2002 during the intifada, Crossing
Jerusalem inevitably touches upon highly
contested political realities. The theater
was aware of the potential for controversy,
and had scheduled post-show “talk
back” discussions. But to a small group
of extremely vocal critics, the production
presented a “false paradigm” of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Their criticisms
Jonathan Larson
Grant Recipients
Announced
New York, NY—The American Theatre
Wing announced that the 2016 Jonathan
Larson Grants will be awarded to César
Alvarez, Nikko Benson, CARSON
KREITZER, and Sam Salmond. The
Jonathan Larson Grants, each $10,000,
are awarded annually to honor emerging
composers, lyricists, and librettists. Each
of this year’s recipients will also receive
The Saw Island Foundation Recording
Grants, and Kreitzer will be receiving
a residence at Running Deer Musical
Theatre Lab’s Writer’s Retreat.
pp8-11 News.indd 11
were heard loud and clear during the talkbacks; the theater even included a flyer in
the playbill explaining the “key historical
facts” they believed were omitted or
misrepresented in the play. But that was
not enough. Pressure to entirely cancel
the production continued. On February
16, JCC President & CEO Gary Bomzer
canceled all remaining performances, in
order to “avoid any further pain and to
engage in rigorous, vibrant conversation.”
As with many political debates, it is
difficult to find consensus on the IsraeliPalestinian conflict—and when people
care, responses are often deeply emotional.
But can this be a reason to shut down the
production of a play that many members
of the community found meaningful and
thought provoking? It is extremely hard to
reconcile Bomzer’s stated desire for ‘vibrant
conversation’ with the decision to banish
from the stage a play that has, indeed,
sparked just such a conversation.
A discussion around Crossing Jerusalem
is exactly the kind of opportunity to explore
the human emotions and lived experiences
that accompany and inform geopolitical
conflicts. Even amidst serious political
polarization, theater—like other forms
of artistic expression—can be a way to
recognize our common humanity. The
J-CAT’s Crossing Jerusalem played to full
houses; did everyone in the room leave
angry and offended? No, they did not.
Responses varied widely: while to one
of the performers, Crossing Jerusalem
dramatized “the struggle and heartache
that both Jews and Arabs experience in the
face of war and terror,” to a protester, the
very same show expressed an “unfair and
even dangerous hate of Israel.” A work of
art that some see as being divisive or onesided might actually encourage dialogue
and empathy for others, perhaps even a
majority of the audience. In fact, the JCC
admitted that it had received many emails
in support of the play as well—but it let the
angrier side carry the day, yielding to a small
group of protesters whose primary concern
is that a particular side in a political standoff
determines the terms of engagement.
Controversies around art touching upon
the Middle East are, of course, nothing
new. Debates around cultural boycotts
of plays, films or art events funded by
the Israeli government flare up around
the globe on a regular basis. On U.S.
campuses speakers are attacked from all
sides: sometimes as being anti-Semitic,
other times as being racist towards Arabs.
Passions run high. The topics that we
most need to talk about are, instead,
becoming taboo. When cultural institutions
support such taboos by cancelling relevant
programming or avoiding it in the first
place, they are betraying their mission as
platforms for a democratic exchange of
ideas, as spaces where we can productively
disagree yet learn to listen to each other.
www.ncac.org
IN MEMORIAM
WILLIAM B. FINNERAN ............................................joined 6/19/03 Yonkers, NY
GEORGIANA PEACHER ....................................joined 2/26/82 Downingtown, PA
MARILYN SHOCKEY............................................. joined 11/30/02 Potomac, MD
JAMES J. TOMMANEY ..............................................joined 5/28/85 Houston, TX
PEN Literary Award Recipients Announced
New York, NY—LYNN NOTTAGE, Young Jean Lee, and BRANDEN JACOBSJENKINS have been announced as winners in the drama category of the PEN Literary
Awards. Nottage has been awarded the Master American Dramatist Award, Lee has
won the American Playwright in Mid-Career Award, and Jacobs-Jenkins has won the
Emerging American Playwright Award. The awards come with a specially commissioned
piece of art and cash prizes of $7,500 and $2,500, respectively.
May/June 2016 | 11
3/31/16 5:14 PM
TE N QUE STIO NS
1
penny Opera—two of my FAVES in one
shebang!
4
When I was a kid I was in this annual
community solstice show (I grew up
in Vermont, lots of hippies and radical artist types living in the woods)
called Night Fires. It was something
like a pageant involving music, text,
and dance. I usually played an “acolyte to the goddess”. There were a lot
of deep grownup performers in those
shows, and I was just a little kid—but
they made me feel part of the tribe—I
really adored that feeling of camaraderie.
3
Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell,
Bertolt Brecht, the guys behind Les
Mis, Bernie Sanders, activists, people
who make music purely for the joy
of music like trad players at sessions
and parents—moms and dads everywhere…
What was your most memorable theatrical experience as a child?
2
Is there a production you wish you’d
seen?
I wish I’d seen Cyndi Lauper in Three-
Who was the person who made the
biggest impact on your career?
Maybe Ani Difranco—when I was a
teenager and just learning to play the
guitar, the first few songs I learned
were hers. I found her and her songs
just completely earth-shattering.
She changed the way my generation
thought about how to play guitar and
write songs (and be female, but that’s
a whole ‘nother thing). Later, when
I started making my own albums, she
signed me to her Righteous Babe
Records label and let me open up for
her on tour. So she was a true idol/
icon for me who then became a fairy
godmother of sorts.
JAY SANSONE
Anaïs
Mitchell
Who are your heroes? (writing/composing etc. or otherwise?)
5
If you could be anyone (past, present
or fictional) who would you choose to
be and why?
Maybe someone like Lawrence Durrell, except I have a feeling he was
sad. But I have always romanticized
that thing of being in some kind of
expatriate writer community in the
right city in the right decade drinking
12 | The Dramatist
pp12-15 10Q & Craft.indd 12
3/31/16 5:15 PM
absinthe, writing novels, having love
affairs.
6
If you could have a love affair with
anyone (past, present, or fictional),
who would you choose?
I just spent a long time trying to think
of a sophisticated answer to this, especially after that previous question,
but unfortunately I keep coming back
to Jon Snow from Game of Thrones.
That guy was so gallant.
7
When you sit down to work, what
must you have with you in the room?
Guitar, coffee.
8
When you’re in despair with a piece
of work, how do you maneuver out
of that?
Pep talks (usually from my husband),
walks, accepting that a certain
amount of banging head against wall
is a natural part of the process. I’m
mostly a songwriter and I find… if I’m
in despair with verse two, it’s probably verse one that has to change.
9
If you hadn’t become a dramatist,
what profession would you have
chosen?
Ha, I love that you ask this question,
because I don’t THINK of myself
as a dramatist, I think of myself as a
songwriter! But if I hadn’t become a
songwriter, maybe I’d have become
a dramatist! In fact, I might just…do
that…right now.
Dramatists
Guild
Members
Receive
10
• Exclusive access to the
Resource Directory Online
At this point my only work of musical
theater is Hadestown—and there’s no
project I’ve put more blood, sweat,
and tears (and years) into than that
one. Does that make it my favorite?
I dunno…But I love how much it’s
taught me, as a story (the Greek myth
of Orpheus, mashed up with a ton of
archetypal American folk imagery)
and as a process. I love all the people
who’ve worked on it with me over the
years and how their energy continues
to vibrate in the piece.
• Seven issues of The
Dramatist
Which of all your works is your
favorite, and why?
ANAÏS MITCHELL is a Vermont & Brooklynbased songwriter who comes from the world of narrative folksong, poetry and balladry. She recorded
for Ani Difranco’s Righteous Babe Records for
several years before founding her own Wilderland
label in 2012. Recent albums include Hadestown
(a folk opera based on the Orpheus myth), Young
Man in America (described by the UK’s Independent as ‘an epic tale of American becoming’),
and Child Ballads (a BBC award-winning collection of traditional English and Scottish folksongs).
Collectively, these records have appeared on ‘Year
End Best Of’ lists including NPR, The Wall Street
Journal, The Guardian, MOJO, and the Sunday
Times. Mitchell headlines concerts worldwide as
well as supporting tours for artists like Bon Iver and
Ani Difranco (who appear as guest singers on the
Hadestown album), Richard Thompson, Patty
Griffin, and the Punch Brothers.
• Access to our Business Affairs
Department for advice and
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• One free 40-word classified
ad in The Dramatist each
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• DG Huddles – informal online
video conferences on specific
topics of interest
• E-Blasts announcing official
Guild business, events, and
ticket offers in your area
And much more!
May/June 2016 | 13
3/31/16 5:15 PM
THE C RA FT
Diana
Son
Q
Q
A
A
Once you have an idea, how do
you proceed? Do you take notes?
Do you outline? Do you plunge right in?
I never remember the exact
moment I come up with an idea
for a play. I think it’s more a matter of
several ideas slowly, almost imperceptibly coalescing into an idea which
usually comes in the form a character
with a specific dilemma. I don’t outline or take notes. In TV we have to
outline, and while I think it’s a super
useful tool for that kind of writing, I
physically resist making one for a play.
Not because I think it’s better not to;
I just can’t make myself do it. I spend
months, sometimes years stumbling
towards the next scene. Sometimes
I’ll make a list of things I know are in
the play and that helps.
Do you have a routine? A regular
time when you write?
Ha! Yes. The hours during which
my three children are at school.
Q
When you begin a first draft,
do you write straight through?
Do you write in order? What’s your
process?
A
I write in story order, which is
not usually linear. Figuring out
that puzzle is part of the fun for me.
As much as playwriting is fun.
Q
Once you’re at work, are there
other art forms you go to for continued inspiration?
A
I listen to music for inspiration
but not when I’m writing. I need
FIND
dead silence to write.
Lesley Uni
ranked #4
the uniqu
scripts wit
directors.
to be reco
our partne
American
Q
What aspect of the craft is most
difficult for you?
A
Well, since I refuse to use any of
the techniques available to me
to organize my ideas and facilitate the
writing part, I would say that the writing part is hardest. MFA IN CR
Fiction
Nonfic
Poetry
Writin
Writin
Q
What do you do when you get
stuck?
A
Get up and use the bathroom.
Oftentimes when I’m stuck I’ll
stare at the screen trying things or
just staring until eventually I have to
use the bathroom and about three
steps away from my desk, the solution
will come to me.
Visit lesle
we can he
14 | The Dramatist
3/31/16 5:15 PM
432GSASPA15.indd 1
Q
Do you have any thoughts or
advice about dialogue?
A
It’s all about rhythm. It should
come to you like music. When
things are going well—for me, or
when I’m in the theater watching
someone else’s play—I will find myself bobbing my head as if to a beat.
Q
Do you have any particular principles or practices about character
or character development?
A
Characters should want things. I
know that sounds elemental but
sometimes I find myself reading or
watching a play and my mind will wander and I’ll wonder why—and then I’ll
FIND YOUR AUDIENCE
Lesley University’s MFA in Creative Writing,
ranked #4 by Poets and Writers, affords
the unique opportunity to work on your
scripts with professional actors and
directors. You’ll also you’ll have the chance
to be recognized as a playwright through
our partnership with the Kennedy Center
American College Theater Festival.
write away from your original intenrealize that despite beautiful language or funny dialogue or a fascinat- tions.
ing setting…the main character isn’t
What’s the most important craft
trying to get something and that’s why
advice you can give?
I’ve disengaged.
Q
How extensively do you rewrite,
and is that mostly before or during rehearsal?
A
The ability to rewrite is what
separates the women from the
girls. But along with that skill, you
have to be a guardian of your intentions. There will be so many voices
giving you ideas—sometimes good
or even great ones—for your play, but
you have to be sure that you don’t
Q
A
Don’t be passive and expect
people and things to present opportunities to you. Be an activist for
yourself and your play.
DIANA SON is the author of the plays Stop
Kiss, Satellites, BOY, R.A.W. (‘Cause I’m a
Woman), and others. She is currently Executive
Producer of the upcoming Netflix series Thirteen
Reasons Why and was Emmy-nominated for
her work as Co-Executive Producer of ABC’s
American Crime. She lives in Brooklyn with her
husband and three sons.
“From the Deep,” rising
playwright Cassie M. Seinuk’s
play about an Israeli prisoner
of war and an American
student captive thrown
together, packs a potent,
emotional punch.
– Theater Mirror
MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING
Fiction
Nonfiction
Poetry
Writing for Stage and Screen
Writing for Young People
Visit lesley.edu/stage to discover how
we can help you find your audience.
Cassie M. Seinuk ’13
Playwright, Author of “From the Deep”
Winner of the Boston University
Jewish Cultural Endowment Grant,
the Latinidad Playwriting Award at
the Kennedy Center American College
Theatre Festival, and the Pestalozzi
full-length
play prize2016
at the| 15
Firehouse
May/June
Center for the Arts New Works Festival.
432GSASPA15.indd 1
6/30/15 1:40 PM
3/31/16 5:15 PM
The
Dramatist’s
Bill of
Rights
In Process and Production
1. ARTISTIC INTEGRITY.
No one (e.g., directors, actors,
dramaturgs) can make changes,
alterations, and/or omissions to
your script – including the text,
title, and stage directions – without
your consent. This is called “script
approval.”
2. APPROVAL OF PRODUCTION
ELEMENTS
You have the right to mutually approve
(with the producer) the cast, director,
and designers (and, for a musical, the
choreographer, orchestrator, arranger,
and musical director, as well),
including their replacements. This is
called “artistic approval.”
3. RIGHT TO BE PRESENT.
You always have the right to attend
casting, rehearsals, previews and
performances.
Compensation
4. ROYALTIES.
You are generally entitled to receive
a royalty. While it is possible that the
amount an author receives may be
minimal for a small to medium-sized
production, some compensation
should always be paid if any other
artistic collaborator in the production
is being paid, or if any admission is
being charged. If you are a member
of the Guild, you can always call our
business office to discuss the standard
industry royalties for various levels of
production.
5. BILLING CREDIT.
You should receive billing
(typographical credit) on all publicity,
programs, and advertising distributed
or authorized by the theatre. Billing
is part of your compensation and
the failure to provide it properly is a
breach of your rights.
Ownership
6. OWNERSHIP OF INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY.
You own the copyright of your
dramatic work. Authors in the theatre
business do not assign (i.e., give away
or sell in entirety) their copyrights,
nor do they ever engage in “work-forhire.” When a university, producer or
theatre wants to mount a production
of your play, you actually license (or
lease) the public performance rights
to your dramatic property to that
entity for a finite period of time.
7. OWNERSHIP OF INCIDENTAL
CONTRIBUTIONS.
You own all approved revisions,
suggestions, and contributions to the
script made by other collaborators
in the production, including actors,
directors, and dramaturgs. You do
not owe anyone any money for these
contributions. If a theatre uses
dramaturgs, you are not obligated to
make use of any ideas the dramaturg
might have. Even when the input of
a dramaturg or director is helpful
to the playwright, dramaturgs and
directors are still employees of the
theatre, not the author, and they are
paid for their work by the theatre/
producer. It has been well-established
in case law, beginning with “the Rent
Case” (Thompson v. Larson) that
neither dramaturgs nor directors
(nor any other contributors) may
be considered a co-author of a
play, unless (i) they’ve collaborated
with you from the play’s inception,
(ii) they’ve made a copyrightable
contribution to the play, and (iii) you
have agreed in writing that they are a
co-author.
8. SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS.
You own the right to license your play
into different markets (like stock
& amateur, and foreign territories),
and in all different kinds of media
(television, radio, film, internet etc.)
anywhere in the world. Theaters at
the Broadway, LORT, commercial
Off-Broadway, and commercial OffOff-Broadway levels might request
a portion of these future revenues
as a result of their productions.
Nonetheless, you are not obligated
to sign over any portion of your
subsidiary rights revenue to a third
party (fellow artist, consultant,
director, producer, dramaturg). A
production qualifying for subsidiary
rights revenue participation would be
a professional (i.e., Actor’s Equity)
premiere production (including
sets, costumes and lighting)
which has been presented for a
number of consecutive, paid public
performances of significant length (a
length sufficient to have added value
to your play) and for which the author
has received appropriate billing,
compensation, and artistic approvals.
9. FUTURE OPTIONS.
Rather than granting the theatre the
right to share in future proceeds, you
may choose to grant a non-exclusive
option to present another production
of your work within six months or
one year of the close of the initial
production. No option should be
assignable without your prior written
consent.
10. AUTHOR’S CONTRACT.
The only way to ensure that you get
the benefit of the rights listed above
is through a written contract with the
producer, no matter how large or small
the entity. The Guild’s Department
of Business Affairs offers a model
“production contract” and is available
to review any contracts offered to you,
and advise as to how those contracts
compare to industry standards.
16 | The Dramatist
pp16-17 Inspiration+Ads.indd 16
3/31/16 5:16 PM
INSPIRATION
W
by Michele Lowe
hat inspires me is collaboration. For me, this is the Year of the Giraffe. Instead
of waiting until I’ve finished the first draft of my new play, I’ve been sticking
my neck out and inviting people to work with me while it’s in progress.
I’m talking to costume designers and animal trainers (there are three Great
Danes in it) while my play is still fresh and shaky and green. It’s scary to reveal
something that’s imperfect (ha!) but this new courage has had a huge and positive impact on my work.
My goal here is to inspire you to do the same. Write an email, send a letter, text someone about your
latest project. Don’t wait until it’s done. Give someone as talented and passionate as you the chance to get
to know your work and have an impact on what you’re writing. Don’t just send a fan letter.
Think of someone who can give you answers or open up a conversation that will make
a difference in your play.
COLLABORATI
Stick your neck out.
Do it now.
Need help?
Try this:
Let me know how it
turns out. Email me and
tell me a little bit about
whom you reached out
to and how the meeting/
collaboration went.
I’m hoping for success
here. Collaboration
can happen in twenty
minutes or twenty hours
or twenty years. It’s not
the length of time that
makes a difference but
the exchanging of ideas.
M I CHELE LOW E
[email protected]

Dear _____________________________,
sound designer
director
composer
teacher
actor
set designer
musician
stage combat coach
dramaturg
choreographer
lighting designer
I’ve been a fan of yours since I ________________.
Your work __________________________.
I’m currently writing the ________ draft of a new
saw your costume design heard your score took your class read your book saw you on YouTube watched you dance
always blows my mind scares the hell out of me made me who I am today
first fifth sixteenth
_____________ and would love to talk to you about it.
play opera musical web series TV pilot
We can do it __________.
over coffee in an email exchange
in a couple of texts on the phone
I know you’re busy and won’t take up too much of your
time. I look forward to hearing back from you. Thank you!
__________________________________________
Sincerely yours Warm regards Cheers
__________________________________________
your name
__________________________________________
how you want to be contacted
pp16-17 Inspiration+Ads.indd 17
3/31/16 5:16 PM
What are the
Obligations
of Writing
Outside
Your Own
Ethnicity
18 | The Dramatist
pp18-29 Feature A.indd 18
?
3/31/16 5:16 PM
s
?
Kirk Lynn
gotta buck once before I let myself be
saddled by the word “obligation.” It
would be easier to talk about courtesies,
compassions, hopes, fears. Work without obligation. Make bad art. I honestly
think we don’t have enough of it. Most
everything I see strikes me as lukewarm
and semi-reasonable. I’d like to see more
fires. I’d rather be spit out of the theatre.
But it’s also disingenuous to act like I don’t know
what you mean by the question.
I think the first courtesy is to treat all characters
the way you treat yourself. It’s a golden rule. Don’t
torture them and don’t trust them. You know your
own sins and shortcomings. You know your own deep
longings. And you know that you can be a shallow
creature, too. Try to give your characters a little more
depth than you manage most days.
And maybe you don’t work in character. Language
and time are the real currency of performance. Bodies
and space are where we meet. I think there is some
hope that we can learn to communicate in other time
signatures. Learn to feel the days slip away at a pace
outside our own ethnicity’s invisible rhythms. And as
far as language goes, make sure when you’re in someone else’s mouth you use their tongue. The very air
itself in a performance should be from all over, not
just the stuff you’re so used to it’s become invisible.
And our bodies are different. We all move differently.
Our hair is different. Spend some time doing each
character’s hair, or if you don’t work in character get
to know the performers personally.
We have to work outside our own ethnicities,
genders, abilities, and sexual preferences. The world
can’t be described in one body. We are guests here.
We are always guests. It is not our earth. Not our cen-
tury. We don’t own the
birds that got displaced
when they cut down
the trees to build our
theatres. We should be
polite until we fall in
love with our characters. That’s research.
Once we fall in love, it’s
called family and we can
be honest.
I don’t want my ethnicity to be written
about with kid gloves.
I want my ethnicity to
be treated like family.
I want it to be loved. I
wanted my people to
be critiqued the way my
wife and children critique me. They’re fierce. I’m expected to start as a good man and improve from there.
Therefuckingfore, I have to treat other ethnicities
this way. I have to love their language, their hours,
their bodies, their hairdos, and their longings.
I’m scared. My writing doesn’t look enough like the
world I want to live in. Neither does my writing look
enough like the world I actually live in. I haven’t built
a Utopia or a real critique. I’m the one making all the
lukewarm, semi-reasonable work. I can do better.
KIRK LYNN is the head of the playwriting and directing program at the
University of Texas at Austin, one of the artistic directors of the Rudes, a
member of the Committee for the Jubilee, which is committed to address
equity in the American Theatre and in our communities by working toward
that goal that in 2020/21, every theatre in the United States of America
will produce only work by women, people of color, Native American artists, LBGTQIA artists, deaf artists, and artists with disabilities.
May/June 2016 | 19
3/31/16 5:16 PM
Donnetta
Lavinia Grays
in service to an overall theme of “acceptance” or as
symbols of their ethnic plight, as magical figures, or
as comic relief. And their language oftentimes seems
forced.
Also, such plays often don’t reveal who these
characters are outside of their relationship to white
people; how they are perceived, oppressed, helped,
e specific. Be nuanced when
loved, or admired by them. So the stories end up not
developing your characters and
truly being about these people but rather about white
their world. Understand that
people’s engagement with them. Challenge yourself
generalizing any character or
to understand what happens within a culture when
using them as a “representation” you remove that perspective. It is true that racial dyor proxy for an ethnicity can be
namics play a huge part in the lives of people of color
detrimental to your story, to your and the edifice of systemic racism has a foundation
audience’s experience, and truly
and affects our daily lives, but a tremendous percentsoul crushing for actors who are being asked to play
age of our day-to-day existence has nothing to do
such roles.
with how white people see or interact with us. If you
Certainly, as playwrights we want to tell fully
have a limited concept of how people outside of your
three-dimensional stories. And I believe we should be experience move through the world independent of
allowed to tell stories outside of our own experience, white gaze, then know that you may not have a strong
but even the most progressive among us start with the hold on the full breadth of that character’s culture.
porous argument of “wanting to tell a story from—or Every black character in my plays is unique because
filter a character through—the (choose your ethnicevery black person I know is unique. But there is a
ity) perspective.” This is a starting point ripe for over- certain amount of cultural specificity in how they resimplification and suggests a monolithic point of view late to one another directly.
for that ethnic group.
Generalizations are story killers. Playwrights of
Such plays (focusing on
color should also follow the same course toward
characters of color) usually specificity in writing cross-culturally. My first fully
result in the culmination
produced play centered on a white family living in
of well-intended, beautiSeattle. I had a vast amount of source material as it
fully crafted monologues
was based on a true story about a close friend of mine.
or scenes that serve as “life Even so, it didn’t prevent me from asking uncomfortlessons” for other characable questions when I felt ignorant. Specificity of
ters not of said ethnicity or world and character limits temptations to romantias “teaching moments” for cize, fetishize or demonize people whose culture we
the audience. Yet, we walk
may only experience peripherally.
away not knowing anything
about who these characters DONNETTA LAVINIA GRAYS’ plays include Last Night And The
of color are privately, spiri- Night Before (National New Play Network Showcase, Todd McNerney
tually, sexually or what their National Playwriting Award Winner, O’Neill Conference Semifinalist),
The Review Or How To Eat Your Opposition (O’Neill Conference
inner conflicts, dreams,
Finalist), among others. She is the inaugural recipient of the Doric Wilson
faults, peculiarities, or deIndependent Playwright Award.
sires are. They are only used
20 | The Dramatist
3/31/16 5:16 PM
Several years
ago, I wrote a play
about multi-faith
immigrants
across ethnicities living in San
hen I once told a Diego, commisfellow playwright, sioned by the
far more famous
Playwrights Project,
than I, how I
which builds literacy,
rarely write about creativity, and commy own ethnicity, munication by empowering
she looked at me individuals to voice their stories
incredulously and through playwriting (www.playwrightsproject.org). In
said, “I can’t imagine not writing about it!”
researching the writing of other playwrights—and in
But isn’t that what our playwriting, and our life in
speaking with everyone from a surviving Lost Boy of
the arts, should be about? Doing the very thing we
Sudan, to a Vietnamese refugee, to recently emigratcannot imagine? Getting out of our comfort zone, los- ed Muslims trying to navigate their post 9/11 commuing ourselves in the wonderful and scary ‘otherness’ of nity—I found such resonance with my own Armenian
life, of our world, of our friends—and enemies?
history, and that of so many other people’s groups: the
One of the best compliments I ever received as a
pulls of passion and pride, misplaced trust leading to
playwright was when I wrote a play about an African
tragedy, glimmers of grace and help amid war horrors,
American poet/civil rights activist. At the first staged clinging to hope over bitterness, perseverance over
reading at the Fountain Theater in Los Angeles, one
surrender. Audience members of all backgrounds
of the elder actors (African American) looked at me
came up to me after the performances, thanking me
shocked when I was introduced as the playwright. He for ‘understanding’ and sharing their story.
told me later: “I thought the person who wrote this
Our story.
was black. There are things in here I thought only a
Shared suffering, shared survival, shared triumph.
black person would know and understand. I was a boy Oh, how we are not alone!
sitting in the pew at my Baptist church in Chicago
The responsibility I hold in writing about other
when Dr. King came and spoke—no one talks about
ethnicities works hand in hand with the responsibilthat speech. But you did.”
ity I believe we all have as artists—to understand and
I relish the opportunity to research about ethnici- encourage our audiences and each other. Writing
ties and histories other than my own—just as I am
outside of our ethnicity, embracing and sharing its
always beyond thrilled and honored when non-Arme- new insights, helps us recognize that our ‘otherness’
nian playwrights choose to explore “my” Armenian
is, perhaps, not so ‘other’ after all.
history. I serve on the board of the Armenian DramatLISA KIRAZIAN’s plays include On Air, The Blackstone Sessions,
ic Arts Alliance, which helps get the Armenian story,
Switch,
The Visitor, Six Views, and numerous one-acts. Producand other human rights stories, told onstage (www.artions & readings: Fountain Theatre, Long Beach Playhouse, Scripps
meniandrama.org). And when the work of non-Arme- Ranch Theatre, DG Friday Night Footlights, Playwrights Project, Barnian playwrights writing about Armenian topics gives row Group, and several festivals. Publications: Los Angeles Times,
me insight into my own ethnic identity—strengths
Performing Arts Magazine, San Diego Union Tribune, Audition
and weaknesses alike—it inspires and reminds me that Monologues for Young Women #2 (Ratliff), various literary journals.
Boards: Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance (ADAA), Playwrights Project
the interdependence of art and artists across bound(Past President). Lisa is a Stanford graduate. www.lisakirazian.com.
aries makes us all better, wiser, and stronger.
Lisa Kirazian
May/June 2016 | 21
3/31/16 5:16 PM
Sudipta
Bhawmik
Stay Truthful – that’s the only obligation
y plays tell the stories
of immigrant Indians,
more specifically the
Indians from the eastern state of Bengal,
also known as Bengalis. Being a Bengali myself, I know my people
like the back of my hand. I know their dreams, their
struggles, their ambitions, and their pains. I get inside
the head of my characters and find the space as comfortable as my writing couch. There, I relax with my
fingers on my keyboard and watch them think, speak,
and act. I find my zone so comfortable that I never
risk stepping out and try to write about any other ethnicity.
But is it fair to keep myself locked within my ethnicity? I live in America, the salad bowl of the world.
What is preventing me from enjoying the variety of
tasty morsels that swirl around my every breathing
moment? I asked myself this question several times.
And the answer was, “write what you know.” What do
I know about my white Caucasian neighbor? Except
for exchanging some pleasantries during the summer
yard work, we hardly talk. Is that enough to make him
a character in my play? What do I know of my Chinese
immigrant colleague? We exchange technical
notes, but does
that mean he is
only a techie?
Will my next engineer character
be a Chinese
immigrant? Do
I understand my
Jewish friend from Israel well enough to write about
him? What if my views on Palestine offend him? What
if I fall into the stereotype trap? What if I oversimplify
his struggles? Should I then just stay away from writing about other ethnicities and keep doing what I do
best? But that’s not American! An American dramatist must write about American characters, and not
about whites, or blacks or Asians, or Indians. I kept
struggling until I received this note from Joey, “…
what are the obligations of a dramatist writing outside her/his own ethnicity?” And boom! I found the
answer!
The only obligation a playwright has is to stay
truthful—truthful to her/his characters, to her/his
audience. Nothing else. This single principle should
guide whatever he/she writes. But it’s not easy to stay
truthful. It needs hard work, patience, and courage.
Learning a new culture can be a never-ending task.
We must keep digging until we feel safe to enter and
stay inside our characters head. Until we feel comfortable to dwell there for a while and watch the way
he/she sees, hears, feels. And this calls for courage—
courage to explore the unknown and avoid jumping
into conclusions. We shouldn’t be afraid to tell the
truth. Political correctness should not camouflage
the truth. Deep down inside, human beings are the
same everywhere. Their dreams and aspirations are
the same, only expressed through the filter of their
ethnicity and culture. If we spend some effort to decipher this cultural code with sensitivity and respect,
we should have no problem in understanding any human being and creating truthful characters, whatever
might be their ethnicity or culture.
SUDIPTA BHAWMIK is an award winning playwright, actor, and
director, and has written several plays in Bengali and English. Sudipta’s
plays tell the stories of the struggles and contradictions of first generation
Bengali immigrants and of their children and their divided loyalties, and
this has been his unique contribution to Bengali Theater. This has inspired
several theater scholars to cite his plays in their scholarly work about
diasporic theater. His plays have been produced and staged in USA, UK,
Bangladesh, and Calcutta, India, and have been translated and produced
in several Indian languages like Hindi, Marathi, and English. His plays
have won several awards at different festivals in India as well as in USA
and Canada. Major theater journals in India publish his plays and he has
three books to his credit. Sudipta is a member of the Dramatists Guild of
America.
22 | The Dramatist
3/31/16 5:16 PM
JudyLee
Oliva
he dramatist who writes
outside of her own ethnicity must do her homework
in terms of research and
authenticity. I believe in writing what you know, what you
live. However, as a Native
playwright, my experiences
are not just those of my tribe. I write about multi-cultural issues. My characters are white, black, Native,
mixed. It is my obligation to learn about the lives my
characters might have lived, where they grew up, what
sounds they grew up listening to, what challenges
they have faced, what books they might have read.
Recently, I worked with a Caucasian director on
my play, Call of the River, which is about the Trail of
Tears and the Indian Removal. He voiced concerns
about his ethnicity and worried that his cast of mostly
Native actors might question his role. I responded
by saying that he must do his homework and research
just as I did mine when I was writing the play. I used
multiple resources, a variety of perspectives, fact
checked when possible, and then employed artistic license to create characters who could tell
the story. He also encouraged his Native cast to
guide him in traditions and issues that he was
unfamiliar with and had not ever experienced. In
other words, he used his cast as a resource.
In another one of my Native plays, Te Ata, I
spent almost thirteen years doing research, drafting
drafts, presenting staged readings, before the first
production. I wanted to “get it right” because it was
a play about a real person. I remember at an early
staged reading at the American Indian House Theatre
in New York City, some of Native audience members were critical about my use of broken English. I
explained that the character of Te Ata and her white
husband often wrote letters in broken English and
that the exchanges in the play came from those letters. I felt it was more important to be historically accurate, since I quoted directly from the letters, than
to be politically correct and avoid using what was this
couple’s way of speaking intimately and privately with
each other.
Anyone writing outside of his/her ethnicity is wise
to immerse themselves in the world that is outside of
their experiences and to seek guidance from recognized individuals who are leaders in their particular
ethnicity. Finally, as my creative writing mentor, Mrs.
Nims, preached: “Good writing stems from good
observation.” Immerse, observe, listen, read, ask, and
then write.
JUDYLEE OLIVA holds an MFA in Directing from the University of
Oklahoma and a PhD in Theater and Drama from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Oliva has written 28 plays and authored two
books on theatre. She was named the Dynamic Chickasaw Woman of the
Year for her thirteen years of work on her play, Te Ata. In 2012, Te Ata
was invited to Washington D.C. where it opened at the Smithsonian’s
Rasmuson Theatre in the National Museum of the American Indian. Te
Ata was also awarded the Best American Indian Musical, with a prize of
$10,000.
May/June 2016 | 23
3/31/16 5:16 PM
Min Kahng
he first obligation is to recognize that writing outside
your ethnicity puts you in
the realm of what you do not
know. Realize that your work
will not be representative
of an ethnic group’s experience. Nor does it have to be,
because ethnic groups are made up of unique individuals. And yet there is a sort of collective consciousness that individuals within ethnic groups share. It
is your task to let your work find roots somewhere
within that cloud, so a level of respect and truth undergird your play. The way this happens is through the
next obligations: learning and listening.
There are several ways to go about
learning. If your play
is historical, immerse yourself in researching the ethnic
group’s experience
during that particular
era. For my work The
Four Immigrants—
based on an early
20th-century comic
book by Henry
Kiyama—I’ve visited
museum exhibits and historical sites that relate to the
book and found extensive literature in libraries about
the experience of the earliest Japanese immigrants.
I also connected with a group of Japanese-American
seniors who provided insight that books could not. If
your work is contemporary, I recommend finding other theatre makers who identify with the ethnic group,
and being open to candid discussions about their experience as it relates to your play. Again, every group
is made up of unique individuals; it will be beneficial
to hear as many perspectives as you can for context. If
there is no one nearby, do your due diligence and get
in touch with someone somewhere. In this age of nearinstant communication, there’s no excuse for shrugging and saying you’re too remote to connect.
All the research in the universe, however, will be
meaningless if you don’t listen to the feedback you’re
receiving from those who identify with the ethnicity you’re writing. I don’t mean that if they suggest a
change to your play, you should automatically make
it. Rather, give them the time to be heard. Remember,
you are writing what you do not know. If someone
finds something in your play off-putting or offensive,
consider it seriously and thoughtfully. During an early
reading of The Four Immigrants, a Japanese-American
friend in the audience felt that I had white-washed the
characters because they were very Americanized for
recent immigrants. Personally, I was trying to capture
the spirit of Kiyama’s comic book, which he styled
after popular American comics of his day. On the
surface, my friend’s gut reaction seemed to be about
taking offense. But further discussion pinpointed the
real problem: sloppy writing. My friend said she could
accept the Americanized mannerisms if those terms
were clearly stated at the beginning of the play. This
was a dramaturgical insight I never would have gained
had I stubbornly defended my artistic license without
hearing her out.
Finally, repeat the process. There will always be
something you do not know. Learn and listen some
more. The nuances might be unfamiliar, but the process isn’t all that different from writing any other play.
MIN KAHNG is a Bay Area playwright and composer. Kahng received
the 2014 Titan Award for Playwrights and was recognized
in American Theatre magazine as one of “9 Musical
Theatre Writers You Should Know.” He is a Resident Playwright with Playwrights Foundation and a proud member
of the Dramatists Guild. www.minkahng.com
24 | The Dramatist
3/31/16 5:16 PM
Darrah
Cloud
young African American director stood up among a
sea of white faces and asked Fugard what right he had
to write black characters—and how did he know he’d
gotten them right—when he was so obviously white.
“I am a playwright,” said Fugard. “It is my job to write
people who are not me. I write about people I know.
If I have not done that well, then I have failed.”
On Writing Others
As good as that sounds, I couldn’t help wondering
about the fact that men have been writing women for
n the anniversary of the thousands of years and rarely getting it right.
liberation of Auschwitz,
Wasn’t this authorial imperialism? Vanquishing
I was reading Siddharand plundering an entire gender for their own gain?
tha and put it down to
Men’s ability to speak for and through their characters
watch an episode of
comes with all the inherent ignorance and emotional/
comic Aziz Ansari’s
psychological issues the authors contain. Yet it is the
show Master of None on
lens through which many of us see ourselves, to the
Netflix in which a propoint where finding our own POVs—our own voices,
ducer tells him that he can’t cast two Indian actors in our own selves—has been a struggle to ignore all the
a three-character series because, in a nutshell, white
voices in our heads, on television, in movies, in books,
people wouldn’t watch the show.
written from a quite different and so often ignorant
I flashed back to L.A. circa 2002-3-4; I was pitchperspective which prevails. Particularly, white men’s
ing ideas for Christmas movies and my producer
perspectives have been accepted as the only truth by
told me, no, CBS would not buy my pitch for a black
predominant white cultures for centuries, lauded, proChristmas movie because white people wouldn’t
duced, and published, whereas practically every other
watch it. When I pointed out that we could make
kind of human being trying to write from his or her own
history, I was patiently told no again. Their affiliates
indigenous, verifiable experiences has not.
were the small towns and cities across the Midwest
Cue Ta-Nehisi Coates’ description of going back
and the South, and those people would go somewhere to Howard University for homecoming: “…I saw–the
else for their Sunday night viewing. As would sponentire diaspora around me-hustlers, lawyers, Kappas,
sors. There would be hate mail.
busters, doctors, barbers, Deltas, drunkards, geeks,
There was the added problem that I had no author- and nerds. The DJ hollered into the mic. The young
ity to write a movie like this because I was not black.
folk pushed toward him. A young man pulled out a
I flashed further back to a TCG Conference I atbottle of cognac and twisted the cap. A girl with him
tended in the ‘80s? ‘90s? to which Athol Fugard had
smiled, tilted her head back, imbibed, laughed. And I
been invited. I was in the audience when a respected
felt myself disappearing into all of their bodies.”
The truth isn’t contained in one person or place:
it’s the product of multiple perspectives. As a playwright, it is imperative that I disappear into other
peoples’ bodies in order to write them well. For me,
the struggle is the path to consciousness.
DARRAH CLOUD’s plays include Our Suburb, Joan The Girl Of
Arc, The Stick Wife, Heartland, and the stage adaptation of Willa
Cather’s O Pioneers! She has written numerous television movies,
teaches at Goddard College and Vassar, runs a Writers Group at Half
Moon Theatre, and is a theatre critic for the Poughkeepsie Journal.
May/June 2016 | 25
3/31/16 5:16 PM
Milta Ortiz
t’s every dramatist’s prerogative to choose
what to write about. With that said, if a
dramatist chooses to write outside of their
ethnicity, I believe there is some responsibility that comes along with that. We have
to be accountable for how we represent a
story or characters outside of our own ethnicity. And ask why this story, why these
characters?
I write to make sense of the world, to understand
people better, to engage in a national conversation.
Perhaps what I’m fascinated with unpacking has gone
unnoticed. This means I’m going to spend countless
hours researching, thinking, writing, and being completely immersed in the world of the play. I believe
these to be good intentions that speak to honoring
the work.
These are some of the reasons I wrote Más, a docudrama play about the people involved in the movement to save the Mexican American Studies (MAS)
program in the Tucson Unified School District. It’s a
super Chicana/o play, infused with Chicana/o symbolism and reclaimed epistemology that was not part
of my own identity. I’m a Salvadoran immigrant who
grew up in California and became politicized along
the way to identify as Chicana, mostly because that’s
the closest label to describe who I am. Even though
I’m a Latina, I had to expand upon my knowledge to
learn more about the indigenous epistemology that
the MAS program was rooted in. The more I learned,
the more I realized that this was the device of the play.
Because I didn’t grow up in Tucson, I had to earn the
respect and trust of the people I interviewed. I did
so genuinely because I was moved to write the play.
Growing up I didn’t know my Salvadoran history and
hardly saw myself reflected in literature, history, or
media. For me, it’s necessary to feel connected to the
play somehow and it’s not always through ethnicity.
After Más, I’m back to being fascinated with Sal-
vadoran
stories
because
of the
need to
see myself
reflected
and not
many people
are writing these
stories. If someone
writes a Salvadoran play
that rings true, I’m happy they did so. Paul Flores’
Placas is an example.
It’s important to take in the essence of that ethnicity, listen to the cadence, the vernacular, and to take
the time to understand the culture. I came of age in
Oakland in a multi-cultural experience and some day
I’ll write a play that reflects that.
I think of Stephen Adly Guirgis who writes
Puerto Ricans well, and Danny Hoch in Taking Over,
who showed us all types of New Yorkers, and Anna
Deavere Smith who morphs into the people she interviews. These are a few examples of dramatists, in
my opinion, honoring their subjects. Anna Deavere
Smith talks about “taking that broad leap into the
other” and that’s what it’s all about. If dramatists
write with conscientious intentions, it’s fine to write
what calls out.
MILTA ORTIZ is a transplant to Tucson by way of the Bay Area and Chicago. Through an NNPN residency at Borderlands Theater she wrote and
developed Más, premiered at Borderlands in 2015, and co-produced at
Laney College and Ubuntu Theater Project in the Bay Area 2016.
26 | The Dramatist
3/31/16 5:16 PM
Bianca Sams
started in this business as an actor. I made
the transition to actor/writer because there
is a dearth of complex roles for women,
especially women of color and because I got
tired of complaining about it. I didn’t want
to read another flat, stereotypical, “magical” ethnic, sex object, or long suffering
wife/daughter/girlfriend role. So I decided
I would be the change I wanted to see in the world.
When I began writing plays, I made it my mission
not to repeat these “mistakes”. I promised myself
that I would create roles for people outside of my
own culture, gender, and ethnicity. I thought it would
be easy, but what I found—at first, at least—was that
doing so was a terrifying task. The second-guessing,
the constant fear that a character might be offensive
or misrepresent another culture, and the pressure to
“get it right” was always looming. At times the fear of
repeating the same mistakes that I had complained
about was utterly crippling.
I finally decided to say SCREW FEAR and just
write great roles—ones that the actor in me would kill
to play if I was that ethnicity, gender, or culture. I also
created a checklist for myself for how I wanted to approach the task.
1. Go past stereotypes and embrace the fact that
first and foremost I am creating PEOPLE…complicated dynamic people to live and breathe on the
pages of my plays.
2. Due diligence: Research other cultures, interview people, read books, or use the internet, because the resources are out there.
3. Put myself in their shoes and treat the lives of
these characters with just as much regard as if I
were writing my own life story.
4. Create roles with actors in mind: Take off the
writer’s hat and really look at the character from
the actor’s point of view. Do they have motives, beliefs, individual needs, and real desires that aren’t
there just to serve a “magical ethnic,” “gender,” or
“cultural” quota box?
5. Make them contradictory and complex. Give
them depth and twists that the audience won’t expect and actors love to sink their teeth into.
6. Create and then listen: I don’t profess to be an
expert. I look at lots of sources, listen to people
smarter than myself, and get feedback. I write
and write until I think the character is layered
enough…then listen some more…and go back to
writing.
7. Compassion and empathy are key: I think the
biggest part of my job is seeing the world through
some one else’s eyes and being compassionate
enough to write that story. Then it’s to impart
humanity on each character; no matter how awful
their actions might be in the play, because they are
still people.
8. Acknowledge the danger: If only to myself…recognize that my words have weight, and that there
might be landmines to step on along the way. And
instead of being afraid, I will disarm the mines and
use them as fuel to be a better writer.
BIANCA SAMS is a playwright/TV writer/actor hailing from the San
Francisco Bay Area. Her plays are lyrical investigations of found stories out
of today’s headlines or the pages of history that ask audiences to face their
own complex love affair with misery. She is represented by Echo Lake
Management.
May/June 2016 | 27
3/31/16 5:16 PM
Clare Melley
Smith
rite what you know.
That old chestnut
is the operative
caveat for any
writer—anytime,
anywhere. But
wait…who followed that one?
Molière did. And Chekov—ah yes, Chekov. Pinter,
Albee, Saroyan, O’Casey, Durang, Fornes, McNally,
Howe, Greenberg—all plumbed their known milieux,
each pushing outward to new dramatic possibilities.
Shakespeare made imaginative excursions to
Rome, to the Nile, to Athens, to Venice, but no matter the setting, he was always writing what he knew.
Miller ventured to 1690’s Salem and to the docks of
Brooklyn, with which
he may have had a
working knowledge
from time spent
hanging around the
longshoremen’s
union in Cobble Hill.
Death of a Salesman
arguably transcends
all of Miller’s other
work, but Salem and
Cobble Hill are credibly handled, because
Miller’s plays in
the larger sense are
about human events
and not about their settings.
Which brings us to the topic at hand: the obligations of a dramatist writing outside her/his own ethnicity. Which brings me to the flip-side of the initially
cited directive: And if you write about what you don’t
know, you are a fool unless you spend years—or as
much time as needed—embedded in the world of
your drama, learning the language, people, customs,
and culture as well as you possibly can.” Otherwise
your play will be a shallow exercise in your own false
idea of somebody else’s life. If the ethnic setting
serves as fodder for dramatic conflict, and that is the
central focus, you’ve made a good start. If ethnic
pilfering is the focus, done in a glib or superficial way
(throw in a Muslim call to prayer, add a few burkas…),
swiped from tabloid headlines, then the playwright
has not done the necessary “due diligence,” as the
lawyers like to say.
I think the playwright’s obligations, and hence a
slew of pitfalls, are compounded if the play is political in focus. The Crucible, although born of Miller’s
HUAC experiences, does transfer seamlessly when
teleported to another time because of Miller’s extraordinary skill. But can a play be set credibly in Kabul if the writer hasn’t spent gobs of time educating
her/himself in the culture she/he is tackling? Not for
my money, and not unless the writer brings Miller’s
playwriting chops to the process, making us writhe at
the fury of McCarthy’s witch hunt beamed into 17th
century Massachusetts.
My husband, the poet/publisher/editor Harry
Smith, acquired property on a salmon river in
Downeast Maine in the 1960s. To my surprise he once
told me he didn’t feel entirely comfortable writing
about our local farmer and lobstermen friends, some
known for over 40 years, because he wasn’t sure of
getting them down exactly right. Now there’s a guy
who took his craft very seriously. And he always got it
right.
CLARE MELLEY SMITH’s plays have been produced in Chicago,
Portland, Bangor, Milwaukee, and NYC. The Writing Room won the
Vermont Playwrights Award and was read at EST. A new play, Time
Downeast, received a grant from the Cape Elizabeth, ME Arts Commission. Member: Charles Maryan Playwrights Workshop (NYC), AEA,
SAG-AFTRA, and DG.
28 | The Dramatist
3/31/16 5:16 PM
Idris
Goodwin
think it’s always best not create “a Franklin.”
You know the character Franklin from The
Peanuts cartoons? He has no personality.
He’s basically just the black one. Everyone
else has very specific traits—from Charlie
Brown to Lucy to Linus—but Franklin, he’s
just got different skin than the rest.
Characters require behavioral specifics that
transcend color, faith, language, etc. Yes, one’s culture can define, them but only to a degree. We in this
business of drama are after the desires and regrets.
The human stuff. When it becomes some sort of charitable act or some shallow exercise in being diverse,
the default is to make the character a Franklin. Just
flat and/or saintly which is BORING. That’s a writer’s
primary obligation. Don’t make your characters of
ethnicities-not-your-own BORING
Audiences respond to active, vibrant, clear, and
complex characters who’re in pursuit of/ resistance
to change. The particularities of the character’s background may contribute to the nature of that pursuit/
resistance but it can’t be all he/she/they are. All that
said, I DO think it is the obligation of all writers to
step outside their sole experience or that which they
feel they have agency. The collaborative nature of theater lends itself to this endeavor.
My plays undergo a good amount of development
before they are produced. While they do tend to appear frequently, I don’t solely write heterosexual
cisgender African American males from the Midwest.
So as I workshop these roles with actors, directors,
designers, dramaturgs, and other egg-heads, I ask lots
of questions along the way. I am fairly ruthless in my
own pursuit of that which feels “true.” I research and
I revise, all towards arriving at the “true.” But I never
lose sight of the fact that I will never get it exactly
“correct”—which is to say writing characters that
elicit not even the smallest crumb of disbelief or offense—and who wants that?
I would rather attempt to include than to exclude,
even at the risk of getting it all wrong. Fear of “getting
it all wrong” just leads to complete exclusion causing
our stages to remain mono cultured. This is far worse,
in my opinion. My hope is that my best intentions
outweigh the missteps.
IDRIS GOODWIN is a playwright, rapper, and essayist. His play
include: How We Got On, Blackademics, And In This Corner:
Cassius Clay, This Is Modern Art, Bars And Measures, The Raid
and The Realness. Goodwin is one of the seven playwrights featured in
Hands Up an anthology commissioned by The New Black Fest.
May/June 2016 | 29
3/31/16 5:16 PM
A CONVERSATION WITH
KIA CORTHRON,
C.A. JOHNSON,
DEBORAH ZOE LAUFER,
MIKE LEW,
AND LLOYD SUH
30 | The Dramatist
pp30-37 Feature B.indd 30
4/1/16 12:15 PM
D Z L: I’m on the Guild’s Publications Committee and we’ve been talking a lot about
the amazing article you wrote [in 2010], Kia, and about
how writing outside your own ethnicity has become a
bigger and bigger issue. I’d love to hear how you think
things have changed in those five years.
K C: You know what? Just like when I wrote
the article, I would love everybody to weigh in on that,
because I know that I can make an assessment about
that, but I want to hear what others think. Maybe things
are changing because people are talking about it more.
Actually, it’s more in the conversation. I think it’s been
a gradual thing…not that I’m saying my article made
that happen, but that it feels like it’s becoming more a
part of the conversation as time goes on.
D Z L: Okay, let’s open it up. Will you
each talk a little about your personal experiences with
writing outside your own ethnicity and what concerns
or anxieties you had about it?
PHOTO AND HAND LETTERING BY JOEY STOCKS, MODELS MARC SILVESTRI AND JAY ACEY
M L: I’m not that concerned about writing
outside my ethnicity. I think more about what expectations are placed upon me when I write within my ethnicity. And I think about what stories, especially about
race, get told and championed in theatre and what
don’t. I inherited running Ma-Yi Writers Lab from
Lloyd [Suh]. The Lab is the largest collective of Asian
American playwrights ever assembled in the history
of recorded time. [Laughs] We’ve been tracking each
other’s output over the last ten years, and it’s just really
interesting to me to see where each writer’s plays go
and which ones get celebrated most. I think about why
is it that Mia Chung and Jihae Park’s plays about Korea
were sort of their breakout plays. We’re writing a gamut of plays in the Lab, and now that these writers have
become more publicly known they have the ability to
write whatever stories they want. But why was there an
initial expectation placed upon them that they should
be writing within their own ethnicity?
D Z L: Well, I also would love to
know why collect as a group of Asian playwrights?
What is the strength in doing that? Why did you make
that choice?
L S: I didn’t make the choice myself. The Lab
was created by Sung Rno as an opportunity for Asian
American writers to have a space to gather, share work,
and talk about whatever, and it was originally designed
as a very informal group that would eventually find
form based on the organic needs of the company
members. But he founded it in particular because he
had an opportunity through—I don’t remember exactly—like a TCG grant to so some kind of…
M L: Maybe NEA.
L S: Yeah, it was an NEA TCG combo. I remember being at the very first meeting. There were
about seven different Asian American writers, and
none of us knew what it was gonna be. It was an experiment. And it became a really important and useful
place for member writers to have a community context
for their own particular individual exploration. I took
over the directorship of it along with Qui Nguyen
from 2005 to 2010, and it’s grown from something like
that initial seven to almost 30. Is that right?
M L: Yeah.
L S: And it really runs the gamut. There are
writers who write very specifically about exploring an
Asian American experience, but then there are writers
who do very little of that. For me, I’ve gone back and
forth. And the reason it’s been useful to me is that it
provides this feeling of being part of something that is
consciousness-raising, that’s community-based, that’s
about fostering a connection with Asian America as
a political identity. And just to springboard off what
Mike was saying…I’ve always been conscious of writing from an Asian American lens. And even when I’ve
written characters outside of my ethnicity, I’ve always
been conscious of that lens in the same way that I’m
conscious of the fact that I have a male lens, and that
I’m from Indiana, etc. Right? All these different things
speak to where my tendencies lie, what my personal
starting point is into whatever explorations I’m engaged in.
In terms of writing about other ethnicities, the
simplest way I can put it is that writing outside of my
own particular experience is just simply part of the
craft of playwriting. That when you’re writing any kind
of character, you have a responsibility to that character
May/June 2016 | 31
4/1/16 12:15 PM
The Ma-Yi Theater Company
production of Lloyd Suh’s
Jesus In India
WEB BEGOLE
to represent them as an individual person in a humane
and honest way, in particular because you’re asking an
actor to play that part.
So being conscious of that responsibility is important. If I’m writing a character who comes from
a particular ethnicity, then I have a responsibility to
honestly investigate and honor what that means. Or if
I’m writing a female character, knowing that I have a
responsibility to engage in the kind of empathy necessary to make that character not just an interesting and
viable person but also somebody that an actor could
play without feeling like they’re being misrepresented
somehow.
But as far as writing within my ethnicity, I would say
that although I’ve always been conscious of my Asian
American lens, I never thought of myself as writing
directly about an Asian American experience or Asian
American as a political identity.
But that’s changing for me. Lately, I’ve become very
invested in writing about it in a direct way. Because
I’m feeling a growing responsibility to represent Asian
America as a writer; in fact I feel a growing responsibility to do it just as a citizen. Because I think that Asian
America is a future tense identity. We’re not a selfactualized political identity. Asian American history
is not thought of or remembered or even understood
as a part of American history. And so I think a big part
of my exploration right now is about trying to address
that.
C.A. J: So I had a few thoughts in response
to what both of you said. As a black woman writer
entering into a field that’s diverse and has all of its
complexities, there is that pressure of, do I have to
care about representation? What is representation? Is
that all of black people? Is that just the black people
that I have known and will know? Is that just my family,
my experiences, or is it much larger than me? That’s a
huge question. And I find that in navigating all of that,
what actually ends up happening in the writing process
is that because I’m thinking about all those things
when I write a black character, I end up also doing it
when I write other characters. I think that that sort of
training ends up making me sort of take two steps back
and look at every character as a sum of both their personal underpinnings as well as whatever sense of their
political self that they might have. And I think it’s hard
to separate whatever my political self is from their
political self, but I think I am always at least trying to
negotiate that whether in the moment or afterwards.
Sometimes a lot of it happens in editing.
I thought about this in preparation for coming [today]. I said, “What is my experience with this conversation?” And I have often found that—and you talked
about this in your original essay, Kia—I have ended up
in situations where writers who are writing outside
of their ethnicity come to me to say “I’m trying this
thing. Check it out. What do you think?” And I’m
always so open to that because I do think that people
should try to write everything. I think everybody
should try it. I mean, you may fail, but why not?
D Z L: But do you feel like it’s a burden to have to speak for all other black people?
C.A. J: Oh yeah. The most recent time that it
happened was a very good writer friend—she is a Jewish woman who is writing a play that is mostly about a
Jewish family, and one of the daughters ends up dating
someone who’s a biracial (black and white) Jew. This
character is central and so in writing it my friend just
really didn’t want to get it wrong.
And I’m sitting in the room and I don’t know what
I thought was gonna happen, but afterwards the notes
I had to give were actually, “Relax. Just relax.” She tried
32 | The Dramatist
4/1/16 12:15 PM
so hard to write a political sense of self that she wasn’t
a real person yet. I said, you have these characters who
are writing from this really, really specific emotional
need. The way they’re written, I understand them and
they come forward. And when she enters the space
(the biracial woman), you’re so afraid of what might
come out of her mouth that nothing comes out of her
mouth that isn’t a speech.
And I sort of said, take two steps back. I think you
get that she’s a biracial woman. I think it’s okay now.
[Laughs] Now you can start doing the work of figuring
out what kind of human being she is, and I think that
that’s the hard piece. How do you do both? I think
that’s different for every writer, but I think that that’s
what it comes down to. We’re all capable of writing
anyone. It’s just, can you see the whole person and can
you do that work because I think it is—it can be difficult work. Sometimes it’s not but sometimes it really
is.
D Z L: And what kind of work do you
feel like you have to do?
C.A. J: That’s a good question.
D Z L: I mean, it’s a very general
question because it’s different in every play and every
character, but can you take flights of fancy or do you
feel like you need to go to the town where the thing
happens and really meet people who live there when
you’re writing about a specific population?
C.A. J: I think research is important. I’m currently in graduate school, so we’re always talking about
the things we want to write. I have a good friend who
is Chinese Canadian and I make a joke all the time.
I’m like, there’s this play I’ve wanted to write for a
long time, but it has a Vietnamese man in it and I just
don’t want to screw it up. I’ve got to spend some time
with some people or go talk to someone. I just don’t
want to screw it up, and for me that’s a question. I
could take a stab at it, but I wouldn’t feel like I did that
character justice if I didn’t check in with somebody,
whether that were a fellow writer, whether that was
just a human being who’s lived that life in a way that I
never could.
The SUNY Purchase production
of Kia Corthron’s Breath, Boom
ARDEN REEVES
D Z L: Right.
C.A. J: It just matters to me. I think that
checking in, in whatever way you decide, just speaks to
knowledge, not necessarily some political leaning or
political correctness. I think that’s just knowing your
characters.
D Z L: I think so much of it has to
do with how much space different populations get on
American stages. My play, Informed Consent, is about
a specific Native American tribe. Though I did a lot
of research, and spent a night at the tribe’s lodge, no
one from the tribe wanted to discuss the court case
the play is based on. I felt, deep into the process, that I
would never have undertaken it if I’d really understood
what I was doing. Partly because there is so little room
right now allowed for Native American voices that I
don’t feel that mine should be the voice that’s heard.
And this tiny tribe doesn’t have much representation.
I really felt a tremendous responsibility to represent
them well. As you were saying, overburdened by the
weight of getting it right because I know they won’t
have a lot more room on stage. I think that’s a big part
of the issue about writing outside your ethnicity, especially if it’s an ethnicity that’s not well-represented,
is you’d better get it right because there’s not enough
being done.
M L: But I think we ought to look at that too,
though. I agree with what everybody is saying in terms
of research, but I think that we also ought to look at
May/June 2016 | 33
4/1/16 12:15 PM
WEB BEGOLE
The Ma-Yi Theatre Company/EST production of Mike Lew’s Bike
America
the apparatus of which plays are being chosen. There
should be room for your play, and for those voices.
Thinking about how to widen the perspectives that are
being presented is as important as this sort of personal
excavation of representation among individual playwrights.
D Z L: Right, right. People are going to look through the canon for representations of
Native Americans. They’re not gonna have as much to
choose from as they should so, yeah, I’m not disagreeing with you at all.
Have you written plays where the main characters
are not from…
M L: Yeah, I mean, actually it’s weird because
I’ve been thinking about this a little bit in relation to
my play Teenage Dick, which is an adaptation of Richard
III that takes place in high school. I have two characters in it that are disabled, and I’m able-bodied. So
it’s strange that after thinking so much about ethnic
representation, I’m now thinking about disabled representation and how to playtest the play with a wide
array of people before we get into too downstream of
a place. Because I feel like with plays that involve dif-
ficult or problematic portrayals of race, oftentimes a
production will get in trouble by kind of leaning too
hard on the actors. Like, “Well, these actors agreed to
do this part and, therefore, this portrayal is okay.” But
then there’s this blowback. So I think that if you have
a question about how you’re representing people, you
have to air the play as widely as possible, and you have
to be able to face up to any resulting criticism before
you get into a position where you’re having to send out
a PR person to defend it.
L S: Yeah, and Teenage Dick was commissioned
by and in conversation with The Apothetae, right?
Which is a company dedicated to the exploration of
the “disabled experience.” And I think that’s important—and is a great example of when the development process is really useful. When there are cultural
conversations that are key to the exploration, not
just the dramaturgy but in understanding the impact
and vocabulary of how a work relates to a community.
Of course, nobody can speak on behalf of an entire
community, so part of it is understanding your own
individual level of engagement. How to represent an
individual perspective and experience, within a larger
cultural context.
34 | The Dramatist
4/1/16 12:15 PM
The Primary Stages/EST production of Deborah Zoe
Laufer’s Informed Consent
JAMES LEYNSE
M L: Yeah, and actually the conversations
around disability that have come through that process have made for some interesting parallels with
conversations that’ve come up for me about race. I’ve
had readings of the play with able-bodied actors and
have felt kind of icky about that, given that there’s not
enough opportunities for disabled actors. Here’s an
opportunity to hire two disabled actors if the producers can find that actor pool. But that conversation totally parallels with ones I’ve had previously about how
we’re not giving Asian actors enough opportunities or
we’re whitewashing parts in this industry generally. All
of which is to say that I think that awareness of these
sort of identifiers is really heightened right now. And
so in revisiting this conversation, it’s so interesting,
because I do think that the politics have moved on past
six years ago, but it’s such a slow and push-pull kind of
evolution.
D Z L: Right—casting is such a big
issue. There aren’t that many Native American actors
in New York—the actors I’ve worked with told me it’s
because they’re rarely cast as non-Native, and most of
the work is in LA. So if this play, for example, is done
around the country, and I want a Native actress to play
that role, how much do I have to police the play for the
rest of my life? What do I put in the script and what do
I insist on? And is it more important that the play be
seen if it’s in a small community where that’s not possible? Is it more important that the play be seen than
that a Native actress be hired? So yeah…you must have
opinions on that.
[Laughter]
L S: Well, when you’re dealing with populations that have been underrepresented or misrepresented, every representation takes on an incredible
burden of responsibility. And so I think it’s really,
really important for communities that don’t see themselves represented often enough to be treated with
dignity and respect. I think it’s important to think really responsibly about it.
I think “policing” is a strong word. It’s a loaded
word. I don’t think it’s about policing. I think it’s about
being really intentional about what kind of representations are acceptable. If something is going to be misrepresentative, then that’s a problem.
M L: I think that’s a conscientiousness that also
May/June 2016 | 35
4/1/16 12:15 PM
extends beyond the individual writer. If you’re going
to have a production of Informed Consent where you’re
not directly involved, you would expect a producer
and a director to have the same sense of purpose that
you had in writing the play. So I agree “policing” is
kind of a loaded word. How do we build a theatre culture where we don’t have to be sitting on top of our
play in order for the very DNA of that play to be represented, even if we’re not in the room?
the first woman walked in, she starts talking. I was sort
of like, “oh god,” and I don’t know why that was my reaction, but I also said, “no, no, no, no, maybe she can
do it.” Only that’s one small example within a sort of
a diasporic grouping. But when it gets so complicated
and you’re sort of crossing racial and/or ethnic lines, I
don’t know. It gets weird, especially thinking of people
who are biracial or at this point like a million races.
[Laughs]
D Z L: It is a strong word and, yet,
if you don’t actually insist and look into things—and
casting people can’t and of course, shouldn’t say
“Where are you from and what’s your background and
what’s your DNA?” What is valid? Is a grandparent
valid as far as saying “I’m a Native American actor”?
Where do we draw the line? It starts becoming very
murky what actually is important in the conversation.
D Z L: Exactly.
C.A. J: And where you draw those lines as
well.
D Z L: Where do you draw those
lines? A central part of what my play is that the main
character believes that everyone is African. We all
came from Africa, and it’s just a matter of timeline
when you wound up wherever you wound up. So I insisted in New York that there be five different parts of
the world on stage, but what is that? Even that was very
murky. How do you, without putting people in boxes,
how do you make those kinds of choices? How do you
say, “I want it to be multiethnic casting,” without actually asking people to define themselves in that way?
C.A. J: Well there’s also this—something I’ve
been thinking about lately, right. So, say I write a play
where most of the cast are black people, and I go out
and I want to cast that show, and I have a roomful of
this many actors. There is a gamut of people with a
certain hue of skin who could walk through that door.
I just had a reading of a section of a play where it was a
Southern black family in New Orleans and two of my
actors were British, and they were doing some solid
accents. They were doing some really good character
work, but they’re British.
C.A. J: People walk in and with some of them
you just can’t tell, and, you can’t actually in any real
way police that. I actually don’t think that that is fair
to an actor who has shown up and who wants to do
the work. I think where it gets murky is when that isn’t
a question that you can ask, but that’s what you have
filling a room. Is there a question of who isn’t here
and are producers and other people putting together
a show, are they actually sourcing? I know a few of the
arguments that I’ve heard in the past. Katori isn’t here
to speak for herself and I do not want to speak for her
in any way but the conversation around that production of The Mountaintop was, “this is what we had.” And
my thought, even when I read everything written about
it, was, but is that true? How hard did you work? And
I think that doing the work to get a writer, a director,
whoever is trying to fill that role, doing that work to
get the person that they might want – I don’t think it’s
actually always about asking someone, “who are you,
and where are you from, and where’s your mother from
and your grandfather.” It’s more how many people can
I get into a room that could represent a gamut, and is
that work being done, because I think it actually goes
beyond that initial casting moment.
[MEMBERS: Read the full text of this roundtable on our website:
www.dramatistsguild.com/dramatistmagazine/currentissue.
aspx]
Now, granted, there is the diaspora. There are
shared commonalities of experience, right, but when
36 | The Dramatist
4/1/16 12:15 PM
KIA CORTHRON’s plays have premiered
in New York (Playwrights Horizons, New
York Theatre Workshop, Atlantic Theater
Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, BAM) as well as
regionally and in London. In January, her
first novel, The Castle Cross the Magnet
Carter, was released by Seven Stories Press.
Dramatists Guild Council member.
C. A. JOHNSON is a playwright currently
pursuing her MFA at New York University’s
Tisch School of the Arts. She was a finalist
for 2015-2016 Goldberg Play Prize and has
had readings at the Five College Consortium, UC San Diego, and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts.
MIKE LEW’s plays include Tiger Style!,
Teenage Dick - vaguely from Richard
III, and Bike America among others.
Along with his wife Rehana Lew Mirza and
composer Sam Willmott, he’s writing the
book to the upcoming musical Bhangin’ It.
Dramatists Guild Council member. Training: Juilliard, Yale. Website: mikelew.com.
LLOYD SUH is a Dramatists Guild Council
member and author of Charles Francis
Chan Jr.’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery, American Hwangap, The Wong
Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go!, Jesus in India, and others.
He serves as Director of Artistic Programs at
The Lark.
May/June 2016 | 37
4/1/16 12:15 PM
ON RACE:
A CONVERSATION WITH BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS
by Christine Toy Johnson and Joey Stocks
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J S: Christine and I just watched the terrific
video you did for The Paris Review’s “My First Time” series. Without completely rehashing everything that’s
in that video, could you sort of give us the thumbnail
sketch of how you came to write your play Neighbors
and how that’s led to your other work?
B J-J: Sure. In college, for
some reason, I wrote a play for my “thesis”—my first
full-length play, which I will not
go into detail about—but it was
The Mixed Blood Theatre
a very traumatic experience even
production of Neighbors
though, ultimately, it did do the
job of what a thesis is supposed
to do, which is get me graduated.
And, a year or so later, my advisor/
playwriting guru/professor/mentor at the time [playwright R. N.
Sandberg] and I were each asked
by the university to write an essay
about the experience for some
publication they were putting together on various theses and Sandberg, in his essay, was like, “I think
Branden really struggled in the
writing of this play in part because
it was one of the first things he’d
written in which he’d had to deal
explicitly with race.” And I remember, once I finally read it, feeling
a little betrayed by that comment,
because this wasn’t something
he’d ever shared with me directly
during any of our countless private
conferences. Or at least I don’t remember it. And it wasn’t that I felt
I had been, up until this play, consciously avoiding “race” as a “subject” or “theme,” but it certainly
wasn’t something I felt I needed
to “deal with”—or that could even
be “dealt with” in the theatre in
any real way. Anyway, at the time,
it felt like he was just selling me
out. It also echoed another pretty
formative creative experience I’d had in school, when
another writing teacher—a famous novelist—this
had been back when I wrote fiction—had implied in
workshop that it was my responsibility, as a writer of
color, to identify the ethnicities of my characters for
the “average” reader, whereas my white classmates
didn’t have to because…honestly, I still don’t know
why. But, anyway, I sort of lived for a bit with all this
trauma of being considered lacking as a writer because I hadn’t yet mastered the art of “dealing with
race”—or at least this expectation of knowing how
to write “about” race. I was also in graduate school at
the time for something called Performance Studies,
so I was really immersing myself in a lot of critical
race theory and performance theory and theatre/
performance/art history and, one day, I decided I was
going to write this play which would be the last play
I would ever have to write about the subject. I would
cram every single thing I knew or could learn about
Blackness in the theater into one play and then be
done and never have to deal with this again. That play
became Neighbors, which was sort of, at least formally,
this experiment in mashing up blackface minstrelsy
with an idea of “post-racial” psychological drama to
the end of interrogating what “blackness” even was or
meant in the theatre.
C T J: I think one of the rude
awakenings that has come up for me is realizing other
people’s expectations of what we “should” be writing, especially in terms of race and our own cultural
backgrounds. And I’m wondering if you feel that,
especially with this play that you’re talking about, you
were able to really confront a lot of these stereotypical images head-on instead of run away from them—
which I admit I tend to do, like my hair’s on fire. And
I wonder if you have been able to push back at that
sort of wall of other people’s expectations; what they
think that you should be writing.
B J-J: Right. I mean, that play
definitely came from that impulse. And I think it’s
an impulse that you feel as a young writer because,
in that moment, all you are interacting with is this
monolithic idea of What Theatre Is and sometimes
ANN MARSDEN
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you can’t find yourself in it and all you can really do
is shout everyone down with what you think theatre
should be. I certainly started off being incredibly
critical of everything. I think half the early fellowships
I got were because I went into these various theatres
for interviews and would, like, go at them for what
they were programming and how misguided and selfsatisfied they were/weren’t in their thinking about
diversity. People were kind of into it for some reason.
I could also talk anyone to death about the mythmaking around August Wilson and this incredibly flawed
marketing idea about his play cycle being some sort
of panoramic charting of the “black experience in
twentieth century” when, number one, all black people did not live in Pittsburgh, and, two, not a single
character in his plays was born after 1975. So yeah,
there was, like, this definite impulse in that work to
be, like, “Where are these expectations of me as a
black writer coming from and why should I even care
about them?” But I think in the same way that every
moment of dramatic history is about a new wave confronting the older waves, and the older waves making
a certain amount of room for the newer waves, but it’s
also about the new wave, on its own march towards
the shore, growing a little more sympathetic, realizing that nothing is new forever and something about
being in the world is that you have to learn how to
share it. I was thinking about this a lot during those
protests at Yale, where they were, like, protesting the
Halloween thing? Remember that?
C T J: Yes.
B J-J: It was, like, right. Like, of
course, you’re all, like, we feel like we deserve a safe
space—and it makes sense that we believe someone
should be guaranteeing us that safe space but the
world is not a safe space for anyone and things like
race and the ways that we’re socialized into the rules
of engaging with each other are constantly in negotiation. And you have to be a part of that negotiation,
even if it makes you uncomfortable. You have to create your own safe space.
C T J: Right.
B J-J: So, through writing Neighbors, somehow I was able to reframe those expectations I was feeling put under and I was oddly able to
sort of, like, keep writing, as a result. I mean, Joey, you
asked me earlier how that play led to the other plays?
Well, that play and the kind of controversy that surrounded it was pretty intense. We were kind of antagonized by the press (at some point, The New York Times
had a reporter in the lobby interviewing audience
members who were walking out) and there was this
random constituency of angry people who would literally follow us from talkback to talkback around the
city and wait for the actors outside of the stage door
on nights they hadn’t even seen the show and try to
engage them. It was traumatic, but it all left me with
a bunch of a new questions to answer, namely: why
were these people freaking out about a play? And so,
in some ways, the initial project of, like, “never having
to write about race again” totally failed. In some ways,
I had to, like, keep going. And that’s sort of been my
career narrative so far, you know—it’s mining the
same patch of forest again and again. Or something.
C T J: What do you find is the
general makeup of your audiences? I think it’s interesting, when you’re writing about race, to look
around the audience and see what the makeup of it is,
and how they are responding.
B J-J: Oh, well you know, it totally—actually totally varies because the interesting
thing about Neighbors was that the audience experience totally differed based randomly on how diverse
the crowd was, and not only how diverse they were,
but how much intermixing there was within the audience. Something I was very interested in with that
play was trying to create the experience of, like, going
back and forth between feeling a part of a group and
not part of a group, which to me felt quintessentially
American somehow. And I realized that the key to this
was, somehow, going to be laughter and how we all
love to laugh but no one loves the sound of laughter
they’re not a part of—especially if there’s a chance
the laughter might be at your expense. So what would
happen in the play is, like, if for whatever reason
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The Soho Rep production of An Octoroon
there were more people on one side of the room who
maybe looked white or black and they were laughing
more than one side of the room—to begin to feel,
like, a tension emerge between those two sides of the
room. But, if it felt that there was laughter scattered
throughout the house, everyone felt they had permission to laugh, you know, and it was always a much
warmer house. And that stuff, that kind of anxiety to
laugh or not laugh, you know, is somehow part of the
issue at hand. It’s like we don’t even know where we
stand on certain issues, but we definitely want to feel
like we belong to something. And that, paradoxically
enough, is the kind of tribalism that leads to certain
kinds of separatism.
J S: Along those same lines about audience and audience reaction, your play Appropriate, if
my memory serves me correctly, was part of a rolling
premiere.
B J-J: Not officially, but it did
have many premieres before it came to New York.
J S: Okay. And they all happened within a
relatively short space of time, is that right?
PAVEL ANTONOV
B J-J: Yeah, it was, like, four in a
calendar year.
J S: Would you talk a little bit about how
the audience reactions changed from production to
production?
B J-J: Yeah, I mean, that play’s
difficult because it’s about, like, Southern history
and identity in a very explicit way—even though only
one of the three main characters actually lives in the
South now. It’s about a family that’s been displaced—
or has displaced itself—from its own Southern roots.
But, in some ways, every audience has, like, coded
their own response to what a Southern person is
and who gets to not be Southern anymore and how,
in some ways, racism in this country is perceived
of as, like, a “Southern” liability or legacy or a, you
know, “problem” and so when the show premiered
at Humana in Kentucky—that was by far our most
Southern audience—it was very warmly received.
It felt like the audience was really identifying in a
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strange way and there’s a moment in the second act,
which I don’t want to spoil, but it generally gets a
very vocal response from the audience and I realized
that this moment was really the audience litmus test.
Audiences in Chicago, New York, DC, Louisville,
and most recently Los Angeles all had completely different reactions to that moment. Some were a little
more uproarious, some a little more horrified, and
the amount of laughter versus horror totally varied in
direct proportion to that city’s relationship to an idea
of “the South.” So it’s so funny to me that even these
audiences—these theater audiences we think of as a
“general theater audience”—had very different values
and very different ways of, like, decoding a story or,
you know, the values in the story, especially as they
pertained to some discussion of, like, you know, racial
trauma or, like, history, you know what I mean.
J S: Yes. In this issue of the magazine, casting is discussed from a legal standpoint—the author
owns her or his work and has the right to make decisions about casting. I think there is an artistic side to
this subject as well. I believe artistic decisions—like
changing the setting of the play or the gender or
ethnicity of its characters—legally require authorial
permission, but should also support or enhance the
play’s theme.
B J-J: I mean, I think I agree
with what you’re saying, but casting beyond your
premiere—especially with regional productions—is
always a bit tricky for an author. I’ve been called a
process-oriented playwright, which I guess means I
rely on a lot of workshops as I am drafting and I like
to identify at least part of my cast as early as I can
because I like to write toward actor’s voices. This
means that, when I’m building characters, they tend
to be tightly tailored to the human instrument I have
the pleasure of using to tell the story. So a specific
actor can get very closely aligned with a character
in my mind. But, when you go somewhere and see a
completely different-looking person playing a part, it
is sort of, like, a funny—you know, you’re kind of, like,
oh, you know, like clearly someone saw room in the
play for this sort of portrayal and you kind of have to
allow that choice to exist because, again, when someone’s doing my play in, like, St. Louis—I don’t know
St. Louis audiences! I have to trust that you see the
story in here that is important to your audiences and
you know how to translate it with the resources you
have. You know, who am I to say, like, well why did you
cast this woman as a redhead? But, on the other hand,
I am of the school that believes that, like, literally every single play is “about race.” Like, race is not a thing
we “opt” into as subject matter. It is a social construction informing every choice that we make, you know.
And so when we talk about casting and it’s, like…OK,
like, I have a lot of students who will in their casting breakdown at the top of the script, it would be:
Sarah, a young professional woman, 20s, then Bobby,
macho tough guy with a sensitive side, late 30s, and
then, Mark, comma, African-American, and I’m, like,
so why does Mark get a racial marker here? What
does the choice of casting this actor as black actually
mean, because obviously that detail is important to
you? And does this mean that everyone else is white?
Is white somehow the “neutral” person in any playworld? And black is not “neutral?” Like, you know,
that sort of way of thinking is such a trap. I think in
racializing our characters, we’re positioning them in
a relationship to history, which is not neutral. Bodies
bring their history onstage with them. Colorblind cast
or not, in 2016, to like, have a police officer shoot a
black actor onstage versus a white actor onstage just
carries different narrative meaning and different
emotional echo and that is literally just a byproduct of
being alive in America in 2016. Sorry.
J S: I recently read your play An Octoroon,
and you have very clearly stated the ethnicity of each
character.
B J-J: Right. And, like, backup
ethnicities in case you can’t find the “right” actor to
play it. And backups for backups, like ad nauseum.
J S: Did you do the same with the printed
edition of Appropriate?
B J-J: Yeah, they’re all listed
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as white. And of course, there’s a character whose
ethnicity is mistaken, but I sort of leave that up to the
director to figure out how to cast that. In both cases,
there’s sort of gesture to the idea that none of these
racial categories even make logical sense as “definitions” of character. Half the time, we don’t even know
what we mean when we’re listing a character as African American or whatever. We don’t even know what
we’re talking about. What does it mean if the actor
playing him is actually Jamaican American or Black
British but he has a really good American accent? Is
this like or not like a Filipino being cast as a Latino?
Is that different from what we got so mad at Rachel
Dolezal about? We’re talking about perception not
“defining traits.” It’s like we’re constantly stepping on
our own feet in some funny way when it comes to that
idea. We’re talking about perception. Even this theme
of “Ethnics of Ethnic.” What is that? To me, it implies
that there has been something potentially unethical
about our use of ethnic and I’m hoping that’s something people really talk about, because everyone’s so
positive and sweet and we all wanna support Hamilton. We all want to act like the change is coming and
maybe it is coming, but I don’t think that we solved
any substantial problems of perception yet.
C T J: I think that goes back to
my question about the expectations of who gets to
decide what stories get told and then how does that
filter down to us as playwrights and—
B J-J: Well, the people making
those decisions are the artistic directors and the literary offices and the theatre boards and the commercial
producers. Like, just do a quick spot check and see
who’s programming seasons and who is moving what
to Broadway and who’s doing the commissioning and
curating the writer’s groups and allowing specific artists writing specific stories access to the resources
one needs in order to keep writing plays. And I’m
speaking as someone who’s absolutely benefitted
from all of these programs. But that’s who’s accountable—or who should be held accountable. That is who
is shaping our conversation and managing our symbolic values. Working in the arts does not automatically
except you from the assessment of your personal politics and how they come to bear on any power exerted
within an artistic community.
C T J: I was thinking about how
most of the plays that have been on Broadway that
specifically address race have been written by white
men, and I think it’s interesting that whether it’s a
subconscious thing or not, that commercial producers might feel more comfortable hearing that side of
the story. I don’t know, do you have any feelings about
that?
B J-J: Well, I mean, Clybourne
Park?
C T J: I’m thinking about Race
and Clybourne Park…
B J-J: Right. I mean, the truth
is—
C T J: …Or the King and I.
B J-J: The funny thing about this
topic is this: when we talk about American theater, we
are talking about race in America. Like, every major
play that we think of as an American classic is about
race. It is. Streetcar Named Desire is about race. Death
of a Salesman is about race. Long Day’s Journey into Night
is about race. All of these things are about race. And
what’s funny is, like, we look at Clybourne Park as the
play that’s “really really” about race, but in truth, that
play is about—I mean, the whole thing is hinged on a
white guy, in the middle of the second act, throwing
a tantrum about how nobody talks about race, and
that’s the point of the play. A white guy saying nobody
talks about race. I don’t know what that’s saying about
race. It’s not a white guy going, “Nobody talks about
it, so now I’m going to say what I think about it.” And
I don’t even know if that’s true. I feel like this country
has definitely been talking about race since the beginning. We’re obsessed with talking about it and making
work about it. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Rodgers and Hammerstein. A Raisin in the Sun. The truth is we can’t sus-
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tain the conversation. We seem to pull back when the
conversation gets too real, when it starts to be about
history and guilt and responsibility and accountability. Then people stop responding. Like it’s amazing
to me that we can’t even sustain a real conversation
about the fact that Trump’s success is propped up by
white supremacists.
C T J: What do you think about
people writing outside of their own cultural background?
B J-J: I think it’s amazing. I
think people should do it, but I think people have
to be held accountable for what they write. I think
ultimately people are so afraid of being told they’re
wrong or socially or politically flawed or not perfectly
unracist. People take it so personally rather than
being like, “You know what? Hunh. Maybe I am a
product of history and maybe my ideas aren’t necessarily wrong but a little off or outmoded and now I am
totally at liberty to grow and change my mind without
feeling like my entire credibility as a person is being
called into question.” People are so afraid of not looking intelligent, but I think actually intelligent people
get to be intelligent by being super wrong all the
time and learning from the mistakes. And so I think
everyone should go for it—write whatever you want
to write and, if someone from the “world” or “community” or “culture” comes to you with some notes
or with some accusation, you should be prepared to
listen and defend your own depictions. I honestly
believe that. It’s like our obligation as writers to
the world—or at least to any audience member who
has paid in cash and time to see our work. And you
may actually turn out to be in the right, because why
should anyone get to be the representation police for
anyone else?
C T J: No, I totally agree. I think,
you know, everyone should write what they’re compelled to write about, but they have to write with
authenticity and they have to be held accountable. I
think you’re absolutely right.
B J-J: We should feel fortunate
to be able to have that encounter. Theater is not a vehicle for anthropology. Theatre is not about “authentic” depictions of some “other” who isn’t present.
Theatre cannot be “authentic” about anything other
than the specific people who are in the room—the actors and the audience—and whatever ideas or values
they share. That’s sort of why this current production
of The King and I was interesting to me. Did you see it?
I saw it with Ken Watanabe, which was sort of amazing
because rumor has it he actually didn’t have as firm of
a grasp on the English language as everyone had expected [so he] learned his role phonetically—like just
via mimicking sounds. And, to make matters worse,
he is playing this problematic fantasy of an Asian man
with an already shaky grasp of English—dreamed up
by a bunch of white guys half a century ago. And so
Watanabe, whose first language is Japanese and not
English, is playing this Thai fantasy whose first language is not English and the effect was, like, watching
someone who probably had some form of his own
pidgin English learning a fake pidgin English, and for
me it became this incredibly avant-garde experience
where you’re watching an outmoded set of creative
presumptions rub against the truth. I thought that
was, like, so profound. From the lovely perspective
of hindsight, there were some real mistakes Rodgers
and Hammerstein were making, vis-à-vis this depiction—and almost by default. But they didn’t “really
know” what orientalism was. (Why would they need
to?) They just kind of had to guess, you know, based
on what “felt right” to them. And there were certainly
no people in the audience at that time who were
gonna stand up and say, “You guys can’t do this. This
is not how it is!” And why? Because the people being
depicted onstage weren’t even legally allowed to sit
in the same theatre! And so, you know, it’s, like, very
profound, this notion of, like, ethics and accountability. It’s like a new thing. We’ve inherited some sense
that we shouldn’t have to explain ourselves because
no one before us had to explain themselves, but I
mean, come on. It’s a different world.
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SHUFFLE ALONG AND ETHNIC HUMOR:
“T P P”
PHOTO USED BY PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT 2016 SANDRA SEATON. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
By Sandra Seaton
Left to right: Flournoy “F.E.” Miller and Aubrey Lyles
umor serves many purposes
for writers. Humor can be a
weapon, a way of knocking the
pompous off their pedestals.
Humor can be subtle or forceful, bitter or sweet. Ethnic humor is often controversial. It can be an instrument of
racism or a kind of wit that is ultimately an expression
of love and a self-respect strong enough to be comfortable with self-deprecation. I was raised in a small
Southern town around African Americans who knew
how to use sly ethnic humor for their own purposes.
My grandmother was one of them. She was in love with
vaudeville; Grandma Emma delighted in walking for
the cake, dancing the Charleston and putting on the
cork. At church fundraisers, she was known for creating minstrel skits in which she played the “end man” to
her friend Olivia’s interlocutor.
My grandmother was a relative and close friend of
Flournoy Miller. Grandma Emma married F. E. Miller’s
cousin, my Grandpa Will, and went on to raise ten
children. My uncle Flournoy Miller, usually known
as F. E. Miller, attended Fisk College in Nashville,
the home of the Fisk Jubilee singers, but left with his
stage partner and Fisk classmate, Aubrey Lyles, for
vaudeville. Miller and Lyles were a hit on the vaudeville circuit—comedians Jack Benny and George Burns
have testified that Miller and Lyles were the funniest
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2002 CORRESPONDENCE:
JACK VIERTEL AND AUGUST
WILSON
Reprinted with permission from Jack Viertel and Constanza
Romero.
July, 2002
Dear August,
As you may or may not know, for the last
two years I’ve been the artistic director of an
organization called ENCORES, which puts on
three concert versions of lesser-known American
musicals at the 2800 seat City Center Theater in
New York. They’re book-in-hand presentations,
but using full original orchestrations (some of
them restored at great expense) and large casts,
etc. The idea is to present work that hasn’t been
heard in a long time, and to present it so it sounds
as close to the way it sounded on opening night as
possible, whether that opening night was in 1927,
1944, or 1970. We’ve done a number of shows
featuring African American casts but never one
wholly created by African Americans. Last week at
the Library of Congress, I located an original script
for the 1921 musical play Shuffle Along, written by
Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, with songs by
Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle. It was a big hit in
its day, and may have been the first book musical
written and directed by black people on Broadway.
The Best Plays annual of 1921-22 describes it as
an “Ethiop (sic) Musical.” Oddly enough, all the
orchestral parts also still survive, in the Eubie
Blake collection in Baltimore, where Blake was
born and lived (to the age of 100-we share the
birthday of February 7).
I’ve been in touch with Flournoy Miller’s niece,
who lives in Michigan, and she is understandably
eager to have us present this work, and makes
a number of cogent arguments about why we
should, including the fact that the original hasn’t
comic duo in American entertainment—but F. E. had
bigger ideas. In 1921 he co-produced, wrote the book,
and starred with Aubrey Lyles in the groundbreaking
Broadway musical Shuffle Along. Shuffle Along was the
first true musical comedy on Broadway, where before
operettas by composers like Sigmund Romberg and
Victor Herbert had reigned. Its historical importance
for African American culture is suggested by Langston
Hughes’s comments in his autobiography The Big Sea:
“The 1920’s were the years of Manhattan’s black Renaissance…certainly it was the musical review, Shuffle
Along, that gave a scintillating send-off to that Negro
vogue in Manhattan, which reached its peak just before the crash of 1929 ” (223). Hughes adds that “To
see Shuffle Along was the main reason I wanted to go to
Columbia. When I saw it I was thrilled and delighted…
It gave just the proper push—a pre-Charleston kick—
to that Negro vogue of the 20’s, that spread to books,
African sculpture, music, and dancing” (224).
Shuffle Along is often remembered today for the
work of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, who wrote its
wonderful songs, such as “I’m Just Wild About Harry,”
but its success on Broadway was due at least as much
to the comedic genius of its two stars, Flournoy Miller
and Aubrey Lyles. They portrayed two outrageously
crooked politicians who stole from each other as well
as from the city coffers. The show was not threatening
to whites in the audience and, on the surface, did not
confront the prejudices of the time. Its goal seemed
to be simply to entertain, which it did extremely well.
Shuffle Along was nevertheless subversive in a number
of ways. The love story, featuring songs like “Love Will
Find a Way” and “I’m Just Wild About Harry,” presented
something new in American theatre, a black man and
woman in a romantic relationship, lovers whose feelings for each other were as deeply felt and genuine as
those of any white couple. The comic duo of Miller and
Lyles played roguish, scandalous politicians, but their
comedy was even funnier because it was set against the
background of the respectable citizens of Jimtown. The
level-headed majority, appalled by the antics of the two
principals, finally succeed in electing one of their own,
Harry Walton, who wins his true love and the mayoralty
in the show’s conclusion. The play not only shows us
the double dealing antics of Miller and Lyles but also a
multi-layered African American community. This rich
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portrayal of black life will be repeated later in the Amos
’n Andy show, in which Andy was repeatedly fooled by
the Kingfish’s get-rich-quick schemes but which also
presented a panorama of black life that included not
only the commonsensical Amos but also black doctors,
lawyers, teachers, and business people. Whites leaving
a performance of Shuffle Along realized they had been
gloriously entertained, but they might not have realized
that they had been influenced to see an all-black town,
Jimtown, as a complex community, made up of a wide
range of characters—skeptical and gullible, honest and
scheming, romantic lovers and lovers of money—just as
in any “white” community.
F. E. Miller and, as his autobiography makes clear,
Langston Hughes, did not consider the comedy demeaning. Miller knew larcenous politicians are to be
found in all ethnic groups. F. E. was quite willing to
make use of the stereotypes associated with ethnic
humor if the end result was not denigration but instead
the ridiculing of prejudice through laughter. He was
more than willing to make jokes about traits supposedly typifying African Americans and, by implication,
about those so foolish as to accept seriously the ethnic
or racist stereotypes of the time. I remember chatting
with Flournoy’s daughter Olivette Miller, a prominent
jazz harpist, about the misunderstanding of later generations who would condemn Shuffle Along as ‘minstrelsy.”
Her father’s pose was that of a black man making fun of
the way white people make fun of black people, Cousin
Olivette explained quite matter-of-factly.
In my own work, I have been influenced by Shuffle
Along and my grandmother, a true “performer” on
and off the stage, who taught me songs and skits from
the time I was old enough to pay attention. Flournoy
Miller and my grandmother did not feel inferior to
anybody. They lived their personal lives behind a veil.
Most white people encountered African Americans
only as servants. Behind the veil, African Americans
went to college, taught at black elementary schools
and colleges, worked as physicians and businessman
within the black community, and formed literary
societies. Not only Madame Sissieretta Jones (aka
The Black Patti) but other divas of color, many whose
names have been forgotten, gave concerts in small
communities like my hometown. Like Flournoy Miller,
in my own writing I have never felt I had to prove to
been seen in an integrated way in over 80 years.
As I’m sure you know, this kind of thing is very
exciting to me, and there is, I believe, a historical
imperative that suggests we have a responsibility
to recognize the contributions of African American
writers for the theater of the 20s and 30s. And,
on its own terms, the work has a lot of merit—
terrific songs, a good deal of wit, and a satirical
perspective on politics of that time. So there
is a lot, artistically, historically, and if you will,
anthropologically, to be said for ENCORES!
embarking on what would be even for us a radical
choice. However, not surprisingly, a reading of the
script reveals it to be basically a long (if very well
turned out) Amos ‘n’ Andy episode, created in part
for Miller and Lyles to demonstrate their skills as
comedians. There is even a character reminiscent
of Stepin Fetchit. This mitigates against the work in
obvious ways and suggests that it might meet with
enormous political resistance, especially from the
very population we’d be trying to honor. But when
I pointed this out to Ms. Seaton, she fiercely and
rationally made the case that Miller and Lyles were
among the relatively few popular black artists of
the period to fight their way to critical recognition
and financial success, creating work for their
own contemporaries within their own culture to
enjoy, and leaving a hard-earned personal legacy
of which the family can be justly proud. Are they
to be ignored, she asks by implication, because
a censorious army of political correctness now
deems their work to be unclean? If we’re willing
to perform work by Irving Berlin that teases Yiddish
accented Jews, if we don’t blink when the broad
sexist impulses of the Broadway musical of the 40s
and 50s makes jokes about secretaries who are
expected to have sex with their bosses, why should
Shuffle Along be taboo?
It was an eye opening conversation, and I wasn’t
sure how I felt at the end of it. However, the first
thing I thought of upon hanging up the phone
was Boy Willie and his watermelons in The Piano
May/June 2016 | 47
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Lesson. August, I thought, will have thoughts about
this.
It’s not a problem I would ask you to solve,
but I’d be very curious as to your wisdom on the
subject. One of my own ideas was to gather
together a small committee of artists of color
to discuss it, maybe even read part of the piece,
and try to gain some consensus about the larger
subject—how to honor the Millers and the Lyles,
and the Bert Williams’ of the world without
insulting or outraging the very audiences they
would have been proudest to perform for. If you
have a moment, I’d very much value your reaction.
Fondly,
Jack
July 30, 2002
Dear Jack,
It is an altogether interesting and complex
issue with Shuffle Along. Here are my thoughts:
Shuffle Along, the musical, has value as an historical
document. It illustrates the ideas and attitudes
of American society at a certain point in time, as
well as the development of the American musical
form, and the development of American popular
music. So does Oklahoma! If, as you suggest,
the book of the musical Shuffle Along has certain
negative stereotypical portrayals of blacks, then
the resurrection and representation of these
portrayals in 2002 will undoubtedly cause some
blacks (and whites for that matter) to question
why you would want to produce it. And others,
or perhaps the same blacks, will resent it, much
in the same way they resented Amos and Andy.
While their resentments may in some respects
be valid, to my mind they are misguided. My first
reaction was to think of Amos and Andy and the
protest that led to its removal from the airwaves.
I rather liked Amos and Andy. I thought it was an
example of two comedians working at the top
of their craft and sometimes working brilliantly.
I did not understand at the time why Amos and
anybody that African Americans were anything but full
human beings, neither more nor less.
As a playwright I have often, in the family tradition,
employed comedy in addressing racism. In a scene in
my play Music History Or A Play about Greeks and SNCC
in 1963, the main character, a young African American
woman studying at a major Midwestern university
in the sixties, is desperate to find housing in a town
where most off campus housing is segregated. She
answers an ad only to discover that the rental is above a
funeral home. Already uneasy, she and her friends are
terrified when they open the door and a woman at the
top of the stairs, evidently the owner, screams when
she sees them standing in the doorway. The young
women scream back in response. It’s a comic scene
because both owner and young women are equally
scared of each other, but it also demonstrates racism
in action.
The character of Emma Edwards in my play The
Bridge Party is based on my grandmother. In the play
she outwits two newly deputized white men, who are
going house-to-house through the black community
looking for guns. Emma is a trickster, using sly humor
as a weapon and pretending to be slow-witted and naïve, as a way of dealing with the deputies, one of whom
has ties to the Klan. Treating the deputies, “the law,”
with extravagant courtesy that could easily be mistaken for subservience, she sends them away without the
guns they were looking for. As Emma says in the play,
“I’m a performin’ woman,” a version of the trickster so
important in African American culture who outwits
superior force with laughter and guile. Her character
in The Bridge Party grew out of my memories of all the
times I would sit transfixed, watching her act out over
and over again a scene in which she dealt with “the
law,” as she called the police, when they would come
cruising by to ask her what she was up to as she sat on
her own front porch.
Lynn Nottage’s Vera Stark is also a “performer.”
She pursues the role of a maid in an Hollywood epic
about the old South, not because she has any fondness for the era of slavery but because she knows she
can make use of her role to display her talent and in
so doing make it clear, if only by implication, that the
black maid is just as interesting and complex a human
being as her antebellum “mistress,” the official star of
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the picture. Vera is even able, through persistence and
guile, to see to it that it is the black maid who has the
last line of the film, the line that audiences remember
decades later. This approach, that of the performer
or trickster, is juxtaposed in By the Way Meet Vera Stark
by the very different approach of director Maximilian Van Oster who declares “I vant the Negroes to be
real, to be Negoes of the earth…Negroes who have
felt the burden of hard unmerciful labor. I vant to see
hundered years of oppression in the hunch of their
shoulders.” Van Oster sees himself as enlightened, but
the play makes it clear that he is as caught up in stereotypes as any ordinary bigot.
In July 2002 Jack Viertel was considering reviving
Shuffle Along as part of his ENCORES series. In a July
30, 2002 letter to August Wilson, Jack Viertel states
the case for reviving the work:
…there is, I believe, an historical imperative that suggests
we have a responsibility to recognize the contributions of African American writers for the theater of the 20s and 30s. And,
on its own terms, the work has a lot of merit—terrific songs,
a good deal of wit, and a satirical perspective on the politics of
that time.”
Viertel was concerned, however, that a revival of
the original “might meet with enormous political resistance, especially from the very population we’d be
trying to honor.” The book, written by co-star Flournoy Miller, resembles, Viertel observes, “a long (if very
well turned out) Amos ’n Andy episode, created in
part for Miller and Lyles to demonstrate their skills as
comedians.” Jack Viertel was kind enough to ask me,
as a contemporary playwright and niece of Flournoy
Miller, for my thoughts. He listened carefully to what
I had to say about the creative accomplishments of
all the black writers and performers connected with a
show that was truly groundbreaking in its time and accurately sums up my response in a rhetorical question:
If we’re willing to perform work by Irving Berlin that
teases Yiddish accented Jews, if we don’t blink when the broad
sexist impulses of the Broadway musical of the 40s and 50s
makes jokes about secretaries who are expected to have sex
with their bosses, why should Shuffle Along be taboo?
Unsure how to answer that question, Jack Viertel
sought the advice of an unquestioned giant of African
American theatre and champion of black culture, August Wilson. August Wilson’s reply is a thoughtful and
Andy should have been looked at any differently
than say, The Three Stooges or The Honeymooners.
Certainly no one thought that all whites were like
The Three Stooges. But those blacks who were
moving into the main stream and were beginning
to make inroads into places and positions in the
society that had previously been closed to them
were, understandably, anxious that whites not
think all blacks were, like the characters clowns
and buffoons of suspect intelligence. They had,
after all, to encounter their white colleagues
at the office water cooler the next day. Later I
came to understand that there were many other
presentations of white America on the television,
in the movies, the opera houses, and in business
and commerce and science and medicine and
government. Amos and Andy was virtually the only
portrayal of blacks on television, and in many
instances the only one that white America saw.
That is certainly not the situation today in 2002.
Blacks have moved into such high profile positions
in government and business, as well as other areas
of American social and cultural life, as to make
that point moot…
Since I am aware of expressions of black
culture that reveal blacks to be men and women
of high purpose, and since I know and am aware
that whites have often thought less of us than
we think of ourselves, I have no objection in
witnessing an historical document and accepting
its portrayal of blacks as historical evidence. In
fact, it is important to remember, and it might be
interesting to explore these ideas and attitudes
from the 1920’s to see how they are reflected
in the ideas and attitudes the larger society has
about blacks in 2002. I know that certain manners
of social intercourse as practiced by blacks,
without the understanding of the cultural codes
or underpinning, appear to many whites, and
even some blacks, as buffoonery. Some appear
buffoonish to me. Some are. It’s an aspect of the
culture. As is John Coltrane and Charlie Patton.
May/June 2016 | 49
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Finally, I think it is a good idea to assemble the
committee and see what thoughts and feelings
are out there. I think if you ultimately decide to
produce Shuffle Along you will probably be praised.
And you will probably be condemned. For me,
the black contribution to musical theater, musical
forms and idioms has a long and illustrious history.
Shuffle Along is one. Its presentation would be a
historical reminder of that contribution, and its
images and portrayal of blacks, though less than
sterling, would not be a perpetuation of these
images, but a historical reminder of a time when
such portrayals were part of the popular culture. I
think that is important.
As Ever,
August
important historical document. Observing that the
objections that forced Amos ’n Andy off the air were
“in some respects valid,” he finds them ultimately
“misguided.” Wilson declares that “I rather liked
Amos and Andy” because “it was an example of two
comedians working
at the top of their
craft and sometimes
working brilliantly.”
The show could
be compared The
Three Stooges or The
Honeymooners, both
of which featured
white characters
who were often
laughably foolish,
but neither of which
was controversial.
Wilson notes that
objections to Amos
’n Andy because
it was in its day
“virtually the only
portrayal of blacks
on television” had a point but observes that “That
is certainly not the situation today in 2002.” Wilson
concludes “For me, the black contribution to musical
theater, musical forms and idioms has a long and illustrious history. Shuffle Along is one. Its presentation
would be a historical reminder of that contribution,
and its images and portrayal of blacks, though less than
sterling, would not be a perpetuation of these images,
but a historical reminder of a time when such portrayals were part of the popular culture. I think that is
important.”
I am looking forward to George Wolfe’s Shuffle
Along, Or, The Making Of The Musical Sensation Of 1921
And All That Followed coming to Broadway in Spring
2016. The provocative satire of George Wolfe’s The
Colored Museum focused mainly on the ways Hollywood and Broadway made use of stereotypes about
black people to trivialize the long, difficult journey of
African Americans in the United States. I’m hoping
that this new work will, without losing that critical
awareness, also recognize the creativity and achievements of the black writers, composers and performers
who even in the era of segregation challenged and
undermined racism, usually in subtle and indirect ways
in vaudeville, films and plays, not least of all in the
original Shuffle Along.
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BUSINESS EDUCATION
FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS AFFAIRS
Taxation
& Artists
Part
Two
of Two
GARY GARRISON
RALPH SEVUSH &
MICHELE RITTENHOUSE
Transcript from the
Dramatists Guild 2015
National Conference
in La Jolla, CA
THOMAS F.R. GARVIN ATTORNEY &
ROBERT OBERSTEIN ACCOUNTANT
May/June 2016 | 51
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T
ranscript from the Dramatists Guild 2015
National Conference in La Jolla, CA. Part
One of this article appears in the March/April
2016 issue of The Dramatist and the full text
and PDFs of the handouts mentioned are available to Guild
members on our website here: http://www.dramatistsguild.com/businessaffairs/publicarchive.aspx
R S: I’m going to introduce Tom Garvin
now. Tom is an attorney from Los Angeles, Beverly
Hills. He’s driven down through the rain to be with
us today and I appreciate that very much. Tom, could
you talk to us a little bit about the big picture here,
the architecture. Could you describe what that is
and how that works?
T G: I will, but first I have great respect
and high regard for the written word and for authors
and playwrights. So don’t take any of these comments as anything other than just, unfortunately,
I happen to be the person on the panel who’s the
lawyer. (everyone laughs). It’s a very good question. It
goes the other way around which is, we have a voluntary compliance system, and so the cornerstone
of the tax system is that everybody self-assesses,
reports the amount of their gross income, and the
taxpayer has the individual burden of proof to establish their deductions. It doesn’t matter whether
it’s a mortgage deduction, medical or anything else.
Everybody has something that they like, an avocation, a pleasure, a pursuit, something that they find
enjoyable. People that have a passion for horses,
cars, or wealthy people that like having their own
jet aircraft. The tax law says it’s the burden of the
taxpayer to establish that, if you’re going to claim
an expense or deduction, that the deduction is permitted under the tax code. So one of the things that
they don’t permit under the tax code is deductions
for what are, sometimes in shorthand referred to as
“hobby loss” deductions. So if you’re going to take
a deduction, you have to then say, here is what the
activity was that I was engaged in, it was a business
undertaking, a commercial undertaking, and then
establish how it is that you have the primary purpose
of generating a profit, and then establish your entitlement to all the deductions. The tax authorities
have heard every possible thing from the people that
like horses or they like private jet aircraft, or they
like collecting cars, or they paint and they give their
paintings away. If you’re someone who has as your
job the auditing and the selection of returns and
asking questions, you know, human beings are human beings. I’m sure you’re all absolutely wonderful
and would be the best people in the world to get to
know. But the statistical odds of 1,000
people coming together in a room and
1,000 people all being 100% scrupulously
honest and scrupulous in self-filing is
unlikely. The system of taxation that
we have in this country relies on selfassessment, and the tool by which they
try to deal with compliance, as it’s often
referred to, is random audits or something that triggers an audit, and it does
result in the types of experience taxpayers have when they’re audited. As a result
52 | The Dramatist
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there’s this dividing line between, on one hand,
establishing that you’re doing something for a business pecuniary profit motive and establishing what
the scope of that is, and on the other hand what is
it that are the deductions attributable that you then
are claiming as expenses are legitimate permissible
deductions. There is a short one-page handout that
gives you a sense of what the factors are that go into
determining whether the activity is a trade or business carried on for a profit.
R S: And so then last year you had this
woman, Crile, who is an art teacher at Hunter College who was, like Gary and Michèle, selected by
the IRS for an audit. She had her own career as a
painter and those expenses were disallowed. There
was a legal proceeding and she won and, Tom are
you familiar with that case, do you know the facts at
all?
T G: I became familiar with the case
when I was asked by you recently to
participate in this program.
R S: Why do you think it
turned out the way it did then?
T G: I’ve gone through
it and looked at it. For those of you
who have a passing desire, it’s a
well-written, 53-page court decision. Crile spent 40 years as an artist in every possible medium—oil,
printmaking, woodcut, pastels etc.
She is a full-time tenured professor
at Hunter College, with numerous
international accolades, residencies,
fellowships, serving on an advisory
panel for the National Endowment for the Arts. She
was teaching full-time, and also working 30 hours a
week on her business. Her work is in 25 museums,
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim,
The Hirshhorn. So they audited someone whose
artwork has been acquired and hangs in the U.S.
government’s own Federal Reserve room. (everyone
laughs) Her art is also in the Library of
Congress and The State Department. It’s
been acquired by AT&T, Exxon, Bank of
America, Chase, General Mills.
Her first review in The New York Times
was in 1971, she’s received awards from the NEA,
she’s been represented constantly by galleries in
New York. You may have seen some of her work. She
actually travelled during the first Gulf War and dealt
with images of firefighters in the oilfields of Kuwait.
She did the series on Abu Ghraib prison during the
Iraq war.
To maintain books and records, she used to keep
a card catalog of all of her expenses and artwork,
including photographs and copies of all the work
through all the years of her career. This case was
argued in the United States Tax Court and resulted
in the published decision in October of last year.
But the bottom line is, I don’t think that just from
a summary review of her longevity, career and track
record that anyone would say that the lady is not
an artist. Nonetheless, it didn’t resolve itself, and
resulted in a full legal proceeding with lawyers on
each side. She was represented by a large New York
law firm. This was fully briefed and argued. She had
expert witnesses from the head of the Yale University School of Art, other experts explaining to the
Tax Court that, yes, this actually is a preeminent artist. She had a clear keeping of her work as an artist
for which she exhibited, sold, marketed. She maintained a database of over 2,000 people whom she
contacted regularly for buying her artwork. She kept
track of things. She regularly earned income from
her teaching and was claiming deductions for her
separate business costs of her artwork business.
R S: One has to wonder why the IRS pursued it as far as they did given those facts?
T G: Well, I would assume that this lady
was determined that she was correct and she decided that she wasn’t going to resolve it. Or the person
dealing with it from the government wasn’t going to
resolve it on terms that were equal to zero or walk
away, so it went through the whole full litigation
May/June 2016 | 53
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process and resulted in the decision. The tax courts
agreed that she had established a profit intention for
her art business.
R O: Okay,
because a lot of what the IRS
does when they look at tax
returns is evaluate the weight
R S: I’d like to bring Robert into this.
of whether it’s “above the
Robert Oberstein is an accountant and partner at
line” or “below the line.”
R.S. Oak (RSO). You’re based in San Diego.
Sometimes you get away with
it, sometimes it looks messy.
R O: No, I’m in LA in the valley.
Sometimes it looks, to them,
in the wrong spot. So, someR S: Okay, so you took a schlep down
times something triggers an
here, too.
audit and sometimes it’s just
random. I don’t know if it’s
R O: I did, it was delightful. (everymuch that way anymore in
one laughs)
that they identified certain
industries to audit. The entertainment industry was
R S: You represent a number of artists, I hit for a very long period of time. They were getting
think, and writers who have been audited?
audits and audits and audits and they seemed to have
shied away from that somewhat. So the structure is
R O: I do. Well, not that had been
important. It’s fascinating when clients go to an auaudited because the idea is not to be audited.
dit because there’s an element of emotion involved
when the taxpayer confronts the auditor, and often
R S: Right, right. How did you keep them times it’s the intermediary. And I know it’s expenfrom getting audited?
sive and you view it as a waste of money, but sometimes, if it’s a high profile kind of audit, maybe it’s
R O: I don’t know if you can keep
good to have an intermediary because dealing with
them from getting audited. One thought is that, the the auditor itself is somewhat a finesse factor. Some
lady never had her work put up at the IRS, that was
of them, of course, are not real nice, so it’s difficult
the problem. (everyone laughs) Part of working with
at times.
the IRS is dealing with the structure of a tax return.
That’s probably important. I wonder, when they hit
R S: If you’re not making money at this
you for this audit, did you, without divulging anybusiness, how does that factor into the audit prothing of course, did you use a Schedule C to claim
cess, the trigger for an audit? When you’re taking
your expenses as a business expense?
deductions against no revenues?
M R: Oh yes. I did.
R O: I’m wondering if because you
said part of it was from teaching and whether it was
perhaps an employee business expense versus a
Schedule C?
M R: There
were Schedule C and an employee business expense in there.
R O: Well it’s sort of like, if you
aren’t making money, are you treating it like a business? And I think it’s the IRS, not necessarily in the
artistic mode of life, wanting to see whether it’s
a business-like kind of venture. Do you have the
separate checkbook? Have you isolated all your expenses? Have you documented everything? Do you
have records? Not just checks but receipts and so
forth, and are you treating it like a business? That’s
probably the key. Part of it is convincing the audi-
54 | The Dramatist
3/31/16 5:18 PM
tor that it is appropriate, this is what I do. Maybe
it’s in the wrong slot and that’s what triggered the
audit, perhaps. Or is it ordinary for your business? If
it’s “ordinary,” then it’s done consistently over the
years, and, if it’s done consistently over the years, do
you have losses and losses and losses, and so perhaps
they look at this and say, how do you survive? Well,
if you have other sources of income maybe that’s
how you survive and maybe that’s how they look at it
and they say well this is not really a business, this is a
hobby. So maybe it’s taking these kinds of expenses
and incorporating it into your profit making mode.
G G: It’s so interesting that you would
say that, Robert, because before my 2012 audit, the
one where I ended up paying the penalty, I never had
a separate credit card for my business expenses. I
never had a separate checking account. You know, I
would just be out using my American Express card.
It’s all separate now because that was the one thing
my accountant came back and said to do.
R S: Bob has given you in the handouts a
checklist of hobby-loss rules and also what you need
to keep track of and how to do it. But are there any
of those that you want to highlight or point to, that
are sort of glaringly important?
R O: The third page, number nine. It
relates to whether you expect to make future profit
from the appreciation of assets. And what I meant by
that was that if you have losses and losses and losses
but in the future there may be income generated
from the sale of these assets
because it has appreciated in
value, well maybe that’s the
indication that you do have a
business. You do have a profit
motive. So part of it is the
motive aspect of it.
R S: How do they
distinguish between having
an unsuccessful business and
having a hobby? I mean, if
they’re trying to get into your subjective intent of
why you’re doing this, if you’re getting loss after loss
after loss, year after year, can’t it simply be an unsuccessful business, instead of just a hobby?
I’d like to open up the discussion to questions from
the audience.
A M 1: So I’m in a similar situation
to you, I think, Michèle. I work full-time at a university and a lot of my work ends up being developed as part of my work there. They don’t pay me
separately to make a play, but then the play goes
there. So my actual income from playwriting is very
minimal, but I’m still submitting work and I’m a
professional playwright outside, but it may be two
or three years before I get income as a playwright
that is separate from my teaching. I’m just curious:
you said something about the difference between
a teaching expense or an unreimbursed business
expense. Where’s the smartest place for me to put
that? Because right now, I would fall under the term
of the hobby-loss, which is so demeaning, but that’s
what I would be and yet my work is being produced
regularly.
T G: I wouldn’t say you necessarily fall
under the term hobby-loss simply solely because you
haven’t made any economic profit thus far.
A M 1: Well I have, just not
for a couple of years.
T G: This lady that I mentioned in the Crile case, the judges determined that of the factors that were gone
through, the IRS was the winner on that
factor. None of these individual factors are
controlling. It’s the same list that we both
have in the outlines. They look at each one
taking all the facts and circumstances. If you can establish all or a majority of the factors and you legitimately run it and operate a clear separate business
then you can have some years with no income.
May/June 2016 | 55
3/31/16 5:18 PM
T G: That’s your day job.
A M 2: That’s my day job,
yeah, and so this really hasn’t come up for
me since I make such a little amount as a
playwright, but I do make some and my accountant has deductions based on the fact
that I have income, so where do I stand in
this?
T G: I defer to Robert.
R O: Going back to the structure of
a return, what are the expenses attributable to, if
they’re only attributable to writing a play or they’re
attributable to teaching. It’s an interesting delinea-
tion: does it help me in my job as a teacher? Probably. Or is it a separate venture that you’re trying to
accomplish. If it’s the separate venture and you’re
intent is to sell something then I think taking it as
a deduction as that tiny expense is probably a good
idea. But you have to, again, establish that you’re going to try to sell something.
PHOTO: JOEY STOCKS
A M 2: Say I make a minimal income
as a playwright but I’m also a teacher.
R S: Yes, in the Crile case they made an
interesting distinction and said that, as a teacher,
she had an obligation to exhibit the work but she
had to show an effort to sell her work, not just exhibit it. Her job didn’t require her to sell them, but
it did require her to exhibit them. So, again, that
points to treating your playwriting as a profession.
Get out of the circle of hobbyism.
We’re out of time now, and I want to thank everybody, Tom and Michèle, Robert and Gary. Thank you
all.
56 | The Dramatist
3/31/16 5:18 PM
Dramatists
Guild
2014-2015
FELLOWS
Mark
Sonnenblick
& Ben Wexler
Ship Show is an original musical,
PHOTO: JOEY STOCKS
and with that comes a slew of structural
challenges that can feel daunting when
writing in a vacuum. The Dramatists
Guild Fellowship not only provided
an insightful sounding board of peer
writers but was instrumental in pairing
us with mentors Moises Kaufman and
John Weidman that could zoom us out
from our songwriters’ brains and see the
larger forces at play in our piece. These
mentorship sessions loosened our gears
when we were stuck and enabled us
to continue to ask the difficult
questions, to scrap what needed
to be scrapped in service of
compelling storytelling.
pp57-63 Fellows.indd 57
MARK SONNENBLICK and BEN WEXLER began
collaborating as undergraduates at Yale. Shows include Ship
Show (Yale Institute for Music Theatre, dir. Mark Brokaw),
lulz: A Troll Musical (with Cory Finley), and Ben And Mark’s
Thousand Song Spectacular (MAC Award Nomination).
May/June 2016 | 57
4/1/16 12:39 PM
T
his song/scene is from Ship Show, a farce set on a luxury cruise ship that has broken down
mid-voyage. EUGENIA THISROCK, a wealthy elder lady of the Maggie Smith school, has
accidentally taken some tiger sedatives that got mixed up with her medication. TOM,
another passenger, is desperately trying to switch the pills back because he needs to sedate
the tiger he is smuggling. At the beginning of this scene, THISROCK receives a letter from a
mysterious secret admirer…
Ship Show
Act 2 Scene 4
“The Thrill Of The Chase”
THISROCK is in her room, on the bed. She’s waking up
from a long sleep because she accidentally ingested tiger
sedatives.
THISROCK
I just had the strangest dream. I was running,
running on a savannah, thirsty, but not for water,
and then I saw a graceful antelope, and I leapt at
it and sunk my teeth into its throat, and its blood
spilled over me and I knew that was what I was
thirsty for, steaming blood and meat, and I roared
because I, I alone was the king of the predators!
What do you think about that, Evra? Evra?
She looks around but there is no EVRA. Instead she sees a
card on her bedside table. She opens it and reads:
“Dearest Eugenia. Your radiance has captured my
heart. If you would be willing to meet me tonight
at 7:00 for a drink on the moon deck, it would
make me the happiest man alive. From your secret
admirer.” My secret admirer? Well of course I
can’t get involved with anybody. It’s been too many
years. I shan’t give it a second thought.
She walks out of her room and the curtain opens on a
group of people on deck. She’s examining each one.
LEO
Afternoon, Eugenia.
THISROCK
Leo.
IT’S HIM!
OHH, IT’S HIM.
WHAT DO I DO? I’LL PRESS HIM TO
CONFESS!
UNLESS
(seeing someone else)
IT’S HIM!
(someone else)
OR HIM!
OHH, IT’S HIM.
HE’S PLAYING COY, BUT BOY OH BOY
IT’S CLEAR.
MY DEAR,
IT’S HIM.
AND NOW I CANNOT HELP BUT THINK
OF LOVES I USED TO COURT!
I READILY ADMIT THAT IT’S MY
FAV’RITE KIND OF SPORT!
IT’S THE THRILL OF THE CHASE
WHEN YOUR HEART BEGINS TO FLUTTER
AND YOUR PULSE BEGINS TO RACE
IT’S THE LOVE OF THE GAME
I’VE PLAYED MORE TIMES THAN I CAN NAME
I BLAME IT ON THE THRILL OF THE CHASE
THISROCK (CONT’D)
Hello Judy. Arthur.
EVER SINCE I CAN REMEMBER
I HAVE ALWAYS HAD THE YEN
TO SURRENDER AND INDULGE
ILLICIT PASSION NOW AND THEN
They nod. LEO walks by.
IT BEGAN FOR ME IN BOARDING SCHOOL.
JUDY and ARTHUR walk by.
58 | The Dramatist
4/1/16 12:39 PM
SHIP SHOW
Piano/Vocal Score
11. The Thrill of the Chase
[Rev. 1/26/16]
OH NO! I’VE NOT FORGOTTEN.
I WAS BANNED OVER AT ANDOVER
AND RUN RIGHT OUT OF GROTON.
I WOULD FLIRT WITH DWIGHTS AND CABOTS!
I WAS MENTIONED IN A WILL.
THERE WERE SENATORS I’D SNEAK IN
TWICE A WEEK IN BEACON HILL.
Thisrock
Piano
I’VE HAD GANGSTERS, I’VE HAD LAWYERS,
I’VE HAD GARDENERS AND BAKERS.
I’VE HAD BANKERS ON THE VINEYARD.
I’VE HAD BROKERS AT THE BREAKERS.
THOSE VITAL YEARS! HOW MEN WOULD
STARE!
HOW I COULD NOT RESIST!
EACH FRIDAY NIGHT, A LOVE AFFAIR.
EACH AFTERNOON A TRYST...
Waiter enters with a pitcher of water.
WAITER
Excuse me, Madame. May I quench your thirst?
THISROCK
Yes, thank you.
WAITER pours her water then goes.
THISROCK (CONT’D)
IT’S HIM!
OHH IT’S HIM.
HE SAID “YOUR THIRST” ABOUT TO BURST
WITH LUST.
IT MUST
BE HIM.
…OR HIM OR HIM OR HIM OR HIM!
IT REALLY COULD BE ANYONE
SO NOW, MY DEAR, THE HUNT’S BEGUN!
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ONCE A PASTOR AT ST. ANTHONY’S
BESTOWED ON ME HIS BLESSING.
WHAT EFFICIENCY! TO CARRY OUT
THE SIN WHILE YOU’RE CONFESSING.
Music by BEN WEXLER
Lyrics by MARK SONNENBLICK
Staccato Almost-Tango
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AND WILL I CATCH HIM WHEN IT’S DONE?
THAT’S THE FUN!
THAT’S THE THRILL OF THE CHASE
YEARS OF GLORIOUS CAREENING
FOR A MEANINGFUL EMBRACE
THE PURSUIT OF THE KILL
YOU HAVEN’T TRULY LIVED UNTIL
YOU’RE DIZZY WITH THE THRILL
OF THE CHASE...
TOM goes up to her.
TOM
Ms. Thisrock. I’m so sorry to bother you—
THISROCK
Franklin...
TOM
I know we haven’t gotten along but I was hoping
we might be able to go back to your room—
May/June 2016 | 59
4/1/16 12:39 PM
THISROCK
(it dawns on her) Yes!
TOM
(a little taken aback) ...Oh. Great because—
THISROCK
No need to explain young man. Some things are
better left unspoken.
TOM
…Ok.
They walk to her suite.
THISROCK
Fighting with me at dinner—very clever Franklin.
Not only did it throw me off the scent, but of
course there’s nothing I like more than a man who
knows his mind.
THISROCK
There’s no one else around, Darling. You can be
honest with me.
She goes in for another kiss.
TOM
(an outburst of self defense) Your lips are like
sandpaper!!
I’m sorry. Please.
He opens her pill valise, takes the sedatives out and shows
them to her.
THISROCK
(reading) Industrial grade animal sedatives…
She looks up at TOM, frightened. TOM hands her back
the neck pain pills.
TOM
Thank you.
He starts to leave.
They go into her suite.
THISROCK
TOM
Well...thank you. Um, now if it’s okay I need to
take a look at your pills—
…Sandpaper?
THISROCK
Oh my dear! You’re supposed to be the virile one. I
may have a little blue pill in there somewhere, but
let’s at least begin au natural.
THISROCK (CONT’D)
(softly)
IT’S THE THRILL OF THE CHASE...
YEARS OF GLORIOUS CAREENING
FOR A MEANINGFUL EMBRACE
THE PURSUIT OF THE KILL
THE HEARTS YOU WIN WITH WIT AND SKILL!
YOU HAVEN’T WON ONE YET? YOU WILL.
She pulls him onto the bed and kisses him. He is shocked
and does not reciprocate.
THISROCK (CONT’D)
Maybe you do need a pill after all.
TOM
Ms. Thisrock I am...flattered but I’m afraid I’m
only here because some of my pills got mixed up
with your neck pain medication.
TOM looks at her, nearly says something, and goes.
(regaining her confidence)
AND EVEN IF YOU DON’T YOU STILL
WILL ALWAYS HAVE THE THRILL!
THE THRILL!
IT’S A THRILL!
END SCENE
60 | The Dramatist
4/1/16 12:39 PM
PHOTO: JOEY STOCKS
T
he best part of the whole
thing was the relationships
developed among the Fellows,
learning about each other’s
work, and getting a window
into each other’s creative process. Those
relationships have transcended the
fellowship year; we’re still sharing our
work, supporting each other, attending
each other’s readings and shows,
commiserating over the inevitable
challenges of working in the theatre,
drinking and feasting together, and
celebrating each other. Last week,
I met up with another playwriting
Fellow from my year for coffee,
and I ended up reading a few
scenes from his new play, right
on his laptop. Next week, I’ll
be visiting two of the musical
theatre fellows to check out their
new work-in-progress. Later
this spring, I’ll be inviting all the
Fellows to a public reading of
my current project, and I’ll likely
ask them questions about that
draft. We’re there for each other
in every part of the process.
Whatever is needed, we
try to push each other
forward.
Naveen
Bahar
Choudhury
NAVEEN BAHAR CHOUDHURY was a 2014-2015
Dramatists Guild Playwriting Fellow. Her work has been
developed/presented at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Ma-Yi
Writers Lab, The LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, The
Lark Play Development Center, Northeast Public Radio,
and others, and has been published in Plays for Two, an
anthology by Vintage Books/Random House.
May/June 2016 | 61
4/1/16 12:39 PM
T
he following is an excerpt from Girl Games, about a team of female videogame developers who
create a violent new game geared toward young girls, implicating themselves in a crime spree.
Girl Games
Scene Two
Silver Spring, Maryland. The basement of a house, which
has been converted into an office. Four desks facing in four
different directions, each decorated to reflect the personality of
its user. AMAANI stands at MACHETE’s desk. Both are in
mid-argument posture, exasperated.
AMAANI
Every time I suggest changes, you break down.
MACHETE
These changes are arbitrary. They have nothing to do
with the meaning of the game.
AMAANI
The meaning of the game? The game has no meaning.
This isn’t fucking poetry. It’s not that deep.
MACHETE
All you care about is money.
AMAANI
The whole point of this is money! Money equals
freedom. Stop acting like this is like... Art or
something.
MACHETE
Video games are art.
AMAANI
Just because something involves creativity doesn’t
make it art.
MACHETE
Even the NEA says video games are art.
AMAANI
You’re gonna let an organization like the NEA define
for you what art is?
MACHETE
They’re not defining it for me, they are confirming my
beliefs. Beliefs that I already had. By myself.
AMAANI
You know what, I don’t care if it’s art or not. My notes
stand, either way. I’m telling you, it needs to be more
violent.
That’s ridiculous.
MACHETE
AMAANI
Violence sells games. It’s a fact.
MACHETE
See? All you care about is selling.
AMAANI
Well, do you want people to play your games? Do
you want people to experience your art? Then you’re
gonna need to sell it to them!
MACHETE
It’s already plenty violent.
AMAANI
No, listen to me…(sitting down) it needs to be more...
Over the top.
MACHETE
Are you kidding? The whole goal of the game is to
castrate as many Manbots as possible! Whichever
player collects the most bloody severed penises wins.
AMAANI
No...That is violent, sure, but...I mean...Just. The way
that you’ve drawn them...It’s almost... cute.
MACHETE
It should be less cute. What does that mean?
AMAANI
It should get more violent with each level.
MACHETE
It already does. She gets a more powerful weapon with
each level. Level One, she gets a butter knife, the best
she can do is shank him. Level Two, a bread knife. Level
Five, a meat cleaver. Level Nine, a sword. By Level Ten,
a machete, and she can lop it right off.
AMAANI
Level Ten shouldn’t be a machete.
MACHETE
It has to be. It’s named after me.
62 | The Dramatist
4/1/16 12:39 PM
AMAANI
It’s not named after you, you’re named after it.
But I named it.
Huh?
What?
MACHETE
AMAANI
MACHETE
AMAANI
Whatever. Listen. It can’t be that you have to get all the
way to Level Ten before you get to castrate a Manbot.
You should start with a machete.
MACHETE
But if you start with castration... Where do you go
from there?
AMAANI
That’s for you to figure out.
But–
MACHETE
AMAANI
It’s gotta be more gruesome. More…humiliating to the
Manbot. If you start with something as innocent as a
butter knife–
MACHETE
But that’s what makes it great! That’s hilarious, to
chase the Manbot with a butter knife.
AMAANI
Yeah, it’s hilarious. It’s goddamn adorable. It won’t sell
games.
It will—
MACHETE
AMAANI
It won’t. We need to distinguish ourselves from the
other girl games out there. We need to redefine what
girl games are. We didn’t all drop out of school and
lose our parents’ support, so we could develop the
next Diner Dash.
with Diner Dash.
WAFFLES enters and goes to her desk.
I love Diner Dash.
WAFFLES
AMAANI
Me, too, who doesn’t? It’s very compelling. But
Waffles, you agree, that if we created something in
the category of Diner Dash, that we would have let
ourselves down? It wasn’t what we dreamed of. If we
did that we would be, what…a failure. No?
WAFFLES
(casual)
Yup. Big fucking failure.
I understand that—
MACHETE
GRACE enters, takes a seat at her desk.
AMAANI
Grace, tell her what’s wrong with Diner Dash.
GRACE
Oh my god. Completely passive. The worst stereotype
of women. The player is a waitress. Her primary goal
is to please others. Make sure customers don’t get
impatient while she’s getting their coffee. The worst
thing that can happen to her is that the customers
might get really mad and leave without tipping her.
Those are the stakes. Not getting to serve people food.
AMAANI
Exactly. So this needs to be sort of…the opposite of
that. That’s the vision. A player who is really going
after something.
MACHETE
These avatars are not waitresses! They are wearing
armor, wielding sharp weapons – how can you compare
the two?
AMAANI
I know, but just…more. Take whatever you think
should be Level Ten, and make it Level One.
Lights fade.
MACHETE
I don’t think we’re in any danger of being confused
May/June 2016 | 63
4/1/16 12:39 PM
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Boston
by Mary Conroy
T
he Boston theatre scene is thriving
with great theatre. I open with this
because I was recently asked, how
many times a year do I go to New
York to see shows? I didn’t have to think more
than a second. I don’t. No offense, Broadway,
but I don’t need to leave my own backyard
for quality productions. As a matter of fact,
Boston was the home to critically acclaimed
world premieres this year. The musical Waitress had its world premiere at the American
Repertory Theatre to sold out audiences.
This spring the Shubert Theatre will offer
the world premiere of Crossing, an American
Opera. And if you head outside of the city,
THE GUILD HAS 30
REGIONAL REPS
in urban areas with the greatest
concentrations of Dramatists Guild
members. Your Regional Reps are
there to answer any questions you
may have about your membership,
keep you informed on local
programming sponsored by the
Guild, and provide up to three
regional reports for The Dramatist
each subscription year. A complete
list of Reps (and their email
addresses) can be found on the
Staff Directory page of the Guild’s
website.
you are bound to find great theatre in every
part of the Commonwealth.
Now that we know we can see great
theatre, the million-dollar question remains:
How does a local playwright get a theatre
company to produce their play? I get more
emails asking that question than I do spam
mail. I have my own theories, but I felt it
would be best to hear from someone who
works full time in the theatre community,
who is a playwright and also a proud member
of the Dramatists Guild. Walt McGough is
the Administrative and Artistic Associate for
Speakeasy Stage Company. His plays have
been produced in Boston and throughout the
country, not to mention he was a Dramatists
Guild Lanford Wilson Award finalist this year.
I asked Walt about the beginning of his career
path and what he did as a new playwright to
get one of his plays produced. The first thing
he did was read mission statements of local
theatre companies.
Mission statements give you a real sense
of what a theatre is looking for. Every theatre
company has a mission statement on their
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website. He would also go out and show his
face, meet other writers, but more importantly, meet producers and directors. If a theatre
company offered a reading series, he would
go. Chances are high that theatre company’s
decision makers are going to be in attendance
of a reading. Walt became a familiar face at
one specific readings series and eventually
had a conversation with the assistant artistic
director who then (and this may be luck)
asked Walt to send her some of his work. He
did, and thus began their relationship. It didn’t
hurt that he wrote and rewrote his play to a
level of professionalism that was noticed. He
also stressed that the fringe theatre scene is
a great place for new writers. They look to
invest in the writer and involve them in the
collaboration process. Make note, new writers; this is good advice.
Walt works for SpeakEasy Stage Company,
which is a mid-size theatre company that looks
for a fresh voice and a writer to collaborate
with. I asked Walt what he looks for in a script
(considering he’s the guy that reads the submissions). He said he looks to see if the writer
is excited to send their script to SpeakEasy
and has done their homework on what type
of plays SpeakEasy produces. For example,
they don’t do one person shows. Any writer
that researches the theatre company they are
submitting to will learn the type of plays they
produce: theatre of the absurd, period pieces,
diverse casting, one person shows, etc. During the reading process, two questions arise
for Walt: one, “Is this play exciting to me as
an artist?” and two, “Is this play exciting to
SpeakEasy and their mission?” Part of the
SpeakEasy mission is to produce plays that
invite the audience in and challenges them
all the while giving them something to hold
on to at the end of the night. Walt poses an
interesting question. “What is the conversation the audience is having on the way out the
door?” I had to think about that. More often
than not, as writers, we solely think of our
characters and our story. When do we think
about the audience? Do we? We write great
plays that deserve a home. What happens
after you write, ‘the end?’ Perhaps engaging
in relationships, research, and the resources
of your theatre community will help you and
your hard work find a production.
I leave this report with more informa-
tion about a wonderful project that Walt
advocates for and is passionate about, as well
as the websites for theatre companies that
take open submissions from New England
playwrights.
The Boston Project
Last season, SpeakEasy put out a call for
proposals for two plays set in contemporary
Boston. We selected two plays—Ward Nine
by Bill Doncaster and Born Naked by Nina
Louise Morrison—and spent the season
working with the two writers as they wrote
and developed their drafts. The project culminated in a two-week workshop process with
local directors and actors, and invited staged
readings of both plays on February 20th.
The project was made possible by exclusive
support from the Harold & Mimi Steinberg
Charitable Trust. We’re still finalizing the
posting for next season, but we’ll be soliciting
proposals for as-yet-unwritten full-length
plays set in contemporary Boston (which, for
our purposes, means plus or minus ten years).
SpeakEasy http://www.speakeasystage.
com. Also check out: Company One https://
companyone.org and Fresh Ink http://
freshinktheatre.org.
[email protected]
Chicago
by Cheri Coons
W
hy is Chicago leading the
country in productions of work
by writers of color?
According to Jamil Khoury, the
Founding Artistic Director of Silk Road Rising,
“The reality of our lives here in Chicago is that
we’re constantly interacting with people who
are different from us. From the minute you
leave your house, you’re engaging in cultural
interchanges, consciously or not. I think it’s
important for our theatre to reflect the reality
of our day-to-day lives, which is a polycultural
one. The idea that cultures are regularly
intersecting, are in constant conversation
with each other, can be challenging, even
threatening for some. The good news is that
we’re always learning, growing, and changing
as a result.”
Silk Road Rising is a company that creates
live theatre and online videos that tell stories
through primarily Asian American and Middle
Eastern American lenses. Besides being the
company’s Artistic Director, Khoury is a playwright, essayist, film writer, and a member
of the Dramatists Guild. His play Mosque
Alert premieres at Silk Road Rising this spring.
“We’ve been making the case that representation begins at home. There’s something
important about playwrights of non-white
backgrounds telling their own stories, and
owning their representation.”
Sam Roberson, Artistic Director of Congo
Square Theatre, inaugurated a conversation
series called Owning Our Worth. “These
conversations started because African American theatres are closing around the country,”
says Roberson. “I was curious about how we
can work together as theatres of color to
create a new narrative around what we do and
why we do it. It’s important to have institutions of color to continue to grow the American canon by playwrights of color.” One
panel included three women: Sarah Bellamy,
Co-Artistic Director of Penumbra in Minneapolis, Sade Lythcott, CEO of National Black
Theatre in New York, and Chicago playwright
and Dramatists Guild member Lydia Diamond. “These women spoke so eloquently
about the need for theatres of color to give an
authentic voice to playwrights of color. When
I looked out over the audience, I could see all
these young women looking up in admiration. I realized that I had been playing a part
in the patriarchal essence of what theatre can
be. We decided to dedicate this season to
women of color in the theatre.”
Congo Square began its season with
Dramatists Guild member Pearl Cleage’s
What I Learned in Paris, and continues with a
young playwright’s first production: Lekethia
Dalcoe’s A Small Oak Tree Runs Red. “Lekethia came to us through our August Wilson
New Plays Initiative, where we ask playwrights
of color to submit their work for development
and possible production. Lorraine Hansberry
wasn’t Lorraine Hansberry until she was.
There are people who took chances on her,
helped her become who she became. I think
that Congo Square is that sort of place.”
Isaac Gomez, Literary Manager of Victory Gardens Theater and a playwright, sees
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community engagement as an opportunity for
Chicago theatres. “We have artistic leaders
here who are committed that the kind of
works they are producing reflect the diverse
communities in Chicago. In this country
the majority/minority gap is exponentially
decreasing. Now is the time to capitalize on
that, not just as a moral model but as a business model.”
Gomez credits Victory Gardens’ commitment to community engagement with expanding its audience. An example of this took
place during the theatre’s recent production
of John Logan’s Never the Sinner. “The play is
about two young white men in Chicago who
commit a terrible crime,” says Gomez. “We
had an Encuentro, a gathering for the Latino
community, where we invited ensemble
member Tanya Saracho to discuss her work on
the series How to Get Away with Murder. The
parallels between the issues she raised in that
conversation and Never the Sinner were quite
remarkable. We had huge Latino audiences
who came to see the show because they
wanted to participate in the conversation.”
[email protected]
Dallas/Ft.
Worth
exhibitions, and events. In 2014 Sweater
Curse was among the line-up of theatre performances receiving a professional production
in Scotland at the Fringe. Liner spent a year
raising funds for the trip, holding workshops
in churches, rehearsing in small theatres,
and practicing in her friends’ living rooms to
ensure the play was ready for its international
debut. The show only requires a small, mobile
set (music to any Executive Producer’s ears)
and appeals, mostly, to an older audience,
so according to Liner, Sweater Curse is still
receiving its fair share of productions. I had
the good fortune of seeing it in January of this
year at the Aaron Family Jewish Community
Center in North Dallas. To my surprise, a
large part of the audience was engaged in
needlework throughout the performance, but
that was by design. “I always invite the audience to bring their stuff. What other theatre
piece can you knit during?”
But aside from being a profound playwright, Elaine is a marketing mastermind. She
brings new meaning to old adage, “find your
tribe.” Months before she landed in Scotland,
Elaine connected with knitting clubs, individual crafters and yarn stores in and around
Edinburgh via social media to invite them to
see her play at the Fringe and to remind them
to BYOY (bring your own yarn). She found
her audience, and they came in droves, full
houses…in London! Elaine clearly has a niche
by Teresa Coleman Wash
I
n 2012 Dramatists Guild member Elaine
Liner sat down to pen Sweater Curse: A
Yarn About Love, a really smart play about
love, loss, and hope that infused some of
her personal experiences. One year later at
the age of 59 years (she gave me permission
to disclose that), Elaine made her debut
as a solo performer and playwright at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe in London, the
largest arts festival in the world. Every year
thousands of performers take to hundreds of
stages all over Edinburgh to present shows for
every taste. From big names in the world of
entertainment to unknown artists looking to
build their careers, the festival caters for everyone and includes theatre, comedy, dance,
physical theatre, circus, cabaret, children’s
shows, musicals, opera, music, spoken word,
66 | The Dramatist
Elaine Liner in Sweater Curse:
A Yarn About Love,
New Orleans production 2014
for writing plays about seniors but she firmly
believes you have to tell your niche market
that you exist. “You must know who is your
audience and where are they.”
What’s encouraging about Elaine’s story
is it affirms that playwriting doesn’t have a
shelf life. There’s no reason why any of us
should sit idly by our computers waiting for
an acceptance letter. There are simply so
many unorthodox opportunities available to
us. Elaine’s goal is to write plays for veteran
actors who are being sidelined because the
unfortunate reality is there is a dearth of substantive work for seniors. Her recent piece is
titled Cappy & Monty (short for Capulet and
Montague), the story of two older people
who fall in love at first sight, jump right into
bed, have great sex, and their adult children
try to keep them apart—sort of a Romeo and
Juliet in reverse. These stories are reflective
of what Liner says she hears from seniors who
reside in assisted living facilities. One thing is
for sure, Elaine Liner knows how to command
attention and pack a room. She has graciously
offered to share her marketing secrets on how
to be unique as playwrights in the landscape
of the never ending submission process. Be
sure to connect with us on our DFW Dramatists Guild Facebook group page and look out
for possible workshop dates.
[email protected]
D.C.
by Allyson Currin
I
am incredibly proud to be a part of the
Washington, DC theatre community.
When I first arrived in this city, in 1990,
there was a fairly small but healthy group
of theatres and some new work being done
for the stage here and there. But in the years
since, as DC slowly became my hometown,
the theatre scene exploded, and I have been
delighted to grow with it, as a playwright
and an actor. This community has become a
genuine hotbed for new play development; in
fact, it’s one of the most vital in the country.
It has been an honor for me to grow as an artist alongside “my” city, and everything about
representing this region for the Dramatists
MELISSA MARTINEZ
4/1/16 12:17 PM
Florida - East
by Michael McKeever
S
Allyson Currin
Guild feels right.
I have some big shoes to fill; my fellow
Welder Gwydion Suilebhan has served as area
representative for the past three years with
great distinction. I am so proud of his advocacy for our region, particularly as it relates to
issues of gender parity. A very hearty shoutout for all of his hard work!
As a theatre artist, I am a collaborator.
That’s not a particularly revolutionary thing for
a playwright to say, but let me back up that
statement: my proudest career achievements
all focus on collaboration. I co-founded the
playwrights’ collective The Welders in the
firm belief that by combining resources and
producing each other’s work, playwrights
would gain agency and strength. Via my
work as the National Playwriting Program
Chair (Region 2) for the Kennedy Center’s
American College Theatre Festival, I have
advocated for and supported emerging
playwrights. Advocacy works. It raises all of us
who participate in it.
DC was where my very first play was
produced, and it has been an anchor for
me as my career has grown and expanded.
I look forward to being a voice for DC-area
playwrights and to bragging to anyone who
will listen about the vibrancy, generosity, and
talent that defines this community. DC playwrights, please reach out to me on Facebook
or Twitter (@allysoncurrin). I have so much
pride in our city, and I can’t wait to crow about
our many achievements. It will be an honor to
serve my peers with the Dramatists Guild.
[email protected]
horts have become very trendy these
days in the Southeast Florida region.
And no, I’m not talking about the kind
you wear. Over the past few seasons,
short play festivals have become more and
more prominent along the Southeast coast
of Florida, not only popular with Artistic
Directors but with audiences as well. Currently there are no fewer than seven different
theatre companies in the Florida Southeast
that are looking for the next great short play.
Here’s a sampling:
City Theatre’s Summer Shorts Festival
Having just celebrated its 20th Anniversary,
City Theatre is still going strong. The largest
and most prestigious short play festival in the
country, Summer Shorts has become a cherished mainstay of the South Florida theatre
season. Each summer, scores of theatregoers
flock to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the
Performing Arts in Downtown Miami to enjoy
the very best short plays that the country has
to offer. Throughout the years, the festival
has produced a staggering 171 world premieres. Susan Westfall, City Theatre Founder,
Literary Director, and a DG member says the
festival is always on the lookout for work that
is lively, timely, provocative, and surprising.
Submissions are accepted from August 30 –
September 30. If you have questions, please
write [email protected].
City Theatre & Island City Stage’s
Shorts Gone Wild
Three years ago, City Theatre teamed up
with Island City Stage in Fort Lauderdale to
create an LGBT version of their acclaimed
Summer Shorts Festival. The result, Shorts
Gone Wild, was an instant success. Funny,
insightful, and poignant, the plays presented
each summer resonate with audience members no matter what their sexuality. Have a
short play with a LGBT theme? Send it to
Andy Rogow at reply.islandcitystage@gmail.
com
The Naked Stage’s 24 Hour Theatre
Project
A beloved South Florida theatre staple for
over eight years, The Naked Stage’s 24 Hour
Theatre Project has become a must-see
annual happening. Presented in the spring
at various venues throughout South Florida,
this one-night event combines the talents of
literally dozens of directors, actors, and, most
importantly, playwrights. Here’s how it works:
At 7pm on a Sunday night, eight playwrights
pick a play title, the names of a director, and
four actors out of a hat. They are then given
the task of writing a complete ten-minute
play in just under twelve hours. At 8am their
director and casts show up and, for the next
ten hours or so, rehearse and refine the plays.
At 8pm, all eight shows are presented, offbook and fully staged, to what always ends up
being a sold out house. It is exhilarating and
exhausting, as much fun for the theatre artists
as it is for the audience. To be considered
as one of the playwrights, email [email protected]
MicroTheater Miami
Tucked between Downtown Miami skyscrapers on a bustling side street sits a parking lot
filled with what appears to be an assortment
of large metal shipping crates. This is the
home of MicroTheater Miami. And those
shipping crates…they’re mini-theatres. Hip
little mini-theatres perfect for hip little
mini-plays. It also happens to be where some
of the hottest young Florida playwrights are
hearing their plays performed. While the
company operates straight through the year,
the performances are broken into seasons,
each season usually lasting about five weeks
and following a theme. Plays are performed
in both English and Spanish and are geared
towards a younger audience. Just like their
audience, these plays are edgy, urban, and
fun. To find out how to submit, email [email protected]
New Theatre’s Monologue x 2 and
Miami 1-Acts Festivals
Since its inception in 1986, New Theatre has
been an incubator for new work. Located
in South Miami-Dade, the theatre prides
itself on cultivating new work from young
playwrights. A fine example of this is the
Miami 1-Acts Festival. Presented with a barebones approach, the final plays are chosen by
a panel looking for creativity, originality, and
theatricality. All styles and genres are welcome. Another New Theater favorite is the
newly created Monologue x 2 Festival. The
May/June 2016 | 67
4/1/16 12:17 PM
concept is a fascinating one: One playwright
writes a monologue that is then interpreted
by two separate directors directing two
separate actors. Five of these “sets of monologues” are presented in one night. It’s an
intriguing evening of theatre, showcasing how
different directors and actors can approach
the same work. To find out more about New
Theatre’s Monologue x 2 Festival, write to
[email protected]. To find out
more about the Miami 1-Acts Festival, write
[email protected].
The Playgroup’s Shortcuts Festival
The Playgroup, founded in 2010, is dedicated to bringing the work of South Florida
playwrights to the stage. Monthly workshops
in Boca Raton allow local playwrights to bring
in a play or excerpt of 10 minutes or fewer
to be cold read by actors and critiqued by
the group. They produce three shows a year,
always from a local playwright. One of the
highlights of their season is their Shortcuts
Festival, where they present an evening of
short plays completely written by local writers. It’s a fun, thoroughly engaging night of
theatre. These plays can be any subject or
style, but they tend to gravitate towards comedy. To submit a short play to the Shortcuts
Festival, write to Joyce Sweeney, at grackle@
bellsouth.net
Pigs Do Fly Productions’ Fifty Plus
Festival
For the past three years, Pigs Do Fly Productions has produced a series of short play
festivals featuring 10-minute plays about
people over 50 doing interesting things with
their lives. These shorts are insightful, moving
and more times than not, wonderfully funny.
So if you have a short play or two about folks
over the age of 50, send them on to Pigs Do
Fly. Any submissions or questions should be
sent to [email protected]
There are many fine short plays that have
been created in this region, some of which
may be sitting on your desktop as you read
this. These festivals are a great way to show
them off.
[email protected]
Gulf Coast
by Rob Florence
W
hile the Dramatists Guild
was hard at work on The
Count, Lafayette, Louisiana’s
Acadiana Repertory Theatre
was planning an all-female playwright season,
including DG members Bridgette Dutta
Portman and Kat Ramsburg. Clearly Acadiana
Rep was working on the same page as the
Guild, though at the time they were unaware
of The Count. The following interview is with
their Founder and Managing Artistic Director,
Steven R. Landry.
R F: How would characterize
your theatre company?
S R. L: Acadiana Repertory Theatre was founded in 2010 and was
born out of a desire to be a place where
artists from various backgrounds could come
together and work as a resident group of
artists—a family if you will—and produce
theatre that was new to the Acadiana region.
Acadiana Rep’s original mission did not
include purely new works but plays that had
never been produced in the area. At the end
of our 2013 season, after circumstances led to
us producing a developmental production, a
world premiere, and two regional premieres,
I, along with my Associate Director, felt
compelled to change our mission to focus
solely on the development and production of
new works. We now function as an incubator
for plays, with our four-show season consisting
of plays with limited to no production history.
We are truly passionate about the idea of new
works and new voices in American theatre,
and we feel honored to work with playwrights
from across the country to assist in the development of their work.
RF: What is your approach to developing
new work?
SRL: We try to create a place where
playwrights feel comfortable and safe to have
their work developed by people who have the
utmost respect and passion for the words and
the playwright who wrote them. We involve
the playwrights every step of the way. We
have had playwrights come to Lafayette for
just one night to see their show. We have had
playwrights with us for up to two weeks, making changes, cutting, adding, and refining right
up until final dress. We feel that our place at
the current moment is to be a place for these
works to be in a lab of sorts. Our directors are
all very good about working hand in hand with
each playwright to make them feel comfortable with what is happening with their play.
We believe in the idea of service-oriented
theatre—service to the playwright and the
script, service to fellow artists, and service
to our audience. We want nothing more than
to see these shows go on to have successful
world premieres and long lives in the theatre
after their time with Acadiana Rep.
RF: What inspired you to produce an allfemale playwright season?
SRL: In 2015, we produced a show about
Aphra Behn, the first professional female
playwright in England in the 16th century, and
the struggles of female artists were in the
forefront of our minds. In keeping up to date
with trends in American theatre and hearing
so many of our playwrights discussing the lack
of parity, we felt as though to truly be a safe
place for playwrights to get their voices out
there, we also needed to bring attention to
the fact that some voices are not being heard.
So, here we are! In addition to our four-show
season of shows by female playwrights, we
are also a supporting producer for The ONSTAGE Project, a nationally recognized festival and competition of short plays by women.
It’s been a wonderful year for us already and
we have been overwhelmed by the support
we have received from playwrights—both
male and female—and by our community
because of this decision. This is just another
way to fulfill our mission, and we’re grateful
for the support we’ve gotten here in Acadiana
and beyond.
Acadiana Rep accepts submissions from
May 1 to July 1. For complete information,
visit: www.acadianarep.org
[email protected]
68 | The Dramatist
4/1/16 12:17 PM
Houston
by William Duell
M
ost Houston dramatists know
that in 2014-15, the Alley spent
$46 million renovating its
building, focusing much of this
effort on the Hubbard Theatre, the backstage
areas, and the public spaces. The results
are breathtaking and beautiful. The redesigned Meredith and Cornelia Long Lobby is
brighter, feels much loftier, and gives me the
sense when I walk through it of wanting to
hold my head high, as if in a vaulted church.
The Hubbard Theatre stage is much larger
than before. It commands your attention and,
because of this, the theatre actually has a
more intimate feel.
The Alley set up an Extended Engagement Capital Campaign and through it
received the requisite private and public
contributions to fund the renovations. What
Houston dramatists may not know is that
Artistic Director Gregory Boyd decided to
include as part of the campaign an Artistic
Enhancement Fund to develop new work
year-round and to kick off this Alley All New
initiative as soon as the building re-opened.
The Alley has reopened and, as I write this,
the inaugural Alley All New Festival, a presentation of workshops and readings of new plays
and musicals in process, has just completed.
I talked to Elizabeth Frankel, Director of
New Work, and Skyler Gray, Literary Manager,
about the fest just a few days after it completed. Liz came to the Alley from the Public
Theater where she worked as literary manager,
The workshop performance of NSangou Njikam’s Syncing Ink
at the Alley All New Festival
PETER YENNE
May/June 2016 | 69
4/1/16 12:17 PM
leading the literary department and the Emerging Writers Group. One of her first tasks as
director was to hire Skyler, who had worked
most recently at William Morris Endeavor in
New York. Both are thrilled to be able to create a comprehensive new works program, of
which the festival is a part, at one of the oldest,
most respected theatres in the country.
“The Alley All New Festival is an exciting
intersection of artists, industry professionals, and local audience members coming
together to celebrate the development
of new work,” Skyler told me. “This year’s
Festival was a fantastic kick-off to our new
play initiative and is the first of many exciting
things to come.”
They explained that three plays received
one or more readings: Cleo by Lawrence
Wright; The Harassment of Iris Malloy by Zak
Berkman; and Songs from Ms. Mannerly (score
by Michael Moricz, lyrics by Jack Murphy).
Three plays received three or more workshops: Miller, Mississippi by Boo Killebrew;
Roz and Ray by Karen Hartman; and Syncing
Ink by NSangou Njikam. You can imagine how
excited the playwrights were. Zak Berkman
wrote about festivals in general and the Alley
All New in particular, “you feel at the center
of a creative exchange that is empowering and
rejuvenating…I have never been to Google or
visited the campus of a Silicon start-up, but I
fantasize this is what it’s like for those employees every day: one idea ricochets off another
idea until there is a whole new molecular entity
that could have only been discovered in such an
interactive setting.”
“We’re focusing on great writers, nationally and internationally, not just well known
names. This includes Texas writers, too, of
course,” Liz added, “Lawrence Wright from
Austin was one of the six in this inaugural fest.
And we’ve opened the submission process to
Texas writers who don’t have an agent.”
They are not stopping there; Alley All
New is a year-round initiative. The Alley will
now commission more writers and engage in
new play development activities on an ongoing basis. Upcoming seasons will have more
world premiere productions, in addition to
the Alley All New Festival.
The Alley will continue to produce
reinvigorated classics and regional premieres,
as well. Fans of new work will be happy to
learn that as of this publication date they can
buy tickets to The Christians by Lucas Hnath
and The Nether by Jennifer Haley. Also, check
out Remote Houston, an interactive theatre
experience and the result of the Alley’s collaboration with the University of Houston
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts
and Rimini Protokoll, a group of German and
Swiss artists sometimes credited with being
the inventor of the newest wave of documentary theatre. If you want to attend Remote
Houston, wear your walking shoes – it starts
out at Evergreen Cemetery.
[email protected]
Missouri
by Hartley Wright
O
gentlemen, the time of life
is short!” (Henry IV, Part 2)
William Shakespeare died at the
age of 52, but the lifetime of
his work is now 400 years and counting. We
celebrated that anniversary not a fortnight
ago in St Louis during the city’s Shake 38
Festival. It seemed poignant to discuss this
year’s programming plans and member initiatives for St Louis Guild members during the
annual marathon celebration of Shakespeare’s
38 plays.
This year’s regional programming for
Kansas City also kicked off last month and
included a thrilling workshop and master class
event featuring the highly awarded, wonderfully talented and charming playwright Lauren
Yee. I was proud of our Kansas City Dramatists Guild members’ enthusiasm and support
for this outstanding female playwright—the
first Dramatists Guild Fund’s Traveling Master
sent to this region.
Our regional programming this year will
focus on creating more opportunities for
play development, learning more about the
development process, and expanding the
awareness of new work throughout the state
of Missouri. Guild members will be able to
participate in a roving reader series providing
the opportunity for playwrights in one city to
have their work read in another city at a venue
open to welcoming new work. Seminars ad-
dressing business affairs and self-production
will be offered in Kansas City and St Louis.
Panel discussions with artistic directors from
theatres in north, south, and central Missouri
will be offered to educate us on their process
for selecting productions.
This summer, many Dramatists Guild
members in this region will showcase their
new work in the fringe festivals of Kansas City
and St. Louis. We also have playwrights celebrating summer and fall productions in New
York City, Washington, San Francisco, and
Chicago. This fall, mid-Missouri playwrights
can take advantage of a new play festival
presented by Talking Horse Productions in
Columbia. The company, which has been
taking on new work for production since 2013,
created its Starting Gate New Play Festival to
focus on developing the writer. The festival
will function more as a workshop process,
ultimately producing fully staged plays rather
than concert readings. Talking Horse’s inaugural competition took place last November
and featured two ten-minute plays each from
three commissioned playwrights. Two of the
three playwrights were DG members, including Milbre Burch of Columbia.
The imminent death of our art form has
been proclaimed time and time again. Yet
audiences in this region love to experience
the incomparable thrill of live performance,
and seem to genuinely appreciate new work.
This means theatre is thriving in this region like
never before, and the majority of our Guild
members are continually producing fresh
material for the stage. A large portion of this
new material is coming from female voices,
and some of our best material is coming from
writers of color. Perhaps when you read about
The Count in last year’s November/December issue of The Dramatist you were surprised
to discover Kansas City was among the top
three locations leading the nation in productions of plays by female writers (30 percent);
among the top five in productions of plays
by writers of color (15.6 percent). Certainly,
our playwrights, composers, lyricists, and
librettists are extremely talented. Such talent
gets presented because we have a fair amount
of venues committed to not simply producing
new work, but paying attention to its voice
and diversity. While we can be pleased our
region is at the top of the pack, we can’t deny
70 | The Dramatist
4/1/16 12:17 PM
T. C H A R L E S ER I C K S O N
The Two River Theater production of Bárbara Colio’s Ropes,
translated by Maria Alexandria Beech
L-R Stephen Kaplan, Bárbara
Colio, Maria Alexandria Beech
New Jersey
by Stephen Kaplan
O
n Saturday, February 20th,
New Jersey and NYC Guild
members, plus three Regional
Representatives from across
the country who were in town, gathered at
Red Bank’s gorgeous Two River Theater for
the first preview of Mexican writer Bárbara
Colio’s Ropes in a new English translation
by Guild member Maria Alexandria Beech.
The performance was bookended by a meet
and greet with the artistic staff of Two River
and a talkback
with Colio and
Beech.
Artistic
Director John Dias,
Associate Artistic Director Stephanie Coen,
and Literary Manager Anika
Chapin shared the theatre’s
mission and how they found Colio’s
play. Colio and Beech were connected
initially through one of the Lark Theatre’s
global exchange initiatives and the piece
then found its way to Two River as part of
their 2013 Crossing Borders Festival which
was initiated “to create opportunities for
Latino theatre artists and foster a stronger
relationship between the theatre and Red
Bank’s Latino community.” In fact, Ropes
offered two performances entirely in Spanish
to further target audience members that may
not usually attend the theatre, even though
it’s in their own backyard.
This example serves as a great reminder for
writers to think about not just the current audiences that attend a specific theatre, but perhaps that theatre’s target or potential target audience as well. If you have a play that may speak
to a certain community, reach out to theatres
M A RY J A N E WA L S H
how disappointing these percentages are
overall. We are first and foremost a community of artists, and as artists we owe it to one
another to help us all succeed. Together we
can develop programming and partnerships
capable of moving us toward the goal of hearing the entire chorus.
The time of life may be short, but as
writers of the stage we have much life to give.
Please let me know what I can do to help.
[email protected]
that
serve
or are looking to serve those
communities. It shows you’ve done your homework and are not just sharing your work blindly.
The road to production also emphasizes
the point that there is not often a single,
direct route that our plays take in order to be
produced. There are many possible paths and
getting involved in festivals and exchanges
may often result in another opportunity for
our plays to be seen and heard.
A fascinating conversation followed the
performance as Colio and Beech shared the
unique process that is involved in a translation
and the discussion served as a fantastic lesson
and food-for-thought for playwrights on both
sides of the equation. Not only can translating our plays open up whole new markets
for our work, it usually teaches us new things
May/June 2016 | 71
4/1/16 12:17 PM
about what we’ve written. Colio commented
on rethinking moments of her original play
based on discoveries of what the English
translation revealed.
It’s important to realize, though, that
translators are not simply a human embodiment of “Google Translate,” providing literal
line-for-line equivalents in dialogue. Just as
actors, directors, and designers interpret a
playwright’s words and infuse them with their
own experiences and understandings of the
original material, so, too, do translators act
as interpreters in their own right. They are another huge part of the collaborative process
that is theatre.
Those of you who have ever developed
a new play with actors and have had actors
say, “This line doesn’t feel quite right for the
character,” or, “I’m having trouble with the
flow of these words,” or any number of other
variations on the theme, have experienced
translations—for isn’t this what all theatre
is about? First we translate the experiences
from our heads and hearts into words and
then rely on others to translate these words
into images and sounds and actions that can
best communicate to an audience.
So, a huge thank you to Two River for
hosting us and to all the members that came
out for this engaging and thought-provoking
event.
[email protected]
Ohio – South
by Jennifer Schlueter
E
volution Theatre Company, Central
Ohio’s LGBTQQIA company,
has come to the forefront of the
Columbus, Ohio, theatre scene since
focusing its mission on issues it is passionate
about. Their mainstage subscription series
has featured revivals of musicals like Yank! and
Zanna Don’t, as well as plays like Del Shores’s
Sordid Lives, that dovetail with Evolution’s
focus on “advancing the understanding of
gender issues and fostering the expression of
creative performance arts by and about the
LGBTQQIA community.”
But Evolution is also committed to new
work. To that end, Mark Phillips Schwamberger, Evolution’s Managing Artistic Director, established a biannual new works festival
in 2012. That year, Columbus’s bicentennial,
featured new plays about the city itself. In
2014, Evolution took national submissions for
its festival. Schwamberger underscores the
role of the “A” in LGBTQQIA in this selection process: “We are focused on the ‘Ally’
portion of our mission as much as anything
else,” he said. “We want to be inclusive both
in the work we produce and in who we choose
to work with.”
For their third annual new play festival,
then, Evolution’s focus is also all-local. In
association with Columbus’s Contemporary
American Theatre Company (CATCO),
Evolution will kick off Pride Month this election year with a two-week Local Playwright’s
Festival of world-premiere plays that address political figures and the LGBTQQIA
community. Further, these plays have been
commissioned from playwrights featured in
previous Evolution festivals, demonstrating
the company’s commitment to developing
not only plays but also relationships with
playwrights.
In the first week of the June 2016
festival, four short plays will be performed
together each night. DG member Amy
Drake’s Alexander the Great In Love and War
takes audiences back to Aristotle’s time,
exploring Alexander the Great’s bond with
Hephaestion and how “Alexander balances
conscience with conduct.” Sheldon Gleisser’s
Vetted takes a fictional look at a sitting vicepresident vetting his own vice-presidential
prospects and wrestling with the past of his
first-choice candidate. In Shall I Run Again
by Jack Petersen (DG member), audiences
confront a President’s ghosts as he decides
whether or not to seek a second term. And
in DG associate member Cory Skurdal’s A
Point of Diminishing Returns, a stump speech
from Ulysses McKinley Rutherford Harding
Garfield Hayes III goes off the rails in the best
possible way.
In the second week of the festival, focus
will turn to a full production of Skurdal’s Sticks
and Stones, a full-length play and the winner
of CATCO’s 2014 Playwrights Fellowship.
Sticks and Stones examines the politics of outing and the role of the arts critic.
Together, the works commissioned for
Evolution’s 2016 Local Playwrights Festival
demonstrate the company’s commitment to
expanding the dialogue around LGBTQQIA
issues while also fostering deep community
relations. Schwamberger says he is “passionate” about new work. Columbus is grateful
for Evolution’s commitment to that passion.
More information about the 2016 Local
Playwrights Festival is available at evolutiontheatre.org or by emailing [email protected].
[email protected]
Pittsburgh
by Gab Cody
M
ark Clayton Southers is an
award-winning Dramatists Guild
member, writer, director, photographer, Artistic Director for
theatre initiatives at the August Wilson Center
for African American Culture (2010-2013),
and founder and Producing Artistic Director
of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company
(2003-present). A scroll through Mr. Southers’ Facebook page over the years show him
arm-in-arm with a who’s-who of Pittsburgh’s
glitterati including, among others, August
Wilson, George Benson, and Jerome Bettis.
But for those who know him well he has
another very special talent: Mr. Southers
builds bridges in the City of Bridges.
He is much beloved in Pittsburgh as a
literary lion and theatre impresario who works
daily to ameliorate racial injustice through his
own work as a playwright and his approach to
producing. He’s an heir to his friend August
Wilson’s legacy and has produced all ten plays
of Wilson’s American Century Cycle here,
ensuring that the great African American playwright’s work enriches the lives of all Pittsburghers. And Pittsburgh Playwrights’ Theatre
Festival in Black and White is a one-of-its-kind
annual workshop presentation of new plays
pairing black writers with white directors and
white writers with black directors.
Next week, Mr. Southers’ newest play, a
modern take on Strindberg’s Miss Julie, premieres at Pittsburgh Playwrights. Miss Julie,
72 | The Dramatist
4/1/16 12:17 PM
Clarissa and John re-imagines the action playing out at a Reconstruction Era Virginia plantation. “Seven years ago I saw Miss Julie and
figured this was a play that black folks could
relate to about class and sexual politics.”
Though it’s been a typically busy few
months for Mr. Southers—along with writing
this new adaptation, he recently directed The
Piano Lesson at the August Wilson Center—
his most impassioned creative endeavor over
the last year was born out of a near-death
tragedy that left him with limited mobility,
narcotic-induced visions, and a compulsion
to communicate his hard-earned experience
through a series of highly personal journal
entries entitled 99 Chronicles.
After the car he was driving collided with
a city bus on May 11, 2015, he was left in the
hospital, literally shattered. He was in a coma
for weeks and spent three months bedridden,
slipping in and out of consciousness.
When I interviewed Mr. Southers and his
steadfast wife, Neicy Southers, about those
months in Intensive Care, she said that just
before the first surgery—to rebuild his leg
and stop internal bleeding—he enjoyed a
rare moment of consciousness, and, “He was
cracking jokes.”
“I was cracking jokes?!” Mark interjects,
“Do you remember them?”
Neicy laughs, “No!”
“Too bad. There might have been some
good material.”
It’s in part Mr. Southers’ indefatigably
inspiring outlook that makes him a beacon
for all theatre people in the ‘burgh. Once he
began accepting visitors at the hospital, his
room turned into a theatre, sometimes with
as many as a dozen visits in a day. There was so
much singing and sharing and poetic praying
that a nurse even joined in, performing a song
(and nearly getting in trouble for doing so).
“The theatre community assisted my
wife,” Mark remembers, “It was the commu-
Mark Clayton Southers t
the fundraising event the
theatre community held
for him
nity of friends that assisted in my recovery. We
had prayer warriors and the arts community
came out every day and sang and told jokes
and poems and held my hands. Every day, I
had people.”
Hospitalization and lack of mobility
took their toll on his spirit. “If not for writing
I wouldn’t have made it,” he admits. Mr.
Southers’ chronicles are heartfelt, touching,
funny, terrifying, and revelatory. In his sixth
chronicle he addresses his feeling of paralysis:
“I’m laying here unable to move below my
neck. I’m told I’m not paralyzed, but yet I cannot move much. I can move my right arm fully
and my left partially. Neither of my legs will
move. Everything is in a fog. I have a breathing
tube in my mouth and a feeding tube inserted
into my left nostril.
My beautiful wife comes close to my
face and speaks to me in slow structured
sentences much like a kindergarten teacher
talking to a five year old on his first day of
school. She shines and is full of heavenly
praise for the Lord.
Strangely it feels like I’m in a space station.
I don’t feel at all like I’m laying in a hospital
bed but more like I’m strapped standing up
to a wall. Nurses occasionally come in and remove bags of fluid from below me. I have no
idea that it’s my fluid and that I have multiple
tubes connected to my lower orifices. Yes,
my body is in cruise control thanks to modern
science.”
To read 99 Chronicles is to glimpse the
most raw and personal moments of a journey
back from the brink of death. They portray an
astounding passage through heartbreak and
self-scrutiny. The narcotic painkillers administered during his recovery evoked terrifying
dreams. He remembers them vividly and has
recorded them in the most harrowing of his
Chronicles.
They’d make for compelling theatre, but
for the moment Mr. Southers plans to turn
99 Chronicles into a book and to leave the
dramatization to someone else. “Now that I
have another chance at life I want to put more
energy into my family,” he says. “I don’t want
to revisit these things. I’ve written what I want
to write to get them out of my system. I’m
fine with another dramatist writing them [as
a play].”
Even so, it seems impossible Mr. Southers
May/June 2016 | 73
4/1/16 12:17 PM
will ever leave the theatre. His wife Neicy
sums it up with a knowing smile, “The first
phone call he made from the hospital was
to settle a problem with his production of
Fences.”
You can read Mr. Southers’ chronicles
here, but be forewarned they are not for the
faint of heart: http://www.markclaytonsouthers.com/chronicles.html.
[email protected]
San Francisco
by Suze Allen
W
hat an exhilarating time I had
in New York City this February. I got to attend inspirational Regional Rep meetings,
the annual meeting with the prestigious DG
Council, and the Dramatists Guild Awards.
The awards were particularly exciting as Jeffrey Sweet presented our own San Francisco
playwright Lauren Gunderson with the
Lanford Wilson Award, which is given to “a
dramatist based primarily on their work as an
Lauren Gunderson, receiving the Lanford
Wilson Award from DG Council member
Jeffrey Sweet
people to recognize that community building theatre, revolutionary theatre ideas and
the new plays that define our nation and our
time don’t have to come from New York
solely. That my getting this award as a San
Franciscan continues the enlightenment that
there is a lot going on all over the country
and that theatre, especially theatre, should
represent our whole crazy, myriad of ideas
country.”
Ms. Gunderson has been in San
Francisco for seven years. She came here
to work with Marin Theatre Company and
discovered the diverse theatre community
in the Bay Area and met the man who would
become her husband.
“I was deeply impressed with and still
am so proud of the theatre community here,
it is so rich and so diverse and so constant.
There is so much going on here especially
when it comes to new plays. It’s kind of my
secret, the Bay Area, which I am happy to
share with everyone. There are major players
in Broadway transfers and renowned regional
folks. Amazing—kind of everything you want
in a theatre town.”
In 2015, American Theatre magazine
named Lauren Gunderson one of the most
produced playwrights in America, and in the
Bay Area alone her work has been presented
at Playwrights Foundation, SF Playhouse,
Crowded Fire, TheatreWorks, Aurora
Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, and The
Magic Theatre. Ms. Gunderson gives back
to the community by mentoring high school
playwrights as they transition into college
and by working any fundraising events she
can for the theatres that produce her work.
She has been a playwriting instructor at
Playwrights Foundation and Playground.
In March, Ms. Gunderson spoke with
local DG members about working beyond
your own backyard and bridging the gap
between local and national playwriting communities. More on that next time.
[email protected]
WALTER KURTZ
74 | The Dramatist
early career playwright.” This is the first time
the Lanford Wilson Award was given to a
playwright outside of the tri-state region.
I got the chance to talk with Lauren after
we both got home from NYC. While she
is no stranger to awards (2014 Steinberg/
ATCA New Play Award for her play, I and
You, also a Susan Smith Blackburn finalist,
a Jane Chambers Award finalist, and winner
of the Berrilla Kerr Award for American Theatre, Global Age Project, Young Playwright’s
Award, Eric Bentley New Play Award and
Essential Theatre Prize, to name a few), the
Lanford Wilson Award has special meaning
for her.
“The main overwhelming honor of it is
that it comes from the Dramatists Guild,
which, since I was fourteen, has been a part
of my life and a marker for real playwrights
and real playwriting community. To know
that it came from fellow writers and such
preeminent ones means more to me than
anything. I certainly think that what is so
moving about this award is what Stephen
Schwartz said [in his acceptance speech]—
the fact he even mentioned me in his speech
is amazing and kind of freaked me out—but
he said, and I agree, that it is high time for
4/1/16 12:17 PM
Seattle
by Duane Kelly
I
f the road to success is paved with failure,
then a playwright’s path to productions is
littered with rejection. The odds, to be
blunt, are terrible. Yet new plays, including even some by obscure writers outside
of New York, continue to get produced.
One Dramatists Guild member in Seattle,
Barbara Lindsay, has made it her mission to
move those odds more in her favor. Barbara
recently presented a submissions workshop
in Seattle for Guild members.
Barbara’s results are impressive. Her
scripts have received over 400 productions
in twelve countries. Sometimes acceptance
has included travel to the productions. (Her
most recent such trip was last summer to
South Korea.) Most of these productions
have come as a result of her submitting her
scripts. She does all this without an agent.
And did I mention she’s not based in New
York? She has also been able to generate
some income every year from this activity.
As an example of her diligence, last year
she made 288 script submissions to 148 theatres, festivals and contests (some contests
allow multiple scripts to be submitted). She
Barbara Lindsay (l) shares advice
about submissions with Robin
Brooks and Kathleen Martin at
Seattle meeting
has refined her system over the years while
also continuing to grow as a writer. Her
acceptance rate is now one out of every ten
submissions. She keeps detailed records of
her submissions, and for the purposes of her
record-keeping counts as an acceptance any
reading, workshop, or full production.
Below are a few of the key points she
shared with fellow Guild members:
Write plays for all three standard lengths:
ten-minute, one-act, and full-length. That
way you are more likely to have something
suitable for any submission opportunity.
(Many of her productions have been tenminute plays. She does not look down upon
these short works because they establish
new relationships for her with theatres and
festivals. Full-length is the most difficult
form to get produced; many more short
plays get produced.)
Make sure your script looks professional.
No misspellings, incorrect word usage,
punctuation, etc.
Be sure script is formatted correctly.
(Dramatists Guild website has samples.)
Carefully read the submission specifications. If a ten-page sample is requested,
then only send ten pages; don’t send
twelve or thirteen. If they don’t require
the first ten pages, then send whatever ten
pages you think best represent that play
and your writing.
Include a cover letter. Make it concise.
Triple-check the spelling of the theatre and
literary manager’s name.
Avoid a cover letter that appears generic.
Do some research about the theatre and
then explain why you think your play is well
suited for it.
Prepare three synopses for every play:
one-page, one-paragraph, and one-sentence. That way you will have one ready, regardless what length synopsis is requested.
Submission fees. Controversial subject;
individual choice. As a rule she doesn’t pay
fees but will make an exception if she thinks
the opportunity is worth it.
Resume. Include only if requested.
Record-keeping. Maintain a current list
of every submission. Include play title, theatre, city/state (or country), date submitted.
For one thing, this keeps you from sending
the same play to the same theatre more
than once.
The 35 Guild members at Barbara’s
workshop not only went away grateful for
her generosity in sharing her experience and
wisdom, we were all inspired and energized
to be more active in submitting while also
being smarter in how we go about it. Thank
you, Barbara!
[email protected]
May/June 2016 | 75
4/1/16 12:17 PM
FROM
THE
DESK OF RALPH SEVUSH, ESQ.
An opinion piece by director Marilouise Michel, a drama
teacher at Clarion University, appeared in the Chronicle
of Higher Education on 11/13/15.
It is reprinted below in its entirety, with permission of the
Chronicle, with my responses indicated to address each of
Ms. Michel’s assertions.
How Racial Politics Hurt My Students
By Marilouise Michel
How Teaching Students to Undermine
Contract and Copyright Laws
and Employ Race-baiting Tactics Endangers
Playwrights in America
T
The “Asian playwright” has a name.
It’s Lloyd Suh. And he’s not from Asia; he
was born in Indiana, and is an American
of Korean descent. And a work is only
universal when it is true. Fiddler on the Roof
is universal because it’s true about a very
specific time and place and people. That’s
why it appeals to diverse cultures all over
the world. Heartfelt specificity is what
makes a work true and, therefore, “universal,” not ignoring that specificity for
the sake of convenience.
he theater program at my small,
rural state university was producing a new and controversial play by an Asian playwright. In the
playwright’s own words, the work was
“universal” and “for everyone…about
humanity.”
Upon seeing a publicity tweet showing our non-Asian student actors playing the Indian roles, the playwright
sent me a vitriolic email ordering me
to shut down our production unless
we immediately recast the roles with
Asian actors. Our entire university is
0.6 percent Asian, mostly international
students, with none enrolled in theater.
So, despite months of student and faculty work, research, building, and creating, we shut down the production, one
week before we were set to open.
A recent and well-publicized
production done by Kent State University’s department of Pan-African studies
of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop was
Here is what this director did not say:
Ms. Michel contacted the playwright
about licensing the play in January of
2015, and then again in May to tell him
she wanted to add songs to it. He was willing to consider it, but he also raised the
issue of the ethnicity of the characters in
casting. That was in May. The playwright
didn’t hear from the director again until
October 30, when the show was well
into rehearsal. She asked him to Skype
with the actors to offer guidance, but
the playwright was taken aback because
(1) he had not been notified that a public
performance of his play had been scheduled, much less had already gone into
rehearsal, (2) no response to his query
about casting had been forthcoming, (3)
the “few songs” had turned the play into
a musical, and (4) he was unaware that a
license for the rights to present the play
had actually been signed…which, in fact,
it had not, and never has been. The author’s agent received a check (the agency
deposited the check but payment was not
accepted by the author, so it was returned
to the school), but no signed contract
from the school was received.
So the fact that the director, the faculty and students had done so much work
without adherence to the author’s stated
conditions and concerns (not to mention
in the absence of a signed agreement) is
entirely the director’s fault, and the harm
done to them was done by her.
USED WITH PERMISSION OF THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION COPYRIGHT © 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
OR
76 | The Dramatist
pp76-80 Departments.indd 76
3/31/16 5:21 PM
Without getting into the details, this
is a gross misrepresentation of the facts.
Despite the claims of the director at Kent
State, there were no performances of The
Mountaintop with a black actor in the role
of Dr. King; it was performed there with
a white actor for all eight performances.
And whatever that director’s intentions,
such a radical reimagining of the play
required authorial approval, which was
never sought. So, Ms. Hall was entirely
within her rights to state publicly her objection to it.
Were a teacher to do classroom work
on a play, she could present it in that
private, unobserved environment in
any manner she chose. Or if a work in
the public domain were to be publicly
presented, the director could explore it
and probe away to her heart’s content.
In fact, there’s at least 2,500 years of
dramatic literature in the Western canon
alone that may be reimagined by any
and all, in whatever manner one may
conceive. But when a play is publicly performed while still under copyright, then
a playwright has a right to license such
performances under such conditions as
he or she may see fit. And that is what a
theater teacher should be teaching her
students…respect for the playwright’s
intent, and for legal and contractual obligations, as well.
vilified by that playwright for its “race
revisionist” double-casting of the role
of Martin Luther King Jr. A white man
and a black man played the parts on alternating nights. The African-American
director, Michael Oatman, stated on
the production’s website that he “truly
wanted to explore the issue of racial
ownership and authenticity.”
“I didn’t want this to be a stunt, but
a true exploration of King’s wish that
we all be judged by the content of our
character and not the color of our skin,”
he continued. “I wanted to see how the
words rang differently or indeed the
same, coming from two different actors,
with two different racial backgrounds.”
What is our purpose in higher
education if not to push boundaries and
ask questions? Isn’t it our job to teach
our students to think, probe, and look
at all issues from varying viewpoints—
or dare I say every possible viewpoint?
And then invent some more? While I
might not consider casting a Caucasian
or Asian actor in the role of Jim in the
Huck Finn story, it is not at all unusual
for university programs and other professional and nonprofessional theaters
to use “color blind” or “nontraditional”
casting as a way to open up opportunities for all students and performers
regardless of race, ethnicity, and even
gender.
Certainly a playwright has the
right to place limitations on productions
of his or her work. However, I purport
that without those specific hindrances,
theater artists can and should have as
much artistic freedom as the playwrights
themselves. Perhaps Shakespeare would
wince at a Western-style production of
The Taming of the Shrew, but he never
told us we couldn’t. He never said Petruchio couldn’t be black, as he was in
the 1990 Delacorte Theater production
starring Morgan Freeman.
Neither Ms. Hall nor the Asian
playwright with whom we worked
It’s comforting that the director acknowledges the rights of authors to place
limitations on licenses, but since she
didn’t actually finalize a license for the
play or get approval to make the changes
she intended, it is an empty concession.
As for Shakespeare, his work has been in
the public domain for centuries, so whatever he said, didn’t say, or would’ve said
about how his work should be presented
is both unknowable and irrelevant. Society is free to have at him as it may.
But as for current plays, it comes down
to this: playwrights have sacrificed a great
deal for the privilege of authorial ownership and control. They have forgone
equitable compensation, health and pension benefits, and the right to collectively
bargain, which all comes from the ability
to unionize (a right that playwrights are
denied but is enjoyed by both teachers
and directors, as well as every single other
person involved in commercial theatrical
productions, other than the producers
themselves). Instead, playwrights have
retained their copyrights, and the hardwon right to protect the integrity of their
work that flows from that. This includes
approval of all creative elements, including the cast. That is why Guild contracts
(and the play licenses issued by most dramatic publishers) generally state that “no
changes to the play, including text, title
and stage directions, are permitted without the approval of the author,” or some
words to that effect.
Casting is an inherent part of the stage
directions of a play; to pretend otherwise
is disingenuous. In this case, the characters were identified in the script as “Gopal,” “Mahari” and “Sushil” (who is identified in the script as a Maharaja), and they
all live in India. So the author’s intent
with regard to the casting couldn’t have
been any clearer. The director’s claim that
the script didn’t specify ethnicity seems
merely a self-serving excuse, after the
fact, for doing what the demographics of
her school may have required of her.
May/June 2016 | 77
3/31/16 5:21 PM
Mr. Suh specifically asked the director
about the casting of the play at Clarion
long before the show ever went into rehearsal. She simply chose to ignore him
(or to conveniently “forget”), unlike the
off-Broadway producers of the play, who
cast their production with Lloyd’s approval.
Instead of accepting the director’s
request to add songs to the play, as he did,
the playwright could have just as easily
rejected the school’s request and denied
them a license on that basis. I suppose,
then, there would have been an outcry
published in the Chronicle of Higher
Education that would have accused him
of being…what…anti-music, like the
preacher in “Footloose”?
So no, this issue actually has nothing
to do with race. It is about a playwright
defending his property rights, which this
teacher has taught her students to ignore.
And not just to ignore, but to do so with
an arrogant self-righteous defiance, writing an article like this one defending her
indefensible behavior and misleading the
public into thinking this conflict is about
anything other than her rejection of the
author’s right to have the final say on what
his play is.
Some writers are fine with whatever
casting choices a director may want to
make and others may not be, but that
prerogative belongs to the author, not the
director, so the contractual default position is, and has to be, “ask first.” In this
case, if this director has simply answered
the playwright’s questions about casting
back when he first raised it in May, then
she and her students and faculty would’ve
been spared their many months of fruitless labor and could have moved on to
find a different work to produce. That
she chose not to respond to his casting
inquiry was her own doing.
mandated in the script or in the production contract that the productions
be cast with ethnic specificity. When
the show we were producing was done
off-Broadway, there seemed to have
been East Asians playing Indian roles,
but somehow that is acceptable where
Caucasian and African-American actors
were not.
Those of you who teach can probably imagine the heartbreak of sitting
down with a group of undergraduate
actors, designers, and technicians who
had put blood, sweat, and tears into the
production for months, only to tell them
that their work was unacceptable to the
playwright because the actors were not
Asian. While the playwright’s agent suggested that this should be a learning experience to educate the students in the
erroneousness of casting non-Asians in
“clearly Asian” roles—in a play that was
neither centered on nor even hinted of
racial issues—this lesson fell flat.
I have intentionally left out the name
of the playwright and the piece that we
were working on as I do not wish to
provide him with publicity at the expense of the fine and viable work of our
students. We will continue to strive, as
most educational theater programs do,
to provide as many and varied opportunities for our students as we can, and to
judge our performers on the content of
their character and skills, not on the color of their skin or their ethnic heritage.
Marilouise Michel is a professor of theater at
Clarion University of Pennsylvania.
I will not indulge the director’s false
equivalence between the real and ongoing racism in our society with the white
tears that flow when minority voices refuse to allow the dominant white culture
to continue marginalizing them and rendering them invisible. Because, despite
her attempt to distract with emotional
demagoguery, the real issue here is simply
the right of playwrights to protect the
integrity of their work, however they may
interpret that.
No, she did not name the playwright
in this article but, prior to its publication,
she had released the playwright’s personal
communications (none of which were
“vitriolic”) to the press. The playwright
and his agent had tried to resolve this issue privately with the school, but it was
the director who turned it into a public
referendum on the phony issue of “reverse racism.” This made him a target of
anger and hate mail that, in the currently
tense racial climate in this country, was
a reckless and dangerous thing for her to
have done. So she not only hurt her own
students by assuming a right she did not
have, she endangered a playwright by offering race-baiting justifications for her
unjustified behavior.
And that the Chronicle of Higher
Education chose to run this misleading
and self-serving essay without sufficient
fact-checking does not speak particularly
well of them, either.
In light of this situation, and other recent similar cases, many authors are now
working with their publishing companies
to make explicit in their contracts what
is already implicit in them…that casting
matters. The Guild recommends that, if
this issue is important to you, you contact
your publishers immediately to discuss it.
RALPH
[email protected]
78 | The Dramatist
3/31/16 5:21 PM
FROM
THE
DESK OF CREATIVE AFFAIRS
by Gary Garrison
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
B
oy, that Shakespeare guy
really knew how to put the
essence of feelings into just
a few words, didn’t he? I
wonder if he knew that for
centuries on end we’d be writing, quoting, rewriting, rephrasing, tweeting,
Facebooking, tattooing his words on
our forearms, laminating his words on
our t-shirts, stenciling them on coffee
cups or stitching them on pillows – often without a citation of who originated those words? Regardless, you’d have
to think he’d find it curious that his
stories have been transplanted into the
worlds of World War II Nazi Germany,
the cow grazing fields of Switzerland,
the circa 1950s industrial train yards
of New Jersey or reimagined through
the lens of broad musical comedy,
accentuated with tap dances and snare
drums. Even though he was known to
be an affable fellow, you’d think he’d
raise an eyebrow or two when he heard
that whole acts of his plays, plot lines,
or characters disappeared in the hands
of well-intentioned producers who
regarded their audiences far more than
their authors. But I digress (as I often
want to do).
It is with the sweetest sorrow
that I write my last column to you as
Executive Director of Creative Affairs
for the Dramatists Guild. I’m leaving a
glorious job that I’ve been connected
to for almost ten years for one very
simple reason: I want to be more of an
artist myself. After teaching at NYU
for almost 30 years, and working here
at the Guild for the last ten years, I’m
ready to take some time and practice
what I’ve been preaching, teaching and
advocating for over half of my life. I’m
not leaving because of an illness, an
unhappiness, a struggle or a conflict; I
just want to write, work with animals,
spend more time in my yard, spend
more time with friends and family, work
on a few social and political causes
that pain me daily, casually teach here
and there and continue to advocate for
writers from my desk at home instead
of my desk in Times Square.
I take with me every hand I shook
across the country as I met you,
every phone call as I listened to your
dreams and frustrations, every thrilling
announcement of your plays being
produced, every heartache you shared
when a production fell through for any
number of reasons, every love letter I
got and even those that weren’t so full
of love, all the panels you participated
in, workshops you observed, Town Hall
meetings you asked questions in, the
conferences, regional rep meetings,
Council meetings, productions I was
invited to and coffees I shared in your
communities.
I came to the Dramatists Guild in
2007, empowered by Marsha Norman,
John Weidman and the DG Council
to help shape the Guild into more of
the national organization it aspired to
be – no small challenge, I guarantee.
And I hope as I prepare to leave the
organization, almost ten years later,
that we have accomplished that in
some part. Of course, there’s more to
be done. And with the new Executive
Director of Creative Affairs, the
brilliant legal mind and Executive
Director of Business Affairs, Ralph
Sevush, the tireless staff here in New
York with the regional reps across
the country, and a caring, engaged
and inspired Council, the Guild will
continue to grow in all the right ways,
assuring that you have a safe space to
create your art and that you’re valued
and respected for the contributions
you make to the American theatre.
I’ll end now, as I began early on,
with a short essay that resonated for so
many of you when it was published in
one of our first E-blasts many years ago.
Remember this: you’re in my heart,
always. My very, very best to all of you.
THE GIFT
I’m sending this message out to
every writer I know, and by sending it to
you, hopefully I’ll hear it myself.
You’ve been given a gift. You’re
a Wordsmyth, a Word Warrior, the
Brilliant Developer of the Dramatic
Idea. You have the ability to create
whole intricate, dimensional worlds
and to people them with infinitely
interesting, complex beings in such a
way that folks here on this tiny planet
will smile wide with recognition, burst
at their seams with laughter or sink low
in their seats from great sadness. You
have the glorious ability to make entire
groups of people THINK about their
lives, their loves, their relationships,
their histories, their politics and to
take an action—a real action—because
of something you question, say, show,
demonstrate or illuminate.
That’s a pretty powerful notion, no?
So use it. Use it however you can.
Of course we’d all like a big, ol’ shiny
brand new production of one of our
(continued on the next page)
May/June 2016 | 79
3/31/16 5:21 PM
FROM
THE
DESK OF DRAMATISTS GUILD FUND
by Tessa Raden, Program Coordinator
I
stood in the brand new office of
the Dramatists Guild Fund, waiting to interview with Executive
Director Rachel Routh. I had been
living in New York City for less
than two weeks, having moved from my
hometown of Washington D.C. I was
sweating from running up and down
West 40th Street, trying to find where
it intersected with Ninth Avenue. I
wasn’t one hundred percent sure why
she wanted to interview someone with
a background in educational theatre
programming, but I was grateful for
the opportunity. I told Rachel that I
wanted to work somewhere I could be
part of something bigger than myself. I
wanted to collaborate. I wanted to care
for other people. And I wanted to do
all of these things for an organization
that did them well.
Now a year later, I find myself an
integral part of an incredible team. It has
been a wild, stressful, and rewarding year.
But finding a home at DGF is one of the
best things that’s ever happened to me.
That’s what DGF is really—a home. It is a
home for anyone who takes on the proud
challenge of calling themselves a writer.
Whether you’re a collective looking for a
space to work or an individual struggling
to pay your bills, we are here to help. We
are here to be a home for you.
Like many homes, DGF houses a
family. Everyone who walks through
our doors, literally or figuratively, is a
member of this family; and it is growing
every day. My hiring coincided with the
opening of The Music Hall, a totally free
space for writers to write and present
their work. Since then we have been able
to serve over 1,000 writers from all over
the country. But more important than
the numbers are the faces of real people
coming in and out of our office everyday.
These writers are no longer simply names
in a playbill. They are members of the
DGF family who we’ve come to know and
love, thanks to The Music Hall.
I recently returned from Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, where playwright Anna
Ziegler shared her insight with local
writers and theatre-lovers through our
Traveling Masters program. I am thrilled
to say I am still working in educational
theatre programming. Instead of working
with children, however, I am working
with some of the greatest minds the
American theatre has to offer. Education
is about sharing; offering the knowledge
you’ve earned for the growth and benefit
of others. DGF does so much to give
dramatists the opportunity to share, and
the loving community it breeds makes
DGF feel even more like home.
So I ended up getting much more
than I bargained for. I came to New York
looking for a great job, and what I ended
up with was a new home. Not a day goes
by that I don’t feel that sense of family
and strength of support. I feel it from my
coworkers and I feel it from every single
writer I interact with. I’m sure many of
you have felt it too. For those of you who
are new to us, as I was, welcome home.
TESSA
[email protected]
(continued from the prior page)
plays. And for some of us, that’s going
to happen. But that doesn’t mean the
rest of us can’t be highly productive,
creative, purposeful writers who leave a
sizeable footprint everywhere we step.
I know it’s frustrating sometimes.
I know you lose your direction, or
passion, or purpose, or drive, or
energy sometimes. I know time’s
short, money’s tight and life’s hectic.
I know the theatre community is
fickle and unfair and even unkind
sometimes. And I know you can write
for weeks/months/years with little to
no recognition. But that’s the price you
pay for being given a gift that few have
and so many treasure.
Remember this: most people can’t
do what you do. You have a gift. You
are the Writer, the Brilliant Developer
of the Dramatic Idea. In your mind are
all the solutions to the problems I’m
trying to solve in my life. So help me
out. Write your stories. Show me the
way.
GARY
[email protected]
80 | The Dramatist
3/31/16 5:21 PM
D RA MATISTS D I A RY
Dramatists
Diary
Submit your news items online. The
Member News Form allows you to
update us on productions, readings,
workshops, publications and more. And
all through one form that allows you to
choose where you want the news item
to appear: the online member bulletin
boards, the e-Newsletter or the magazine. Or, all three! The choice is yours.
To contribute a news item visit: http://
www.dramatistsguild.com/memberdirectory/magazine/getnews.aspx or
find the Member News button at the
bottom of our website’s home page.
Items submitted for publication in The
Dramatist will be printed in the earliest
possible issue.
Please remember, the Dramatists Diary
is a record of past events. These listings
are not advertisements. You may not
submit a news item that is older than
one year.
Please do not send your news items via
USPS mail.
Questions? Email
[email protected]
BROADWAY
The Crucible by ARTHUR MILLER. Walter Kerr
Theatre.
Long Day’s Journey Into Night by EUGENE
O’NEILL. Roundabout Theatre Company,
American Airlines Theatre.
Tuck Everlasting book by CLAUDIA SHEAR and
Tim Federle, music by CHRIS MILLER, lyrics
by NATHAN TYSEN. Broadhurst Theatre.
American Psycho music and lyrics by DUNCAN
SHEIK, book by ROBERTO AGUIRRESACASA. Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.
Shuffle Along music and lyrics by NOBLE
SISSLE and EUBIE BLAKE, book by
D R A M AT I STS DI ARY
GEORGE C. WOLFE, original book by F.E.
MILLER and AUBREY LYLES. Music Box
Theatre.
OFF-BROADWAY
Caps for Sale adapted by MICHAEL J.
BOBBITT. The New Victory Theater.
Southern Comfort book and lyrics by DAN
COLLINS, music by JULIANNE WICK
DAVIS. The Public Theater.
Coffee House, Greenwich Village by JOHN
DOBLE, 59E59 Theater.
Dot by COLMAN DOMINGO. Vineyard
Theatre.
Familiar by DANAI GURIRA. Playwrights
Horizons.
In The Secret Sea by CATE RYAN. The Beckett
Theatre.
Boy by ANNA ZIEGLER. Keen Company and
Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Clurman
Theatre at Theatre Row.
OTHER NEW YORK
The War Machine by JOHNNY ALSPAUGH.
Hudson Theater Guild. New York, NY.
And Then by GLENN ALTERMAN. Gallery
Players. New York, NY.
Speakeasy: John and Jane’s Adventures in
the Wonderland by DANNY ASHKENASI.
Theater for the New City. New York, NY.
The Real Machiavelli by MONICA BAUER.
13th Street Repertory Theater. New York, NY.
The Death of a Black Man by WILLIAM
ELECTRIC BLACK. Theater for the New
City. New York, NY.
So Amazing by DIANA BROWN. Kraine
Theater. New York, NY.
Charles Busch’s Cleopatra by CHARLES
BUSCH. Theater for the New City, New
York, NY.
Coffee House, Greenwich Village by JOHN
DOBLE. 59E59 Theater. New York, NY.
Ten Commandments by JOHN DOBLE.
Lovecraft Arts Festival. New York, NY.
Pearl by SONHARA J. EASTMAN. Goldberg
Theater. New York, NY.
The Overdevelopment of Scott book,
music and lyrics by SHARON JOSEPHINE
FOGARTY. Hudson Guild Theater and
TheaterLab. New York, NY.
Opaline by FENGAR GAEL. The Secret
Theatre. Long Island City, NY.
The Bronx Queen by JOSEPH GULLA, Joe’s
Pub at The Public Theater. New York, NY.
Space Interlude by JUNE GURALNICK, AirPlay
Radio, New York, NY.
Ethereal Killer by ZANNE HALL, Manhattan
Repertory Theatre, New York City, NY.
The Improbable Fall, Rise & Fall of John
Law (part 1) by MATT HERZFELD. The
Dreamscape Theatre, IRT Theater, New
York, NY.
Safe by DONNA HOKE. Road Less Traveled
Productions. Buffalo, NY.
Sugar Ray by LAURENCE HOLDER. New
Harlem Besame Restaurant, New York, NY.
Eternal Flame: The Ballad of Jessie Blade by
TOMMY JAMERSON and Josh Julian. The
Corner Office Theatre. New York, NY.
Rags to Botches: A Battle of Wits and Wigs by
TOMMY JAMERSON. HERE Arts Center.
New York, NY.
Anything New by EMILY KACZMAREK.
Wombat Theatre Company. New York, NY.
Strays by PHILIP J KAPLAN, T Schreiber Studio,
New York, NY.
Babe I Hate To Go by RHEA MACCALLUM.
Articulate Theatre Company. New York, NY.
The Neighbor’s Son by RHEA MACCALLUM.
Greenhouse Ensemble. New York, NY.
Ironbound by MARTYNA MAJOK. Rattlestick
Playwrights Theater and Women’s Project
Theater, New York, NY.
Night Divers by SUSAN CLAIRE MIDDAUGH.
Four Quarter Theater at Comley Studio Lab.
New York, NY.
Bill Nelson Songs in Concert at Lincoln
Center lyrics by BILL NELSON. Bruno
Walter Auditorium, Lincoln Center. New
York, NY.
Daddy’s Little Girl by PHIL PARADIS.
Manhattan Repertory Theatre. New York,
NY.
God Is A Ford Man by PHIL PARADIS.
NY.
The Powder Puff Heist by PHIL PARADIS.
NY.
Racquetball by PHIL PARADIS. The Producers
Club. New York, NY.
Doctor! Doctor! and Gaslight Tango by WARD
JAMES RILEY. Axial Theatre. Pleasantville,
NY.
The Mark of Cain by GARY EARL ROSS.
Subversive Theatre Collective. Buffalo, NY.
Punk Grandpa at FRIGID Festival by LAURA
FORCE SCRUGGS. Horse Trade Theater.
New York, NY.
Outside/Inside by JENNY SEIDELMAN. Ivy
Theatre Company. New York, NY.
The Dance Maker by SUSAN SHAFER, Theater
for the New City, New York, NY.
May/June 2016 | 81
pp81-87 BackOBook.indd 81
3/31/16 5:22 PM
D RAMAT I STS DI A RY
Beethoven’s Hair by MARLENE FANTA
SHYER. Lambs Club. NY, New York.
Like a Sack of Potatoes by RIC SILER, Jewel
Box Theater, New York, NY.
MITF: Corpus by JORDAN KENDALL
STOVALL, Jewel Box Theater, Workshop
Theater Company, New York, NY.
Murrow: The Man. His Work. By JOSEPH
VITALE. The Wild Project. New York, NY.
Murrow by JOSEPH VITALE. Phoenix Theatre
Ensemble. New York, NY.
Toast by DIANA LEE WOODY, Modern-Day
Griot Theatre Company, Brooklyn, NY.
REGIONAL
Solomon’s Blade by LISA BETH ALLEN. The
Camelot Theatre Company. Talent, OR.
Yours and Mine by GLENN ALTERMAN. Pigs
Do Fly Productions. Fort Lauderdale, FL.
The Mongoose by WILL ARBERY. The Road
Theatre. Los Angeles, CA.
Pharmaceutical the Revusical book, music and
lyrics by GALE BAKER, ACT Studio Theatre.
Stuart, FL.
First Kids (Junior Edition) music by NORMAN
L. BERMAN, book and lyrics by ABRAHAM
TETENBAUM. Enrichment Works. Los
Angeles, CA.
Utter Magic by ROBIN ELLEN BROOKS,
Playlist Seattle III, Seattle, WA.
Setting a Prisoner Free by DELVYN C. CASE,
JR. First Presbyterian Church. Bonita Springs,
FL.
Bicycle Built for Two; Babu, No Babuji;
Dressed to Kill; Life Jacket; Safe at Home
by DEVLYN C. CASE, JR. Big Arts Theater.
Sanibel, FL.
I’ll Be Back Before Midnight by PETER
COLLEY. Stray Dog Theatre. St. Louis, MO.
Happy Hour by GEORGE C. EASTMAN.
Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre. Rancho
Mirage, CA.
Homespun Webs: Imagining Louise
Bourgeois by C. J. EHRLICH. Rover
Dramawerks. Plano, TX.
The Lilac Ticket by C. J. EHRLICH. Paw Paw
Village Players. Paw Paw, MI.
Bodice Ripper by DONALD R. FRIED. Camino
Real Playhouse. San Juan Capistrano, CA.
Devil Dog Six by FENGAR GAEL. Detroit
Repertory Theatre. Detroit, MI.
Opaline by FENGAR GAEL. The Garage
Theatre. Long Beach, CA.
Benny & Pearl on the Waterfront by NANCY
GALL-CLAYTON. Bellarmine University
Wyatt Hall Black Box Theatre. Louisville, KY.
It’s Aunt Alice! and A Day in Court by JOHN
GLASS. Community Roots Academy. Aliso
Viejo, CA.
Death of a Snowman, Rebel Without a
Claus, and Last of the Tannenbaums by
DANIEL GUYTON. Newnan High School.
Columbus, GA.
Nina Simone: Four Women by CHRISTINA
HAM. Park Square Theatre. Saint Paul, MN.
Safe by DONNA HOKE. Road Less Traveled
Productions. Buffalo, NY.
Enchanted April, A New Musical Romance
music by Richard B. Evans, book and lyrics by
CHARLES LEIPART. Pacific Coast Repertory
Theatre. Pleasanton, CA.
Caps for Sale, A Musical music by PAUL LEWIS,
books and lyrics by PAUL LEWIS and Gabriel
Carbajal. Boston Children’s Theatre. Boston,
MA.
My Heart is the Drum lyrics by STACEY
LUFTIG, libretto by JENNIE REDLING,
music by Phillip Palmer. Village Theatre.
Seattle, WA.
Letting Go by RHEA MACCALLUM. Parish
Players. Thetford, VT.
Kill Me, Please! by RHEA MACCALLUM.
Bindlestiff Studio. San Francisco, CA.
Independence Day by RHEA MACCALLUM.
Storefront Theatre. Waxhaw, NC.
Don’t Ask and The Wrong Stuff by THOMAS
J. MISURACA. Spokane Stage Left Theatre.
Spokane, WA.
Pants on Fire by THOMAS J. MISURACA.
Riverside Theatre. Iowa City, IA.
An Evening With Stephen Crane by PHIL
PARADIS. Cincinnati LAB Theatre. Newport,
KY.
Marques - a narco Macbeth translated,
adapted, and written by STEPHEN RICHTER
and Monica Andrade. UCSC Theater Arts.
Santa Cruz, CA.
The Consorts by TIMOTHY LAWRENCE
RUPPERT. The Duquesne University Red
Masquers. Pittsburgh, PA.
Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods by TAMMY L.
RYAN. Portland Stage Company. Portland,
ME.
Molly’s Hammer by TAMMY L. RYAN. The
Repertory Theater of St. Louis. St. Louis,
MO.
Something Less Than Murder by MARK E.
SCHARF. Reedy Point Players at 2016 ESTA
Festival. Lewes, DE.
Sherlock Holmes Vs. Godzilla by BEN COREY
SCHROTH. Pocket Sandwich Theatre.
Dallas, TX.
She’s History! by AMY JAN SIMON. The
Lounge Theatre. Los Angeles, CA.
Cinderella (Love What You Wish For) by
DIANNE M SPOSITO and Mark Boergers.
Stritch Theater, Milwaukee, WI.
Heroes Must Die by RICK STEMM. Palmetto
Theater at Northwest Vista College. San
Antonio, TX.
Drowning Ophelia by RACHEL LUANN
STRAYER. Gaslight Theatre Company.
Scranton, PA.
Socks by ROSEMARY FRISINO TOOHEY.
Wauconda High School. Wauconda, IL.
Shakespeare Club. Orrington, ME.
The Jolly Corks by MARTHA VELEZ. Elks
Theatre. Hudson, FL.
Roadkill by J. WEINTRAUB. Fine Arts
Association of Lake County, OH.
Willoughby, OH.
Baby Wings by MARK DIETRICH WYSS.
Walker’s Point Center for the Arts.
Milwaukee, WI.
Colony Collapse by STEFANIE ZADRAVEC.
Theatre @ Boston Court. Pasadena, CA.
ABROAD
Hand To God by ROBERT ASKINS. Vaudeville
Theatre, London, UK.
Connected book, music and lyrics by CRAIG
WILLIAM CHRISTIE. Touring. Melbourne,
Victoria, Australia.
Shadow of a Blonde by PETER COLLEY.
Dundas Little Theatre. Dundas, Ontario,
Canada.
Favors by JULIANNE HOMOKAY. Tortilla
Festival at the Alliance Francaise de
Bangalore. Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Gram Scams by CARY PEPPER. Short + Sweet
Play Festival. Sydney, Australia.
Do You Want to Know a Secret? by DANIEL
FORD PINKERTON. Actors Reperatory
Theatre Luxembourg. Luxembourg City,
Luxembourg.
Meuf de Pique by ALAN ROSSETT. City 27,
Paris, France.
Socks by ROSEMARY FRISINO TOOHEY.
Victoria School of the Arts. Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada.
The Winners by DAVID L WILLIAMS. Owl &
Cat Theatre Company. Melbourne, Victoria,
Australia.
82 | The Dramatist
3/31/16 5:22 PM
D R A M AT I STS DI ARY
READINGS AND WORKSHOPS
The Green Light by MARSHA FRANK BERKE.
The Culver Hotel Grand Lobby. Los Angeles,
CA.
Vamping and Linda: 365 Women a Day
by DIANA BURBANO. Monster Box.
Waterford, MI.
Conrack book by GRANVILLE WYCHE
BURGESS, lyrics by Anne Croswell, music
by Lee Pockriss. The York Theatre Company.
New York, NY.
Blissful The Musical book, music and lyrics by
PETER COPANI. Davenport Theatre. New
York, NY.
Atop Illyria by HAL CORLEY. Writers Theatre of
New Jersey. Summit, NJ.
Midcentury Modern by HAL CORLEY. Ground
Up Productions. New York, NY and Villagers
Theatre. Somerset, NJ.
Old School Yuki Doesn’t Tote Guns by TROY
DIANA. LaGuardia Performing Arts Center.
Long Island City, NY.
The Lilac Ticket by C. J. EHRLICH. Red Earth
Theatre and Little Black Dress INK. Sedona,
AZ.
Made in America by LINDA EVANS. First
Presbytarian Church. Fort Wayne, IN. Fort
Findlay Playhouse. Findlay, OH.
Joshua, Billy, Mary and Abraham
by ANTHONY ERNEST GALLO.
Cosmowriters. Washington, DC.
Margherita by ANTHONY ERNEST GALLO.
Ingleside at Rock Creek Stage. Washington,
DC.
The Xxx-Rated Genius by JACK GILHOOLEY.
Fogartyville Café. Sarasota, FL.
Guellen, Kansas by ALEX GOLDBERG.
Antaeus Theatre Company. North
Hollywood, CA.
Frank Talk by SHARON GOLDNER. Audrey
Herman Spotlighters Theater. Baltimore,
MD.
I’m Not Gay! by DANIEL GUYTON.
Firecracker Productions. Houston, TX.
Samaritan by SUSAN JANE JACKSON. 3Girls
Theatre Company. San Francisco, CA.
Bound by Stardust by CLAUDIA INGLIS HAAS.
Purple Crayon Players. Evanston, IL.
A Paper Forest by CLAUDIA INGLIS HAAS.
William Inge Theater Festival of New Plays.
Independence, KS.
A Razing in Missouri by SUSAN JANE
JACKSON. Guerneville Readers Theatre.
Guerneville, CA.
Eleanor Tuesday by TOM LAVAGNINO.
Center Theatre Group / Humanitas / Skylight
Theatre. Los Angeles, CA.
The Learned Ladies based on the play by
Moliere, music by RAY LESLEE, libretto by
Brian Dykstra. The New School. New York,
NY.
Little Wifes as They Grow by MELISSA
MARTINEZ. Playhouse NOLA. New
Orleans, LA.
Distant Thunder by Lynne Taylor-Corbett
& Shaun Taylor-Corbett, lyrics by Chris
Wiseman & Shaun Taylor-Corbett, additional
music by ROBERT LINDSEY-NASSIF. Amas
Musical Theatre. New York, NY.
Feeding the Furies by ANDREA MARKOWITZ.
Fells Point Corner Theatre. Baltimore, MD.
Antoinette’s Duck by WAYNE PAUL
MATTINGLY. Axial Theatre CompanY.
Pleasantville, NY.
Loving Cuckold: Restoration Rearrangements
in Heroic Couplets by EDMUND MILLER.
Hudson Guild Theatre. New York, NY.
Average American by SUSAN MILLER. Stella
Adler Studios. Los Angeles, CA.
The Hope Slope by MARILYN MILLSTONE.
Baltimore Playwrights Festival/Fells Point
Corner Theatre, Baltimore, MD.
Making Frankenstein by NATALIE OSBORNE.
NOplays and Hubbard Hall. Cambridge, NY.
An Evening With Stephen Crane by PHIL
PARADIS. Bob G. Elkins Actors Studio /
Zappa Studios. Cincinnati, OH; and Actors
& Playwrights Collaborative. Cincinnati, OH.
Mamma’s Little Darlings by PHIL PARADIS.
Zappa Studios/ Bob G. Elkins Actors Studio.
Cincinnati, OH.
Natural Rarities Up For Bid by PHIL PARADIS.
Village Players. Fort Thomas, KY; and Actors
& Playwrights Collaborative. Cincinnati, OH.
The Powder Puff Heist by PHIL PARADIS. Bob
G. Elkins Actors Studio / Zappa Studios.
Cincinnati, OH; and Actors & Playwrights
Collaborative. Cincinnati, OH.
Racquetball by PHIL PARADIS. Zappa Studios/
Bob G. Elkins Actors Studio. Cincinnati, OH.
Nosejob by SUSAN RABIN. Dragon Theatre.
Redwood City, CA.
The Carina Limone Museum by MARCIA
R RUDIN. Sanibel Community Theatre.
Sanibel, FL.
Playing the Winner by DEBORAH SAVADGE.
New Works Festiva, Pittsburgh, NY.
Still Point by MARK E. SCHARF. Dramatists
Guild Baltimore Footligthts Reading Series,
University of Baltimore Wright Theatre.
Baltimore, MD.
The First Supper by KAREN SCHIFF. Altarena
Playhouse. Alameda, CA.
The Dance Maker by SUSAN SHAFER. Rover
Dramawerks. Plano, TX.
Chicago Trilogy by SANDRA SEATON. Atlanta
Black Theatre Festival. Atlanta, GA.
Ma Tragedie Antique by DOLLY WEST.
Cabinet des Curiosities - Theatre du Rocher.
France.
It’s a Boy! By PAMELA WINFREY. San Francisco
Footlights. San Francisco, CA.
PUBLICATIONS
Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda by GLENN
ALTERMAN. Longman, imprint of Pearson
Publications.
Hand to God by ROBERT ASKINS. Dramatists
Play Service.
Up, Down, Strange, Charmed, Beauty, and
Truth; Lila on the Wall; and Mafia on
Prozac, three plays by EDWARD ALLAN
BAKER. Dramatists Play Service.
The Nance by DOUGLAS CARTER BEANE.
Dramatists Play Service.
Short Shorts for Seniors by LUDMILLA
BOLLOW. Blue Moon Plays.
The Craig Christie Songbook music and lyrics
by CRAIG WILLIAM CHRISTIE. Origin
Theatrical.
Beating Hollywood: Tips for Creating
Unforgettable Screenplays by STEVE
CUDEN. CreateSpace Independent
Publishing (Available from Amazon).
Thea’s Turn by MARY QUEEN DONNELLY.
Steele Spring Stage Rights.
Whodunnit, Darling? by Larry Drake and
CHARLES EDWARD POGUE. Dramatic
Publishing.
Heathcliff in America by ANTHONY ERNEST
GALLO. Browns Court Publishing Company
(Amazon).
Between Riverside and Crazy by STEPHEN
ADLY GUIRGIS. Dramatists Play Service.
Dead Giveaway by DANIEL GUYTON Heuer
Publishing.
Where’s Julie? (Chinese Edition) by DANIEL
GUYTON. Fiberead.
Wild Island Adventure by CLAUDIA INGLIS
HAAS. Eldridge Publishing.
Tarred and Feathered by CLAUDIA INGLIS
HAAS. Applause Theatre, Cinema Books.
Escape, T.M.S. (Total Male Syndrome) by
CLAUDIA INGLIS HAAS. Applause Theatre
and Cinema Books.
Sense and Sensibility by KATE HAMILL, based
on the novel by Jane Austen. Dramatists Play
Service.
Cyrano by Edmond Rostand, translated by
May/June 2016 | 83
3/31/16 5:22 PM
D RAMAT I STS DI A RY
MICHAEL HOLLINGER, adapted by
MICHAEL HOLLINGER and Aaron Posner.
Dramatists Play Service.
Four Plays by Jean-Jaques Rousseau introduced
and translated by KATHLEEN HUBER and
JEROME MARTIN SCHWARTZ. Amazon.
The Metromaniacs by DAVID IVES. Dramatists
Play Service.
Wonderland High book by JESSE DAVID
JOHNSON and JAMES MERILLAT, lyrics by
JESSE DAVID JOHNSON, music by JAMES
MERILLAT. Music Theatre International.
Short Plays By the Dozen by ARTHUR
KEYSER. Short Plays By the Dozen. ArtAge
Senior Theatre Resource Center.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Diamond as Big
as the Ritz adapted by ALEXIS KOZAK.
Eldridge Publishing.
Perdida music by Deborah Lapuma, book and
lyrics by KATHLEEN CAHILL. Dramatic
Publishing.
The Love Note Musical book, music and lyrics
by GAIL M PHANEUF. Heuer Publishing,
LLC.
The Haunted Widow Lincoln by DONNA
LATHAM. Chicago Dramaworks.
The Bridge Party by SANDRA SEATON. East
End Press.
The Will by SANDRA SEATON. East End Press.
Jarman (All This Maddening Beauty) and
other plays. CARIDAD SVICH. Intellect
Books Ltd.
Ashville by LUCY THURBER. Dramatists Play
Service.
The Insurgents by LUCY THURBER. Dramatists
Play Service.
A Delicate Ship by ANNA ZIEGLER. Dramatists
Play Service.
Dov and Ali by ANNA ZIEGLER. Dramatists
Play Service.
RECORDINGS
Podcast Interview by DANIEL GUYTON.
Onstage/Offstage Radio.
American Psycho: Original London Cast
Recording music and lyrics by DUNCAN
SHEIK. Concord Records.
AWARDS
Missing by DALE ANDERSON. Honorable
Mention, Lourdes University One Act
Playwriting Competition.
Postnuptials by DAVID EARLE. Best Play
Nominee, New York Screenplay Contest.
Morgenstern in Vienna by ALAN GOODSON.
Finalist for the Stanley Drama Award; Wagner
College.
I Knew King When He Was a Nobody by
ALLSTON JAMES. Finalist in the 2016
Shakespeare in the ‘Burg Play Festival.
Final Round by ROSEMARY FRISINO
TOOHEY. Finalist in the Shakespeare in the
‘Burg One Act Playwriting Competition
OTHER
Repairing a Nation by NIKKOLE SALTER.
Crossroads Theatre Company broadcast on
THIRTEEN PBS. New Brunswick, NJ.
From The Diary of Sally Hemings solo
opera by composer William Bolcom and
librettist SANDRA SEATON. Part of Alyson
Cambridge’s “In Her Voice,” Kennedy
Center, Washington, DC.
Remembering Theodore Ward by SANDRA
SEATON. Black Masks 22.3 (Fall 2015): 7-8.
NYFA Sponsorship by RODERIC
WACHOVSKY. New York Foundation for the
Arts sponsorship for Project Play: Tangled UP.
Jackson Heights, NY.
84 | The Dramatist
3/31/16 5:22 PM
D RNE
A MW
ATM
I STS
E MDI
B EARY
RS
The Guild
Welcomes...
MISSISSIPPI
Darcy Sturges .......................Kalamazoo
MINNESOTA
Kristin Idaszak ....................Minneapolis
Harrison Rivers .........................St. Paul
Buffy Sedlachek ..................Minneapolis
Joe Tougas..................... North Mankato
Max Wojtanowicz ................Minneapolis
MISSOURI
ALABAMA
William Kinsolving .................. Lakeville
Pete Bakely ........................ Kansas City
Aaron Scully.......................... Columbia
FLORIDA
NEBRASKA
Heather J. Morrow ................ Edmonton
ARIZONA
Anthony Pelham ..................... Orlando
Ellen Stuve ..............................Omaha
GEORGIA
NEVADA
Jenny Millinger ........................ Phoenix
CALIFORNIA
Scott Barry ......................... Sacramento
Weslie Brown ......................Los Angeles
David Byrd ..........................Los Angeles
Dave Caplan .......................Los Angeles
Dave Cintron ......................... Ventura
Letha Dawson ........................ Roseville
Braddock ...................... West Hollywood
Vincent T. Durham ................. Van Nuys
R. E. ...................................Los Angeles
Maggie Gwinn .................. Santa Monica
Randall R. Jahn ..................... Escondido
Erin Kamler ...................... Santa Monica
Debbie Kasper .....................Los Angeles
Thomas Lazarus ...................Los Angeles
Catherine McSharry .................. Benicia
Joshua Metzger ...................Beverly Hills
J Marcus Newman ................. San Diego
Jordan Puckett ......................... Newark
M. N. Robinson ...................Los Angeles
Terena Scott ...............................Ukiah
James Shannon ..................... San Diego
Dara Silverman ....................... Oakland
Scott Starrett ......................Los Angeles
Shenelle Williams ................. San Diego
Spencer Williams .................. San Diego
Marlow Wyatt......................Los Angeles
Beverly Trader Austin ................Lilburn
Esby R. Duncan ...................... Acworth
Kim Russell ............................Las Vegas
ILLINOIS
KANSAS
Ben Bartolone .......................Montclair
James Campodonico.............. Bloomfield
Ali Skylar ...........................Morristown
Rosemary Loar..................... Rutherford
Gary N. Plotkin..................... Fair Lawn
Jimmy Zhang .......................... Mahwah
Benjamin Smith ......................... Derby
Shawn M. Thomas .....................Wichita
NEW MEXICO
Cardi Fleck ............................. Chicago
David Corbin Rockenbaug ........ Chicago
Richard M. von Ritter ..............Evanston
KENTUCKY
Grace Epstein ..................... Cold Spring
Diana Grisanti ....................... Louisville
Rebecca Henderson ...............Fisherville
Megan Wheelock ................... Louisville
MAINE
David Vazdauskas ..................Brunswick
MARYLAND
Nathan Wei Chi Liu ................. Bethesda
Gregory T. Martin ................... Rockville
Gretchen Midgley ..............Silver Spring
Todd Olson ........................... Columbia
MASSACHUSETTS
COLORADO
Gregory Bell ........................Castle Rock
Sharon Farrell ...........................Denver
Martha Horstman-Evans ............Denver
CONNECTICUT
Aidan Carr ......................... Woodbridge
85 | The Dramatist
Peter Anderegg .................. Ashburnham
Harley Erdman.........................Florence
Paul Marsh ................................ Dover
A. Vincent Ularich ................. Arlington
NEW JERSEY
Lois Hall ........................... Albuquerque
NEW YORK
Mark Bennett ........................New York
Dana Boll .............................New York
Martin Boorstein ...................Wainscott
Patrick Burns .......................... Syracuse
Amy Canfield ..................West Henrietta
David Ceci ........................ Staten Island
Jack Ciapciak.........................New York
Dorie Clark ...........................New York
Emily Cohen ..................... Staten Island
Michelle DeFranco.................New York
Andre Degas..........................New York
Maria DeLucia-Evans...............Altamont
Laura Eason ........................... Brooklyn
Phoebe Eaton ........................New York
Tasso Feldman ........................ Brooklyn
Rosa Fernandez ..........................Buffalo
Amelia E French. ....................New York
Michael Friedman ................... Brooklyn
Steven Gaynor ......................Briarwood
Christopher Gooley .................Sea Cliff
Christopher C. Harrison .........New York
May/June 2016 | 85
3/31/16 5:22 PM
D RAMAT
NEW
MEMBERS
I STS DI A RY
Jara M. Jones .........................New York
Judith Kampfner ....................New York
Kathleen Lacy-Krupp .............Scottsville
Owen Eisenhower ................... Brooklyn
Matthew McLachlan .................Queens
Cassandra Medley ..................New York
Wolfe G. Nissen................. Staten Island
Sean-Patrick William O’Brien Ridgewood
Kate Payne ............................New York
Deaon G. Pressley ............Mount Vernon
Michael Rendino .............. Kew Gardens
Christopher Reza ...................New York
Spencer Charles Robelen ........New York
Crayton Robey ......................New York
Bird Rogers .............................. Astoria
Kate Ryan .............................New York
Toni Schlesinger ....................New York
Sonya Sobieski ......................New York
Jordan Kendall Stovall ............New York
Kevin Townley .......................New York
Danielle Trzcinski ..................New York
Karen Zechowy ......................New York
NORTH CAROLINA
Kiesa Kay ...............................Micaville
Derek Smith ........................ Fayetteville
OHIO
TEXAS
Franky Gonzalez..........................Frisco
Duran A. Lucio .................... Harlington
Jacob Sampson .........................Denton
LLLiggett! ................................Dublin
WASHINGTON
OREGON
Amy Bryan ..............................Portland
Nazlah Saabirah Black ............. Olympia
Jim Snowden ...........................Bellevue
Harold Taw ...............................Seattle
PENNSYLVANIA
WEST VIRGINIA
Staci Backauskas ................... Pittsburgh
Lisa R. Grunberger .............. Philadelphia
Terrence I. Mosley ................ Pittsburgh
John Sherwood ...................Moundsville
WISCONSIN
Kristin Bayer ........................ West Bend
RHODE ISLAND
Alysha D. Haran ......................Newport
SOUTH CAROLINA
Frederick DeJaco..................Johns Island
SOUTH DAKOTA
Heather N. Pickering .............Rapid City
ABROAD
Justin Chua B H .....................Singapore
Catrina McHugh .................. Newcastle
Upon Tyne, GBR
Irene Sankoff...................Toronto, CAN
Diane I. Thurber ..................Yigo, GUM
It’s time
to write.
“Your writing will get better, no doubt about
that. All of the faculty are approachable and
dedicated professionals, willing to share their
expertise as well as their stories of success
and failure. This kind of honesty gives strength
to those of us at the beginning of our careers.”
–Catherine Rush ’12, Edgerton Foundation New
American Play Award winner
SPALDING.EDU/MFA
A top 10 low-residency MFA in Writing program
—Poets & Writers
86 | The Dramatist
Our award-winning playwriting faculty:
Gabriel Jason Dean, Qualities of Starlight
Kira Obolensky, Lobster Alice
Charlie Schulman, The Goldstein Variations
Larry Brenner, Saving Throw Versus Love
Eric Schmiedl, The Kardiac Kid
3/31/16 5:22 PM
eir
gth
rs.”
ew
DRAM
C LATAISSTS
S IFDI
IEARY
DS
The Guild cannot vouch for the
reliability of this information.
Publication does not constitute an
endorsement or recommendation by
the Guild.
Advertisements of goods and services
that are useful to dramatists are
accepted on a first-come basis at a rate
of $40 for 40 words or fewer and $0.75
for each additional word. Current Guild
members receive one 40-word classified
ad free every calendar year. We may edit
advertisements for style or content.
You may mail your ad to: The
Dramatist, Dramatists Guild of
America, Inc., 1501 Broadway, Suite
701, New York, NY 10036. A check or
money order must accompany the ad.
You may also email your ad to jstocks@
dramatistsguild.com and process your
payment with a credit card by phone:
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The deadlines for advertisements (with
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1st – November/December issue;
November 1st – January/February issue;
January 1st – March/April issue; March 1st
– May/June issue; May 1st – July/August
issue.
$25 Guild discount rate. www.tcg.org
PRODUCER OR THEATRE
COMPANY WANTED to produce plays
by a New Jersey playwright. Both dramatic
and comedic plays available. Seeking an
established NJ or PA producer who has
good working relations with actors, set and
light designers, etc. Many works of the
playwright I represent have been produced
in and around Princeton. Some financial
participation may be available for the right
company. Please contact eewhiting@
live.com to express interest. Include a
resume of past experience and/or recent
productions. Playscript and details will be
provided to viable candidates.
LYRICIST SEEKS COMPOSER to join
me in holy and/or irreverent collaboration
and laugh ourselves silly while creating a
raucous, magical, goosebump-engendering
musical. Pre-collaborative libretto
available upon request. 641-472-1850.
[email protected]. Operators are standing
by. I’m Fred Gratzon and I approve this
message.
SKYLINE: TALES OF MANHATTAN
by playwright William Fowkes. Nineteen
short stories about New Yorkers making
startling connections and discoveries,
proving once again that Manhattan’s
residents are just as striking as the city’s
celebrated skyline. Available on Amazon:
paper or e-book.
PLAY DOCTOR. Internationally
successful New York playwright with
acclaimed productions in fifteen countries
will critique your play and give you written
suggestions for revisions to strengthen
it, increasing its chances for successful
production. For details, call John Tobias
(212) 289-4322.
PLAYWRIGHT SEEKS CHICAGOBASED COMPOSER to collaborate on
existing script with production history.
Must be available for collaborative work
during summer of 2016. Please submit
demo recordings and/or inquiries to
[email protected].
SAVE 10% on all DPS Acting Editions.
Dramatists Play Service, Inc., established
by members of the Dramatists Guild in
1936 for the handling of acting rights of
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of the American theatre. Call 212-6838960 with code DGDPS10 for 10% Guild
discount and more information.
PROFESSIONAL MUSIC NOTATION/
ARRANGEMENTS. Lead sheets, piano/
vocals, orchestra scores, etc., transcribed,
edited, meticulously prepared to order.
State-of-the-art, publishing-quality
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demos, readings, and productions. New
York’s finest. Ipsilon Music Services. (646)
265-5666. Web: www.ipsilonmusic.com
SAVE 30% on AMERICAN THEATRE
when you join Theatre Communications
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Call 212-609-5900 with code DGLD15 for
May/June 2016 | 87
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ILLUSTRATION BY DAN ROMER
Jeffrey
Sweet
I
was seventeen, a freshman at NYU, and new to
New York. I saw an off-Broadway musical called
Now is the Time for All Good Men in Greenwich
Village and happened to be at a performance
when the co-author (who was also the female
lead) was scheduled to talk to people after
the show. After I asked a craft question, she
suggested I stick around for a private word. I did. Gretchen Cryer
said, “You’re a playwright?” I said I hoped to be. And she said,
“You’re going to want to join the Dramatists Guild.”
Initially I wanted to be a member of the Guild just as an index of
having, as they say, made my bones. But I got an education in what the
Guild was about when I stumbled into a post assisting the late Otis L.
Guernsey, Jr. on the predecessor to this magazine, The Dramatists Guild
Quarterly. Getting assignments from Otis to cover events was an education in its history and an introduction to the range of its concerns and
activities.
I was lucky to be around to share the excitement as the Guild
shifted from primarily offering support to Broadway-based writers to
embracing those working in regional and off-off-Broadway venues.
Since I was doing most of my work in Chicago and with non-profit New
York companies, I wanted to be part of addressing issues that arose
there. I ran for and was elected to Council.
Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of working on a number of
committees and projects. Among my memories are partnering with
Gloria Gonzalez to set up the first “meet the directors” meeting,
compiling the first directory of regional theater markets (on a manual
pp88 WhyJSweet.indd 88
typewriter yet), and joining with Arthur Kopit to bring to a vote a motion that led to the Guild joining the internet age. (Okay, I’ve been a
member more than 40 years.)
Along the way, it was a pleasure to meet so many of the people who
had inspired me to attempt this line of work. I arrived when it was still
possible to be introduced to Sidney Kingsley, Eubie Blake, Jerome Lawrence, Ruth Goetz, Tennessee Williams, Garson Kanin, Ruth Gordon,
Al Carmines, Arthur Miller, Marc Connelly, and Frances Goodrich and
Albert Hackett. Add to this list the extraordinary artists I see at current
Council meetings. In meeting after meeting, they advocate for the
rights and opportunities of others around the country. Those who sit
at the tables once a month in the Mary Rodgers Room likely will never
meet most of their far-flung colleagues, but the passion the Council
puts into supporting fellow dramatists moves me every time.
And honestly, you’re never the same after Edward Albee passes you a
note containing a wry comment. (As if he would make any other kind.)
Based in Chicago and New York, JEFFREY SWEET’s plays include The Value of Names,
Flyovers, The Action Against Sol Schumann and Court-Martial at Fort Devens and
have won Jefferson, Audelco and Outer Critics Circle Awards, a “Best Plays” citation and
prizes from the American Theatre Critics Association. Kunstler opens in New York next
season.
3/31/16 5:22 PM
MayJun BackCovers.indd 1
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1
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FOR THE COMPOSER, LYRICIST, AND PLAYWRIGHT:
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The Dramati - Dramatists Guild

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