I had the distinct pleasure of going to opening night this past Monday of Victory Gardens Theater's new world premiere, "Four Places," by resident playwright, Joel Drake Johnson. I found this play extremely provocative as it explored what it means to have "secret lives" and how we are effected when others are let into those "secret lives," often without welcome.
Victory Gardens made a name for itself while doing very intimate work in its formerly small space at what is now its Greenhouse, which still supports brilliant work by small companies that generally don't have their own space as well as one or two resident companies. It was wonderful to see them approach a piece that is traditionally right up their alley and be able to utilize their newfound high-class theater space in the refurbished Biograph Theater.
What I appreciate most about Victory Gardens is their commitment to only doing new works. Their playwrights ensemble certainly gives those playwrights an advantage in being part of that "established" circle that I spoke of last time, but they do not pull exclusively from that ensemble for their seasons. It is the daring and risk-taking of theater companies like Victory Gardens that helps me have faith that their are more than enough theater companies out there to keep playwrights from all parts working full-time if we can help connect playwrights to those producing companies in a more sensible way.
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An exploration of how to link playwrights and producers of new plays and musicals together. Expansion of the cultural dialogue, here in America and abroad, can only be enriched by the development of new voices in that discussion.
2 comments:
What's defined as full-time work for a playwright? How many plays a year? How much can a writer expect to get for a single piece?
As with anything, that's going to change based on who is answering the question. But I'd say a baseline answer for the first question at least would be where a playwright feels comfortable working exclusively as a writer and can devote all of their "work time" to writing.
The rest will derive from that first answer, and it is something that I will be addressing in the weeks to come.
Sorry for being Mr. Vaguey McVaguerson, but I do look forward to more discussion on this very issue soon.
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