Workshopping plays and musicals

[ddgryphon]

Where and how does one go about workshopping plays and musicals? I've wanted to attend the ASCAP and BMI workshops, though a bit pricey and nowhere near my end of the world (Louisville, KY).

What other avenues are there for doing this?

[endless rewrite]

Hi

I cannot say I am familiar with your area but I've never heard of paying to workshop a play and it’s not something you should have to do.

You get to workshop your play:

- As part of the development process of a commissioned play with the production company/theatre. This tends to be after a first draft or pre first full draft if they have commissioned you on a pitch/outline, strength of earlier work etc and again somewhere before a final draft is completed to allow you to tweak before pre-production.


- As part of a program to develop new writers/plays - look for theatres with writers groups etc attached to them. The great thing about being part of a group attached to a theatre is the access you have to actors and directors. Most theatres support some writing development and are looking to develop relationships with new writers.

- Through competitions and courses attached to theatres which offer a chance to develop work. These could be ongoing development programs for writers which allow you regular chances to attend and be part of workshops or one off, once a year schemes. Many theatres run annual competitions which look for new work from previously unproduced writers. Most offer a number of writers the chance to develop, workshop, showcase plays before choosing an overall winner for a full production. With the larger theatres being open to national and international entries it is always worth a go - though be wary of any with fees and always check out the company behind any competition. That's why it is always worth going through an actual theatre and checking out their website etc.


- Often theatres run new writing festivals and if you have a short piece chosen there will be a workshop element attached. Often these can be based around rehearsed readings of plays rather than full productions or productions of shorter pieces - all still valid.


Basically no theatre worth anything is going to put on your work without a workshop element so you need to track down theatres that are open to working with new writers. The Writers Handbook is where I first started looking; I assume The Writers Market is the same. Check out theatres in your area for ongoing writing development and theatres who you think your work could appeal to.


Once you start looking/researching you will be surprised at how many opportunities there are.

Just as an example I've put in the Soho theatre website link to show an example of what you could find for developing writers at lots of theatres, from 10 minute length plays to full length, as well as free script reading and reports.
http://www.sohotheatre.com/fromhomepage/p8.html


Best of luck.

[endless rewrite]

Oh yeah, the musical element ha, - as that's so specific and needs talents above and beyond acting and is usually expensive with a large cast your best bet is contacting local drama groups, universitiy drama sociteties, performing arts groups etc who do that sort of thing and see if they could help you out.