For an explanation of RIPP: Real Inspiration for Playwrights Project, please click here.

JUBILITH MOORE, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, THEATRE OF YUGEN

“The average length of the typical Theatre of Yugen script is around 20 pages. We usually work with plays that focus on one central figure and a secondary figure—so perhaps two or three characters at most—and our plays are distinctly and uniquely visual and musical. Definitely not very dialogue heavy.

When Chiori Miyagawa sent her play, This Lingering Life, to me, it was over 90 pages long, had 27 characters, and was very much dialogue based.  But we liked the script and, within two months, I wrote her saying I would like to meet and discuss the possibility of producing it. She was floored as she didn’t think anyone would ever say yes to such a big play and she was also surprised to hear from me within months of her submission, rather than a few years.

An anomaly perhaps, but these things do happen. We’ll produce the play June 2014.”

My nutshell takeaway: Not much to say about this one–it’s the dream right? Any number of things might have influenced Moore’s decision—timing, a desire to try something different, the subject of the play, certainly the craft of the play—but for playwrights, I think the most important thing to note is that the playwright wrote the play she needed to write and sent it to a theater it might connect with. Those are the two things over which we always have control.

Until next time,

Donna