Come see a reading of the latest work by 2011 P73 Playwriting Fellow Janine Nabers!!

RSVP to info@p73.org or by calling 718-398-2099.

Welcome to Jesus
by 2011 P73 Playwriting Fellow Janine Nabers
directed by Oliver Butler

A small Texas town is rocked by a violent murder and suspicions of newcomers in their midst. Sheriff Paul hopes he can act quickly to determine whether he’s on the trail of one criminal or a whole host of devils.

Monday, December 12 and Tuesday, December 13*
7:30 PM
Stage IV at the Roy Arias Theatre Center at the Times Square Arts Center
300 West 43rd Street (at 8th Avenue)
4th Floor

*Please join us following Tuesday’s reading for a toast to Janine as she finishes her year as Page 73′s Fellow!!

Semi-finalists announced!
We’ve spent the summer enjoying the nearly 250 applications for Page 73′s development programs for playwrights. We love this process of getting to know new writers, and it gives us great pleasure to announce the 25 semifinalists for the 2012 P73 Playwriting Fellowship. Congratulations to our semifinalists and thanks again to all of our applicants!

(And thanks to this year’s selection committee who helped us in early rounds of reading: Mark Blankenship, Christie Evangelisto, Kip Fagan, Liz Groth, Davis McCallum, Rebecca Phillips, Stella Powell-Jones, Tommy Smith, Lisa Timmel, and Krista Williams.)

Without further ado, the semi-finalists:

We’re thrilled to announce the 7 finalists for the 2011 P73 Playwriting Fellowship.  They are:

LAURA JACQMIN
GREG KELLER
AARON LANDSMAN
ERICA LIPEZ
JANINE NABERS
ERIC PFEFFINGER
EMILY SCHWEND

Don’t miss EDGEWISE, running through December 4th.  Take a sneak peek behind the scenes here:

The Making of Edgewise from PAGE 73 on Vimeo.

Heather and Eli sat down to talk Page 73 on our first podcast.  It’s pretty great.  Check it out!

Page 73 Podcast No. 1

If you look at any of the pictures taken from the first day of rehearsals of EDGEWISE, you will see a wide-eyed, almost hypnotized version of me. This is because, on that day, I was hanging out in that middle zone between terror and sheer elation.

First of all, I’m not sure I can explain how cool it is to see a model of your set for the first time. I think that will never get old for me. It’s like I’ve been playing make believe alone in my room, and someone comes along saying, “Oh hey cool, can I play? And, oh yeah, I built you this doll house.” Andromache made my life that day.

Trip Cullman is the master of all things, and especially cutting a play down to the heart of what it should be. Before rehearsals even started we shaved almost ten pages off the play, and during the first ten days of rehearsals when I was in the room, another five or so pages got whittled away. At first, cutting was terrifying, but now it’s accompanied by this amazing free feeling. This is mostly due to the fact that I trust Trip immensely and know that he is making the play better every time he suggests a cut. I know now that if I am resistant to a cut suggestion, it usually means it’s going to be the best cut I’ve ever made.

These actors are ridiculous. They are so talented it’s crazy.

I’m anxious to get back to New York and see what they’ve done while I’ve been away. All in all, I’ll have missed about ten rehearsals. I have a feeling that things will be unrecognizable when I return.

I can’t believe that we’ve been incommunicado for over two months now.  It’s really kind of obscene.  Between everything that’s going on (and when you’re a tiny staff), there just hasn’t been much time to blog.

But there’s a lot that’s going on.   Here’s what’s up:

1) EDGEWISE – rehearsals started today.  It’s Eli’s play.  The meet-and-greet was great (“greet great”).   We start performances in less than month.  We love this play.  You will too.

2) THERE ARE NO MORE BIG SECRETS – this is Heidi’s play that we worked on during her fellowship year.  It’s premiering at Rattlestick.  Kip Fagan (of JACK’S PRECIOUS MOMENT) is directing.  Heidi is tremendous.  We miss her.

3) THE WIFE – this is Tommy’s play that we worked on during his fellowship year.  It’s premiering in November/December.  May Adrales is directing.  Tommy is insane.  The other play of his (SEXTET) that we worked on premiered in Seattle this past week.  If you’re there, please check it out.

4) 1001 – it just closed in Chicago.  We heard it was great.  We thought about going this past week, but then realized that, uhm, we didn’t have enough miles.  We wish Chicago were closer to New York.

Anyone out there who wants to blog for us?  Mom?

Jack’s Precious Moment starts previews in exactly a week.  We load-in on Monday and start performances on Friday — a shortened tech, for sure.  Don’t have your ticket yet?  What are you waiting for.

In the meantime:

Dan LeFranc received the 2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award for Sixty Miles to Silver Lake.  We were there to watch him shake Arthur Sulzberger’s hand and be interviewed for 15-20 minutes at the New York Times Center.  It was really nice.  And it was great to have a mini-Sixty Miles reunion and see Dane DeHaan, Joe Adams, Sarah Benson, Tania Camargo and Dane Laffrey.  But we missed Annie Kauffman, because she’s off directing her fancy-schmancy play.

Go, Heidi Schreck.  2009 P73 Playwriting Fellow Heidi Schreck (who is also uhm an actor – heh) is getting the Theatre World Award.  Also!  There Are No More Big Secrets – which she wrote while being the fellow – is having a reading at MTC’s 7@7 on May 24 directed by none-other-than Kip Fagan.  (We won’t be able to be there b/c we have a reading that same night for Sam Marks’s new play directed by Sam Gold.)  And, by the way, congrats to one of our other favorite actors: Keira Keely (who also has done readings of There Are No More Big Secrets) for her Theatre World Award.

I suppose that all young theater folk grow up forcing plays on other children who live in their neighborhood.  At least I did.  I wrote various plays, and sometimes musicals, that I would force other children (cousins, neighbors, kids I babysat) to star in.  I got especially angry with children who took a really long time to learn their music (“I don’t really understand why it’s hard for you to just repeat this melody back to me.  No, it isn’t changing every time I sing it!”).

The first play I wrote as a teenager was called TALK OF PLEASANT THINGS and I directed it at my high school, much to the detriment of my willingness and enthusiasm to show my face at reunions.  It was about, among other things, AIDS, alcoholism, and abandonment.

When I got to college, I wrote a play with parts for twelve actors.  Eight of these parts had about six lines apiece.  This is when I got my first lesson in “unproducability.” Rolin Jones, a phenomenal writer who mentored me through the process of writing this play, mentioned the possibility of one or two actors playing multiple roles.  I was like, “What?” and he was like, “Yeah.”

And so eight parts became two.  And the play got a lot stronger and better because of it (not that anyone will ever get to read it, see it, or even touch it).

Somehow, though, I’ve forgotten that lesson in writing this new play.  I find myself with nine characters and counting.  I’m hoping there will come a time somewhere down the line where I can whittle some of these people away, but it’s hard to write about a family without including everybody.

At least I’ve lightened up a little when picking subjects to write about.

Back to writing DEAD CHILDREN now.

My first blog post as the 2010 Playwriting Fellow and here it is.

A quick introduction perhaps?  My name is Eliza Clark, I’m a huge fan of Page 73 and I feel so incredibly lucky to be working with them this year on my play, Dead Children.   I was a member of Interstate 73 last year and every meeting felt like one step closer to being a working playwright.  In fact, I’m pretty sure one of the “notes” I gave Tommy Smith after a reading of one of his plays was, “This play is so awesome I feel like you just gave me a lesson in how to be a good writer.”  I’m not bragging about my ability to give constructive notes, but I am really good at expressing how much I love fellow writers.  This company gives me an immense amount of hope about the future of theater, and I feel like I’ve won the lottery.

I’m currently living in Los Angeles, writing for a new TV show that is going to be airing on AMC starting August 1^st.  The show is called Rubicon and it’s a conspiracy thriller in the style of those great seventies movies like Three Days of the Condor.  I’m currently in the midst of writing the first draft of Act One of Dead Children and simultaneously working on the first draft of Episode Seven of the show.

I’ve never actually written two things simultaneously, and I’ve never ever written for television, so this process has been illuminating to say the least.  For me, the process of writing involves a lot of self-loathing, procrastination, and sadness, followed eventually by fulfillment, elation, and treats (including but not limited to cupcakes).  I’m currently experiencing some of the restless sadness that comes with beginning a new play – I’m still getting to know these characters, and I’m letting them breathe and talk a little too much.  The pages I do have favor certain characters more than others (those I have a better handle on), so much so that the play has a bit of a limp.  I have a feeling that the first draft might be eight hundred pages before I whittle it down to a slim ninety.

Perhaps playwrights should never blog.  I promise to try not to use this blog as a veiled message to those who will be reading my early pages to go easy on me.  Though, if they choose to see it that way, I won’t be disappointed.  Next Tuesday will be the first time that Asher and Liz see pages of Dead Children, and I hope they will be able to see the early kernels of a play amongst the wreckage of my broad strokes ideas.  I’m starting to see a play in here somewhere, which is encouraging.  Even more encouraging is the deadline I’m working toward, and the people on the other side of the country who keep me tethered to the theater while I’m swimming through television’s waters.

First, congrats to Eli Clark.  We’re so excited to be working with her this year.  It’s going to be an amazing year.

Second, much Internet-noise on an article in the Times today about Todd London’s book Outrageous Fortune.  We haven’t read it it — the article will certainly increase sales (I hope, for Todd’s sake).   The article links to a review of the book by the theater critic Chris Jones; the most interesting part of the review is the online commentary that it has solicited.  On the whole, Jones’s review doesn’t seem very thoughtful or helpful (we can’t really judge, though, since we haven’t read Outrageous Fortune yet).   There’s much to say — and much that has been said — about making a living as a playwright.  Sadly, it’s virtually impossible — any playwright (established and emerging) can tell you that.    The truth, though, is that this reality applies pretty much across the board in the non-profit theater world.  Actors, directors and administrators, for the most part, have a tough time making ends meet financially.  The theater business model (from a non-profit perspective — we can’t really speak to about the one in respect of commercial theater) is one that makes little sense today (at least when you’re working in this sector in NYC).  Or has it ever made sense?  We’re non-profit.  I have friends who work for other non-profit (non-theater related) organizations and they face similar financial conundrums; they can’t work in their field *and* live in New York without taking on freelance jobs.  So maybe this issue (the one re: making a livable wage) applies to non-profit industries, as a whole.  That’s not to diminish the argument that one can’t make a living from playwriting and that the system needs to be reformed to support these writers and to prevent these writers from running off to L.A. or law school or business school, etc.

David Adjmi posted a link to the Times article today and Jason Grote provided a very funny/sad  response.  It reads:

“…Staffs usually aren’t paid very well, but artistic directors at the bigger institutions often have ridiculously huge salaries commensurate to those organizations’ budgets. Just like most other corporations, nonprofits, and universities in this goddamn country.

And in terms of audience appeal: does Eustis really think that anyone wants to see anything Suzan-Lori Parks has written in the past decade? What no one is acknowledging is that “bad plays” are often the result of tacking on a big name to sell tickets and ignoring artistic merit. Risky, “unknown” playwrights often do the best work because they still actually care about what they’re doing.

But I agree that we playwrights should stop whining. I think we should quit. Or, more precisely, I think I should quit — I wouldn’t presume to tell anyone else what to do. But I’m definitely ready to join 99% of the rest of the country in not giving a shit about theater.”