I’ve been so busy with RIPP that I haven’t done any of my usual updates about what’s going on with my own stuff.  If you haven’t been following RIPP, I encourage you to check it out. So far, I’ve contacted more than 450 theaters, and responses (or promises to respond) are coming in daily; […]

   For an explanation of RIPP: Real Inspiration for Playwrights Project, click here.   Just back from a great weekend at the Shaw Festival, where I discovered a new restaurant—Rest—which has an extensive wine list that is all local. I don’t know of another restaurant in the area, in Canada or stateside that can boast […]

  FROM DORI JACOB, LITERARY MANAGER, MAGIC THEATRE:  “Finding a great play is difficult. A great play for me can mean several things. The first thing I look for is a compelling story that is told with 100% commitment to its arc and purpose. The next is character development. What is a great story without […]

  For an explanation of RIPP, Real Inspiration for Playwrights Project, click here.   SETH ROZIN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, INTERACT THEATRE COMPANY   “InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia produces a majority of new plays by less well-known writers.  In the past ten years, five of the new plays that we produced essentially came over the transom.  Tom […]

  For an explanation of RIPP, Real Inspiration for Playwrights Project, click here.   RICKY MARTINEZ, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, NEW THEATRE   “Right before I became Artistic Director, while I was Associate AD and also Literary Manager, I read a playwright submission, [Just A Kiss], which blew my socks off that had no agent representation.  I immediately […]

  Explanation of RIPP, Real Inspiration for Playwrights Project here.   MELISSA HILLMAN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, IMPACT THEATRE CO.   “I started on Twitter at the insistence of a few people in my company, especially Jax Steager and Reggie White, in 2010. I didn’t know what it was all about, so Jax introduced me to the […]

  Playwrights talk a lot about how to get plays in the hands of those who will read them, and lamenting the seeming impossibility of this task. And yet… if it were truly impossible, would we keep writing? Would we keep submitting day in and day out? We must believe that even if the odds […]

Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist. Jane Smiley (via inspired-to-write) CLINGING TO THIS SENTIMENT. (via cristinterrill)

Link: Between the Lines: At The Mercy of Stupid People piercework: “Let’s face it,” playwright David Hare tells The Guardian, “in the theatre you aren’t at the mercy of stupid people.” I won’t unpack the classist contempt in there because I know what Hare means and some days I could just choke on stupid. I […]

At the urging of colleague Gwydion Suilebhan and prompted by recent postings on a playwrights board, I feel compelled to issue a warning about paying for dramaturgical feedback: Don’t. And if for some reason, you feel that you must, thoroughly vet the source of your feedback, ask for samples of feedback to others, ask for estimates, […]