Theatre Ghosts

In honor of spooky season, I’m writing about ghosts...ghosting...theatre companies whose spirits haunt playwrights with echoes of promises like, “We love your work! We just don’t have the budget to produce it...right now.” Or something like, “You’re a promising artist. We can’t accept you into the program this year, but please apply again next year…and next year, and next year, and next year, neeeexxxxttttt yyyeeeeeeaaaarrrr….” On and on, those words are whispered into our ears and when we turn to see where the sound is coming from – WHOOSH – it disappears into the night.

When I started my playwriting career, I was told opportunity would beget opportunity. Acceptance into a festival, conference, workshop, or reading would expand my network and introduce me to producers, literary managers, and artistic directors. These gatekeepers would see my work and give my plays a home on their stages.
Take every opportunity.
Say yes to everything.
Big or small.
With or without pay.
 
It’s time to break this haunting curse. 

Here are four ways playwrights and theatres can rid ourselves of these ghosts.

Playwrights, don’t do anything without getting paid (in some form). If the theatre is making money off the reading with admission fees, suggested donations, etc… guess what? You get a cut of that.  This way, at the very least, some form of investment is made on behalf of your work. And before the ghosts of theatres past start referencing their tight budgets, many playwrights – myself included – also take payment in the form of providing us with travel/sleeping accommodations, lunch/dinner stipends, etc.

Theatres, okay, I hear you, money is tight. You can’t afford to produce this new play and give it the full production and attention it deserves. But you know what doesn’t affect your bottom line? Networking. You might not be able to produce or further develop the play, but I bet someone in your network can. Call them up! Send an email! Attach the play. Recommend the play or the playwright. A recommendation from you goes a whole lot further than just us playwrights applying through yet another submission portal.

Playwrights, when a theatre sends you a rejection but adds the note, “Please keep us updated on your work.” DO IT! They would not include that note if they didn’t mean it. Look, some theatre companies are overwhelmed. Many have limited resources (people, software, etc) that can help them keep track of the plays and playwrights they meet over the years. If they say they want to hear from you, reach out and keep them updated on any future work you have coming out.

Theatres, one thing playwrights hate is being our own agent. It quite frankly, sucks. We can’t stand the way our voices sound as we try to boast about one of our plays as we disappear further into our own navels. If you read a play you admired, but couldn’t quite find the right place for it in your season…write a recommendation! Seriously. Many playwrights have numerous social media platforms or are members of the fabulous New Play Exchange (NPX). Side note – if you are NOT on NPX, stop reading this and go sign-up, NOW. Find our accounts, write a review on NPX, leave a comment on our Facebook page, follow us on Instagram, or tag us on Twitter. Any interaction like this will help us reach a new audience. Other theatres will see your endorsement and maybe make a connection.

Have I been accepted into playwriting workshops and festivals? Yes.

Have I met amazing artists whom invested their time and talents into directing, acting, and designing my plays? Yes.

Have the theatre companies that hosted these workshops and invited these artists to collaborate on my plays said wonderful things about all the work we completed and can’t wait to see the play taken to the next stage of development? Yes.

Have those theatres ever offered to take the play to the next stage of development? Nope. 

​Well, okay, a few (you know who you are). I would say out of all the festivals I’ve been a part of, in addition to all the opportunities I’ve been a semi-finalist for, only about 16% of those theatres actually did something, ANYTHING, to help further develop and/or promote the play. 

The other 84%, once the festival wraps, we all say our goodbyes, and then – 365 days later – the theatre company welcomes another play with another group of amazing artists and says the exact same words to them. A powerful spell is cast over all of us and we remain haunted by the promise that maybe, one day, they will make good on their words of new play advocacy.

There are thousands of submission opportunities for playwrights to apply. And the cycle continues again and again, year after year. Thousands of opportunities, thousands of plays and not even half of those get accepted. And, way less than half of those accepted plays ever receive that next level of commitment from a theatre. We create a new play graveyard where the ghosts of apathy, disingenuity, and aloofness haunt our hopes of ever raising our plays from the grave. Let’s break this cycle, end this curse, and breathe life into old work, that is actually still new work viable for the stage.