Tradition

Such [insistence on traditional interpretation of Gilbert and Sullivan] would have mattered little had not the D'Oyly Carte enjoyed exclusivity within Britain. After all, "historical" productions of Shakespeare contribute to our appreciation of his plays, as "original instruments" performances of Bach do for his works - but in large part because other performance traditions exist side by side.

This is something people have often questioned me on, as a playwright. I consider it ideal for original plays to be performed as the writer intended, without a radically different interpretation by a director. I always think of that episode of Dream On, where Martin's play, a romantic two-hander about his ex-wife, gets made into an experimental musical without his knowledge (with a greek chorus wearing boxing gloves: ♫ This Marriage is Doomed! It's Dead in the Water! This Marriage is Doooomed! Stick around for the Slaughter! ♫).

But I DO enjoy and entertain new interpretations of Shakespeare or Chekhov because everyone knows (or should know) the original text/story that's being riffed on. Some other writers have achieved such notoriety that I think their work could safely be re-interpreted without damaging the reputation of the artists, though their estates won't allow it- notably Samuel Beckett and Tennessee Williams. The Beckett estate is notorious for only allowing strict interpretations, and the Williams estate recently challenged a production called Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer named Desire, claiming that the one-man show which used Blanche DuBois as a character devalued their property.
Stephen Sondheim in the 80s vetoed a production of Company in which one of the couples was made into a male/male couple without permission, but then in the late 90s granted permission to a college that wanted to cast Marta as a male (so Bobby would have two girlfriends and one boyfriend).

It's a controversial topic; I have frequently directed the original productions of my own plays, just so that I'd be sure of getting my own undiluted vision across to audiences. I can only hope one day I'll be famous enough that people will want to give new interpretations of my plays.

If you want to see your plays performed the way you wrote them, become President.

- Václav Havel - Address to the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London quoted in The Independent, London (24 March 1990)

Perspective

Every twenty years or so, America remembers it has a theater. There's a surge of interest and youthful talent to the form, like a rush of blood to the head. Then there's a battle royal: The new talents struggle to overthrow the old conventions, and old figureheads, that have made the theater boring; the old ways fight back. (...) What this cyclical pattern means, essentially, is that the American theater, as an institution, never grows up, never evolves a native tradition, never accrues the sense of perspective that comes with maturity.

- Michael Feingold, from the introduction to Grove New American Theater

An interesting idea. It seems to be true that a lot of my contemporaries don't have much perspective on theatrical history. I've been working lately on synthesizing modern writing with more old-fashioned techniques (writing 5-act plays in verse, or 4-act plays), and I'm met with amazed bewilderment. There's a reason old plays work, they have the mechanism to do so, it's just a matter of blowing the dust off, and discarding what is no longer relevant.

Thyme and Thyme again

We're almost through with the production of The Thyme of the Season. It has been a long hard road getting to what has turned out to be a really fantastic production. I cast it months before we opened, only to lose three actors to slipped discs, poverty, and being hit by cars. We battled with very few people coming to our benefit (which meant a lot less money to work with), bouts of sickness and pink eye, mis-scheduling, electricity issues, and still my awesome cast is kicking ass. Thank goodness this show is as low-tech as it is, and the cast is as great as they are.
One final show on Wednesday, and I'm pretty sure we're going to sell out. I'm glad we have 8 performances in this festival; my cast is only now fully settling into their roles.

Gender Parity in theatre

Got this invite on Facebook.

Gender parity in the theatre has recently gained public momentum as an extremely important issue of theatre in the 21st century; some might argue that it is the single, largest issue to present itself in the last fifty years. Through Emily Sand’s well publicized study, Opening the Curtain on Playwright Gender: An Integrated Economic Analysis of Discrimination in the American Theatre, and Julia Jordan’s public presentations of that study, we know through indepth research and statistics that there is an alarming, troublesome disparity between the total number of plays written by men produced in our theatres and the number of plays written by women.

Simply put, but not so simply understood, female playwrights can’t seem to get traction of any kind in our community. With all the major theatre awards having now been announced in New York (The Tony Awards, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortell, Theatre World, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, etc.), one outrageous fact emerged: in all the awards combined, only one woman writer was nominated (Sarah Ruhl) in a season that showcased 51 new plays written by women.

To acknowledge the extraordinary work by women in this year’s season (and by doing so, educate the community on many levels), a group of passionate artists and producers (myself, Marsha Norman, Theresa Rebeck, Julia Jordan, Tina Howe, Julie Crosby, John Eisner, G Tim
Sanford and Susan Rose) quickly assembled to create an evening of celebration. Equal parts party and awards ceremony, the event will be held at Playwrights Horizons and the West Bank Café, emceed by Christopher Durang, with an invocation by Gloria Stein, entertainment by Kristin Chenoweth and a host of awards to women in the theatre.
Each year, this event will grow and become inclusive to writers all over the country. Because the event will – by its nature – highlight the issues of gender parity in the theatre, as well educate playwrights and the theater community at large, we’re hoping to generate support and buzz anywhere we can. Voice your support at the FB page:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=120719377959577
Be strong, write well.
Gary (Garrison)
Executive Director, Dramatists Guild

I'm amused how no one's mentioning the possibility that these unprecedented numbers of shows by women were maybe not good enough to have been nominated; that it's assumed they were not nominated entirely because they were penned by women.

And the main conclusion of Emily Sand's study was that it is women themselves as playreaders and decision makers who are essentially holding back other women's work.

And among those nominated this season were Sherie Rene Scott, who co-wrote Everyday Rapture (For the Tony, and Lucille Lortel).
Anna Devere Smith and Lynn Redgrave were both nominated for Lucille Lortel Awards for solo shows they wrote and performed, and Smith was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle, as was Carrie Fisher for Wishful Drinking.
Enron, by Lucy Prebble, was nominated for the Drama League Award (Lucy's also nominated for the Tony for lyrics for Enron, which she also wrote).
Aftermath, co-written by by Jessica Blank, also nominated for the Drama League Award.
Annie Baker's The Aliens and Circle Mirror Transformation shared the Obie award for best new American play. Actually fucking won, for TWO plays. CMT also got a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Play and Baker got a Drama Critics Circle Emerging Artist Special Citation.
Theatre World Awards are only presented to performers, not writers.

So, fuck them, then?

Everything's Coming Up Duncan!

I hate it when other bloggers don't post for a while and then bemoan their lack of posting. And now I'm doing it. I feel my blogger shame.

So much exciting stuff coming up:
First off, my short play Pocket Universe will be in the Fresh Fruit Playhouse Short Play Competition on May 25th, starring Jeff Martin, Joe Sevier, and Shaun B. Wilson!

Then in June, the long-awaited full production of my play The Thyme of the Season, as part of Planet Connections Theatre Festivity
(Which is up for a Pepsi Refresh Grant... For the next 5 days, every time you vote for Planet Connections Theatre Festivity on the Pepsi Refresh website, "Share" the fact that you voted to Twitter or Facebook along with the hashtag #PCTFGrant. You must include the hashtag in order to win an All-Festivity Pass, as that is how we will be tracking the entrants.)

And the Midtown International Theatre Festival shows have been announced, and I'm mentioned in the headline of the first article about it!
My play The Starship Astrov, will be produced in the festival by Oberon Theatre Ensemble. Tickets are already available.

Readings

So I had three readings of pieces/plays of mine this weekend. It's so incredibly helpful to hear a play out loud- I know there's things I miss when it's only on the page. And feedback is always great, whether it's positive or negative- if negative, I try to see what caused that effect and change that- most often, I've found, it's not what the audience thinks should be changed.
My favorite is feedback from the actors who read it. There's something wonderful about the perspective from inside the piece, sometimes you can get an entirely different take on things from the characters' points of view, which is especially valuable.

"Good actors force me to write as honestly as I can. I say 'force' because if you have fudged the truth in a script (and sometimes I want to take a short-cut to the end of a scene or act, a short-cut that the action of the play doesn't justify) a good actor's honesty will shine a very bright light on that moment of chicanery and you will have to fix it or go down in flames. Good actors are merciless that way. They can't help it. It's one of the reasons they're good actors. Mediocre actors let playwrights get away with murder."


- Terrence McNally, preface, 15 Short Plays

Work in Progress

So Oracle Theatre, Inc. will be doing a reading of the first scene of my play-in-progress Roman à Clay this Friday. It's a piece I've been working on for a couple of years- I wrote it and put it away and then brought it out again and re-wrote and then put it away... recently brought it out again for a whole new rewrite... I still don't have much aside from the opening scene.
One of the actors doing the reading said he was riveted to find out what happens next, and was disappointed to find out that I don't exactly know yet. :)