Any worthwhile endeavor in theatre needs people, and the folks at PCSF wear lots of different hats. Board members for this 501(c)3 not only help guide the long-term vision of PCSF, but they also roll up their sleeves and get to the immediate and creative task of putting local writers’ work on its feet. Alina Trowbridge (Board Chair), Patricia Milton (President), Jennifer Roberts (Secretary), Rod McFadden (Treasurer), Jason Jeremy (Member at Large), Soumyaa Kapil (Member at Large), Michael Behrens (Member at Large), Brian Tognotti (Member at Large), Meg O’Connor (Administrative Director), Sara Staley (Producing Director), Suze Allen (Dramaturg and Producing Director), and Chas Belov (cyber guru) are all truly friends to playwrights everywhere.

This eclectic group represents a wide cross-section of theatre professionals: writers, actors, singers, directors, filmmakers, web designers, sound designers, and arts administrators. With all this talent, it’s no surprise that PCSF offers outstanding opportunities for playwrights. As testimony to this high quality of programming, numerous plays that first breathed life at PCSF have gone on to win awards, and members’ plays have found many productions with other companies, including New Conservatory Theater Center, City Lights, Three Wise Monkeys, Unidentified Theatre Company, and Killing My Lobster.

Founded in 1980, The Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco has helped a multitude of writers over the years, and PCSF continues to evolve and grow. Their website has useful free downloads, and the weekly email blast lists submissions, “shout outs” detailing member success stories, and a wealth of excellent information. The Bay-Area theatre scene is vibrant and alive, and Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco has been helping to keep a door open to all playwrights who want a place to call their own.

Happy 30th birthday! Here’s to 30 more.

Scott McMorrow
smcmorrow@dramatistsguild.com

Laurence Olivier once said, “In film, there is no performance. You just shoot a lot of rehearsals and pick the best.” For those of us writing for the boards, it’s not always about performance, either. It’s about the process. How we get from page to stage, and everything that happens in between. Something gets written. Then rehearsed (hopefully not to death).  The beast first staggers to its feet, learning to walk before it can waltz. The written looks similar to the performed. Similar, but not identical. This is our inheritance, part of the collective lineage of making plays. A script is not a dry bit of papyrus that you just hydrate with water to add flesh and bone. It’s the people in theatre that makes the thing a play. 

Some have said that theatre is dying, antiquated, a thing of the past. Theatre is of the past.  And of the future. In the time of Julius Caesar, bleeding to death on the floor of the Roman Senate, people made theatre. While Si Ali Sakkat, an Arab man, was working to save the lives of Tunisian Jews in Nazi held Morocco, people made theatre.  During the lunacy of the great frothing idiot, George Bush, theatre thrived. Theatre has survived tyrants, tragedy, and morons. Why? Because this is what we choose to do. Make theatre.

The theatre will out live us all. People will always feel the pull to band together and create the magic, the erotic charge of live performance.  NASA is looking to colonize the moon in the next decades. And when humans trek forward, creating other worlds, theatre will go with them. Image a time when a young adventurer closes the door in her Sea of Tranquility apartment, clicks off her gravity boots, floats around her moon pad listening to Richard III, and says to herself, “Man, that Shakespeare knew his villains. We should do this play.”

smcmorrow@dramatistsguild.com

Last January, staff from the Guild’s NYC office came to San Francisco to continue their outreach to the regional membership. Hosted by Playwrights Foundation and Z Space Studios, Gary Garrison and company set up two days of programming. Their visit kicked off with a Thursday Town Hall Meeting where local playwrights met with Gary and Roland Tec, the Guild’s Director of Membership. This provided a productive dialogue between local members and the National office, and there was energy and enthusiasm to establish Bay Area development opportunities for San Francisco-based Guild playwrights.
A State of the Union panel discussion followed. Moderated by Gary, local theatre makers and shakers met with SF playwrights to offer a snapshot of the local scene.
The panel was comprised of Jasson Minadakis (Marin Theatre Company), Amy Mueller (Playwrights Foundation), Michael Paller (American Conservatory Theatre), Mark Routhier (National New Play Network), Lisa Steindler (Z Space), Marissa Wolf (Crowded Fire), Patricia Milton (Playwrights Center of San Francisco), Sharmon Hilfiger (Pear Ave Theater), and Annie Stuart (PlayGround). The panelists gave a realistic accounting of what’s going in SF. Yes, the economy is in the tank. The silver lining is that more companies are collaborating with each other, and this is strengthening theatre.
Friday afternoon, Gary led a funny and brutally honest workshop entitled Keeping the Drama in Your Work and Out of Your Life. He affirmed what a lot of us know, but might be afraid to admit. Each playwright has to define what “success” means. And we all should take stock of our individual strengths and weakness. No one else can.
David Faux, the Guild’s Director of Business Affairs, then gave a presentation called The Author as CEO, miraculously linking forklift rentals with the playwright’s need to understand the business aspects of being an artist. The NY Guild’s visit culminated with Peter Nachtrieb’s production of T.I.C. Trenchcoat in Common. At the Q & A after the show, Peter, Lisa Steindler, and the cast gave great insight into how this wildly hilarious play grew from the commissioning stage to a full production.
The Guild’s visit helped strengthen the feeling of community among local playwrights, as well as create solid bonds between SF writers and their Big Apple representatives. The NY Guild folks enjoyed their visit to SF as much as we enjoyed having them, and Gary assures us they’ll be coming back.

smcmorrow@dramatistsguild.com