July 10-26 Echo Theatre, St. Louis, MO, a production of Nerve (production #5)
June 16th, Jobsite Theater, Tampa, FL, a reading of Nerve
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July 5-August 1, Essential Theatre, Atlanta, GA, a production of Food For Fish. (production #8)
July 15-July 26, Doorway Arts Ensemble in the DC Fringe, Washington DC, a production Herbie: Poet of the Wild West. (production #1)
If you can't make any of those, but don't want to feel left out, Nerve and Food For Fish are published here and here. Also found at Amazon and other fine online bookstores.
Also I have a short play in the NYTR '09. Get your copy soon.
5 comments:
Question--you do a really great job of getting your work produced at smaller theatres around the country; how do you make it happen? Is is personal relationships, or just being published by Dramatists Play Services? I have an agent, published plays by Samuel French, NY reviews, etc...but my plays aren't spreading out into the smaller venues around the country, as I'd like. Any advice? How about a whole blog entry on the matter; I'm sure other readers would appreciate your insights as well!
I have been reaching out to smaller theatres to let them know about my published plays--colleges too. I spent a lot of time locating people who might be interested in my work and emailing or sending letters. I just finished emailing 110 or so small theatres about Pretty Theft. About 20 responded and I would say 7 or so who asked to read the script were people I already had relationships with.
The thing is, I did all this work but really only one or two of my shows from published plays had to do with me contacting them...so far anyway. Most of them just bought the script and decided to produce it. Some of them contacted me along the way but most didn't before putting it on their season.
So I don't know. I think it's good to reach out to theatres throughout the country about published plays but I don't have a lot of proof that that is true. It's definitely good to be published by DPS, however two of my plays are doing much better than my third play. One is a cast of 7 with crossdressing that seems to appeal to colleges and young theatres and is a very nontraditional play. the other has a cast of two and has some nontraditional elements but is basically two people in a room. Generally, the theatres that want the larger cast play are not the same as want the smaller cast play. Also both of these two have some good reviews on the back, including positive NY Times quotes. But telling you why they are being done would be speculation. I'm happy they are being done, but it might just be because I chose good colors for the covers.
As for non-published plays, I have always sent out to as many theatres as possible. It's a good rule to send every play to at least 100 places. And I have had some productions from doing this. Now, mostly my agent sends out my newest plays and he send them out to the places that are more impressive and not as many as 100....more like 50ish. As time goes on, I will end up sending the same play here or there but he's doing most of the heavy lifting now.
I'm still figuring out what to do and what not to do, when to say "no not yet" to a production or "yes that would be great do my play." DPS takes that out of the equation because they always say yes (except in nyc) but those are plays that have already been done in big or rather big ways. or in my case, plays that have been done in nyc and got the nyc reviews.
That help?
The nyc productions I have had were all with people I knew. Those were all from personal connections. Very few of the ones outside New York were people I already knew. But I'm getting to know them...some of them, when i can.
I think too many playwrights never show people their plays. I think this is directly related to not getting their plays produced. (I'm not talking about you, but I'm sure you know the people I mean.)
Wow--what a thorough answer. Thanks. It does seem difficult to gauge the time/energy/pay-off quotient of contacting smaller theatres about published plays. But you do inspire me to be a more pro-active regardless; it's easy to get lazy with the marketing once you're working with agents and publishers. What effect, if any, do you think the blog has had? Maybe you could write an entry about self-promotion more generally!
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