Finding your collaborators
some thoughts + tips
Before we dive into this jam-packed essay about collaborators -
I’m offering two virtual writing classes this spring! Creative Jumpstart and Playwrights’ Workshop. Reach out if you have any questions or would like to register. And after a January hiatus, I once again have open spots for playwrights who are looking for dramaturgy one-on-ones. Reach out if you’d like to work together!
I wrote an essay for The Hat about creative resilience! The Hat is a great online magazine that focuses on all things theater, so I highly recommend checking them out.
Without further ado -
My favorite part of writing a play is knowing that it’ll expand with the voices and hearts of others.
That’s why the blank page of a play doesn’t daunt me like the blank page of a novel or a screenplay. Don’t get me wrong, both of those forms of writing invite collaborators into the process – I can’t write a novel without an editor and screenplays are the blueprints for one of the most highly collaborative artforms there is. I just rarely get to make a film and it takes hours and hours of writing before getting to the point where I feel confident inviting a developmental editor into the pages of my novels. Theater is immediate. At least, it is for me. After writing plays for over a decade, I have a roster of collaborators keeping my brain company, even as I write a new piece.
I’ll craft a character with an actor friend in mind, or know exactly what director I’d like to hand my piece off to once I get to the end of a messy first draft. I’ll write a stage direction that I know a set designer will be able to bring to life, or an impossible quick change that a costume designer will make possible. One of the best parts of longevity in this artform is finding those collaborators who speak your artistic language and holding onto them with all your might. Watching their stars rise and their art transform and coming back to you and your changed art to continue working.
And then there are those moments where I don’t know who will touch the piece. I’ll write a play with very different characters or want to explore a piece with a new director. There’s also a real, hard and painful truth – playwrights cannot always bring their collaborators along for the development of a play. Depending on the opportunity and the various budget limitations and interests of the theater, we’re not always able to bring along the actor that helped develop the role or the director who helped craft the piece. But that’s an essay for another day.
So where do we meet those collaborators? How can we gage if they’re a good fit for our work? And how do we work most effectively together?
I’ve got some thoughts.
Where do we meet collaborators?
This is one of the questions I’m asked the most, so I’ll spend the most time here. And I get it - it’s hard, especially when you’re first starting out.
Attend readings and plays by playwrights who you don’t know.
I graduated from Grad School in 2011 and even though Brooklyn was my hometown, I knew next to nobody in the theater world. I grew up in Bay Ridge, a pretty isolated neighborhood from the theatrical epicenter of New York City and while I was fortunate to live at home after my graduation, it was hard for me to figure out how to ingratiate myself into the theater community.
So I went to see theater like it was my job, whether it be productions, workshops or readings. It helped me get to know a variety of theater companies, new playwrights and the directors who directed them. I also started to see the same faces and became friendly with folks in the audience, many of who were fellow theater artists. I met directors, dramaturgs, actors, and they started to invite me to their projects where I got to know them as artists and got to know the artists that they work with – on and on and on.
I emphasize ‘playwrights who you don’t know’ because we sometimes become siloed into what’s familiar and forget to stretch by seeing plays by folks we’re unfamiliar with. If you have a chance to experience a play by someone who is new to you, especially a reading or a workshop, I highly recommend doing so!
Get involved.
Get involved in your local theater. Go see plays. Reach out and introduce yourself to folks running events.
I met some of my dearest collaborators by participating in short play festivals or other short-term theatrical events put on my theater companies I had become a member of. There used to be a really great short play festival called New York Madness, where playwrights had a week to write a play based on a prompt and then we staged it in a couple of days for an audience. I was invited to write for the first time in 2014 because I had shown up to the events and introduced myself as a playwright to the artistic director. When a spot opened up she figured she’d give me a chance – and I’m so glad she did.
The director I was paired with for my very first madness was Michele Travis. I enjoyed working with her so much, it became a given that she’d be the director I would work with every time I was asked to participate in a madness. We got along so well, we began to collaborate outside of the festival. We worked on a few full-length plays throughout the years, applying for opportunities – or, more often than not, creating our own – so we could continue working together.
I also met John Concado and Stacey Raymond working on New York Madness – two actors who I just worked with on the staged workshop of lisa; a fantasia just last month, and who have been an active part of my artistic life. We figured out in the dressing room of that workshop that we began working together in 2015 – over a decade ago! John has been in at least 5 different projects of mine over the year and Stacey was even in the World Premiere of Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves. And it all started because we were all flexing our artistic muscles as a part of New York Madness.
Ask your friends for recommendations.
This may seem obvious but sometimes it’s the obvious things that are the most beneficial. And I still do this all the time if a director is too busy to take on a project or an actor is out of town, or if I’ve written a role for a character I’ve never written before.
This happened just last summer with my play THAT TIME TERRI AND LILY TOOK A ROAD TRIP TO GO SEE THE LAURA INGALLS WILDER HOUSE. I was going to hear it out loud in my writer’s group and needed two actresses in their late 60s to read.
I asked Facebook for recommendations and was very luckily recommended Jackie Sidney, who was not only game to read, but perfect as Terri. She’s so perfect that I cast her in two subsequent readings, including Good Apples Collective’s Rootstock Reading Series. Thank goodness for great recommendations.
Do you live in an area where it’s hard to access theater? I find theater in the virtual space to be a great place to continue to work on your own plays, and to show up for others, too.
Reach out.
Don’t know an artist personally but curious to work with them? No problem. Most of us have contact info on our website not only in the hopes a donor will e-mail us offering to bankroll the rest of our lives so we can just write plays without concern like Shakespeare did – it’s also so we can be contacted by other artists to meet or potentially collaborate with.
I did this for my Evergreen Players project just last month. I saw New Light Theater’s production of Nina Kissinger’s brilliant play THIS IS GOVERNMENT in September and thought that one of the actors, Charles Hsu, was hilarious and would be great for a role in my play. Neither I or my director knew him personally, but we just wrote an e-mail asking if he’d be on board – and he was.
We’re all just humans. Truly. Don’t be a weirdo when you reach out and don’t take it personally if someone doesn’t write back. But collaboration is at the center of this artform so it never hurts to say hi.
Be open to happenstance.
Sometimes you’ll find collaborators in the most unlikely of places. Here are three seemingly random encounters that turned into very important collaborations –
1. I was in a virtual anti-racism group in 2020 and actor Jen Jarnagin happened to be in my pod. We were aligned on a lot, from social justice to TV shows, and were both in Brooklyn so when it was safe to be in person again, met up at a park. They were in a cold reading of one of my plays and I knew they were someone I wanted to develop a strong working relationship with. Jen’s since been in several readings of my plays and they are an actor whose voice I can vividly hear in my head as I craft many characters.
2. In 2022, I was asked to be on a panel after a performance of the musical The Bedwetter at The Atlantic Theater. I don’t remember the topic of the panel but I vividly remember being a part of it because that’s where I met director Asher Lloyd Ehrenberg, who was the Associate Director of the project. She was also on the panel and we each really liked one another’s answers so we exchanged information and met up for coffee. We’ve since worked on two separate plays together and she’s one of those directors I often send fresh drafts or new ideas to.
3. I met Taylor Reynolds back in 2012 when we were both assistant directors for a now defunct somewhat sketchy theater company. I had wanted to be a director when I started out but quickly discovered it was boring (for me!) and I wanted to spend less time making decisions about a piece and more time writing them.
Taylor was already a brilliant director and we became fast friends. When I announced my departure from the form (lol), I asked if she’d be open to working together on a piece. One play became another play became a solo play became a whole bunch of plays became our staged workshop of lisa; a fantasia. I often think back on that time we spent together in a leaky basement, talking about what kind of theater we wanted to create. I’m so glad I quit directing and am even gladder we’ve not only remained collaborators but best friends.
Trust your collaborators, too.
Your collaborators will bring in their own collaborators. I’ve brought a lot of new actors to directors and directors have brought new actors and designers to me. Director Scott Ebersold came to my play Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves because Tim Erickson, Boomerang Theater’s Artistic Director, recommended him. Scott wasn’t only a great fit for that play, but I loved working with him so much I already knew I wanted him to direct Evergreen Players as I wrote it.
We don’t have to go about it on our own and once you find the folks who speak your artistic language, you can trust that the folks they recommend will know how to speak that language, too.
Speaking of artistic language –
How do we know if a collaboration will be good or bad?
The short answer – we won’t know until we try. I’ve had preliminary conversations with directors or actors that felt good but when we got into the room became clear we weren’t aligned on what the piece was about or, in the case of actors, how to handle the language of my plays. Sometimes there’s a mis-match in terms of workstyle, sometimes it’s a misunderstanding of what the piece is or what the scope of the project should be.
Theater can be messy because it is an artform of people and people can be messy. I always try to allow space for misunderstandings and seek out collaborators who will be open to having the messy conversations without them becoming fraught.
Still, it’s always good to set your play up for success. If there’s a director I’m interested working with, I’ll always set up a preliminary conversation and make sure I touch on the following:
What is the play about? I’m always interested to know what their perception of the play is and to make sure it aligns with my own while allowing space for their own interpretation.
What about the play speaks to you? Knowing what excites them about the piece is really helpful – and if they can’t answer this question, I always proceed with caution as I ideally want someone who resonates with the piece in some way.
How do you work in the room? I’m always interested in hearing how a director works – if they are question-oriented or want to provide ample space for discussion or stick to the script, if they want to experiment with staging or add in light design elements.
What is the goal of this process? Being aligned on the goal is really helpful – is it allowing space for me to do as many rewrites as possible or do you want to see the play up on its feet, or anything in between?
And I want to work with an artist who will provide the space to give my own answers to these questions, too. If a director, actor, designer, dramaturg, stage manager, or producer is talking over you or not asking you questions, that’s always a red flag. Well, more like a yellow flag. Again, I never want to jump to the worst scenario – it may be communication style. But if they’re resistant to my re-directs or shutting me down, that’s always a sign to be wary.
What happens once we’re in the room?
This is where the work begins! It’s the best part! Here’s where you get to see what your play is doing and how other people interpret it.
If you haven’t had a chance to work on many of your plays in a developmental setting, don’t worry - you’ll learn how you like to work with a room. There’s no ‘right’ way to be a playwright, but you will discover what’s most effective to you, your process and everyone in the room.
Allow space for other artists’ interpretations. Build a muscle of understanding. It’s okay if an actor doesn’t say the line exactly as you imagined it. Give them space to get there, or allow the discoveries to inform rewrites on the script. Be surprised by a director’s interpretation.
Remember that your play is not infallible. There will be knots for you to untangle, bumps to smooth. Allow space for confusion without getting defensive about the piece. Breathe through the discomfort. Ask your director for a sidebar, or if a dramaturg could clarify their thoughts. Give yourself permission to flail in your confusion without letting it leak into the energy of the room.
When something is integral to the script, give yourself permission to guide the conversation towards what will be most useful for you. Don’t allow yourself to be talked out of something you know to be true about your piece. Engage in conversation. Try things out.
And learn.
Do you have any tips about finding your collaborators? Share your thoughts! I only just touched the surface of this topic. The more voices, the merrier.
A few announcements before we go -
I am offering two virtual writing classes this spring!
Creative Jumpstart is a 5-week course for writers across genres, designed to get you out of your head and in touch with your heart and to start a new project. All information, including pricing and how to register, is available on my website.
Playwrights’ Workshop is a playwriting workshop for playwrights who are hoping to make significant progress on a new play, or on rewriting a play. Playwrights will be able to workshop up to 20 pages of their play every other week. All information, including pricing and how to register, is available on my website.
One-on-one dramaturgy is back for February! Do you have a new year’s resolution to rewrite a play? Do you want accountability for a play you’re trying to write? I’d love to be that outside set of eyes for you.
I wrote an essay for The Hat about creative resilience! The Hat is a great online magazine that focuses on all things theater, so I highly recommend checking them out.
MERCUTIO LOVES ROMEO LOVES JULIET LOVES and The Virtuous Fall of the Girls From Our Lady of Sorrows are available to be purchased and licensed from Original Works Production! Please consider licensing these plays as part of your upcoming theater season.
That’s all for me! Thank you for being a supporter of The Rejected Writer. I’ll see you all next week with a bonus post, and paid subscribers at the end of the month with a sneak peek at a new novel. But until then, please protect your art - and your heart.