Strategies

Live Long and Prosper

How the National New Play Network is bolstering the continued, healthy lives of plays

by Eliza Bent

The Challenge:
There's a bug going around American theatre. Perhaps you know someone who's had a case of it-maybe you've even experienced a bout of it yourself. The technical term for this malady is workshopitis. Symptoms include a new play that languishes in eternal rounds of readings, workshops and edits. The play will typically feel fatigue; the playwright develops a dry cough and stuffy nose. World premiereitis is another such ailment. Though it is generally less debilitating than workshopitis (a play will actually receive a full production in the former case), both maladies mean that the play and and its author do not see the light of future productions. As a result, only a small percentage of new plays go on to have healthy artistic lives once they have received their first productions. While various remedies (such as funding opportunities) are regularly touted for play development and premiere productions, where are the organizations that treat the continued life of new plays?

Enter the National New Play Network. The NNPN was started in 1998 by David Goldman, who was then the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center special programs director, with the support of the O'Neill Center's founder George C. White. "Among the plays that do receive world premieres, only a fraction receive second, third and fourth productions at theatres outside their immediate region," says Ryan Rilette, artistic director of Southern Rep in Louisiana and current secretary of NNPN. "As any playwright can tell you, those subsequent productions are critical to a play's success and development." And, for that matter, its continued health.

The Plan:
The NNPN, which has 20 participating member theatres that span the U.S., has created a range of programs. Its flagship effort is fittingly titled the Continued Life of New Plays Fund. CLNPF provides funding to three or more partnering theatres (at least two of which must be NNPN members) for what it calls a "rolling" world premiere of a play. "This guarantees an opportunity for the play to grow and flourish through contact with a wider national audience," Rilette explains. For example, Zina Camblin's And Her Hair Went with Her received productions at Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis, New Jersey Repertory Company and Bailiwick Repertory Theatre in Chicago (the first two are NNPN members). Since the pilot program began five years ago, there have been 10 Continued Life Fund projects that have resulted in 53 productions at 38 different theatres. The NNPN conducts monthly online meetings for literary managers in which scripts are exchanged and discussed. There's also an annual National Showcase of New Plays where fresh plays, submitted by member theatres, receive readings. While some of these plays go on to the Continued Life Fund, others will have productions outside of the NNPN. "Through our collaborations, 19 other new plays [in addition to CLNPF scripts] have received 50 productions," Rilette asserts. Additionally, each year NNPN commissions a new play. So far there have been 10.

Key Players:
Nancy Barnett, managing director of Florida Stage in Manalapan, is now serving as NNPN president, while Chip Walton, artistic director of Curious Theatre Company in Denver, is vice president. David Golston, the marketing director at Philadelphia's InterAct Theatre, is NNPN's general manager.

What Worked:
Let us allow the plays to speak for themselves. "I've had 6 productions at NNPN member theatres and 18 productions at non-NNPN theatres!" declares Thomas Gibbons's Permanent Collection (CLNPF's pilot project) with gusto. Eric Coble's For Better avows, "I'm the first play to be commissioned by the NNPN, and then I became a Continued Life Fund project." John Biguenet's Rising Water, on the other hand, puts forth, "In 2006 I was a NNPN commission and opened at Southern Rep. Now I'm scheduled for at least three other productions." Rising Water blushes. "And I've been nominated for a Pulitzer." (This is a first for the NNPN.)

Aside from the numerous productions that are generated each year by NNPN's programs, invaluable collaborations and partnerships form among theatres, literary managers and playwrights.

What Didn't:
Initially NNPN membership was geographically exclusive. The thinking, explains Barnett, was that with just one theatre per region or market there would be less competition. But ultimately, there was little overlap in what was produced. The NNPN has now broadened its membership policy. Still, it's unlikely that a playwright will "opt for a world premiere by three small or mid-sized theatres over, say, the Guthrie," Barnett admits. Large LORT B theatres maintain gravitational pull.

What's Next:
Barnett would like to evolve the current membership structure and target three new groups: colleges with play-development programs, development organizations (such as the Lark Play Development Center in New York City and the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis) and theatre companies interested in new work even when that sentiment is not expressed in their mission statements. "It would be nice to find a way to work with these organizations in a more formalized way," Barnett says. So the next step may be associate membership. Walton adds in an e-mail, "We're faced with issues like organizational capacity, structure and resource allocation-all positive indicators of continued growth and stability. So the challenge ahead of us now is harnessing that potential for the field."

Such impact may be seen in recently added programs, such as the Smith Prize, which awards $5,000 each year to a play focusing on American politics; the Emerging Playwrights Residency, a pilot program that awards three playwrights in their first year out of graduate school with a residency at an NNPN member theatre; and the MFA Playwrights Workshop, co-produced with Stanford University and the Kennedy Center, which pairs six graduate-school playwrights with professional directors, actors and dramaturgs in a workshop of a new play.

Playwrights should sleep better knowing that while a cure of workshopitis and premiereitis might not yet exist, medical centers such as the NNPN are working hard at prevention.

Strategies is a new column featuring initiatives relating to theatre finance, marketing, fundraising, education, audience development, governance, architecture and artistry. Send your strategies of note to at@tcg.org, with "strategies" in the subject line.