Development and Self Production

One of the many frustrations that writers face is getting a play produced. How do you get a company or a producer to want to invest in your creative talents?? The best way to get a company (who will theoretically be investing time and more importantly money) interested is to prove that you are a commodity that fulfills an artistic need for their company, but also that you are offering something that can be commercially viable.

The best way to prove that is to show your resume chock full of fantastic productions that recouped all investments!

Well, wait. You can't get produced because no one's produced you before? How does that cycle get broken??

There are ways that poor, young, scrappy playwrights can produce their own work!

I have done a lot of research into theatre companies in my quest to get a play done, and something that I have learned is that a lot of theatre companies exist as a means to self-production. You start a theatre company to produce your work. It makes sense. And there are a lot of really cool groups that will help facilitate the self-production process. Here are a couple examples!

Horse Trade is a group that offers artist and company residency that gives you access to space and an artistic home to develop a new play in exchange for a few hours a month of volunteer work for the theater per month. Check them out here: http://www.horsetrade.info/

Manhattan Theatre Source is a similar company. They offer performance space free of charge, and offer marketing service as well. The one catch here is that they require you to fill 20 seats a night, charge $15 a ticket, and they keep your door profits. It's a good deal if you aren't trying to become rich off your production (which, if you are self-producing a play that you wrote, you probably aren't). Check them out here: http://theatresource.org/home.php

So get out there and produce your play. I know I'm not going to...

Inauguration

My girlfriend, who is a wonderful person, and who spends countless hours listening to me vent my frustrations about the business, finally is holding me to account for my own work, and at her encouragement, I have decided to start this blog.

A little background on me: I am a playwright, and also assist the literary department at a mid-sized talent agency in New York City, and I have spent the last two years since graduating college struggling to find my way as a playwright here in New York. I have spent a lot of time working on getting on my feet and getting my rent paid, and now that I have a great full time job, I am dedicating myself to getting my plays out into the world.

What this blog is for, is for me to go out and find any opportunity I can to submit my work, and then share that information with the public, posting information about the theater company or producers, and sharing submission information for other writers, actors, directors, or people who are just interested in the theater in general. Hopefully it will provide exposure for my own work as well as the amazing work that small theater companies across the city and country are doing every day. Please check back later this week for an update, as I will be hopefully posting entries every Tuesday and Thursday.

-Gavin