A PLAYWRIGHTS’S PERSPECTIVE

A PLAYWRIGHT’S PERSPECTIVE
Thoughts on the discussion at the Albery with the LMDA
By Sara Clifford

I was asked to attend the discussion on new writing at the Albery Theatre by Hanna Slättne from the Dramaturgs’ Network, now working as Literary Manager for Tinderbox Theatre Company in Belfast, and Chair for the event.  It was only about halfway through the morning, that I realised that, although I have written around twelve produced plays, I have rarely worked with a dramaturg – usually I work with the director, and have been lucky to have directors who also have these dramaturgical skills. On the couple of occasions that I have had dramaturgical input, I have been fascinated both by the role of the dramaturg within the company – Advocate? Critic? Friend? (sad, we writers, we don’t get out much, get our friends where we can…) – and also the dramaturgical input itself, which is independent of production and, presumably, aimed at facilitating the writer to write the best play s/he can.  Whether the play will then be produced is, of course, another matter, with many a Jolly Good Play being consigned to a bottom drawer, as the theatres, with their over-commissioning policies, may only choose one (or even none) of their commissions to actually produce – and you try selling a play that the Soho has turned down. Talk about soiled goods!

Anyway, I digress. As I say, I was keen to see dramaturgs up close and personal, to hear what they had to say, and how it might be relevant to me as a playwright (let’s not beat about the bush here), and also how the international panel might agree and differ on the subject.
So, after introductions, we heard from a distinguished panel – the American LMDA president, Liz Engleman; the Canadian LMDA chair, Brian Quirt; Abigail Gonda, currently at the Royal Court Th.; and Ashmeed Sohoye, from Theatre Royal Stratford East. The theme of the day was about developing new plays, and how different theatres and countries respond to this challenge.
Ashmeed kicked us off with his assertion that the writer must always be at the centre of the work, but that the same writer must understand that a play is never written alone, that the final piece is the result of a collaborative process.  I couldn’t help but agree here, having been lucky enough to workshop several of my plays with actors at an early stage, a process I find invaluable, and something which relates also to the dramaturgical input – although I feel strongly that the final text must always belong to the writer, the person who structures all the information and input.
He also wondered how the British theatre establishment could respond to young writers from different cultures or under-represented communities, when the majority of directors and dramaturgs come from the dominant culture; and how to encourage new writers to write for a bigger stage (such as Stratford East), when they usually write for studio spaces. Perennial problems, easily solved by increasing the number of culturally diverse theatre professionals at senior management level, and the amount of money available for productions. Simple!  Hmmmm…. To be continued, I think…
Next up was Brian Quirt, who encourages new ideas and new ways of saying them. His company, “Nightswimming”, is outstandingly different, in that it has no intention of producing plays, and acts as a kind of dramaturgical agency, working with writers on their ‘wilder ideas’ – he will never go for the first couple of ideas on the writer’s list, feeling they will get commissioned elsewhere. What he likes are the couple of stray things at the end, the ones you think – well, they’ll never go for that. Well, Brian does. And he also likes to encourage large cast plays. He sees all this as a development service, if you like, for the companies that might want this kind of play, but cannot afford the time or money to develop them themselves. Inspiring – you could almost see the British people thinking, well that will never happen here.
And yet, why not?
Liz felt she was creating opportunities for writers to express themselves, and generating ideas and projects. She likes to link this work with high profile events, such as her Festival of Short plays on the theme of the Bill of Rights, when she commissioned 10 x 8 minute plays – one writer on each amendment – with site specific performances. If I remember correctly, she paid each writer $100, conveniently raising the issue of writers’ pay. It was pointed out that this was a good start for early career writers, but it seemed that in the States playwrights cannot expect to get paid in the same way as they are here – and certainly not as they are in Canada. It seems to be seen as more of a hobby, until you hit the Broadway (or TV) Jackpot, and then you start earning – although then you probably lose all control of your idea, watching it being rewritten by someone else, or writing virtually anonymously as part of a team.
This issue of money ran throughout her presentation, as she described ways in which producing theatres might collaborate and all put some money in a pot, so that you would have four productions of the same play. This was felt to be a good idea in somewhere as big as the US, but not something that would work in the somewhat smaller UK.
Abigail then talked about her work, and particularly the importance of responding to 13-25 year olds and how to offer a theatre vocabulary to young writers who usually watch television and may rarely see any theatre. She reiterated the need to develop culturally diverse readers, script editors and dramaturgs, and how difficult it was to respond to a play written in language the average script editor might not grasp, or that plays with form, challenging the traditionally accepted forms.
Matthew Crampton from the Old Vic Th. contributed here with his experience, where they do not claim to be a reading service and will not accept unsolicited scripts: the writers he is currently working with are very well known (and indeed one of them was mentioned by three different dramaturgs in the same day). He is also experimenting with form, commissioning 10-minute plays created in 24 hours – a process I felt was actively trying to induce nervous breakdowns in writers, although he assured us they all loved responding to the deadline. I did wonder why we had to keep coming up with these slightly gimmicky pieces, why we couldn’t just be paid – properly, mind – to write plays and work on them with a dramaturg and maybe some actors. And then get it produced. Hmmm… another one to be continued…
The discussion then broadened, to include the dramaturg’s role in rehearsal, which someone had renamed: ‘researchal’, a self-explanatory word.
There were no real answers about what the relationship is between the dramaturg and the director – as I say, my experience was that the literary manager loved the work she had commissioned and worked on, but the final decision lay with the Artistic Director. We talked about the difference between literary managers and freelance dramaturgs, and how LMs are paid to commission and develop work for that company, as opposed to work with the writer and develop that writer and his/her work, and this led on to a discussion about the empowerment of the writer and what the writer’s relationship was with dramaturgs. And here I was able to contribute something, as I have recently received a bursary from the Arts Council, which I consider to be quite empowering (and, as it turned out, closer to the Canadian model than any other). I have received an upfront fee, which is about twice the normal amount for writing the first two drafts. What really makes it special is that I have also been given some money to pay actors to workshop it, and a dramaturg to edit it. This is revolutionary for writers, and although I am fairly sure I was successful in my application because they knew I was working closely with a company and therefore had a stronger chance of production, it is still a breakthrough for the Arts Council to acknowledge this and to trust me to write a play and pay other professionals to collaborate with me. Writer as Business?  Writer as Entrepreneur?  And this is, of course, where the freelance dramaturg comes in – because you can work on those plays with us, keep your artistic integrity, and be part of the creation of a play that is brand new and can be sold on somewhere – and is NOT soiled goods!  We all win!
And even the Writers’ Guild were interested in how I did it, something we can encourage other writers to do and find a return to the old system of bursaries, lost in the ACE reshuffle.
The morning finished, and I was left feeling that dramaturgs were mostly a rather altruistic bunch, who genuinely wanted to develop new work with new and different writers, as well as wanting to work with more established writers to push them on and develop their work even further – and yet were then happy to sit back and let the writer continue with her or his work, not necessarily even receiving credit for their work.
My version of events is somewhat biased, but I say, all power to dramaturgs, and that the fight should continue for an independent eye for the script.

Posted by Hanna at 08:50 PM in Articles | Email this entry

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