EXTRA CRITICUM

'Steps' of Rejection

I recently wrote a blog post pointing out the obvious: that any writer who has sold 450 million books has a clear marketing advantage over an unknown scribbler. I was comparing J.K. Rowling and an unknown author, Robert Galbraith, after those two writers were outed as being the one and the same (though somewhat transgendered perhaps).

Besides giving us the year’s best book publishing controversy, the incident provides a nifty case study on the power of brands, even if the brand happens to be an artist.

The Alchemy of Directing

Of all the arts and crafts associated with the theatre biz the one I find most confounding is directing. One reason is that the director’s practical work is largely invisible, occurring in private rehearsal spaces with the actors and other creative team members before public performances begin. Another reason is that it seems there are as many approaches to directing as there are directors.

Last week for me a curtain was pulled back, casting some light on this alchemist-like profession. The occasion was a one-hour interview with Bart Sher at the Dramatists Guild in New York. (Interview was recorded and posted on the Internet.)

Drafting John McPhee's Help

Today I wrote what may be the three most satisfying words a dramatist writes: END OF PLAY. They went on the bottom of page 103 in Scene 12 of a new full-length comedy. (One only hopes there will eventually be audiences and if they appear, that they will laugh.) This play’s working title is Callgirl, which I’m not satisfied with and will exchange for something better as soon as I come up with that something better.

Our Brain Hungers for Narrative

As a storyteller I pay a lot of attention to types of narrative – the various ways stories can be told.

Narrative is perhaps the fundamental way our species organizes experience. Event “A” causes event “B” which causes event “C” etc. etc. That’s what narrative is – a causal relationship between events. You can think of it as a series of dominoes falling. Even when in real life events occur in proximity but independently, our strong impulse is to invent a causal connection anyway, because that’s just how we’re wired to see the world. We like order; cause and effect. To our genetically endowed brains, chaos and nonsense are not our friends.

Puppets Ask Us Not to Steal That Song

Impoverishment is the default condition of most theatre artists, including playwrights, composers and lyricists. Very few make a living from their art and many struggle to make ends meet and lack health insurance. This sad state of affairs was well aired in 2010 by the book Outrageous Fortune which documented how the economics of theatre disadvantage writers.

Dramatic Economics

How much should playwrights worry about cast size when they write a script? This unsavory question is driven by the economic mess that has imperiled nonprofit theatres in recent decades.

Pulled from the Archives: Biz & Money Questions

Every few months or so, the editors at E.C. take a stroll through our archives and pull a group of interesting posts that are loosely related in theme to offer up to our readership for a second read. If you have a favorite post you'd like us to "pull from the archives," just email us and we'll try to locate it for you. Or, you could also just use the handy Search box in the right sidebar.

 

$146,500 for a Development Consultant?! by Rolando Teco

A Brave ACT at the Box Office by Duane Kelly

The Future of Independent Film Financing by David Licata

I Should Be So Lucky by Sara Pauley

There's a downside to operating "in the black." by Rolando Teco

New Straight Plays Bleed Red Ink on Broadway by Duane Kelly

Broadway Jackpot Not Total Mirage for Writers

The Washington State Lottery identifies the odds of winning its Lotto jackpot as one in 6.99 million. That’s one of 6.99 reasons why I never buy a lottery ticket. The odds of writing a play that will have a successful run on Broadway are probably in the same statistical stratosphere. Fortunately, getting to Broadway is not a reason that I grind it out at my desk every day.

In theatre circles the author of a straight play (non-musical) is advised to forget about Broadway.  “Artistic merit is a minor consideration there anymore” and “it’s no longer the pinnacle of playwriting success” are views commonly heard. (In this vein top TV comedy writer Ken Levine has blogged about how Broadway aspirations have waned for TV writers.) Persevere locally and focus on craft, we are told. I’ve heard this counsel loud and clear, and I follow it.

Discord inside a Russian Farmhouse

I have seen many productions of Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya over the years but am not likely to ever experience one with such intimacy as I did recently at Soho Rep in New York. It was an amazing evening of theatre.

New Straight Plays Bleed Red Ink on Broadway

Commercial theatre in New York is a financial long shot at the best of times.  Only twenty to twenty-five percent of Broadway shows turn a profit.  Those odds get a lot longer for straight plays (as opposed to musicals) and they are longest of all for new straight plays. 

Eat, Pray, Show Up, Do the Work

I just watched a wonderful TED presentation by Elizabeth Gilbert about creating art.  Gilbert is the author best known for her book Eat, Love, Pray which was then made into a successful movie starring Julia Roberts. 

A Pep Talk for Artists

I don’t know if you ever sat in a high school locker room at halftime when a coach hurled chalk into the wall, kicked over chairs, and exposed his doubting troops to a vocabulary far removed from English class.  Once witnessed, never forgotten.  Besides being immensely entertaining and frightening, this ritual of American culture could also be effective.  Returning to the arena, the players usually did concentrate better, play harder, and have more confidence.

Once we’re out of school and facing the grind of daily life, pep talks are rare to nonexistent.  Which is not to say they wouldn’t come in handy when attempting something where the end is unknown and failure looms.  Artists and entrepreneurs come immediately to mind.

Musicals Suggest Models for Teamwork

What are the optimum conditions for creative output, particularly as regards working solo or in a group? (David Licata in a recent post praises artist residencies for the fertile conditions they can provide.) An article by Jonah Lehrer in the Jan. 30 issue of The New Yorker introduced me to the research of Brian Uzzi, a sociology professor at Northwestern, who is much interested in creative work. Uzzi uses social network analysis and complexity theory (whatever those are) to study teamwork, leadership, creativity and productivity.

It just so happens that Broadway musicals, viewed in toto as an industry, make excellent fodder for research on teamwork and creativity. It helps when the researcher loves musicals. Uzzi told Lehrer that he saw his first musical, Hair, at age nine: “I remember absolutely nothing about the music, but I do remember the nude scene. That just about blew my mind. I’ve been a fan of Broadway ever since.”

A New Novel Gives Actors a Hug

If creativity is an inheritable trait then Esther Freud certainly benefited on that account.  The 48-year old British novelist is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund, yes that Sigmund; daughter of the famous painter Lucien Freud (who died last July, age 88); and sister to fashion designer Bella Freud.  Esther Freud’s seventh novel, Lucky Break, was published recently to mostly positive reviews. 

Before picking up the pen Ms. Freud put on the greasepaint.  She studied at the Drama Center London where after two years she was informed that she lacked sufficient talent and was asked to leave.  She soldiered on and worked as an actress.  It is that experience that Freud draws on as she portrays the ups and more frequent downs of an actor’s life in Lucky Break.  The novel follows a group of actors from a sadistic drama school, where “they break them down to build them up,” to their various career paths.   

Seven years after drama school Ms. Freud began to write.  Her first novel, Hideous Kinky, depicted her itinerant childhood in Morocco with her counterculture mother, and was made into a film starring Kate Winslet as the mom.

The Portrait of a Failed Playwright

“It’s a strange, compulsive business, the urge to make plays.  To act in them, or write ‘em, or produce ‘em.  It’s no use appealing to reason.”  That’s Henry James counseling a friend in Author, Author, a novel (2004) by British writer and retired literature professor David Lodge.  I just read this well-told tale about the failed playwright and posthumously esteemed novelist Henry James (1843-1916). 

James, frustrated at midcareer with his fiction’s lack of popularity, tried to find success and improve his income by turning to the stage.  Oh, what fools these mortals be!