The Atlanta theatre community is close, but it isn’t always connected. On a recent visit to the Kennedy Center, I ran into one of Atlanta’s stellar Artistic Directors. A week later, I got serendipity times two by bumping into another Atlanta AD outside a theatre in mid-town Manhattan. We were only half kidding when we said it seemed easier to see each other out of town than in. That sense that we’re all rushing around without enough time to keep track of each other made the positive response to a recent regional DG Town Hall meeting even more sweet. When the invitation went out to Atlanta regional members, I was hoping that the opportunity to hear from entertainment attorney Alan S. Clarke about the use of copyrighted material in our plays might be interesting to some, and that a discount ticket to the premiere of A Cool Drink of Water by Atlanta playwright Thomas W. Jones II might add a touch of incentive. What I hadn’t imaged was how excited folks could be about just sitting in a room full of 24 fellow DG members and feeling part of something. That’s right–community. Soon the questions tossed Clarke’s way became a singing telegram about all the incredible projects that are being developed right here in traffic jam city. I was impressed. But it didn’t stop there. After the meeting, I began to get emails from the people who couldn’t come, like Bob Brabham from Valdosta. “We have just completed writing Slinky, the Musical about the life of Betty James, whose husband discovered Slinky, became successful, started foolin’ around, and wound up leaving her alone with six kids to raise.” From Northwest Georgia, T.J. Brown sent his regrets and mentioned that he “co-wrote Fat Shirley’s: A Trailer Park Opera, a two-act bluegrass musical comedy that has been staged in Georgia a half dozen or so times and in the U.K. at a handful of theatres over the past few years.” I also got enough responses regarding the next meeting topic to make it a majority vote in favor of subsidiary rights and self-producing. Two sides of the coin, but it all feels connected to me.
With all of the excitement of the DG group hug, I was in the mood to indulge in another fun event. After taking on the huge job of producing Working Title Playwrights’ First Annual 24-Hour Play Project in July, local wonder (playwright, novelist, syndicated columnist) Topher Payne treated sell-out audiences to The Medicine Showdown, co-written with Adam Koplan, and produced by their The Flying Carpet Theatre. This New York and Atlanta-based company bills itself as fusing vaudeville-style entertainment with the nurturing of “new bold voices”. Medicine featured a provocative story of commerce versus public safety set during the 1918 flu epidemic and sandwiched it between the layers of some ferocious tap dancing and darn compelling sales pitches. I’m glad I didn’t wait to catch this out of town.
Atlanta
The Atlanta theatre community is close, but it isn’t always connected. On a recent visit to the Kennedy Center, I ran into one of Atlanta’s stellar Artistic Directors. A week later, I got serendipity times two by bumping into another Atlanta AD outside a theatre in mid-town Manhattan. We were only half kidding when we said it seemed easier to see each other out of town than in. That sense that we’re all rushing around without enough time to keep track of each other made the positive response to a recent regional DG Town Hall meeting even more sweet. When the invitation went out to Atlanta regional members, I was hoping that the opportunity to hear from entertainment attorney Alan S. Clarke about the use of copyrighted material in our plays might be interesting to some, and that a discount ticket to the premiere of A Cool Drink of Water by Atlanta playwright Thomas W. Jones II might add a touch of incentive. What I hadn’t imaged was how excited folks could be about just sitting in a room full of 24 fellow DG members and feeling part of something. That’s right–community. Soon the questions tossed Clarke’s way became a singing telegram about all the incredible projects that are being developed right here in traffic jam city. I was impressed. But it didn’t stop there. After the meeting, I began to get emails from the people who couldn’t come, like Bob Brabham from Valdosta. “We have just completed writing Slinky, the Musical about the life of Betty James, whose husband discovered Slinky, became successful, started foolin’ around, and wound up leaving her alone with six kids to raise.” From Northwest Georgia, T.J. Brown sent his regrets and mentioned that he “co-wrote Fat Shirley’s: A Trailer Park Opera, a two-act bluegrass musical comedy that has been staged in Georgia a half dozen or so times and in the U.K. at a handful of theatres over the past few years.” I also got enough responses regarding the next meeting topic to make it a majority vote in favor of subsidiary rights and self-producing. Two sides of the coin, but it all feels connected to me.
With all of the excitement of the DG group hug, I was in the mood to indulge in another fun event. After taking on the huge job of producing Working Title Playwrights’ First Annual 24-Hour Play Project in July, local wonder (playwright, novelist, syndicated columnist) Topher Payne treated sell-out audiences to The Medicine Showdown, co-written with Adam Koplan, and produced by their The Flying Carpet Theatre. This New York and Atlanta-based company bills itself as fusing vaudeville-style entertainment with the nurturing of “new bold voices”. Medicine featured a provocative story of commerce versus public safety set during the 1918 flu epidemic and sandwiched it between the layers of some ferocious tap dancing and darn compelling sales pitches. I’m glad I didn’t wait to catch this out of town.
pturner@dramatistsguild.com