Professionals Descend on First Look
Posted by Whitney Dibo on 8/08/2008
As First Look Rep enters its third and final week, there is no question the festival has been a success. All three new plays have been met with genuine enthusiasm from audience members, and from a marketing standpoint the shows have sold amazingly well. But despite these successes, the Rep’s ultimate goal has not yet been reached. Yes, it’s nice to put up three pieces of quality developmental theatre, but the Steppenwolf Garage is not meant to be the final destination for these new plays. The hope is that other theatres will become interested in the projects and produce the newly minted scripts elsewhere - giving the plays life after First Look.
One way we nudge this process along is by hosting Professionals Weekend, a three-day event during which professionals from all over the country are given the opportunity to see what First Look is all about. In addition to learning about the play development process and mingling with one another, the hope is that some of these professionals might go back to their home theatres and exclaim (with reckless abandon), “Let’s put on one of these shows in our next season!” Or at least, that’s the idea.
The weekend kicked off with a reading of Mia McCullough’s new play Household Spirits, directed by my predecessor Meghan Beals McCarthy. The exciting thing about listening to a new play reading in the midst of a new play festival is that the buzz of future potential is everywhere. After all, the three First Look plays were receiving their preliminary readings just a few short months ago – and now they are receiving full-scale productions. So when Mia’s script was read aloud Saturday morning the air was thick with possibility, thanks to the collective success of Fair Use, Perfect Mendacity and Pursued by Happiness. And the haunting script was brought to life by some of Chicago’s finest actors – included Fran Guinan, recently returned from the run of August: Osage County on Broadway. Having Fran in the room served as a reminder that Steppenwolf’s recent acquisition of five Tony awards (and a Pulitzer Prize for ensemble member Tracy Letts) began with a reading much like this one not so long ago.
Many of the professional guests then plunged into a full-throttle triple-header: seeing all three First Look plays in one day. The only break was between the 4:30pm and 8:00pm shows, during which professionals were invited across the street to Steppenwolf’s administrative offices for a catered dinner. As the guests noshed on sushi from local restaurant Shoochu, the eclectic crowd was never at a loss for conversation. At one table sat playwrights Sarah Gubbins and Jason Wells, who chatted with out of town artistic directors from Florida and Denver. At another table the dramaturges and literary managers congregated, hailing everywhere from Boston and Texas to Atlanta and Wisconsin. At my table, ensemble member and First Look director Tim Hopper chatted with newly graduated students from Northwestern’s theatre school. With a little good food and a lot of good theatre, these professionals had plenty to keep them talking until we realized it was 7:50pm– time to sprint over to the Garage for the third and final show of the day.
The next morning, Director of New Play Development Ed Sobel facilitated a panel discussion entitled The Newest New, on the challenges and opportunities facing young and emerging playwrights. The panel consisted of Mark Bly, former chair of the playwriting department at Yale and the current Director of New Play Development and Senior Dramaturg at the Alley Theatre in Houston; Ilana Brownstein, the outgoing literary manager of the Huntington Theatre in Boston and soon to be professor of Dramatic Literature at Boston University; Jade Lambert-Smith, the Artistic Engagement Associate at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, and last but certainly not least – Marisa Wegrzyn, a young playwright whose work has been produced all over Chicago, including in the First Look Rep a few years ago.
As the professionals wrapped their weekend, one thing was clear: every person in attendance either gained or deepened their respect for the delicate process of new play development. And as more industry professionals invest in new work, more talented new playwrights will inevitably emerge with scripts in hand. What the First Look Rep program has demonstrated is this: the writers are out there. Sometimes growing in our own backyard, just waiting to spread their branches over the fence to our neighbors.