The Perfect Crime

The Department of Cultural Affairs recently began running an Incubator series, allowing visiting companies to use their space to develop work (often through workshops with playwrights). Local playwright Steve Spencer is currently working there with Black Sheep Productions on his play Camp Freedom!, and has a great blog post about first rehearsals from the playwright’s perspective. The defining moment:

Then something cool happened.

We talked about the play.  I had prepared answers for various questions in my mind.  I had rationalizations for this decision, for that sentence.  I forgot them all as we talked.  We talked.  A bunch of strangers.  It was awkward, we are all shy to some extent.  But we relaxed.  I tried to be someone I wasn’t, someone better, then I didn’t.  I relaxed.  The obvious flaws (damn it) of my play were pointed out.  The subtle flaws were dissected.  The good parts were remembered.  We all somewhat sort of bonded.  In my opinion.

My suspicion that I am insane is retreating.  Suddenly, I think we might get away with it.

Better Know a Program: Instant Theatre

In striving to serve as many playwrights as possible, in as many ways as possible, Chicago Dramatists runs a huge number of programs. To give a better idea of just how much we have to offer, we’ll be running a semi-regular series on the blog, called Better Know a Program, that will give specific info on all the developmental options we have.

For the first installment, we’re highlighting one of our newest programs: Instant Theatre. Each month, Instant Theatre gives Resident and Network Playwrights a chance to engage their creative side in its purest form. It was created and is run each month by Resident Playwrights Aaron Carter and Christopher De Paola.

Below, Christopher explains even more about the program’s inception, and what it offers. For more info and some great testimonial videos, be sure to visit the Instant Theatre Blog.

And, to see Instant Theatre in action, join us for this month’s session, on Wendesday, January 28 at 8pm!

A Word From the Wright: Will Dunne

Resident Playwright Will Dunne’s “How I Became an Interesting Person” goes into previews this evening, and to celebrate we asked Will to write a post telling us a bit about where the play originally came from. Be sure to swing by our main site and pick up your tickets for this fantastic new comedy!

Where do plays come from? As we sat around the table at our first rehearsal, I was asked by the director, Russ Tutterow, to share with the actors the inspiration for How I Became an Interesting Person.

The main character Wayne Drabowski tells the audience in the opening scene that it “all begins with a matchbook.” But behind the scenes the real seed for the play was an advice column letter in the morning newspaper long ago. Someone wrote in to complain of having no friends and no sense of humor. He felt that he had become a boring person who among other things was terrible at starting conversations and even worse at keeping them going. Though the letter was only a couple of paragraphs long, the anguish and loneliness between the lines was immense, and seemed to be made only worse by the flippant reply of the columnist to buy her latest pamphlet on how to become popular.

I began to wonder who this lonely person was, why his dilemma touched me so suddenly and deeply, whether or not he actually sent in for that pamphlet and, if so, what happened after that. All of this led to the writing of the play which, by the way, includes some of the actual lines from the advice column letter that started the ball rolling. Once I began working with characters and relationships, I discovered that this story is about more than one man’s isolation. It encompasses a larger modern world where people too often end up alone in their rooms with no idea of what’s happening on the other side of their walls. As I developed scenes, I also began to discover that this is a love story — an unusual one — and that in love of any kind one can find the power to change the world.

Russ Tutterow: Mover, Shaker, Player

NewCity today released a list of the top 50 theatre Players in Chicago: as they put it, “The 50 People Who Really Perform in Chicago.” The full list is here, but most important is Number 27, Chicago Dramatists Artistic Director Russ Tutterow. Relevant  quote:

“The patron saint of Chicago playwrights, Tutterow understands that writing is a process—playwrights need staged readings in front of an audience to know what works. The Saturday Series has filled that hole for several years running, and Tutterow backs it up by producing a few of those scripts every season, including last year’s runaway hit, Keith Huff’s “A Steady Rain.” Now in its thirtieth season, Dramatists boasts a veritable who’s who of leading Chicago playwrights on its “Resident Playwrights” roster, including Brett Neveu, Mia McCullough and Marisa Wegrzyn and counts among its alumni Tina Fey and Rick Cleveland.”

Other notable Chicago Dramatists kith and kin on the list: Resident Playwright Tanya Saracho, and Associate Artists Anthony Moseley and Ann Filmer. Congratulations to all!