Rachel Bykowski Playwright
  • Home
  • Artistic Statement & Bio
  • Plays
  • Resume & Business Development Services
  • Playwriting Blog
  • Reviews, Interviews & Articles
  • News
  • Contact

PLAYWRITING BLOG

Subscribe to my monthly newsletter. Never miss a blog post, industry news announcement, and upcoming production information. 
Subscribe

3 Ways to Find New Play Development Opportunities and Get Your Plays Produced

8/27/2023

 
Picture

"You are in Control"

This phrase has been on repeat in my brain since I returned to Chicago. Since mid-August, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to attend the La MaMa Umbria International Playwright Retreat. For ten days, 18 brilliant playwrights and myself stayed in a breathtaking villa in Spoleto, Italy. Our guest instructor, Chay Yew, led us through various writing prompts, imagination exercises, and thought starters to help us craft our writing.

To say I was intimidated by this talented group of people is an understatement. I was terrified. I was sure my attendance in the program had to be a mistake. I am a middle-class, paycheck-to-paycheck girl from the southside of Chicago. People like me don’t “go to the beautiful Italian countryside” to “reset” and “find inspiration.” 
Picture
Looking around the room at my fellow writers – artists you should be following because their writing will blow up one day – I was amazed by their questions about the state of the theatre industry and their uncertainty about the future of new play development.

Between the writer’s strike, the rise of A.I., and the pandemic’s decimation of many theatrical institutions, we all came in with a similar question for Chay and each other: How do we and our new plays survive?
Picture
We all shared career paths, trajectories, tips & tricks, connections, how-to’s, do’s & don’ts, failures and successes. We searched for a formula to crack the code on the evolving new play development landscape. By the end of the retreat, what I discovered was not a “one-size-fits-all” formula. Instead, I needed to shift my perception of myself and place myself in the driver’s seat of my playwriting career – not a passenger waiting for a theatre to pick me up.

3 Ways To Find New Play Development Opportunities

We will all come across ensembles, theatres, and institutions that value our plays and us as writers. These places are our homes. No matter how big a budget or small a black box, these theatres want to nurture our voices. Stay with them and invest in them. Their admiration is faithful. 
  1. “Stop playing the game." 
    This phrase was heresy to me. It was counterintuitive to everything the new play development industry taught me. I needed to network, email, set up coffee dates, submit, submit, submit. No matter how many times the institution rejects us, JUST KEEP SUBMITTING!  

    Sure, you can continue to do all those things. Maybe they’ll work. But the idea is not to let the game – the hustle – control you. Don’t make it your focus to the point of burnout. Submit, network, and meet for coffee, but never let the game change your writer’s voice. If a theatre rejects you, move on. If a theatre accepts you, then leverage the opportunity. But remember, some institutions’ admiration of your work is fleeting. When the gig is over, move on.  Your focus must be on developing your writing and your voice.


  2. “Find homes for your plays.” ​
    We will all come across ensembles, theatres, and institutions that value our plays and us as writers. These places are our homes. No matter how big a budget or small a black box, these theatres want to nurture our voices. Stay with them and invest in them. Their admiration is faithful. 
    ​
  3. “Advocate for each other.” 
    Once you find your theatre(s), cultivate relationships with the individual artists. Promote their work and advocate for their writing. Share social posts, tell friends, write reviews, and collaborate on projects. Whatever you would like to see done for your writing, do for them.
In any playwright’s career, we will meet numerous people and walk into rooms we never dreamed we could enter. But not all that glitters is gold. Find your people, support each other, and put your voice first, always. If the play is “good,” institutions will notice but don’t rely on them to drive your career. You are in control. Find the people and places that see your value.

Theatre Ghosts

10/7/2022

 
Picture
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.
Picture
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.
Picture
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.
Picture
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.
Picture
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.
Picture
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.
Picture
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.

How to Support Your Writer (or Artsy) Friend

8/29/2022

 
Quick tip for folks on their phones reading this (and on Instagram.) Go to the URL at the top of our screen and click (the ... on iPhone) to "open in browser." Then, turn screen horizontally for best interaction and view.
There is one in every group. That one person in your friend group that does that artsy thing. Maybe they're a writer, a playwright, an actor, a designer, a painter, an illustrator, a director, really into theatre etc. You don't quite understand this passion of theirs. You don't get how they make a living. And you are often confused by the industry terminology in general. But, at the end of the day, despite the setbacks and frustrations, your artsy friend is happy or proud or fulfilled. At minimum, this artsy thing gives them a sense of purpose and you want to support that. If you are wondering how you can be an active supporter for your writer (or artsy) friend, click through the presentation or choose your own adventure below and discover supportive options big and small! Full disclosure, I'm using myself and my current project, Murder, We Spoke, as the example. But feel free to apply this to any and all of your artsy friends. 
<<Previous

    About the Blog​

    I write plays. I tell stories. I create content. I vent. I offer advice. I hope people will learn from my mistakes.

    Categories

    All
    Murder We Spoke
    The Burnout Journal
    Writing Tips

    Archives

    August 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    February 2019
    October 2018
    May 2018

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Artistic Statement & Bio
  • Plays
  • Resume & Business Development Services
  • Playwriting Blog
  • Reviews, Interviews & Articles
  • News
  • Contact