 Good Good morning Hello, what a great turnout. Thank you all for for coming out this morning and I I I have been looking for by the way, my name is Jason chain. Oh, so I'm the interim artistic director here at the rep I know I have had the the fortune of Shepherding this company through an extraordinary season of shows And I have been looking forward to this day all year long I want to do a little call out to we are live streaming on howl around just want to say hi to all of our friends and guests that are there You know sometimes when you're in a position like mine You get lost in the minutiae of the day-to-day details of producing. It's so wonderful to be able to invite people to my home and Elevate the conversation to the 30,000-foot level and just recharge my batteries with with inspiration and art One of the smartest things I did this year was hire Kim Martin cotton as my assistant artistic director and Lisa Rothe as my director of new works So I am they together have produced this amazing schedule of events today and tomorrow and I'm going to turn it over to Lisa as Our master of ceremonies. Thank you, Lisa. Hi. Hello everyone. Thank you so much for being here My name is Lisa Rothe. I would really love everyone to actually just before we get started Can you just turn to somebody that you don't know and introduce yourself and also tell them what your favorite dessert is? We could work with that I will go with this bizarre thing that my family makes called Japanese not with pie Which has nothing to do with Japan or fruit It's like a chest pie with nuts and raisins and sultanas and coconut Okay, so it's 945 in the morning And we're talking about dessert That's okay. That's good. So thank you I'm absolutely thrilled to be here Kansas City. I've never been to Kansas City This is my third week here in Kansas City so I'm really thrilled to be here everyone has been incredibly welcoming and I want to also just give out a shout out to the previous administration actually who made This festival happen and actually all of the plays that are here So I'm happy to be helping to shepherd this festival through So today we're just going to jump right into this. We're here to talk about new plays new work and It's pretty simple at this point really just wanted to talk about why and how and on this panel I have this extraordinary group of women who have done who were kind of the new play unicorns And actually and we have the head unicorn here with us great So and actually I think Kelly Miller you were the person who actually Introduced me to the coins the new play unicorn term So great, so I'm just going to either our programs here I don't know if everyone got a program. So we have bios of our friends I'm just going to throw out a few extra things And say that so Kelly Miller is a TV lit manager at literate in LA Recently she served as a theater to TV crossover agent at paradigm the director of development for the new neighborhood and at south coast reps Literary director and the co-director of the pacific playwrights festival from 2009 to 2015 and Also something else that isn't listed here is just wanted to also point out is Kelly is one of the founding members of the kill Roy's Which is a group of 13 activists who've banded together to create a powerful force working toward gender parody I'm reading this from their website with an abundance mentality and their work with deceptive simplicity and And so their work consists of publishing a list of plays each year written by women trans and non-binary playwrights So we're thrilled to have you here Kelly Miller. Thank you great Um great and so next to her we have Martin green Rogers, and do you say key key? Martin key. Thank you. I should have asked that before but here we are we're gonna who are here learning about each other Excellent great So I'm Martin key green Rogers. She's an assistant professor at SUNY no pulse You're freelance dramaturg and the president of the literary managers and dramaturgs of America, which is extraordinary And she also was the huh the America the oh the the America does it say here the Americas? Yes, it does the Americas. I learned how to read Thank you No, okay, no, I wouldn't expect that okay And you were also the production dramaturg for six seasons at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Whoo That's pretty extraordinary. Okay, so Martin. Thank you so much for being here Great so Nan Barnett is here She is the executive director of the National New Play Network, which is this country's alliance of 125 theaters They collaborate to develop produce and extend the life of new plays She helped create several of the organization's initiatives including its rolling world premiere residency and collaboration programs and She led the organization through the development and launch of this field-altering database called the new play exchange Which is now home to over 25,000 plays by living writers. It is really extraordinary. I mean, that's what I have here Yeah That's good. Thank you for that statistic. Yes And Prior to NNPM she was more than 25 years is in Palm Beach with Florida stage And you develop more than 200 new plays and musicals there Excellent and also now based in DC Nan is serving. She was the coordinating producer of the women's voices theater festival in 2015 and in 2018 so thank you so much for being here with us Great and finally the The goddess of unicorns Right take it take it. Um, so, uh, Cynthia is Cynthia and it's Levin Very good. Levin Cynthia Levin. Excellent. Thank you for working on that. Um founded in 1974 the unicorn Enhances Kansas City by developing producing professional provocative new plays And I found this on your website. I'm just going to read this because I thought this was pretty I loved it um, so The unicorn theater chooses plays most of which are less than five years old that have never been performed in Kansas City Or often anywhere at all The unicorn looks for plays about strong female characters people of color lgbt and any marginalized group So under the leadership and executive leadership of producing artistic director Cynthia Levin The theater has produced more than 300 productions with 20 of those being world premieres Which is extraordinary. So, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us Thank you So We you know, we were basically kind of having this conversation last night and sitting out in the hall and at various festivals We've been at and met but I really I would love you to be able to share and talk a little bit about You are an advocate for new plays and development And why And to what end this kind of broad But why and to what end why is it that and and the and then we'll talk a little bit about the how And what it is that you all have done and to contribute to the conversation about new plays. So Who who would like to start I'll start. Yes, great. Do you want to use the microphone? I don't know Maybe this might be good for the howl around right? Is that good? Somebody just said okay. I just heard someone say that a microphone is not for the person who's using it Right, right. I'm trying to embrace that. Right because I never use a microphone Just like that stated in the record, please Um, I would just I'll state the obvious of that we have to do new plays because it's the future of the american theater It's the future of theater at all And it's the only thing that's fun and interesting to do Um Is is that you know to find the topics that are that are going on right now? I mean they change every year or two. It's a completely different concept and style of writing. Um, it's the most fascinating experience That you could have in the theater is to work on new plays But it is it's the future and I think that's a lot of why we had started the nnpn The national new play network is for all of us to come together and share those resources to do it better and bigger And I think that's what's happening now, which is incredible You actually and and also you were also a founding member of nnpn too So I also just want to state that for the record too. So that's part of the conversation. Thank you. Okay I think for me, um, when I'm I'm uh, I really love playwrights. I love how their minds work as someone who Um, has no capability whatsoever to put dialogue onto a page. I'm fascinated by that But the as our friend british billy says if you're going to hold a mirror up to society If you stop putting that mirror up, then you stop with your reflections of society, right? So if we as theater makers are in a place where we can help people Understand themselves understand each other Then we need to be continuing to make that new work as the world evolves and I get really excited about the the The way in which a writer can take A current situation that we're all dealing with it and put it into a framework that allows us to maybe drop our Incoming ideas and learn something new So that's why new plays for me I think for me the well number one. I'm a dramaturge. Uh, but number two I think to me it's also about access because if if you think about like what we consider and especially as an educator as well What is considered canonical? dramatic literature like where are the people who look like me And there aren't as many and the reason why is because access was a problem And so to me being an advocate for new plays is making sure that Everyone has an opportunity to tell the story that they want to tell And and in my role as dramaturge really helping to foster that and in that way it's about embracing all sorts of dramatic Structures because there are all sorts of ways to tell the story that come from all sorts of different cultural backgrounds And saying that those are okay as opposed to I think what had kind of happened And led to issues of access where we said that if it only fit into this particular pattern And this particular structure it wasn't a good play Um, which I just find highly problematic to begin with. I'm like, let's tell a story I mean, I don't care what the structure looks like if it's a good story. It's a good story. So, you know, anyway I digress Um to build on that I was going to actually mention like thank you for joining us this morning to contribute to the new american play canon All of you are joining us in the new american play revolution, right every single person here everyone you speak to your advocacy your action As real tangible results. It means dollars in playwrights pockets It means support for everything from your, you know, uh, reading series or local theater to well established theaters like kc rep Thank you. Thank you for being here with your bodies your minds and your hearts because this is where it begins Right. Um, and for me, it's a love of playwrights a love of community of being in conversation together And speaking of access part of the kill worries in the list was about proving to the field the sheer abundance In a positive proactive way Showing producers and theaters the sheer abundance of phenomenal material by women trans and non-binary writers, right? And I think we have this incredible Vanguard and revolutionary vanguard of leaders in the american theater Both new and old and established in conversation together with you the audiences who are also leading that charge to Present a multiplicity of voices Regionally new york everywhere. That's what gets me up in the morning Great. Thank you. That's a great start Great. Thank you for the frame so You all have contributed After we you had the conversation about the need you're like there's a need out there and developed an organization or A platform for voices to be heard and i'm wondering if you can just talk a little bit about the The seed of that and the genesis of that and kind of the how that you did that So i'm wondering if you want to talk about sure sure The unicorn was founded 45 years ago and part of that was contemporary theater, but also of world premieres and um, I took it over 40 years ago and The the thrust was doing of course all you know new plays and finding playwrights Because in the commercial theater and in the published versions of plays It was a very strictly white heterosexual world And male world and i wanted to find uh playwrights female playwrights and people of color Which came down to of course finding Female playwrights of color and they were not published There was no way to find these voices and so to set out to how do you find plays And at that time there was no resource. There was no way a connection of go on go online You know and find these people or talk, you know, there were a few other theaters We knew of but a lot of nobody in kansas city was doing new plays at the time And so it was just a fascinating experience to find voices that were disenfranchised that were not That you wouldn't turn on the television in the sea and um, so that was when the commitment came And of course turning people on in kansas city to new plays was arduous You know the my board kept saying don't you think we should just drop the new play idea? Nobody ever comes, you know, and it's like no It's the seed of the future Right and and so to to have to keep doing it and the sophistication level of course, you know I mean if you don't do it nobody knows they even want it So that was sort of I mean we just started was very isolating experience to just you know Myself to go out and find playwrights, but we created a competition So we had a playwriting competition for years And so we could get it in every publication and we could get it out so that at least we could Maybe illicit response from writers who you know through through a different channel Not through a publishing house or you know a festival. There weren't a lot of festivals. Maybe the humana of course, but So it was really really just fascinating to try to find the writers before Really that we started the nnpn where we can you know now we can find writers at least and they can find us Remind me of the question I got so into Cynthia's answer Yeah, I answered the question you answered for all of us You got a good piggyback off of Cynthia's Yes, yes, I think we talked about the need a little bit and we can discuss that a little bit later, but Yeah, the seed well, I I can let me talk a little bit about national new play network so we're the organization's just had its 20th anniversary and We are now as you mentioned 125 theaters ranging in budget size from $50,000 a year annually all the way up through whatever the big guys are close to 50 million dollars a year And these are theaters some of which do one new play a year some of which do only new plays every year The organization was founded under this idea or the knowledge that To two things really one there were wonderful writers making great new plays all over the country And there was no way without the seal of approval of the new york times to really Spread those plays out across the country. There was no pipeline for moving those plays from theater to theater so those eight Artistic directors that were in that initial meeting starting talking to each other and saying oh, I've got this great play writer We just did this wonderful play and so the word began to circulate in that way And the group grew and formalized into the network Then the next big thing that we the organization attempted to combat was premiere Itas or what we call the one and done syndrome Where uh, yes a play would get a premiere But then it wasn't Artistic directors didn't consider it sexy if it wasn't a world premiere So play rates couldn't get a second production or a third production and helped to build their careers So we created the rolling world premiere program Where three if three or more artistic directors agree to produce a new play before it ever begins rehearsal Within a 12 month period each with a set entirely separate artistic team Then nnpn provides support financial support as well as staff support To help that playwright move from city to city And see that play in front of a wide variety of audiences often in vastly different spaces so a playwright might open their play in 125 seat theater in portland, origan And then see that same play With a budget five times that size in a 450 seat theater in san diego and then go see it And be a part of the rehearsal process of bringing that play To a 49 seat theater in the basement of a town hall in bourbon, illinois Right, so the play the playwright gets to See it in the hands of different directors see their play coming out of the mouths of different actors Look at different designs very different spaces And most importantly, I think got the responses of audiences It's a very different thing to develop a play in front of an audience as opposed to just doing the development work in a rehearsal hall Or in even if the reading with an audience But to to actually fully mount the play and have it seen by multiple audiences And watch its growth is very different And so the playwright is working on the play at each stop tweaking changing. I had a Wonderful experience with how to use a knife Which you guys did here as part of the role Where the playwright said to me You know 70 minutes into the play at the first theater There was this little dip in the energy of the play and I thought that director just did not Get it And then when he saw the second production and 70 minutes into the play there was that little dip. He was like damn that actor Why did they not get that and then when he saw the third production he was like maybe this is the problem I can solve right So sometimes it takes that sometimes it's about, you know, uh, when I was producing Theater in the palm beaches. Did you guys also do? Deb Loffers post 9 11 play end days. No, no in days is a play that has a one of the characters is a young man who Is lives his life as late life Elvis he wears like jumpsuits and Bejeweled things and he's in the midst of trying to do his bar mitzvah And so in palm beach when you do the bar mitzvah prayers, the audience says them along with you in Indianapolis When she when he did the bar mitzvah plays people Had no context for it. So that's the kind of thing you would have never learned without a second production Right, so it's that program has become An npns cornerstone and so the the how of Creating a pipeline Providing support for both the writer and the play With the idea that then we are ginning up interest So that play goes on and doesn't just get those three to five productions We're working on but has an additional five ten. I think George Brant's grounded is now up to like 125 Hey, we did that one You did that one too You were part of the rolling world premiere of that and now that play is at 125 productions and and Hathaway did it at the public and And that was an nnpn commission as well Yeah, that was pretty cool going to new york and seeing Anne Hathaway do the role that karla no acted Before All right, may I piggyback on that yes for a second reminds me of sort of the difference I think with the nnpn because the unicorn has always done new plays We have always done world premieres the difference is When we started the nnpn and I joined with at the time, you know, eight other people, but The development of new plays we produced new plays We had nothing in place to bring playwrights in and to have a workshop and do readings and all of the things That it takes to actually get a play ready to be produced We would just produce them and of course you learn a lot from that the playwright and and us But the idea now of a development process which for us now takes a year I mean from getting to know the playwrights and doing readings and doing workshops That has been the change that I've seen happen That there's more help in getting that play ready, which is is and it's an amazing process to be part of And you know, it's not a solitary playwright having to do everything by themselves anymore And also because the plays are being developed through production Which is extraordinary and that's something actually that I'm really interested in and what's happening here as well Is just in terms of what the development process is and that to develop a play over three or four productions also because it's not like the play Is done the for that first production, right? Right, so depending on the conversations that are happening around it with different audiences different directors, etc That that changes. Yeah, we've often been the third production in a rolling world premiere of the three The playwright is still there and they're still rewriting and we're still working on it It's like, you know, and you take everything you learn and it just kind of snowballs into a big old snow woman Great So I think for me there's sort of two tracks that I answer number one in my capacity as president of LMDA One of the things that we're very focused on is, you know, I'm going to sound like a broken record after a while But it's about access and so Number one my vp for programs. Uh, phaedra scott Who I believe is actually getting married this weekend. Yay phaedra But uh She started a book or a play reading club amongst our early career dramaturgs So I think one of the things that becomes really important and this sort of plays into another aspect of my life as an educator But really teaching dramaturgs who are coming through how to read new plays because I think that is something that we are not As educators sometimes not so great about depending on the particular institution, so how do we get I just always assume people know because we're so cool and sexy Thank you You're sexy thank you So it's that's a really interesting question that you've just sort of cracked open I think Some of the simplest ways to describe what it is that we do especially in terms of new play development would be that we are As a as an editor is to a novel a dramaturg is to a play But then there's also more to that because in a lot of ways we become advocates For new play and in some ways and to talk a little bit about that one of the things that We do for example at our annual conference every year is a session called playwrights under the radar where we Literally pitch plays to other dramaturgs and literary managers to say you need to pay attention to this playwright And here are all the amazing reasons why so really just spread knowledge about People in our particular regions or even just within our own purview because we've worked with them at a theater That maybe not everyone knows and especially considering our conference is Populated by both institutional dramaturgs freelance dramaturgs and educational dramaturgs That becomes the way that we can get new plays into educational settings because people all of a sudden are like Oh, well that play sounds really interesting and with the number of people in it that might work for my educational institute institution etc So, you know we're advocates We are people who are there to be and I say this with Massive amounts of intentionality and love we are there to be a playwright's best friend And I don't mean best friend and then like you know Oh, yeah, and we can like kiki and like laugh and stuff Well, I mean we can do that But then we're also that person that does the proverbial like if you if you ask me like is my skirt too short Or you know, does this make me look fat the answer is Yes And here's why But you know always with love it's always with love and so and in the same way like when someone's, you know Play slash dresses looking fly you say yes Wear that let's get it out there. Let's let's show let's parade that around and show everybody go ahead Walk that play strut So, you know in some ways that is what dramaturgs. Oh, could use a drama in our lives Everyone needs a personal dramaturg And so in that way we are really there to help champion to to help craft to help Spread the word to help Infiltrate systems because I think a lot of also what we talk about within our own organization And we've been doing a lot of work within our own organization about this is really Discovering like what are our own biases and other sort of institutional and like systemic Issues of racism sexism, etc. That might Stop someone from passing a play along Really sort of that is what we have been internally doing because we want to make sure that we are giving everyone Who has a really great story to tell a chance to actually Get that put in front of people who might be interested in telling that story So so yeah, and then you know as an educator. It's kind of the same thing I'm a glutton for punishment So one of the strategic things that I did as I became president of the lury managers and dramaturgs of the americas I also became the Conference planner for the dramaturgie focus group for the association for theater and higher education And part of that was because I wanted to figure out what was that gap That was happening between the profession of dramaturgie and the profession and the educational aspect of it Because i'm figuring if I can close some of those gaps We get back into then being able to have conversations about these great playwrights How to teach our students to do these to read a play to understand a play to meet a play on its own terms And meet a playwright on their terms And so as a result of that we've had more sessions within the dramaturgie focus group about What are the cool plays that are really great for a college age audience and you know why you know Sort of answering questions why this play why this play now within our own ranks would just make it stronger when those dramaturgs Educational dramaturgs go back into their own institutions and want to advocate for new plays in their Institution so anyway, I should probably stop talking but No, that's perfect So I think i'm gonna start with the kill worries and then maybe I can tack a little on about uh playwrights and tv Um, so the kill worries started back in 2013 And I should say i'm a member of the 13 co-founding members We just named a new class of kill worries and handed off the day to day operation of the entire group to this new Class of kill worries so all love to the new class to the continuum to your phenomenal ideas They are in the trenches right now creating the next list So here's uh, we came about in part um out of a need for community and in a response to implicit bias and a lack of access to the huge depth of great work by female trends and gender Nonconforming writers in the american theater so anna feinberg who is a dramaturg out of columbia playwright now She's an animator and a humerus. You should check her out online. She hosted moot l. A And through barbecuing for all of her friends about two three weeks in 2013 in the summer only women showed up And it was the core group that would become the kill worries And the group that was there included folks like tanya saracho who created vita They're actually we'll shout out to tanya. They're about to roll the second season may 23rd, which is one of the most progressive and inclusive tv staffs in all of hollywood in fact all of anywhere in the world and entirely latinx um writing staff and crew Folks like sarah gubbins who's created shows for amazon playwrights who had been out in most of us were expats from new york and chicago Who had moved to la in part to do theater or to also begin to do television? There are 11 playwrights and two producers slash literary managers I was running the south coast reps literary department then and join me to his running center theater group and Part of the conversation when it's only women often comes around to Bias bias in the workplace lack of gender equity whether it be in pay or representation or aggressions macro or micro But pretty quickly this group which was meeting over potluck every month because again community la is very spread out We were we were missing a sense of connectivity and solidarity really really turn and pivoted to action Where guerrilla sort of guerrilla girls style a little bit anarchist kind of volumeteer um Activist group, but we were done talking about the problem So we wanted to provide positive proactive solutions Again, if we were addressing a problem in the american theater and back then these numbers have gotten better. Yeah, right? This is everyone doing the work right in the american theater But it was holding pretty stubborn that in most parts of the country only 21 to 23 percent of all new plays in the country Were produced by female or trans writers Went over well over 50 percent of the ticket buying population population is female under trans That's gotten better I want to give a shout out to the lilies to all the groups who've been doing this work for decades There'd be a p theater new georgias etc etc This work is on the back of and We're able to do this work because of the phenomenal work that's been done for decades All right by many activists in the community, but basically we quickly pivoted to action We really started having um We had this one night where we sort of put white sheets up and went through every possible thing We could do title nine for the american theater What is them? What is the biggest boldest thing that we could do and we settled on something inspired by something in l.a Called the black list. Do any of you know about this list? Yeah, great Hi, so in 2005 Franklin Leonard This isn't a list that still exists introduced a list in hollywood where he went out to all the young executives reading in town Asked them for their favorite most excellent screenplays to nominate was a very small sort of powerful Really political kind of free because people didn't know the list existed list and things like Argo the king's speech things that went on to get produced from this list have since hit many many award shows Many lists and we thought what if there was a version of that for female and trans writers in the american theater Now we didn't know what we're going to get the first year We went out to over 330 nominators. We heard back from 128 folks We asked them to nominate three to five New plays who had not been produced or not more than one production to go back to what nan said about premiere artists We did people just running for the things that hadn't been produced We wanted to give playwrights to show that that second production was important and powerful We didn't know what we're gonna get We're gonna get like, you know 50 votes for the same amazing ante baker play that adjusted the new york times We didn't know what we were gonna get right we got through over 330 plays nominated And so we decided that first year while we were trying to figure out what would make the list Usable and I'm a bit of a theater socialist. I mean I might have had a hundred plays on that first list But we had 46 plays that hit but we decided that first year to publish every single play that had been nominated So you could see that other writers might have four to six plays that were battling it out for sort of Primary position on the list we did four we rolled the list in the new york times It went viral people picked it up and we're advocating for the playwrights for theaters Other artists were saying hey, there's some phenomenal Writers on this list, but also check out these other 30 right It was an active conversation about the new play pipeline about abundance not scarcity Not I can't find these plays we and and also if you think about it the implicit bias that's often Had been lofted by some leaders around the same time actually in 2014 whoof that They just couldn't find good plays by female or trans writers So they just programmed the best play and if you step back from that And that's implying that the best plays are predominantly by men Because many of the folks that were saying this would often have a season of six to ten plays In a season only one or two slots that would go to Female writers or writers of color and often sometimes in the both slot in the same slot So but what was exciting to us honestly? Truly you all is this crack the new play pipeline open to the entire country and abroad I think I sort of understood the viral nature the implicit viral nature in Franklin Leonard's list I believe most big ideas are implicitly simple And when you apply good press and viral Social media to this things can amplify But what happened too is that suddenly these plays which would take so long to get through development through production To hopefully get an okay review from the new york times or from your regional theater of regional papers They didn't have to clear that bar anymore and suddenly the plays are going directly into the hands of directors Artistic directors students who are then taking these lists to their academic boards their chairs Quite literally allowing a whole new generation and generations of other theater makers Direct access to the plays the playwrights and this also going back to nmpn And the new play exchange is exactly what man what you all been doing is providing access and platform to literally thousands of playwrights Well, and we started hooking up and doing now the kill rates list everybody that's on the list Is on the exchange? Yes, and it's it's interesting you mentioned that because one of the first things that One of the first things that I did when I took over the reins of lmda would start to work with nnpn to make sure that we Made an arrangement so that um if you were a member of lmda You could then get a discounted membership into nnpn Which then gave cracked open even more access to plays so we were talking about these playwrights under the radar Now they can actually go find these playwrights and get the access to the work So can I talk just a little bit about the exchange? Yes, because I was like I wanted to let people know how they could access these plays so this is the it's We knew that there was a pent up need For an electronic database of new works plays that had not yet been published and after wonderfully Supported by the door stook charitable fund and the melton foundation About 18 months of research visiting 20 plus cities across the country where we sat in rooms like this With audience members with actors with playwrights with dramaturgs with literary managers with artistic directors and said if there was a tool like this What would you want it to do? What would you not want it to do? We developed this thing that became the new play exchange or npx The pent up need for it Pushed us to what we had set as our annual goal for Incoming funds from the tool We hit that goal at the end After we launched As I said now more 25,000 plays more than 15,000 users in 30 plus countries and here's the beauty of it A playwright goes on and creates a profile They put up their photo or an image their bio and then they begin to upload their work They put up their full plays and then they tag it with both metadata and keywords things like genre and cast size of course But also the keywords what the topics are and now most recently Not only what the cast is but also what actors you want to use the play Then those plays are there and they are discoverable by anyone who wants to go on and look So you can go on and by you I mean everyone because one of the really Magnificent things about it is you can get a base subscription for $10 a year And for $10 a year You have access to those nearly 26,000 plays All of them all of which are sortable And searchable So for example, if you want to go in and you say today, I would really like to read five 10-minute plays about Social justice in the united states and I want those plays to have never been produced before And I want them to be by a woman playwright living in Missouri And I would really like it if each of those plays had four actors or less two of whom are over 60 and female You can do that Right, I had a woman say to me at an event in Philly not too long ago She came up to me afterwards and she said i'm not a theater person I just came with my friend to come to this event tonight And I just need a little clarification on this and I said yes, and she said you're saying to me I can go on and read a play About any topic I want And I said yeah, and she said you mean like I could go on and read a play about Bitter ex-wives in their fifties For ten dollars a year And I said yes, and she said can you tell me something and I said yes, and she said why am I paying a therapist? And I said I don't know but I think new play exchange will be much cheaper for you. So how about it? But we are just beginning to really talk to audiences about it So we did a you know a ton of work rolling out and getting to whatever the number is Almost 7 000 playwrights Who have their works on there? We have obviously really looped in our literary managers and dramaturgs We have looped in our directors and Nicole just told me this morning She's developed a wonderful relationship with a playwright that she met through the exchange And we hear that all the time what I really love is that what we're hearing now is Productions productions. I know theater in Cincinnati Just let us know that of their past four seasons almost 40 percent of what they had produced were plays They had found on the exchange. We just had two different playwrights tell us that their 10 minute plays Had been picked up by different high schools in japan for a competition in south korea Um, I mean it is it's it is worldwide now and it's creating a worldwide community It's creating a worldwide community and you don't have to wait till the play is published and for publishing houses, um, we are They love us now because when you do get your play published You just take down the script and put up the link So if you want to read that play it drives you straight into the sales site of where you can get it um It also is unadjudicated So if you want to read up that play about bitter x y's in their 50s, you don't It doesn't have to be a play that by a playwright that's famous Right, it's just the play that speaks to you in that moment We've had people that have never had plays even read out loud before get productions In other countries. We've had um young writers one of our early successes was a Uh a college looking for plays about uh, I can't remember what topic was some specific topic And they found a play they loved and then discovered that the writer was like an eighth grader Right because it's not you don't it doesn't matter Right, so I encourage you so that at we Increased our prices for the very highest subscription for an individual it now costs I'm really sorry to tell you $18 a year Um, but I encourage you it's new play exchange dot org You can find it through an end site you can find it just type in new play exchange on google It'll pop right up join if you have ever any thought about wanting to learn more about theater or Reading a play about something or what maybe what it's what is someone in? Wichita thinking about what's happening in Kansas City, or you know, it's just a global look Immediately accessed at your fingertips through this online tool. That was a great global example Wichita in Kansas City International I loved it Well, you know one of the things I think is we we those of us who are coastal Tends to struggle with what it's true What's happening in the center of the country and we see what that has fomented in our world now What we don't have to do that anymore. We don't have to wonder what somebody in Wichita And I just want to say thank you for making it accessible socioeconomic access I think is a problem that I struggle with all the time and elitism through ticket prices In the theater writ large in the american theater. Thank you for making it accessible You know stuff like individual and collective action doesn't cost you anything sometimes maybe bringing a potluck Right starting at that way we did that first list with $200 for stickers and cake and hundreds of lady hours Right, so it doesn't cost a lot to to take action and to and to as you all are doing in practice daily Showing up here with your bodies and your hearts in your mind, which is its own form of artivism or art activism You know, I was just thinking something that was brought up. I think earlier by by one of us But it's a great question that I know we're starting to grapple with with the nnpn is what is a play because Things are changing and it's like, you know plays are something beyond the traditional playmaking idea Of the two actor three action. We should probably add Eurocentric Into that My rights the semantics and we all have a good word for it Um, but yeah, and I think because we're starting to get in plays that don't adhere To a lot of well, well, that's not really a play. It's a devised work. Well, that's not, you know, really a play. It It's fantastical. You know, it's not producible whatever and I think those questions are really great because things are changing Um, and I think because we have one of our theaters, you know, we change every time we do a play According to what the playwright needs or what that play needs it needs a not a proscenium stage it needs something that is Um, just odd and so it's like, okay, we'll make the room odd, you know and set it up in a different way But I think the um, the structure is really speaking to a lot of people who are writing And I think that it's really fascinating But you you have to get used to Seeing a differently made play and we have had An interesting feedback sometimes from an audience. It's like, well, what was it about? You know, I didn't understand the you know the climax of the end of the first act You know, I mean it's we're geared to reading and seeing traditional patriarchal structure, right Right And and we have to change that I mean, you know, it's like you guys have to go with us But we're the ones that have to to change what is being produced Yeah, I I will You guys have all heard me say this. I have the best job in american theater. I It's astounding. I read new plays. I talk about new plays. I fly around the country I see new plays and I give people money so they can make new plays. So I am generally very well liked But one of the great joys of what I get to do now is I don't ever have to say no anymore after 25 years of Producing where I more than once said to a playwright Did you really not want anyone to produce your play because the fact that you need two seven year olds who walk in At 1045 at night at the end of your play for one scene makes it unproducible, right? I don't have to say that anymore because now that I have 125 theaters in a worldwide audience There's gonna be somebody who's got those two seven year olds whose parents will let them stay up and walk But now now we have puppets and I'm just a real advocate of that right always the puppets But I I think the that the world is Is changing how we produce plays is changing and technology has changed What be it puppets or be it, you know, uh projections and how things work and there are so many ways To make theater. There's so many what a generative artist Looks like Is so different now we worked on the triple place study, which was a Study that was done around the country Where playwrights were invited to interview audience members about their interactions with new work But the person doing the interviewing was not introduced to that audience member as a playwright Just as here's someone who's helping the theater think about these questions And one of those questions was would you'd like to have dinner with a playwright? And even though they had been seated with a playwright that they didn't realize was one Um often for what was supposed to be a you know a 25 minute interview went 45 minutes or an hours They're obviously having a great time talking to this person The universal answer to that question was no, I would not like to have dinner with a playwright um and for two reasons one because A person's image of a playwright is British Billy with this little cock-tat and you know and you know some or someone's stuffy And why would you want to do that or the other thing was You know a playwright seemed as though it would be someone who was so elevated that that person would be able to Talk to them yet. They were having this amazing conversation Uh and especially as we work very hard to diversify what our playwright pool is that is getting access to Productions and development so that they look like Not only our current audiences, but our aspirational audiences It becomes more and more important. I think to To share that and to spread the wealth and to have Everybody have a right to have a voice out there The energy the vibrational energy happening up here is really extraordinary So thank you for all of these. I would say too that I think that there's been this huge huge ground swell phenomenal work for years For decades. We've just not had access to it, right? So the the huge huge phenomenal group of african-american playwrights that are ascending in new york like 15 20 25 like I couldn't even name everybody who's coming up whereas maybe like Eight ten years ago. Sometimes it felt anecdotally in the field like only three to five Writers could have their say at any time in the entire country was producing the same three to five african-american new plays And it's like what is that scarcity about right? We've cracked open the table And and the undeniability of the material that was always there is just now being given platform great Can we just add just a little bit? At Before we wrap things up here I'd actually we've talked about some of the challenges and some of the things that you've all done over the years I'm wondering actually about what you're most excited about in the american theater today So we've got there's a lot going on Yeah I'm gonna start So i'm gonna just list some people that are doing really interesting work that I think people need to actually just pay attention to So listen carefully I'm about to start preaching So i'm thinking of people like and I mean Rain Grayson, Shelly Fork, Colette Robert, Charlie Yvonne Simpson, Matthew Capodacasa, Emma Stanton, Frankie Gonzalez, Alexandra Espinoza like these and I mean there are so many more But these are playwrights who are writing really interesting Provocative work about experiences that I think need to be seen on stage like, you know, especially people like for example Rain Grayson is writing plays specifically about His trans experience and like what is it like, you know to be a young person In that situation and trying to figure out how to transition in a world that is very hostile at times to Trans individuals So I mean there there are just so many amazing artists and I'm really excited That there are just so many ways now that we can get access to that work that makes me hopeful You know, so the only thing I'm hoping that you know happens on the other side is that we follow through now that that access is there You know, do we continue forth with that? And now I'm just like watching with the dramaturgical way that I do that is a combination of hopefulness and side-eye That That people will really pay attention and really like cultivate that work because I think You know back to I think we're finally starting to grapple with the fact that people for I think there was a sort of Like the scarcity mentality that you talked about before when this ain't pie Like there are all there are all sorts of theaters out there doing all sorts of things There's there's a lot of pies There's a lot of cake if you don't like any of that There's some croissants like whatever it is It's there and so really just and I think the other thing that's on the other side of some of this access that things like npx Is done etc Has allowed smaller theaters that don't have the like the economic capital to get in on some of those Things like once upon a time you had to know someone in order to be able to get access to things Now that that's not a thing You know and I mean obviously if anyone ever is like, you know what I just don't I just don't know Please email the literary managers and dramaturgs of the mayor because I can give you all kinds of lists all kinds of people If I don't know then I'm sure I can send you in the right direction Well, and the beauty of this right now too is that you just had this fantastic list And I'm sure there will be more is that you can actually go to howlround.com because this is being live streamed But they haven't it's archive. It's archived. I don't know where that came from. It's archived. So you can actually go back It's for the Brits in the room. Um, okay, great. Yes I just want to sort of add to that list. I want to note at those of you who follow the polythers like uh, March madness like I do This year, um, all three finals for the Pulitzer prize and drama were women Jackie Sidley's Drury took home the big prize for fair view and again, it's really not I don't I don't think of it As competition. I think of it all as honor Heidi Shrek. Uh, her play is on broadly currently you can check it out there in support She's also up for a Tony Claire baron who's been blowing apart the idea of what it means to have a multiplicity of female and gender inclusive Perspectives on stage those three women were honored. Um, Dominique morseau is up for writing the book for her Tony Tony nominated show, um My god, he just blanked on the title help me No, no, no, uh Oh Oh my god, thank you. Thank you I'm gonna throw some more writers at you through so many Dominique morseau Heidi Shrek Dipika who was here this weekend Alisha Harris people who are pushing form as Dipika is as Alisha is who are writing outside of the norm of what a traditional Well-made play is Diana. Oh Lauren Yee Mona Mansour C. A. Johnson Sylvia Corey charlie evan simpson. Hilary baddest mona herce. Mendoza mj. Kaufman, etc You get it. He's that exchange and filter to your heart's delight And I just want to say something about what is exciting to me too Is the the ongoing build of this community of generosity of writers supporting other writers of advocates and artists and activists and folks in the working within traditional regional theater systems Entrenched and established to create the next for the next generation of theater leaders And all of you are again are an active part of that. So thank you for joining us on the front lines Um, it's interesting because of course I do new plays and I find new plays and produce them and direct them But we're also a theater and I just think what has happened in the last I'm going to say Ten years, but even in the last two years in theater Since I've been in theater and for 40 years it's it's completely changing and that has a lot to do with access I mean it's not only in the plays that we see being written and that we can get produced but also in How you sell a ticket or how you don't sell a ticket and you ask for a pay whatever you can ticket or How people's buying habits have changed? I mean everything in this landscape Has changed and everybody has bucked this for so many years No, we're going to keep doing what we're doing and and people are no longer doing that and I think It's absolutely fascinating And that I think creates more writers We're right now doing a world premiere of bond by a local playwright And he's a vet and it's about his experience in iraq Well, we started as of this morning veterans writing workshops For guys that want to not only write but potentially have them performed And so that they would become a play as opposed to maybe just an essay So to try to create people who don't have a voice who might feel disenfranchised and being able to even Write about that experience So I mean I just think the development work that we can do As theater owners is you know that that we have to it's a great huge responsibility And I do not take that lightly and so I just want to create new writers and just have that That place that people can create collaboratively because To be able to work with the writer side by side Which is what we now do is a phenomenal experience as opposed to just you know You get a play and you just do what you want with it We no longer do what we want we do what needs to happen And it just yeah, and I don't have any names for you but you know You just come to the unicorn. You'll see all those people. They just talked about I'm really excited Not only about what's happening with Artists and access, but what's happening with audiences The fact that we can sit here in a room with a lot of people for 9 45 on a saturday morning Which in in theater speak is you know, like saying at Yeah, two o'clock in the morning But to see our audiences expanding and changing Um, and I think a part of that is about new work You know when you see a new play here at the rep or at unicorn or you come to a festival You're not just being an artist An audience member you to become an artist because your responses you're laughing you're not laughing Your feedback that you give to the director who you meet in the lobby or the playwright or the the folks here Cynthia that all goes into that next production So I want to encourage you to embrace that part of the artist within yourself And think about what's next tell people about the plays that you saw even if it's not your favorite play Another last year between The second of january when I was with some fine folks that are here in creed colorado for a workshop through The fourth of march I saw read or saw readings of 64 plays And although I probably can't tell you the full storyline Of them or in a lot of case who even wrote the play Um, I can't tell you about a moment An instant an image a line something that stuck with me And I will encourage you as you see new work To find that and to share that and be able to say to the person you're sitting next to at your Your religious service that you go to or your club or at your favorite diner Hey, you know what I I did I I went and saw a play And it was amazing or I didn't really like it, but there was this one thing that stuck with me, right So share your wonderful enthusiasm and knowledge with everybody We've learned in that triple play study Several things which are interesting and are going to be really evocative for the field But um, one of them is that even after someone sees a play they often don't know who the playwright is Um, and they often it doesn't matter to them in the same way you watch tv shows that you love and most of you Probably could not tell you Tell us who the writers are but I'll guarantee if it's a great show that you love and the story is intriguing you There is a playwright in that writer's room And that is why television in my opinion has Done this we're living in this golden age of writers and voices Um, so I encourage you to join us in the golden age not only by coming out on saturday morning But we learned that people come to the theater for two reasons one because someone asked them to go with them It's a social event and two because the story in some way Resonates with them either they it speaks to them personally or it's about something They don't know but would like to know more about So share those stories of your experiences with going to the theater with everybody you run into And I just want to add on to what nan said um 100% like I think that there's so many ways You I feel like in some ways are part of the choir like we're preaching to the choir, right? But what you do in your individual actions every day being here buying tickets talking about the work Buying a copy of her favorite play gifting it to others even browsing your local Barnes & Noble and letting them know your local bookseller Thank you so much for stocking new plays, you know I don't see as many women on this shelf as I would love I have some ideas for you Or could I help bring in a playwright to host a reading or a conversation or a signing? Right beginning with the idea of party and community and an individual action I just want to thank you for what you all are doing sort of each and every day In that way because it accumulates You are all activists for showing up. So thank you for being here. Um, just a few things I know we need to move on out of here because we need to set up for kyle hatley's reading of frankenstein Which is very exciting. Um, so I we don't have time for questions But we are going to go out and have coffee and so please feel free to ask Uh, you know have a chat as we're having coffee Um, uh at two o'clock. We have another another conversation I want to thank howl round for hosting us today. We'll be having another two o'clock central time Another panel the deepening the conversation And um, and and then we have for all of you here at 4 15 We have the reading of legacy land, which will also be in this room The origin kc new works festivals made possible with lead financial support from the copacan family fund H&R block and the national endowment for the arts This project is supported in part by the city of kansas city, missouri neighborhood tourist development fund And kc rep is underwritten in part by the missouri arts council. All of these events are free today Except for the productions, which some of you may have already been to in the last couple of weeks with previous But if you've enjoyed in this event, um, we hope that you will help support origin kc And keep making these events free by making a donation on your way out We accept cash and checks and the credit cards via this cool little thing called a dip jar You can just stick your credit card in there and um double dipping is encouraged So thank you. Thank you all for being here today. Thank you to our amazing panelists and we will see you soon