Now in its ninth year, Tisch School of the Arts hotINK 2010 International Festival of Play Readings is a FREE festival of play readings from around the world. hotINK brings distinguished playwrights, directors and actors from the professional theatre community together with students and alumni of the Tisch School of the Arts to present new plays from around the world. It launched in 2002, became an international event in 2006 and has since presented work from Australia, Austria, Belarus, Canada, Chile, Cuba, England, France, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Morocco, The Netherlands, Portugal, Québec, Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, the U.S. and Wales.

The 2010 hotINK festival features twenty-one new works from Uganda, Romania, Japan, Russia, Austria, France, Canada and the U.S. Playwrights include: Deborah Asiimwe, Christina Gorman, Jeffrey M. Jones, Olivier Kemeid, Maksym Kurochkin, Koffi Kwahulé, Eduardo Machado, Allison Moore and Jordan Seavey. Directors include: Sharon Fogarty, May Adrales, Gisela Cardenas, Kent Nicholson, Daniel Safer, Liesl Tommy and Daniella Topol.

Where:
Venues at Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway at Waverly Place NY, NY.

When:
Saturday – Monday January 23-25;
Saturday & Sunday January 30 and 31, 2010.

Readings are at 3pm and 7pm on weekends, 7:30pm on Monday.

The festival is FREE but reservations are required. Get tickets here.

More info and full schedule available online at www.hotink.org.

Outrageous Fortune: The Life And Times Of The New American Play by Todd London, with Ben Pesner, and Zannie Giraud Voss, examines the “collaboration in crisis” between the contemporary American playwright and the varied people who fund and produce new work. Published this month by Theatre Development Fund, the study draws on six years of research, including interviews and surveys with hundreds of playwrights, artistic directors and theater professionals. I was one of the playwrights questioned for this book and want to share how this work translated to me. This is not a book review, but rather a personal response to the study.

I found myself disappointed that I wasn’t disappointed in the books data and conclusion, and writing that is disappointing. The book is a postmortem on what the American playwright was and the realization that in free market capitalism the bottom line is the emphasis for the contemporary stage, something most playwrights learn quickly. This is seen not only in a statistic on page 24 that the average number of new plays per year from 1980-2000 was only 14, but also that grants and foundations (the major funders of my own work) are looking for “results”, such as how many people came to see the show and what was the impact. The question of playwriting commissions is brought into light, as one playwright speculates that a commission is designed to placate the writer, and not to produce the play in question. This is an idea that has been on my mind for some time and has only been reinforced by the study. Producing a new play can be risky business for theatres, but no theatre wants to be negligent of playwrights.

In the study the authors are discreet when attributing quotes (anyone who has meet London would expect nothing less), using “PLAYWRIGHT” or “ARTISTIC DIRECTOR” and “DRAMATURG” instead of real names so not to ruffle features or make the findings personal. I found this amusing, at times, as I was able to identify the author of several quotes by word selection alone.  A quote at the top of page 216 comparing bread and butter to the theatre must be from the artistic director of INTAR. A comment on the death of Houston’s Infernal Bridegroom (one of this nations most aggressive theaters before closing it’s doors after, allegedly, not paying the bills) is a friend and famous site-specific specialist from New Orleans. I found this comforting that some of my disheartened thoughts and feelings on the state of the American stage were being echoed by people I like and respect.

The most telling matter in the study includes the rise of the MFA program as a minor league for the writer to shape their voice and style and gain connections. Once a literary manager told me he wouldn’t even look at a play if the letters “MFA” weren’t on the writers credits. Although becoming increasingly important for a younger playwright to get noticed, MFA programs are expensive and writers often go into a lifetime of debt for graduate opportunities. I hold an MA from the University of New Mexico and an MFA from Columbia University and expect to have my loans, which are half that of others I know, paid by the time I am sixty. For the record, I am 34. On page 49, the authors wisely use the notorious Robert Anderson quote “You can make a killing in the theatre, but you can’t make a living”. To emphasize this point, I’ve made more money as a short story writer and blogger (where I’m nothing more than a jerk with an opinion at federal prisoner 30664) than as a playwright. After all, you are reading this on Culturebot, bless your heart. However, in this frank study, the authors end with a chapter entitled “Positive Practices and Novel Ideas”. They address how we can re-think our approach to play development, and, most importantly, audience. How do we connect with an ever-aging theatre audience? What the authors do with this book is start a conversation on where we have been and where we need to go. And that is a conversation long over due.

The Exchange announces it is currently accepting applications for The Orchard Project’s 2010 Summer Residency Program taking place June 2010.

Founded in 2006, The Orchard Project has quickly become one of the nation’s foremost institutions championing the development of new plays and musicals by providing artist residencies to today’s most dynamic and influential theatre companies. In the past three years, it has hosted companies and artists as diverse as Moises Kaufman and Tectonic Theatre Project, London’s Royal Court, The Public Theatre, Pig Iron, Naked Angels, Elevator Repair Service, Edge, New Georges and many others. The Orchard Project has played a significant role in the development of new works which have since been or will be produced on and off Broadway and at theatres such as Arena Stage, St. Anne’s Warehouse, PS122, the Edinburgh Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Yale Rep, the Royal Court and more.

The Orchard Project operates a residency program in beautiful upstate NY commencing just after Memorial Day and running through July 4. Throughout residencies, theatre and dance companies, artists and teams are provided room, board and rehearsal space for up to 10 days. Residencies are intentionally designed and scheduled to encourage cross pollination of ideas and talents. This unique intermingling is the cornerstone of both the Orchard Project’s success and its mission – enabling world class companies and artists to learn from each other through collaboration and conversation.

The Orchard Project accepts people – not projects. Companies, teams, writers, directors and any other generators of new work of theatre and dance can apply. To apply for a residency, it is required that you complete a short questionnaire about your previous and upcoming work and how the Orchard Project can uniquely support your development. NO SCRIPTS NEED TO BE SUBMITTED. This initial application is due no later than December 21st, 2009 and is available at www.exchangenyc.org.

photo by Justine Cooper

Name: Heidi Schreck
Title/Occupation: Actor/Playwright

1. Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now?

I grew up in Wenatchee, Washington, the Apple Capitol of the World. When I was 6, my mom cast me as Hermia in a children’s production of  A Midsummer Night’s Dream and that’s how I fell in love with theater. Then I changed my mind and wanted to be a ballerina. Then I wanted to be a lawyer. Then I moved to Russia and worked as a journalist. And finally in my early twenties, I moved to Seattle and joined a small theater company called Printer’s Devil with my now-husband Kip Fagan. We wanted to make theater that people our age would like, so we did mostly new plays by young writers and devised work. It was the mid-90’s — a wonderful time to be in Seattle because there was so much interesting work happening with small theaters and dance companies. Kip and I moved to NYC together in 2003.

2. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

A production of Macbeth outdoors at the Oregeon Shakespeare Festival. My mom took me to see it when I was 7 years old. I had nightmares for months. I really identified with Macbeth, with his guilt. Something about that play made me feel – even at age 7 – that I could have a murderer inside me, too. It was terrifying and I wanted more. Also, ERS’ s Gatz. If I ever think I can’t take this life any longer, I think of Gatz and I want to keep doing it.

3. What skill, talent or attribute do you most wish you had and why?

I wish I could sing. I’d like to play Dot in Sunday in the Park with George, or actually I’d like to play George. Also, I wish I could be Alice Ripley. I have a big voice in my heart, but it refuses to come out. It’s shy. And it doesn’t have a real sense of pitch.

4. What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day.

It’s ever changing. Right now, I’m in Annie Baker’s play at Playwrights Horizons at night and rehearsing my own play Creature during the day. Those two things together mean I can survive for now. Then, in November, once my play opens, I’ll go back to teaching ESL during the day until the next acting job, which looks like it’s coming in December. It’s a constant struggle. I’m always cobbling things together – acting, teaching, applying for fellowships, opening the cards with money from my parents.

5. Have you ever had to make a choice between work and art? What did you choose, why, and what was the outcome?

When Kip and I moved here I took a vow that I would always choose art over a day job, even if it meant not having any money. I’ve mostly kept that promise. In our first year, I remember we had about $30 left between us and weren’t sure where the next $30 was coming from. We could have bought groceries, but instead we ordered the steak dinner from Jake’s Barbecue in Brooklyn. It comes with a lot of sides. Now we’re learning to be much more practical, but it was one of the best meals I’ve ever had.

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Heidi’s play Creature, produced by Page 73 and New Georges at the OHIO, opens November 2nd, directed by Leigh Silverman. She is currently performing in Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation at Playwrights Horizons, which closes November 1.