Dana Perpowski
They’re everywhere: sharing research in the rehearsal room, hosting thought-provoking talkbacks, or screening new scripts as a theater company’s literary manager. Playwrights’ analytical, problem-solving, and imaginative skills make them ideal collaborators for actors. But what does this relationship look like? Let’s learn about drama together!
I spoke with Maren Robinson, freelance writer and resident playwright at Timeline Theatre, troupe member at Lifeline Theatre, college professor and all-around generous playwriting mentor, to write The Actor’s Playwriting Guide.
What yes dramatist?
According to the Literary Managers and Dramatists of the Americas (LMDA), the industry’s preeminent membership organization, dramatists work with artists to “hone their vision for a project,” provide an “outlet” for new work, and energize the world of new work . Playwrights provide a “critical link” between artists, cultural institutions, and the institution’s literal and ideological communities, making them key figures in honoring heritage and building the future of theater production.
In day-to-day theater and literary management practice, their work might look like this:
- Integrate theater with research and script analysis by the producing arts team.
- Write research packages, glossaries, study guides, educational programs and lobby presentations for the artistic team and audiences.
- Provides clarity and perspective in the rehearsal room.
- Communicate feedback and questions to the playwright.
- If the playwright is unavailable, he serves as a “representative” of the script’s intentions.
- Support the playwright’s writing process through contextual research.
- Promote talkback and community events.
- Solicit, evaluate, and track new script submissions.
- Strengthen relationships with playwrights and their agents.
- Champions productions, workshops, and readings of new plays.
- Work with theater staff to select seasons.
How does theater writing apply to my work as an actor?
Good news! When you get serious about preparing for an audition, rehearsal, or performance, you’ve (hopefully) practiced theater writing. According to Mullen, actors “perform random theatrical performances” while analyzing character arcs in a story, researching themes in a playwright’s work, defining unknown words, or digging into the context of a period reference. Actors’ theater practice deepens their script preparation, becoming “open readers” of the text and imaginative scene partners.
How can actors learn from playwrights? Working with a playwright?
Whether you are responsible for your own script preparation or working with a playwright in the rehearsal room, playwriting practice provides actors with valuable skills. Try these tips inspired by dramatists to deepen your next rehearsal process:
- Ask real questions.
Mullen likes when actors ask her questions “to help them build their characters’ lives and worlds.” She provides some recent examples:
- What would I smoke?
- Will ladies cross their legs now?
- Can you provide me with some period recipes so I know what I might be eating?
- Do you have a movie reference book for exercises I might be doing?
- Can you review the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle with me?
You can do it too! Self-directed study of an audition or rehearsal can also provide exciting insights into your character’s life. Use your imagination and step into her world and how it feels: What can she smell? What memories does she have of this room? How much did it cost to buy these shoes?
- Stretch your (analytical) muscles.
Mullen explains that if you have a playwright in your next rehearsal session, you’re lucky to have a trained person in the room who can “read the play in a slightly different way than the director or the actors.” The playwright switches focus between the “big picture” and “character work,” “the context of the play’s world” and “our own political moment.” In rehearsals, playwrights provide actors and directors with background information so they can find “many ways” to interpret beats or cultural references in a scene.
Likewise, actors who understand the script through “open reading” and research can also unlock the details and larger context of the script’s world. As you practice perspective flexibility, you’ll discover “things in the scene” moments [or monologue] There’s another way to go” – Shurtleff’s Signpost #6, anyone?
- Follow your interests.
The word “research” made some actors cringe, recalling boring high school history projects. Others get nervous when faced with the completely unfamiliar world of the drama (“How do I know what questions to ask about the daily life of a Danish prince?”). Don’t despair! The most effective dramatization follows the personal interests of the researcher.
Try to find your unique “place” in the character’s world. Here are some real-life examples from your recent theater projects:
- Make a playlist that includes popular songs from the character’s childhood, region, or era in which the play is set. Or, make a playlist of songs from your own life with lyrics or music that reflect the story.
- Scroll through settings on Google Maps Street View (or your best guess at the location) to experience walking near the character.
- What routine does your character follow? What bus do they take to work? What is their ideal morning routine? What familiar people do they see on their commute to and from get off work?
- What story does your character know by heart, either from the text or filled in by your own imagination? Find a book they may have read or a bedtime story from their area of origin.
How does theater writing fit into the future of Chicago theater?
Mullen believes that playwrights, especially those who also direct, write, or perform, practice “empathic imagination.” They draw on their own experience in a variety of artistic roles to consider the needs of their collaborators: “What might this actor be curious about in this character?” or “What questions might this playwright, designer, or director have? ”
Going forward, she hopes Chicago playwrights will stay curious and “continue… to ask what our communities need.” She told me “Theatre survives [by]…respond to what communities tell us they need” rather than “tell us” [others] What we think they need. The practice of creative flexibility through theater production supports a future of equitable, accessible, and innovative theater production.
