#6. The Where — Selecting a Venue by Guest Blogger Anna Nicholas To many a playwright, choosing where her play gets produced is no more difficult than selecting a brand of toilet paper. She thinks all she has to do is get her play on a stage and people will come. Maybe this is true … Continue reading The Self Production Series with Anna Nicholas: #6 The Where…
#5. Budgeting by Guest Blogger Anna Nicholas There’s a basic rule in budgeting—at least for Equity Waiver theatre in Los Angeles where I live and work: A third of your budget buys your set, a third goes to theatre rental and a third to everything else. Presumably if you are paying market rates and you … Continue reading The Self Production Series with Anna Nicholas: #5 Budgeting…
#4. Paying for it (Part 2) – You’re on Your Own (Read Part 1 Here) by Guest Blogger Anna Nicholas When I lost the theatre company as a potential financial partner, it fell to me to raise the money for my play. And as I faced that daunting prospect, I again turned to people who’d … Continue reading The Self Production Series with Anna Nicholas: #4 Paying for it (Part 2)…
#4 Paying for it (Part 1) – The Company Connection by Guest Blogger Anna Nicholas Where does a self-producer get the money to put on a show? Do you bankrupt yourself like Michael Keaton’s character in Birdman? Maybe. (Spoiler alert: It worked out for him.) Once my play was chosen, there came the question of … Continue reading The Self Production Series with Anna Nicholas: #4 Paying for it (Part 1)…
#3 The Play’s the Thing – Selecting the Work by Guest Blogger Anna Nicholas In the wild, lions rule and don’t care if others like the way they take down big game. But in the small, equity-waiver theatre world most of us frequent, once you decide to self-produce, you need other people. It’s one of … Continue reading The Self Production Series with Anna Nicholas: #3 Selecting the Work…
#2. How I Decided to be a Lion. by Guest Blogger Anna Nicholas “Be a Lion, Be a Fucking Wolf, Take No Shit, Set Goals, Smash Them. Eat People’s Faces Off. Be a Better Person. Stay the Mother Fucking Course. Show People Who the Fuck You Are. Never Apologize for Being Awesome.” All right, one … Continue reading The Self Production Series with Anna Nicholas: #2 Be a Lion…
#1. The Decision to Self-Produce or I’m Self-Producing my Play… Agh! by Guest Blogger Anna Nicholas After more than 30 years of loving theatre, writing plays, studying the craft of playwriting and having my plays selected for readings and workshops; after years of submitting those plays to theatres large and small around the country (and … Continue reading The Self Production Series with Anna Nicholas: #1 The Decision…
By Anna Nicholas Writers write. Right? I’m a writer but I have discovered I’m not great at writing during a plague. I’m not Shakespeare. Only Shakespeare could turn out King Lear, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra while massive numbers of people were dying just outside the door of his stucco and thatched roof house. It’s … Continue reading A Pox on my Playwriting
by Anna Nicholas As a playwright fortunate enough to participate in the William Inge Play Lab this year, one of my favorite Master Classes was given by Constance Congdon (Tales of the Lost Formicans, Gilgamesh, Raggedy Ann and Andy and others). Connie’s been teaching playwriting at Amherst College for twenty-three years and knows her way … Continue reading An Interview with Constance Congdon
By Anna Nicholas In late January, I traveled to Portland, Oregon to see a short play of mine debut at Fertile Ground (http://fertilegroundpdx.org), what Portlandia calls its theatrical fringe festival. Fringe festivals exist in most major cities these days and provide writers, directors and performers of all types, a way to get their work seen. … Continue reading Finding Your Fringe
