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Home , David Mamet, Donald Margulies, Doug Wright, Dramatists Play Service, I Am My Own Wife, Joe DiPietro

representing the american by Playwriting Students Roundtable publishing and licensing the works of new and established playwrights Christopher Durang exercises your inner playwright Lessons of The Laramie Project

Issue 11, Spring/Summer 2005 EDUCATION ISSUE

Professor an interview by Robert Lewis Vaughan ROBERT VAUGHAN. You’re widely considered one of the fi nest teachers of

playwriting in the country, Paula, and we publish a number of your former students.

PAULA VOGEL. Let’s see: , John C. Russell, and Deborah

Baley Brevoort soon, Alice Tuan, and undergraduate writers I’ve worked with

include and many many more at near you.

ROBERT. And we have a number of other distinguished Brown playwrights

in our catalogue — , Kia Corthron, Tom McCormack, Tim

Blake Nelson, Christopher Shinn, and John Belluso. I’m

sure I’m leaving somebody out, and if so, I apologize. Can you tell us what

the boot camp and the bake-off are?

PAULA. The bake-off I do every year at Brown and also around the world —

in Brazil with a translator; in ; in with RSC, Bush and National

writers; in at A.S.K. Foundation. Basically, we collect a group of

writers and assign “rules” — e.g., you must write a play with a front porch,

kitchen sink and a withheld secret. Or you must write a neoclassical play: unity

of time, place and action, and a confl ict between love and honor. (I love

Continued on page 2 to envision Corneille and Racine meeting for a tell young writers that they are the only ones NEWPLAYS late night expresso in a small Parisian cafe and who can write the particular playworlds that 99 HISTORIES by Julia Cho double-daring each other: If you write Phedre, they carry inside their heads. If they write the An unplanned pregnancy leads Eunice to con- I’ll write Phedre.) Often, I ask writers to tell plays, it may transform the way I look at the front the ghosts of a diffi cult past in this lyrical me what it is really like to live in London or world. But only they can write those plays. exploration of memory and the unbreakable Los Angeles. And then we vote, and the three And those writers who feel that they must go bond between mother and child. elements with the most votes must go into the to law school or medical school will always be play. (The London bake-off: street toughs, fog artists, and we need to remember the doctor ADAM BAUM AND THE JEW MOVIE and a moment of shame. The Prague bake-off: who wrote by the name of Chekhov; we never by Daniel Goldfarb nightmares, bridges and a scene in which three stop being artists, and it’s simply a matter of In 1946, on the night of his son’s bar mitzvah, languages are spoken simultaneously. The LA restructuring our participation in the arts. movie mogul Sam Baum is forced to confront both ROBERT. Some people say you can’t teach Hollywood notions of Jewish identity and his own. bake-off: motels, traffi c jams and synthetic body parts.) After the “rules” are designed, writing. Is a writer born or made and where AN ALMOST HOLY PICTURE then all writers must write the play within do you fi t in? by Heather McDonald, freely drawn from forty-eight hours. No exceptions. Sleep and PAULA. We are all writers. We are all born Pamela Ward’s story “The Hairy Little Girl” meals and walking the dog come out of the writers. Writing is innate; being an artist is Samuel Gentle has heard God’s call three allotted time. Then we get together, and read human. Those who become artists overcome times, but he struggles to comprehend its mys- self-censorship and follow their pleasure tery and his own rage and bewilderment at loss. through sheer force of will. The question as a workshop guide is how might I help by Nilo Cruz in reducing censorship and increasing the Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. Tolstoy, the pleasure in the craft? And I guess I feel I tropics and the American dream prove a vola- don’t teach; I learn. I share my pleasure in the tile combination in a 1929 Cuban–American cigar factory when a new lector arrives with exploration of the voices around me; I strive Anna Karenina to entertain the female workers. to help the conversation. But I know that my graduate workshops are actually taught by the THE ARCHITECTURE OF LOSS by Julia Cho participants, and I facilitate the conversation. In this meditation on loss and the abiding power ROBERT. You’ve said that you are seriously of the unknowable, a family recounts their depressed by the almost nonexistent support memories of the summer when one of their the government is giving to the arts these own — a young boy — disappeared. days. As a playwright, an educator and an the bake-offs in a marathon, with food and arts advocate, you’re very vocal about building BEAUTIFUL CHILD by Nicky Silver wine. It doesn’t matter about page length; it’s support. Tell our readers what they need to be A cynically married couple is drawn together not about completing the play. Nilo Cruz came doing in their own schools and lives to help. when their son, an teacher, confesses that in with 110 pages, which became Dancing PAULA. Every child is given a baseball, a he has fallen in love with one of his eight-year- old male students. on Her Knees; Debbie Baley Brevoort did a football, a basketball at a very early age in brilliant ten pages in the same bake-off. The every school. And so we learn as Americans BOY by Julia Jordan boot camp I do at Brown and elsewhere. We that each time we watch sports, athletes A teenage boy with a gift for storytelling preys gather, hopefully for a week, sometimes just like Manny Ramirez or Michael Jordan or upon an urban family, seducing them with his for a day, and each day we do short plays on Tom Brady “speak” for us. We are virtual yarns, one of which is horrifi c and true. different theatrical elements: plot, character, athletes through the imagination; our language and plasticity. Then after we’ve bodies remember. If we can make sure that BRIGHT IDEAS by Eric Coble “limbered up,” we end with a bake-off. I do all children are given paint brushes, a space Genevra and Joshua’s son is next on the wait- them because I think playwriting is a collective for movement and rehearsal, improv, acting, ing list to get into the Bright Ideas Early Child- writing; I do them because we have to give guitars, the arts will speak for us again and hood Development Academy, and they are only ourselves permission to play; I do them to will become a spiritual daily bread. The arts one dinner party away from the ultimate suc- create a circle of writers rather than have us budgets are the fi rst thing cut from K-12 cess as parents — the right pre-school. write in isolation. I do them because I believe curriculum as if the arts are luxuries. We must, BOY by that circles rise faster. And they’re fun, and I do as adults in our communities, insist that the The rich, funny and moving story of a novelist who’s them because, selfi shly, I learn something new arts are essential. They give children personal fi nally hit the big time with a bestselling book. But each time I do them. skills, community building skills, group skills when his father’s health brings him back to the ROBERT. You and I had a conversation and teach empathy. The arts teach confl ict Brooklyn of his childhood, he’s forced to reconcile some years ago about one of your students. resolution. The arts teach us about what it the boy he was with the man he has become. He was confl icted about his life/career choice feels like to be in someone else’s skin. The arts — wanted to write but was heading for law are crucial in any democracy. BUG by school. If I remember correctly, you persuaded ROBERT. When you’re sending your “chicks” The relationship between a divorced waitress him to give the writing career a go. It seems to out of the “nest,” what do you tell them to with a fondness for cocaine and isolation and a me that you have a very strong opinion about expect, and what words of encouragement do soft-spoken Gulf War drifter festers into paranoia, people going after what they truly desire. Can you send them away with? conspiracy theories and twisted psychological motives in a squalid Oklahoma City motel room. you tell us why that’s important at the high PAULA. First, I ask them if we remembered to school/college age? sign the contract where I get ten percent … just CAVEDWELLER by Kate Moira Ryan, based PAULA. Ah, you’re asking me for a short kidding. I am right now sending out yet another on the novel by Dorothy Allison version of my two-bottle-of-wine talk. In brief, incredible group of writers: Kristin Newbom, When her rock-star boyfriend is killed, Delia I think we have to follow our love, follow our Jennifer Haley and Jonathan Ceniceroz. I tell quits as lead singer of Mud Dog to return to rural joy. What’s the worst that can happen? You them it’s not over and that our dialogue will Georgia, where she must face the husband and spend ten years pursuing writing, sharing last another twenty years. I tell them to keep in daughters she abandoned fourteen years earlier. cheap bottles of wine and all-night talks with touch with me and each other. And, in fact, I struggling artists. In ten or twenty years, you will this week be meeting with ex-students who THE EINSTEIN PROJECT realize you’ve spent all-night talks with the graduated a year ago, three years ago and twenty by Paul D’Andrea and Jon Klein leading great artists of your day, and you can years ago. We’re in the same circle. A marvelously theatrical journey into one of the afford a better bottle of wine. You might go ROBERT. You’ve worked with countless most fascinating minds of the twentieth century. back to law school in your thirties. But you theatre companies across the country and will never regret those all-night talks. I also around the world. I know also that you’ve 2 ATPLAY Continued on page 8 Nature vs. Nurture: Are Playwrights NEWPLAYS Born or Matriculated? EXPECTING ISABEL by Lisa Loomer Miranda and Nick take an “Alice in Wonderland- by Craig Pospisil esque” journey through the booming baby busi- ness, negotiating the fertility trade, adoption ew York University’s Department of so new to theatre that I didn’t realize there was industry and in-laws as they try to have a baby N Dramatic Writing turns out perhaps more such a thing as regional theatres. At the time, I — by any means necessary. than its fair share of notable playwrights, from just fi gured if I wanted to do theatre, then New last year’s Pulitzer Prize winner, , York was where I had to go. EXITS AND ENTRANCES by Athol Fugard to and Neil LaBute, plus CRAIG. I liked the fact that NYU had as many The dynamic story of the relationship between a many more who may not yet be widely known classes in screenwriting as playwriting. I looked young playwright on the threshold of his career and but are pursuing successful careers in the theatre at Yale, which seemed more focused on plays, an aging actor who has reached the end of his. and in fi lm. I received my master’s degree from and UCLA, which was more about screenplays. NYU as well, and as the Play Service was getting NYU’s dual focus appealed to me. What did you FRAME 312 by Keith Reddin the point of view of two well-known playwright- like, or not like, about your experience at NYU? With her family gathered for her birthday, a suburban housewife will fi nally expose a secret teachers for this newsletter, I thought it would be JESSICA. Access! Access to plays, to writers, of the Kennedy assassination that she has kept interesting to get reactions from the other end of to discussion. We had all kinds of inspiring buried for thirty years. the spectrum. guests at NYU — Larry Kramer, Anna Deavere Smith, , to name a few. HANNAH AND MARTIN by Kate Fodor I carried out an online roundtable with Julia Cho DANIEL. I did my graduate year at NYU A lacerating dramatic portrait of the affair be- (99 Histories, The Architecture of Loss) Jessica simultaneously with my second year at the tween the philosopher Martin Heidegger and Goldberg (Refuge, Stuck), Daniel Goldfarb Playwrights Program at Juilliard. They are his most famous student, Hannah Arendt. (Modern Orthodox, Sarah, Sarah), David both wonderful programs and very different. Grimm (Kit Marlowe, Sheridan or, Schooled What’s great about NYU is that you have an by Doug Wright in Scandal) and Doug Wright (I am My Own opportunity to study with a wide range of Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Wife, ), fi ve DPS authors who attended instructors that have different teaching styles Award. The fascinating tale of Charlotte von NYU, and asked for their thoughts on the and approaches to drama. Mahlsdorf, a real-life German transvestite who program and studying playwriting. DOUG. I loved selfi shly devoting two years managed to survive both the Nazi onslaught and of my life to a very rarefi ed craft, in the happy the repressive East German Communist regime. CRAIG POSPISIL. About a year out of of people who fervently believed college, I realized that I was a writer, not an that the theatre is a life-or-death affair. When by Lynn Nottage actor, and decided I wanted to learn more about you suffer from delusions like that, it’s nice to Winner of the 2004 Drama Critics Circle and the craft of writing. I knew I’d write more if I have them buttressed by the folks around you. Outer Critics Circle Awards. A turn-of-the-cen- had a professor saying, “Turn in the next scene CRAIG. Was there any area you found tury-black seamstress uses her gifted hands to fashion her dreams in an era when the cut of one’s by Monday.” What made you decide to attend particularly strong, or not, at the program? dress and the color of one’s skin determined the a graduate program in playwriting, and what DAVID. When I attended NYU, the course of one’s life. about NYU appealed to you? program was still relatively young and had not DOUG WRIGHT. I knew if I went to yet gone through the major changes it has in THE JOURNALS OF MIHAIL SEBASTIAN graduate school, I would get housing in the the past few years. Focus then was very much by heart of Manhattan. So that provided potent on the page, without any real concern for In the decadent, politically explosive Bucharest incentive. the performative or practical aspect of plays of the 1930s and 40s, a young writer struggles DAVID GRIMM. For several years after as living, breathing theatre. The strongest to maintain his career, integrity and Jewish completing my undergraduate education, I was aspect of the program lay in its screenwriting identity, even as his closest friends ally them- working a full-time job and writing at night. component, an aspect which has benefi ted me selves with Fascism. I decided that I had to make a commitment greatly over the years. to my writing and that going to grad school JULIA. I thought one strength was that LIVING OUT by Lisa Loomer would be the fi rst serious step in that direction. there was a good deal of fl exibility. I was able The story of the complicated relationship JESSICA GOLDBERG. I wanted to live in to take classes outside of the department to between a Salvadoran nanny and the Anglo the city so I went to NYU for undergrad. I round out my theatre education, and I loved lawyer she works for. thought I wanted to write fi ction, but when the energy on the fl oor. There was always so I discovered dramatic writing I didn’t want much going on. The fl ip side of that, though, THE LEFT HAND SINGING by Barbara Lebow to leave. At the time NYU offered a one- is that it was possible to get lost in the shuffl e. Amidst the idealism and violence of Freedom Summer in 1964, three college students vanish year master’s for students who had been in Some students who were really talented without a trace. their undergraduate program. I leapt at the seemed to slip through the cracks or just fl y opportunity. A few years later I was working completely under the department’s radar. THE LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME full time in all sorts of jobs. I was desperate to But I guess that’s the truth of any graduate by Paula Vogel get back into an environment where I could program: You have to be focused and get out Past, present and future collide on a snowy focus on my writing again. I was very lucky to of it what you want. No one’s going to hold Christmas Eve for a troubled family of fi ve in get into Juilliard. your hand. this gorgeous “puppet play with actors.” DANIEL GOLDFARB. Well, I had gone to DANIEL. I think the fact that you have to NYU Dramatic Writing as an undergraduate study playwriting and screenwriting is what MAN FROM NEBRASKA by Tracy Letts and loved it. I also loved . I wanted makes NYU different from any other writing A luxury sedan, a church pew and visits to a to stay and keep writing and learning and program in the country. It’s practical. And nursing home form the comfortable round of having deadlines and surrounding myself it also shows some of the universals in Ken Carpenter’s daily life — until he awakens with writers. storytelling. It allows screenwriters to maybe to fi nd that he no longer believes in God. JULIA CHO. I had been an English major in explore their voice more than they might college and had very little experience in theatre have, and playwrights to really examine MATCH by Stephen Belber and knew almost no theatre artists. A graduate structure. Ultimately, forcing writers to An interview with a successful dancer and writing program seemed like a good way to do both makes them better writers in both choreographer leads Mike and Lisa Davis on get a handle on the basics of writing plays as mediums. a journey of self-discovery that will change well as to gain an instant theatre community. I CRAIG. I found some of my best teachers were their lives forever. applied to NYU because of its location. I was those I studied screenwriting with. Maybe because Continued on page 4 3 ATPLAY screenwriting was (or is) considered to be so format a screenplay! NEWPLAYS much more about structure and craft than plays. CRAIG. Can you think of a couple specifi c THE MISER by Molière, translated and Were there any professors who particularly helped things you learned in graduate school that stay adapted by James Magruder or infl uenced you? with you as you write today? A bold and accessible translation of this classic DANIEL. There are a wide range of JESSICA. There are three things I learned French farce, spiced with timeless burlesque instructors at NYU, with different writing from Martin Epstein that I always think about and delicious double entendres. styles, teaching styles and aesthetics. Elizabeth when I’m working on a play — and, of course, Diggs was my fi rst writing instructor and I will probably grossly misquote him. 1) The THE MOONLIGHT ROOM by Tristine Skyler probably the most infl uential. She’s tough, difference between conversation and dialogue. A dark tale of urban adolescence and family she honest, she’s amazing. I was lucky to study 2) What is the weather doing in your play? And life that examines the idea of “at risk” youth and with when he was there, and he 3) Drama begins when ritual is broken. the potential for risk within your own family. was warm, brilliant and truly inspiring. JULIA. I think being at NYU was for me JESSICA. Martin Epstein and Liz Diggs are about trying to fi nd my voice. I think I MR. CHARLES, CURRENTLY OF PALM two teachers that had profound effects on me. learned more about craft at Juilliard because BEACH by Paul Rudnick Sure, there were teachers I clashed with, but I was more ready for it then; that was when Watch as the joyously, fi ercely fl amboyant, politi- I think that kind of tension is good when I started to think about things like the cally incorrect Mr. Charles — with his hunky young you’re just starting to discover your voice. For mechanics of scenes, developing confl ict, “companion,” Shane — confronts every hot-button instance, you get a teacher who says, “Plot, it’s following a character’s journey, etc. topic, from gay marriage to the history of gay all about plot,” and this forces you to say, “No, CRAIG. For me, it’s still applying the craft and theater on his late-night cable talk show. actually, you know what? That’s not what it’s sense of structure I learned to those fi rst raw, about for me.” It forces you to own/identify impulsive drafts of a play. To be able to examine MRS. BOB CRATCHIT’S WILD CHRISTMAS your aesthetic. my own writing the way I did the writing of my BINGE by Christopher Durang Dickens’ classic tale of hope and redemption DOUG. Some of the professors were absolutely classmates, and see where it’s going right and is turned squarely on its head in this uproari- extraordinary — estimable professional writers where I need to keep working. Did studying ously zany and affectionate parody by one of like Terrence McNally, Michael Weller and playwriting change your own writing style or theatre’s great comic masters. . I especially enjoyed Martin your approach to playwriting? Epstein; he had a scrupulous sense of structure, JESSICA. I wasn’t exposed to a lot of modern THE MYSTERY PLAYS and a cunning, dry humor that brought welcome drama as kid, so studying playwriting opened by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa levity to the rigors of his class. a big door for me. It was exciting to discover Two interrelated and haunted one acts that JULIA. It’s a very human faculty. Some were how many different forms of theatre there wrestle with the mysteries of death, the after- wonderful, some were better at writing than were. Then I go to sit in class and talk about it life, religion, faith and forgiveness. teaching, some were inspiring, some had bad all with a bunch of talented people who are all semesters — it was the whole range. The ones full of the same . THE NIGHT HERON by Jez Butterworth who really loved teaching were great, though. JULIA. I don’t feel like I “studied” playwriting A tragicomic fantasy that probes the depths of DAVID. The biggest infl uence in terms of in grad school. I just wrote more than I had friendship and the human condition. my growth as a writer came from the other ever written in my entire life, and it was only students in the program. There were some at the very end of all that writing that I started THE O’CONNER GIRLS by Katie Forgette amazingly gifted writers studying there. to understand what my voice might be. When the quiet family patriarch, Tom O’Conner, CRAIG. I felt I learned a lot from fellow DANIEL. I became drawn to the simplicity passes away, his family makes some startling students too. There were the classes where we had of a lot of good writing. My work became discoveries while sifting through his personal to critique each other’s work, and that forced you more natural, less cinematic. Fewer locations, effects in this warm and wonderfully old-fash- to concentrate on the nuts and bolts and evaluate fewer characters. ioned play. each script on its own terms. Was there anything CRAIG. Did going to NYU help you that you learned from going to graduate school professionally in any way? THE OLDEST PROFESSION by Paula Vogel that you might not have learned if you hadn’t or DOUG. While my profs were supportive and As Reagan enters the White House, fi ve ag- that might have taken you longer to discover? challenging in equal measure, no one ever “gave ing practitioners of the oldest profession face JULIA. The biggest lesson I learned was that me a leg up” by sending my scripts to theatres a diminishing clientele, increased competition and aching joints. not writing is writing. It was the fi rst time in or passing my name along to impressive agents. my life that everything I did was oriented I don’t think it’s fair to expect that; ultimately, ORANGE FLOWER WATER by Craig Wright around writing, and it almost drove me crazy. you have to make your own way in the world. Depicts the painfully intense real-time unravel- I thought I had to be productive 100% of the A compelling and original manuscript is still ing of two marriages, incited by an adulterous time. But you quickly learn that it’s actually the only effective way of getting a foothold in affair between long-time platonic friends. counterproductive to live for writing. You the fi eld, and they have a funny way of getting just have to live — read, go to museums, see noticed. THE PEOPLE’S VIOLIN by Charlie Varon friends — and that will feed the writing. JULIA. It did, but in ways that may not seem The discovery of a mysterious violin prompts a DANIEL. Graduate school puts you in a obvious. It didn’t pluck me from obscurity documentary fi lmmaker to delve into his father’s room with people who share your passion, and give me a production, an agent and a past, where he discovers hidden chapters that which is invaluable. I love writers, and getting mentor. But what it did do was set a lot of assault his notions of identity, tribe and self. to spend so much time with them is only a those things in motion; or to put it another positive thing. It also imposes discipline and way, it provided some of the soil from which PONIES by Mike Batistick structure, which can be heaven for a writer. those things could spring. In a seedy Lower East Side off-track betting DOUG. I think you can learn craft, and CRAIG. Any fi nal thoughts? establishment, a Croatian and a Nigerian im- classes facilitate that. In a grad school DOUG. Graduate writing programs help migrant discover that no matter what part of environment, you’re also required to to give the profession some small measure of the world you come from, America can be a write. Deadlines, I find, can be downright credibility. You don’t need a degree to become dangerous place. inspirational. When you’re adrift in the an interesting or unique playwright, but it’s world — trying to wedge your writing nice to have something to hang on the wall PRIVATE JOKES, PUBLIC PLACES between temping or waiting tables — it’s of your garret. And when you’re at a dinner by Oren Safdie far more difficult. And the best way to party or visiting family on the holidays, it’s A hilarious satire on academia, intellectual pre- grow as a writer is by actually sitting down nice to have a degree. When they ask what tension and the failure of postmodernist culture and doing it. I was also forced to read you do in the world, and you say “I’m a inside the contemporary world of architecture. Aristotle’s Poetics — still the best “how to playwright,” at least you have a little paper book” in our field — and I learned how to work to back up the assertion! ■ 4 ATPLAY Seven Sure-fi re Exercises to Lead NEWPLAYS PRYMATE by Mark Medoff Your Inner Playwright to Inspiration Two researchers battle over a uniquely gifted by Christopher Durang gorilla in this provocative drama that begs the ethical question, in the arenas of science and Beloved author and Juilliard don Christopher Durang agreed to share with AT PLAY some of his classroom material love, who has the right to do what to whom? for playwriting students. For this glimpse into the great teacher’s process, AT PLAY expresses its gratitude. RECENT TRAGIC EVENTS by Craig Wright an writing be taught? No, it can’t. Go away. Well, truthfully, it can’t be taught, but I do believe it It is September 12th, 2001, and Waverly and Ccan be “mentored” — that one can assist the beginning writer to strengthen and hone his or her her blind date, Andrew, have discovered that innate talents. they are connected by a succession of bizarre coincidences. Students seem to love the idea of exercises. Exercises are almost like taking a doctor’s prescription and fi lling it at the pharmacy. They suggest that through games and tricks, you can fi nd out how to THE REST OF THE NIGHT write a good play. I fi nd myself distrustful of them; I believe you can learn a lot by analyzing plays you by Robert Lewis Vaughan like, and by listening to responses to plays you’ve written, but at a certain point you have to go with A young mother in rural Texas, determined to save your writer’s intuition. her troubled marriage, faces temptation and turmoil when the new man in town comes calling — for her. However, I’m willing to believe I could be wrong on this; there is more than one way to skin a cat. (What a terrible phrase. I love animals. There is more than one way to peel a carrot. You can use a carrot peeler, or you can use a screwdriver and keep jabbing at it.) THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW by William Nicholson I was given an exercise my fi rst year at Yale School of Drama from my wonderful playwriting teacher The devastating portrait of a young man strug- Howard Stein; and I ended up writing a whole play from it. The exercise was to write a scene in which gling to understand both of his parents and to a man and a woman on a train argue about the man’s smoking a cigar. My train for a while was survive the emotional hurricane of the dissolu- simultaneously a train and a boat, and eventually became the , which in my surreal version tion of their marriage. kept NOT sinking, while all the angry and sick-o characters started to long for it to sink. So I used the exercise as a kind of Rorschach test to unlock my unconscious. ROULETTE by Paul Weitz Family dysfunction is raised to the nth degree in And because I’ve been teaching for a while (at Juilliard since 1993, co-teaching with my esteemed this black comedy that splits suburbia wide open. friend, playwright ), I’ve decided I should come up with my own exercises, just because students seem to like them. It’s self-preservation as a teacher on my part. Here they are: SARAH, SARAH by Daniel Goldfarb Sarah Grosberg does not think eighteen-year- ✓ Copy by hand the fi rst scene of ’ Streetcar Named Desire. Then copy the second old Rochelle is good enough for her son, Artie, scene. Copy every scene of the play by hand. Then redo, this time leaving out the vowel “o.” When but then there is a lot Sarah doesn’t know this is completed, do the same thing with Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke. Or if you prefer about her son and will soon fi nd out. Eccentricities of a Nightingale. Keep doing this exercise with all of Williams’ plays. When you become fatigued, give up writing. SAILOR’S SONG by Shanley A cynical man and a true believer battle over ✓ Write a scene in which two characters beautiful women and the power of love in this exchange dialogue that has literally extravagantly romantic seaside story decorated nothing to do with what the other with dance. person has said. Go on and on and on, without the two characters ever relating SAY YOU LOVE SATAN to anything the other has said. The by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa audience will fi nd this very annoying, but When Andrew, an affable graduate student, meets certain theatre companies may like it. a handsome stranger named Jack, the two imme- ✓ diately start dating. So what if Jack has the mark Make Quaker’s Instant Oatmeal, either of the beast — 666 — burned into his forehead? the cinnamon brand or perhaps the maple syrup brand. Return phone calls. THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL by Richard Take a nap. Brinsley Sheridan, adapted for contemporary ✓ audiences by Lewis John Carlino Choose a play that you like. Analyze This classic of Restoration farce with its fan- what makes it work. Do big graphs, tastically labyrinthine plot has been expertly and have lines that represent rising action, and then lines that represent falling action. Come up with a mathematical equation that somehow represents Linda Loman in . updated for modern audiences. Come up with one to represent Amanda Wingfi eld in The Glass Menagerie. Divide the two numbers into each other; have x represent the play you wish to write. Then write that play. Send SEA OF TRANQUILITY by Howard Korder it out. Wait for a response. The Greens sell the house to start over in the American West but discover that along with ✓ Think and think and think and think. All creativity comes from thinking really hard. Choose an clear skies and open spaces come cultural important theme. Man’s inhumanity to man is usually a good one. Write a play in which several warfare, runaway kids, guests who won’t leave characters torture another character. Have it go on for hours. Make it really painful to sit through. and a past that never really disappears. Feel proud of yourself that you’ve made the world look at cruelty. THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS, ✓ Choose a famous artist. Make your play seem important by this choice. Picasso might be good. translated and adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher Hemingway, if that’s not too passé. Maybe Hemingway and Picasso and an Old Man in a boat in and Paolo Emilio Landi the sea. They go fi shing. They discuss the intricacies of bait. A Young Man comes fl oating out in a Traditional Italian commedia and postmodern little dinghy and says he is collecting for The Evening Star. Picasso and Hemingway discover they vaudeville converge in this new version of are homosexual and try to seduce him, but then kill him instead. They use his body for bait. Then Goldoni’s classic, which pits the madcap servant Picasso paints a masterpiece, and Hemingway writes The Sun Also Rises. Truffaldino against masters, mistresses, lovers, lawyers and twenty-seven plates of meatballs. ✓ Stop doing exercises, and see if you can fi nd out what topics in the world engage you. See if those topics trigger any creative impulses in you. If they do, write that play. When the draft is done, show THE STENDHAL SYNDROME it to people you trust, get some feedback, and rewrite a couple of times. Have a reading with by Terrence McNally actors, see how it sounds. With luck, it will be a good play. ■ Two beautiful and funny short plays about art and humankind that together make for a sen- Christopher Durang’s most recent play is the uproarious holiday spectacular MRS. BOB CRATCHIT’S WILD sational evening. CHRISTMAS BINGE, a musical sendup of that perennial December event, Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” onstage. MRS. BOB is available from the Play Service at www.dramatists.com. 5 ATPLAY NEWPLAYS LESSONS FROM THE HEARTLAND: THE STORY by Tracey Scott Wilson A Mississippi High School Production of The Laramie Project An ambitious black newspaper reporter goes against her editor to investigate a murder and by Isaac Oliver fi nds the best story … but at what cost?

ST. SCARLET by Julia Jordan have been on the phone with Mississippi what would happen,” wonders Marks. “We With their mother recently deceased and her I all morning. I am trying to fi nd the city live in very conservative times now. There is a body unable to be removed from the house of Hattiesburg, the fourth largest in the certain nuance required when doing progressive because of a Minnesota blizzard, three siblings state, with a population just slight of 50,000. theatre in small towns. We approached Laramie declare war. Hattiesburg is a city that recently produced from the avenue of safe schools: No one can and The Tectonic Theater argue that schools should be safe for everyone. SUITCASE, OR THOSE THAT RESEMBLE Project’s play The Laramie Project. The play I think it was the perspective we chose that FLIES FROM A DISTANCE dramatizes the 1998 kidnapping, beating let the production fl ourish.” Flourish is by Melissa James Gibson and subsequent death of Matthew Shepard, exactly what this production has done. Now, The boyfriends of two Ph.D. candidates try to talk a gay student at the University of Wyoming. Hattiesburg High School has been selected by their way into the women’s apartments. Disserta- The Laramie Project boasts a collection of the American High School Theatre Festival tions go nowhere; objects get found; boyfriends approximately 500 productions nationwide to be one of twenty schools to represent the won’t get lost — love fi gures in there somewhere. this year, varying from regional to community at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival theatre to high-school auditoriums. in Scotland. How fascinating that a production by Richard Greenberg from a place unheard of by many has made Winner of the 2003 Tony Award. The star center It was Hattiesburg High School’s production such an impact. fi elder of the New York Empires is so convinced of that caught my attention because, initially, it his popularity that he assumes his casual announce- seemed an unlikely place for such a progressive Can it be that Laramie is at its most realized ment that he’s gay will be readily accepted. It isn’t. production. “We are always on the lookout in a small town? Is it felt more deeply for new, innovative material,” high-school by those who know what the stars must TATJANA IN COLOR by Julia Jordan theatre director Michael Marks tells me when have looked like in Laramie that night, as In 1912, the painter Egon Schiele was accused of I fi nally reach him. We saw Laramie and opposed to those of us who cannot see stars, raping a twelve-year-old girl whom he never painted. said, “We have to do this.” Laramie was fi rst thanks to the urban blur? Living in New This play tells the story from her point of view. presented by the Hattiesburg High School York, we assume that there is something Forensics Department at the University of we understand innately about theatre that THICKER THAN WATER: ONE-ACT PLAYS Southern Mississippi in 2001. The buzz was people living elsewhere do not. But it looks BY THE MEMBERS OF YOUNGBLOOD A collection of provocative one acts from so audible that the production went to The like this assumption has been trumped, some of New York’s most up-and-coming Mississippi Theatre Association State Drama and rightly so. In fact, there might even young playwrights. Festival in 2002, where it won top honors in the high-school division. Consequently, it THOM PAIN (BASED ON NOTHING) by Will Eno went on to represent Mississippi in the same An ordinary man muses on childhood, yearn- year on a national level at the 53rd Annual ing, disappointment and loss as he catalogues Southeastern Theatre Conference, where it with wry the eternal agonies of the human was named fi rst runner-up. Performances were condition. requested by local churches and community groups. Afterwards, there were pamphlets in TOMMY J & SALLY by Mark Medoff the lobby, enabling further education and Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with his black discussion. slave Sally Hemings is echoed in this contem- porary interracial love story. “Creating an arena for dialogue is the fi rst step to healing,” Marks notes. “I didn’t imagine the THE TRICKY PART by Martin Moran impact it would have. We had students coming An established New York actor transforms the up to us in tears, saying, ‘No one has ever made true story of an affair he had as a child with it possible to talk about this.’ This play is a great an older man into a riveting, often funny and teaching tool for the common person who wants always surprising journey through desire and to learn more.” The local youth were not the human trespass. only ones being swayed by Laramie’s message. be something they understand that we do A committee of parents, administrators, not. Hattiesburg has truly acknowledged VALHALLA by Paul Rudnick superintendents, alumni and local business its responsibility as a public educator and Hilarity reigns in this epic adventure that con- people who must give the nod to theatre that theatre is indisputably a public vehicle nects mad King Ludwig II of Bavaria with a wild productions each year unanimously approved for change. “We do quality theatre, and we Texas teenager of the 1940s in a unifi ed fi eld Laramie. “This is really a different show for us,” honestly want to explore these avenues,” theory of gayness. Marks explains. “We held our collective breath.” Marks states. “Theatre is about teaching The nervousness is justifi ed; twenty years earlier, values and dealing with what is. There is THE VIOLET HOUR by Richard Greenberg when Hattiesburg wanted to produce Damn still work to do. Has anything changed in With only enough capital to put out one book, Yankees, the church threatened boycott over the Wyoming? Has any hate crime legislation publisher John Pace Seavering fi nds himself title. Later, when Marks and company tried to been passed?” It is Hattiesburg, in fact, that besieged by two authors and a machine of take a production of ’s gay-themed sees the direct effects of its efforts — in mysterious provenance that is spewing out musical to the state competition, the mourning teenagers suddenly given a voice, stacks of typewritten pages. religious right took the production team to in approval committees suddenly raising no court and tried to prove that they were teaching objections, in the common person suddenly WHERE DO WE LIVE by Christopher Shinn pornography to children. made uncommon. ■ A haunting play that probes the lives of young New Yorkers struggling against the So does the wave of support for Laramie signal First appeared in Velvetpark Magazine, Issue 5 darkness of 9/11. an environment in which a production of Reprinted by permission Falsettos would now be possible? “Who knows www.velvetparkmagazine.com 6 ATPLAY licenses hundreds of professional productions each year. For your convenience, here’s a schedule of some of them. You can access an even more comprehensive list of professional and page to stage select nonprofessional productions by visiting www.dramatists.com and viewing PAGE TO STAGE. July – September 2005 ARKANSAS KANSAS NEW YORK THE FOREIGNER by Larry Shue. Gaslight STEEL MAGNOLIAS by Robert Harling. THE FOREIGNER by Larry Shue. Great THE COCKTAIL HOUR by A.R. Gurney. Dinner Theatre. Dickson. August. Arkansas Repertory Theatre. Little Rock. Plains Theatre Festival. Abilene. August. Kavinoky Theatre. Buffalo. September. HANK WILLIAMS: LOST HIGHWAY by September. DEBBIE DOES DALLAS adapted by Erica Randal Myler and Mark Harelik. Clarence Schmidt, composed by Andrew Sherman, KENTUCKY Brown Theatre Company. Knoxville. August. CALIFORNIA conceived by Susan L. Schwartz. Parker THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN by Martin THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW by William DEATHTRAP by Ira Levin. Willows Theatre Russel Productions. New York. July. McDonagh. Horse Cave Theatre. Horse Company. Concord. September. THE FOREIGNER by Larry Shue. Nicholson. Playhouse on the Square. Cave. July. INTIMATE APPAREL by Lynn Nottage. Leatherstocking Theatre Company. . September. TheatreWorks. Palo Alto. August. Cooperstown. July. MAINE INVENTING VAN GOGH by Steven Dietz. HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH text by TEXAS ALL IN THE TIMING, SIX ONE-ACT PCPA Theaterfest. Santa Maria. July. John Cameron Mitchell, music and lyrics BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL story and book by THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COMEDIES by David Ives. Theater at by Stephen Trask. Our Brother’s Keeper. Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, music NICHOLAS NICKLEBY PARTS I AND II Monmouth. Monmouth. August. Albany. July. and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe. Magik by David Edgar, from the novel by Charles THE GRAPES OF WRATH by Frank Galati, JESUS HOPPED THE ‘A’ TRAIN by Stephen Dickens. California Shakespeare Theater. from the novel by John Steinbeck. Theater Adly Guirgis. StageWorks. Hudson. Theatre. San Antonio. July. Berkeley. July and August. at Monmouth. Monmouth. July. September. THE BOYS NEXT DOOR by Tom Griffi n. OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE THE GUYS by Anne Nelson. Acadia NICE PEOPLE DANCING TO GOOD Granbury Opera House. Granbury. WOODS by Joe DiPietro. McCoy Rigby Repertory. Mt. Desert. July. COUNTRY MUSIC by Lee Blessing. Bristol September. Entertainment. Fullerton. September. LA BÊTE by David Hirson. Theater at Valley Productions. Naples. August. FABULATION OR THE RE-EDUCATION SYLVIA by A.R. Gurney. Sierra Repertory OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE Monmouth. Monmouth. July. OF UNDINE by Lynn Nottage. Ensemble Theatre. Sonora. September. WOODS by Joe DiPietro. Cortland SCOTLAND ROAD by Jeffrey Hatcher. Theatre. Houston. September. TWO SISTERS AND A PIANO by Nilo Repertory Theatre. Cortland. August. Acadia Repertory. Mt. Desert. August. Cruz. Ensemble Theatre. Santa Barbara. SISTER MARY IGNATIUS EXPLAINS IT KIMBERLY AKIMBO by David Lindsay-Abaire. Plano Repertory Theatre. Plano. September. September. MARYLAND ALL FOR YOU by Christopher Durang. Leatherstocking Theatre Company. A LESSON BEFORE DYING by Romulus ONE FOR THE ROAD by . COLORADO Cooperstown. August. Linney, based on the novel by Ernest Potomac Theatre Project. Olney. July. INTIMATE APPAREL by Lynn Nottage. J. Gaines. Ensemble Theatre. Houston. Arvada Center. Arvada. September. NORTH CAROLINA September. LOBBY HERO by Kenneth Lonergan. Lizard MASSACHUSETTS by . Head Theatre Company. Telluride/Aspen. July. AFTER-PLAY by Anne Meara. Pioneer Valley Highland Repertory Theatre. Asheville. THE SYRINGA TREE by Pamela Gien. Lizard Summer Theatre. Easthampton. July. August. UTAH Head Theatre Company. Telluride/Aspen. July. DRIVING MISS DAISY by Alfred Uhry. DRIVING MISS DAISY by Alfred Uhry. THE FOREIGNER by Larry Shue. Utah Pioneer Valley Summer Theatre. Highlands Playhouse. Highlands. August. Shakespearean Festival. Cedar City. CONNECTICUT Easthampton. July. THE SYRINGA TREE by Pamela Gien. September. THE EXONERATED by Jessica Blank and Erik THE NERD by Larry Shue. Pioneer Valley North Carolina Stage Company. Asheville. Jensen. Theatreworks. Hartford. September. Summer Theatre. Easthampton. August. September. WASHINGTON THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW by William FULLY COMMITTED by Becky Mode. Merc DELAWARE Nicholson. Miniature Theatre. Chester. July. OHIO THE NERD by Larry Shue. Delaware Theatre ANNA IN THE TROPICS by Nilo Cruz. Ensemble Playhouse. Twisp. August. THE GOLDEN AGE by A.R. Gurney. Actors Company. Wilmington. September. MICHIGAN Theatre. Cleveland Heights. September. THE BOYS NEXT DOOR by Tom Griffi n. Repertory Theatre. Spokane. August. CROWNS by Regina Taylor. Plowshares WASHINGTON, D.C. Porthouse Theatre Company. Kent. July. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by Frank Galati, Theatre Company. Detroit. July. CROWNS by Regina Taylor. . TOPDOG/UNDERDOG by Suzan-Lori Parks. from the novel by John Steinbeck. Intiman Washington. July. MATCH by Stephen Belber. Planet Ant Beck Center for the Arts. Lakewood. Theatre Company. Seattle. September. Theatre. Hamtranck. September. September. FLORIDA TAKE ME OUT by Richard Greenberg. INTIMATE APPAREL by Lynn Nottage. THE EXONERATED by Jessica Blank and Performance Network. Ann Arbor. July. OREGON Intiman Theatre Company. Seattle. August. Erik Jensen. American Stage Company. St. ENCHANTED APRIL by Matthew Barber, THE TRICKY PART by Martin Moran. Intiman Petersburg. July. MINNESOTA from the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim. Theatre Company. Seattle. July. I AM MY OWN WIFE by Doug Wright. American AN ALMOST HOLY PICTURE by Heather Artists Repertory Theatre. Portland. Stage Company. St. Petersburg. July. McDonald, freely drawn from Pamela September. WISCONSIN by Donald Margulies. Banyan Ward’s story “The Hairy Little Girl.” Pillsbury HERRING by Michael Hollinger. Theatre Company. Sarasota. August. House Theatre. Minneapolis. September. TWO ROOMS by Lee Blessing. Banyan ‘ART’ by Yasmina Reza, translated by Peninsula Players Theatre Foundation. INTIMATE APPAREL by Lynn Nottage. Theatre Company. Sarasota. July. . Centre for the Arts Fish Creek. July. Next Act Theatre . Minneapolis. on Main. Quakertown. September. Company. Milwaukee. September. September. GEORGIA by . THE UNEASY CHAIR by Evan Smith. LAST TRAIN TO NIBROC by . FLYIN’ WEST by Pearl Cleage. Alliance Millbrook Playhouse. Mill Hall. July. Peninsula Players Theatre Foundation. Theatre Company. Atlanta. July. True Colors Paul Bunyan Playhouse. Bemidji. July. FULLY COMMITTED by Becky Mode. Fish Creek. August. Theatre Company. Atlanta. September. Mountain Playhouse. Jennerstown. THE NERD by Larry Shue. Aurora Theatre. MISSOURI September. Duluth. September. DRIVING MISS DAISY by Alfred Uhry. I AM MY OWN WIFE by Doug Wright. CANADA Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre. Arrow Rock. Philadelphia Theatre Company. THE ART OF REMEMBERING by Adina September. Philadelphia. September. L. Ruskin. Winnipeg Jewish Theatre. BLUE/ORANGE by Joe Penhall. New INCORRUPTIBLE by Michael Hollinger. Winnipeg, Manitoba. July. American Theater. Rockford. August. NEW HAMPSHIRE Mountain Playhouse. Jennerstown. July. FOOL FOR LOVE by . THE GIFTS OF THE MAGI music by Randy MIXED EMOTIONS by Richard Baer. Totem DEATHTRAP by Ira Levin. Winnipesaukee Soulpepper Theatre Company. , Courts, lyrics by Mark St. Germain and Randy Pole Playhouse. Fayetteville. August. Playhouse. Laconia. July. . August. Courts. Illinois Theatre Center. Park Forest. THE NERD by Larry Shue. Winnipesaukee by David Auburn. Totem Pole September. Playhouse. Fayetteville. August. FULLY COMMITTED by Becky Mode. Mayfair Playhouse. Laconia. August. SHERLOCK’S LAST CASE by Charles Productions. Vaughan, Ontario. September. PROOF by David Auburn. Winnipesaukee Marowitz. Drury Lane Oakbrook Theatre. SOUTH CAROLINA by David Mamet. Ground Zero Playhouse. Laconia. August. Oakbrook Terrace. July. BOSTON MARRIAGE by David Mamet. Theatre. Calgary, Alberta. August. TARTUFFE by Molière, translated into English THE UNEASY CHAIR by Evan Smith. Writers’ Warehouse Theatre. Greenville. September. OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE Theatre. Glencoe. September. verse by Richard Wilbur. Barnstormers WOODS by Joe DiPietro. Upper Canada Theatre. Tamworth. August. TENNESSEE Playhouse. Morrisburg, Ontario. July. IOWA BLUE/ORANGE by Joe Penhall. Playhouse VISITING MR. GREEN by Jeff Baron. Old NEW JERSEY on the Square. Memphis. July. SHERLOCK’S LAST CASE by Charles Creamery Theatre Company. Amana. BETRAYAL by Harold Pinter. Emerge Theater CROWNS by Regina Taylor. Playhouse on the Marowitz. Showboat Festival Theatre. Port September. Company. New Brunswick. September. Square. Memphis. August. Colborne, Ontario. July.

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been working with the boards of some theatre they have a bit more time to stockpile their I become a writer (this was backstage at my companies in order to educate them on the scripts. I want to help young artists outside second musical, The Beautiful Quasimodo, my importance of nurturing new plays. Can you of Brown know about the resources such as adaptation of Hunchback of Notre Dame that tell us a little about this? grants and colonies that are there. I wish I got I wrote freshman year). And I give credit to PAULA. I’m now doing short versions of a commission from every copy of Dramatists Bert States, who was my graduate advisor at the boot camp and bake-offs; I want to thank Sourcebook by TCG I’ve peddled in the past Cornell. And lastly, my late brother, Carl, who them for the gift of production and give them a twenty years. I don’t want to conceive of living fed me a constant diet of books and basically “lagniappe” — I love the joy when they discover in this country where there are no arts, and taught me table manners. this other side of each other in our workshop. we are in danger of that, particularly under ROBERT. I know how supportive you are I think as artists we need to make our process the Republican Right’s persistent twenty-year to young/aspiring writers. As a professor at accessible to board members, to funders and to attack on the arts, from Reagan to George W. Brown — or even in the professional world, subscribers, and I’d love to see every artist who If we don’t act, we will be left with studio is there anything a former student or a young comes to work at a company offer some form of fi lms and television that basically provide writer has said to you that just turned you workshop. The more our audiences and donors what I call gladiatorial entertainment: a New into a puddle and you’ll remember as long as think of themselves as participants, the more I Rome with entertainment to train gladiators you live? What was it if you can tell us? think we all fl ourish. for the Empire. PAULA. Oh, too much to tell! But let me ROBERT. You’re raising money for arts ROBERT. Did you have a teacher, a mentor tell you of a question I was given at the last programs at Brown; in fact, you’re seriously — anyone — that you credit for putting you playwriting workshop I did at the Alliance gung ho about doing this. Are you afraid we’re where you are as an artist and a writer? Theatre in Atlanta for Brown alums and losing young artists? PAULA. My gods are , Irene interested board members. A man brought PAULA. I’m basically teaching because I Fornes and Caryl Churchill. I’ve met two his seven-year-old son, Jason, to participate. want to put my time where my mouth is out of three and treasure them all. They’ve And in the midst of the session he asked me, (pardon that malapropism!) … I am petrifi ed mentored me on the page; they’re mentored “What’s the best way to get people to feel we are losing a new generation. I want to give me by example. My late beloved English emotional? Books, poems, fi lms or plays?” the Brown writers three years of writing (right teacher at , Adrienne Seven years old! I want to read his plays in now we offer two years of subsidy) so that Lockhart, was the fi rst one to really insist that another ten years. ■

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