Too Busy to Even Write!

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I have been insanely busy the past several weeks and have not had a chance to post on Substack. But I’ve been busy with great things and there’s lots of fun stuff to talk about!

Projects I Have Been Working On

I’ve been rewriting “Pilar’s Brother” for the virtual reading on August 12 at 7pm EST (Mark your calendars! Tickets will go on sale on July 21!). We are now in the middle of casting.

A ten minute play of mine, “Age of Chimes”, was accepted into the Midwest Dramatists Conference. I will be able to attend the conference along with many colleagues and friends in October. In addition to experiencing seeing my play and other dramatists’ plays performed, I will get to experience a great deal of programming and networking.

I have been a reader for two different opportunities: the Signpost Fellowship, a fellowship created and run by the great Chisa Hutchinson for BIPOC playwrights, and the Jewish Plays Project with literary manager, Heather Helinsky. I have read for both of them before.

Additionally, I am working on some other projects behind the scenes that I am not quite ready to share yet but I promise will be exciting when I am able to.

Shows I Have Seen

Because of my tight schedule, I have not seen as much as I would have liked recently. I did manage to catch “Outsiders” last week. I confess that I might have enjoyed it more if I had read it as a teen. It seemed to be very targeted to young women. My friend and I were seated amongst several young women who were seeing it for their second times and following the fan information online (this actor was out with a broken nose. Maybe it happened during stage combat?). I found parts of the show to be very engaging and others less so. To me, the unevenness was less palatable and it made me wonder why it won Best Musical in 2024.

Conversations in the Industry

Several weeks ago, both Playwrights Horizons and Williamstown Theater Festival, a festival that I worked at when I was in my late teens as a tech apprentice, announced their seasons that were nearly or completely devoid of female playwrights. On the backdrop of the current political landscape in America, these leading off-Broadway theaters who are feeders to the Broadway stage enraged those members of the theater community that keep track of gender parity, including me. A town hall was held at the end of June, several days after these announcements. Two hundred members of the industry stuffed themselves into Playwrights Horizons, even though they were closed for the week. Playwrights Horizons artistic director, Adam Greenfield, was present. Unfortunately, the artistic director for Williamstown Theatre Festival, Jeremy O. Harris, was unable to make it but was in conversation with the organizers, Julia Jordan and Lisa Kron.

Lisa started the meeting by putting everything in historical context as well as the current political context. She explained who was in the room: playwrights, artistic directors, actors, behind the scenes workers and press. We were not to record or take pictures. Julia then presented the statistics, though incomplete, for the outlook for the 2025-2026 season. Unfortunately, they were read too quickly to take notes well on them. But they were pretty bleak. We then had a town hall conversation, airing our thoughts, worrying about what would happen if we spoke out against the theaters that hold the keys to our future, expressing disappointment in the industry and people who we thought were our allies in gender parity. Winter Miller read a prepared statement, suggesting specific ways to fix the situation at Playwrights Horizons without going back on the contracts already given to the playwrights. Members of Honor Roll! (a member organization for theater women over 40) spoke and members of the League of Professional Theater Women spoke. Theresa Rebeck, who is the most produced female playwright on Broadway, sent in a statement for someone to read on her behalf. An excellent article was written about it later by Cara Joy David at BroadwayWorld.com whom I met afterwards. I encourage everyone to check your local and regional theaters to see how their gender parity is doing in their upcoming seasons. If you find that you have a theater that is also not demonstrating gender parity, please drop their name below.