An Awfully Big Adventure

As many of you may know I am currently teaching at Virginia Commonwealth University.

While I don't wish to bore you all with discussions of teaching acting and this technique versus that technique or the drama that happens behind the closed doors of our ivory towers of education . . . I do want to share with you all something.

This semester I get to to do something really cool.

I'm teaching a new class  - Creating and Producing Webisodes & New Media. Essentially I'm getting together with students from Mass Comm, Comm Arts, English, Film & Photography, Theatre, Kinetic Imaging and Advertising and we are making a scripted web series.

Pretty cool huh?

While I'm still amazed that Christina Lindholm in the Dean's Office said yes to my crazy idea, it's probably one of the coolest things I've done.

I thought I would document the process here. I hope others may find it useful, especially if you teach young people who are interested in New Media or finding new ways to tell their stories.

Don't tell my students, but I think I'm learning more than they are.

To let you know how it's working, I decided to call it online as VCUarts New Media Project. This semester of the class is going to be known as Season One. If this course happens a second time that will be Season Two, etc.

We will have to see how it all goes.

You can follow their work through Twitter, @VCUartsNewMedia

If you are curious to see how it goes, stay tuned  . . .

Some Thoughts on the Next Generation of Playwrights & Theatre Artists

Some thoughts on the next generation of playwrights & theatre artists.

This past year I’ve had the privilege to work with playwriting students of vary skill levels and educational backgrounds at a variety of places and here are some conclusions I’ve drawn . . .

1.)   Playwrights need to constantly be putting work up in front of an audience, even if it’s not perfect finished etc and putting it up often.

Most of the writers I worked with had no ability to see their work through the audience’s eyes.  I found this fascinating. Whenever I have a show going up or being workshopped, as soon as other people are in the room I “see” the play through their eyes and learn so much, what is over-written, what clunks, what doesn’t fit, what needs another beat etc.  Somehow I learned this skill in undergrad. Maybe it was because we were based on the writer’s workshop model where our work was being read out loud constantly. The University of Iowa was also production heavy. We had No Shame (which in it’s early days was mandatory every week for the MFA’s), gallery shows, readings, workshops plus other departments we would put work up in.

One of my colleagues at this event confided in me that being able to see his play’s through the audience’s eyes was something he had to learn over time and didn’t innately posses and was something he was always working on.

I think being forced to put up your own work all the time is a good thing. The French theatre teacher Jacques Lecoq had his students put up work every Friday in what he called, auto-cours.  Starting in the 1960’s Lecoq had the students at this school devote time each day to working on pieces that they would present to the school at the end of each week.

The pressure of putting up work each week forces you to be okay with failure and learn to create when nothing is truly happening for you creatively.

Through this process you will be forced to wear different hats, that of actor, director, designer etc. I think if more theatre training and education programs adopted some sort of system like this, we would be making better and stronger theatre artists.

2.)   Playwrights need to read more theatre and watch more theatre.

A lot of these playwrights were smart, brilliant young people but I found their depth and breadth of knowledge about theatre and major theatre texts lacking. I found this shocking.  I would reference a playwright or an essayist and I wouldn’t find a hint of recognition on their faces.

The other problem lies in the fact that most art forms, genres etc are self-referential. You can’t build upon and steal from other people’s ideas if you haven’t read it or seen it.

3.)   There is no substitute for solid dramatic structure.

I will probably be crucified for this point, but it’s true. Unless you are Mac Wellman or Erik Ehn I suggest hunkering down and really learning structure.  (I can hear the movement theatre and devisor/collaborators in the world groaning as I type!)

I have one thing to say to you, shut up and deal.

Even when I’m devising a project and putting the pieces together I deal with structure. What is overall story we are telling? Everything on stage must push the story forward.  If it doesn’t move the narrative forward in some fashion it doesn’t belong on stage. Other wise it becomes a cool piece of movement or a pretty monologue or an interesting moment and that is death on stage. It might be cool and you might be married to it, but if it stops the action (and that word can have so many meanings and connotations) than it serves no purpose and must go.  If it doesn’t move the message/politics/action/plot/narrative forward in some manner, cut it.

One of my early playwriting teachers, Thea Cooper, would make us take a red pen to the page and draw shapes around very word that correlated to it’s value. Then we would start cutting. It was a brutal exercise, but brilliant and taught one to let shit go.

Another lesson in structure came from Nilo Cruz. He would have us write scenes in the style of other playwrights. Oh, boy did that teach us a thing or two about structure.

4.)   All playwrights need to act and direct.

Again, I’m sure I’m hearing groans, guess what? I don’t care.

All playwrights need to suffer through more than one acting class and more than one directing class, why? It will make them better. My favorite playwrights all started out as actors. If you suffer through more than one acting class and are forced to act, forced to act in your own stuff, your colleague’s stuff and if you direct your colleague’s plays, you will become such a better writer.

Why you might ask? You will a.) Learn to think visually if you are forced to direct as well as patch holes in other people’s plays and b.) If you act and do it often you will hopefully ever write a character that doesn’t serve a purpose or belong in the scene.

5.)   Show, don’t tell.

I can’t tell you how many classes I’ve heard this in and it’s true. The first 500 times you hear it, you won’t understand it and then finally one day you will and your head will explode.  The simplest way I can explain/describe etc this idea is this. Write a monologue revealing something about a character, then, see how you can relate the same information to the audience through physical action via a scene using as few words as possible. Behavior not exposition is how we learn about characters.

Believe it or not, but film and television writing are great ways to drive this point home, since they are such visual mediums (as is the theatre, hint, hint.)

6.)   I believe in volume.

I was recently at a talkback for one of my plays and an audience member (and budding writer) asked me if I believe in volume.

Yes, I do, to a point.

I don’t believe good writing can be taught. I think someone is either a storyteller or they are not. I can teach someone how to write cleanly, effectively and efficiently but inspiration, creativity and the ability to make people shut up, sit down and listen to you? That can’t be taught. But for someone who has the spark, yes they will get better through everything they write.

Every time you write something you get better at structure, you learn more about your voice, you grow more confident. Thinking about writing won’t make you a better writer, only writing will. So when it comes to theatre (notice I said theatre, not playwriting) I believe in the 10,000 Hour Theory. Directing, acting, producing, stage-managing, designing and writing for 10,000 hours will make you a better playwright.  Notice how really good musicians can play more than one instrument? Theatre artists should be the same way.

Designers should direct, directors should write and playwrights should act: get the picture? Trust me, it will make you better at your primary art.

Also keep in mind that 99.9% of writing is re-writing. So when I say volume I don’t necessarily always mean, volume – perhaps a better way to describe it to say always be creating . . . something.

7.)   Devising, company created work and other popular trends.

No matter how you feel about it, devising and company created work through the ensemble is here to stay. Even the Dramatists Guild is addressing this current trend.

The elephant in the room is the issue that this devised/company created work and the commercial theatre are currently incongruous.

Theatre programs and educational institutions all across the country are flocking to teaching students how to devise theatre and create work as a company. I think that’s great. A class in devising should be a part of every educational theatre’s curriculum. The issue arises when it comes to making money and reproducing this work. It’s hard enough in this business to make a living, have insurance and put into a retirement. Trying to do so with devised/company created theatre is next to impossible.  We don’t have a working financial model for it. Also most companies that create this type of work have a hard time reproducing it.

The way higher education is currently funded through student loans and grants I see a problem brewing. Schools that receive federal funding are now (or very soon) going to have to start posting learning outcomes and job placement rates (in one form or another) on their websites if they want to receive federal dollars.

While company created work is an easy way to claim students are working, I feel an amazing use of curriculum would be a class in producing and navigating the waters of non-profit management and commercial arts management. This will only help a program’s graduates not just create their own work, but able to create a long tem company and learn fiscal responsibility for an arts organization.

What am I saying? Well, I feel any program with a sense of being current, viable and serving the educational needs of it’s students should have as a part of it’s curriculum a class in devised theatre, a class in producing in the arts & arts management and last but not least some sort of on-camera component.

Yup, I said it. Any educational theatre program in the country that does not have an on-camera component is doing its students a disservice. They all need to find a way to start integrating the camera into their various disciplines be it design, writing, directing, stage management or acting. Its where so many of their alumni will end up in one form or another and to not prepare them, at least a little bit is criminal.

Stage managers will work in production, playwrights will write television and actors – well, as a working actor I know how much of my income comes from theatre and how much of it comes from film, television and commercials and I know where my insurance benefits come from.  I would be lost without SAG-AFTRA. Also in this digital age of the Internet there is no excuse for not learning how to tell stories and disseminate it through the web.

There is no excuse for not having it be part of the curriculum, when the Playwright’ s Center puts trailers for plays on its website and videos are an essential part of fundraising through crowd sourcing on Kickstarter educational theatre must embrace the use of cameras, working on camera and recorded media.  To not do so is negligent.

Bringing it back to the point of this post, which is playwrights, I encourage them to put up their work in as many ways as possible, always be throwing something up in front of some kind of audience. I also want to challenge them with learning three things, devising, producing and learning to write for film & television. At least experiment with all three, you will be doing yourself, your career and your talent a favor.

What Do I Have Say For Myself?

Recently I've been filling out applications for playwriting fellowships. A lot of them ask the same questions over and over again. The downside is answering a lot of the same questions, the upside has been being forced to answer a lot of tough questions about myself.

Similarly, I was on a plane recently headed to the Southeastern Theatre Conference (for my work at an acting school in NYC). I was reading a collection of early Adam Rapp plays. The man seated next to me if I was in theatre, we got to talking and sure enough we were both headed to the same place. He was the Technical Director for The Santa Fe Opera. He asked me about what I was reading and I told him the truth. A bad collection of plays which felt like they were written by a very young in craft playwright. (Sorry Adam, but it's true.)

Then he asked me about my own work. (I'll sometimes see this on playwright's websites, their aesthetic or what their plays themes are commonly about.) And the only way I could describe it was, "If the plays of Tracy Letts and Sam Shepard had a really angry baby." Or, "A white trash Terrence McNally with a drug and alcohol problem mixed with a lot of self hatred." (No one ever finds the last one funny.)

The example I use is, if I wrote LIPS TOGETHER, TEETH APART the pool would have been empty (except for beer cans), the couples would have beaten the crap out of each other and they all would have hard core gay sex with each other and guys next door. How about that for a Fourth of July weekend Terrence?

But I digress.

When I was a little kid people asked me what I wanted to be. I was strange and said a writer. (What 6 year old does that?)
I then spent the next 30 years in denial of that fact. Sure I wrote plays as an undergrad, but they were full of sturm & drang and were badly written. But the seeds of what I write about were planted. Not much has changed. Misplaced love, family, outsiders, misfits, broken hearts and the disenfranchised: that's what I write about.

I didn't start writing again until recently. During the last writer's strike my agent asked me if I wrote. Well I did write. I was even on scholarship for it at The University of Iowa. (They didn't give out acting scholarships then.) Then I spent a long time in denial of being a writer. Years spent improvising and acting (which I'm not too shabby at), an MFA in Acting at Rutgers were I was told I wasn't really allowed to write and should just be an actor (screw that). But ultimately, after all of this time, I have come around to being a writer.

Of course I started writing again, but it was television (which I love), and grudgingly, against my will and better judgement did I go back to writing plays.

The funny thing is, I was calling myself a playwright before I actually accepted that I was a playwright. It's only been in the last year and a half that I have truly embraced writing theatre.

The theatre is my home. It's where I first cut my teeth as a writer. It's the first place that I started telling stories with people who I loved and enjoyed telling stories with.
I think that's the key. Telling stories with others who I love and respect.
Let's face it, no one is really going to make any money doing theatre. It's just isn't going to happen. Not today. Not when the regional theatre movement is dying and producers are afraid to take a chance. But I can tell cool stories with my friends.

I'm also no longer out to change the world. My stories come to me through the characters in my head. They take on a life of their own and grow deep roots into my soul and the only way to get them out is to put them on paper and turn them loose.
Are my plays political? No. But my characters have politics, as well as hopes, dreams, wishes, love, hate and rage.

As long as I have friends to tell stories with I'm going to keep telling my stories about misplaced love, family, outsiders, misfits, broken hearts and the disenfranchised.

9 Weeks out - 7 till my taper.

I'm nine weeks away from the ING NYC Marathon.
Well, actually it's more like 8, but I'm coming into the end of my 9th week.
This is also going to be my first over 40 mile week.
For a lot of runners that's not a lot of mileage, but for me it is a milestone. I'm also making a huge jump in my mileage. (I'm passing 40 by A LOT.) I have another long run scheduled for Sunday AM (which is also the 9/11 anniversary). I'm anticipating route changes since 6-7 miles of my run happen in Liberty State Park and I expect most of it to be closed off due to the events that will be taking place.
Hopefully I will be able to get out and about early before things get crazy. But I am determined to get in at least 16 miles on Sunday.
For the next 5-6 weeks before I start my taper it's only going to get tougher and pile on from here.

Looking to do my last big long run October 16-18th. Then I will be on the road for work. What's lovely is that I will be traveling to the Pacific Northwest! I will have the amazing opportunity to run out there during the beginning of my taper. New scenery and unknown routes - how exciting! I will be spending a couple of days in Portland, so I hope to find a running group or two to head out with while I'm there.

With the marathon looming I've had to really focus. Jiu Jitsu sadly has taken a back seat to running. But that's the way it has to be. There's no way I could consistently train both and recover enough to do well at running.
Post marathon I'm looking forward to putting running on the back burner for a few months. Of being able to take all of the energy, focus and drive that's been my running and put it into Jiu Jitsu.

I've also been consumed on the writing front.
Adapting my teen/supernatural pilot into a YA novel series. (Which has been A LOT of work.)
I'm also hard at work on a web series that I'm in pre-production on. Slowly putting those bits together piece by piece and I'm hoping to have an episode or two up and running this Fall.
I write so much original material that I am finally working on spec scripts. I'm grinding away on a CASTLE spec and on a COUGAR TOWN spec.

If only I didn't have to have a "day job" and could only write, run and train jiu jitsu with the odd acting job thrown in for fun!

Believe or not but RUNNER'S WORLD has been really helpful in the training plan department. I've been adopting workouts that, I feel, have been making a big difference.

This week I did a 3 X 2, 20 seconds faster than MRP with a 1/4 mile recovery between repeats.
Next week will be 2 X 4, 20 seconds faster than MRP. Then 3 X 3 capping out at a 5 x 2.

My remaining races are: Mind/Body/Spirit Games (Sept. 17th), 5th Avenue Mile (Sept. 24th), 18 Miler Marathon Tune Up (Sept. 25th), Staten Island 1/2 Marathon (October 9th).

I'm also doing something new. Starting this week I'm doing Alternating Long Runs. Where one week I will do a long, slow, steady run longer than two hours and the next week I will do a Fast Finish long run. With the later, I begin the run 1-2 minutes per mile slower than race pace. Half way to three quarters through I hit my MRP. Then I finish the last segment FASTER than race pace. I'm hoping that 2-3 of these before the marathon will ensure a solid sub four hour finish time.
I got this idea from mcmillanrunning.com. It' s a great site and I recommend it to everyone.

Until next time true believers!

Cowboys vs Aliens or Agents vs Managers?

I’ve decided that I need to sit down and finally answer a question that seems to be on many people’s minds. What’s the difference between agents and managers?

Its no secret that I have a manager and I find working with her to be one of the smartest decisions I’ve ever made.

My day job is at an acting school, and every day a different student asks me the agent vs manager question.

The best response I can come up with is, “Agents help you get jobs; managers make careers happen.”

Now, this statement isn’t entirely true and I’m sure my manger would look at me funny if she read it. But for the most part I find this an accurate description.

Does this mean that everyone young person who wants to work in this business should run out there and get a manager?

Not all managers are created equal.

In the last ten years we’ve seen an explosion of managers pop up. They are highly unregulated and now just about any Tom, Dick or Harry can claim they are a manager.

We are seeing agents from top tier super agencies like CAA & ICM leave to become mangers.

These days’ manger and producer are almost synonymous. (At least with most of the good ones.)

But a word to the wise, there are a lot of people out here who claim to be managers and won't really do anything for you.

There are folks who are mangers where all they do is place their clients with agencies (their friends) and then they collect their 10 percent. (I find that mangers 5 years ago were still asking for 20 percent, but in the last few years that number has gone down to 10.)

Then there are those managers who will hold your hand and be your biggest cheerleader, supportive in your darkest hour.

Finally there are those mangers that produce and really should be viewed as business partners in the company of you.

Also, any manger worth their salt realizes that some clients will be powerhouses if given the opportunity to develop. That takes vision, drive and planning on their part. Developing a client is an investment and some managers are willing to do that.

One has to keep in mind just how much the business has changed. 10-15 years ago I think there were still a lot of agents who had a larger personal investment in their clients. There were still a lot of agents who would take on developmental clients and weren’t afraid of the risk.

Now managers are taking on that risk.

The business has been shrinking. Boutique agencies have been closing and I remember 2-3 years ago when a lot of the top tier agencies were cleaning out their client lists. It was pretty brutal. But it did allow boutiques to then snatch up some bigger name clients.

As more boutiques close, other boutiques take on clients and so on and so forth. You get the picture. Now we have some small agencies with hefty client lists and at least every small agency has a couple of series regulars.

Where does that leave the developmental actor?

It means that 9 times out of 10 they are searching for a manager that is a right fit.

For the record I love my manager.

Best decision I ever made.

Cyd is a business partner and an advisor.

She has a smaller client list than any agency I’ve ever been with and she is invested in the business of me.

I frequently think of my fellow clients in her company as a team, and if one of us does well, that opens doors for the rest of us.

She is helping me to attain my bigger picture.

I do feel I need to very clear, I might be a bit different than a lot of people. I started writing again a few years ago and I am now sitting on a lot of literary property. I also have my own theatre company. I have plays, TV Pilots, a few film properties, some ideas for a young adult series of books along with other ideas for properties.

In addition to my legit career I also have a lucrative commercial career.

In short, I have stuff to manage. (After this last tax season I'm finally thinking about incorporating and opening up my own production shingle . . . crazy I know.)

I need help navigating these waters and keeping my eye on the prize.

One of the greatest things about my manager is that she is my friend as well as my business partner and we are invested in each other - both personally and in business. When I run the ING New York Marathon she's going to be there. When I get married she's going to be there. (She better be or I'll kill her.) And when I'm finally a show runner, she'll be there. (I'll need someone to tell me what to do.) In turn I care and want to know what her kids are up to, who the dog has peed on today, seriously critique her vacation itineraries and mock her taste in bad movies.(I have to be careful on that last point, my taste isn't so hot itself.)

Is she this way with every client? I don't know and I don't care. The point is she's this way with me. If I were a boxer she'd be my trainer, my cut man and setting up my next fight. She's in my corner and I'm in her's.

I think that’s a key element of why I love my manager. I’m just as invested in her and her company as she is with me. I plan on being in business with her until she retires. (Or kills me, which ever comes first.)

Do we have fights?

You bet, but that’s what happens in creative endeavors. Whenever passionate people come together to do something great there are going to be strong, colliding points of view.

That's life in a creative business.

That's art.

In closing, are mangers for everyone?

That's depends upon you as a person and an artist.

I didn't think I would ever have a manager.

I thought they were silly and unnecessary.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

But I'm willing to admit my mistakes. I'm also willing to let my point of view change and reshape itself. In this business if you don't evolve and grow you end up in trouble. (Just look at the internet as a prime example). I'm glad I was willing to change my mind. Best thing I ever did.

I'm back!

Hey Kids, I'm back!
Sorry to be gone for so long from the web, but a lot of things have been happening as of late.
The last time I posted was October, and I promise in the future to put out at least one post a week.
I have a hard time committing to more than one a week due to a lot of things . . . mostly my life.
Here's a quick run-down of the last several months . . . .

I got new job at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts: School of Film & Television. It's the best day job ever! I really mean that statement. I have terrific bosses, a supportive environment and I get paid pretty good for what I do. So really, who can complain? Not me.

A film I was in went to the Sundance Festival and won best director! So I went to the festival and supported the movie and well . . . that will be a separate blog post, with pictures.

My theatre company, Dark Luna Productions, put on our first event and now we are looking at scripts for our first official off-Broadway show.

I've also been in a creative flurry with my own scripts as the agency has been trying to sell my stuff.

Needless to say I've been, over my head and crazy busy.

Oh, I have a belt test in BJJ in a week and a half and in March I start my racing season as a runner with two races in NYC.

Ugh.

Please keep reading and I promise, I will write more.

Until next time true believers . . .