"Writing a play starts with discovering what it is you want to write about," says playwright Shirley Barrie.
Barrie is a playwright, sometimes a producer, and a part-time arts administrator. She gets ideas for her plays from just about anywhere. "I usually start the day with the newspaper. I cut out things that interest me and file them away. Sometimes I never look at them again," she says.
"Other times I find that I'm cutting out articles about the same kind of thing, and this is usually an indication that I'm getting obsessed about something that might be the material for a play."
But that's just one way she writes. Sometimes producers hire her to write plays on subjects they choose.
"With some plays, you are writing about things that particularly concern you at the time. Sometimes, with a commissioned play, the subject is given to you. For example, I have been asked to write plays about immigrant women who work in the garment industry, or the history of mental health treatment or, more broadly, plays about women," Barrie explains.
Being a playwright isn't easy work. It requires a variety of different skills and natural talents, not the least of which is a creative mind. It can also mean a lot of late hours. Barrie says writing a play involves versatility and a lot of patience.
"Writing a play can involve a lot of things. Sometimes you have to do research in the library, or interview people," she says.
"If you are working on a collective play, you spend days with the actors and the director, talking and improvising, and then later you take that information and structure and shape the ideas that have been thrown up. Sometimes you sit alone in your study and stare at the wall for hours on end. If you have a play in workshop or rehearsal for production, you spend a lot of your time during the day in the rehearsal hall, and then do rewrites in the evening."
Obviously, no two days are ever alike for a playwright -- and that's actually part of the appeal. Many thrive on the variety this kind of work brings them. For most playwrights, there's nothing quite like the thrill of seeing their creations come alive on a stage.
"I love the chance to create work for a live audience to enjoy. I love the chance to share ideas, and I love making people think," says playwright Mark Leiren-Young. He just loves the impression his plays leave on the paying customers.
"I'm always excited when people leave the theater and they're still talking about what they've seen," says Leiren-Young. "If you think about it, it really is an incredible honor when people choose to spend their time watching your work."
He remembers one time when that point was driven home to him. "I remember one New Year's Eve when we were getting ready to step on stage. Just before we went on stage, I realized that hundreds of people had decided that on that particular night our show was the best party in town. What could be more flattering? I couldn't stop smiling all night."
Leiren-Young says he got into playwriting because he always loved writing and because theater is just plain fun. But there are times when a playwright needs a thick skin. According to Leiren-Young, there are actually two things that are equally tough:
- "The fact that people will criticize your work very publicly. There are very few professions on the planet where critics will publicly attack your work if they don't think you did a good job. And, of course, more people will read reviews than will ever see the show."
- "The fact that playwrights have very little control of the productions of their work. Ultimately it's up to the director, the actors and the designers to bring your work to life. And a bad job by any or all of the above can make even the best writer in the world look like a fool."
A playwright's work can sometimes deal with some pretty controversial themes. Sometimes the ideas presented in a play can make people laugh. But some views can make people very uncomfortable. A playwright must always consider the social implications of what a play says.
"For the most part, my work is driven by some sort of social theme," says Leiren-Young. "Something upsets me and I write about it. Sometimes my frustration turns the problem into a comedy, other times it comes out as a drama."
Leiren-Young recently touched on a subject currently on a lot of people's minds -- youth violence.
"A play I wrote for high schools, Basically Good Kids, sparked students who saw it to consider the causes of violence," says Leiren-Young. "Hopefully it convinced some kids that violence isn't the best answer to their problems."
When it comes to work prospects, Leiren-Young doesn't mince words.
"The job market is terrible. It's one of the only professions in the world where most of your top competitors are dead. The most-produced playwright on the planet is Shakespeare. And he works cheap. Most of the other top playwrights are equally dead. And theaters have no obligation to discover new writers. It's much safer financially to produce plays by the handful of famous writers than to help nurture new ones."
Angela Brumett knows how tough it is trying to break into the business as a playwright. She works as a part-time professor at Phoenix College in Arizona while she builds her career as a playwright. Brumett says it's important to have the right personality.
"You must have two characteristics if you intend to pursue a career as a playwright," Brumett says. "If you don't have both of them, then write plays as a hobby or side business. The first is a knack for writing engaging scenes, including dialog if there is any. The second is extreme ambition to be a playwright because that is what it takes to make a living doing it."
Brumett knows this because it's the life she's living. She knows that to be a successful playwright, you have to pour all your energies into it, and make it your primary focus.
"You must have a desire to do this that is fueled by an unending supply of dynamite as well as endurance -- a winning combination so rare, that even if you weren't so talented, you may succeed anyway."