The butler comes home

 

If you're one of my Colorado Springs readers, I want to let you know that The Butler Did It! will be performed at Black Box Theatre, 1367 Pecan St., next month.

Since it was published a year ago, The Butler Did It! has been performed in 17 states and Australia, but this is the first time it'll be produced in my own home town.

When I've got a play in town, it's always tempting to pop in to rehearsal. Last year, I poked my head in quite a bit during rehearsals for Kill the Critic!

But then I had a good excuse. I was a producer and a big chunk of my money was on the line.

My presence didn't help. My spy--I mean my daughter--was in the cast and she reported that--big surprise!--the cast members felt intimidated by me.

For one, they wanted to know why I never laughed. Didn't I like their work?

What they didn't know is that I rarely laugh at my own stuff. Comedy is just too serious a subject to me.

So this time I've decided to stay away, and I have no qualms about it. The production is being directed by my friend Nancy Holaday, who did such a great job with Kill the Critic!, and I have all the confidence in the world that she'll bang it out of the park again.

Just as important, much of the cast of Kill the Critic! has returned to star in this production, and if anyone is going to make me laugh, they will.

The show runs June 5-14. And if it's anything like Kill the Critic!, tickets are going to disappear fast. To order yours, visit the Black Box web site.

Lester wins in Canada

 

I want to send out a great big congrats to the gifted theatre students of Blackville Middle School in Blackville, NB. Their production of Long Tall Lester at the New Brunswick Drama Fest--Canada's largest school theatre festival--garnered awards for props and costumes as well as an honorable mention for one of the actors.

Interestingly, Long Tall Lester won a whole bunch of awards at last year's festival as well when Millerton School of Derby, NB performed it. The conclusion is obvious. ;)

Great job, everyone!

Why you need a publisher

I often hear from playwrights who say that they don't want to be published. They hate the thought of splitting royalties with a faceless corporation. Even more, they hate the thought of giving up control over their plays. As a result, they spend a big chunk of their time promoting their play, arranging for the performance rights, collecting the fees and the myriad other activities required to get a play produced.

Now everyone has the right to pursue their career the way they see fit. But if your goal is to make some money at this game, then I think this view is shortsighted.

Last May, Pioneer Drama Service published my first full-length play, The Butler Did It! Now that it had the imprimatur of a major publishing house, I thought I would bolster their promotional efforts by advertising it myself.

I ordered 250 postcards, bought a big spool of postcard stamps and mailed them off, focusing on community theatre companies that had done goofy comedy/mysteries like mine.

The total cost was around $200. That may seem like a lot, but if the postcards resulted in just 2 productions, I'd break even.

So yesterday, I received my annual royalty statement from Pioneer. I was thrilled to see that The Butler Did It! had gotten 24 productions. Surprisingly, however, not a single one came from those postcards. They were all a result of Pioneer own promotional efforts.

I'm sure a few came from people stumbling across Pioneer's website as the result of a Google search. But I suspect that the bulk came from people who were already loyal customers of Pioneer, and knew what to expect when ordering a play from their catalog.

So yeah, my postcards earned me a big fat goose egg. And that's for a play that's already published. Imagine how much more difficult it is to get a production with a play that hasn't been published.

My other plays did well too. Last year, I was a little worried because the number of productions for The _urloined Letter had dropped from 9 in its first year to 4 in its second year. But this year it nearly regained all that lost ground with 8 productions. And Long Tall Lester did even better, its 18 productions representing a healthy 20% increase over its inaugural count of 15 productions.

As a playwright, you often feel like your plays are your children. And it can be hard to send them out into the world without you.

But plays are meant to be produced, and the best way to achieve that is to get them picked up by a publishing house that will give them as much care and attention as you would yourself.

Hawkeye whodunit

Nothing makes me happier than seeing photos from productions of my plays. And Gehlin Catholic School (Go Jays!) of Le Mars, IA took some great ones for their production of The Butler Did It! this weekend.

They also got a fabulous writeup in the Le Mars Daily Sentinel. Of course, my favorite part of the article has to be these very kind words from director Mark Morehead:

Morehead said he selected the play particularly because he appreciated the slapstick comedy in the script.

"I started reviewing scripts last fall," he said. "I came across this one and I read through it once and I laughed hysterically through the reading. ... It has really great one-liners."

Break legs, everyone! I hope the audience laughs as much.

What I learned at the conference

I just got home from the Pikes Peak Writers Conference and what a wonderful experience it was. Overwhelming, yes. Exhausting, definitely. But wonderful, through and through.

I met a lot of great people--both newbies to the writing field and grizzled veterans. And I was re-inspired but some incredible speakers, from the hard-driving TV reporter and novelist Hank Phillippi Ryan to the hilariously foul-mouthed screenwriter/novelist Chuck Wendig. Chuck's mantra: "Care less. Write more."

On Saturday afternoon, I led a workshop on improvisation titled, ""Whose Story Is It Anyway?" My premise was this: in both novels and plays, it's the characters who drive the story, not the author. But when novelists are stuck in their writing, they're often recommended to use tools that require more writing. Instead, I suggested they do what actors do: get up off your feet and do some improv. It 'll force you to use a different part of your brain and might even kickstart a whole new slew of ideas.

I led a mini-version of this class at a conference preview this February and it phenomenally well. The room was packed with writers, and the five victimess-er, volunteers--I was assigned threw themselves wholeheartedly into the exercises. It didn't hurt that most of them had had some theatre experience.

So I was little disappointed when Saturday arrived and only seven people showed up. What made matters worse, nearly all of them had planned on sitting out the activities and just watching.

Writers--what are you going to do?

But with a little arm-twisting, I was able to get all of them on their feet, and they had a ball. In fact, they had so much fun that when class time came to an end, they hogtied and forced me to come up with additional imrpov games they could play.

Okay, the hogtying was an exaggeration, but the games were not. The participants stuck around another half hour to play improv games until it was time for dinner. They especially enjoyed a game of Quick Change set in a meat freezer and a free-form activity set on a deserted island in which the writers potrayed characters from their own writing.

Last year, I led a class titled Intro to Playwriting and only seven people showed up (including the moderator). I blamed the low turnout on the irredeemably boring title of my class and decided to jazz things up this year by changing the title to Writing Plays for the (Surprisingly Lucrative) School Market.

Again, only seven people showed up (including the moderator). But it all worked out. The attendees were very enthusiastic and they peppered me with a wide range of questions. I may have even inspired a couple to try their hands at this little-known field.

I may not return next year. But my experience this year was extremely rewarding, and I hope to continue teaching classes elsewhere.

Sit down already!

I don't know how he does it. Not only has Broadway producer Ken Davenport found commercial and critical success with shows such as Kinky Boots, not only does he hold some of the most popular producing seminars in the country, but he also writes a fabulously entertaining blog.

When Ken wants to know how Broadway audiences feel about something, he doesn't just wonder about it. He goes out and asks them.

That was the case today, when he posted the results of his survey in which he asked Broadway attendees whether take part in standing ovations and why.

The survey found that 99% of Broadway shows earn a standing O. I see about 50 shows a year, and I would estimate that 80% of those shows get the audience on their feet.

Is that too high? I think so. And Ken's survey bears me out. Turns out that 80% of Broadway audience members stand up even when they they're not that thrilled with the show.

Why? Well, the survey provides lots of explanations, but I think only one gets to the heart of the matter: People are rewarding the performances, not the show itself.

I get that. Actors work damn hard, and a great performance can make even a ho-hum script seem brilliant.

Still, standing ovations are supposed to mean something and if 80% of productions get them, how are we supposed to reward the 20% that are truly outstanding?

I don't know. But if each of us were a little less eager to jump to our feet, maybe we could start making standard ovations special again, instead of merely expected.

Bluegrass butler

A big shout-out to Community Christian Academy in Paducah, KY, who performed The Butler Did It! last night. I love this dramatic photo of the title character, especially since it gives a glimpse of the fabulous set the kids put together. Great job, everybody!