Ups, Downs, Pivots, and Awards

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!

Back to it all tomorrow!

Young Playwrights Guide - Conversation Series

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!

And please remember to SUBSCRIBE!

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The Young Playwrights Guide

The past three months have been a whirlwind! I think we all feel that way to some degree. Now that school has closed for summer, I am feeling the slower pace of the mornings, and finding ways to approach many of the projects that had been waiting in the wings.

http://youngplaywrghtsguide.blogspot.com
@TheYPGuide

One of these projects is the newly branded Young Playwrights Guide, a retooled version of the Young Playwrights Map that I developed during my doctoral study. The map was a great tool for documenting the existence and spread of opportunities for youth writers around the world, but I found children and their parents were looking for advice, instruction, and guidance through various videos and conversations that arose at the beginnings of Covid-19 quarantine. I spent some time reflecting on those inquiries as well as my own desire to (re)connect with artists whom I haven't been able to work with, or even see, over the last year or so.

The Conversations Series was born on YouTube at the beginning of May and is now in its 8th iteration. You can check out those videos here. I have two more conversations in the works and am looking to build another program through the Guide by the end of summer.

Additionally, I am spreading out my prep work for the beginning of the 2020-21 school year. We anticipate hearing more in the next few weeks about potential returns to school in the fall. In the meantime, I will continue to take it slow and look to ramp things up again as July rolls around.

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Is it Essential?

Teaching at home (both my students and my children) has been, to put it simply, an adjustment. No major crises to report, however. Perhaps, in some ways, the fact that both my wife and I are teachers has contributed to quicker adaptation to the new normal in the time of social distancing. We are finding it not just a complicated time where common errands are now accompanied with mild anxiety and masks, but also an opportunity to reflect on everything: our well-being and work, but also on what is and isn't important to us as a family. Or, to use a phrase we hear everyone right now, the "essential".

That word "essential" is all over the news (well, last I checked... I've made it a point to stop following the news and found it refreshing). I've noticed the word used as a divisive term, but have also found it to be a lens through which to reflect on all aspects of life from work to family, Boiling down curriculum to the essential was a matter of necessity and my wife and I find our teaching all the better for it. In fact, I am eager to see how these revisions will further adapt my work to once we are able to return! Before everything was shut down in mid-March, we were a family constantly on the move - home to school to activities to extra work to other activities to family events to home, etc. With no where to go but home, there has been time each day to reflect and seek out ways to spend our time once school work is complete. For me, that time has been for reading and writing... which really means time for reflecting. It has meant time to seek out, and finally focus on, what is truly essential.

This all leads me to the work I have been doing over the last three weeks leading up to this post. Since 2015, I have managed an online resource of writing and contest opportunities for young playwrights (ages 8-18) around the world. This was a side project during my doctoral research that compiled basic information about the field of work being done that had ancillary relevancy to what eventually became the dissertation. It has been difficult to gauge who is behind the over 3,500 hits that the Young Playwrights Map has received in that time, but someone is finding their way there and using its information. About two years ago, I considered shutting down the Map, but a news article announcing that a young writer in New Jersey would have readings of her work in young playwrights festivals in Arizona and New York (both of which were listed on the site) prompted me to keep it going. It was not until social distancing that I had the time to do a proper update of the information listed, which I completed in mid-April. A conversation with a graduating senior from Niagara University (my alma mater) sparked my curiosity about the potential for the Map to do more than just be a listing of information. I have since embarked upon a series of changes that will transform the site again.

On May 1, the Young Playwrights Map will officially become the Young Playwrights Guide. I have a schedule of insights, advice, and video-recorded conversations that will soon populate the site with a renewed purpose to provide tools for young creators to embark upon, and eventually share, their works. I am so excited by this shift and it has been difficult to keep things under wraps. However, in order to maintain our new family schedule, I am beginning to roll out these changes with small updates to the existing online platforms. The Map website got a makeover this afternoon; social media platforms will follow. I'm also putting together the first few video conversations on a branded YouTube channel and will delve into the world of Instagram, too.

It is interesting (and perhaps a bit morbid) to think that if it were not for a global pandemic, I may not have the time to do the work that I have done. (And I am certainly empathetic to the opposite reality that others may face right now). Reflection is an important part of my work as an educator, artist, and researcher, but also having the time to read Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle is the Way launched me into the right mindset to re-brand the Map into the Guide. As Holiday notes in the book - and in other articles about the idea - It is a matter of how we use crisis, or failure, to reflect on what is essential to revise and to keep moving on.

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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.

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.

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Young Playwrights Map: Update

Image created by Jodomondo
Accessed on Wikimedia Commons

The summer has provided me with much needed time for updating the Young Playwrights Map, which had been neglected for too long as I wound down school-year responsibilities at the theatre and at the high school. However, I have not yet updated the old listings as my social media and internet news alerts have brought to my attention a number of previously unknown opportunities within the United States, Canada, and the UK. These have been added throughout the month of June and the Map has suddenly grown from an off-shoot of my dissertation research into an international resource of 117 opportunities for young writers ages 18 and younger.

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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Get your program listed on The Young Playwrights Map

As you may know by now, I administer a reference site for young playwrights called The Young Playwrights Map. The endeavor began in the middle of my dissertation research in 2014 when I noticed that there were plenty of opportunities for young playwrights in the United States to submit their work, but not a central resource for students to find these programs. So, I pulled together the information into a Google Map and The Young Playwrights Map was born.

To date, The Map has gone through three separate updates. The most current update was completed May 31 and lists a total of 88 programs, festivals, competitions, and other opportunities for young writers ages 19 and under.

There will be one more Map update this year, which I plan to have done before school begins again in September. I also will make the Map international with the addition of programs from across the globe!

Data is being collected through a Google form located on The Map website. You can also access it directly via this link: http://theyoungplaywrightsmap.blogspot.com/2017/06/get-on-map.html. Any programs already listed on the site are encouraged to complete the form to update their information. If you are not currently on The Map, please submit!

Please contact me directly with any questions. You can also connect with The Young Playwrights Map via Twitter and Facebook.

Young, Emerging, Submurging

http://www.clipartpanda.com/
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How do we define a particular group of playwrights? Are they "emerging" or "young" writers? Or perhaps they are something different altogether. This is one of the question I have considered throughout the dissertation research. Generally, I have found that the preference for one term over another, as well as the definition of each, depends in large part upon geographic region and the age of the playwright. However, even those aren't definitive rationale for using one term over another.

And then there are the occasions where a term is used, but the context leaves little clue as to what exactly it means. (I'm looking at you, Audible. The $5 million in commissions is great, but who do you mean when you say "emerging playwrights"?)

In the end, I think that each term refers to a group of writers who are "new" to the work both as writers who have never crafted a script before and those who are just becoming known to the larger audience. Here is an interesting blog post from the Emerging Writers Festival in Victoria, Australia that offers a new suggestion, the "submerged playwright":

http://www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au/rmit-gazette-emerging-established-submerged/

Publishing articles about young playwrights programs

This past month I had published two articles about the growth of young playwrights programs in the United States:

The first is an encyclopedia-style entry about the burgeoning regional programs in the late 1980s, which is published as part of a crowd-sourced timeline celebrating the 30th anniversary of Youth Theatre Journal. You can link to the article here.

The second is an article about the current field of young playwrights program that draws from data I have gathered in creating and updating The Young Playwrights Map. This is published in the NYU Program in Educational Theatre online journal, ArtsPraxis, and can be found here.

I am excited to share this work and to document the tremendous field of playwriting programs for youth that are present in this country. Looking forward to wrapping up my dissertation exploring the impact of these programs and to continue to advocate for the unique opportunities and experiences provided within this field.

And They're Off!

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.

Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'

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!)

Who's teaching Whom?

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).

Summer Camp Playwriting - Day 3

(also published on the Writers Theatre of NJ blog)

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!

Summer Camp Playwriting - Day 2

(simultaneously published on the Writers Theatre of NJ blog)

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.

Summer Camp Playwrights - Day 1

(simultaneously published on the Writers Theatre of NJ blog)

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.

The Young Playwrights Map 2.0

Introducing The Young Playwrights Map!

Ok... so, actually you may have already met the Map. It has been online for almost a year now with the most recent updates posted last week. There are currently 69 different opportunities listed there with at least one program for students in 33 different states. And ten of those listed accept scripts from young writers across the nation. I'm always looking to expand the resource, so the plan is to reconnect with those organizations already on the list again in August.

This afternoon I will share the Map during a session at the NYU Forum on Educational Theatre. My paper presentation will discuss the history of young playwrights programs in the United States (briefly), how I came to build the map, and some results of a recent inquiry I made into the way in which the programs included on the Map conduct their work with young playwrights. I'm looking forward to sharing the news and receiving feedback on the project.

I am also thrilled to announce that the Map will move foward with a new name: The Young Playwrights Map. While it is still focused on programs available to writers in the US, the title will allow for planned inclusion of programs around the world. (I will likely begin that work in 2017.) Also, the Map now has a home on Facebook and Twitter (@TheYPMap), so look to connect with the project there!

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.

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!

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!