New Play Development

It's ironic that a press release would be the means to announce a meeting that would be closed to the press as well as the public. That was my initial reaction when I received The Arena's Stage's notice last week concerning "Non-Profit and Commercial Producers in the New Play Sector," a meeting to bring together "30 theater practitioners and producers," which received elaborate attention in today's Washington Post by Peter Marks. Mr. Marks quite rightly takes them to task for this dubious practice in a detailed article whose sentiments I would strongly second, though I draw a different conclusion about the reticence.

What is your first thought when someone calls a closed meeting? Well mine is they've got something to hide. What might that be? That not-for-profit theaters are looking for better ways of raising revenues? That there is actually little difference between non-profit and for-profit theaters except tax status? That all is not well financially in new play land?

The inconvenient truth is that new plays are box office poison. Who wants to see an extended preview or an out-of-town tryout for what is basically an unfinished play looking for an audience? And the public is growing increasingly tired of what is coming out of this assembly-line process - a politically correct, agenda-driven, grant or donor funded assemblage which lacks a fresh and central artistic vision. It can't be otherwise because the creative process of the playwright has been co-opted by the corporate will of the theater in these overly workshopped products.

While many plays make it to the big time - winning accolades and awards - there are hectares that die on the vine. The old business model of throwing bushels of money at fields of theatrical start-ups in the hopes of a few lucky hits is no longer viable in this economy. More of the risk will have to be spread around or the message will have to be spun in new and innovative ways to gain theatergoers' buy-in. Oddly, as Mr. Marks notes, this is exactly the wrong time to exclude the public from the table. If the menu is unappetizing, you don't change the format, you change the selection, as most patrons would tell you - if you'd let them.