tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post689801142436090395..comments2023-12-20T17:20:22.032-05:00Comments on 99 Seats: Biting Hands...99http://www.blogger.com/profile/11955916620902994495noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post-68861006213005008712008-12-22T18:00:00.000-05:002008-12-22T18:00:00.000-05:00i think we're shying away from the main problem he...i think we're shying away from the main problem here, which is that nearly all the money (from foundations etc) dedicated to new play production goes to theatres, not artists. so the theatres call all the shots (and sometimes they're sensible, sometimes not, but they're always trying to choose and shape work according to their taste, and their notions of what they can produce). what we need, really, is an institution that gives production money directly to playwrights, based only on some judgment of the quality of the script, and not on questions of how costly it might be to produce, what the audience might be, how it woudl fit in a season, whether it's a politically opportune choice for the theatre, etc. imagine what it would be like to shop your play around with 10 or 20k in production funding already attached. suddenly there's a negotiation, a matching, between writers and theatres, rather than the open field for polite bullying that exists right now...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post-80829010613410883862008-12-20T08:22:00.000-05:002008-12-20T08:22:00.000-05:00And what's especially happening now is workshop he...And what's especially happening now is workshop hell - it's a way for theatre's to say they are working with new writers and new plays. They throw out a bone, the 'workshop' and that's supposed to make the playwright happy. But then when the workshop is done, there's no next step. No production. <BR/><BR/>The sad thing is that workshops don't finish plays. Productions finish plays. Audiences finish plays. If we can't get that, how can we finish?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post-12430568688501377742008-12-19T16:07:00.000-05:002008-12-19T16:07:00.000-05:00I still love ya too. Let me just clarify... I was ...I still love ya too. Let me just clarify... I was really trying to ask a provocative quesrion, not thinly mask my own opinion... Which is a complicated one. I basically feel like every writer and play has different needs and wants w/r/t their work, I think toying with them by doing workshops to "fix scripts" with no real production commitment is wrong, I think most of what Nelson highlights in his speech as wrong is wrong etc. Just having gotten to know a few novelists etc over the last year, I thought it interesting to ask.Parabasishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00344587527624080394noreply@blogger.com