Since the Boston Theatre Marathon, held this year in May, there have been a number of play series featuring new works, produced in various venues, some out in the suburbs, but culminating with Boston Theatre Works annual Unbound reading series this weekend. While new work is the life blood of an active theatre, certain possibly limiting trends are worth discussion. The events to be considered include the Annual Playwrights' Platform Festival, held in June at the BTW. the Double Play weekend--admittedly a special case--over at The Theatre Coop, Theatre @ 1st "Summer Splash" coinciding with Somerville's ArtBeat in Davis Sq., the recent Hovey Summer Arts Festival, and BTW full-length play competition plus others.
ARGUMENTS
The first concern is the number of works directed by their authors, who often appear in them as well. While the writer of a piece may have certain insights, and under some conditions may be the best person to get the show on as intended, too often it's a matter of expediency and/or hubris. The task is possible with a strong assistant with dramaturgical sense. It's very hard to assess a new piece when trying to make it work, rather than at a remove where one can see why something's not working--then cut it or fix it. It's even harder when performing in it. Groups need to be recruiting and training directors at the same time they're soliciting scripts. It's also plainly amateurish to ask a new playwright if they want to direct their script. And requests from more established ones should be considered in light of how desperate these more experienced writers may be to get the piece on.
Any community-based group risks becoming ingrown and more interested in its own amusement than the development of the theatre pieces entrusted to them. A collection of friends doing their friends' work can develop an ensemble, but too often members of their audience who aren't also their friends may wonder just what such a group thinks it's doing. Open casting moreover doesn't simply mean announcing auditions. Contact with other groups--which may require considering schedule conflicts--and reaching out to minority interests takes time and effort, but at the very least can broaden the audience base.
A greater problem is the writing of authors who've seen too much of TV, a lot of movies, and too little live theatre. Authors whose ambitions trend towards writing for the screen need to learn the difference. Certain techniques from each discipline can inform the others, but only to a minor degree. Storytelling on stage is different from narrative screen writing, which is more akin to the short story or the novel. This problem may be compounded by the fact that writers who might have been writing for publication have turned to the stage, since there's even less outlet for literary ambitions these days. At least, one might get at least 100 people or more to respond to a ten minute play, whereas feedback from a short story is liable to be nil, not to mention the direct collaboration with those doing the piece.
VARIOUS EFFORTS
This year's Playwights' Platform Festival --the 33rd, Jun 9-18--is discussed in a separate article, along with previous efforts noted on the Opinions page and in the Archives. The Theatre Coop, which has readings in January, has started a project with the Shadow Boxing Theatre where several short pieces are done twice in the same evening with different casts and directors. This year's DoubleTake, July 1st & 2nd, had only one real play--or part of one--Vladimir Zelevinsky's "Last Scene", a confrontation between the martyred astronomer Bruno and an Inquistor, done once in period costume and once abstractly. Zelevinsky' also had "Silence", a ten-minute sketch exploring the world's fastest backstage romance, presented twice. A stronger effort to solicit a variety of material might produce a more useful program next year, but the results were interesting to watch.
Later in July, the Natick Center for the Arts (TCANN) hosted a set of plays by local writers, a young people's theatre group in Reading, associated with the cable access channel had their second annual one-day short play MiniFest, this time in the TV studio, and the MIT Community Theatre put on a weekend of new plays by various authors. Each drew respectable audiences from their own constituencies.
Coincident to Somerville Arts Council's ArtBeat, a newish community theatre, Theatre@1st, presented two weekends of one acts, July 14-23, chosen from about ninety solicited nationally. They group uses the somewhat uninviting lower hall of the Congregational Church on College St. outside Davis Sq. The mix of short scripts was unusual, to say the least, with plays written locally, and scripts from the West Coast, ranging from realistic character studies to the absurd. Most of the casts were young and energetic and the staging somewhat rough and ready. The current stage setup doesn't solve the problem of support posts in the audience and on stage. Amateur exuberance only goes so far. Their next project is "The Merry Wives of Windsor" this fall. Good luck.
The Hovey Summer Arts Festival , July 15-23, was an attempt to get beyond the 10 minute play, presenting six works running at least one/half hour. Only a couple seemed to be the right length, however. And over at Boston Playwrights', Queer Soup ran a series of their own, showcasing works mostly from within their circle. The last major event this summer was Boston Theatre Works seventh Unbound series, run the first weekend in August this year. On Aug. 4 -7, BTW presented staged readings of seven works they might consider producing in the future. The most notable, because of its author, was Joyce Carol Oates' "The Tattooed Girl", based on her short novel of the same name. This play apparently developed at the same time as its fiction counterpart has a different ending, but a similar cinematic structure One wonders if there isn't also a screenplay in the works. The stage piece is distinguished by Oates' brilliant use of language and the reading by Steven Barkhimer's magisterial effort as Joshua Siegl, a renowned writer, and Marianna Bassham's emotional rollercoaster portrayal of Alma Busch, the title role. Bill Mootos was her vicious junkie boyfriend, while Jennie Israel came on strong as Joshua's domineering sister. Eric Hamel filled in several minor roles, notably a young distant cousin who becomes Seigl's literary executor. Ry Herman's "Man on Dog" was an engaging take on polyamourousness, with a twist, with Susan Condit Rice as the engaging object of affection. Bill Doscher played her father with Marc Harpin and Jen Alison Lewis as her lovers. Nancy Curran Willis directed. Other notable local actors participating were Elizabeth Hayes and Barlow Adamson in Richard Sewell's "In Divisiblunder" and Stacy Fischer who read in "Green Space" and as Ruth Snyder in Maria Obolensky's 1st Prize winner, "Not Enough Air" about the case of the first woman executed in the electric chair, the basis for Sophie Treadwell's notable play, Machinal. Patricia A. Chilsen read Treadwell. Perhaps this piece, definitely in development, may get another workshop during the coming year. Courtney Connor directed. The Sunday marathon reading of all seven plays, which ran quite late, started with Richard Martin Hirsch's "The Monkey Jar" with Maureen Keiller, Julia Jirousek, Jim Spencer, and Ron Rittinger participating. Also in the mix was Ned James Beedie's "Off Hollywood and Vine" and Kathryn Walat's "Green Space"--previously titled "Approaching the Garden State." Incidentally, BTW's opening production in the fall is the Boston premiere of Patrica Kane's cabaret musical, "Pulp.", adapted from 1950's lesbian fiction.
CODA
Is all this exposure of new writing leading anywhere? On the one hand, more actors at various levels get to create new characters from fresh material. Directors can get to work with playwrights, which ought to be the case as much as possible in any case. It's enlightening to be the first to guide the interpretation of a new script , one that hasn't previously been tailored to other visions. Audiences should be getting more tolerant of a range of voices and not be quite so interested in merely seeing pre-approved shows based on media attention. But for playwrights, as one of the major opportunities to get their work heard and possibly seen, there are potential pros and cons. There's seldom any remuneration. At least no playwrighting "competitions" in this area have the nerve to ask for a reading fee. Groups, in fact, should consider budgeting at least a token "participation" payment as well as comp tickets. Moreover, there's no clear path for what happens next. There's the danger that a mediocre production can sour the writer from working further on a project, or more rarely, that really good acting may obscure a script's flaws. It's also hard to tell whether prior productions reduce a script in development's chances for another hearing. Anything short of a production where the actors and the author are paid more than expenses should be labeled a workshop to save the valuable "premiere" label. There's certainly a lot more presentation of new dramatic work around Boston than back when Playwrights' Platform began in the previous millennium. Sturgeon's Law however still applies.