AMERICAN THEATRE | 5 Issues Theatre Criticism Taught Me About Playwriting

“The critic has to coach the general public; the artist has to coach the critic,” mentioned Oscar Wilde.

For the higher a part of the final decade, I used to be a contract theatre critic in Atlanta. I spent many nights and weekends within the aisle seat watching tales unfold onstage after which collaborating in musings about what I’d seen with strangers.

That decade additionally highlighted for me the tales I wasn’t seeing: about poor folks, folks of colour, folks residing with disabilities, or transgender or nonbinary people.

That’s a part of what motivated me to jot down The Wash, about the Atlanta Washerwomen’s Strike of 1881. Throughout this necessary however usually ignored occasion in American historical past, Black laundresses in Atlanta refused to clean garments till they had been granted the ability to set their very own charges and management their wages. They confronted resistance from their prospects, the federal government, and inside their very own ranks. However they in the end prevailed, rising from just a few dozen girls on strike to greater than 3,000 in lower than three weeks.

My different motivation to jot down The Wash, which took me six years on and off (with a variety of day off) to complete, is that I’ve usually rolled my eyes on the tendency of theatres to depict Black life as previous life. However for me this story resonates a lot with the current, chatting with the labor actions presently gathering power within the auto, service, and theatre industries. (The Wash is presently within the midst of an eight-week run in Atlanta, co-produced by Synchronicity Theatre and Affect Theatre. In 2025, the play will likely be at the Black Rep in St. Louis, March 12-30, 2025, and co-produced by Perceptions Theatre and Prop Thtr, October 2025.)

Stepping from critic to playwright has been an exhilarating and terrifying expertise. I used to be solely half-joking with a mentor after I mentioned that if the play was unHealthy I’d have to maneuver to a distinct state and stay in anonymity. In all seriousness, the method of creating this world premiere play has proven me that playwrights and critics have extra in frequent than they assume. Listed below are just a few classes I’ve realized from about playwriting from theatre criticism (and vice versa):

1. You need to have a powerful pitch. In journalism, every time a author pitches an editor, the editor normally asks, what’s the angle—what’s the hook? Why this story now? I’ve heard that Tarell Alvin McCraney usually requested college students at Yale Drama Faculty, why is that this a play? When it got here to The Wash, I knew that I may by no means get an project from a every day paper to jot down an article connecting a largely forgotten labor strike to labor actions of right now whereas additionally placing the world of 1881 in its correct context. The story wanted extra space; it wanted the intimacy and immediacy of theatre. I can suMMArize the play in an elevator, however I’m hoping the expertise of the play stays with folks far longer. 

2. Individuals need to care about who the characters are earlier than they care about what they do. As somebody whose journalism schooling was primarily in magazines, I developed the behavior of writing longform items early. However because the velocity of knowledge has elevated quickly within the final decade, many information shops have stopped publishing lengthy items. Lately, evaluations are 400-600 phrases if you happen to’re fortunate. Nonetheless, I’ve realized that individuals will learn lengthy if the characters are compelling. The identical is true for theatre and different media. TV creator Shonda Rhimes usually talks about beginning with characters who make robust selections. If you can also make folks fall in love with an individual, they’ll learn (or watch) until the top.

3. The story you begin out telling and the one you find yourself telling might not be the identical. The very best storytellers are the curious ones. I can’t inform you what number of occasions I went into an interview or a assessment anticipating one factor and leaving with one thing altogether totally different. New discoveries are part of the enjoyment of connecting via tales. After I began writing The Wash, I resisted it being an ensemble piece, however it’s one. I believe playwrights particularly are finest served after they deal with the writing and let the story be what it’s going to be.

4. Every part is best with editors. Dramaturgs by no means get the credit score they deserve, so let me shout out the groups at Important Theatre and Hush Harbor Lab in addition to my dramaturg for The Wash, Antonia McCain, for serving to me make the 110-page article I began out with into 94-page script. The director Brenda Porter and producers at Synchronicity Theatre challenged me repeatedly to reply the query, what are you attempting to convey right here? I’ve observed that playwrights like Lucas Hnath offer you all of the mitigating circumstances within the first 10 pages, then we spend the remaining time untangling them. The identical is true for journalists: Your first two paragraphs have to inform folks the entire level. You may’t meander or be too treasured concerning the phrases. Editors (and dramaturgs) are there that can assist you see that.

5. The group you construct would be the viewers you’ve. One of many largest errors I’ve heard theatre leaders make is to assume they’re comPeting with Netflix. For my part, the actual comPetitors for stay theatre audiences is third locations: espresso outlets, bars, native hangs, parks, homes of worship, and different areas the place folks really feel a way of dwelling and group. Earlier in my profession, I did advertising and marketing and group engagement for nonprofit theatres, and I discovered shortly that the present needs to be greater than a present to actually have interaction a group, and that engagement needs to be fixed. I carried that information into my journalism profession, the place I didn’t simply go see exhibits I used to be reviewing; I noticed as a lot as I may.

For The Wash, it was necessary for me to collaborate with theatres that perceive the significance of group engagement. Synchronicity Theatre does pay-what-you-can performances each Wednesday. Affect Theatre gives a senior matinee in addition to a free occasion of their neighborhood that individuals can attend whether or not they’re seeing the present or not. As well as, for The Wash, our sound designer Kacie Willis Lauders tapped into her community to host entrepreneur nights for folk to meetup earlier than the present.

Throughout one pay-what-you-can efficiency, we donated a portion of ticket gross sales to the Tiny Blessings Basis, a neighborhood nonprofit that gives care packages to new moms who’re unhoused. We additionally hosted an occasion known as Indigo Evening, the place we invited native, up-and-coming cooks to promote meals within the foyer an hour earlier than the present. They didn’t need to pay a tabling payment or share revenue with the theatre, and viewers members didn’t have to consider dinner.

All of those occasions had been profitable as a result of we had already constructed the relationships to make them so. If you present folks that you simply’re invested of their thriving, they’ll reciprocate and change into invested in yours. That’s a lesson I take with me into all my work, on the web page or the stage.

Kelundra Smith (she/her) is the managing editor of American Theatre.

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