TIPS FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ON WRITING A PLAY FOR COMMUNITY THEATER PRODUCTIONS

Lakewood Theater, my summer home, initially designed as a Broadway-style theater in Maine, is now kept alive by hard-working community theater folks called Curtain Up Enterprises.  Who says Community Theater has to be little?

Yesterday, I gave some valuable tips about Writing for the school theater market in a way that will help you get published (to read that article, click here).   This was a lesson for the business side of playwriting, after having done so many posts on the craft of playwriting. 

Today, I'm going to do the same thing for playwrights interested in writing plays for the community theater market.  This is a wide and deep market to tap into, just like school theater.

I want to take a brief moment to say that there is no shame in being a playwright who focuses their energy on writing for these so-called "amateur" markets.  Yes, it would be nice for everyone if their plays could have successful runs at a Regional Theater, or, dare you even hope?, an Off-Broadway or Broadway Theater!  Truth is, I know many playwrights who write for the school and community theater markets, who still have professional productions of other plays quite often.  We must remember that if you want playwriting to be your career, it is also your job, and also your business.  As Tim Kelly, one of the most prolific and vastly-published playwrights in American history once said, "On Broadway you can make a killing, but you can't make a living".  This is true.  Either you're a smash on Broadway or a failure.  There isn't much room for in-between.  (Yes, I am somewhat generalizing here, but please stay with me)  Mr. Kelly had over 350 plays published for the amateur markets, and, at the height of his career, had over 6,000 performances of his plays a YEAR.  All over the world (his plays were translated into dozens of languages).  Now, while this might not garner a playwright the same respect as a Tom Stoppard or Harold Pinter (two writers I greatly admire), it will allow you to write for a living, and a six-figure living at that. 

And the truth is, it is difficult for any playwright to make a living from actually writing plays, so Mr. Kelly's advice has grown much more fascinating to me over the years. 

Let's get down to the tips.  You will notice that some of them are similar to the tips for the school theater market, but there are some important differences. 

TIP #1:  Statistically speaking, more females audition for community theater than males (why do you think Steel Magnolias is so popular in the community theater circuit?)  If possible, write more parts for females than for males.  Or, gender-flexible roles.  It has been an ongoing joke at many community theaters that I have worked at that if you're a male and come to an audition, you're most likely in. 

TIP #2:  Here are some of the popular genres for community theater, in, what I believe to be most popular to least popular:  musical, farce, comedy, mystery, "dramedy" (a comedy with some serious, poignant overtones), and drama.  There is also the ever-popular "Musical Revue" (see something like Ted Swindley's Always, Patsy Cline or Honky Tonk Angels, which are, honestly as they are billed, recession-proof).  As you can see, in my opinion, dramas are a harder sell, but, most respectable community theaters will do at least one of them per season, so they are worth writing.  Of course, I love writing dramas.

TIP #3:  While I do believe far more full-lengths are written for the community theater markets, there are community theater festivals that put on one-acts, so there is a market for one acts in community theater.  I have had two plays of mine attend festivals put on by the AACT (American Association of Community Theaters), and it is very exciting and a great way to network with other hard-working community theaters (who, by the way, put on some pretty professional-looking productions sometimes).  In fact, my play The Girl I'm Gonna Marry (read more about it by clicking here), did very well by attending one of these festivals. 

TIP #4:  Cast size is different for community theater than for school theater.  Unless a show is a musical or an adaptation of a classic (like A Christmas Carol), I don't recommend writing for a huge cast.  The reason is simple:  many people don't audition for community theater because they have jobs and kids and can't make a ton of time for other things.  It can be very difficult to cast a large play. (Obviously, there are exceptions, like Our Town or something, but it is also easier to cast a show most people have heard of than a new one).  I would not exceed 10 characters for a standard community theater straight play, and I actually try to keep it between 7 and 9, again, more females than males.  A farce in particular should be kept between 7 and 9.  Not a steadfast rule, some might disagree, but I'm talking in generalizations for this post.

TIP #5:  Community theater shows can be a bit more "racy" than high school theater shows, maybe a little bad language here and there, but I still would recommend, for community theater in-general, to keep it somewhat cleaner than an NYC theater district production.  No Mamet-like "F-Bombs" every other line.  You might get some productions, but you are shutting yourself off from a great many more.  In a sense, you should remember that you're writing for Middle America, or the grange houses and town halls as well as the Little Theaters.  Besides, the cleaner you keep it, the more likely you are to achieve...

TIP #6:  ... THE CROSSOVER PLAY.  A crossover play is a play that is not only done at community theaters, but also at high schools.  If you can keep it clean enough, and interesting enough, you may find yourself with a play that works in both markets, and increase your productions and royalties quite nicely.  The aforementioned Tim Kelly had a large number of crossover plays, as does Pat Cook, who I interviewed for this blog a while back.  (You can read that interview by clicking here--- trust me, it's worth a read if you're interested in this business)

TIP #7:  Keep the sets SIMPLE.  A unit set (one set for the entire show) or a representational set that can be moved quickly and easily to keep things flowing.  Community theaters by and large do not have huge budgets.

One last note that I think is very important.  AMATEUR THEATER (schools, community) is VITAL for our culture.  People who will never have the opportunity to see a show on Broadway or the West End, or even a Regional Theater with ticket prices of up to $50, will still be able to see their friends and family in a community theater production for $10-15.  I do not feel I am overstating when I say that COMMUNITY THEATER HELPS KEEP THE TRADITION OF THEATER ALIVE.  It is important, just as important as writing an in-depth piece of art for the more theater-going elite crowd.  You don't have to win a Pulitzer to make a difference in the field of playwriting.  Remember, Shakespeare wrote to please everyone, from the groundlings to the Queen. 

Let's keep that going, shall we?

Thanks for reading this article.  Feel free to comment below, or subscribe to my blog.  And if you want, you can even drop me a line at theater.is.a.sport@gmail.com

Until next time, remember that theater is not only a craft, or an art form, or a business--- it is also a sport.

 

                   The Center Theatre, My Home Town Community Theater in Dover-Foxcroft, ME

How to Write a Play or How to Enjoy Repeatedly Banging Your Head Against the Wall, Lesson 7: Warding off Writer's Block an Embracing and Imperfect Medium

Hello.  My name is Bobby Keniston, and welcome to Theater is a Sport.  It's Tuesday today (at least for another twenty minutes or so), which means it is time for another lesson in playwriting.  This being said, this is also a lesson for anyone who writes anything.

As a playwright and teacher of young playwrights, there is one word that separates successful playwrights from unsuccessful playwrights.  Ready for it?

COMPLETION

Yes, it is true that not every person who completes writing a play (or a story or a novel, etc.) finds widespread success.  On the other hand, a person who never completes a piece has zero chance of finding success.  So there you have it.  The number one goal when starting a piece of writing should be to complete a draft.  This is the big goal in my intro to playwriting class.  Finish.

Finish, finish, finish.

I tell my students that theater, and, hell, all of writing is imperfect, especially a first draft.  That's what makes theater and writing exciting and alive.  Perfection doesn't really exist in the arts, and if it did, it would probably be boring. 

I also tell them this:  the only way to rewrite and rework a first draft they are disappointed with is to HAVE a first draft you are disappointed with.

My first semester as a playwriting student when I was in college was a pretty banner semester.  I wrote a ten-minute play that got a lot of attention, and followed it with a one-act play of about twenty-five minutes, and then followed that by a one-act play of about 55 minutes in duration.  I was a completion machine.  

My second semester, I was moved right from Beginning Playwriting to Advanced Playwriting.  Suddenly, the criticisms in the workshop setting were harsher.  Suddely, I didn't feel like a wunderkind anymore.  Suddenly, I started writing 15 pages of a project and then abandoning it, and then 10 pages, and then 5 pages... you get the idea. 

Even after graduation, for a good time in my twenties, I would begin a piece and then set it aside, worried that it was never going to look or feel like what it did in my head. 

I have a message for all young (and even not-so-young) writers who are reading this: 

IT'S NEVER GOING TO BE WHAT'S IN YOUR HEAD

              (AT LEAST NOT COMPLETELY)

I know this from experience.  From lots of finished plays that I've racked up over the last couple years.  That doesn't mean it won't be close, or, sometimes even BETTER than what is in your head.  It happens.  But if writing were simply a matter of having the ability to precisely transcribe the images from your head perfectly, then it wouldn't be much of an artform, would it?  It would be... well, robotic.  Stale.

I know it is frustrating when things are not working out.  I know that the big old SELF-CRITICAL voices can be strangling.   I take comfort in a quote by William Faulkner, who was pretty damn smart:  "Write.  If it's good, you'll know it, if it isn't, throw it out the window."  You want to abandon a piece once it is finished, then go for it.  Chances are, you won't, not if you've invested the time in creating the first draft.  And that first draft may "utterly suck" (to use a term one of my stuents and, heck, probably I have used), but that's why the Universe invented subsequent drafts.

One should approach playwriting as a serious endeavor, sure, but one should also remember that no one is going to die if scene five craps out and needs a complete overhaul.  Be happy you have a scene five that can be fixed!  At least you don't need a liver transplant, right?

A former writing and literature professor of mine from Bennington, a talented writer named Roland Merullo, has written a book called Demons of the Blank Page where he talks about some of the psychological elements that can keep people from writing or writing at their best.  He has a chapter devoted to "the need to be perfect", a close relation to writer's block, and talks about it much more eloquently than I do here.  I am in no way affiliated with the book other than being a fan, and am receiving no money for mentioning it, but I'm going to offer a link for you here if you're interested:  http://www.amazon.com/Demons-Blank-Page-Roland-Merullo/dp/0983677409/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364356792&sr=1-1&keywords=demons+of+the+blank+page

For me, in my own life, I had to learn the hard way.  You can't be a writer if you don't finish.  Simple as that.  You need the steam to move forward. 

Here are some tips:

1.  If you need to jump around in the play, do it.  There may be some plot point or bit of dialogue you know will have to happen, but you just don't know how to do it yet.  Move forward.  Fill in the blanks later.  There is no law that says you have to write your play in order. 

2.  The reason writers can get a lot of work done in college is because they have deadlines.  The reason Hollywood Screenwriters can crank out pages is because they have deadlines.  /Believe it or not, deadlines are great things for creativity.  They raise the stakes, force you to tell the self-critical voice to give it a damn rest, you have work that's due.  Now, you may not have school or business deadlines, so I recommend setting some other kind of deadline for yourself  (I think this is why NaNoWriMo is so popular).  Use a tactic like giving your friend something precious of yours and instructing them not to give it back unless you have a first draft in your hands by such and such a date.  Or, if you're good at challenging yourself, you may not have to involve other people, but give it some sense of stakes. 

3.  Here's a tip from Roland's Book:  Mock your self-critical voice.  Seriously.  I've tried it.  It's kind of fun.  Speak to your self-criticism sarcastically, watch it get peeved and sulk away. 

4.  This is one of Roland's tips, too, but it was and is also one of mine, before I read the book.  I tend to have good luck when I write quickly.  Writing fast helps me to keep the self-doubt and criticism away.  There's always room for the self-criticism (which isn't actually a bad thing--- in fact, it's a good thing when you have a draft done) later.  I tend to deflate myself if I don't get the draft out as fast as I can, and when I deflate myself, I deflate the project.  Enthusiasm is positive.  Write fast, when it still feels fresh, like a Honeymoon period. 

Again, these are all just suggestions.  Everyone has their own method.  And any method that leads to completion for you is a good method.

And if it doesn't?  Well, all I can say is try something another way to get to the finish line or maybe rethink your goals of being a writer.

Thanks for checking out my blog.  Until next time, imperfection can be a good thing, and theater is a sport.

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