#new play development

[darkcomedies]

new play development

[rndyounghowze]

More As This Develops: Lab Readings Get A New Format

Our experiences looking at a new way to stage play readings for a Lab Setting

By Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

Hollins University Roanoke VA

One of the biggest focuses on the Hollins Playwrights Lab is “Process over Product”. This means that instead of worrying about being focused on one final product, ticket sales, a good review, or being discovered you focus on working on your play and the process of taking it from idea to the finished product. Every class and program at Hollins is all about learning by doing and trying to become the best professional version of yourself.

So one of the most thrilling nights of the six weeks as a student at Hollins is Wednesday night at 7:00 where you gather with fellow students and faculty and show them a reading of a play that you have in progress. It’s a classroom setting, not a performance. You show them the work as it is and through two different feedback processes they help you pick apart the play and find the best route forward to a rewrite.

I have been a lucky recipient of the in person version of that process for three straight years when I was in the program. It was one of the classes that taught me the most about not only writing a good play but also being a good producer. The rest of the six weeks you’re sitting there as a colleague and learning how to give the best feedback for someone else’s work. Dana and I attended a Lab Reading for the first time in six or so years on the first time the program tried to conduct one of these readings via Zoom. And let me tell you as someone who’s been on both sides of the experience I would not have been thrilled to be one of the playwrights tasked with staging the first Zoom reading of the summer.

Among the first things I noticed in this new way forward was a heightened care for security. The discussion du jour was how prepared they were for Zoom Bombing. No matter how private the class is the perceived threat of someone wanting to sneak in with ulterior motives looms in the ether.

The reading of Stephen Baltz work directed by fellow student Kate Lowry highlighted some of the new concerns a producer might have staging a reading. Typically a reading would be “Orchestral Style” with actors reading from music stands. Yesterday all participants were asked to mute our screens and our cameras while the actors read from the script with their cameras muted.

So we went from this…

To this.

You can already see some very interesting implications here. Your normal staged reading now has become a radio play. Instead of looking at bodies on the stage reading you are stuck with the play being performed on the back of your eyelids. There are some visual cues that help. Each of the actors reading their parts have edited their profiles to reflect the characters’ names. A couple have even changed their profile pictures to reflect those of their characters.

In a way the producer’s job is exactly the same. You’re still trying to make sure you have a great mix of voices that are still unique and best serve the play. But now instead of wrangling music stands and binders a producer will be wrangling rehearsals from across time zones and might be sourcing stock photos that look just like the playwright’s dramatis personae.

Also in a way you have the same perils in producing a reading only amplified. Your audience can’t see so facial expressions mean nothing. The voice and all of it’s dynamics are your only tools now. And the biggest danger of a radio drama or reader's theatre is silence or everyone sounding the same. You have to ask yourself how to use those voices in a way that will serve the script and present it’s best face for your colleagues for feedback.

The best readings that are going to be effective are going to be the ones that use all the resources at their disposal to make the best reading in the small amount of time given. I do believe that the next four playwrights who will be presenting their work in this class will have their work cut out for them.

Do you want to sit in on one of these readings? Then all you have to do is go to the Playwrights Lab Facebook Page to find out more about them and go to their ticket links. Remember this is a new experience for you but a classroom setting for them. So please enjoy yourself but be respectful.

[robinsonaden]

[feminartistry]

Why I've been Tumblr-absent lately. Well...these two projects plus work and parenting and family life. But anyway these are both incredible projects. And I'm busy and fulfilled and I love it. I miss y'all!

[larryland]

"Jennifer's Baby" to open Berkshire Playwright's Lab ninth season

“Jennifer’s Baby” to open Berkshire Playwright’s Lab ninth season

Rich Orloff Berkshire Playwrights Lab has announced its first reading of the 2016 season, “Jennifer’s Birth” by award-winning playwright Rich Orloff, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on July 13, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. Berkshire Playwrights Lab, now in its ninth season, is the region’s only theater exclusively dedicated to the development of new plays. “Jennifer’s Birth” poses the question, “If…

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[hannahlabri-blog]

I've been given the privilege to shadow again throughout the rehearsal process of Fire in Dreamland a world premiere commissioned by Berkeley Rep & Public Theatre and making its first performance this spring in Kansas City! What a privilege to be in the room!

[thaumaturgy]

a few select moments from yesterday's showcase of new writing by 2 of the inaugural group of Center Stage's Playwrights Collective (Liz Maestri and Jennifer Barclay). At top, Maestri considers revisions to her piece THE ICE ROOM alongside director Elissa Goetshius; below, the audience takes in potent exchanges from Barclay's piece DANNY featuring Felicia Curry, Jessica Frances Dukes, and Valeka Holt. Some truly powerhouse talent on *both* sides of the music stands.

[barkersatheedgeoftown]

Games to deeper character relationship and reveal exposition.

Inspiration for diner banter.

#BuildingBarkers