We had quite a time in the classroom this past week. 1/3 of the musical cast is now in quarantine due to positive Covid contact. They won't return until two days before our first dress rehearsal. We will now shift our plans to a fully filmed performance, which may actually take some pressure off of the cast.
In brighter news, two students in the Playwriting class received Honorable Mentions for their original, one-act plays. It is awesome recognition of their creativity and the hard work they put in to the piece. The students all loved the class so much; it was great to get their feedback about it at the end of the class. This is some fun icing on that cake!
Friday marked the half way point in the school year as we began the 3rd marking period. It was a bittersweet time to say "goodbye" to the inaugural group of Playwriting students at the high school and hello to a new group of middle school Theatre students & the first Acting 2 Honors class in many years.
I struggled to put together a lesson plan map for the Acting 2 Honors class that I liked. The curriculum guide left by the previous teacher had some great idea for performance projects with a devised piece and a performance for children. But, the structure felt too disjointed for me. It wasn't until I peeked at the student surveys from the Playwriting class that it finally clicked. What the writing students enjoyed so much was the ability to learn from lectures, lessons, and exercises while having the freedom and time to let their creativity flow at their own pace. The one-on-one instruction was also helpful. That was it. If that was what creative students wanted, now I needed to find a way to apply it to the honors level acting class.
Friday afternoon, I presented my ideas to the Honors class at our first meeting. The class would have an acting studio-type structure and engage them in a series of individual and group performance projects. They liked the ideas of the devised and children's theatre pieces, but also the opportunity to do some self-reflection and to develop their own individual goals and projects. We will see how that all works out, but I'm excited by their excitement. I cannot wait to see how giving them the room to run supports whatever their imaginations can conceive.
This weekend wraps up the summer edition of the Conversations Series on the Young Playwrights Guide YouTube channel. I had such a great time connecting with the artists & teachers with whom I worked on the NJ Young Playwrights Festival. Their stories and insights are excellent resources for not only youth creators, but many of us looking to reconnect with and rekindle our passion for the art form. Please head on over to the YP Guide YouTube channel to check out the videos; please reach out to the artists interviewed, too. They are excellent people to work with!
This summer has been a complicated one (with stories for future posts), but one positive side is it has given me time to work on a number of projects I've had in mind for some time. Can't share details yet, but stay tuned...
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.
Child performers, Federal Theatre Project
Gary, Indiana
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.
Theatre In Our Schools Month kicks off today and for the first time I am participating as the leader of a school drama club. Our state Thespian chapter shared a series of prompts for the occasion that were created by Thespian Troupe #5840 at Gloucester County Institute of Technology. I have adopted and shared these with the community at Lacey Township High School with the goal of getting as many students, teachers, staff, and community members involved in celebrating. While I look forward to seeing what they share, I am also excited to share a few things myself, particularly today with the prompt:
“Favorite song that you have performed or want to perform”
I am a huge musical theatre nerd. The history of the genre is fascinating to me and I have also been known to burst into song on occasion. This is something I usually try to keep under wraps, of course (unless I’m teaching upper elementary or middle school students whose appalled amusement is quite enjoyable), so it may come as a surprise to some reading this blog (and not quite a surprise to others, like those who live in my house).
Finding just one favorite song for this prompt is tricky. So here are a few that might fit the bill:
1. “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’!” from Oklahoma!
I’ve written about this song before and how much I like Hugh Jackman’s performance of it. This is an easy song to sing and I think I manage it pretty well in the car. Not a role I’d ever want to play, nor is it one in which I’d be cast. The character’s name (Curly) isn’t accidental!
2. “If I Can’t Love Her” from Beauty and the Beast
Similar to “Mornin’”, this is a great song to sing and way back when I was an auditioning actor (as opposed to a working one), this was one of my go-to songs. It fit my range well and the emotional depth of the song is moving. Terrence Mann sung the song well, but Josh Groben's pretty good, too.
3. “A Little Priest” from Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Sweeney Todd is my favorite musical. It has all of the Sondheim qualities to enjoy and is an amalgamation of performance styles that feel appropriate to, if not actually of, the Victorian era in which the story is set. “A Little Priest” is a good music hall / vaudeville routine that swings across the emotional and psychological spectrum of the murderous, vengeful Todd. I have never played Sweeney Todd - and would gladly welcome the chance to do so -, but did perform the song during my freshman year of college. In my undergraduate program, senior Honors students research and present a performance thesis at the end of the year. I was cast with three other students to perform a musical revue that included “A Little Priest” and the preceding “Epiphany” (another excellent song).
Click here to see Angela Lansbury & George Hearn perform this song.
4. “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid
That may seem like a goof, but file this song under “favorite that you want to perform” for me. A few years back, I was teaching a playwriting residency to a large group of 4th and 5th graders. We were talking about how sometimes a play is fueled by a character who wants, or needs, something that they feel they must have. This song popped into my head and I went with it... actually, I began singing it… and it worked. Ariel has everything she could possibly have, but what she really wants is a whole world away from her. We all feel like that at some point in our lives. It is also a good touchstone for younger audience members from elementary school to high school who can’t wait to get older and get out into the world to see what is beyond what they’ve always known.
Obviously, I will never play Ariel, but if there was ever a “miscast” performance like they do at MCC Theatre’s annual gala, this would be a song I’d like to sing. Or perhaps even “Never Go Back to Before” from Ragtime. That’s a good one, too.
5. "Lily’s Eyes" from The Secret Garden
When this show opened on Broadway, I fell in love with it to the point of jealousy when my sister received a copy of the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. We lobbied to produce the play in college and when it was chosen for the season during my junior year, my friend Lou and I auditioned with “Lily’s Eyes”. We were cast in the roles of Archie & Neville Craven, respectively, and sang this song quite often. I couldn’t get enough of it. The song still moves me today and is absolutely the most favorite song I have performed.
This week begins the final session of summer classes at the theatre. This last session is a return to the two-week format from the beginning of the summer and after six one-week sessions, it feels a bit like switching from a sprint to a marathon. Right now the class is busily writing away. I've thrown a lot at them - perhaps too much - and they need some time to get to know their characters and the characters' everyday lives. We have talked about what makes for "good" and "bad" stories and how to map out the Hero's Journey and ways to alter it. They loved writing up a pitch for The Worst Story Ever. The very first class enjoyed that when I introduced the idea toward the end of our session, but this was a great way to get the class started. They are a smart group; very willing to talk and debate. I can't wait to see what they've been working on.
For a while now I have been thinking about how much theatre - musical theatre in particular - has been a source of comfort and joy throughout my life. This morning, my commute was infinitely improved with the discovery of a long-lost Ragtime soundtrack. So, I thought it a good time to begin what I hope can be a regular series about show tunes. One song recently on my mind is “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” from Oklahoma! I realize there are some people who see Oklahoma! as naive, or even “cheesey”, and I will admit that I felt that way about it for quite some time. But after discovering the 1998 Royal National Theatre production on PBS a few years ago, I’ve been converted. That production, directed by Susan Stroman, had a realistic quality to it in which the characters felt as close to real people as a musical with dancing cowboys and farmers could possibly be. Plus, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” is an easy song to sing and holds an interesting place in American theatre history with a connection to today’s “history maker”, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton. Both Oklahoma! and Hamilton are considered “ground breaking” in their time. We understand how that moniker can be given to Hamilton, but perhaps it is less obvious for Oklahoma! The Rodgers and Hammerstein staple was an experiment in musical theatre when it premiered in 1943. Musical theatre at the time followed a typical structure with song-and-dance numbers and action reminiscent of Vaudeville and other variety entertainments. However, when the curtain rises on Oklahoma!, Aunt Eller sits alone on stage as Curley enters the scene singing the opening number all on his own. In the HBO documentary Six by Sondheim, Stephen Sondheim, who was a protege of Oscar Hammerstein II, describes this as an example of how Hammerstein’s greatest influence in American theatre is his work as “an experimental playwright”. Sondheim himself would further alter the musical theatre structure with his self-described “conversational songs” and word play. Things brings us to Hamilton, which alters musical theatre structure again with the inclusion of rap and hip-hop into conventional theatre. More directly, there is a line of mentorship between these three artists. As Sondheim was mentored by Hammerstein, Miranda learned from Sondheim (who Miranda affectionately calls “Sondheezy”). (This lineage has a role in the history of American young playwrights programs, too.) This clip from the 1998 production at the Royal National Theatre in London is the version I enjoy the most. If you haven't seen it in full, check it out on the PBS website. I also use this video when lecturing about musical theatre, or in some playwriting workshops with young people. Hugh Jackman is a big appeal, especially to those students who know him primarily as Wolverine. (And wow, can he sing!)
Revisiting Gerald Chapman's excellent book, Teaching Young Playwrights(1991), to gather some inspiration as the summer playwrights complete their first drafts. In addition to finding some great revision exercises, I am also revisiting some of Chapman's salient stories about the power of writing for young people.
One such anecdote is excerpted from the book Writing: Teachers and Children at Work (1983) by Donald Graves in which Leon Tolstoy was asked by some children to write a story for them:
"He began composing while his students gathered around his desk. But instead of being awed by this great writer, the children quickly pointed out a mistake in Tolstoy's portrayal of the young thief. In his journal, Tolstoy later wrote that they were right to correct him, and he crystallized his views about this in an essay entitled 'Are We To Teach the Peasant Children to Write, or Are They To Teach Us?'" (quoted in Chapman, p. 101).
Picking up where we left off in Tuesday's class, I shared with the students the advice from Twitter about crafting scenes. In addition to what was mentioned in yesterday’s post, I also included these ideas from Ramon Esquivel (@Bub1974)
Good Q. 1st draft, I write scene until it naturally ends/shifts. Later, I CUT to shape story tone + pacing.
1st drafts are about finding character for me. I let 1d scenes run/meander as long as needed. Find voices!
The suggestions received on Twitter immediately sparked ideas within the class and they quickly made some edits to the scenes already written. I coupled this with a quick discussion of The Hero’s Journey framework to show how smaller scenes, and their individual tasks/conflicts, can fit into the larger arc of the play. This really sparked the playwrights’ imaginations, particularly when seeing the journey as a 3D spiral rather than the 2D drawing I had done on the board. We had already discussed how the Emergency can launch a character into the world of the play whether or not she wants to go. Thinking of this as the point when the character’s world changes was especially useful; understanding that the typical “conclusion” was actually the start of the hero’s return home after completing, and being changed by, the journey set them off scribbling and typing new ideas.
Our version of Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey
The class also liked the idea of introducing additional characters into the play as “mentors and demons,” who either help or hurt the heroine in her journey. One student suggested the term “demon” be changed to “dementor,” which I thought was a great idea. (You’ll see that term on the chart above.) I also added the phrase “line of change” to emphasize the points at which the main character experiences change in the journey paradigm. We explored conflict through a letter writing exercise in which the main character writes to a potential mentor for help on the journey. That letter was shared with another playwright who wrote a response letter as if they were the person to whom the page was addressed. The respondent did not know anything about the character other than that person’s name; they also had to refuse to help. The first playwright wrote another letter in response and this time the respondent could either agree or again refuse. This activity takes a lot of time, but can be helpful not only in demonstrating conflict, but for beginning to develop the additional character(s) who may be found along the hero’s journey.
The students made great strides in their writing today, but still need some more time to write tomorrow. A couple have suggested that they may be done, but I anticipate that there will be more of the story to tell. I’m considering bringing in a few of our summer interns to read the plays so the playwrights get a chance to hear the words outside of their own heads. This is much earlier than I would typically do something like this, but I think they are ready. Can’t wait!
Picking up where we left off yesterday in the Playwriting Workshop, the students revisited the formatting for a script through a pairs writing exercise. Partners took turns setting up their script by alternating the writing of information on a title page. This included items like character descriptions, setting, and an “at rise” to describe what the audience sees as the play begins. Once this was set, the writers took turns crafting a line of dialogue and then passed the notebook to their partner. They wrote like this for ten minutes and then we shared the drafts. I like to use this activity early in the process to reinforce the way the script is structured - which is often foreign to young playwrights - but also because it helps students practice writing dialogue as a reaction to what another character has previously said or done. I find this prevents them from overthinking how the play is structured and is a good stand-in for an acting exercise (which I find is something my student writers tend to not want to do).
From here we visited the character descriptions the students created yesterday and talked about what event or opportunity sent the character on her journey. This led to the brainstorming of a list of actions someone might take to get what they want. Ideas ranged from asking to murder! I encouraged the playwrights to decide one action where the character would begin and another that signified how far the character was willing to go to succeed. Having a line to cross is a great way for a character (and a playwright) to heighten the tension and, in my opinion, make the story more interesting and real to an audience.
Speaking of audience, I was happy to revisit the idea of writing for two audiences (spectators and performers), which we discussed on the first day. This seemed to inspire them to make detailed choices about how to present information within the dialogue for the audience and within the stage directions for the production staff. After some time writing, other questions arose about when to change scenes. My response is always along the lines of: you start a new scene whenever time or place changes. This works for most young playwrights’ stories, but this particular playwright had location shifts that were more subtle and this answer didn’t quite suffice. So, I took to Twitter and polled a few playwrights. I’m thankful to Pia Wilson, Dania Ramos, and Lauren Gunderson who provided some suggestions in response.
Pia Wilson (@pwilson720) began with the following suggestions:
Depends on the story. U have 2 think abt the objective of the scene & what the chars need to accomplish.
Sometimes a scene isn’t finished when you think it is. U can only know that in the context of the play.
Lauren Gunderson (@LalaTellsAStory) supported these ideas with the following:
Each scene is a small play, with a goal achieved, something discovered or status changed. Then a new scene.
A scene should propel the characters into the next scene. The audience should be hungry for more story
Plot = Change. What changes for the characters in the scene. If nothing? Then you’re writing the wrong stuff
Dania Ramos (@DaniaDania) echoed my suggestion about time and place.
I look forward to sharing these ideas with the students in the morning and to the impact they are likely to have on the process.
When I teach a summer playwriting class, I don’t prescribe a strict writing process for the students. Instead I make a few suggestions, support them with exercises, and largely leave things open for the writers to proceed as they wish. For some that involves mapping out the steps a character takes along the journey (which typically translates into scenes); others need to know who the play is about, what s/he is going to do, and where it is taking place and then they write and figure it out while writing. I like to leave it open to take away the pressure of having to write something excellent and instead place the emphasis on just writing. But the playwright suggestions above may alter our course toward a more formal outline. I think there are some students who will benefit greatly from that idea and I’m curious to see how it works out.
Today begins another summer of theatre camp classes at Writers Theatre of New Jersey. For the second year in a row, we start off with a class of young writers in the Playwriting Workshop. These students will enter sixth through ninth grade in the fall and most have an interest in creative writing, if not playwriting specifically. In fact, this may be the first time I’ve had a summer playwriting class where all of the students have written a dramatic script before. Regardless of students’ background, the first day always poses the challenge to figure out how comfortable everyone is sharing their work as well as how willing they are to spend the time writing.
Over the years I’ve come to structure the first class as an overview of the entire process: we brainstorm, develop characters, instigate conflict, and explore how things like setting, time, and even physicality (what if what you just wrote was spoken by an object in the room?) can impact those elements. I ask a lot of questions - a LOT of them - and make sure to emphasize that as a playwright there are two audiences: the people who gather to hear the story, but also the creative artists who will embody the story and bring it to life. This is a lot to digest, but I find it is often a new realization for the writers that helps craft more theatrical stories.
Creating characters
This first day is also a chance for me to try out some new activities and approaches, or to alter how I introduce them within the two week course. Last year, my groups had a great time working with a Norman Rockwell April Fool’s Day painting from 1947 and an exercise in which they rewrote a scene using a location from outside the building. The latter experience of setting made quite an impact on the students last year that I anticipate using it earlier in the process, but still not until they’ve begun to establish the parameters of the play they will develop for a public sharing on the final day.
For today, I tried an adaptation of something I’ve done for a while. I asked the students to make a list of five things they knew to be true. These could be known facts, personal experiences, or even ideas that they could support like factual evidence. They then wrote about this truth in their own voice. To keep this from feeling like a persuasive essay, I asked that they think of it like telling the story, or sharing the information with someone else. Once this was done, I asked them to reread - and likely rewrite - what the had just done from the perspective of an object in the room. Once that was done, they had to imagine the truth from an opposite perspective. Who might believe the opposite was true? Why? What led them to have that belief or understanding? They then read the two opposing speeches and we talked about how having multiple perspectives made the “good guy” and “bad guy” more realistic and believable to an audience. I will look to keep this theme going throughout the session.
This morning, Facebook reminded me that it was two years ago today that Lin-Manuel Miranda replied to my question on Twitter about his advice to young playwrights:
"Write write write. What I'd give for your energy. WRITE!"
Some of the best advice there could be for young writers... or writers of any age. (What I'd give for Miranda's energy!)
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.
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.
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!
