Monday, July 8, 2013

Is "Formal" Training Necessary for Playwriting?

Recently, a neophyte playwright posted online the question whether "formal" training is necessary to be a successful playwright.  In a word, it's a must.  (Okay, three words.) 

Formal training - be it in a school, a playwriting workshop, or with a theatre organization that offers courses - in my opinion, provides a number of important advantages. First and foremost, as I tell my students (and wrote in my book "Playwriting for Dummies"), know the rules before your break them. If you want to take theatre in a whole new direction fine, just know what it is you're departing from. As Newton (Isaac, not Wayne) said, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

Second, participating in a playwriting program of some sort teaches you how to take and make use of constructive criticism. It's something some of us do better than others but something we all must learn. It's better to find out early, in a supportive environment, that your play needs work than it is to find out before a paying audience of strangers. 

A third reason is networking. When you're in a playwriting program, you meet people whose experience and contacts you can benefit from. As competitive is playwriting is in terms of the relatively few production opportunities, I've always found playwriting colleagues to be willing to share contacts and point out relevant opportunities.

Fourth, theatre is a collaborative medium. Writing a script is not the endpoint but only the beginning of the journey, a journey that involves a host of other people with different skills. So you might as well get comfortable with the give and take of collaboration sooner than later.

Last (for now), is the opportunity to have public developmental readings of your play in progress. Yes, you can arrange a reading on your own, but it is much easier (and safer for your fragile psyche) and the audiences much larger when your reading is arranged and moderated by a school or theatre organization.