Here is the fifth in a series of interviews devoted to people involved in the new play development sector. On Deck: Jason Loewith, Executive Director of the National New Play Network (NNPN). Previous interviews include: Philip Himberg, Polly Carl, Todd London, Wendy C. Goldberg.
Vijay Mathew: Why does the Network exist? What challenges does the NNPN address in the field?
Jason Loewith: We're the country's leading alliance of non-profit theatres that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays. We are hoping to change the way the field thinks about and defines world premieres. That's the primary motivation behind our flagship program, the Continued Life of New Plays Fund. We want to provide an alternative to traditional new play processes, and the way new plays get in front of patron communities around the country.
We've heard a lot of talk in the field about this thing called “World Premiere-it is”. Playwrights are in a real bind. Many theatres only want to produce plays that have never been done before. They don't want to do the second production because they believe somehow the second or third production of the play is not saleable. So playwrights get into a very difficult situation - if a young playwright is lucky enough to have a relatively small theatre do their play, no big theatre may want to do it – especially if the reviews aren’t stellar. A more established playwright may immediately be put into the crucible of New York, where reviews can kill a play first time out.
What the Continued Life of New Plays Fund does is put together a consortia of three theaters that commit to doing the same new play within a single year before the first rehearsal of any of those three productions. We provide a stipend to defray the expenses of the new play, a substantial but not insignificant amount of money. We give over $6,000.00 to each of those three theatres to encourage their collaboration and to help cure World Premiere-itis.
The result – a “rolling world premiere” - gives the playwright three productions within a year: three opportunities to make changes with three completely different artistic teams, three sets of reviews, and three royalty checks. This is a not a co-production, these are three completely different artistic teams working on a show and three completely different patron communities looking and responding to this new work.
The process a) makes the play better because the playwright has three opportunities to work on it, and b)) it gives the playwright three shots at great reviews (because, you know, god forbid your show opens in New York and Ben Brantley had bad clams that night, or your leading actress had a migraine). You’ve got three opportunities now, outside of New York, for your play to get an interesting set of reviews, and the play gets more momentum to be produced elsewhere.
Today in the New York Times there was a big article about Zayd Dohrn and his play "Sick" which is getting done at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. Well, this play "Sick" was a Continued Life of New Plays Fund and NNPN play. The article says "the play has already been done in Dallas, New Orleans, and New Jersey". Those were three NNPN theatres that did it because they learned about it through the network, and teamed up with each other through the Continued Life of New Plays Fund. And now – thanks in part to their work on it – the play is getting an even more visible production. I call that success. Zayd Dohrn has now had three opportunities to work on his play and to make it better. He has received royalties for three productions. We all know that playwrights make so little money off of their plays, so they are all desperate to get that single shot at the right World Premiere… and God forbid, it doesn't go well, five years of work goes down the tubes with one royalty check. With the model that NNPN is promoting, he gets three shots to give the play the momentum it needs.
Vijay Mathew: Could you explain what World Premiere-itis is, and who is afflicted with it?
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