What a great pleasure and privilege to talk to Madelyn Blair about reinvention on her intriguing and insightful video program, UNLOCKED (https://lnkd.in/eicbTx3K) . We ranged from our common interest in knowledge sharing to the ways in which any of us can create a new reality in our lives. And thanks to Madelyn for giving me another chance to talk about my latest play, HONOR, with just four performances left at the Gene Frankel Theatre in lower Manhattan: October 3-5 at 7 PM and Sunday, October 6th at 1 PM. Tix at our.show/honor The program is available now on YouTube https://lnkd.in/eMi4i6w9
Given that I’ve been in rewriting mode around my latest play, I found this piece about Lucas Hnath, which originally appeared in the New Yorker, very helpful. I don’t know if I’m mystical about rewriting but at times the process does seem to require a metaphysical approach; i.e., is this thing being created acquiring a coherent existence?
🙂
“He can sound mystical about his creative process. At workshops, I’ve heard him say many times, “This line hasn’t figured out yet what it wants to become.” But he can also be stringently analytical. Playwright’s Input A should result in Audience Output B. That side was in evidence at the Golden, as the seats began to fill. (The preview was sold out.) I asked him what he’d be looking out for that evening, and he said that it was important that he not look for anything. He wanted to experience the play as if he’d never seen it. This, he emphasized, would be just the start of his process. “You have to watch several performances,” he went on. “Then take a step back and try to understand, on average, how the play works. It’s what remains consistent across many performances that tells me something useful. Tonight is one single data point.”
He hoped to next time find “a better spot” in the theatre. Another night found him in the stage manager’s office, listening to the actors on a monitor. He was rewriting their parts as they spoke.”
Read the detail below but click here to Sign up for a discussion on Playwright Self-Producing taking place 8:30 PM Wednesday September 25th after the 7PM performance of HONOR at 24 Bond Street at the Gene Frankel Theatre in Manhattan.
There is absolutely NO requirement or expectation that prospective attendees of the session will attend the playbeforehand. HONOR has a 7:00 PM curtain and a running time of 65 minutes; Therefore, any playwright is welcome to show up at 8:30PM just for this discussion on self-producing. There is NO fee for attending this playwright community gathering. If you wish to attend HONOR, go to our tickets site here and enter the discount code ‘playwright’ for $10 off the ticket price.
Back in March, I began to publish online a series of brief essays, 13 Ways of Looking at Self-Producing drawing upon my own experience as a playwright doing that double duty on eight stagings (three via Zoom) since 2018. I wrote then that during that period as a number of theaters closed and festivals suspended solicitations that “Finding ‘doom and gloom’ conversations at gatherings with playwrights was impossible to escape no matter what refreshments are served.” Given “that the current situation poses both novel and more frequent obstacles to production especially of new work”, I thought it a good idea to reflect publicly on lessons learned so far from self-producing. The response by readers was gratifying and affirming, which has led our company to sponsor a Wednesday September 25th session on self-producing for any interested playwrights in the NYC area. (Others from far-flung places are welcome to join us but this will be strictly an in-person event.)
Since our production of HONOR runs at the Gene Frankel Theatre in Manhattan, we decided to hold the session on playwrights self-producing after one of the performances. Attendance discussion is FREE and there is absolutely NO requirement or expectation that prospective attendees of the session will attend the play beforehand. HONOR has a 7:00 PM curtain and a running time of 65 minutes; Therefore, any playwright is welcome to show up at 8:30 PM to participate in this session on self producing. If you do wish to attend the play first, that’s fine. Go to our tickets website and enter the discount code ‘PLAYWRIGHT’ to get $10 off your ticket price.
“If there’s no place to put on your play, you can’t learn to write a play, because you learn from the audience.”
David Mamet
Why are we doing this? Three reasons: 1) The playwright community that has nourished us is important and gatherings can make us stronger 2) We don’t know everything and we’d like to benefit from and yet also contribute to ‘the wisdom of [playwright] crowds’ 3) We keep coming back to a David Mamet insight: “If there’s no place to put on your play, you can’t learn to write a play, because you learn from the audience.”
Sooooooo……
Sign up for a discussion on Playwright Self-Producing taking place 8:30 PM Wednesday September 26th after the 7PM performance of HONOR at the Gene Frankel Theatre at 24 Bond Street in Manhattan
Based on the original illustration by Martine MacDonald
Below are all installments of 13 Way of Looking at Self-Producing. The buttons click through to Medium and they’re all relatively quick reads! We’d love your feedback and are always eager to talk more and help answer any questions. Best. – KWT
