wordplay The Newsletter of Young Playwrights Inc
March 2009
Lights Up for Bright Young Writers! On January 7, 2009, eleven distinguished young playwrights from across the country converged upon New York City for the annual Young Playwrights Conference (formerly the Writer’s Conference). Some traveled most of the day to arrive— others are local residents whose journey might have been a jaunt on the subway. Regardless of the mileage covered that day, all arrived to claim their prize for winning the National Playwriting Competition: a week-long all expenses paid trip to New York City to workshop their plays. The Conference culminated in off-Broadway staged readings of the plays on January 12, 13, and 14, 2009. Like over eight hundred other young playwrights 18 years of age or younger, the winners of this contest began this journey with a submission to the Young Playwrights Inc. National Playwriting Competition. The plays by these winning playwrights were carefully read and re-read, ultimately being selected as winners by a committee of professional theater artists which included several Young Playwrights Inc. alums who have gone on to successful careers in playwriting. This year, Young Playwrights Inc. scheduled the Conference in January, a little over a year from the deadline of the contest. This extra time between selecting the winning plays and the conference allowed for an extended period of preconference work. Each playwright had several conversations with her/ his dramaturgs and directors, and had the opportunity to complete a pre-conference revision. During the
Conference, the playwrights worked intensely throughout workshops, script meetings, and rehearsals to shape their plays. No one knew exactly what the final products would look like until, after much anticipation, they premiered as staged readings at Cherry Lane Theatre. As for the 2009 National Playwriting Competition, scripts are in and the evaluation process is underway as we anxiously anticipate the announcement of the winning playwrights who will join us in 2010 for the next Young Playwrights Conference.
Winner’s Circle Bailey Williams - CO Post Caution Elisabeth Frankel - NJ Moon on the Horizon Elyse Pitock - PA A Snapshot of my Family Johanna Lepro-Green - MN Ah, Sunflower Katie Henry - CA Perfect Score Lisa Meyers - CA Respect for the Elecric Field of Horses Melanie Wallner - NY Simultaneity Michael Evan Goodman - NY Call Me When You’re Music Michael Trottier - ME Silent Harmonies Michael Halberstadt - NY A Daisy Through Concrete Sierra Almengual - FL Order
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riter’s lock
The Life of a Play So you’ve written a play and decided to submit it to Young Playwrights Inc. But what happens once you affix appropriate postage and drop your precious package into the mail? Your play has quite a journey ahead of it at Young Playwrights Inc: When your play arrives, it is logged into our system and given a unique number to identify it. We record your date of birth and contact info in our database as well as the play title. You should get confirmation that we have received your play after this step. Then your play becomes part of a packet of plays that is given to a reader who works for Young Playwrights Inc. Readers are professional theater artists who have been trained in reading and creating evaluations of your work. Some are dramaturgs, others are actors, directors, or designers, but all have highly evolved play analysis skills and something to say about your work. After your play has been read and evaluated, it is returned to our office with a cover sheet that designates that reader’s recommendation for our literary department: either the play needs no further consideration, or it should be read again. The
reader also sends us the one page evaluation that you will receive just for entering the competition, regardless of your placement. The Literary Associate will also read your play to check whether or not she agrees with the recommendation given by the reader. Let’s say for the sake of explanation that your play is marked for advancement in the Competition (and I hope it is). Approximately the top 20 to 25 percent of plays go on to be read by all members of a fourperson group called the Evaluation Committee. Your play is discussed at periodic meetings and committee members advocate for the plays they feel best exemplify superior craft. They must keep discussing and fighting for your play until they choose no more than 25 plays to be finalists in the competition. The plays advancing to the final round are all read by the Selection Committee which is composed of distinguished alumni of Young Playwrights Inc. who have gone on to successful playwriting careers, other well-known playwrights and dramaturgs, and is chaired by our Artistic Director. This committee chooses up to ten winners. The prize for winning the Competition is an invitation to our Young Playwrights Conference. At the culmination of this week-long intensive program, your play, which left your hands many months ago when you decided to submit it, will have an OffBroadway staged reading. Selected winning plays will also become part of our Young Playwrights Festival, which is a fully-staged OffBroadway production. Yes, that’s right: your play can have its OffBroadway premiere! Not everyone can be a winner, but everyone can be a playwright. Why not take a chance and start your play on its journey? The deadline for next year’s Young Playwrights National Competition is January 2, 2010.
Supporting the Arts
Those of us who have been around for four or five decades know the drill: economy’s in the toilet and what’s that sound? It’s support for the arts getting flushed. But if you’ve been around long enough to have seen a generation of young artists emerge and thrive in good times and bad you know that the vagaries of the economy are constantly with us. It’s up, it’s down, it’s excellent for some and horrible for others. What the bum times do is revive the old debate about the relative value of art versus, well, just about anything. Except that it’s a specious debate and there’s no way we can win it. Let’s face it: there’s no appropriate comeback to “Organization X is about to find a cure for (fill in a life-threatening illness). Should we just let people die so you can put on a show?” No, playwriting is not a disease, but if it were, we’d want young people to catch it. In fact, Young Playwrights Inc. wants to cause a playwriting epidemic. Why? Because playwriting, in Young Playwrights Inc.’s hands, is not only an art form to be learned and practiced and shared for the love of it but also a tool to promote literacy, learning, and self-expression. If you’re concerned about giving money to the arts during difficult economic times, know that a civilization is remembered by what it creates. Young Playwrights Inc. not only creates new work for the stage, it creates young people who understand the value of language, of the arts, of higher education, and of teaching. On a budget of only $700,000, Young Playwrights Inc. reaches upwards of 10,000 young writers a year. And we know how to use your dollars well, keeping overhead low so that your money goes into programming –which means that your money produces plays and teaches kids. If you’re already a supporter of the arts, especially one that supports other theaters, you must support Young Playwrights Inc. as generously as possible. This is where America’s newest playwrights are found and nurtured, where a generation is introduced to the theater at its best, and where older generations of professional directors, designers, and actors are reminded of the joy they felt when they first discovered the theater. Young Playwrights Inc. is where it all begins.
- Sheri M. Goldhirsch, Artistic Director
Save the Date! Coming Soon from Young Playwrights Inc. . . .
April 1
Write A Play! New York City Final Deadline
April 26
Advanced Playwriting Workshop Readings
May 1
Urban Retreat Final Application Postmark Deadline
June 2009
Write A Play! New York City Awards Ceremony
July 11-19
Urban Retreat
August 9 & 10 Teacher Training Institute
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The playwrights participating in our Urban Retreat this past summer had the experience of seeing four very different shows in as many days. Through this kind of experiential learning, one can compare and contrast elements of different productions to create classifications, and most importantly develop an aesthetic of one’s own—much like developing the palate. Here is a little taste of what was dished up for us each day: The Strangerer by Mickle Maher at the Barrow Street Theatre. If The Strangerer (no that’s not a typo) was a food, it would be tuna surprise. Just when you thought you had figured out the ingredients, something else jumped out at you. The inspiration behind this Theatre Oobleck production was the appearance of Albert Camus’ famous novel, The Stranger, on President Bush’s summer reading list. What results is a smart and imaginative exploration into a bizarre world in which a narcoleptic John Kerry and a malaprop-spouting George W. Bush debate how to murder moderator Jim Lehrer. Some Americans Abroad by Richard Nelson at Second Stage. A culinary equivalent might be delicious mussels in a savory broth with a wonderful crusty loaf of bread to soak up all the goodness. Mmm. It would be perfect, except the waiter has forgotten to bring a bowl for the shells, which accumulate into distracting piles. This revival of Nelson’s late eighties play was well acted and constructed. We also loved the content, which chronicled the politics of an academic theatre department as they weathered a summer trip to England. The one
By: Elizabeth Bojsza
thing we didn’t understand was why the set pieces were placed upstage after use, creating a cluttered stage by the end of the show. Expatriate by Lenelle Moïse at The Culture Project. Wow. This two-woman show is some flavor-popping French/Soul Food fusion. Two black American artists, struggle to transcend their troubled beginnings and rise to express themselves as the group “Black Venus”. The show, with allvocal music, takes us through these characters’ journey, eventually ending up living in France, where the distance from their origins and the act of artistic expression/creation provides them with a view of the structure of the racism they fought to escape. Fuerza Bruta at the Daryl Roth Theatre. This gripping dance/theatre piece can only be compared to exotic cuisine in which you get a bunch of raw stuff and you cook it yourself in a pot of hot oil at the table—because you are very much a part of this show! There are no seats in this theatre, and you must move around during the show as set pieces come out of everywhere. As we stood in awe, watching a performer literally make the water in the clear-bottomed pool above our heads dance with her in staccato stomps and jumps, one young playwright translated the title for all of us: “brute force.” Definitely. So there you have our week of pushing the boundaries of what theater can be. Perhaps you are inspired to go out and stretch your comfort zone as well next time you consider the “menu” of theater offerings in your area!
Everyone Can Write A Play! By: Frances, McGarry, PhD, Director of Instruction Young Playwrights Inc. believes that when young people know their ideas matter, they become intent on getting those ideas heard and acquire a passion for writing. Write A Play! Workshops can improve literacy; encourage individual selfexpression; develop critical thinking and communication skills; and bolster self-esteem by empowering students to see themselves as artists who can make positive choices about their futures.
The workshop, which lasts for up to 13 sessions per class (although longer or shorter workshops are possible), begins with improvisation exercises to get students to create first drafts of their scenes; students then develop their scenes on paper. Other sessions focus on dialogue, character, conflict, plot, setting, and structure. As rewriting begins, students again use improvisation to solve writing problems and establish dramatic action.
In the words of Gerald Chapman, the founding Artistic Director of YPI, “The craft of playwriting frees students’ instincts and honesty and gives them a reliable, articulate voice. Craft unlocks a special kind of artist within each of us. The teacher can offer a way to that craft.” In preparation for a workshop, classroom teachers and supervisors meet with a member of the YPI staff to set goals and define learning strategies and to tailor the program to the needs of each individual class. Write A Play! can be integrated into the study of English language arts, languages other than English, history, social studies, and the sciences. “With the help of [Young Playwrights Inc.], our students have been writing marvelous plays… I am reliant on Young Playwrights Inc. to help them tap into talents that might otherwise go unnoticed and develop an appreciation for theater which will enrich their adult lives,” asserts former High School of Fashion Industries principal Charles Bonnici.
On average, thousands of students in grades 3-12 nationwide participate in Write A Play! Workshops each year, with the vast majority completing a first draft of an original play. All of these young playwrights are encouraged to submit their work to the annual Young Playwrights Inc. National Playwriting Competition and in return receive a written critique of their work by a theater professional. New York City writers also have the opportunity to enter Young Playwrights Inc.’s annual Write A Play! NYC contest and also receive feedback from Young Playwrights Inc. in response to their work. If you are interested in bringing Young Playwrights Inc.’s Write A Play! Workshop to your school, please contact Dr. Frances McGarry at education@youngplaywrights.org or call 212.594.5440.
Alumni Spotlight By: Avital Bisk
This past summer, I participated in Young Playwrights Urban Retreat. As a budding playwright, it was the best experience I could ask for. I learned an incredible amount in only a weeklong program. Every day, we met with professional playwrights who forced us out of our comfort zones. Finding a topic to write about was difficult for me until we went to Grand Central Station, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other places to find inspiration for our writing. Suddenly, I had encountered so much inspiration, that I found myself actually having to choose what to write about. Before this point, I had never realized that topics and themes for plays were all around me. Finding inspiration was not my only concern. On the first day of Urban Retreat, we were told about our commission: a ten-minute play written in two days. The idea of starting and finishing an entire work in two days was frightening. The one play I had written, prior to this week, took many months to put together. We spent the week learning about everything from structure to theatricality. Every night we saw a Broadway or OffBroadway production and then discussed it the next day. At lunches, we met working playwrights. Even David Henry Hwang came to one of our Lunch and Learn sessions! After stuffing a comprehensive playwriting curriculum into five intensive days, I was completely ready for my commission. I was so prepared for the challenge that as soon as I read my commission, I wrote my first draft. I then met with my dramaturg who helped clarify my vision for the piece. I rewrote the play the next day and then revised it again
after listening to a reading of it by professional actors. When we reached the Vineyard Theater, hours before the performance, everything seemed completely unreal. There I was. This was the theater where Three Tall Women, How I Learned To Drive, Avenue Q, and many others got their start. Was my little, ten-minute play really about to be performed here? As the lights went up on both of my actors in their starting positions, it finally sunk in, and I could not have been more excited. The week was such a success that, on my flight home, I became rather upset that it was over. If you are a new playwright, I highly recommend heading to New York and experiencing the Young Playwrights Urban Retreat. I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed it. Even months later, everything I learned has become a wonderful base of knowledge for my playwriting. Now I am a freshman at The University of Texas at Austin as a double major in English and Theatre. I even brought my binder from the YPI Urban Retreat to college to reference back to as I continue my playwriting. The Urban Retreat was an amazing experience that helped me find the playwright inside.
Avital was a participant in the 2008 Young Playwrights Urban Retreat. If you’re interested in participating in the 2009 Urban Retreat, visit our website at www.youngplaywrights. org for full program info.
Happenings Lucy Alibar (YPF01) screenplay Juicy will begin filming in summer of 2009 by Court 13 Productions. Connor Coyne (WC97) married Jessica Jalbrzikowski in 2005 and graduated from the New School with an MFA in Creative Writing in 2007. Tish Durkin (YPF84) has made a career writing for such publications as the New York Observer, National Journal, Rolling Stone, O: the Oprah Winfrey magazine, and the Huffington Post and is now living in Ireland with her husband and two (very) young children. Lauren Gunderson (YPF01) has been commissioned by South Coast Rep to write two plays; the first, titled Emile, will be premiering in April 2009. Emily Herzlin (WC05) graduated with a BA from NYU in Dramatic Literature in spring 2008. Her writing has been published in Sentient City Magazine, WIP (www.theWIP.net), and Newsday. Stephen Karam’s (WC98) Speech & Debate is now published by DPS, and being performed regionally after its initial run in NYC at Roundabout Theatre Company. Jeremy Krinsley (WC01) is a contributor to the Village Voice website with video pieces and music blogs. Sam Mayer’s (WC07) play Mechant Enfant is getting published by Bakers Plays. David Largman Murray (WC03) is taking time off from UC San Diego’s MFA playwriting program to live in Los Angeles and work as a writer in the development of a film adaptation of his latest play Robots Vs. Fake Robots with Nine Muses Entertainment. William Nedved (WC97) contributed the screenplay for the 8 Players short “All Tomorrow’s Parties” that premiered at The ArtHouse Sydney and was screened at the 2002 Los Angeles Short Film Festival. Deborah Yarchun (WC04, YPF06) recently had her play The Crossing produced as part of “10 in 120” at the Matthew Corizone Studio Theatre in NYC and through “MiniFest” at Acadia University in Novia Scotia, Canada. Eric Ziegenhagen (YPF88) recently directed Alan Ayckbourn’s epic The Revengers’ Comedies at Northern Illinois University. In Chicago, he recently directed his own short play Bad News at the Steppenwolf Garage as part of Collaboraction’s Sketchbook ‘08 Festival. Playwrights Kate Moira Ryan, Robert Kerr, and Madeleine George served on the Selection Committee for the Young Playwrights Inc. National Competition this past year.
STAFF SHERI M. GOLDHIRSCH ARTISTIC DIRECTOR FRANCES MCGARRY DIRECTOR OF INSTRUCTION AMANDA JUNCO EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE ELIZABETH BOJSZA LITERARY ASSOCIATE WORDPLAY EDITOR RACHAEL DAUM EDUCATION ASSOCIATE
BOARD OF DIRECTORS JANET BRENNER PRESIDENT STEPHEN SONDHEIM EXECUTIVE VP ALFRED UHRY CHAIRMAN EMERITUS CARLA ALLEYNE JOHN F. BREGLIO CAROL EVANS SHERI M. GOLDHIRSCH MURRAY HORWITZ DAVID HENRY HWANG JULIA JARCHO JOHN MCNAMARA LOIS ROBBINS ELLEN STARR GEORGE C. WOLFE
Can’t place the playwright with the play? Visit the alumni section of our website for a full list of participants and their plays. www.youngplaywrights.org
Young Playwrights Inc. POST OFFICE BOX 5134 NEW YORK, NY 10185
FOUNDED IN 1981 BY STEPHEN SONDHEIM