Playscripts #PitchNPlay Contest
New social technologies (Twitter in particular) are changing the way that writers, readers, and theatergoers promote, discuss, and debate new plays. But, could social innovations like Twitter also help to create new work? We think so! That's why we are inviting our Twitter followers to pitch us ideas for the next great Playscripts play. The first ever Playscripts Pitch 'N' Play playwriting contest gives you the chance to write a winning pitch, a winning play, or both!
The Basics: Today until February 21st we'll be collecting pitch ideas via Twitter that are inspired by this Shakespeare quote, "The course of true love never did run smooth."
The Rules: All pitches should be PG-13 or cleaner, comedic, have the potential for 8 or more characters, and have the ability to be performed between 20 - 40 minutes.
You don't need to directly reference all of the above criteria in your pitch, just don't pitch an idea that can't yield a play with those features (for example, a one woman reenactment of the movie Scarface.) You're free to make as many pitches as you want.
To be considered for the pitching portion of the contest, you must follow @Playscripts on Twitter and your pitch must include the hashtag #pitchnplay.
From the submitted tweets, Playscripts will choose 30 semi-finalists who will be narrowed down to 10 finalists by an online poll. From the 10 finalists, the Playscripts Literary team will select 3 Pitch 'N' Play winning pitches.
All interested playwrights will then have two months to write and submit a one-act play based on one of the 3 winning pitches. All play submissions should be sent via http://www.playscripts.com/submit and must include #pitchnplay in the Comments or Special Instructions field.
The Timeline:
February 14: Pitch 'N' Play begins with Twitter pitches.
February 21: Pitching closes at 12:00 AM.
February 22: 30 semi-finalists are announced via an online poll and voting begins.
February 28: Online voting ends at 12:00 AM.
February 29: 10 finalists are announced.
March 5: The three winning pitches are announced and submissions for the play portion officially open.
May 5: Play submissions are closed.
June 5: The winning play is announced!
The Reward:
The three winning pitches will be contacted via direct message on Twitter and receive a $100 reward.
The winning playwright will receive a $1,000 advance, and his or her play will be published.
At Playscripts, we're always looking for ways to engage more directly with our playwrights and customers, and to use available technology to expand the possibilities for the creation and distribution of new work. We can't wait to start reading your pitches! Submissions are now open.
Any additional inquiries should be directed to the Playscripts Twitter handle: @playscripts
Posted by Playscripts, Inc.
Playwright Spotlight: Tim Kochenderfer
The very funny Tim Kochenderfer is a playwright, comedy writer, and television producer. His plays have been performed across the United States and around the world. A graduate of Michigan State University, Mr. Kochenderfer's work is featured in The Best Stage Scenes of 2006 (Smith & Kraus), Cracked Magazine, various newspapers, and he is a producer for WXYZ, the ABC affiliate in Detroit.
How did you start writing?
I guess you could say I started writing write from the womb. I remember right after delivery I motioned to the nurses for a pen and a pad of paper. “B+ doctor,” I scribbled. “That was a good delivery, but it needs improvement.” He immediately grabbed me, flipped me upside down and smacked me right across the butt. I was terrified to write from that moment on, or provide constructive criticism for that matter.
Eventually I conquered my fears and by age 18 I had mastered most of the alphabet. By college I could brag that I knew well over 100 words. I began writing skits in high school and videotaping them with a group of friends. Because I only had 90% of the alphabet mastered, some of the words didn’t make any sense but people got the point.
In college I had a creative writing assignment to write a story based off of the following line, “My uncle drinks like a fish….” I carried on with, “over time I noticed my uncle also eats like a fish. Eventually I noticed other things, like flippers, gills and a tail. Finally, I realized my uncle was a fish.” This would eventually become my play, The Fish Story, A Young Man’s Search For The Truth published by Playscripts, Inc.. I also wrote my first play, Canned Hamlet in college, a spoof of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (title inspired by David Letterman and canned meats.)
What inspires you to write?
The fact that I don’t always like what I read. Like Shakespeare for example. That guy thinks he’s so great. Well if he’s so great, he would have noticed his glaring lack of vampires and mob bosses in Romeo & Juliet. I took the liberty of adding them in my play Romeo, You Idiot. Also, killing off the main characters? Please. I had them escape that fate and then I killed everybody in the play. And Macbeth? Didn’t Shakespeare realize this play would have been better set in a Southern American fast food chain. That’s what I did in my play, Old Macbeth had a Farm. And Othello should have been set in a boy band, that’s all I’m saying. I’m sure he’d give the lame excuse that no such organization existed at the time of his writing. Whatever.
Did you write or act in plays in high school?
I had a creative writing class in which the assignment was to write a series of comedy skits. This was in the mid-90’s, a time in which if you wanted something printed you had to wait 3-10 days next to an excruciatingly loud dot-matrix printer. Valuing my time and hearing, I hand wrote my book of sketches. My assignment was marked down to a B for penmanship! What does penmanship have to do with creative writing?! I wrote my teacher a terse letter complaining about the injustice, but she couldn’t read it.
I also acted in a play in which I played Gepetto. For some reason, my character was forced to wear tights. This traumatized me, although I would have to say that it made my legs look sleek.
What's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten in regards to your writing?
Don’t write while running away from an angry grizzly bear. ONLY focus on escaping from the bear. I mean this literally. There is no deeper meaning to it.
The other best piece of advice I’ve gotten was that the next line, the rest of the story, the answer to your problem is out there, you just have to devote the time and energy to find it.
What advice would you give high school students in one of your plays?
My first piece of advice has to do with comedic acting. My personal theory is that comedy is most effective when acted as a drama. Many directors may disagree with me about this, but comedy is a balance of realism and exaggeration. I would argue the more exaggerated the script, the more realism you add to the acting, the more hilarious it is. Consider the movie Airplane. Leslie Nielson is the perfect comedic actor in this film. When someone says to him, “Surely you can’t be serious?” He responds, “I am serious, and stop calling me Shirley!” He delivers that line with offense and anger, as one would in a drama, and it is hilarious because you believe he actually believes he’s being called ‘Shirley.’ Consider too, how ineffective this line would have been if he would have goofily replied, “Stop calling me Shirley.”
I would also advise to really think and pay attention to the lines you’re delivering and how you’re delivering them. Sure you need to project and you want inflection, but don’t let that get in the way of believability.
Are you working on anything now?
I just finished a very short play titled If Bob Cratchit Was A Kiss-Up. It’s a quick retelling of how A Christmas Carol would have been dramatically different if Bob Cratchit was a sycophant.
Posted by Playscripts, Inc.
44 Plays for 44 Presidents Aiming to Break a World Record
The secret service called Sean Daniels and told him that former President Jimmy Carter was attending our play. He was to tell no one. So he didn’t.
Except he called me, Genevra, Chloe, Sean and Karen and told us that the play we co-wrote, 43 Plays for 43 Presidents, would be attended by an actual president. Tomorrow.
The production was in Atlanta, at Dad’s Garage Theatre Company. We were in Chicago, making theatre with The Neo-Futurists. None of us could afford to buy last-minute plane tickets.
So we missed when a cast member asked, sarcastically, “Who here knows ANYTHING about Benjamin Harrison?” Carter was the only one to raise his hand. “That’s not fair,” the cast member shot back. “It’s like you’re his cousin.”
We missed the Atlanta audience giving Jimmy a standing ovation after his play and we missed him laughing…hard…during the Reagan play.
Ten years after Jimmy Carter attended our show at Dad’s Garage, something even bigger is happening with (the now re-titled) 44 Plays for 44 Presidents.
This time I won’t miss it. In fact, I engineered it—with a lot of help from some awesome people. We’re attempting to inspire 44 separate productions of 44 Plays for 44 Presidents across the country to coincide with the election this fall. And if you want in, we’d love to have you!
In 2000, I had the idea to create 43 Plays for 43 Presidents. I gathered some talented writers, we met at my apartment and we wrote a Neo-Futurist show with a $400 prop budget that premiered above a funeral home in Chicago.
Jimmy Carter attends 43 Plays for 43 Presidents.
It sold out on opening night and never stopped. It was remounted by Dad’s; my boy Jimmy saw it; Playscripts rode in like Teddy Roosevelt charging San Juan Hill and published it…and then 30-something productions later it’s 2008 and the Actors Theate of Louisville is mounting a production complete with special effects and a large, replica Mount Rushmore.
I didn’t miss that show. The audience at Actors had the same level of excitement about our history, about a citizen’s responsibility as a voter, about the complicated gift that each election represents—that indescribable buzz that erupted into standing ovations most nights in Chicago…that’s when I knew that whatever this show had, it worked in high schools, colleges, and theaters of all sizes.
The election year added something extra: a broad view of history that felt like a respite from the temporary insanity of the political news cycle. It reminded people that we’ve been here before—like 60 times—and whatever it is…we’ve survived worse.
So then I thought, ‘why not spread this effect all over the country? Why not invite schools and theater companies of all sizes to participate in a good kind of political madness?’
It’s been the most grass-roots effort I’ve ever participated in. We’re closing in on 20 productions now (although I can only go public with 11 at the moment.) If 23 productions happen on the same day, we’ll set a record. (http://playsforpresidents.com/44-plays-for-44-presidents-on-track-to-set-a-world-record/)
The coolest part: we’re having each producer make a video of part of their show, and then we’ll string all those parts together into an online, composite production of 44 Plays for 44 Presidents, which we’ll unveil on Election Day.
If you’re intrigued, shoot us an email: playsforpresidents@gmail.com.
Check out our website http://playsforpresidents.com/ and learn about what we’re doing. Or give us some leads! Honestly, the coolest part about this project has been getting to correspond with theatre people from all over the U.S. It’s such a close-knit, interconnected community. The effort itself has really been a gift.
--Andy Bayiates
Posted by Playscripts, Inc.
Free and Almost Free Ways to Promote Your Production
When you’re busy producing a play the last thing you want to think about is filling seats. Whether you’re staging and elaborate Broadway musical or a bare bones middle school production, developing an audience should be a top priority.
Marketing your production begins before you start rehearsals. Online fundraising has become a way to build excitement and cultivate fans. Kickstarter is a relatively simple way to raise funds and build awareness. Kickstarter allows you to create traditional and not-so-traditional donor awards based on pledge level. Awards don’t need to have a high dollar value; they can be experiential. A donor that pledges $15 might receive one free ticket to opening night. A donor who pledges $250 might receive four front row seats to opening night, drinks and snacks backstage, and a photo shoot with the cast in costume. Another great feature is the ability to upload videos onto your page. Your videos can be sneak peeks of your set and costumes, an interview with cast members, or a 30 second commercial. (Remember to make sure to ask permission before you record any performances, rehearsals or readings.)
There are now great free resources to enhance your Facebook page with tabs. Involver has a suite of freebies that easily add coupons, photo galleries and PDF files to any Facebook page. Wildfire also has an application to add a free tab to your Facebook page. It’s a bit more complicated, but there's also more freedom to design your own tab. A few ideas on how to use your tabs: Offer your Facebook fans a 2 for 1 deal on slow selling show dates. Post backstage videos. Have your fans vote on an element of your production. (Remember to make every post count. The more people that comment and like a post, the more it will be seen.)
Find opportunities to send your cast out in costume. Parades, fairs and other large community events are ideal for finding new audience members. Make sure to have postcards, stickers or flyers to handout with the date prominently displayed. (I’ve forgotten to include the date before, and it was a costly mistake.) And don’t underestimate your community. Having people involved with the production going door-to-door to businesses is always a buzz booster.
Lastly, aim for earned media coverage with a press release and follow up pitch. Find a well-spoken person involved with the production to be your media representative. He or she will talk to reporters and write press releases. (My “media rep” was one of my best friends who studied PR in college.) Writing a press release doesn't take extraordinary skill, and there are hundreds of websites with great press release examples. The Publicity Insider has great tips for writing your release and pitching your story here. The best way to get media to cover your event is to find a newsworthy angle. Are there any unusual elements to my production? Do any of the cast members or production staff have an interesting story? Does the play you chose have significance? Find your angle and pitch it!
And always feel free to tweet us @playscripts with any questions.
--Lane Bernes, Playscripts, Inc. Marketing Director
Posted by Playscripts, Inc.
Opening Night
I’ve worn a lot of theatrical hats over the years: actor, director, playwright, assistant to the assistant stage manager (I just wanted to go to the cast party), and one disastrous turn as prop designer. (Side note: I saw that car crash coming from miles away. Why didn’t anyone stop me from trying to build a phone instead of buying a phone?) But one thing stays the same: opening night is always a nerve-wracking, stomach-churning joy.
I say joy because I’ve been pretty lucky over the years. I’ve been involved in nearly a hundred opening nights now, and I don’t think I’ve ever had one be a complete disaster. Sure, there have been times when I’ve forgotten my lines as an actor, or we skipped five pages of the script on accident (which completely eliminated one person’s part – not fun!), or the bicycle we were supposed to ride zoomed off the stage and landed in the first row, but after every opening night, I still felt that mixture of relief and joy. I guess there’s a surge of dopamine in your brain that causes you to forget all the mistakes you’ve made, but overall, the worst case scenario never occurred.
As tough as it is to be an actor or the director, I think the playwright has it the worst. I recently attended the professional opening of my newest play, Current Economic Conditions, at the Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis, and it was pretty great, (if I do say so myself), but it was also just like every other opening night: a smorgasbord of neuroses.
I say “professional” as if it makes a difference. It really doesn’t. I felt the same way I felt when I was opening a show at the middle school, or in college. It goes like this:
First, I try to sit next to people who don’t know I’m the playwright. I don’t sit with friends. I try not to acknowledge people who wave at me and say, “if the show sucks, I’m blaming you!” (They actually say this. They are trying to be funny, but they say this! I usually want to respond with, “If the audience sucks, I blame you!” but I hold my tongue.) Now, if you’ve read this blog before, you realize that I’m an egotistical schmuck, but before the opening, I want to be anonymous. This allows me to hear honest opinions from people sitting next to me, and to escape unnoticed in the event of disaster. Really, though, it’s an act of bravery. Your friends and family will always tell you they like it (unless they’re my Dad – thanks Dad!), but random strangers will let you know if the play is actually any good.
Maria Souza-Eglen and John Goodson in Current Economic Conditions.
I spend about ten minutes staring at the program. I don’t know why. I adjust my coat. I sit up unusually straight. My stomach creates an extraordinary amount of gurgling noises. Sometimes my head starts tingling – (I’m not sure if this like spiderman’s danger sense, or if I used the wrong shampoo, or it’s the feeling of my hair falling out – maybe all three.) At this point, I usually distract myself by counting audience members. I try to see if they’re already having a good time. I pray there’s a “big laugher” out there somewhere – (the “big laugher” is the second-best person you can have in the audience next to the rare and beautiful “weird laugher” who makes everyone else laugh because their laugh is strange).
The worst thing about being the playwright on opening night is that you have no control over anything that is about to happen. It’s like being strapped onto a rocket and told that it’s going to launch somewhere, but not being told where the actual destination is. At least as an actor, you can try to cover for someone if they forget their lines, or a director can give a pep talk at intermission, or the props guy can (well, okay, there’s nothing the props guy can do), but you have some tiny measure of influence over whether the night is a triumph or a disaster. As playwright, you just watch. And believe me, when an actor forgets his lines, and there’s a one minute pause on stage where nothing at all happens, the playwright suffers more than the actor. Mostly you think: Why didn’t I write a more memorable line!? What is wrong with me? Why am I so terrible!?
Anyway, the show begins and the actors can relax a bit while they perform. The playwright continues to suffer. It gets worse, because now, if I laugh at a particular joke and no one else does, I look like a total moron who laughs uproariously at their own jokes. On the other hand, if I don’t laugh, then I’m part of the reason the show is dying a slow death.
You would think the best part of the night is the applause at the end, but even then, there are things to be neurotic about. Is the audience clapping loudly enough? Are there enough people putting their hands over the heads and clapping? How many people are standing up? Why aren’t they standing up? Why is the reviewer leaving so quickly? Why can’t I stop worrying?
It’s like being Woody Allen for a night.
But then there’s joy. And relief. It’s over.
Until the second night.
--Don Zolidis
Visit Don's website: http://www.donzolidis.com/
Posted by Playscripts, Inc.
5 Questions for Keen Teens 2012 Writer, Janine Nabers
Janine Nabers is one busy playwright. She is a member of The MCC Playwrights Coalition, Ars Nova Play Group and the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer’s Group. Her most recent honors include a P73 fellowship, Sundance residency and being named a 2012 Keen Teens writer.
What are you up to right now, besides being a new 2012 Keen Teen Writer?
Well, I just started my fellowship program at Juilliard where I'm studying playwriting for two years (once a week) with Christopher Durang and Marsha Norman. Being in the room with them has been really amazing. In December I had a workshop of Welcome to Jesus that I'm currently re-writing. And I'm hoping to finish my commission for Playwrights Horizons this spring/summer. I'm also working on a couple of musicals with my wonderful composer/lyricist, Sharon Kenny. We're hoping to develop our musical, A Beautiful Something, this summer. We started working on it last summer at Williamstown, and it was the most amazing place. We work really well together. Sharon is just the best thing that's happened to me in a very long time.
What's the difference when you write adult characters vs. adolescent characters?
I just find young characters to be so much more free and dangerous. I love writing bold characters of all ages, but I have so much fun writing teenagers/20-year-olds. It's the only time I really feel funny. Teenagers are so complicated and unpredictable. They are so incredibly passionate about every single thing they do, and that is what makes me love writing them. I love examining the minds of teenagers and their relationship to each other/the world.
Who inspired you in high school?
I was a pretty eclectic kid. I was a track runner who wrote poetry and went to an all white private school, until I begged my parents to let me go to a predominately black public school... so I was inspired by a lot of random things: Alex Haley, Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins, Jackie Joyner Kersee, Tupac, My So Called Life. The weekends I spent with my family in Louisiana, my best friends, the WNBA, and old films. One of my favorite things in the world was watching really old films with my parents.
Do you have any tips for aspiring high school playwrights?
I think it's important to write from the heart and really let your emotions just live in what they are. Are you mad? Write about it. Are you in love with your friend? Write about it. I used to write my friends/boyfriends/parents letters when I was in high school/college, too shy, or scared, or goofy to say something to their face. I was far more eloquent in the letters/poems/plays I wrote than I was in person for a really long time. I honestly think writing those letters to whomever helped me find my voice. And it helped me be brave. I can honestly say that my plays today are very brave.
Just for fun, did you ever act in or write a play in high school?
I DID act in high school. I was a good actress, and left high school as the only actress in my class who got into acting school in New York. I didn't write my first play until I was 19. I occasionally wrote comedy sketches and short stories/poetry, but that was it. Looking back I would love to go back and write a play at 16. Oooof. That play would be cra-zy.
Posted by Playscripts, Inc.
Geek Theater: Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company
On a chilly evening last November I found myself wandering through the empty, warehouse-lined streets of Bushwick. I was new to New York, and I had been told that Bushwick was a “hip” neighborhood in Brooklyn. But as the cold air nipped at my fingers and ballet-flat-clad toes, I began questioning my decision to come out at all. A friend of mine was sound designing a short play for Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company and I had promised I would attend, but I was skeptical as to what kind of art I’d find among the maze of warehouses. I was about to give up and head home, when I stumbled upon the address.
I entered the venue tentatively and was certainly surprised by what I found. The space was packed with buzzing people. I quickly staked out a spot by a wall (the seats were already filled) and went to retrieve my free beer. This was going to be good.
The show that I saw that night was part of Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company's ongoing Saturday Night Saloon series. The Saloon featured six serialized plays--a zombie western, a space epic, and a supernatural, "Upstairs, Downstairs" piece, to name a few. Each short play was highly stylized and combined different cinematic/comic-book genres with varied theatrical styles. The result was a highly original and entertaining show, akin to a live-action comic book or modernized old-timey radio show. The crowd of devoted fans, who would no doubt return for the subsequent installment, was raucous.
Vampire Cowboys started in 2000, as a collaboration between then grad students Qui Nguyen and Robert Ross Parker. Both Nguyen and Parker studied traditional theater, but the two bonded over their shared love of comic books, action movies, and pop culture. In a recent interview, Nguyen said, “We wanted to create the kind of theatre we always wanted to see – a kind of theatre that was both fun and philosophical, hysterical and emotionally engaging." Parker added, “I’m always interested in the combination of disparate elements, embracing both the high and low brow, the place where fart jokes and philosophy meet and have tea.”
Producing a successful and popular theatrical production is no easy feat, but for the Vampire Cowboys, it’s the norm. The innovative, "geek" theater company, won an OBIE award early in 2010, and they are also recipients of a Drama Desk award.
To my delight, Vampire Cowboy Trilogy by Nguyen and Parker, has recently become a Playscripts published play. The three part script perfectly embodies the winking tone and comic book aesthetic of the group that made them famous. In the first act of the play, a paranormal detective takes on the case of a mysterious stranger. In act 2, we are presented with cold-war era crime fighting duo Captain Justice and Liberty Lady, who must stop the communist super villain, Hooded Menace. Act 3 tells the story of your typical teenage warrior princess, battling the likes of alien cheerleaders, and of course, high school. Qui Nguyen talked about the experiences that inspired him to write Vampire Cowboy Trilogy:
"Growing up inArkansasin a fairly homogenous environment, my folks wanted me to have strong Asian role models. So instead of allowing me to watch things like Rambo, Mash, or shows that depicted Asians as bad guys, they fed me campy Kung Fu movies to help keep my yellow-esteem high in a land full of black and white. And it worked."
For innovative and contemporary New York theater, look no further than the Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company. Vampire Cowboy Trilogy, is a great place to start--this fun play epitomizes the company's point of view, and it is equally accessible to theater people, high school students, and the general public alike. After that cold, wonderful night last November, I knew that I would be a fan of the Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company and Bushwick for life.
--Lizzie Martinez, Playscripts' own Comedian
Posted by Playscripts, Inc.
5 Questions for Playscripts New Marketing Director, Lane Bernes
Playscripts is excited to announce the arrival of our new Marketing Director, Lane Bernes. Lane comes to us from Zinio, where she managed social media and merchandising. In addition to her marketing background, Lane is a playwright and has been produced at The Bloomington Playwrights Project, The New York International Fringe Festival and The Estrogenius Festival. Her play, The Mercy Swing, was nominated for the Cherry Lane Theatre Mentor Project. Lane's unique background makes her a welcome addition to the Playscripts team. We are very excited to begin the new year with her on board, and look forward to the great work ahead!
What brought you to Playscripts?
I was ecstatic to find a role that combined two things I’m passionate about: marketing and plays. I also have 50% of the Playscripts paperback collection in my apartment.
What did you do prior to Playscripts?
My previous jobs have all been in the publishing world, in a marketing role. I’m lucky to have worked with amazing brands like Robb Report, USA Today and Zinio.
What marketing trend can play producers take advantage of to market their plays?
Facebook Ads! They are super easy, and one of the best ways to find new audience members.
What play or playwright has made the biggest impact on you?
Dennis J. Reardon. He was my first playwriting teacher and is an amazing story teller.
Just for fun, were you in any high school productions?
Yes! We did Alice in Wonderland when I was a freshman, and I got to be a card because I could hold a back-bend while the queen played croquet.
You can find Lane on twitter @lanebernes
Posted by Teresa Sanpietro
On Failure
I was in a supermarket the other day and was shocked to learn that once again, I was not named People magazine’s sexiest man alive. How many times do I have to go through this? In any event, I plan to use this snub to fuel my creative process for years until that magazine comes to their senses and realizes that my sultry brown eyes and prominent forehead are every bit as attractive as that guy from The Hangover.
I’ve failed a lot in my life. A lot.
Anyone who tries to do something artistic, or something difficult, or something challenging, is going to face a lot of failure. If it were easy, everyone would do it. And the people who succeed are the people who allow failure to fuel them, rather than destroy them.
At this point, it’s easy to wander off into clichés. Such as:
Never give up. Ever. Even after you are dead. Especially not then.
I think we can all take a page from Hamlet’s father and realize that if he had given up after he had been poisoned and buried, he never would have gotten his hollow revenge from beyond the grave.
But clichés become clichés because they’re often true.
There are so many examples from my own life – here are a few:
- In college, I signed up to be in a short story writing class, and I was not even allowed to be enrolled in the class because my story was deemed to be too bad. (Who knew that a story about a talking bagel being attacked by a pigeon wouldn’t strike the fancy of the professor?) Now, I am a creative writing professor and I yearn for the day when someone writes a talking bagel story for me.
- I got rejected from every grad school I applied to. (except one.) In fact, one day I received a rejection letter from a school I really wanted to go to, and when I set it down, I realized I had also gotten a second rejection letter at the same time. I was so upset that I threw the opened letter as hard as I could against the wall. (Do you know what happens when you try to throw paper really hard? Yeah. A whole lot of stupid.)
- Every year my college gave out an award for the best humorous writing to a graduating senior. The year I entered, for the first time in a decade, no award was given because “no one was deemed worthy.” Yeah. That one stung.
I could go on and on. Now it’s not like I think about these perceived slights every day (only most days), but because the artistic life is so difficult, you need something to keep you going. And believe me, the desire to “show `em” is a pretty strong motivator. I still fantasize about those people who rejected me looking in the newspaper and cursing themselves as I win my fourth-consecutive Pulitzer Prize and, almost unimaginably, my second Nobel. Hopefully, they’ll all still be alive and will have just enough faculties left to rend their hair and wail piteously as I make yet another acceptance speech.
I want to make one other point, one that is perhaps less clichéd than my first point. Most of the time, the reason you fail isn’t because of other people not believing in you, it’s because you simply aren’t good enough at what you’re doing. I probably didn’t get into that short story writing class because my story was actually pretty bad, and I didn’t get into grad schools because my play wasn’t very good.
Happily for me, I got better. And the reason I got better is that instead of blaming everyone else (I blamed them a little bit), I also blamed myself. And while that can lead to lots of sad nights, it can also help you learn and improve. You can’t learn anything if you give up.
So – embrace failure. Learn from it. And show `em.
Darn you Bradley Cooper and your piercing blue eyes and boyish grin! (Notice, however, that we have an equal amount of scruff. Hmm.)
--Don Zolidis
Visit Don's website: http://www.donzolidis.com/
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Posted by Teresa Sanpietro
Ready to Implode: 13P’s Final Season
In 2003, an ambitious group of 13 young playwrights began a grand experiment. Weary of readings and developmental workshops that doomed new plays to a short and unfulfilling life below the radar of the theater world at large, they banded together to form a collective that actually makes plays happen. And so 13P was born. Their motto says it all: "We don't develop plays. We do them."
13P consists of playwrights Sheila Callaghan, Erin Courtney, Madeleine George, Rob Handel, Ann Marie Healy, Julia Jarcho, Young Jean Lee, Winter Miller, Sarah Ruhl, Kate E. Ryan, Lucy Thurber, Anne Washburn, and Gary Winter. When each playwright's production slot comes up, she or he acts as the company's Artistic Director throughout the production process until 13P has a fully realized production on its hands. Since its inception, 13P has won much critical acclaim as well as an OBIE in 2005 for their bold and inventive new model of play production.
Nine years and 11 plays later, 13P is ready to dissolve. The playwrights knew from the beginning that their lofty endeavor was a finite project. The collective recently announced its upcoming ImPlosion Season, where it will produce its final 2 shows and then disband. This February, 13P will launch Erin Courtney's A Map of Virtue at the 4th Street Theatre, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll. The 13th and final show will be a premiere by Sarah Ruhl, to be presented in summer 2012. The ImPlosion Season will also feature A People's History of 13P, a video archive available at 13P.org and the ImPlosion Party—one final bash for the group to go out with a bang.
With the imminent "ImPlosion" of 13P, we at Playscripts thought we'd look back at the infancy of this cutting-edge organization. Playscripts has the honor of publishing the first two plays ever produced by 13P. Check out the inaugural 13P production: The Internationalist by Anne Washburn (P#1). The company kicked off its experiment with this provocative tale of an American man on a business trip abroad who is thrust into a world that feels like living in a foreign film without subtitles. Premiering in New York City in April 2004, The Internationalist continues to enjoy success today, as with its current run at the convergence-continuum theater in Ohio. The playwright has also recently updated the play — contact Playscripts for more details on the updated version.
We also had the chance to catch up with Anne Washburn to discuss the evolution of 13P over the years:
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What most inspired you to help form a group like 13P?
AW: There are now more opportunities for playwrights to have a production of their work in a smaller space, or with a smaller company. And I think there's a little more discussion now about new and alternative aesthetics and voices, and how these can be understood and supported. At the time it felt as though theaters didn't quite know what to do with a lot of the new work which was going around; they'd be attracted to a play, pick it up and worry it through their fingers for a while, finally drop it; another theater would pick it up, finger it all over—finally the piece was shopworn and no one wanted it. There were also a few examples of interesting plays being picked up by big theaters, given the wrong kind of director, dramaturged in an unfortunate way, and failing in a bad public manner. People would talk these stories over in bars and become excitable.
As P#1, how did it feel to have your play act as the inaugural production for the company?
AW: It was great fun. Everyone involved in the production—the director, actors, designers, techs, interns—felt like they were involved in a larger project which they personally wanted to support, so the mood of the whole thing was lovely.
How has 13P helped you grow as a playwright?
AW: It helped my career a ton. My 13P play, The Internationalist, has a lot of made-up language, an elliptical story structure. It's hard to make sense of on the page and is exactly the kind of play which theaters would have been intrigued by but never, ever done. The Vineyard came to see it, and then produced it in its own season a few years later. That led to other productions of that and other plays.
Now that 13P's "ImPlosion" is imminent, how do you feel the company has grown since its inception in 2003? Do you see other companies taking inspiration from 13P's production model?
AW: When we had the first meeting I think the only person who thought we'd actually complete even one production was Rob. So our sense of confidence has increased. Operationally, of course, it's much smoother, as we've been lucky enough to attract terrific volunteers. In important ways it hasn't changed and can't change: 13 playwrights, order determined at the start, each playwright given free range to choose their material—our core goal was just to get the plays up, which is exactly what we've done, and continue to do.
I do know of some companies inspired by the 13P model, it's a great thing, and we hope that our implosion will inspire even more.
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13P's second production, The Penetration Play by Winter Miller (P#2) ran at the Mint Theater from November-December 2004, and is also a standout member of the Playscripts catalog. This dark comedy focuses on a trio of women steeped in desire during the last weekend of summer on the Jersey Shore. Take some time to read through the free script sample on the Playscripts website of the play The New York Times called "Cracklingly funny. An erotically charged comedy about the flexibility of sexual identity."
For more from the innovative minds of the 13P playwrights, take a look at their many other original works featured in the Playscripts catalog. Sheila Callaghan's Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake), Madeleine George's The Most Massive Woman Wins, Erin Courtney's Demon Baby, Lucy Thurber's Liberal Arts College, and Ann Marie Healy's Dearest Eugenia Haggis are all sure to provoke and challenge.
Though 13P will soon be no more, Playscripts looks forward to other groups of playwrights taking inspiration from this visionary organization. Why not take the 13P challenge and follow in their footsteps to continue creating fresh, new plays for the modern theater?
Mark Shanahan and Heidi Schreck in "The Internationalist", 13P, New York City (2004). Photo: Richard Termine
--Erin Salvi, Playscripts Customer Service Associate and Freelance Editor
Posted by Erin Salvi
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