Neither Actor/Server nor Adjunct Professor Novelist
Emerging Playwright Economics
2 April 2015
Emerging playwright Maggie Sulc evaluates the advice she’s been given and the options for how to finance her playwriting path, and realizes hers may be one no one else has walked yet.
Why Playwrights Should Work in Literary Management
13 March 2015
Lia Romeo explains the advantages of being a playwright working in literary management, and how her job has improved her writing and other important skills.
Using a Co-opted Model That Has Already Reached the Tipping Point
6 March 2015
In the first post of his series, Seth Lepore looks at crowdfunding, how to keep it relevant, who is actually donating, and the kind of immediacy it provides.
Larissa FastHorse explores the issues she deals with as a Native playwright, from finding an agent to what happens when she has to un-Native American a character.
A Lover’s Guide to American Playwrights—I Married a Playwright
Karen Hartman
4 February 2015
Todd London's latest addition to his column, A Lover’s Guide to American Playwrights, is about his own personal resident playwright—Karen Hartman—and the “wilderness of mid-career.”
Seth Rozin says let large theatres do what they do best—be large—and encourage playwrights to cultivate relationships with mid-size and small theatres.
Finding Your Voice Later In Life (Is It Too Late To "Emerge?") Conversation
Tuesday 2 December 2014
New York, NY, United States
The Dramatists Guild of America presented the conversation Finding Your Voice Later In Life (Is It Too Late To "Emerge?") livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 2 December at 2:30 p.m. PST (Los Angeles) / 4:30 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 5:30 p.m. EST (New York) / 22:30 GMT (London). In Twitter, use #howlround to participate in conversation and follow @DramatistsGuild for updates.
Are Equity tours of a higher quality than non-union productions? Very possibly. There’s a larger talent pool to work with and performers tend to be more experienced. That said, whether or not a tour is a union production has never been shown to have a demonstrable effect on ticket sales that I’ve been able to uncover.
Leslie Odom Jr. And His Three Rules for “Getting Into The Room” as a Professional Performer
16 October 2014
1.) Never wait for permission to practice your art. You cannot wait to get a job to be an artist. 2.) Study your art. Never stop studying. 3.) Find a spiritual practice that works for you.
Truthfully, as a Los Angeles-based theater artist working almost entirely under the 99-seat agreement, at a certain point I just gave up on earning my Equity card, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) wasn’t popping up on my radar. While I may not currently carry a union card in my wallet, I do take great pride in how I am following in my grandfather’s footsteps. We both pursued our passion to craft and share stories, and simultaneously held careers working in the arts to pay the bills.
The kind of open, honest, rough-and-tumble way that we often approach our art-making seems to be inhibited, or even actively stifled, when it comes to addressing larger issues in the way we work and the ways we are part of the fabric of the country. Much of the time, it seems like we’re all living in a spirit of fear, instantly defensive whenever anyone questions the current status quo. And this despite the fact that, at least in principle, everyone seems to agree the status quo is far from ideal.
There is so much that we, the new Latina/o playwrights, can learn from those who came before us. And if we as a cultural community are to keep working at diversifying the American stage, we need to be looking behind us as often as looking ahead. Mentorship is about paying it forward.
Miranda Wright and Practicing Performance in Los Angeles
4 September 2014
Miranda Wright doesn’t want to be pegged – not yet. The theatrical environment that she’s creating is both local and global—theater for a world that is simultaneously more connected and isolated, more expansive, more community-oriented, more lonely. More than anything, she’s concerned with the present moment.
Making the decision to acquire an education is more often than not an easy one. To do most any job in America, one must acquire a bachelor's degree. For those who wish to pursue a career in the theater, this is no different: one must undertake a program of education or work-related training. If you have decided to pursue a career in the theater, and are in the process of gathering meaningful information to help determine which programs you ought to give serious consideration, this blog series is for you.
“Paying your dues”—it’s a pervasive refrain, and one that clearly lives deeply within us; it has gotten under our skin and through our veins. I can’t help but think that it’s a lie. The concept of “paying dues” implies a sort of social contract that’s simply no longer present, if it ever was.
The Artist, the Institution, and the Communal Organism
16 June 2014
My maturation as a young theater practitioner has nothing to do with finding and knowing the answers. I don’t know them. Trust me. It has everything to do with facing the pivotal question: of which American theater do I want to be a part? The answer is that I will only, and can only, be a part of the theater that evolves through the specific and indispensable relationship with its community.
So my friend Clyde Valentín is my guest today on the Friday Phone Call. I seem to be in a mood around friends in transition. As with Deb Cullinan and Todd London, Clyde recently began a new adventure after a long stretch as the Executive Director of The Hip Hop Theater Festival. He has taken on the job of leading a new initiative at Southern Methodist University in Dallas: The Arts and Urbanism Initiative. Clyde is very much in the conceptual days of this project—he has been in place for just a few months thus far. I love hearing him think out loud about the path at SMU, the path for HHTF and him, and the role of a university in community. Clyde is also a key organizer of the Latino Theater Commons but we will have to get back on the phone another time to get that whole story.
Listen to weekly podcasts hosted by David Dower as he interviews theatre artists from around the country to highlight #newplay bright spots. This week: Todd London.