What do we need to know about, to be effective and successful playwrights? Below, a few things I think we need to know...and the people who taught me to at least begin thinking about them).
- Craft – how do you make a “well-made” play? How do you make other kinds of plays, and what other kinds are there? (Steven Dietz, Kirk Lynn, Alex Smith, Sherry Kramer)
- History – what plays and works of art have come before us? What can we learn from them? Why were they created when they were, and what about them has guaranteed their survival? (Sheldon Patinkin, my high school history teacher, Charlie Newell)
- Ethics, Poetics, Politics – Why have certain stories been told, and told the way they have? Whose stories haven’t we heard, and why? What forms haven’t we heard or don’t we value, and why? What are the politics of craft? (Joni Jones, Daniel Alexander Jones, Kelly Howe)
- Networking and The Biz – how do you get your ass out of the academy and onto the stage? What does it mean to hustle? What does it mean to hustle effectively and in a way that isn’t icky? When do you let your work do the talking, and when do you need to pipe up/work the room? (Matthew Lopez, Martin Zimmerman, Laura Jacqmin).
- The Human Side – Who are you, as a person, and how does that intersect with who you are as a playwright? How do you do your work and be a good, caring person who balances life and art? How do you break out of the “suffering/antisocial artist” stereotype and have a life? (Kirk Lynn, Steven Dietz...although this is the one I knew best).
- Community and Teaching – how can you use your position as an artist to make the change you want to see? (Suzan Zeder, Kelly Howe, Jill Dolan)
- Art – What does it mean to make something that both speaks to a moment and transcends its moment? How can you tap into the magic that goes beyond craft and theory? (Sherry Kramer, Tennessee Williams, William Shakespeare…)
