ETA's annual play survey of high school performances

Every year, the Educational Theatre Association takes a look at which plays are playing on high school stages all across America.

For playwrights, it's an interesting list--it lets us see how much modern work is filtering its way down into the mainstream educational world. In terms of full-length plays, the answer is not much. I'm glad that they also offer a list of the top ten short plays performed by high schools (most are large-cast, half-hour comedies)--here you'll see work by various contemporary writers. Jonathan Rand's Hard Candy and Check, Please routinely occupy the top slots. Allison Williams' play Drop Dead, Juliet! is new to the list and shows that Lindsay Price's TheatreFolk publishing company is doing a good job marketing work by its playwrights. Notice that Playscripts publishes half of the plays on this top ten list.

I'll paste in the top ten short plays list here:

The top ten short plays
1. Check, Please, by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts, Inc.)
2. Hard Candy, by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts, Inc.)
3. (tie) The Actor’s Nightmare, by Christopher Durang (Dramatists Play Service)
3. (tie) 15 Reasons Not to Be in a Play, by Alan Haehnel (Playscripts, Inc.)
5. Check, Please: Take 2, by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts, Inc.)
6. This Is a Test, by Stephen Gregg (Dramatic Publishing)
7. Bang, Bang, You’re Dead, by William Mastrosimone (bangbangyouredead.com)
8. The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet, by Peter Bloedel (Playscripts, Inc.)
9. (tie) Drop Dead, Juliet!, by Allison Williams (Theatrefolk)
9. (tie) Words, Words, Words, by David Ives (Dramatists Play Service)


I have quite a few scripts published for use by high school students, but most are short duets. None have cracked this list, but I wouldn't mind if it happened someday, that's for sure.

About to (Playwright) Binge

The Playwright Binge start up again tomorrow, for our 13th Binge. This is an online group of writers (mostly playwrights) who take up the challenge of submitting a play once a day, every day, for thirty days.

I started this group almost seven years ago, with about a dozen people playing along. Now we've got more than 400 playwrights from around the world signed up, and it's turned into a very supportive, year-round community. During the actual binges (we do this twice a year), folks post what they've sent to the list, where they sent it, and why. They're pretty good about sharing info, too.

Theatres of the world beware--here we come!

Boston Theatre Conference 2008

I'm back from today's Boston Theatre Conference, run by StageSource, both energized and totally exhausted. I knew it was going to be a good day when a) it didn't rain on me during the five-mile bike ride to get there (though I felt a sprinkle) and b) the first person I met was a college theatre professor who was interested in taking a look at my play, God's Voice.

The Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown today was crackling with positive energy. Jeff Poulos, StageSource Executive Director (who rocks!) said there were 260 people there (and he'd hoped for 150). We came from all aspects of theatre--writers, directors, actors, designers, administrators. The overriding theme was "Raising Our Standard" with much of the discussion around ways to increase collaboration between institutions and between artists.

After the plenary discussion, we split into breakout sessions. I was moderator for the playwright group. We had about 40 people pack the room, and for the most part we were able to follow my "no whining" rule. We hit a lot of different topics, from playwright groups, to funding sources, to possible thoughts around training sessions. We didn't come away with any major new initiatives, but it was also good for the bunch of us to be in a room together and get to know each other a little better. (Art Hennessey was there, too, and I'm sure he'll come up with a good post about it all on his blog.)

Lunch featured another lively discussion (I like how they paired us into multi-disciplinary groups) about the climate in Boston for theatre. Then after that, there was an inspiring mainstage discussion with the new heads of the ART, Diane Paulus, and the Huntington, Peter DuBois, and relatively new (3 years) head of Trinity Rep, Curt Columbus. The presence of these three might bode very well for theatre in our area. Curt Columbus talked a lot about how he's weaving his theatre into the fabric of his community--he was both funny and just totally seems to understand the good parts of theatre. I'd work with him in a heartbeat. Wow.

It was a busy, busy day (there was even another session after all that), with lots of networking and chatting with old friends. The kind of day that makes me see what I love about theatre and theatre people.

Jasper Fforde (and yeah, maybe I'm a little full of crap)

Went to Brookline Booksmith (actually it was at the Coolidge Corner Cinema) for a reading by author Jasper Fforde, who has a new book, Thursday Next: First Among Sequels is just out. There were probably 150-200 people who paid $5 each to hear his one-hour talk, and then they all waited in line 45 minutes or so to get him to sign books. And he was great. Very funny, as you'd expect (demand) if you're Fforde fan. When you hear him talk (very fast), you can begin to understand how he's able to create his two series on such a consistent basis, and why people like them so much.

He had a great list of ten principles that he uses when writing (though I don't remember them well enough to quote them). He said a lot of useful things, but one that I really liked was that first he wrote his books (feeling completely unqualified to do so). Later, after they were published and he did book tours and answered people's various literary questions, he figured out what he'd actually done.

(This points to a potential problem with the way that new plays are developed, in that quite often full-length plays have readings, where there are talkback sessions with the audience, which are all fine and good. But the expectation is often that somehow the playwright will use these to "fix" problems with the play. But maybe (I'm not the first to mention this), theatres should work together with the playwright to produce the play in whatever way seems to make the most sense. And then, after the play is actually produced, the playwright can engage in pleasant Q&As and everyone can think about answers to the questions about what is happening and why.)

In my recent post about fame and fortune, I, of course, said that they don't really matter that much to me anymore. Which is mostly true. But I'm also a little full of crap. I tell you, I'd sure like to have people lined up around the block to hear me talk and buy my books. And I'd like to have them name city streets after characters in my books (like they've done in Swindon, the setting for the Thursday Next series), or host an annual Gabridge festival (there is apparently an annual Fforde FFestival in Swindon).

And I'd like to have it all happen and still come across as funny and witty and unspoiled as Jasper Fforde. He's clearly having a ball writing his books, and he seems tickled that so many of us enjoy them as much as he does.

While, as I pointed out in my previous post, it takes a lot of luck to have a successful book published, Jasper Fforde's success also shows how hard work and ingenuity can turn a few strokes of good luck (and a very clever book) into something far more.

Jasper's made a tremendous effort to connect with his fans. Just take a look at his web site--he clearly enjoys the interaction with the folks who read his books, and he gives them a lot of material to look at between releases. He sends out e-mails to his e-mail list about when he's going to make appearances on tour. And in person, he's so entertaining. He definitely gave me a valuable lesson about how to make a book reading into an event worth remembering. I've done a few (mostly for very small audiences) and I know I have a lot to learn. He's given me something to shoot for.

In some ways, the playwrights in the theatre blogosphere provide our fans (what few we have) with ways to hear from us on a regular basis. But much of what's written tends to be for other playwrights. I know theatre is different from novel writing--i.e. locally produced, rather than broadly sold--but it is important for us to keep thinking about ways to communicate with our audiences between shows. How can we use the web to provide additional info/material/value to those folks who see our plays and are interested? Some writers are making progress on this, but I know I have so much room to improve (...it all takes time, we're all short of time, I know, I know).

Anyway, here's hoping for a long line at my next reading (or production). And yours, too.