We cannot have enough programs, projects, and forums that serve as incubators and champions of new writers and original works for the stage. Being involved in new play development for over 20 years, this is certainly a biased lens for me, yet I’ve been involved in numerous conversations, watched interviews, and done some reading that only support this idea more and more with each interaction.
To start, the Young Playwrights Map continued to grow in 2023 with new programming added to the source nearly every month. The most recent of these include three new projects in Pennsylvania, New York City, and Mali.
Phillips Mill Community Association is producing their 2nd annual Play with Words Challenge for students in grades 7-12 who are within 25 miles of New Hope, PA. Registration closes on January 15, 2024 and select plays will be presented at Phillip’s Mill for a live audience in March.
CreateHER is an education program run by SheNYC Arts in New York City. According to their website, this is “a free course for NYC-based high school students who are girls or non-binary, and who are interested in writing and producing for theatre. Through the program, students are given the technical and creative tools to take their creativity from an idea to reality.” This is the first I’m hearing of the program, but it looks like this is a national group with offices in other cities. Check it out - could be a similar program near you.
Les Practiables Festival was produced in Bamako, Mali earlier this month. According to an article published in Africa News, the festival offered a chance for the high school writers to speak about difficulties and decisions they face as youth in their region. (It was exciting to see this festival in my Google Alerts. I often learn about such programs in Nigeria, but this was a first in Mali).
These opportunities are important for encouraging youth to write their first script, but also to continue writing into the future. One gap within the young playwrights field is a lack of continuing participation for writers. Some organizations like Philadelphia Young Playwrights are developing residency programs to provide long-term support and encouragement to writers. Philly Young Playwrights had success with this model in the past; I was fortunate to see some of this first-hand as one of my students participated in the Paula Vogel Mentors project many years ago. The Coterie Theatre in Kansas City used to have a workshop program with something like a “lifetime” membership where, once accepted, young writers could continue to work with the program as writers, directors, and performers, even into college. We need to see more programs like these for young writers and ALL writers for the stage. One-and-done does not provide enough opportunity and it only gets harder to see work produced as the clock moves forward.
This was a topic of conversation in the Intro to TYA course I taught at NYU this fall. In that class, students explore the history and development of plays for youth, develop an understanding of the theory behind that work, and then apply it to a proposal for a new or adapted play for young audiences. I’ve done this for years and the project ideas are always fascinating. A handful of students have been able to use the project in future classwork; some even develop into scripts that have been read or produced. However, there is no guarantee that will be the case. About half of the students this year expressed an interest in pursuing that work further and we discussed opportunities they might find in the city, or back in their hometowns, to do so. Unfortunately, there are very few that exist. My advice in that case is to get the play in front of an audience anyhow and anywhere. That’s the only way to see how it works - or doesn’t - and what kind of life it might have next.
I recently discovered support for this advice in an interview with Stephen Sondheim done by the ITN Network in 2010 that was published to YouTube this past September. The conversation is wide-ranging and at one point, Sondheim is asked: “What do you think of the state of musical theatre at the moment?” His response was:
“Well the problem with musical theatre at the moment has been - the problem has been around for a while now… 40 years - is economics. It’s - young people do not get a chance to learn their craft. When I was young and learning my craft, we - at the most you could get a show on every two years. The generation before me - the Hammerstein generation, the generation of Rodgers & Hart, of Cole Porter, the people who were the pioneers of musical theatre, so to speak, in American musicals - they did two shows a season. So they got to learn the craft. Because you only learn by doing. It’s not a craft that can be - it’s a practical craft, it’s not a craft that can really be learned in a classroom. You can learn the principle, but the whole idea of the theatre - it includes playwriting, too - is you have to get it out in front of an audience and get that two-way street going between an audience and a stage and see what happens when actors - when performers - get a hold of what you write. That can only be done by practice and unless you get a chance to practice, you can be ‘perfect’. And now young writers are lucky if they get a show on every five years and that’s very lucky. There’s no way for them to learn their craft. So what’s happened is that shows now do not depend on young writers as much as they do on tried and true material.”
We could look at this as this perspective as an explanation of why there is so much adapted material on stage (75% of all plays in TYA from 2009-2019 were adapted according to a report done by the Center for Scholars and Storytellers) and as a call for many, many more opportunities for artists to get their work seen. It doesn’t need to be highly commercial - it doesn’t even need to be a full production of those works; just a chance for writers, performers, and audience to experience the play can be enough.
So, what can you do to bring this kind of program to your organization? Really, it can be as simple as providing a space for those voices to be shared! The format doesn’t matter, nor does the size of the program, or the event. Just gather those three important elements - plays, performances, audience - and you’re set to go!
Want to get more involved with that kind of project? Thinking about setting up a young playwrights program? Want to find an organization where you can get involved? I can help with all of that! Please reach out via email, or social media, and we can connect from there. Thanks!