dramatists guild comes to Columbus

11/07/2012

 
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This is more of an announcement than a blog post. For any and all playwright friends in Ohio (or within driving distance of Columbus on a Saturday in November). The Dramatists Guild is holding an all day workshop on November 17th. Some of the panels that day include awesome folks like Gary Garrison, Mike Geither, and Matt Slaybaugh (all people I hope to work with one day) and my own mentor at OU, Charles Smith. The announcement, information, and contact information on how to make reservations is below. It's free for DG members and guests. Not sure of cost if you don't fall into those categories. But if you're not a Dramatists Guild member, consider becoming one. Anyway, here's all the details. Maybe I'll see you there.

SAVE THE DATE: DRAMATISTS GUILD IN OHIO - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2012

Saturday, November 17 from 9 to 5 PM.
The Drake Union, The Ohio State University
1849 Cannon Drive, Columbus, OH

THE DRAMATISTS GUILD OHIO REGION and THE DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AT THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY present a daylong workshop

THOSE WHO CAN, TEACH
Exploring techniques, exercises, and resources that will help us share our craft Convened by Faye Sholiton (DG Regional Rep) and Jennifer Schlueter (OSU).
FREE to DG members and guests. Reservations by November 14 to fsholiton@dramatistsguild.com. 

Maybe you’re in an MFA playwriting program and are aiming at a university career.  Maybe you’re already teaching at the high school or college level and want to find new ways to guide your students’ work as writers, lyricists, and composers. Maybe you’ve been asked to teach a workshop through a theatre that’s producing your work. Or maybe you’d like to sit in on a master class with some of the top professionals in the region.

You belong in Columbus on November 17 for a one-day conference packed with workshops, Q&As, and lectures from those who not onlycan teach, but who are passionate about doing it well.

Whether or not you can attend, we invite your participation in an idea exchange. We’re looking for exercises, techniques and resources that have worked for you as a teacher or mentor. Send these “Wright Ideas” to fsholiton@dramatistsguild.com. We will share them at the workshop and then on the DG website. For each Wright Idea you submit, you will have a chance to win one of four autographed copies of a Doug Wright script: Quills, I Am My Own Wife, The Stonewater Rapture, and Unwrap Your Candy.


PROGRAM OF EVENTS


8:30 AM        Doors open. Coffee and light refreshments available.  (Drake Lobby)


9:30 AM         Welcome. Faye Sholiton (Roy Bowen theatre)


9:40 AM         “Writing the Ten Minute Play,” Gary Garrison, author of A More Perfect Ten and DG’s Executive Director of Creative Affairs. (Roy Bowen theatre)

11:00 AM       DG Updates: Conversation with Jennifer Schlueter and Gary Garrison followed by Opportunities for Ohio Playwrights: Chiquita Mullins Lee, Arts Learning Programs Coordinator, Ohio Arts Council. 

11:45 AM     Lunch break. Boxed lunches are available for $9 PRE-PURCHASED ONLY. Please note: no restaurants are open in the building. Order forms will be forwarded with registration materials. (Drake Lobby)

1:00 PM         “The Gentle Art of Mentoring,” Michael Bigelow Dixon, former Literary Manager at Actors Theater of Louisville and the Guthrie Theatre, co-editor of Playwrights Workout, and Assistant Professor at Transylvania University. (Roy Bowen theatre)

1:30  PM        Working sessions. Select ONE.

Option one: Teaching at the MFA, or advanced level. (Drake 2068)
Option two: Teaching high school and undergraduate students. (Drake 2060)
Option three: Working in the community: youth, adults, and writers in 
non-academic settings. (Drake 2038)

Confirmed panelists include: Charles Smith (Ohio U); Mike Geither (Cleveland State U); Eric Schmiedl (Spaulding U.); Michael Bigelow Dixon (Transylvania U); Wendy MacLeod (Kenyon College); Bonnie Milne Gardner (Ohio Wesleyan); Mark Evans Bryan (Denison U); Herman Farrell (U. of Kentucky); Michael London (Ohio Playwrights Circle, Dayton); Matt Slaybaugh (Available Light, Columbus); Katherine Burkman (OSU, Women at Play); Chris Seibert (Cleveland Public Theatre)  

3:45  PM        Break. Light refreshments. (Drake Lobby)

4:15 PM         Concluding remarks, featuring Herman Farrell, DG Kentucky Regional Rep; and Alan Woods, retired professor O.S.U. and Dr. Beth Kattelman, Associate Curator of the Lawrence & Lee Theatre Research Institute at OSU. Drawing for the Wright autographed scripts. (Roy Bowen Theatre)

GENERAL INFORMATION
WHEN YOU EMAIL YOUR RESERVATION, YOU WILL RECEIVE DRIVING AND PARKING DIRECTIONS AND ORDER FORMS FOR LUNCH.
  • PARKING WILL BE AVAILABLE across the street from the Drake Union at a cost of $6.00 per day.
  • BOX LUNCHES (optional) are coming from Panera Bread Co. We are limiting the menu to preserve everyone’s sanity.

OTHER COLUMBUS EVENTS: For those who can spend extra time, consider:

  • Wexner Center for the Arts (on the OSU campus): The Builders’ Associations’ SONTAG/REBORN; and an exhibition of ANNIE LIEBOVITZ photography. Visit www.wexarts.org
  • THE STORY OF MY LIFE, the story of a friendship between two men; music and lyrics by Nell Bartram; book by Brian Hill, at CATCO. Visit www.catco.org

Faye Sholiton
Ohio Regional Rep
 

Bringing audience voted survival to one-act play performance run.

11/22/2011

 
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Hey playwrights, theatre go-ers in general, and anyone who ever wanted reality TV audience voting to merge with theatre...  a troupe in my hometown of Columbus is presenting a run of one-act plays that they've come up with, but with a twist.

Over the four week run, audiences will vote off a play each week. AND, if you want to see more of the play, you have to come back each week to keep it going. And here's why...

The first week, they'll put up the first 10-minutes of five one-acts. After an audience vote, only four plays will advance to week two where they'll get their first 20 minutes performed. Again, the audience votes, and one gets the chop.

By week three, you'll have three one-acts, and each will play for 30 minutes... and then you vote.

The top two plays will make it to the finals (week 4), where they finally get to play out in their entirety (40 min) and last audience vote will determine the ultimate one-act play of "Divide & Conquer." Should this experiment go well, I expect this to become a new MadLab tradition.

I am simultaneously fascinated and disturbed that reality competition is making headway into theater --- wondering if this will a) pick-up steam beyond MadLab, and b) inspire writers to be more engaging from the top of the piece all the way through, as they can't rely on those last fantastic 10 minutes to sell the show.

To be fair, when sending out submissions to any competition, literary agent, etc., you're basically experiencing this very phenomenon behind-the-scenes, where the readers have hundreds of scripts and if your first 10-page block doesn't hook them, why keep reading? So, yeah, this is kind of that, but on a large scale, with actors, and audience.

This is what I'm wondering and asking... should we be excited? Should we applaud the merging of these worlds? Would more events like this help expose more writers (rather than two writers getting a full run of an evening of one-acts, five writers get their name out there, albeit briefly for some)?

Does embracing reality TV style competition into theatre acknowledge the changing wants of our audience -- specifically the next generation who are being raised on entertainment where they have a voice? Or does it devalue theatre as an art form by pandering to that audience? Art is often done to express something by the artist, to make us think, and to be more than entertainment. More than what the audience craves. So what do you think?

Would love to get your thoughts on this. From my end, I'm still torn. It's a slippery slope... I wouldn't want all theatre to evolve to this -- however, the competitor in me thinks it would be fun to play, and I know that as someone who wants to write for television as much as the stage, you only get that first impression to keep your audience from changing the channel. And don't forget, to anyone who cries foul of this (and I welcome you to do so; I love discussion on emerging theatre), a producer's job is to put people in the seats, so while the art is important, so are ticket sales and something like this, mixed into a season line-up, might just get some new blood into the house.

Should MadLab hold another 'Divide & Conquer' next year, I'll be submitting. Would you?

You can read more about MadLab's show (which opens this week), at http://madlab.net/MadLab/divideconquer.html