KEEP Going…

• Post By: Meghan Maugeri
• Date: September 12, 2016
• Category: Uncategorized

Hi Gang! Today’s update: The Berkeley Playwriting Program finished up last weekend. It culminated with readings  of 8 full-length plays over the course of 5 days, including my play Keep. I was a reader in many of the plays, too! I’m both relieved and sad that it’s over.

I learned so much from the readings. Being a performer was helpful to learn how actors approach a script and what they may look for in characters they want to play. Being present for rehearsals with the director was great to learn what that process looks like. On top of that, each play was entirely unique. They included a musical, a translation, a Greek adaption, among other contemporary plays.

After each play was a 30 min discussion to get feedback. The response to my play was overall positive and encouraging. There were quite a few helpful ideas. This week I’m integrating the ideas and adding a new scene to the play, in what will hopefully be close to the final revision.

After that will come a phase I have been dreading – trying to find a home for the play. I’m still learning about this, but likely next steps will be trying to get into another developmental opportunity to further workshop the play and reaching out to theaters interested in science-fiction or otherwise unconventional theater. One nice thing about playwriting: playwrights can reach out to many theaters without an agent. Of course an agent would help, but in theater, unlike film and fiction, agents are not mandatory. I guess there’s not enough money in representing playwrights to make it worthwhile for many agents.

My instructor gave the advice that the best way of finding a home for your play is much like finding a job — networking. Uggghh. Needless to say, writers are not natural networkers. In fact, I think in the dictionary they are antonyms. I kid.

One element that will come into play is that science-fiction is still a relative newcomer to theater. I think that fact will be both a strength and a weakness for my play. Even though Keep is a drama at its heart, it’s futuristic and deals thematically with technology. So, it’s new and different, but what’s new and different can also be risky. All new works are a risk for theaters to produce to begin with. A new work that is also science-fiction (and has a cast size of 8) is a lot to ask of a playhouse. I am hoping I will be able to find a playhouse willing to make that leap of faith for my play.

But, as a heads up, this part takes a LONG time. By long, I mean potentially years. Theaters generally take 6-9 months just to respond to your work. Part of this process for me has been realizing that the most any writer can do is make a project the best she is able, then in many ways, the writer has to accept that it’s out of her hands. For a long time, I’ve been in the “make a project the best she is able” phase. Now, it’s time to finalize and then, as hard as it is…let it go.