A DIRECTOR’S DIAGNOSIS

A Director’s Diagnosis
Thoughts on the discussion at the Albery with the LMDA
By Ken Bentley

I’m a big fan of American writing. It’s my opinion that, currently, the Americans are writing more good new plays than we are in the UK. There, I’ve said it.
I don’t have a patriotic axe to grind. It’s just that the Americans are telling great stories and they’re telling them well. They’ve learnt to create vivid works of fiction and mythology based on their own contemporary culture and society. But why, right now, are they capable of doing this more consistently than we are? What is it about the development process in the USA that fosters so much good new work? What do writers have in the US that they don’t have in the UK? These are questions I’m always searching for answers to and, when the Dramaturgs’ Network announced a panel discussion on new writing in association with the LMDA, I was there with bells on.

It was a candid discussion and it soon became clear that the Americans and the Canadians are streets ahead in the development of new work. In comparison our literary departments seem like glorified script reading services. It was readily admitted by all that it’s extremely unlikely an unsolicited manuscript will be picked up and produced in the UK. Where does this leave our playwrights? How do they improve their writing and practice their craft? With fringe theatres charging up to £2000 a week for venue hire it’s no longer the place to cut your teeth, the National Theatre Studio is the only place I know of that can afford to embrace any kind of development process.
Since learning about ‘Nightswimming’ at the panel discussion, the company has become my benchmark for new play development. It describes itself as ‘devoted to advancing dramaturgy and play development in Canada’ and by all accounts they’re doing a bloody good job of it. Anybody serious about developing new work, speculatively, freelance or within an institution or producing venue, should visit their website (http://www.nightswimmingtheatre.com) and learn from their example.
It seems that the Americans and Canadians have models and processes in place to actively develop new writing. Be it through a small scale theatre company, producing venue or development initiative, writers can find the help and support they need to develop an idea, and when their idea has been developed there’s a network of dramaturgs, literary managers, directors and producing venues that communicate and work with each other to find the right home for a new play.
What does the North American writer have that our writers don’t? Hope.

Posted by Hanna at 08:54 PM in Articles | Email this entry

Comments:

Oddly enough, speaking as an American coming from theatre-saturated San Francisco, it seems to me that an awful lot of what American playwrights are doing now draws heavily from British playwrights of a generation ago, particularly people like Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Joe Orton, and so on. These were people who - correct me if I’m wrong - started out doing things that were largely governement subsidized. Is that correct? Whereas much of American theatre is dependent upon private sponsorship. I realize that Britain has done away with a lot of public subsidies for the theatre over the past few decades, but the American model remains much the same. So it might benefit the British theatre world to focus less on farming domestic talent and focus more on learning how American theatre companies woo money from its donors. It means tracking down people who not only have lots of money, but who are anxious for recognition as cultivated philanthropists. I think there might be some fundamental differences between the outlook of the average rich Yankee and the average rich Brit, but if sponsorship drives offer high visibility within the theatre community - that is, if it allows the wealthy an opportunity to see each other’s names painted on walls and printed in programs - it might well draw some unexpected cash cows in from the pasture.

Posted by  on  2007/10/16  at  03:01 PM | #

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