Hi everyone, posting Charles Five Rules below. Great advice for playwrights! (And film writers as well!) Please share! FIVE RULES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS IF THEY WANT TO WRITE INTO THE NEXT DECADE 1) THINK BROADER THAN BROADWAY. Stop acting like its 1947. Moving to New York City and dreaming of the Great White Way is living in a world that barely exists anymore, especially for new plays. Think beyond Broadway and out into the world. Begging agents to come to readings, submitting to theaters and waiting a year for Literary Assistants to send you back a form letter is basically buying a lottery ticket. And stop spending your life chasing after agents. Write work that will compel them to chase after you. Make your work your agent. Dont fall into the trap of writing, then waiting. 2) BUILD YOUR OWN STOCK COMPANY. Start collecting brilliant actors, keep files, head shots, lists and contacts. And treat them right. If the space you are working in is your living room, so be it. Pay them if you can, feed them at the very least. Treat them with dignity and respect and they will be loyal to you forever. 3) FIND AN OUT OF THE WAY PLACE TO LIVE AND WRITE. You dont have to move to an expensive city to work as a playwright. (See note above about it not being 1947 anymore). Dont wait for a city to become an arts hub, make wherever you live an arts hub. Or, move to an area where you can afford to buy or rent a space to live and work, pool resources and get down to the business of writing instead of surviving. Better to be a playwright in Detroit who actually is a playwright, then a waiter in NYC saying they are a playwright but who is actually a waiter. 4) TECHNOLOGY IS YOUR FRIEND, MARRY IT. Publish, publicize, build a database, schmooze, organize a reading tour of one of your plays, build yourself a website, stay active on twitter, etc. Livestream shows,readings and monologues. Post your work on Youtube. Use technology to reach the four corners of the globe. 5) THINK OUTSIDE THE DRAMA SCHOOL BOX. Get an undergrad degree in theatre or pursue an MFA only if you need those credentials to teach on the college level. And only if you get such a great deal that you wont be in hock. Otherwise, study more varied subjects, and minor in theater and read great plays on your own. From the Greeks onward. Start a play reading group. Or, start your own theatre company. Do whatever you can to NOT go into debt. Study in other ways. Found a playwright you like? Request to formally apprentice with him or her. Oh, and regardless of whatever anyone tells you, you can have a whole other satisfying career and still be an active and productive playwright. You can be a lawyer, doctor, journalist, Lieutenant in the navy, lion tamer, whatever you want, and still be a playwright. So, live a full life. Travel, get a pet, have kids, be adventurous. We need plays written from the perspective of people who engage in the real world. People from all walks of life and people from varied political perspectives. We need long, fast, short, speedy and smart plays meant for world stages, sidewalks, basements, music clubs, cafes and VFW halls. Plays can go anywhere now---so write them that way. After all, did I mention its not 1947 anymore? Charles Evered is a playwright, screenwriter and director. His play The Size of the World premiered at Yale Rep with Liev Schreiber and off-Broadway with Frank Whaley, Rita Moreno and Louis Zorich. His additIonal works, including Wilderness of Mirrors, Celadine, Clouds Hill, Adopt a Sailor and Class are published by Broadway Play Publishing, Inc. He directed the feature film Adopt a Sailor, based on his play, starring Bebe Neuwirth and Peter Coyote. Adopt a Sailor premiered on Showtime and played more than 20 national and international film festivals. His second feature as a director, A Thousand Cuts, starring Academy Award nominee Michael OKeefe, premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and was nominated for a Saturn Award. He is a graduate of Rutgers-Newark, the Yale School of Drama and a former officer in the United States Navy Reserve, having gained the rank of Lieutenant. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey and Los Angeles, CA. For more info: CharlesEvered.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 22:28:33 +0000
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