Are you "emerging"?
Depends!!
Hello, sweet reader! Great to have you back! Or maybe here for the first time? Wow, how exciting for both of us! If you’re new to SSWAPAT, thanks for coming aboard. I’m Chaz, which is pronounced like “Shhh!” and “Oz”. I know it looks like you’d say it like “Chaz Bono”, but you do not. Or you might, and if/when we meet in person, I will gently correct you approx seven times over the course of the evening, because that’s just the way it goes. No hard feelings, my dudes.
Anyway, this prologue has nothing to do with the theme of today’s newsletter:
Can we please get on the same page about what “emerging” means???????????
Man oh man is this annoying.
I don’t know if you have also noticed this, but our silly little theater industry seems very, very confused about what it means to be an “emerging” playwright, dramaturg, director, artist, et cetera ad nauseum. Same with “early career”.
Like…why do so many allegedly “emerging” playwrights have literal Pulitzer Prizes?? There are a gazillion prizes, awards, fellowships, and workshops for “emerging” artists of all stripes that then go on to list their current awardees/cohort and their CVs are the size of full-length plays. What?
Applied to any other field of study or work, this would be insanity!
Imagine an “emerging athlete” who has been to more than one Olympic Games, is a national champion in their sport/nation, and has set world records. This would make Michael Phelps and Simone Biles “emerging athletes”, which I think we can all agree is…unreasonable.
So in the words of emerging thought leader, Mahatma Gandhi, I am thrilled to announce that I’m part of the change I wish to see in the world! Talk about good tidings of great joy! (I’m borrowing that from emerging bestseller, The Bible.)
Yes, friends, it’s true. I’m the Resident Dramaturg for The Strides Collective here in Philadelphia, and the submission window for our Emerging Playwrights Program is open!! I’m new to the collective, but I’m so efffffffing excited about this program because it is truly, madly, deeply committed to uplifting actual emerging playwrights. Here is our definition of “emerging”, which…I don’t know…I think the whole dang theater world should adopt. But I’m biased. Because I helped write this definition. lol.
The Strides Collective defines "emerging" as those playwrights whose work has not been produced professionally and is unpublished.
That is it. Those are the qualifications for being “emergent”!! It’s not hard!
For the uninitiated: being un-produced and unpublished is where all playwrights begin. It means you’ve written some plays—maybe short plays, maybe some full-lengths if you’re wild—but they have never been on stage with a set/lights/costumes/etc., nor has it been printed and bound in any meaningful way and registered as a capital-P Play by any meaningful entity. It’s basically a Google Doc that can be printed and clipped together, and mayyyybe it’s had a reading somewhere that may or may not be someone’s apartment.
It’s essential to the growth of a playwright to have opportunities where their work can be read by other theater makers, because a play (and playwright) can only get better if they have meaningful feedback on their work. “Meaningful” meaning feedback that is critical, constructive, and knowledgable about the medium.
A dramaturg is going to be an audience surrogate for the playwright. They (I, in this case) can say if the emotional beats are landing, if they are appropriately paced, and/or if there are details that need honing. Actors around a table will be able to tell a playwright if the dialogue feels real or wooden, playable or not playable. And a production team or even one designer can provide critical insight on the producability of a play—if and when that enters into the conversation.
If a playwright doesn’t get these experiences early in their career, the whole process compounds to be more and more difficult as they continue to write, because they’ve never come up against the boundaries set in a workshop/intensive setting. This is how we get plays with 12 cast members and plays with more exposition than action. This is how we get plays that take place in anti-gravity chambers and plays “about" issues that never get to the heart of the issue. Un-produced and unpublished playwrights who don’t get access to programs like our EPP will remain un-produced and unpublished, and the cycle will remain unbroken. Which is not sustainable.
So this is a call-in for other theater makers to be intentional about how we define “emerging”, and how we all create and provide opportunities for emerging playwrights.
And it is also an announcement to all queer-identifying, truly emerging playwrights to check out The Strides Collective’s Emerging Playwright Program, and consider applying!! The window closes at midnight on February 26th, so mark your calendars, and let’s get you that sweet sweet development experience you deserve!!
And hey, if you don’t identify as queer, but you know a queer playwright who is un-produced and unpublished, please share this opportunity with them! You can them that there link above, or you can share this wholeass newsletter with them!