Producing Your Own Play - Part 2
A play that doesn't get produced is like reading a recipe card. You try to imagine what it would be like, but you're not able to taste the final product, and it's not satisfying. Plays are meant to be produced; they're not standalone literature. Production completes the work of art. However, getting a production can seem overwhelming in the face of budget cuts, extreme competition, and seemingly limited spaces for rehearsal and shows.
So what do you do with your play? You know, the one you've been worrying over, staying up late over, and that's basically occupying all your waking thoughts.
One possibility is producing it yourself. "Yeah, right!" you say. But it can be done. I've done it annually for three straight years, and it seems to have become a tradition. Each year, I produce one or two of my own scripts, usually mixed with one other script written by someone else. It makes for a nice evening's entertainment, and generally doesn't require any out-of-pocket costs of my own.
My avenue is through the school systems. That's right, schools. In my case, because of the ages of my children, I have produced shows at the K-8 school where my daughters attend ... as fundraisers. Before you shake your head and turn away, consider:
- All schools can use extra funds. Fundraising creates enthusiastic opportunities.
- Fundraisers for schools are always win/win situations. One good production leads to another.
- The schools are willing to donate their theater spaces and rehearsal spaces.
- Any production is an opportunity to test a script under production conditions. Productions allow the playwright to experience the audience's reactions and determine when and where rewriting needs to be done.
- Sure, limitations exist, but there are ways to deal with or mitigate portions of a script. After all, the goal is to test the script, and if a passage or two needs to be cut for a certain audience, then the production is still able to be tested, and the more mature passage(s) can be re-inserted later.
- The organization around a school setting provides for built-in participants and a ready and eager audience.
Before getting into the details of these elements, first consider how to locate and approach the right situation. In my case, the attendance of my daughters was a terrific calling card. But supposing you have no children, or they are grown up, then what?
Do some research and carefully consider the scripts you'd like to produce under these conditions. Just because a school may have attendance of elementary grade children doesn't mean that the parents and school personnel are unwilling to consider advanced material. But keep in mind that there will be limitations of the material they'll accept, such as limitations of extreme language, violence, and adult situations. That's a question each playwright will have to determine alone, whether inclusion or exclusion of such elements greatly impairs or hampers the purpose of the play. For most of my plays, since I aim for a general audience, such limitations require little considerations.
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