Boston New Play Ecology, part 2, 2014, Fringe

On Thursday, I put out a survey of Boston's large and mid-size theaters, as to how much new work they're producing, and some info on the demographics of who they're producing and who is directing their shows. The news is not particularly great: 13 world premieres from 12 theaters, 6 plays by local writers. But of course, large and mid-sized theaters aren't the whole story for new work.  What's happening with the smaller or "fringe" theaters?

Let's take a look, with the understanding that I'm going to miss some companies. (If I do, let me know and I will correct and expand the list.)  I'm saving some small companies like Acme, Gamm, and Image for the greater New England survey, since they're a bit out of town.  When companies produce a festival of new short plays, I'm counting that as a single production, rather than eight.  I'm not including venues like the BCA or  Charlestown Working Theatre who have various resident companies, but aren't necessarily producing plays themselves. Companies that did not produce in 2013 or 2014 (like CentaStage and Gan-e-meed) are not included.


Apollinaire Theatre Company.  World Premieres: 0.  Total plays: 4.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 1; directed by women: 4, directed by people of color: 1.

Argos Productions.  World Premieres: 2. The Haberdasher by Walt McGough, directed by Brett Marks, and Bully Dance By David Valdes Greenwood, directed by Sarah Gazdowicz.  Total plays: 2.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 0.

Bad Habit Productions.  World Premieres: 1. Diamond in the Sky, adapted and directed by Daniel Morris. (I think this is a premiere, but I'm not sure.) Total plays:  4.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 2; directed by people of color: 0.

Boston Actors Theater. World Premieres: 2.  Paper City Phoenix by Walt McGough (who has had quite a year), directed by Melanie Garber; Twins by Julian Olf, directed by Anna Trachtman.  Total plays:  3.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 3; directed by people of color: 0.

Boston Theater Company. World Premieres: 0.  Total plays:  1.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 0; directed by people of color: 0.

Bridge Rep Theater. World Premieres: 1, not Jenny by MJ Halberstadt.  Total plays:  4.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 2; directed by people of color: 0.

Flat Earth Theatre. World Premieres: 1. Lovecraft's Unnameable Tales, adapted by Amy Lehrmitt, directed by James Heyward. Total plays:  4.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 0.

Fort Point Theatre Channel. World Premieres: 2. The Archives by Skylar Fox, directed by Tasia Jones. Waiting for Gilgamesh, by Amir Al-Azraki and Charles Dumas, directed by  Total plays:  3.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 1; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 1.

Fresh Ink Theatre. World Premieres: 3.  Handicapping by James McLindon, directed by Tyler Monroe, Outlaw Jean by MJ Kaufman, directed by Caitlin Lowans, and 123 by Lila Rose Kaplan, directed by Shana Gozansky.  Total plays:  3.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 2; directed by people of color: 0.

Footlights Club . World Premieres: 0.  Total plays:  5.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 0.

Gold Dust Orphans. World Premieres: 2.  Mildred Fierce and Pornocchio both by Ryan Landry. Total plays: 2.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 0; directed by people of color: 0.

Happy Medium Theatre . World Premieres: 0.  Total plays: 4.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 0.

Hibernian Hall.  World Premieres: 1. To Hell With This Village by Sean Travis Taylor, and Raising David Walker by Peter Snoad, both directed by Vincent Ernest Siders.  Total plays: 2.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 1; directed by women: 0; directed by people of color: 2.

Hovey Players. World Premieres: 1.  Summer Shorts Festival, by various writers. Total plays:  5.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 3; directed by people of color: 1.

Hub Theatre. World Premieres: 0.  Total plays:  4.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 0.

Imaginary Beasts. World Premieres: 2. Angela Carter's Hairy Tales and Rumplestiltstkin, both adapted by the Imaginary Beasts. Total plays:  3.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 0; directed by people of color: 0.

In Good Company. World Premieres: 2.  None but the Best by Patrick Gabridge, directed by Jeff Mosser, and The Golden Door written by Joyce van Dyke, directed by Emily Ranii. Music direction of both by Kay Dunlap.  Total plays:  2.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 0.

Liars and Believers. World Premieres: 2. Interference and Icarus Total plays:  2.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 0; directed by people of color: 0.  This group makes company created work, that often runs for just one night. So I don't know quite how to count it. Same applies to the demographics, but the directors seem to be white, and the company list doesn't seem to include any people of color.

Maiden Phoenix Theatre Company.  World Premieres:  0.  Total plays: 1.  Written by women: 1; people of color: 0; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 0.

Mill 6 Theatre Collaborative. World Premieres: 1.  The T Plays V, a bunch of short plays written on and about the T. Total plays:  1.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 0.

New Exhibition Room. World Premieres: 1.  EEP! Show by the company. Total plays:  1.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 1; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 1.

New Urban Theatre Laboratory. World Premieres: 1. The NUTlab Five & Dime festival, by various writers (all women in 2013)  Total plays:  1.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 1; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 1.

Playwrights Platform.  World Premieres: 1.  Playwrights Platform Summer Festival.  Total plays: 1. Written by women: 1; by people of color: 1; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 0.

Project Project. World Premieres: 1.  How May I Connect You by the company, co-directed by Jeff Mosser and Vicki Shairer.  Total plays:  1.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 0.

Roxbury Repertory Theatre. World Premieres: 1.  6 Playwrights in Search of Stage festival. Total plays:  3.  Written by women: 3; by people of color: 1; directed by women: 2; directed by people of color: 2. (The data for these productions is a little fuzzy.)

Simple Machine. World Premieres: 0.  Total plays:  1.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 0.

Science Fiction Theatre Company. World Premieres: 1. The Aurora Project by Bella Poynton, directed by Vincent Ularich.  Total plays:  2.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 0; directed by people of color: 0.  (Not sure if this was a world premiere or not--it had a college production at the University of Iowa in 2013, too.)

Sleeping Weazel. World Premieres: 2. Real Realism by Charlotte Meehan, directed by Venessa Gilbert, and The African American History and Its Expressions, a festival of plays, dolls and music--featuring the premiere of The Purple Flower, by Harlem Renaissance writer Marita Bonner, directed by Dominic Taylor.  Total plays:  2.  Written by women: 1; by people of color: 1; directed by women: 1; directed by people of color: 1.

Stickball Productions.  World Premieres: 0. Total plays:  1.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 0; directed by people of color: 0.

Theatre@First.  World Premieres: 0.  Total plays: 4.  Written by women: 2; by people of color: 0; directed by women 2; directed by people of color: 0.

Theatre on Fire. World Premieres: 0.  Total plays:  3.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 0; directed by people of color: 0.

Titanic Theatre Company.   World Premieres: 0.  Total plays:  1.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 0; directed by people of color: 0.

Unreliable Narrator.  World Premieres: 1.  Human Contact, a collection of five short science-fiction plays. Total Plays: 1.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women 0; directed by people of color: 0.

Vagabond Theatre Group. World Premieres: 1. August and Autumn, by Brian Tuttle, directed by James Peter Sotis. Total plays:  2.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 0; directed by people of color: 0.

Vaquero Playground.  World Premieres: 1.  From Denmark with Love by John J. King, directed by Barlow Adamson.  Written by women: 0; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 0; directed by people of color: 0.

Whistler in the Dark. World Premieres: 0.  Total plays:  2.  Written by women: 2; by people of color: 0; directed by women: 2; directed by people of color: 0.


So that's a total of 36 theater companies (though I'm sure I missed some, so I'll update the post as necessary).  Here are the stats:

34 world premieres
32 by local writers
13 were written by women (36%)
6 were written by people of color (mostly festivals)  (18%)


Total plays produced by 36 theaters:  88
Percentage that were world premieres:  38%

Total plays written by women:  26.  (29%)
Total written by people of color: 8.  (9%)
Total directed by women:  34  (39%)
Total directed by people of color:  10.  (11%)


In addition to the productions of new plays from the Fringe, there are also many developmental opportunities. Interim Writers does monthly readings, and Vagabond and Fresh Ink and several other small companies offer quite a few readings.  Next season, we'll be gaining a new company, Boston Public Works, dedicated to producing new plays by their 10 member writers, so that will boost next year's tally of world premieres by 3.  Many of the premieres listed here are written by members of the companies, so those productions don't necessarily equate to open slots, but that's true of some of the slots at larger companies as well.

If you compare the Fringe numbers to those from the large and medium-sized companies, you'll see that local writers get most of their opportunities from the small companies (no surprise), but that the larger companies produce a much higher percentage of new plays by women and people of color. In terms of demographics for overall productions, the Fringe produces a smaller percentage of plays by women and people of color.  The demographic stats for directors are pretty similar.


If we add together the stats for all Boston theatres, we arrive at:
47 world premieres in Boston this past season from 48 theaters
38 by local writers (81%)
20 world premieres written by women  (43%) 
10 world premieres written by people of color  (21%)


Overall:  151 plays produced.
60 written by women   (40%)
16 written by people of color  (11%)
60 directed by women (40%)
15 directed by people of color (10%)


I wish that I'd surveyed the Fringe theater scene with my initial post in 2010, so I don't have exact data to compare, but it's clear that the scene for new work has expanded drastically since 2010, with the emergence of Fresh Ink, Vagabond, Interim, and Argos. Boston Public Works will add a whole bunch of world premieres next eyar. And we'll have to see if Hibernian Hall finds success with Peter Snoad's bunch of new plays (they're staging four of them) and will continue to stage new work in the heart of a traditionally underserved community.

As writers, we can often be discouraged at what feels like an endless stream of rejection, but some of the news from Boston is actually pretty exciting--there is a lot of new work going on here.  However, there remains significant room for improvement, in terms of producing more work written by people of color and by women. (Indeed, the numbers for women and people of color are slightly inflated, because I'm counting festivals with a mix of women and men directors as being directed by a woman, and same for people of color.)

My hope is that these numbers give us a chance to engage in an honest discussion about the state of Boston area theatre (and how that relates to the national scene), to better understand some of our strengths and our weaknesses.


In the next week or so, I'll try to put together the stats for professional productions in the rest of New England.

• I also want to point out that Art Hennessey, on his blog, Mirror Up to Life, has some other very interesting posts about Boston theatre data from 2010.
•  And here's a post from Ilana Brownstein with a similar accounting of productions and diversity from the 2012-2013 Boston season (with a slightly different universe of companies).  A comparison of percentages between the two surveys might be a start towards establishing ideas about current trends.  
• Here's a blog from San Francisco, where the blogger is keeping stats on gender for actors, directors, and writers, month-by-month.  http://sfbayareaactor.blogspot.com/

Boston New Play Ecology, 2014

Back in 2010, I wrote a series of blog posts about the state of new play production in Boston and New England (which led to some discussion and also a follow up post about Orlando).  I've been meaning to do a follow up for a while, to see how things have changed, if at all, since then.

Here are the original posts:
Daddy Where Do New Plays Come From
New Play Ecology, Part 2, New England


The relevant numbers from 2010:
10 Boston theaters yielded 11 world premieres (6 by Boston writers)
24 theaters in the rest of New England staged 16 world premieres.
Total: 34 theaters offered 27 world premieres. 12 by local writers.


So where do we stand today?

Let's start with medium and large Boston theatres putting on professional productions, and then we'll look at Fringe Companies and the rest of New England in other posts.

Huntington Theatre Company:  2 world premieres: Becoming Cuba by Melinda Lopez, directed by Bevin O'Gara, and Smart People by Lydia Diamond, directed by Peter DuBois. I'm not quite sure how to count Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of Jungle Book, which was a co-production with the Goodman (I'm not counting it as a world premiere for now). The Huntington continues to be very active in new play development, having brought back their Breaking Ground readings series (last month they did readings of new plays by Ronan Noone, Lila Rose Kaplan, Lenelle Moise, Susan Bernfield, and Tanya Barfield). Their Huntington Playwriting Fellows (HPF) program is still growing strong, and for the past two seasons they've put together a Summer Play Lab doing workshops of plays by HPF writers (including me).  That's a lot of opportunity.  There's been a lot of talk on the Internet lately about demographics of writers and directors, especially after a recent Summit in DC, so I'm going to include these numbers, too:
Total plays: 7; plays written/developed by women: 3; by people of color: 2; directed by women: 4; directed by people of color: 0.

American Repertory Theatre: 3 world premieres:  Witness Uganda by Matt Gould and Griffin Matthew, directed by Diane Paulus; The Shape She Makes by Susan Misner & Jonathan Bernstein, directed by Jonathan Bernstein; The Light Princess by Lila Rose Kaplan directed by Allegra Libonati (this wasn't in the main season, but was part of the ART Institute, but it was a by a local writer).  Plus they're hosting lots of new work at Oberon and have a couple of other exciting new work programs going on right now.  Total plays: 7+, written/developed by women: 2; by people of color: 1; directed by women: 2; directed by people of color: 0.

Those are the big guys.  How about some of the mid-sized and bigger small theatres in Boston:

Lyric Stage:  none.  Total plays: 7, written/developed by women: 3; by people of color: 1; directed by women: 2; directed by people of color: 0.

Speakeasy:  1 world premiere: Kurt Vonnegut's Make Up Your Mind, assembled by Nicky Silver.  Total plays: 5, written by women: 2, by people of color: 0; directed by women: 1, directed by people of color: 0.

New Rep: 1 world premiere, Pattern of Life by Walt McGough, directed by Bridge Kathleen O'Leary. They've also now go their Next Voices Fellowship Program going, where they work with four local playwrights (I was part of it last year).  This is a big addition to the scene since 2010.  Total plays: 10 (counting their Next Rep Black Box Festival), written by women: 3, by people of color: 1, directed by women: 3, directed by people of color: 1.

Boston Playwrights Theatre:  3 world premieres: Burning by Ginger Lazarus directed by Steven Bogart, Windowmen by Steven Barkhimer, directed by Brett Marks, and Absence by Peter M. Floyd, directed by Megan Schy Gleeson. Total plays 3, written by women 1, by people of color 0, directed by women 1, directed by people of color 0.

Company One: 1 world premiere, Splendor by Kirsten Greenidge. Company One also now has created their XX Play Lab, which develops 3 plays by women writers each year--this is another big addition to the scene since 2010.  Total plays: 4, written by women 4, by people of color 3, directed by women 2, directed by people of color: 2. 

Actors Shakespeare Project:  0 world premieres. In 2010 they were doing more new play development than they are now--they actually did 2 world premieres in 2010.  Total plays: 2. Total written by women: 0, by people of color: 0, directed by women: 1, directed by people of color 1.

Central Square Theatre: 1 world premiere: Sila by Chantal Bilodeau, directed by Megan Sandberg-Zanian. Total plays: 7 (between 2 companies, Nora and Underground Railway).  Written by women: 1, by people of color: 0, directed by women 3, directed by people of color: 1.

Stoneham Theatre: 1 world premiere, The Unbleached American by Michaell Aman, directed by Weylin Symes. (In the 2010 blog post, I had Stoneham in the New England List, but really it's in Metro Boston).  Total plays: 6. Written by women: 3, by people of color 0, directed by women 4, directed by people of color: 0.

Wheelock Family Theatre:  0 world premieres. Total plays 4, written/adapted by women: 2, by people of color: 0, directed by women 3, directed by people of color: 0.  (I didn't have WFT in the list in 2010, but I should have. They reach a big audience and offer paid gigs.)

Zeitgeist Stage Company: 0 world premieres.  Total plays 3, written by women: 0, written by people of color: 0, directed by women 0, directed by people of color: 0.


So that gives us a total of 13 professional world premieres from 12 theaters.
6 were by local writers (46%)
7 were written by women (54%)
4 were by people of color (30%)

Total plays produced by 12 theaters:  66
Percentage that were world premieres:  20%

Total plays written by women:  24.  (36%)
Total written by people of color: 8.  (12%)
Total directed by women:  26  (39%)
Total directed by people of color:  5.  (8%)


I hope to address the demographics in another post, but in terms of new play opportunities in general, the news is something of a mixed bag.  On the plus side, there is a slight increase in number of world premieres since 2010 -- we went from 11 to 13 (18% increase), and we didn't lose any theater companies (no small feat).  We gained development programs from New Rep and Company One, saw more increases from the Huntington, but lost some development slots from Actors Shakespeare.  On the down side, we didn't gain any mid-sized companies who produce new work (though we did gain ArtsEmerson which is bringing in some pretty amazing shows from around the world).

It's pretty clear that professional production slots for plays by local playwrights are still are very hard to come by.  And there are a LOT of us.

There is, however, good news from the "fringe" theatre scene, in terms of new play production and development.  I didn't do a survey of those companies in 2010, but I will this time (very soon), and I think we'll see some positive numbers there. And I'll try to do a survey of the remaining professional New England theaters, as soon as I can.


(By the way, I would dearly love to see writers in other cities compile similar lists, so we can get a nationwide picture of the actual state of new play production opportunities in America.  Here is some great data from Gwydion Suelebhan about DC--for 31 theaters, 143 productions. Interesting to compare Boston and DC, though DC is a lot bigger.)

(Note: I had to make a correction--I accidentally credited SpeakEasy with some of Actors' Shakespeare's 2010 new play work.)

Next Up: Fresh Ink workshop of Fire on Earth

After a few weeks with mostly farming filling up my time, it's time to head back into the rehearsal room.  I actually spent quite a bit of time last week making revisions to my play, Fire on Earth, based on the Fresh Ink reading back in June.  Now I'll get a chance to hear them and to play with the actors on some of the more physical scenes in the play.

Fresh Ink will be workshop Fire on Earth starting Sunday night--we'll spend three evenings at Boston Playwrights Theatre, reading through the play and up on our feet, playing with piles of paper and stacks of books and Bibles.  This is a chance for us to experiment and have fun with shaping this play while there is still plenty of time for me to make changes.  We won't head into rehearsal until December (for the production in February).  New play development is a long-term commitment, and I'm grateful that Fresh Ink is giving new plays the time and space they need to really grow before they get to production (and that they're giving new plays actual productions, not just workshops and readings).

New Play Ecology, part 2, New England

So yesterday, I took a look at this season's outlook for new plays and Boston playwrigthts.  But what about the rest of New England?  Boston writers are close enough to most theatres in the rest of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine to be take part in the development and production process of their work, if their plays were being produced.  Are they?  How are New England playwrights faring at home, generally?

Let's take a look at how many world premieres we have, state by state:

Massachusetts:

Stoneham Theatre:  none

Merrimack Repertory Theatre:  1 world premiere, The Exceptionals by Bob Clyman

Gloucester Stage Company:  ?  They haven't announced their season yet.  They were founded by a pretty well-known playwright, so there's always hope here.  (Last year they did one world premiere, of Tender by Kelly Younger, but the rest were plays that had started elsewhere.)

Williamstown Theatre Festival:  2 world premieres, Samuel J and K by Mat Smart and After the Revolution by Amy Herzog.

Berkshire Theatre Festival:  1 world premiere, No Wake by Boston-area writer Bill Donnelly. 

Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater:  none.  (In 2008, they did four world premieres.  And have a history of working with writers.)

Wellesley Summer Theatre Company:   none


Connecticut:

Connecticut Repertory Theatre:  none

Goodspeed Musicals:  3 world premieres, Radio Girl, book by Daniel Godlfarb,music by Henry Krieger, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead, Band Geeks, music by Mark Allen, Gaby Alter, and Tommy Newman, Lyrics by Gaby Alter and Tommy Newman, and book by Tommy Newman and Gordon Greenberg.  And James and the Giant Peach, music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, book by Timothy Allen McDonald.

Hartford Stage:  1 world premiere, Divine Rivalry by Michael Kramer

Long Wharf Theatre:   none

Seven Angels Theatre (Waterbury):  1 world premiere, Mad Bomber,  book and lyrics by Charles Monagan (he lives in Waterbury, CT), music by Richard DeRosa.

Yale Repertory:  2 world premieres, We Have Always Lived in the Castle--book and lyrics by Adam Bock, music and Lyrics by Todd Almond, and Bossa Nova by my friend and fellow Rhombus member, Kirsten Greenidge (go see it).


Maine:

Portland Stage Company:  2 world premieres, Last Gas by John Cariani (who is originally from Maine, but I think he's in NYC now) and The Center of Gravity by Gregory Hischak.

The Public Theatre (Lewiston/Auburn):  none

Mad Horse Theatre Company (Portland):  none


New Hampshire:

Peterborough Players:  none

Seacoast Repertory Theatre:  1 world premiere, Gay Bride of Frankenstein, book by Dane Leeman and Billy Butler, music and lyrics by Billy Butler (New England writers).


Rhode Island:

Trinity Repertory Company:  1 world premiere, Edgar Allan Poe by company member Stephen Thorne.

The Gamm Theatre:  none

Perishable Theatre:  none  (they did some new one-acts in their women's festival, but I'm only looking at full-length plays for now)


Vermont:

Northern Stage:  none

Vermont Stage Company:  none

Weston Playhouse Theatre Company:  1 world premiere, The Oath by Gavin Broady.  (Their first world premiere ever.)


To sum up:  In the seasons of 24 professional theatres of various size in New England (not counting Boston), there are 16 world premieres (by 11 theatres).  Quite a few musicals.  Only six of the writers are from New England.  Not exactly great numbers if you're a New England playwright (okay, they're kind of depressing).   It'd sure be nice to see an average of at least 1 new play per theatre, and a lot stronger commitment to New England writers.  (I'm not sure about where the teams from Goodspeed are from, so there could be a few more New Englanders in the mix.)

If you add the Boston numbers from yesterday's post to the mix, you get 34 professional theatres offering a total of 27 world premieres between them.  Twelve of those world premieres are by local writers.  That's twelve playwrights getting full-length professional productions in the entire New England region, in the next season.  On the plus side (I've got to find one in there somewhere), there are smaller theatres giving playwrights a chance to get their work on stage, especially in Boston.  (I'll have to figure out how many.)

It all feels like a lot to think about.   As I said yesterday, there is no shortage of talented New England playwrights, writing plenty of scripts.  Many of which are being staged in other cities and regions.  How can we encourage more theatres to develop and produce new work by local writers?

Daddy Where Do New Plays Come From? (New Play Ecology, part 1, Boston)

That's an excellent question, Virginia: where do new plays come from?  Well, now that the upcoming seasons have been announced, we can actually start to answer that question.  Since we live in Boston, let's take a look at which theatres are doing new plays here in Boston.  And by new plays, I mean either world premieres or fairly new plays by Boston writers.  (Recent Off Broadway hits do not count as new plays.)

In particular, let's talk about large and medium-sized Boston theatres who putting on professional productions.  There are smaller theatres doing new work, which is important, too, but we'll hit those another day.

Huntington Theatre Company:  2 world premieres:  Vengeance is the Lord's by Bob Glaudini, and Son of the Prophet by Stephen Karam (though the fine print says "Commissioned and produced by special arrangement with Roundabout Theatre Company, and I'm not exactly sure what that means.)

American Repertory Theatre:  1 world premiere (though Ajax is a new translation...), Prometheus Bound by Steven Sater.

Those are the big guys.  How about some of the mid-sized and bigger small theatres in Boston:

Lyric Stage:  none

Speakeasy:  none

New Rep:  1 world premiere, afterlife: a ghost story by Steve Yockey (this is a "rolling world premiere" with the National New Play Network, which means the play will be premiered by several NNPN members this year).

Boston Playwrights Theatre:  (these guys always win) 3 world premieres:  Five Down One Across by Michael Towers, Two Wives in India by (my pal) Leslie Harrell Dillen, and Waking the Volcano by Jon Lipsky.  Two of these are Boston writers, too (Leslie abandoned us for New Mexico).  I'll just highlight all the Boston writers receiving premieres (or even productions of full-length plays)  (Theresa Rebeck is not a Boston writer anymore, sorry.)

Company One:  1 world premiere, on their Second Stage (you know they're getting bigger when they have a second stage), Cartoon Confessions by John Kunz and Rick Park.

Actors Shakespeare Project:  2 world premieres (both by Boston writers).  Okay, I didn't expect to see them doing as many new plays by Boston writers as BPT, but they are.  Their Winter Festival will feature two-week runs of The Hotel Nepenthe by John Kuntz and Living in Exile by Jon Lipsky.  Both these guys seem to be about to have a pretty good season.

Central Square Theatre:  1 world premiere (though they had a good year of new plays last year), Silver Spoon by Amy Merrill and Si Kahn.

Zeitgeist Stage:  none.


So, in the seasons of ten Boston theaters, we have 11 world premieres (out of more than 50 productions), though BPT skews the average a little.  Of those 11 world premieres, 6 are by Boston writers (only 4 out of 10 theatres are producing work by local writers).  If you take BPT out of the mix, since they exclusively produce new work by BU alums, that leaves us with 4 full-length plays written by Boston writers getting professional productions in town. 

Given those numbers, you wouldn't know that we have a wealth of playwrights living in or near Boston, whose work has been widely produced.  There are no full-length plays on Boston stages this season from Kirsten Greenidge, Lydia Diamond, Ronan Noone, Ken Urban, or Melinda Lopez.  (or that Gabridge guy)   And there are more, too.  I can't list everyone, but some of these come to mind: Joyce Van Dyke, Peter Snoad, John Shea, Jacqui Parker, Kate Snodgrass, Bill Donnelley, Janet Kenney, Monica Raymond, my fellow Rhombus members--Joe Byers, Carl Danielson, Ginger Lazarus, Alexa Mavromatis.  And there are scores more (who I hope will forgive me if I haven't included them in this list, including the new HPF members, whose names aren't public yet).


So what does all this mean?  I'm not sure.  To me, the numbers of new plays by Boston writers seem very, very low.  (Imagine if only four out of ten professional theatres hired ANY local actors or directors.  It's not the same, but...)   Most Boston playwrights aren't getting the chances here at home to fully develop their work, and to learn by seeing how those plays succeed or fail in front of audiences. 

It also shows that while Boston audiences are getting plenty of exciting imports, they're not seeing plays produced by people who live and work in their communities.  And audiences are not developing relationships with local playwrights (though they do with local actors and directors)--this creation of an audience for a certain writer's plays can play an important role in the growth of a playwright, because it helps level out the hit/flop mentality that can come with the production of only a single show or two by a writer--audiences (and critics) start to follow a writer, and a two-way relationship forms and actually helps shape the work.  Audiences might not love every show by that writer, but they want to see what's going to come next.

The numbers might to point to gaps in the market that could potentially be filled by new companies who have a stronger focus on new work and work by local writers.  For now, Boston remains a town where exciting new work can be imported (just look at ArtsEmerson), but very little new work written by Boston writers and produced by Boston theatres gets exported to other cities.  I'd sure like to see that change.


Coming next:  New Play Ecology, part 2, the rest of New England)

Six Views roundtable wrap up

The rest of the Rhombus Six Views, Same Shape festival went well. On Saturday morning I moderated our roundtable discussion on methods and models of new play development. We had an experienced panel--Ilana Brownstein (literary manger of the Huntington Theatre Company), Gary Garrison (executive director of the Dramatists Guild), Kate Snodgrass (artistic director of the Boston Playwrights Theatre and Boston Theatre Marathon), Joe Antoun (artistic director of CentaStage), and Jacqui Parker (artistic director of Boston' s African American Theatre Festival).

We had a good turnout, in terms of audience--probably about 33 (not including our six Rhombus writers)--playwrights from all around the area, and they seemed pretty engaged in the discussion. I came prepared with a good list of questions that got people talking. I wished we'd recorded audio of the discussion, so I could post it here. As moderator, I was paying attention to the flow of the discussion and trying to figure out where to steer it next, so I didn't take very good notes (anyone out there who was there with better notes, please do post a comment here).

However, I can list a few of the highlights.

• Several panelists talked about the importance of knowing when to say no to a reading. Not all plays need every different kind of development process all the time. It's up to you, as your play's best advocate to consider seriously what is most needed for your play, now.
• In light of that, Gary Garrison posed three questions that he feels are critical to answer (or have a pretty good idea about) before you start getting into a development process (that isn't run by you). If you don't, you're at risk for easily being led in various different directions, and muddying your play. His questions were (I hope I'm getting this right):

• What is your play about?
• Why did you write it?
• What do you want to see on stage?

• Ilana Brownstein offered up an additional question--What is your nightmare version of this play? It's helpful to know what you don't want to happen to your script.
• We talked a bit about various developmental programs--the Huntington Fellows Program, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the O'Neill, and others, as well as grass roots, do-it-yourself kinds of weekends.
  
• The importance of giving a script time to grow and realizing that the first production does not mark the end of the growth of a script. Jacqui Parker talked about being able to remount or extend the run of a play, to allow her to fully realize changes she wanted to make after seeing the play on its feet.
• We also talked about the limitations of staged readings, and ways in which it's possible to explore plays on their feet before they reach production.
• Money was a topic. The expense of new play development greatly affects how it's put together, and how, because of union rules, it's actually more expensive for large institutions to put on a workshop of a new play than for a smaller group.
• We talked about the other elements in a play besides dialogue--set and lighting and sound design, asking is there a way for playwrights to better understand or communicate with designers. I suggested we put together a panel or workshop in Boston to facilitate this (and I think it could happen sooner rather than later).
• We had good questions from the audience about the history of new play development, and about graduate schools--the consensus was that attending a formal playwriting program was definitely not necessary in order to write good plays or have a playwriting career. This is from people who teach and run such programs. If you want to attend a formal program, it's important that you have a good idea of how you learn, and that you look closely at such programs to know who you'll study with and if they're a good match for your needs.

We covered a lot of ground in 90 minutes, that's for sure.

In addition to learning a lot, I was pleased with how generous and open all the panelists were. And how relatively easy it was to put something like this together. I definitely feel inspired to work on more such events in the future--to find answers to my questions (and share them with the community).

Six Views is on its feet

We (Rhombus) got the Six Views, Same Shape new play festival off and running last night, with Joe Byers' play, Noori and the Imperialists (a play about the end of the world). He had a terrific cast and a good turnout (attendance of 27, not counting the six of us writers--our target was 25, so that was good news). The audience was pretty warm and gave lots of good response, which is really what the whole thing is for.

Tonight we had Carl Danielson's play, Everloving God. I baked brownies and helped with front of the house and lights. Despite a nice mention in the Globe this morning and a mass e-mailing yesterday afternoon, turnout was very light. We had six people attend, which was too bad, because it's really hard to judge laughs with less than a dozen, really less than 20. Still, Carl got a good reading from the actors, and I'd think it'd be helpful in figuring out where to rewrite the script.

Tomorrow, we've got the roundtable on methods and models of new play development. I'm moderating and have been trying to get ready. I've got a full page of notes and questions ready to go. The time will go by fast, I think.

Then it's on to my workshop/reading/open rehearsal of Constant State of Panic. I was still making changes to the script this morning. I think I've got a decent plan worked out for what I want to workshop, though my list is long and time will be short. I'm curious to see what value this way of working (workshopping in front of an audience) will bring. Part of it will depend on how engaged the audience is in taking an inside look at the process or working on this play. I doubt this would be a way to work very often, but I can see it adding an interesting spark. We'll see. (it's at 2pm tomorrow--if you're in Boston, come by).