April 26 was Guild Day in LA! At 3:00 PM, in the plush Ahmanson Auditorium at Loyola Marymount University, Chris Huntley of Write Brothers presented a two-hour plus workshop on Movie Magic software for an attentive crowd of Guild members who’d come equipped with their laptops – and lots of questions.
Then, after a brief break, the workshoppers reassembled at 5:30 PM – with the addition of a few dozen other members – for a Town Hall. Gary Garrison was scheduled to preside, and had flown to Los Angeles the day before. Unfortunately, shortly after landing at LAX, he got the sad news that his mother had died, and needed to turn around and fly back to join his family in Texas.
Before he left, though, Gary sent me a lengthy email outlining the subjects he’d been intending to talk about at the Town Hall, and I began the session by reading them to the assembled folks. They included an exhortation to support small theatres in this time of economic crisis, a report on the Guild’s efforts to set a standard for subrights, and a warning about giving away a portion of your author’s royalties to a director. There was news about the website, as well as the Guild’s success in shutting down several other websites which had been pirating members’ work.
Gary also reported that the Guild will soon come out with a guide to self-producing, and that membership levels may be different in the future. Last but not least, he announced plans for a biweekly series of seminars and workshops to address topics of relevance to members, such as synopsis writing, wills and trusts, blogging, and so on.
This ongoing education – Gary called it “The DG Academy” – immediately struck a chord with the audience. Sharon Sharth declared it to be a great idea, and Kelly Younger – a faculty member at LMU – said he was “enthusiastic” about the concept, even if it could be done only once a month.
As the discussion continued, one of the biggest concerns was the insistence by theatres on presenting “world premieres.” Jan O’Connor brought the subject up, asking why it seemed to be of paramount importance for a theatre to be “the first,” and questioning what exactly constituted a “production” which would preclude an author from claiming his or her play was brand-new. Paul Elliott claimed most 99-seat productions are useful mainly to see whether the play works. But since they rarely lead to commercial success, he cautioned playwrights to be very careful about where they assign their premieres.
Ellen Sandler pointed out that some theatres dependent on grants may have strictures in their mission statements, requiring them only to do work that has not been previously seen. G. Bruce Smith wondered whether a standardized definition of what constitutes a production might help in solving the problem. And Stephanie Hutchinson reported that, whenever she has questioned a theatre about whether a workshop production, for example, would disqualify a play of hers from consideration, “I’ve never been turned down.”
We ended the Town Hall with each person introducing him or herself, and giving a brief outline of upcoming productions, readings, workshops, and the like – it turned out we were an extraordinarily prolific group!
Everyone sent good wishes to Gary, and expressed the hope that we’d see him in Los Angeles before long.
MovieMagic: Nance Crawford (L) seeks advice from Chris Huntley of Write Bros.
TownHall1: Rom Watson acts as a living desk for Sharon Sharth, as Jonathan Josephson (L) and Paul Stein compare notes behind.
TownHall2: L-R, Ken Stone, Adryan Russ, Jan O’Connor, Catherine McClure Dunne (who flew in from Las Vegas to attend!), and Stephanie Hutchinson smile for the camera.
Los Angeles
By Dan Berkowitz
April 26 was Guild Day in LA! At 3:00 PM, in the plush Ahmanson Auditorium at Loyola Marymount University, Chris Huntley of Write Brothers presented a two-hour plus workshop on Movie Magic software for an attentive crowd of Guild members who’d come equipped with their laptops – and lots of questions.
Then, after a brief break, the workshoppers reassembled at 5:30 PM – with the addition of a few dozen other members – for a Town Hall. Gary Garrison was scheduled to preside, and had flown to Los Angeles the day before. Unfortunately, shortly after landing at LAX, he got the sad news that his mother had died, and needed to turn around and fly back to join his family in Texas.
Before he left, though, Gary sent me a lengthy email outlining the subjects he’d been intending to talk about at the Town Hall, and I began the session by reading them to the assembled folks. They included an exhortation to support small theatres in this time of economic crisis, a report on the Guild’s efforts to set a standard for subrights, and a warning about giving away a portion of your author’s royalties to a director. There was news about the website, as well as the Guild’s success in shutting down several other websites which had been pirating members’ work.
Gary also reported that the Guild will soon come out with a guide to self-producing, and that membership levels may be different in the future. Last but not least, he announced plans for a biweekly series of seminars and workshops to address topics of relevance to members, such as synopsis writing, wills and trusts, blogging, and so on.
This ongoing education – Gary called it “The DG Academy” – immediately struck a chord with the audience. Sharon Sharth declared it to be a great idea, and Kelly Younger – a faculty member at LMU – said he was “enthusiastic” about the concept, even if it could be done only once a month.
As the discussion continued, one of the biggest concerns was the insistence by theatres on presenting “world premieres.” Jan O’Connor brought the subject up, asking why it seemed to be of paramount importance for a theatre to be “the first,” and questioning what exactly constituted a “production” which would preclude an author from claiming his or her play was brand-new. Paul Elliott claimed most 99-seat productions are useful mainly to see whether the play works. But since they rarely lead to commercial success, he cautioned playwrights to be very careful about where they assign their premieres.
Ellen Sandler pointed out that some theatres dependent on grants may have strictures in their mission statements, requiring them only to do work that has not been previously seen. G. Bruce Smith wondered whether a standardized definition of what constitutes a production might help in solving the problem. And Stephanie Hutchinson reported that, whenever she has questioned a theatre about whether a workshop production, for example, would disqualify a play of hers from consideration, “I’ve never been turned down.”
We ended the Town Hall with each person introducing him or herself, and giving a brief outline of upcoming productions, readings, workshops, and the like – it turned out we were an extraordinarily prolific group!
Everyone sent good wishes to Gary, and expressed the hope that we’d see him in Los Angeles before long.
dberkowitz@dramatistsguild.com
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
MovieMagic: Nance Crawford (L) seeks advice from Chris Huntley of Write Bros.
TownHall1: Rom Watson acts as a living desk for Sharon Sharth, as Jonathan Josephson (L) and Paul Stein compare notes behind.
TownHall2: L-R, Ken Stone, Adryan Russ, Jan O’Connor, Catherine McClure Dunne (who flew in from Las Vegas to attend!), and Stephanie Hutchinson smile for the camera.