Midwest Dramatists Conference: Ten Minute Plays

It is worth starting this post by saying that ten minute plays are not my specialty. I do admire people who can regularly hit the ten minute plays, communicate an entire arc of a story in that period of time and complete it. I have a few ten minute plays. And this past week, I was able to celebrate one of them at the Midwest Dramatists Conference.

Age of Chimes

Age of Chimes was written at the 2021 Kennedy Center Playwriting Initiative which ran virtually that year. It was inspired by a prompt from Gary Garrison. A weird little play, here’s the synopsis:

Nate and Oscar are having an unusual morning after their third date: time keeps mysteriously shifting each of them in opposite directions. Will they still care about each other or will they discover things that will doom the relationship before it really gets started?

I had never seen it read in front of an audience other than a playwriting group. And then it was selected for the Midwest Dramatists Conference.

The Midwest Dramatists Conference

The Midwest Dramatists Conference takes place in Olathe, Kansas, about half an hour from Kansas City. Fifty or so playwrights gather and spend several days listening to one another’s work, receiving feedback from adjudicators and giving feedback to one another. In addition, we also traveled to the Unicorn Theater, participated in programming studying William Inge (thanks to the Inge family!), met Tori Keenan-Zelt who wrote “The JonBenet Game” that we saw that night and artistic director of the Unicorn Theatre, Ernie Nolan.

My badge from the conference that reads MDC, Midwest Dramatists conference, Age of Chimes, Elana Gartner, Brooklyn, NY

My Experience

My experience of the conference started with my excitement to not only see my play read and hear feedback but to see two of my graduate school friends, Michelle Tyrene Johnson and Holly Lovejoy, and meet my recent publisher from Next Stage Press, Gene Kato, who would be adjudicating. In addition, I was meeting many playwright friends who I only knew virtually and there was a great relief that came with finally having them be three dimensional.

Michelle Tyrene Johnson, Elana Gartner, Holly Lovejoy (Image: Three women smiling. On the left, an African American woman wearing reddish brown glasses, a cream sweater and a brown shirt. Her hair is in short dreadlocks. The middle woman is Caucasian with purple glasses, wearing a pink shirt and a silver necklace. Her hair is brown with some gray fluff. The woman on the right is Caucasian, wearing bright red glasses, a black sweatshirt. She has highlighted hair so that it looks orange in this picture.)

Our opening reception was a little like speed dating. If you did know people, even from a virtual perspective, you were throwing your arms around each other. If you didn’t know each other, there were the traditional questions about where you were from, had you been to the conference before (a lot of people had), how was the travel and when was your play going up in the conference. Part of why this truly ended up feeling like speed dating is because those early encounters (including dinner which I had with a bunch of folks across the parking lot at a wings place) helped to determine who would attend your reading, based on name recognition. Two sets of readings ran side by side in different rooms. You were always missing one per slot, which was unfortunate.

The first night, after the reception, we met our adjudicators, the board members and a director and had a panel discussion. This helped set our expectations for the conference and how we would be interacting.

The first full day was one of the longest days. From 8:30am-5:30pm with only one hour for lunch and several fifteen minute breaks in between, we attended readings. The ten minute plays were read by talented local actors, adjudicated by two people in the room before it was opened up to the rest of the playwrights for further feedback.

Mine was done late morning, which I appreciated so I could see how others were being handled before me. Age of Chimes was well received. The playwrights expressed curiosity and interest in figuring out the “puzzle” of the script but also found the relationship quite sweet. Still, there were some areas that I could adjust things and some tweaks that I could approach that I have written down.

The reading of “Age of Chimes”. Left to right: Stage directions, Becky Froese, Actors: Jose Faus and Zachrey York. (Image: A conference room with tan curtains. The carpet is tan with spots of red. At a table are two men with their backs to the camera, one in a black sweatshirt and jeans, the other in full dark red with brown shoes. To their left is another female audience member with gray hair. Facing them and the camera are the three actors using music stands. On the left is a woman with blond hair and glasses. In the middle is an older Latino man with gray hair and a gray beard. He wears glasses. On the right is a younger Caucasian man with dark hair and a dark beard. All actors wear black clothing.)

Over the course of the day, it was interesting to hear some of the thoughts that people had about the scripts that I was encountering. For me, this was one of the valuable pieces.

The second day, we boarded a bus to downtown Kansas City to go to the Unicorn Theatre. Some of our actors joined us to present excerpts from William Inge’s works. Philip Middleton Williams and Luke Yankee shared their extensive academic knowledge of Inge and led a conversation with the playwrights about it. We also heard from the Inge family who kindly shared some additional information about William Inge.

The artistic director of the Unicorn Theatre, Ernie Nolan, led an interview with his playwright, Tori Keenan-Zelt, including a discussion about the National New Playwright Network rolling world premiere concept, which she was fortunate enough to be participating in.

The playwrights were then turned loose for several hours to have dinner on their own. I went with five friends to an Italian restaurant where we laughed and talked and had a really good time. When it was time to return, we paused outside to take a picture and, moments later, one of us discovered that he had just won his second Emmy (congratulations Scott Sickles!!). So we got to celebrate with him in the middle of Kansas City (people came out of the restaurant to see if we were okay because we were screaming so loud in joy).

Scott Sickles holds up his phone to show the Emmy that he has just won for his writing on “General Hospital” (Image: A Korean American man with black glasses, a salt and pepper beard and mustache and fly-away graying hair, wearing a loud and colorful button up shirt over a black T-shirt, holds up his phone in front of him. In the background, a green sign reads 43rd Street. It is evident that it is twilight and there are cars rushing by.)

We attended the show that night and then returned to the hotel. We celebrated Scott’s success at the bar and I turned in early, thoroughly exhausted.

Our final day started a little slower but ramped up. We did a round robin, meeting with adjudicators in small groups to get general advice on playwriting and the business of playwriting. Each one had a different point of view so it was very successful.

Then, from 10:45am-5:30pm, we reconvened with the readings. By then, I knew a lot of the playwrights in the conference and it was inevitable that I was going to miss people’s readings who I knew. We promised each other that we would check on the New Play Exchange and read our scripts there.

By the time we made it to the final dinner, where we all ate together, there was a deep sense of camaraderie. It had been an intense experience. Maybe we experienced the same thing in different ways and were taking away different lessons. But we had made connections, friendships and created networks. And, as a playwright, that is profoundly important since it is a lonely sport.

Since the Return

The excitement, startlingly, still hasn’t died down and it is two days since we all left. New Play Exchange recommendations are abounding as we are all rushing to support one another. So many photos have been posted. Emails and opportunities, messages and ways to work with one another have ignited.

In the end, this conference was never just about the ten minute play for me. I will take a look at Age of Chimes and I will take into account the feedback. But I will also embrace the members of my community and see what can be built for the future.

Thank you MDC!

The group photo of the conference on Saturday night.