Process As Product: the Culture of Development and the Twenty-First
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2011 Process as product: the culture of development and the twenty-first century American dramatist John Patrick Bray Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Bray, John Patrick, "Process as product: the culture of development and the twenty-first century American dramatist" (2011). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 3612. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3612 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. PROCESS AS PRODUCT: THE CULTURE OF DEVELOPMENT AND THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AMERICAN DRAMATIST A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Theatre by John Patrick Bray AS, SUNY Dutchess Community College, 1998 BS, SUNY New Paltz, 2000 MFA, The Actors Studio Drama School at New School University, 2003 August 2011 © Copyright 2011 John Patrick Bray All Rights Reserved ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to Dr. Leslie A. Wade for his guidance and enthusiasm with this project. I am also grateful to Dr. Femi Euba, Dr. John Fletcher, Dr. Leigh Clemons, and Professor Kristin Sosnowsky for their insight and generosity. Furthermore, I appreciate all of the input from my interviewees (in no particular order): Jeffrey Sweet, Michael Wright, and Jane Anderson of the New York Writers‘ Bloc; Rob Handel, Madeleine George, Gary Winter, Julia Jarcho and Anne Washburn of 13P; Bob Jude Ferrante of Sanctuary: Playwrights‘ Theatre; Howard Meyer and Linda Giuliano of Axial Theatre; Michael Bigelow Dixon, former Literary Manager and Associate Artistic Director of the Actors Theatre of Louisville; Jeremy B. Cohen, the Producing Artistic Director of the Playwrights Center of Minneapolis; playwrights Dan O‘Brien, Jason Holtham and Matt Hoverman; Professor Janet Neipris, Chair of the Department of Dramatic Writing at Tisch School of the Arts; Roland Tec, the Director of Membership at the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.; playwright (and friend) Laurence Carr; self-producer Ric Orloff, and the playwrights who contribute to the online forum, playwrightsbinge. I also owe thanks to David Coley, for sharing his research on community theatre; Vastine Stabler for joining me in New York City to attend LARK Playwrights Week, and to my office mates John Mabry, Chris Nelson, Neal Hebert, Jeremy Reynolds, Stefani Overman-Tsai and YaYa Smith, who always brought lively conversation to the seminar table, and who, more often than not, showed one-another interest and grace. I am also grateful to the students, faculty and staff at SUNY New Paltz, where I am presently an adjunct of theatre history; to my friend, Neal Bell, whose talent reminds me why I became a playwright in the first place; to Akia and the Rising Sun Performance Company, who are my downtown theatrical family; to Bob Hoyt, Jim Ryan and the top-notch faculty and staff at iii The New School for Drama; and to David Staller, for his warmth and for providing cookies at his workshops. I owe a special thanks to my mother and father (John and Carolyn Bray), my in-laws (Gordon and Kathleen Bienvenue), my brother (Gregory Bray), and Paul (Bubba) Kellerman, for allowing me the time to write in their homes, and at the very least, for making sure that I am well fed. Finally, I am deeply indebted to my wife, Danielle Bienvenue Bray, who is incredibly loving, supportive and patient (i.e., she proofread my documents from prospectus to finished draft, even though she is writing her own dissertation), and to our son Danny, who has helped me keep everything in perspective. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... iii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ vii Chapter One: Do-it-yourself ............................................................................................................1 Survey of Literature .....................................................................................................................8 Practices of Post-War American Drama ...................................................................................8 The Role of the Independent Playwright ................................................................................10 Playwriting Workshops ..........................................................................................................13 Methods and Approaches ...........................................................................................................20 Issues and Qualifications ............................................................................................................25 Variations of the Workshop and Residencies ............................................................................31 Materials and Data .....................................................................................................................32 Chapter Summaries ....................................................................................................................34 Significance of Study/Stakes ......................................................................................................38 Chapter Two: The Workshop.........................................................................................................39 A Brief Genealogy of the Workshop and the Playwright Function ...........................................42 47 Workshop ..........................................................................................................................43 New Dramatists and the Actors Studio .................................................................................51 Radical Sixties .......................................................................................................................58 O‘Neill Conference ...............................................................................................................63 Conclusions for the O‘Neill ...................................................................................................70 Chapter Three: Developmental Hell and the American Canon .....................................................73 Regional Theatre and Developmental Hell ................................................................................74 The Role of the Audience .......................................................................................................84 Conclusions on Developmental Hell ......................................................................................89 The Cherry Sisters Revisited ......................................................................................................91 Re-Thinking the American Canon ..........................................................................................96 Expectations .............................................................................................................................104 Chapter Four: The New York Writers‘ Bloc: Challenging the Status Quo .................................106 An Introduction to Theatre .......................................................................................................106 Jeffrey Sweet and the New York Writers‘ Bloc .......................................................................111 Improvisation and Playwriting: A Step Away from the Status Quo ........................................115 Theatricality and Community ...................................................................................................121 Conclusion on the Success of the New York Writers‘ Bloc ....................................................126 Chapter Five: Build Your Own Fucking Theatre! .......................................................................131 Economics and Aesthetics ........................................................................................................131 Rocco Landesman and the NEA ..............................................................................................133 v Playwright as Producer .............................................................................................................140 13P ........................................................................................................................................141 Sanctuary: Playwrights Theatre ............................................................................................154 Conclusions for Art v. Commerce ............................................................................................160 Chapter Six: Axial Theatre: Between Professional and Community...........................................162 Community and Community-Oriented-Theatre .......................................................................164 Small