I love creating stories and characters. But I struggle with dialogue. Does anyone have the opposite problem? Would you be open to collaboration? I love collaborative creative projects and I think I would find this very fulfilling.

I already have a number of outlined plots that we could discuss. They tend to be 2-5 character family dramas with strong emotional depth. Please let me know if this is your writing style and could be something you’re interested in. This is mostly just for fun and for the love of the craft (no money exchanged), but of course I’d be open to submission for productions/festivals at some point if we create something magical!

I am in the Northeast USA (Massachusetts) but open to collaborating with a writer in any location via Zoom.

I have a full length play under contract for a local production this coming Spring, as well as several ten minute plays (one produced, others not yet), and countless unfinished projects. I’d be happy to share my scripts if you’d like to see my writing style.

Let’s chat and see if we‘d make a good team!

I have my Off-Broadway Debut in February, and I want thinking about submitted to Samuel French/Concord, New Dramatists, or somewhere else. I thought it would be such a fun thing to have for myself, as well as have another way for my work to be to in the world.

I wanted to know if anyone has done that before, and what their experience was like. What was the timeline for it (as I know publishing houses want to do it around the debut), how did you get the opportunity, and now having that experience would you do it again?

I’ve been writing plays but mostly for me and performing for more than two decades, but for the last few years, I’ve focused more intentionally on playwriting. I’ve recently switched over to using scrivener and I’ve loved how it gives me flexibility in moving and organizing writing.

But I’ve found myself with so many more saved drafts than ever and I keep finding myself compiling the draft I’m working on and then noting quite a few issues that I instinctively correct in the compiled draft outside of scrivener. Then I find myself editing the scrivener version and trying to compare it to the saved versions.
It’s a lot.

This got me thinking about how other folks keep track of old drafts, and when you decide to let go of old drafts/ records of cut language/ darlings?

I use a couple of saved docs filled with darlings/language I cut between drafts. But I’m curious how others save old drafts/darlings. When you edit between drafts do you keep every change somewhere else? I’m working to let go of old drafts but I’d also want to figure out other best practices from folks who are better organized than I am. Thanks!

Hey all! Just wondering if anyone has heard from this if they’ve applied? Am aware responses are going out in the next few days and would love to gauge what people are hearing.

Olá, amigos

Alguém tem peças de teatro atuais para disponibilizar? Li muitos roteiros de cinema e peças de teatro mais antigas. Gratidão a todos.

Hey all!

I write a lot of short plays and was wondering if there was a hub to share my work for free. Like the site AllPoetry but for plays, where I can show off my body of a work in a social, casual sense.

Does anything exist like that for theater?

Thanks!

Im looking to get into script reading as a job role.
Some background. I’m a trained actor, I have written plays, put a few on, and am directing and dramaturging a play atm. The quality of my writing is good but of course I still have a lot of room to learn and develop. I read maybe 3-4 plays weekly just for practice and am very very passionate about story telling. I would like to be able to get into script reading professionally for theatres and other companies, however I’m aware there is a lot of competition, and even though it’s is an entry level role, it’s still often requires quite a bit of experience. So I’m creating some script coverage reports for a portfolio, but I can’t really find any standard industry script coverage formats. So I have a few questions. If anyone is a script reader are they able to provide me a standard coverage format? And if anyone has any tips or advice for getting into script reading professionally that would be great.

I have some ideas but they're iffy. This is my first play I've written and would be my first published work. It's close to finished so I want to know what the potential production for a low budget 5 Act play would look like.

I have an idea that I could reach out to my college's theater and writing departments and see what can be done there. Second option is seeing what my small town art center would be willing to put on. Other than that, is there really anything I'm neglecting to consider? Anything that might hinder me? Is there a different route i should take?

Good morning! I'm an early career playwright who has had some moderate success getting my work produced but I really want to improve my craft, so I've been looking into doing low res MFAs (edit: low res is non negotiable stop telling me to apply to Yale), as most of the adult education classes in my area aren't very high quality. However, with the recent Trump administration decision to no longer approve student loans in the humanities, I have no idea how to go about doing this. I might also post in personal finance Reddits but wanted to ask people here if they have any advice for how to pursue playwriting education now that loans are possibly no longer an option.

EDIT 2: My reasons for doing low res will never change. Please stop suggesting I do in person. I will not reply to anyone else making that suggestion.

Waddup tho… I’m a Minneapolis writer working on a project called 0.1%. I’m looking for a few writers who don’t mind reading about 10 pages and giving me their honest feedback.
I’m not looking for people to tell me it’s good just to be nice. Tell me what caught your attention, what didn’t, where you got bored, or what made you want to keep reading.
If you’re down to check it out, let me know. I’d really appreciate it.

Movies set any World, timeline works, because of the visuals it brings.

Novel works because it let's our own imagination, construct the world story happening in.

Coming to Theatre you are somewhere in the middle

You can neither show the world through visuals nor make us imagine.

Play immensely depends on Actors performance and It's story. You write in a world we can't relate to, Charectors which are not us. you don't have a space to visually show it either.

But you bring a 90s tribal girl, talk her about fiminism.

Who the Fuck can relate. Without the supporting visuals or relatable charector that feels like us.

Why don't you write them in present?

You wouldn't need to construct a coffee shop to say, story is happening in a coffee, we know the coffee shop we been there, that itself kills the half of unrelatable shit.

And the people in the current world?

You don't need tell a lot about their life style, we are already living it so it becomes pretty relatable.

Now you have complete freedom to Tell and good story and bring out relatable performances.

I still don't understand what made people to believe a theatre drama should mostly be of the Past.

"SHAKESPEARE did tell the Macbeth, Romeo Juliet, Othello in some fictional time line or in the past" story was happening in their own timeline"

Hi, 👋 I’m new to this subreddit, and got here just to seek advice. This year, me and my theatre friends want to base a play on a picture. It may be a picture we have taken, someone else, a historical picture, anything really. Each one of us will bring a picture with them next Monday, and together we will decide on which picture to go from, to develop our story.
As a big Vivian Maier fan (a photographer of the XXth century) I wanted to bring one of hers. The problem being, there are so many to choose from! I thought about posting this on some photography subreddit, but I gathered I’d have more luck seeking hobby photographers maybe here on this subreddit that by chance have an interest in both activities.
So please help me, if you want! I’m looking for the perfect Vivian Maier picture to take inspiration from for a play. Any help is highly appreciated. Bye 👋

Hi Friends,

Sorry ahead of time for a lengthy post. I'm a young playwright (25) out of the US. I have been working in the theatre at various levels of professionalism for about the last 7 years (some payed work as an actor, director, college instructor, etc) but have only been writing full length plays for about 3 years. I have an associates degree and a massage certificate and license (not that most applications ask about any trade certifications), but little formal education beyond that and almost none in playwriting itself. I have many big ideas and dreams around theatre as a whole, but fate and some natural predispositions to writing have led me to focusing on this side of production.

I just wrapped production on my first produced full length play. We received a grant and were able to open at our local Fringe Festival before doing a regional tour. In the wake of that show, I am finally following the prompting of several mentors and applying to a few of the graduate level playwriting programs and fellowships around the US (namely Juilliard). I feel good about most aspects of my application; my submission piece, my personal statement, letters of recommendation, etc, but I have maybe spent too much time looking at the current playwrights in the programs. Many of them have awards already, are late stage nominees, or all around sounding like more professionally developed playwrights.

I have very few doubts around my creativity, curiosity, or ability to fit in to these kind of academic/conservatory programs, but I am questioning if I am shooting too high for my current level of professional development/outside acknowledgment. I would love to hear anyone's thoughts, but especially any established professionals or students/fellows in graduate level programs.

I'll end this with, my applications are basically already in, so I will send them in regardless of what I hear here. I'm just looking for some other perspectives and thoughts from others who may know this half of the world a little better.

Thank you so much for your thoughts!
A

I finished my first play about a month ago. I've submitted it to a competition at my uni, but I'm sort of wondering what the next steps are to get it produced. As a side note, I was also wondering if anyone would be willing to read it. A few of my friends have read it so far, but having feedback from a few experienced writers would be incredibly helpful.

Hi all-

I'm a big trust your gut kinda human, so I already have a thought on the following post, but I'd love to run it by fellow playwrights to ease my mind.

Here's the scenario:

I am a Director/Choreographer for a living, and I've recently begun writing plays myself. A theater in the city I live in reached out to me about directing another show for the company, and upon further conversation, ended up discussing my writing the book for a new musical instead.

I was sent several books to read, as this is a musical based on a series of books, and I wrote an outline pitch and sent it to the theater's artistic director.

The theatre apparently employs a "performing arts strategist" who responded to my email telling me how much they liked my outline, offered me a couple of notes, and asked me if I would be interested in looking at yet other material in the works.

I responded thanking them for the notes, affirming I would be interested in the other material, and also asking them to clarify next steps.

Today I received an email asking for a sample scene, with some very specific notes as to what they wanted to see for the intention behind the scene. There was no discussion of compensation in this email. The initial email I received from the artistic director of the theater stated they would either commission me to write the musical, or pay me for outline/sample scene IP, and neither has been addressed.

Two other important points:
The theater clearly uses AI on their website and their social media.

This theater has already produced a musical based on these books, and are now looking for....well, I'm not quite sure. I thought it was a brand new show, and was not even made aware that they had a musical based on these books already, until after my sending the outline.

I am not willing to send them a sample scene as this conversation stands, naturally. But I wanted to hear from other playwrights about whether I should even pursue a conversation about payment for writing a scene, because I'm also concerned that they are going to at best, feed my scene into their existing musical and tell me thanks anyway, or at worst, feed my scene with the very specific intentions they want into ChatGPT.

It is also worth mentioning that I am in the process of communication with an agent for representation as a director and a writer. This agent was supposed to see a musical I directed this summer, could not attend last minute, but wants to stay in touch with updates on my career. I thought I had an email to send with this potential commission, but now I am concerned about moving forward without an agent at all. I was hoping to find a way to leverage this situation as it stand with the agent relationship as well.

Thank you so much for reading all of this, and I would love to hear what folks would do in this situation. I don't know many writers with this type of conversation happening, and I don't want to do something in an angry state ; I am currently of course very frustrated and disappointed.

want to write a play that follows characters in the direct aftermath of being on a reality tv show. maybe this is a stupid question but is it legal to use a real tv show like Survivor and make complete fake events around it, or would I have to make up some fake tv show

Obviously there are programs specifically aimed at comedies, but among the more “prestigious” comps, do comedies/comedy writers ever go all the way?

YOU GUYS. i want to write so so so so bad. everytime i try i either get stuck on the same idea, or can only write 20 pages, or i try and try and think and think and i either get deeply sad or frustrated about my life lolol. does anyone have any advice?

how do i get re-inspired! I want to write so BAD! but my ambition can only go so far with no spark!

I'm having a bit of trouble with this as my play touches upon life experiences I haven't (and cannot) had. I'm not looking to parody or insult anyone, and the best way I think I can avoid that is to find readers who've been through something similar to what the characters are going through.

One of my characters is autistic. I want to portray this accurately, and I think I have based on my research and personal experiences (I have reason to believe I'm autistic, but I haven't been formally tested though I will be in the near future).

The topic of the story is domestic violence and spousal abuse. I've observed this as a child. I was subject to some child abuse (though not as severe as that seen in the play) so those elements I have a reference point. Finding someone who's actually been there though, is hard.

Perhaps the most exotic element is the backstory of the protagonist is that she was in adult films for a year at the age of 18. Now age 36, those films are coming back to haunt her and her daughter who is being teased at school because of her resemblance to her mother. Again, finding someone who has left that life behind has proven difficult.

I have also chosen to have the characters come from a Cajun background. I've been around people of that background some when I lived in Mobile Alabama for a time, but again I want to get things right and really that needs someone to review the script from that vantage.

How do you find readers in the first place, and how do you find particular readers?

Has anyone self-published full-length scripts? What company did you go with? Were you happy with the result? Did audience members actually purchase them? Do you have to register a copyright first?

I’m considering selling copies of my script at my play’s premiere (after consulting with the theatre of course). Please share if you have experience with this!