JAN
24

Inviting a Playwright to Your School

By Todd Wallinger 

Todd Wallinger is the bestselling author of Pioneer Drama Service’s Rumpelstiltskin, Private Eye, Million Dollar Meatballs, and You’re Driving Me Crazy!  When he’s not writing, he can be found crisscrossing the country on his way to the next great school.  He makes his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 

It’s opening night.  The stage is set.  The cast is ready.  The audience is buzzing with anticipation.  What could possibly be more exciting than this?

How about having the playwright in the audience?

Seem like a pipe dream?  Not at all.  You see, we playwrights LOVE to see productions of our plays.  It’s a lot more fun than staring at a blank computer screen for hours, and it does us good to leave our frigid garrets once in a while and join the world of the living (or at least the showered).

It also does the students good.  Meeting a real live playwright helps them see playwriting as a viable career option (“You mean they’re not all dead?”).  And, for many student actors, speaking with the author of the play they’re working on can be a transformative experience.

The thing is, playwrights don’t always know ahead of time where their plays are being performed, so if you’d like to have a playwright visit your school, you’ll have to reach out to them.

Making Contact

So how do you find these elusive scribes?  First and foremost, check their bio page on Pioneer Drama’s website.  Many of the playwrights have an EMAIL ME! link right next to their name.  If you see this, you know this playwright is eager to reach out to the people doing his or her plays.

You can also try to Google them, because many playwrights have their own websites.  Unless the playwright is a hermit (and that’s not without precedent), their bio should state where they’re located and how to contact them.

If you’re still striking out, send an email to Pioneer Drama Service through their CONTACT US page.  Write the email you’d like to send to the playwright and ask the good folks at Pioneer to forward it to the playwright for you.  While they won’t share the playwright’s email address, they’ll certainly let you know if they can forward it.

Don’t be shy!  Send that playwright an email.  Let them know when and where their play is being performed and invite them to come see it (of course, it helps if you also tell them how brilliant the play is).  And it’s never too soon.  Reaching out months in advance only increases your chances that they can build it into their schedule.

If the playwright lives within driving distance (say, one or two hours), they might stop in for free.  If they’re further away, or if you’d like them to lead a workshop or talk to your classes, they’re likely going to need a little more “coaxing.”

Playwrights who do school visits typically charge between $400 and $800 per day.  Travel, meals, and accommodations are extra and should also be covered by the school.

I know, I know.  This sounds like a lot of money.  But it’s important to realize that most playwrights will tailor their presentation to your specific needs and preparing that presentation takes a significant amount of time — time that the playwright would otherwise spend writing.

But if your school can afford it, or if you’re able to raise the money through sponsors, grants or bake sales, you’ll find that the rewards far outweigh the costs.  Perhaps the PTO has funds available for a visiting artist?  After all, the playwright offers a real-world perspective on writing that students may not get anywhere else.

Getting your money’s worth

Look around your school.  I bet you’ll find lots of groups that would benefit from a playwright visit.

Creative writing students could get feedback on their stories.  Newspaper and yearbook staffs can learn about career opportunities for writers.  Theatre students would have a blast workshopping the playwright’s next play.  And your cast could spend hours (if you let them) questioning the playwright about the characters they’re playing.

I once spoke at a high school that didn’t have any of these groups — even the drama program had been eliminated.  So I made my presentation more general.  What did I talk about?  My decades-long struggle to get published and the life lessons I’d learned along the way.  The kids were riveted.

Conversely, if you’re in a small town, a visiting playwright can be a big deal.  When Steve Fendrich, publisher of Pioneer Drama Service, went to see one of his plays being done in Great Falls, Montana years ago, he was the town celebrity for the day, complete with a radio interview.

So let’s not forget the greatest benefit of all:  having a playwright chat up the play will boost interest in your show.  I’m not guaranteeing a sellout crowd, but you’ll definitely see people in the audience who you never saw before.  I would imagine you’ll also see a difference in your cast as they rehearse and perform, knowing that the playwright will be in attendance. 

Pinching pennies

If those costs are out of reach for your school, there are ways to reduce them.  A community theatre in Kansas couldn’t afford to put me up in the local motel so they got a family to donate an apartment they owned.  The apartment happened to be inside a seed warehouse, but hey, it was clean and new — and more spacious than a five-star suite.

The theatre also hosted a potluck, which took care of my dinner.  They were performing my play Million Dollar Meatballs, and it was fun to see how many people brought their own version of those beefy orbs to the meal.  I’m just glad I didn’t name my play Million Dollar Brussels Sprouts.

If you still can’t afford a full-blown visit, see if the playwright will conduct a Skype chat for a nominal fee.  Even a half hour Q&A session can provide a meaningful — and memorable — experience for your cast and crew.  Just months before he passed away, Bill Francoeur talked via Skype for 45 minutes with high school students producing one of his shows, and it’s a toss-up who got more out of it.

Making an impact

You never know what impact a visiting playwright will have.  When I was in 9th grade, my English teacher invited a professional poet to our school.  He read my 83-page hand-scrawled novel about struggle and survival in the Far North and predicted that someday I’d be writing 1000-page tomes.

I don’t, of course.  I write silly little plays.  But his encouragement helped set my life’s course and for that I’m forever grateful — to my teacher as well as the poet.

Be that teacher.  Invite a playwright to your school.

Some future Shakespeare will thank you.