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Sanctuary: Playwrights Theatre's process

Documenting our thoughts on process is at most a curiosity because any successful process must be a work-in-progress. We are constantly at work to tune our process  to the needs of the plays that are currently being developed, the communities in which they circulate, and the playwrights that helm the process for their own plays. 

However, besides the years of work we've spent on process in our respective organizations, we've also interviewed luminaries for their insights into what makes a play development process work best. What did they tell us?

Aspects of a successful process

The most important aspects of a successful process are:

  • A successful process must provide for repeatable excellence of its end products (otherwise it can't be called a process!)

  • It must be internally cumulative; there must be a sense of growth toward a stated goal. Goals must be somewhat fluid throughout the initial stages, but should gel early enough in the process to permit growth

  • It must be fun to be a participant

  • Its end product must provide enjoyment, education, or both

Three types of organizations

And after studying (and participating in) many organizations, we've concluded there are three basic types of play development organizations that can truly make a difference:

  • No formal organization ("tribal" organization) model - a group of friends (commonly a group that studies under a single teacher, or graduates college or grad school together). Many theatre companies start this way... think Steppenwolf, Adobe, and NewChaos (now defunct). 
  • Salon of Ideas model – union of people and/or groups with or without an umbrella name or manifesto, participating in a mindful conversation - for example, think of the group of cinema directors that signed onto the Danish Dogma '95 manifesto
  • Formal organization - An organization with a board, staff and related people, which raises money, produces seasons of plays, presents related programs, etc. Various levels of organization possible under this – minimal (not incorporated but DBA), moderate (incorporated as S or LLC), and full (C corporation with 501(c)(3)).

    •  Common Issues with types 1 and 2 include:

    • Without enough continuity, the work isn’t in conversation with itself
    • People don’t see their own and others’ work in evolution, which would spur further generalized evolution.
    • Without enough structure, continuity, the conversation is not sufficiently local. Conversation can be made local by resources (flights, etc.)
    • The essentially social nature of Type #1 and the dogmatic nature of #2 mean that as people drift apart/away from the common aesthetic, the company can no longer sustain itself and folds under its own inertia

    So it seems that a full organization is the best way to fully support the artists as they pursue their careers, give the continuity needed to allow work to cross-pollinate, and artists to grow at their own rates.

    The role of the play

    Although our purpose is to further the development of new plays, we recognize that in some senses, the play as product is starts to matter less. A play is also a thing. Things tend to make less difference in causing change. Plays are products but people bring processes which can equal change. 

    Not just in the arts. The playwright more and more is expected to take on a new role... as social documentarian and even change agent.

    Playwrights and plays are increasingly expected to become direct participants in their communities. 

    Perhaps  this is wishful thinking... or the result of too much focus on the significance of theatre as an instrument of societal change and improvement. But this growing understanding is changing play-making.

    Making plays happen

    OK, so we're taking about plays that interact with  society, and also about providing resources from an organized company . If we have both these things, we spend them on altering the typical operations and processes of a theater company in three ways:

    1. Workshop/Research/Development Period – at a level that becomes a theatrical event. Giving creative people involved time to explore a play, test out their impressions, viewer impressions. This takes as long as needed; the research period for a new work can run months, even a year. 
      We also consider that one or more declared areas of exploration (ideas/themes) for a work would be published (via email or letter or other means) at the beginning of a given Research Period, to the artist’s community of other artists and potential audience/funders, so that everyone would have some insight into what was being explored, and could contribute according to their level of interest/ability.
    2. Stillness: an opportunity to engage a play deeply, at a retreat or somewhere for a weekend a few times during the development/research process
    3. Changing idea of what a stage is - beyond the sense of trying to create environments in 

    The Artist-Centric Company

    If you want to support an artist, you give (money, time, resources, interest, ideas, effort) to that artist’s context (the project and company that supports it.) The artist then decides what to do with the resource, supported and consulted by other artists.

    The context (theater company/producing org) should change to accommodate the artist’s goals for a given project.

    The producing organization can have as goals:

    1. Artist driven rather than producer/production driven (see our related mission statement for more information on the limitation 
    2. Franchise an audience

    For artists, they should realize that to participate in this company, there will be greater community with other artists processes and projects than normally, which should be nourishing, informative, stimulating. They need to be prepared to say:

    1. I’m going to have to change who I am to do this
    2. I’m getting off the write-alone, edit, then 4 week rehearsal treadmill
    3. I’m tired of "with pluck and no sleep we can put this on in a black box." The goal should be to take the work to a place and audience and impact it has not had
    4. We are much more powerful together

    Basics of a Typical Organization

    • 8-10 writers in membership
    • 3 plays in Research at given time
    • One play in pre-production or production at a given time
    • Steady and regular stream of public events to allow for fund-raising and to provide an ongoing conversation with our audience, with funders, with interested parties and other constituents
    • Introductory process for networking new writers into the group

    The Research Process

    1. Basis for research: A play should start with (and ultimately be based on) questions that need to be explored. The question can be:
      • Psychological (about aspects of the human mind and spirit)
      • Social (typically cause- related, but also with intent to study the larger aspects of our social organization)
      • Profession-related (related to the world of work in terms of society at large, not necessarily theatre work)
      • Performance-related (related to the world of performance, its peculiarities, proclivities, trends, terms of art, etc.)
      • Literary (related to the world of the writer and literature)

      Superior projects often involve questions that fall into more than one of these spheres. The process of developing a play should follow the general path of attempts to answer this question.

    2. Retreats
    3. Multiple meetings over longer course of time
    4. Exploring, interviewing, finding, franchising audience: who needs this piece/process

    Whole group requirement to have dinner 2x year

    Ideal long-term physical goal

    A space open for theatrical work whenever its needed. Can be away from Manhattan, but accessible to it. Perhaps even far away, but researchers get flown there, can stay and work for period of time. Can be different places arranged for each occasion.