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Showing posts with label New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival. Show all posts
Friday, August 21, 2020
Young Playwrights Guide - Conversation Series
Monday, December 24, 2018
Needle in a Haystack
My first memorable theatre experience was in 3rd grade when a visiting opera company performed a scene called "I Hate Men" in which the main character, a female teacher, shot dead her male colleagues. However questionable the subject matter, I was hooked and began writing my own scripts. Fast forward 15 years and I was working on the nearly defunct NJ Young Playwrights Festival, providing feedback to young writers in grades 4-12.
In conducting research, the history of the field's development has fascinated me. I have written about that history in an article published in ArtsPraxis and occasionally on the blog for the Young Playwrights Map. Yet this writing is limited to a history of programming influenced by the work done within the national young playwrights competition that eventually became Young Playwrights, Inc. (YPI) founded by composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and developed by the late director, Gerald Chapman. While the influence of Sondheim and Chapman's work in the field cannot be denied, there have been instances of youth creation of plays prior to the national program at YPI in 1981.
Most noted of these earlier programs is the Marilyn Bianchi Kid's Playwriting Festival at Dobama Theatre in Cleveland begun in 1979. In fact, Cleveland seems to have been an incubator of early work in theatre for young audiences through the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) and Playhouse Square. I'm hoping to get my hands on a copy of Showtime in Cleveland by John Vacha to learn more about that. I am also in search of a piece of information that I swear was in my original dissertation research, but can no longer find: evidence that one of the FTP units (Gary, Indiana perhaps) directly engaged students in writing their own scripts. The unit in Gary had children performing work, so it makes the most sense, but correspondence with a scholar who has studied the FTP in Indiana has me questioning that possibility. Learning about Cleveland's history brings my attention to that unit. I also believe there were playwriting programs for youth in Boston and/or Vermont in the 1960s that may have been precursors to the current competitions and festivals in those areas.
I will keep eyes and ears open for that needle in a haystack. Any leads or ideas are most certainly welcome.
Follow @jimdevivo
In conducting research, the history of the field's development has fascinated me. I have written about that history in an article published in ArtsPraxis and occasionally on the blog for the Young Playwrights Map. Yet this writing is limited to a history of programming influenced by the work done within the national young playwrights competition that eventually became Young Playwrights, Inc. (YPI) founded by composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and developed by the late director, Gerald Chapman. While the influence of Sondheim and Chapman's work in the field cannot be denied, there have been instances of youth creation of plays prior to the national program at YPI in 1981.
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| Child performers, Federal Theatre Project Gary, Indiana |
I will keep eyes and ears open for that needle in a haystack. Any leads or ideas are most certainly welcome.
Follow @jimdevivo
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Young Playwrights Map: Update
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| Image created by Jodomondo Accessed on Wikimedia Commons |
I enjoy adding programs both new and established and there have been a share of both this past month. It still surprises me that programs with histories of multiple years are only now becoming visible to me. I would think the almighty Google would pick up those hits automatically, but nevertheless, I am grateful to find them now.
What I am uncertain about at the moment is how useful the Map is for young writers. To date, the Young Playwrights Map has 3,206 views since it was first shared in May 2015. That's roughly 1,000 views per year. Google analytics help me see where views originate, but I don't know how the information is being used, or if it is useful at all. Programs are excited when I contact them to be added (although I did have one program refuse to give information and the head of an organization offer to share information only if I was a member). Playwrights are thrilled with the idea of finding new places to share their work. Some of the playwrights with whom I've worked in the New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival have plays produced at other festivals, but I do not believe they connected with those organizations because of the Map. Information about how the Map is used is something I am working on. If you have any suggestions, please do share them.
I also would like to conduct another overview of the field similar to what I did in Mapping the Field of Young Playwrights Programs, which was published in ArtsPraxis in October 2016. However, that may need to wait until the start of 2019 while I wrap up some other projects. In the meantime, I look forward to continuing to update the map and reaching two milestones: 100 programs in the United States and 120 listings overall. With any luck, those will come before the summer is out!
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Sunday, February 21, 2016
Reading plays
This week I’ve been reading plays for the New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival. This current batch of scripts were written by students in high school (grades 10-12); next week I will tackle plays from junior high school students (grades 7-9). It can take a long time to read a group of plays and write critiques for each, but it is a process that I enjoy and that I have been doing for a long time (almost 14 years now!).
When I talk about my work with young playwrights, I am often asked what kinds of things children write about in a play. Also, I’m asked what commonalities exist among the scripts. Generally, young playwrights are writing about the same things that adult playwrights write about: stories that are personal and themes and events that impact our daily lives. The most common of themes is friendship, which I see must often in plays written by elementary and junior high school students. However, high school students tackle that subject, too.
I also think that when people ask this question, they may be looking for something that will help a play get selected for performance. In essence: what are the common elements among winning plays. The answer to that is more complex as it lies beyond topics and themes and even technical aspects of writing. In my opinion, for a play to really stand out, it needs to evoke some kind of emotion or passion.
That answer may vary among people who read and evaluate scripts, but at the heart of any choice to nominate a play for further consideration in a contest, or performance at a festival, the play has to mean something to the person who is reading it. A good play will have a plot and characters that are well developed, meaningful and consistent dialogue, and a conflict that fuels the story. What really sets a play apart from there is its ability to move an audience. I want to be left thinking about the play and with strong feelings about what the characters have said and done. I want to feel passionate about putting it on stage and sharing the story with others. Of course that kind of reaction will also differ among readers. That makes the process a bit more subjective than we might like it to be. But in the end isn’t that the reason why we tell stories: to move our audience to think and feel and do?
There are a good number of scripts in the NJ Young Playwrights Contest that have moved our readers this year. Those plays will be read again by another set of readers until eventually about 3-4 are chosen in each division to be performed at the Festival. I’ve read a lot of good plays so far and can’t wait to read and be moved by more.
When I talk about my work with young playwrights, I am often asked what kinds of things children write about in a play. Also, I’m asked what commonalities exist among the scripts. Generally, young playwrights are writing about the same things that adult playwrights write about: stories that are personal and themes and events that impact our daily lives. The most common of themes is friendship, which I see must often in plays written by elementary and junior high school students. However, high school students tackle that subject, too.
I also think that when people ask this question, they may be looking for something that will help a play get selected for performance. In essence: what are the common elements among winning plays. The answer to that is more complex as it lies beyond topics and themes and even technical aspects of writing. In my opinion, for a play to really stand out, it needs to evoke some kind of emotion or passion.
That answer may vary among people who read and evaluate scripts, but at the heart of any choice to nominate a play for further consideration in a contest, or performance at a festival, the play has to mean something to the person who is reading it. A good play will have a plot and characters that are well developed, meaningful and consistent dialogue, and a conflict that fuels the story. What really sets a play apart from there is its ability to move an audience. I want to be left thinking about the play and with strong feelings about what the characters have said and done. I want to feel passionate about putting it on stage and sharing the story with others. Of course that kind of reaction will also differ among readers. That makes the process a bit more subjective than we might like it to be. But in the end isn’t that the reason why we tell stories: to move our audience to think and feel and do?
There are a good number of scripts in the NJ Young Playwrights Contest that have moved our readers this year. Those plays will be read again by another set of readers until eventually about 3-4 are chosen in each division to be performed at the Festival. I’ve read a lot of good plays so far and can’t wait to read and be moved by more.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
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.
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!
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.
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| Screenshot from the Guidelines page for the NJ Young Playwrights Festival |
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!
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Back on the Boards
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| My desk during final preparations for NJYPF 2015 |
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!
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