Here's the Pitch

Playwrights pitching their ideas (PTNJ Summer)

This post was originally published on the NJ Young Playwrights blog on Nov 9, 2015.

When writers have an idea, or a completed script, and are looking for financial support, they sometimes need to give a presentation of that play to a producer (think Shark Tank for writers). Similarly, other writers (usually in television) meet together frequently to share plot ideas with one another. Talking about a story idea in this situation is called giving a "pitch". A pitch is a summary of the story that is usually pretty short and defined by a certain amount of time, amount of words, etc. This is typically something done when you start writing, but I've found it to be helpful to young playwrights at any time throughout the process.

If at any point in the process you find that you are stuck, or have writer's block, give this pitch exercise a try. First, summarize the general information about the play by beginning with the phrase: "This is a story about ________ " and then continue by giving some information about the character. This can simply be a noun like "girl" or "boy" or "wallaby", or you can give the name. Next, tell a little something about that person's everyday life, what they want/need to do in the play, and why the want/need to do it." For example, if we were to give a pitch about The Wizard of Oz, it might look something like this:

This is the story of a girl from Kansas who gets trapped in her house during a tornado. The tornado picks up the house and lands in the middle of a magical world called Oz. The girl wants to get back home, but is in danger because when her house fell, it fell on the Wicked Witch of the East and killed her. Now, the witch's sister, the Wicked Witch of the West, wants revenge on Dorothy for what she's done. With the help of a good witch named Glinda, Dorothy begins her journey to the Emerald City to see the Wizard who she is told will be able to send her home. Along the way, she meets three other inhabitants of Oz who also need the Wizard's help.

In that one paragraph, we get a pretty good sense of who the story is about, what she needs to do, who some of the other characters are, and what difficulties they all might face. This isn't a complete story, but it might just give you enough of an idea of what you are writing about to help you move through any writer's block, or moments where you are unsure about what you are writing. You can also use this exercise to brainstorm before writing your play, or as a check-in to see how well your story is progressing at any time during the writing process.

Happy writing!

As Long As It Needs to Be

This post previously appeared this morning on the NJ Young Playwrights Blog, which I manage for Playwrights Theatre of NJ. Since 2008, I have used the blog as a way to document the annual Festival performances and to encourage playwrights with ideas, tips, stories, and suggestions. For that reason, the tone of the post is geared toward an audience in 4th - 12th grade, but I'd love for you to take a look here.

The most frequent questions and concerns I receive from young playwrights preparing their scripts have to do with the limits that we place on script format and page count. In fact, this was the most troubling thing to the writers in a playwriting class I just finished teaching. They were constantly checking the number of pages and double-checking to see if I thought they might have enough, or too much. I tried to ease their worries by answering the question “How long does it need to be?” with the open answer “As long as it needs to be to tell the story.”

I completely understand the anxiety about these things. The majority of the submissions we receive each year come from students who are writing a play for the first time and what we request for a manuscript is different from the way a script looks when published in the books that they read and use to rehearse the school play. Luckily, script formatting comes pretty easily with a little practice. (You can find more information about the format requirements on our blog here.) While format can be managed, it is page count that causes young writers the most anxiety.

This makes sense to me, too. Young playwrights spend most of their time writing working on papers and projects for class, which often have limits and requirements. I get it: When there is a page limit, or a page minimum, you want to make sure you are saying enough, but not too much, while still writing something good. I worried about this when I was a student and, truth be told, it is something I still think about now that I’m writing my dissertation.

Screenshot from the Guidelines page for the NJ Young Playwrights Festival

The NJ Young Playwrights Festival asks that script submissions be “longer than 20 minutes in performance time (roughly 20 typed pages)” because that’s what we are able to manage in the production of the Festival. We choose about 9-10 plays and only have a total of three hours between the two performances to present that work. And I want all of you writers to know that while we ask for scripts that are no more than 20 minutes in length (roughly 20 pages of typed dialogue), that isn’t an exact measure of what accounts for 20 minutes on stage. Please keep in mind that if your play reaches the final round, and even if it is selected for the Festival performance, you will do a lot of rewrites and revisions to it. So, there is room to go a little over the limit, if you need to. (Please note the emphasis on little!) But please don’t go overboard. Reaching beyond 25 pages is probably too much.

But really, rather than worrying about how long or how short your play might be, try to focus on telling a good story. Make this a play that you feel confident and passionate about – a play that you are proud to share with the world and a play that you yourself would really like to see. Because in the end, that is what is most important. Tell the story first. Then edit to fit the guidelines later.

Happy writing!

Dulce et Utile, Part 2

"Quintus Horatius Flaccus" by Anton von Werner

Dulce Et Utile

A Keynote Address by Jim DeVivo

Given for the February 2015 induction ceremony International Thespian Society at Union County Academy for Performing Arts.

"Thank you for inviting me here today to celebrate with you the induction of these young people into the International Thespian Society. Though I’ve been involved in the theatre since the age of eight, I have never had the privilege to take part in a program like this and I am honored to be a part of the ceremony today.

"It is fitting to celebrate students’ work in theatre with a ritual like this as it is in ritual and storytelling that theatre has its origins. Our earliest ancestors gathered around the fire to hear a shaman incant tales that demystified the unknown things around them and within. These stories became the basis of ethics and religion and education as our ancestors evolved from those earliest days to the present day. Throughout that history, we humans continued to gather to tell and hear stories much as the ancients did, but with new technology constantly upgrading the meeting places and advancements in philosophy and training reshaping and refining the storytelling methods.

"It is remarkable to think how important theatre must be to withstand such a span of time. The Roman poet Horace may have put it best in the Ars Poetica, his study of poetry and drama, when he said that effective theatre must be both dulce et utile: meaning sweet and useful. To put it another way: entertaining and educational. The theatre has always served both purposes though at times it may have drifted toward one end of the spectrum, or another. In our modern age, with the spectacle of falling chandeliers, rotating barricades, and pop music reviews, we swing a bit more toward the entertainment side of of the spectrum where it can be difficult to recognize the educational importance of the art form. At times, those of us in the theatre struggle to prove our worth in a world increasingly obsessed with higher numbers and 'better' results.

"Yet it is also in this same era that serious research has explored the impact of theatre participation and education on students’ academic and creative development. A few years ago, James Catterall, a professor of education at UCLA, concluded his 12-year study of visual and performing arts education at the secondary school level by finding that 'sustained student involvement in theatre arts associates with a variety of developments for youth: gains in reading proficiency, gains in self-concept and motivation, and higher levels of empathy for others' (p. 2). Additionally, in a 2012 study, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices surmised that the arts and culture sector can play a major role in the revitalization of local economies through 'community revitalization and the development of a better prepared workforce,' among other things. (p. 5). Education and creativity experts like Sir Ken Robinson speak of the necessity of arts education to ensure that our children have the creative capacity to survive and succeed in whatever future the remainder of 21st century may reveal.

Beyond these intrinsic benefits there also is much that is learned in the way of Core Curricular Content knowledge through the research, dramaturgy, and development that goes into the preparation of a theatrical performance. In order to prepare for a role, an actor studies the text and subtext of a character’s written dialogue and the historical and social contexts that impact his/her actions and language. Similar work is done by a director and a designer to bring the details of the play to fruition; not to mention the playwright who creates or recreates that world in the beginning. How many of you know more about our world after putting on, or seeing, an historical play?

Theatre helps us to better understand ourselves, too. For example I remember being an 8-year old boy sitting on the floor of the school gymnasium completely engrossed with an assembly given by a local opera company. At recess, I grabbed my four-color, retractable ballpoint pen to quickly record everything I had seen or heard at the assembly. I even cast my friends for a production that, unfortunately, never made it to my planned playground performance. My love of theatre was born that day and I began to soak of every experience I could have backstage and onstage and in the audience. Through the stories I experienced I learned about the world and imagined myself in it. This brought great joy and entertainment, but also a feeling of family as I worked with a variety of people in each production. That sense of belonging did more for me than I could have ever imagined at the time as it also gave me the necessary encouragement and validation I needed to get through future years complicated by a rare autoimmune disorder and a resulting lack of self-esteem. You may have similar stories of learning and growth that stem from your own interactions with theatre, or those of your friends, or children.

Which brings us back again to the theatre as a place for telling and hearing stories. With all of this learning going on, how nice that we are able to do it in the midst of the fun and excitement of a show! For let’s not forget the dulce in Horace’s description of the theatre: that its benefit is not just to feed the mind, but to please the soul as well. Congratulations to all of tonight’s inductees on their accomplishments in these pursuits. May all your future endeavors be sweet and useful. Thank you."

Photo of Bic 4-Color Retractable Ballpoint Pen from Staples.com

Back on the Boards

My desk during final preparations for NJYPF 2015

Preparations are just about done and this Sunday we begin rehearsals for the 32nd annual New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival. This is a program I have run for Playwrights Theatre since I started working there in 2002. For the past two months, I've communicated with the high school playwrights via email and phone, and finally had a chance to meet them in person at the NJ Governor's Awards for Arts Education on Wednesday. These four students have done a remarkable job not just crafting engaging stories, but also a pair of significant revisions using feedback from our contest readers and the festival dramaturgs. The first rewrite was a great way to assess the commitment to the process and willingness of the finalists to make changes to their work. The goal of the second rewrite under the guidance of a dramaturg, is to help jump start the playwrights into the rehearsal process.

The high school playwrights have always been directly involved in rehearsals, but this is only the second year implementing a pre-Festival routine (last year introduced the dramaturgs; this year, the finalist rewrites). A year prior, I noticed that only a handful of playwrights were actively participating in the program. There are a variety of reasons for this, of course, but it seemed that much of it had to do with the playwrights being thrown into rehearsals without any significant orientation. Seeing professionals work on your script can be exciting, but it can also be very intimidating. Hopefully we've alleviated some of that this year. I can't wait to begin working on the scripts tomorrow. What I can wait for is my new role in this year's program.

I've been directing portions of the Festival for many years, but this is the first time that I will perform in them. Festival scripts are often populated by youth, or young adult, characters; however, this year we were surprised that of the 13 total characters in the four high school plays, only five characters were young people. The majority of the actors that I typically hire for young playwrights presentations are in their early to mid-20s, so the challenge became finding the actors needed for the adult characters. We did well, but fell short to the point where a colleague and I will need to step into two roles. That's all well for my colleague who is a professional actor. For me, on the other hand, it is not a typical role. I've performed onstage before, but I haven't since the New Plays for Young Audiences Series in 2007. So, this should be interesting, to say the least!

Dulce et Utile, Part 1

On Monday, May 11, I accompanied a few of the students whose plays were selected for the 2015 Madison Young Playwrights Festival to receive a proclamation from Madison Borough Mayor Robert Conley. After reading the document proclaiming April 2015 as Madison Young Playwrights month, Mayor Conley invited the students to introduce themselves and share a little about their plays. I also said a few words about the program's goals and impact:

"At the core of an effective education system are the arts. While it is easy to see art for its immediate entertainment value, we must not overlook the greater impact it has as an educational tool. As the Roman philosopher Horace believed: effective art should be both 'dulce et utile', meaning sweet and useful. Or to put it another way: entertainment and education. By recognizing these young artists tonight, we not only celebrate their achievement, but also encourage their curiosity so that they may continue to learn more about the world and about themselves, and to explore how those two interact.

"We are currently wrapping up the celebration of the 29th annual Madison Young Playwrights program with our final in-school assembly at St. Vincent Martyr School on May 27; however, three plays by Madison students will be further performed in the statewide New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival on June 1st in a production by Playwrights Theatre on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University.

"Thank you Mayor Conley and members of the Council for recognizing the creative explorations of these students. And above all, thank you to the students who have shared their imaginations with us, and the teachers, parents, and community who support them. [The students' work] cannot happen without that support. And we encourage our children to continue using their imaginations for many, many years to come.

Young Playwrights Map

A few years ago I noticed through casual Google searching that there were many opportunities for young people to write plays and have them published or performed. It also was exciting to see just how many of these programs existed across the country, with new ones seeming to pop up every year. What appeared to be missing, however, was a central resource that brought together the variety of information about each of these projects. A few organizations have attempted this with varying results because - as some PTNJ interns and I discovered on a first attempt about two years ago - it is difficult to keep up with the pace of change within the field. (And thanks to those interns for their help!) However, as my dissertation has begun to take shape, I had an opportunity to really make this work; a handful of conversations with excited young playwrights and colleagues provided the encouragement; and finally, this past week, I was able to publish a compilation of 68 individual programs into one Google Map. You can see the result on this website using the Young Playwrights tab. 

It is exciting to think of the potential impact this map might have introducing young writers to new and undiscovered opportunities to share their voices. I also view it as a first step in connecting those in the field of young playwrights work. We don't often have the chance to do so.

Early this morning I sent an introductory email to the addresses and contacts associated with each young playwrights program. I hope that these organizations will provide me with any missing details, or program updates. I also plan to follow up with the programs over the summer, so that young writers can have fresh data when the school year begins and their new scripts begin to take shape.

If you know of a program that is not currently listed on the site, please contact me with information including the name and contact for any administrator who can provide me with details to include on the map. Thanks!

Forward and Backward

By Loudon dodd (Own work) [GFDL CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The start of a new calendar year is a traditional time of reflection and planning. (After all January is named for Janus, the two-faced Roman god of transitions who looks both forward and backward.) No grand resolutions here, but I have done some significant planning for the spring semester. I revamped my writing schedule in an effort to finally finish transcribing interview data and begin writing the dissertation. I will complete this project in 2015; hopefully it can be sooner than later.

I am also teaching a methods course at Manhattanville titled “Theatre Education: Grades 7-12”. This is my second time teaching this class and I’ve significantly restructured the syllabus and added a great new textbook: Joan Lazarus’ 2nd edition of Signs of Change: New Directions in Theatre Education. At our first meeting we discussed our experiences in the “best” and “worst” classes as students and as teachers and what factors help and hurt our teaching and learning experiences. The class told me they appreciated that I participated in some of the activities as it provided them, as students, with some level of comfort and encouragement. Something sort of in the vein of “I won’t ask you to do anything I won’t do”. With that in mind, I will try to continue that example by writing a class reflection each week just as I’ve asked the students to do.

The first week’s reflection also came with the directive to draft a sample teaching philosophy. The class told me they were hesitant to write their statements because that term “philosophy” had the feel of something to be carved in stone. Or as one student put it, something that she would “print and laminate and put on my desk.” I assured them that the statement would be – should be – fluid and shift as they learn more in the semester and in their careers. That said, I’ve had some difficulty trying to boil my page-long teaching statement down to a more palatable paragraph-length philosophy. I will keep working on it and share it in the weeks ahead.

In the meantime, we will shift our attention to the Discipline-Based Theatre Education (DBTE) model of instruction that Lazarus discusses in Chapter 4. In this model, students explore a play from eight different roles and four modes of inquiry. We will use an excerpt of Fashion by Anna Cora Mowatt to explore some of this. I’m particularly excited to use this 170 year old play to see how it resonates and to start the discussion about what an “appropriate” play for this age group might be.