A Playwright's Dream

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As a society, our lives and the concerns of the world we live in are reflected by the plays written in our time. Some of us - directors, actors, designers, dramaturgs, producers, publishers, awards givers - have been or will be lucky enough to be part of the great adventure that supports the making of important, lasting writing for the stage- theater that enters history as emblematic of life in a particular era. Mother Courage, Uncle Vanya, Waiting for Godot, A Chorus Line, Death of a Salesman/The Crucible, Angels in America, Buried Child, A Raisin in the Sun, The Glass Menagerie, Miss Julie - think of all those plays you read before you went into theater as new play texts. Make up your own list! How did they go from page to stage? Today, we live in an exciting moment of change. The progress of a new playwright's play from page to stage is undergoing much discussion and much change. In the US and the UK, there is an active history of theaters working with playwrights by commissioning, in pre-production and rehearsal - sometimes in good and sometimes in less than optimal ways, as far as the writers are concerned. In some countries, playwrights write their plays and meet their play's interpreters at the opening night. What are the responsibilities, models, lines of communication, and possibilities that can be explored to support and amplify contemporary writing that speaks to us and our world- the larger audience around us and not just the audience of our friends in the theater community? How is a play supported, and explored and realized so that it will catch fire and have an impact on the world? These are the questions the 2013 Directors Lab will explore with a core company of young writers at the center of our work, supported by a team of peer designers, and an army of master artists - veteran playwrights, actors, producers, dramaturgs, who will share what they did to bring the plays they wrote and worked on to glorious life. The Lab this summer will be a practical one, reaching back into time to look at how plays were realized in the past, in the recent past and how they are realized now. We hope to put forth dozens of models, discuss pros and cons of the interaction between the writer and the producing theater in the hopes that the 2013 Lab directors will take the ideas that seem fruitful, change them and make them their own and bring them into being in the theater when they leave the Lab. Why are there strong contemporary playwriting movements in some places and not in others? Why is there often uniformity about how plays are "developed" when there are so many possibilities, some right, some wrong for each particular writer? How do we - should we - keep many avenues, ways of working open? What is most fruitful for the primary artist at the center of our world- the playwright? This summer, surprise guests made special appearances to show their support. These guests included playwrights Lisa D'Amour, Moises Kaufman, Stephen Adly Guirgis, John Guare, Sarah Ruhl, David Rabe, Suzan-Lori Parks, Terrence McNally