After the First Production

Your show just closed over the weekend. After all the sweat and toiling over the script, a group produced your new play. You saw the performances and experienced the audiences' reactions. Now the production is over. What do you do next?

First off, congratulations. Getting a show produced is generally a challenge, with lots of obstacles that can inhibit, sidetrack, delay, or even stop the project altogether. So take a moment to savor the event. You achieved a remarkable thing: you created a world and populated it with plots and characters. You created the blueprint for a work of art, and people with many other talents brought it to life: the director, actors, stage crew, publicity people, and even the ushers. Because of your writing, a small army of people was brought together to build and present your work of art to dozens, hundreds, or perhaps thousands of others.

But now that effort is complete and it's time to look ahead for what the next steps will be in this life of this script. If you're not looking ahead, if you're satisfied with this production, if your goals for this play have been met, then you may bypass the rest of this article.

On the other hand, if this production only whetted your desire to see it come to life again ... and again ... and again, then sharpen your pencil (or whatever the digital age equivalent saying would be), and get ready, because the rewards can be well worth the work that lies ahead.

Rewriting is an essential part of any writing process, and with plays, a production brings out things that might never be considered through reading alone. Most publishers are reluctant to publish an unproduced script for this reason. They prefer that submitted scripts have gone through a production so that the various aspects of the script will have been tested, observed, and therefore, improved.

Sparkling dialogue is certainly desirable, and the ability to see and hear the actors doing their roles will have great bearing on any subsequent changes to the script. But the actuality of having mounted the production, with sets, costumes, lights, scene changes, props, and other physical aspects, will also have been brought "under the microscope" to clearly display flaws, shortcomings, and opportunities for improvement.

When a show of mine is produced, I pay careful attention to performance, watching for the audience reaction (whether engrossed or bored), looking for awkward moments or scenes that slow down, and watching the general execution. I have two criteria that I apply when watching a show of mine, particularly if I had no involvement in the production beyond supplying the script. I try to determine 1) whether the audience generally enjoyed the show, and 2) whether the cast and crew enjoyed the experience of putting on the show. If I can objectively answer affirmatively to these two items, then I call the show a success.

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