New play development

Last night, after our traditional birthday dinner at Todai, we walked up to the university to see a staged reading of a new play by a graduate student of mine. The play was structured as the weaving of two narrative lines -- one the personal, powerful journey of the protagonist, the other a didactic lecture to the audience about the meaning of fairy tales -- only one of which worked for me. During the "talk back" session after the play, a situation I found myself in many times thirty years ago, I was shocked to learn from the theater professor heading the discussion that our feedback was restricted to sharing what we liked and disliked about the play. What? As a playwright, I would find this information interesting at best but totally useless in my struggle to make the play better. "We are not rewriting the play here," said the professor. Then we are wasting our time, thought I.

The most helpful comments to me when I was listening to "talk back" decades ago were ones like, "what would happen if ..." and "how about combining the characters of ..." and such. Rewriting the play! I wasn't interested in matters of taste. I was interested in comments that gave me a new vision of my own material. I thought the talk back last night ended up being self-serving and practically spineless. Is this how young playwrights get feedback today? Is this part of the cultural trend to "be nice" and not hurt feelings and be politically correct? I feel sorry for my student. This is not a way to hear something that's going to twist your mind in a new, productive direction. The comments amounted to "I like potatoes" and "I don't like turnips." Gee, isn't that interesting?

I was almost furious. How can you explore the possibilities of a play without, in essence, rewriting it? Such restricted feedback is a disservice to the playwright.

The other thing that infuriates me is that the university (and most theaters, for that matter) stops its interest in "new play development" at the staged reading. They seldom do full productions of new work. This is like, You'll screw your fiancee but you won't marry her. The fact is, it takes relatively few resources to sponsor a staged reading. Stopping here is half-hearted support. The university especially should do much more than this. Thesis plays should get full productions as a matter of course, which was the situation in the MFA program I was in at the U of O. PSU should do that same.

And let's take the handcuffs off when giving feedback! The playwright is an adult, she can take it. It's her play, she'll do what she wants with it. But she's been so close to the material for so long, the best way for her to find an avenue for improvement, it seems to me, is with new insights and suggestions about her storytelling strategy. In other words, by letting audience members rewrite the play.