All posts by Robin Byrd

Addendum 2 to Playwrights in Mind: A National Conversation

Playwright, , , ,

Below is a reprint from the Dramatists Guild July 14, 2011 e-Newsletter regarding the streaming videos from the conference to help you find and view  them:

 

DG’s First National Conference Videos Courtesy of New Play TV

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_2a79a31d-4c43-4e0b-9381-14ea742c663c
Gary Garrison welcomes everyone to the conference and does a brief introduction. Conversation with playwright Chris Durang.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_6873f662-f252-409e-af18-1a870052bae7
Artistic Director of Arena Stage, Molly Smith, gives her keynote speech.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_7d089833-ab2a-44de-8afd-298ef47b619d
Artistic Director of New Dramatists, Todd London, gives his keynote speech.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_6a4cd002-1a97-4fa6-a7b7-0ef138316b4c
Question and answer session with Todd London.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_69b9d282-3057-4d2a-b82b-c09b6bc35ce4
Mame Hunt on how to survive an audience talkback.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_52351dcc-80e1-4d49-b15e-7843e8657473
Conversation with Artistic Director of McCarter Theatre, Emily Mann.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_9012adee-a340-40d9-a35a-20cd4ea3cbf6
Conversation with Stephen Schwartz, President of the Dramatists Guild.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_ecb4d8c5-5e30-43e4-9f79-f9f5baae2200
Stephen Schwartz speaks about crafting musical theatre.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_0631e030-f47e-4010-a06b-b42fc551eab5
Playwright Julia Jordan gives her keynote speech.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_5877629f-5478-4676-95ba-3035de5e3e1b
Conversation with playwright David Ives on crafting comedy.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_4906313c-ca68-4d5d-8000-ed092fca7620
Conversation on internet piracy of sheet music.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_e2a7bf01-e104-4452-aa5c-93b299593b0a
“A National Conversation” – a question and answer session with a panel including esteemed playwrights, librettists, lyricists, composers, artistic directors, executive directors, etc.

Trust or Consequences…

Playwright, , ,

A lack of self-trust brings consequences —  to a writer, the greatest consequence being an inability to create a true authentic work of art…

Recently, Native Voices at the Autry had readings of the four plays that were part of their 2011 Playwrights Retreat and Festival.  I went to all of the play readings, but the one play that stood out to me was Ungipamsuuka (My Story) by Susie Silook.  

Silook, a carver, sculptor, playwright and Alaskan native, showed up at the playwright’s retreat with two acts.  Instead, of rewriting those acts (which was the expected thing to do during the retreat); she wrote a new second act to sandwich between the two acts.  Her process for writing the new acts was so in-the-moment that the actors, director, dramaturge, etc. assigned to her play found they could not follow their business as usual plan for her play or for themselves during the retreat.  Nor could they help but attend to her as she delivered the pages breath by breath.  They had to allow her to birth it, right there in front of them.  Sometimes, to be born, the work spends all of the artist who is creating it, blasting through every fiber of the artist’s being until reaching the air… 

The play is autobiographical; it took us on a journey through Silook’s life – through the tragedies and therapy sessions that have fueled her art over the years.  Silook made the conscious decision to include therapy as part of the play.  She felt that as a culture, Alaskan Natives know tragedies first-hand but don’t always seek counsel.  Silook wanted to cover the road to recovery in a way that would inform and entice the audience to seek healing.  She wanted the play to have an ultimate purpose, a voice all its own.  Silook includes some of her sculptures in the play.  The stark beauty and spirit of her art pieces lift the symbolism of the play to a higher dimension.  Some of the pieces were carved from whale penis bone.  Some of the tragedy deals with rape. 

The play is magnificent and in my eyes, perfect.  While the story is beautiful and ugly at the same time, it triumphs as a story that leads the way to redemption…  I commend Susie Silook for her effort, for refusing to settle for a good play but pushing for a great one.  I commend Native Voices for trusting the artist and allowing Silook’s piece to become on its own terms…  I am excited that one day, I will see Ungipamsuuka (My Story) on stage…   Thank you, Susie Silook, for sharing your art…

White Fluffies and Butterflies…

playwriting, , ,
Butterfly on weed by marilyn958

When you go to script readings, do you comment?  And when and if you comment, do you tell the truth or do you give white fluffies and smile for the imaginary camera?  Are you concerned that the director may find out who you are and put you on a list? 

On the flip side, when it’s your turn to receive comments for a script that you have written, do you want white fluffies or the truth?  How difficult or easy is it for you to see through the fog of fluff?  Does your inner radar sound off?  Do you, as storyteller, know the story you are trying to tell?  Do comments assist or hinder you in your process?

I personally hate white fluffies.  I tend not to give them.  Okay, I don’t give them.  I don’t want anyone giving them to me either; just tell me straight out.  The thing about comments is that it is ultimately up to the writer whether or not they want to incorporate them or not anyway.  But, it’s a lot easier to wade through the information if there are no fluff balls crowding constructive comments.  I think that as fellow artists, if we give a comment it should be an honest one.

I went to see a new play where the playwright participated in a talkback after the production .  The audience did not give white fluffies; they gave something worse, convoluted and somewhat idiotic rants and rails that could never help the playwright.  I hope the playwright was able to let it roll off his back like water on an oiled surface.  So brave, he was, to sit there and take questions, so vulnerable; unsure of the work maybe because it materialized in a radical new way this time, unsure, like a new playwright just trying out craft.  I could feel his butterflies in the room fluttering about…  It made me wonder if the they ever go away – the butterflies — when we send the children out into the world to play… 

Careful, watch out for the fluffies…

*Art by Marilyn MacCrakin, a California playwright and photographer. http://marilyn958.deviantart.com/

Addendum to Playwrights in Mind: A National Conversation

Playwright, , , , , , , , , ,

The Dramatists Guild Conference, “Playwrights in Mind: A National Conversation” was held in Fairfax, Virginia from 9 – 12 June, 2011.  This was the first conference held by the Dramatists Guild.  To hear some of the speakers: Molly Smith, Arena Stage, and Julia Jordan, 50/50 in 2020, Todd London, New Dramatists, go to http://livestream.com/newplay.  You will have to do a lot of scrolling but it worth hearing.

Kitty Felde did an excellent job of covering the events, please read and reread her coverage at https://lafpi.com/author/kfelde/  or at

Day One

Day One continued through Day Three

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 Addendum for the last day of the conference:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

THE DRAMATISTS GUILD FUND

The DG Fund seminar with Fred Nelson and Tari Stratton covered the many aspects of the Dramatist Guild Fund.  There are two types of grants, individual (Kesselring Grant) and theater.  The estate of Joseph Kesselring provides grants to professional dramatists who are experiencing extreme personal hardships, health or otherwise.  The recipients don’t even have to be members of the Dramatists Guild.  It’s a confidential process.  And grant means you don’t have to pay it back.  This is the only program that I know of that helps a playwright in need.

Regarding the theater grant side, a rep from a theater that has received a general operating grant from the DG Fund was present in the seminar (City Theatre of Miami); she said that their City Theatre Summer Shorts Festival was happening due to a grant from the DG Fund.

The other project that the DG Fund discussed was its Legacy Project.  This project films an interview between an emerging playwright and an established dramatist.  The interviewer is one that has somehow been greatly affected by the interviewee.  The Fund realizes the urgency of creating this interview series and started with the oldest playwrights, lyricists and composers.  Carol Hall “The Best Little Whore House in Texas” playwright and DG Fund vice president discussed the feeling of just being in the room with the interviewees and the moments that were caught on film.  She discussed how Horton Foote was scheduled to be the first interview but passed away before it could be done.  Joe Stein was interviewed by Lin-Manuel Miranda; Edward Albee was interviewed by Will Eno.  Lanford Wilson and Romulus Linney were missed…

I met Romulus Linney at a conference in Nebraska, I really wanted to sit down and talk with him about Appalachia and how it creeps into my work though I am two generations removed.  I wanted to just be close enough to see that glint in his eye and maybe just maybe decipher it.  I liked him.  It was 2007 and that was my first encounter with his work and it was excellent, lively and funny…

It would be great if the Legacy Project could find a way to do the interviews (for the artists that passed) anyway using those closest to the artist.  Not the same as an interview with them but something. 

During the seminar, some of the audience members offered ways to create donors for this project.

Volume One of the Dramatists Guild Fund Legacy Project documentary series is complete and work has begun on Volume Two.  For more information see http://dramatistsguildfund.org/programs/legacy.php. 

*I just went to the legacy site and found out that Lanford Wilson was not missed!!!  8/11/11*

_______________________

 

MYTH ADAPTATION FOR PLAYWRIGHTS: Archetypes and Inspiration

Myth Adaptation for Playwrights: Archetypes and Inspiration with Laura Shamas was a two-hour seminar squeezed into 45 minutes (due to a change at the conference) and she didn’t miss a beat.  Laura discussed why myth matters.  Myth, she said, represents what is eternally true; it’s a tool and it’s active.  For the playwright, myth can be useful in plot, character and theme.  “You don’t find the myth, the myth finds you.”  There are three archetypal planes, celestial, earthly, and underworld.  If you visualize the archetype it is easier to use it in your writing.  Each archetype has props that stand for something in their picture, i.e., Zeus sits on a throne, with a staff topped by an eagle in one hand, always bearded, etc. – each of those things mean something like the fact that Venus was born an adult.  Laura says, “in order to translate a myth, you have to know the props of the myth and update the props for your story. 

Notes on Myth Adaptation Process:

  1. When researching myths, one should look at 1 to 7 versions of the myths because the stories can vary slightly and you need to find the one that best fits the story you are trying to tell. Document and list chronologically.  Note any important rituals or rites.
  2. Identify: 
    •  central archetypes
    •  symbols (including props),
    •  setting and other metaphors,
    •  plot,
    • transformation,
    •  psychological function (thematic): why does it matter for you personally, and why does it matter for humanity at large.

The above archetypal elements are needed to incorporate into your work to update and keep the elements that will make the story mythic.

Laura gave a list of Myth references books.  Some of the books are “The Power of the Myth” Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers, “The Heroine’s Journey” Maureen Murdock.  Even though, Laura got through everything, we still wanted more…

For more information about Laura Shamas visit http://laurashamas.com/.  Laura is also co-founder with Jennie Webb of the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative (LAFPI).

Writing on the Verge…

LAFPI, Playwright, playwriting,

Over the years, I have found myself writing on the verge…a lot – on the verge of losing the last bit of sanity/strength/peace/hope/ I have…  Yet still…I write, even with the waves of life beating rapidly and endlessly in the fore/back/foreground, with me straining to catch my breath and trying to step out of the way of the onslaught of water but never making it to a dry patch of earth in time.  Drenched/soaked to the bone in water that covers me, my pen and paper, swollen with the wet liquid so wet the ink bleeds the letters into each other, bleeds word into word into word into word but I write anyway because nothing short of death can stop me from putting pen to page, my thoughts ebbing into and through my hands ever so precisely ever so like and unlike the water rushing over me… so… unstoppable… so unmistakably lucid despite the fog…

Writing… on the verge of finding that one sure vein that leads to my well/spring, that sways to my authentic rhythm playing the song of my authentic self…  Writing to find the whole of the story dancing past my inner ear begging to be told, aching to “be born & handled warmly”1  On the verge of living my dream of writing full-time…  It’s hard to know and feel the tide is changing but you still can’t quite see it though you feel it deep inside your self and it’s so real you can’t stop writing, can’t stop kicking and pushing against the stones…can’t stop living… and writing on the verge of whatever comes in on the tide…

                                                     

1 “dark phrases” from For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange.

Stones in the Garden…

LAFPI, playwriting, , , , , , , ,

I’ve always wanted a garden even though I don’t know much about growing things.  I have destroyed a rubber plant twice and they’re supposed to be hard to kill.  I keep thinking that if I have a designated place for plants, they will grow well with water, air and soil and maybe a few stones here and there.  Certain plants need more or less sun than others.  I don’t know the exact planting season for each plant – hope it is on the package of seeds.  What I do know, is the smell and feel of good soil, played in enough of it as a child while digging up ant hills and worms.  I could always find at least one worm under a dug up stone.  The worms were always found in the best part of the soil.  Why did I spend so much time in dirt?  Feeding the pet ants of course!  Yeah, yeah, they didn’t know they were our pets but me and my big brother visited them all summer long with crumbs and water and ice cream so they were “pets.”  And, if we were careful, we could see the tunnels virtually intact once we started the excavation.

The observation and excavation skills I learned those summers work well when I’m writing or collecting moments for my writing.  I have to see the inner workings of things mainly because I believe there is a reason for everything and what’s on the inside affects your outside world more than you know.  So, when I say “does not cry” it is because I am hinting at a backstory to that character not trying to direct the actor.  I am lifting stones to get to the worm-filled soil.  My mother used to tell me that the worms made the soil good; at first sight a worm can appear to be an icky thing but ultimately the icky-ness is what enriches the soil or story…  The simple smell of it is as wonderful as spring rain on pavement and the feel of it in the hands always takes me back to the beginning of things…the place of possibility…

If Nobody Sings Along…

LAFPI, playwriting, Uncategorized, , , , ,

Chrisette Michele, a phenomenal singer/songwriter, has a new album out titled LET FREEDOM REIGN and on the album there is a song called “If Nobody Sang Along.” In this song, she discusses having an audience to appreciate her work and wondering if the absence of that audience would affect her desire to tell her story… She resolves that when everything is said and done, it’s about the possibility of affecting someone’s world simply because she told her story that drives her to sing regardless…

As a playwright, the answer has to be ‘yes’, as well, otherwise, we would hardly get anything done.   What determines art – productions, readings or simply creating it?  How much stuff going wrong stops or trips you up?  For most of us, we write because we must and the obstacles work their way into and through our stories.  We answer those questions again and again as we endure…  We stand and fight for ourselves as we press through those moments of weakness.  Exhaustion wrapped ‘round our shoulders, we sit once more at the computer or pad and pen and write — something, anything, as long as it is story…

Years ago, at a church that I attended in the Midwest, the young ministers were given time on Sundays to preach from 3 – 5 pm (in the basement of the church).  Service attendance at that time of the day was usually slack; it was in the middle of the day when everyone was at home relaxing before returning for the 7 pm evening service or if they did return to the church early, they would be upstairs talking to other church members.  Most of the time the young ministers would cancel their service because no one showed up or if there were less than 5 people. There was one minister, a Minister Tom Carey, however, who would start preaching to an empty room.  He would preach as if the room was full, as if there was no tomorrow.  And, this brother who stuttered sometimes would preach stutter free.  You could hear him from the stairwell; it would draw you right down those stairs and into a seat.  We asked him why he would preach to an empty room and he would say, “God’s here.  I had something to say.” or “The Word is good all the time, even in a room with no people.”  (I paraphrase from memory.)  After a while, his services would be packed; his gift had made room for him even when nobody was singing along… 

I think about Minister Carey when I am up in the wee hours of the morning typing away at a story knowing my gift is making room for me, knowing God’s here and I have something to say, knowing that even in an empty room, my story is relevant and that I will always sing regardless of whether or not anyone sings along…

The Deliberate…

LAFPI, playwriting, Uncategorized, , ,

It’s time to write but the internal mulling over process is growing branches – more like veins – and they’re burrowing…going places I did not expect.  I have been reading a lot of poetry lately – writing more of it than I have in years.  I have entered my sacred circle, searching for stories never expecting to find them in poetry but there they are – visible more to my ear than my eye, writing an old thing a new way.  I found a new poet, too.  Nikky Finney – who is not new but somehow she was hidden from me all these years.  Perhaps, I wasn’t ready for her; she’s intense.  Her poems help me understand the ache in my own poetry to be more than…  They’re like short stories – her poetry.  Raw, refined and full of truth – her poetry is a lesson in the deliberate…   Deliberate as in:  Intentional, on purpose, premeditated, calculated, planned, and not accidental.  Every writer should have/develop the ability to deliberately tell their stories, their way – to flip the switch that turns off all outside interference and just say it…

I am noticing a greater freedom in my poetry lately.  Now that I am focusing on it; it seems to have evolved into another form of storytelling.  It even almosts writes like a play.  In the past, I have written monologues in poetry but I never thought much about the connection to a freedom I haven’t had in my plays.  Not that I am not free already but in poetry, one can be sparse and direct and move on to the next thought.  This is the first time my poetry has become part of my circle where I thought of it as story first.  Putting together a manuscript recently, I found myself looking at the context of the whole, the arch, the subtext of the whole, the imagery, the story…   And, now, I can hear pieces and parts of poetry whispering to me from the shadows; on the verge of the light of day yet always just able to crawl back into their hiding places – too many to catch.  They want me to sit with them by the fire and listen as they slowly tell me – everything…they promise to tell me everything…  But, I have been so busy lately; there has been no time to linger in my sacred circle longer than a moment. Especially, since I was expecting characters from a play to speak and not fragments of poetry. 

Maybe the poetry will end up being a play…  At any rate, if I deliberately go with the flow and write whatever wants to be written now; I am sure it will enhance every area of my writing life.   May be the break will bring me back to the characters more refreshed and ready to rock and roll.  As long as I can meet my deadlines…

Persons of Interest “Special Edition” Blog

LAFPI, News, Study, , , , , , ,

1.  LA FPI Turns One!

It’s the LA FPI’s One Year Anniversary.  Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative Co-Founders, Laura Annawyn Shamas and Jennie Webb, have a few words to say on the matter.

Read their conversation here.


2.  The Study!

The Los Angeles Female Playwright’s Initiative Study results are posted (LA FPI Study).  Please read the results and leave a comment.  We’re looking forward to corresponding with you.

3.  LA FPI Study Director Comments!

Meet Ella Martin, the LA FPI Study Director. Read Ella’s blog articles here about her experience as the Study Director.  Read her results.  Feel free to comment and ask questions.

4.  What LA FPI Instigators have to say about our first year!

Visit this page to read what the LA FPI Instigators are saying…

 
To read the profiles of other LA FPI Persons of Interest Click Here.