A little West Coast consulting, baby!!

Hellz Yeah!  LOCAL 75 is goin West Coast!  As in L.A., fools! 

So, of course, it’s not playwriting development- cause, let’s be honest- we can do plays here in Chicago.  Oh, no.  LOCAL 75 is helping young Los Angeles writer Milo Eriksen with the development of a short (and possible short series) entitled DRAMA MAJORS.  

DRAMA MAJORS is a little ditty about some grad school-ers in an acting program.  It’s a campy look at the lives of melodramatic 20-somethings who have no idea just how much their social lives intertwine with the Shakespeare they study.  Think Slings and Arrows meets Desperate Housewives.

I’m hooked. 

Milo, who lives and works in L.A., finished his first draft and tossed it over to LOCAL 75 via the miracle of the internet.  So now, through a series of phone conferences, video meetings, and electronic correspondence, LOCAL 75 is bringing our methods and mission to the West Coast.  We had our first consultation last night and I think Milo will agree- it was highly productive! 

Now, Milo’s off working on draft #2!  And LOCAL 75 is looking forward to seeing the results…!!

Christopher

Build a play… what’s the foundation?!

Hey, LOCAL 75 will never shy away from making a construction analogy.  And the foundation’s the thing!  You can’t start framing out a house without laying that solid slab of concrete. 

So, yeah, Keely and LOCAL 75 discovered that before setting out on a new draft, an outline would be the strongest foundation on which to build her play.  And since she’s writing a mystery- a play with vital details, timed revelations, evidence, chronological events, etc- mapping out all that stuff in a simple outline makes A LOT of sense.

And you might think writing an outline is totally simple, right?  Takes, like, 20 minutes, right..?  WRONG! 

LOCAL 75 has been assisting Keely as she roughed-out numerous drafts of an outline- refining, trimming, simplifying, focusing with each new pass in order to have a clear and concise blueprint (I can’t help the analogies- sorry) for her play.  And guess what?  A month later, and Keely has delivered!!  She has an outline we all agree is SOLID!

And now what?  Well, Keely is confident and ready to begin that NEW DRAFT!!  And that’s the next step.  LOCAL 75 will be working with Keely to come up with a writing schedule on a timetable that works for her and fulfills her needs.  Where will she start- just the first scene?  The first Act?  A whole new draft?!  I can’t wait to find out…

Christopher

Another Playwright? Yep!!

That’s right.  We’ve got another playwright to add to LOCAL 75’s roster. 

DANA LYNN FORMBY, everybody!! 

Dana is joining our ranks.  Aaron and I were fortunate enough to see a reading of Dana’s full-length play “Inherit the Whole”.  And, man, is this play ever right up LOCAL 75’s alley.  Working class issues.  Working class characters.  Workin.  Workin.  Workin.  And we love the work, so LOCAL 75 will be assisting Dana with further development of this wonderful play.

Dana’s the daughter of a union pipe fitter.  And I don’t know if you know any pipe fitters- but let’s just put it this way- those guys can leave an impression.  So you can just IMAGINE what she’s writing about…!

But I’ll let Dana tell you about herself.  She’s filled out LOCAL 75’s intrusively personal questionnaire, and it’s posted on DANA LYNN FORMBY’S DEAL.

LOCAL 75 has already had one meeting with Dana.  And she’s on her way to making some structural changes- and, get this- she’s in the process of kicking out another draft.  Yeah!  As we speak, Dana is furiously writing a new draft to have to LOCAL 75 before the new year!!  Crazy, right?  What can I say?  LOCAL 75 knows how to motivate!  Call it our M.O., if you will. 

Christopher

First Meetings Under the Toolbelt

LOCAL 75’s first 2 meetings with our wonderful playwright Keely Flynn are in the bag!!  And what an experience!  When we spoke to Keely about her play and what she wants to accomplish with it, the muddy development path before us became a clear paved road with a destination in view. 

All the work in store for us is now in perspective.  And it was absolutely AMAZING how the opportunity to work on a mystery really requires a different kind of clarity and attention to detail- and a certain type of acknowledgement that the author is manipulating the audience- therefore must pay strict attention to how the audience is being dealt with.  That urgency to engage the audience- that level of entertainment- is something LOCAL 75 is ALL ABOUT!!

At the end of meeting #2, we were able to draw up a clear and concise blueprint for Keely’s next step in the process.  Her play- being first and foremost a mystery- requires that she outline the details of the mystery.  Keely wants the audience to engage in solving the mystery along side the characters.  In every scene, she must not only map out the clues and details about the final revelations of the mystery, but she must also have a definite suspect at the end of every scene- someone for the audience to go, “Oh, yeah, it’s totally that character who committed the murder!”  Then, in the next scene a new suspect arises and the audience is like, “Wait a minute!?!  I thought it was that character, but now it’s gotta be this character!!”  THAT’S AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT FOLKS!!  And THAT equals ENTERTAINMENT!!  It doesn’t get any better than that!

Keely comes to us after this Thanksgiving holiday with a detailed scene-by-scene outline of the mystery itself (did we mention the mystery takes place in two distinct time periods- the 40’s and the 60’s?  Oh, we didn’t mention that?  Well, it does.  So that makes for some serious attention to detail).  She will have suspects in every scene, and by focusing on the “mystery”, extraneous characters, clues and plot lines that do not contribute to that mystery (which is the engine of the play) will begin to fall away.

We’re looking forward to what Keely brings to the table!  If you want to ask Keely personally about her experience thus far with LOCAL 75, leave a post/comment on KEELY FLYNN’S DEAL page.  We ENCOURAGE IT!!

The Death of Storytelling?!?

Okay.  Aaron and I had our first meeting with Keely last night.  Amazing meeting- seriously.  We talked to Keely about her play.  That’s right- before critiquing the play, we talked to the playwright- crazy, I know.  And as we asked questions (??’s based on Keely’s relationship to the play and ??’s based on the play itself) and listened to Keely’s answers, the next step of our workshop process began to take shape right there before our eyes and ears!!  It was GREAT!  Aaron is gonna have more details about the actual meeting in another post…

But I just read this article in today’s NYTimes and HAD to post about it.  Perfect article to discuss within a playwrights’ workshop blog- it’s like it was written for us!  The title is: Saving the Story (the Film Version).  Check this article out.  It’s discussing the death of storytelling- it refers to film- but it’s totally relevant for us theater artists.

Is this article true?  Does it raise any valid points?

Is it time to adjust the way we tell stories in our Western culture? 

Does the traditional beginning-middle-end structure have one foot in the grave and the other foot on the banana peel? 

Is Aristotle spinning in his grave?  Or is this all just alarmist theory?!?

Post away- please, won’t someone think of the children- post away!!

We Have Our First Playwright!!

And our playwright is a SHE!  I know, crazy, right?  You mean there are women playwrights?  The folks at the NYTimes tell us that female playwrights are “frustrated by what they describe as difficulty in getting their work produced”.  Check out the article here.  I hate to be the one to break it to the NYT, but we already knew that.  Needless to say, we’re way ahead of em.  Introducing KEELY FLYNN…!!

Keely

Keely is an East Coast born and bred playwright, actor, educator and nanny who landed in Chicago via Amherst, Williamstown, London and Boston. Recent writing credits include “Call It” (Around the Coyote’s Third Thursdays), Instant Theatre at Chicago Dramatists (Network Playwright), “Christmas Eve, 1945 or Another Drink, Darling?” & “The Curse of the Goonies” (ARFTco), and erratic posts at lollygagblog.blogspot.com.

She has appeared onstage with 20% Theatre, Collaboraction (Artistic Associate), Estrogen Fest, ARFTco, Improv Kitchen and Dog & Pony Theatre. Film and television work include “Just Us League” (Misplaced Planet- NYC/LA) and an extremely informative commercial extolling the benefit of technical college. She cheerfully resides in Chicago with her husband P.J. and two very present cats.

So there she is.  Keely’s got a brand spankin new play she wants to toss to Local 75.  And we’re like hell yeah!!  We’re thrilled to be working with such a talented, passionate and generally awesome artist. 

Keely filled out a small, but vital Local 75 questionnaire- her answers to those VERY personal questions are posted on Keely’s page KEELY FLYNN’S DEAL on this very blog!!  Check out her link on the top right hand corner… yeah, up there… no, a little further… there you go!

Christopher

Arbitration: Discussion between artists…

So the interaction of the disciplines (directors, playwrights, dramaturgs, actors, artistic staff, etc) varies from workshop to workshop.  I know the role and boundaries of the director has been different in each and every workshop experience I’ve been a part of. 

Kyle is a director I know, so I’ve tossed this discussion his way to see if he has any insight…

Kyle, as a director new to the Chicago theater scene, development of new work will inevitably become part of your resume.  What, in your opinion, is the role of director in the workshop process of new work? 

Within the workshop environment, does a director need to be a jack of all trades and be able to fill multiple roles?

Or does he/she need to know how to assemble the right people in the workshop process?

Should the director only be responsible for getting the best performance from the actors in the eventual reading?

Or is the director really not necessary to the development process at all? 

Where do you fit in?  (if you feel like you’re back in high school- good- that was the point)

It’s all you, Kyle…

Well, now what?

Chris and I met today for a couple of hours to talk through our approach to our first play. Phase one will consist of three meetings. Meeting one will be a chat with the playwright posing a series of questions about the inspiration, intention and engine of the play. After the first meeting, we’ll re-read the play with that new knowledge in mind.

Meeting two will be a discussion of how all participants do (and do not) see the text lining up with the stated goals, etc. The plan here is to “loosen” the play in the writer’s mind. As a writer I often find that I am sure that something is there or something is functioning because of things that are cemented in my mind but haven’t made it to the page. I’m hoping that by raising these questions prior to a first read, the writer will have the opportunity to start seeing clearly that gap between the play in the head and the play on the page.

Meeting three will be a cold read. With beer. And pizza. No post-read discussion, no talkback, feedback or reflecting back the play. Just hear it, and hang out and have a good time.

Sometime after the read, we’ll meet again – and at that point start a re-write plan.

Looking back at the description, I can’t help but think – jeez, several hours to re-invent the wheel. In its broad outlines, this feels like every workshop process. A pre-meeting, a reading, a writing plan. Maybe this is a case of having to run the long way around just to feel like we’ve legitimately arrived where we started.

But I’m hoping that the devil (and the difference) is in the details. In some workshops I’ve been a part of, we get together, read the play, and then everyone just starts talking about the play – what they think works, what they think doesn’t work, what questions they have. But there’s no agreed upon goal, we don’t know what the writer has in mind, some participants will go on long tangents about minutiae that has nothing to do with how the play functions. It’s a kind of chaos that I’m not comfortable with. Particularly because all this input comes from different assumptions about how plays in general work, and how a particular play should work. And often those assumption are not articulated. So it becomes the job of the playwright (and perhaps dramaturg) to source the input back to the unspoken assumptions in order to asses the value of that input.

So at the very least, we’re experimenting with a much more controlled process: asking the playwright to articulate her goals, responding to the text in relation to those goals (which will raise questions in the mind of the writer), and then hearing the text with those questions in mind. Hopefully this means that the assumptions articulated about how the play should function are actually the playwright’s assumptions.

It occurs to me that this method limits the number of external inputs a writer receives. The conversation about the play starts with the writer and Chris and me. And no feedback after that first read means the conversation stays there. Is that cutting off sources of good ideas? Or is that protecting the writer and making sure she has a steady, stable world to experiment in? When is it time for the actors to weigh in?

More questions than answers. But we’re moving forward.

Workshops for Workers

Part of Local 75’s still developing mission is to provided sustained play development for working playwrights.

Sometimes it seems as if theater makers revel in their chosen financial difficulties. Being a poor artist is seen as a badge of honor, even as a mark of legitimacy. Some, as in this article in Seattle’s The Stranger, argue that theater artists are contributing to the demise of our art form by demanding a living wage.

What doesn’t seem to be acknowledged, even by those who hold this view, is that the intuitions ultimately favor those people who can afford to be poor. Even while holding up poverty as an artistic value, we create opportunities that can be most easily accessed by people of privilege.

For example, there are a number of excellent playwriting workshops or intensives across the country — the O’Neill’s professional play development workshop, Sundance Theater Lab, Seven Devils, and Wordbridge just to name a few. However, each of these workshops require a week or more of residency. There are stipends available, travel and lodging expenses are often paid for. But these types of workshops still require that you put your life on hold for a week to a month.

Not everyone can afford to do this. Many of us are living paycheck to paycheck with jobs that would disappear if we took a week or more leave. The very structure of these workshops favor those who can afford them. Perhaps their parents cover the rent. Perhaps they are lucky enough to have a full-time job with paid vacation. Whatever the reason, they are able to meet the opportunity cost.

And I suppose that there are those who will argue that these are the sacrifices our art requires of us. That if we were lucky enough to be accepted at Sundance Theater Lab, that we should quit our jobs, put our meager belongings in storage, sub-lease the apartment and hope for the best on our return.

Perhaps that is the case. Some of these workshops are incredible, career-launching opportunities.

But we shouldn’t have to make those kinds of sacrifices to get quality, sustained play development.

Christopher De Paola and I are still figuring out how to make Local 75 a place where a playwright can improve her work, perhaps even get a little recognition, without having to put her working life on hold. We certainly won’t be able to claim that we offer career-launching opportunities. At least not yet.

But we will offer multiple development meetings, access to excellent actors, and a public presentation of a writer’s work –all without quitting your day job.

I hope you join us on this blog and in person as we wrestle with the exact shape this type of development will take.

Looking forward to our journey,

Aaron Carter

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