Can Playwriting Be Taught and the Value of an MFA

There's a pretty lengthy article about whether playwriting can be taught by Davi Napoleon that's just come on-line.  She talked to tons of people (including me) about it, and it seems to cover a lot of the angles.

In addition, Malachy Walsh, one of my favorite bloggers is finally back on the scene after a long absence, at LitDept.  He has two great posts about the value of an MFA for playwrights, one addressing common myths about playwriting MFAs and the other about the dollar cost/value.

For a long time, I was pretty anti-MFA, though I've considered going back for a master's degree several times.  The time never seemed right, or the program never seemed right for me.  But I've softened my stance considerably over the years, especially since a lot of my best friends  have playwriting MFAs and even teach playwriting in various programs.  For some people, it's the best way to learn.  For me, I had to learn playwriting on my own, by running theatres, writing plays, screwing up, having some success, banging my head against the wall (a lot).  But that's just me.

Maybe I would have learned everything I know now about theatre a lot faster in a graduate program, and I'd be much better read.  Hard to say.

From my point of view, borrowing money to get a graduate education in playwriting would seem a dicey call, however.  It's almost impossible to earn the money back in a timely manner by writing plays, and the cost of the debt would seem likely to suck away the time after graduation needed to actually make use of the skills gained in graduate school.

I've been pretty lucky in having a spouse with a full-time job, who has been extremely understanding of my writing life (i.e. has not demanded that I go get a full-time job).  I've made some money working part time, fixed up and sold houses, and I also have been a stay-at-home dad with our kids (going on 15 years now)--all of which took plenty of time, but also left me with more time and energy to write.  So if the point of going to graduate school is to get dedicated time to write, maybe I never needed that, because I've always found a way to make the time and usually had the discipline to make use of it.  The place I feel I've most missed out, in terms of graduate school, is having close mentors to whom I can turn to ask questions or help guide my career. I spend a lot of time fumbling around career-wise, and also working a lot with my peers (rather then people a generation ahead of me, in terms of skill and career).

For now, I think I'll stick with the road I'm on.  But I can definitely see why others choose other paths.

Don't Talk Back (or Do?)

The reading of Fire on Earth at the Huntington went quite well yesterday.  We had rehearsal from 12-5, which gave us time to read through the script once, and then go back through to look at a few important moments, figure out which stage directions should be read, and think about transitions.  We also cut a few pages, taking out some sections that were remnants of an earlier draft, that probably never quite fit in there either.  Rachel, my director (with some help from Lisa Timmel, the Huntington's Director of New Plays), was very good at helping me figure out whether the pages should stay or go.

For the reading itself, we had about 30 people in the audience, mostly people I knew.  The heavy rain kept people away--we'd cut off reservations last week (we only could seat 50) when we'd reached capacity, so we ended up less than full.  But they were a good, attentive crowd.

The cast, of Will LeBow, Gabriel Kuttner, Ben Evett, and Grant McDermott, were fantastic.  There's a special joy that comes from seeing your work read at its maximum capacity.  There's a lot less room for excuses that way ("oh, if only we'd had a different actor for that part.  He couldn't quite get it.")

We chose not to have an audience talkback, which I know disappointed some people.  I'm mixed on the value of talkbacks.   They certainly can be fun, especially for an audience eager to talk about what they've just heard.  When I helped run Colorado Dramatists (ages ago), I led a lot of reading discussions.  Over the years, I've probably facilitated at least 50, probably close to 70 or 100.  Having an experienced moderator helps (a lot).  But even then, the discussion sometimes veers into odd territory, into weird feedback, or unwanted rewriting of the playwright's work.

Still, sometimes it's helpful.  But I'm less and less likely to use them these days.  I find it more important to make sure there is a critical mass of bodies in the seats to watch the reading, so there's an actual audience there to respond.  (20-30 people will do the trick in a small space.  For a comedy, I think 20 is the minimum.  With less, you shouldn't even bother having a reading.  I make a point of sending a lot of person invites to people, to try to get them to attend.)   Part of my job as a playwright is to be able to watch my play, judge it on my own terms, while at the same time being in tune with the people sitting in the seats around me and noticing whether they're paying attention, laughing, sighing, etc.  I get better at this all the time, with practice. 

If I was in a strange city, I might actually still want a talkback, because I wouldn't know the people or how else to solicit their feedback.  Though, at the same time, too much of the wrong feedback can be very unhelpful (possibly even harmful.).

Since I was in Boston, though, I knew most of the people in attendance, and I'd made it a point to invite people whose opinions and feedback I valued highly.  Instead of trying to get their instantaneous impressions, I e-mailed all of them today and asked for them to send me any thoughts they had.  The advantage of this is that the responses are more likely to be to the play as a whole.  And one-on-one feedback doesn't favor people who are the most outgoing--the louder voices don't end up taking over the public conversation.  I've already received several detailed e-mails from audience members that are very helpful indeed.

One of the other ways I like to do feedback, which isn't what we did last night, is a millabout--where there is plenty of food and drink and we encourage people to linger and to come up and talk to me and each other.  This easier for some people than sitting in chairs waiting to be called on.  And a few drinks loosen people up.  Plus, I can eavesdrop on people, too.

The other advantage of not having a talkback right after a reading is that right when the reading is over, I haven't had time to digest my own thoughts about the play yet.  It's important for the playwright to take a little time after a reading to just sit with his or her own response and own notes, before hearing from a horde of people with other agendas.  It helps me to be better able to respond to outside feedback in a more useful manner.

And lastly (and this might seem trivial or stupid, and actually didn't occur to me before this reading, but rather afterwards), in a situation like last night, where the artistic director of a major theatre is hearing my play for the first time, I'm interesting in him taking away the experience of the play and thinking about it on his own, without that experience being stirred up and around by a discussion.  And discussions will often take a little journey and build momentum on certain topics, that after a while have more to do with the people commenting, that the script itself.  Now, of course, Peter Dubois probably isn't as likely to be as affected by this as I am myself (I imagine he's sat through many hundreds of talkbacks in his career), but still, I want to be able to talk with him about it first.

Anyway, that's my thinking about talkbacks these days.  I had a great time last night and am full of questions about what I need to do to continue to improve the script.

reading of Fire on Earth tonight

In about an hour, I need to head over to the Huntington Theatre (which is not far from my house) to work on Fire on Earth.  We've got a whole afternoon of rehearsal, with a fantastic director (Rachel Walshe, from the Perishable Theatre in Providence) and a stellar cast (Will LeBow, Gabe Kuttner, Grant McDermott, and Ben Evett!).

The reading is at 7pm tonight, and it's been sold out since Thursday.  From the reservation list, it looks like a good mix of theatre pros, friends, and Huntington subscribers.  I think you get a more honest response to the reading of a script with a balanced audience like that.

I'm excited and unusually nervous (it's a big opportunity), but I think the nervousness will disappear once we get to rehearsing.  I've been working hard over the past two weeks, making tweaks to the script.  This is my first chance to hear the whole new version aloud, and I'm grateful to have the chance with such a talented and experienced cast.

reading of Fire on Earth on August 23rd by the Huntington

I don't know a lot of the details yet, but at the moment, the Huntington Theatre Company is planning to hold a public reading of my newest full-length play, Fire on Earth, on August 23rd.  I'll have more details on cast, director, space, and time (it'll be in the evening) soon, but at least I know the date.

If you're in the Boston area, I hope you'll save the date on the calendar--it's a fun and interesting play (in my humble opinion), about the creation of the English Bible (it may not sound like fun, but it has intrigue, torture, people getting burned at the stake, and even shipwrecks).  I've been developing the play for years, but in the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program this year I've undertaken a huge rewrite (changed to a different character, reworked most of the structure, cut the number of actors from 6 to 4, and lost about half the characters).  I'm eager to this chance to hear the new version, but will definitely need an audience there to help me gauge how it's playing.

My First Commission!

I recently signed a contract for my first commissioned work, which feels pretty cool.  The Central Square Theatre in Cambridge has commissioned me to write a 10-15 minute play in conjunction with the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research's Youth Astronomy Apprenticeship program (quite a mouthful, huh?).  The program brings in about two dozen high school students from Boston and Cambridge to engage in hands-on learning and exploration of astronomy over the course of the summer and after school during the rest of the year.  I'll be working with about four of the kids to come up with a play that helps them show audiences some of the things they've been exploring (this year's focus is on the telescope). 

The kids and staff are bright and lots of fun.  I've been to two sessions so far, and look forward to more as I try to come up with a script that's just what they need to communicate about their program.

Radio story about the T Plays

WBUR reporter Jessica Alpert put together a great story about the T Plays that just opened.  She followed me around last Saturday while I was writing/riding on the T.  It's a fun piece--I hope it helps bring people in to see the show.  (We sold out last night.)  It only runs for this weekend, so check it out while you can.

Listen to the story.

Huge News for Arena Stage for Playwrights

Check out this article on Arena Stage's new program for playwrights.  Basically, they're going to hire some playwrights on staff, with salary and benefits.  This is something I've been talking about/fantasizing about for years.  If this catches on among the large LORT theatres, it could be HUGE for American playwrights, by helping bring some additional stability to their lives (both personal lives and creative lives), giving them more space to make stronger work, and to help them stay focused on the theatre (less tempted to go write for TV).

So, in my ideal world:  1)  more theatres follow this model.  2)  One of them hires me.  But no matter what, this is very good news.