I've been dabbling in writing for a few years and I want to commit to writing a series of short plays. A playwrighting group would be great for support and accountability.

Are there any playwrighting groups on here accepting new members? Or, is there interest in starting one from whole cloth? I'd love to chat about current playwrights and get/give feedback. We could Zoom it, or Discord, or email chain, make-up our own little challenges and deadlines. I'm happy to do a bunch of the admin-set-up-junk but I'd rather focus on getting better at playmaking.

not necessarily books on play writing (though please feel free to leave that too) i’m just curious what are the plays you read that you were like wow! i want to do this (and i guess seen too but im a third year drama student and most of my assignments this year are to write a play so ive been reading quite a few to get a better grip on the structure and also going to the theatre much more!

for me, i would say i really enjoyed reading and watching barbershop chronicles by inua ellams. sometimes i think it’s easy for plays to not be that fun / engaging to read because they’re obviously written to be acted and performed not necessarily read but i really love the flow of this one!

Can anyone recommend plays with a single protagonist (played by one actor) who interacts with multiple characters, where the other roles are performed by a small cast doubling up?

Looking for opinions and recommendations.

I’m writing a play set in a restaurant. It’s tonally similar to The Flick by Annie Baker or Lobby Hero by Lonnergan.

What other plays are set in restaurants have you read? I can only think of Bus Stop by Inge and Pocatello by Samuel D Hunter.

Do you think it’s necessary to include costumers or can the interactions be during the end of shift or openings of shift moments?

I’ve also thought about setting the play on the “expo” line so as to not even have to deal with the actual dining room, but then I’d need to incorporate the actual kitchen, which is a whole other mess of problems.

Any suggestions or opinions on this are appreciated!

hi all— next week i’m meeting with an artistic director to discuss the possibility of a theatre putting on my one act play. i’ve never had a meeting like this before and im terribly nervous about having to represent myself and my work. any advice is appreciated

hi,

i'm a playwright whose first play will be staged in a big name stage soon. in the meanwhile i wrote a 30 minute experimental one man play. i want it to be staged, but don't know exactly how a play this short can be staged as i'm very new to the theatre world. thought maybe fringe festivals might be a good idea, but wanted to ask here just to be sure of my options.

thanks for reading.

Hi! I have a group of 10 drama students (11-14 years old) and I have 1 week to create a plan of a short play (15-20 minutes). The topic: advent, preparing for Christmas, Christmas. IT would be great if we could make something funny (or with some funny parts). The play can be a "normal" play with a Story, or just scenes slightly connected. What would you do? Any story idea/source? A dramatization of an existing story also ok.

Hey guys - short post because I’m just so curious and maybe this is a dumb question but can someone explain to me why “Proof” by David Auburn is so critically acclaimed? I’ve read it and I’m not even saying I didn’t enjoy it - but I don’t understand what about it makes it so highly regarded. I’d love people’s thoughts on this, thanks!

I think cats are the exception to Chekhov's gun - you can write cats in a play over and over just because.

For a bit of context, I'm an actor and for about 5 years now my actor friend and I have been trying to find a play together. Turns out my cousin's partner has written the perfect one! As we have no deadline we want to spend time working on the play together and really creating something we all love.

We have our first sort of workshopping day tomorrow, but as none of us have ever workshopped a play before we're not too sure where to start.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any kind of guidelines that we should be following to facilitate the workshop, or steps and questions we should be trying to answer throughout the process?

I'm pretty inexperienced in writing anything to be performed, but I am feeling pretty good about this. I saw an actor preform it the other day, and I decided to lengthen it, and submit it to a competition. But I'd love some feedback from people more familiar with the format than I am.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/171s4LKPC5hQE1HQxcjGFVtrlA5CYDqWFS4BhOJp7AKg/edit?usp=sharing

I’m writing my first play and if you have any questions, suggestions, criticisms or just anything like that, do comment.

Title: The Wedding Thief

Genre: Farce

Plot: the story centres on a hotel porter named Harry Carlysle, he is surrounded by rude guests, an unsympathetic manager and an even less sympathetic landlord. He decides to rob a mansion to earn some cash so he can move to Malibu, however, he discovers the owners of the mansion are hosting a wedding, however, the original groom got cold feet so Harry has to pretend to be the groom.

What's up, everyone!!

I just finished writing my first musical, and I have no idea if it's good or not. I will be entering it into a competition full of high schoolers (because I am a high schooler) and I really need some advice. I have sheet music, however there's no actual recording of the song because, well, I can't sing.

I just really need help not only with the lyrics and junk, but also defining my story. There are requirements- 30 pages (ugh) OR 30 minutes in reading time. Please try not to be passive aggressive lol

So, is anyone down?

My major have this Senior seminar that I can do an independent project. I’m currently a playwriting minor and I wanted to use the play I’m writing for my project. However, I’m writing it alongside a class, meaning by the time I finish it I don’t think I’ll have enough time to self-produce it. Is there any other ideas that I can do with my play?

Hey guys. I found an old post on here from 5 years ago with great resources for publishing plays. I wanted to ask if anyone has any current resources for publishing plays. It could be links to publishers, links to playwriting competitions, tips for publishing, etc. Literally anything and everything. For my own research, I'd love to see if there are any books, academic sources, or scholarly sources out there.

Howdy! Just wanted to take the general temperature on plays with large casts or ensembles.

I always feel conflicted because in the professional and community theatre space, larger cast requires larger budgets and it's just not worth it to put on a play with a dozen actors, but theatre education always seems to be searching for straight plays with large cast to avoid giving kids the dreaded roll of "tree" or "wall"

Has anyone found success with a play with a large cast size? Or is it a doomed endeavor?

Hi everyone, just finished writing my first play. Anybody here want to read it? (Just be aware that it’s not really good, I also have low IQ, and I have dyslexia)

So, having said that. Anybody down?

So, I've been a big Shakespeare nerd my whole life, AND a big history nerd. Those two together, along with a passion for literature and theatre, have inspired me to start writing a play set a little bit before Shakespeare's time (the 1550s/60s). However, the biggest part to me is the actual writing process.

How should the grammar sound? What words do I use? Should I actually use doth, thou, ye, etc.? It's accurate, sure, but whenever I write it it just sounds less historical and more ridiculous, like a parody. Does anyone have advice in this regard? Does anyone have any good examples of other Shakespeare-esque plays published in the modern day, and how they handle this? It feels kind of like a cop-out to make the characters all speak completely normal English, but historically accurate English just sounds ridiculous, yknow?

I listen to a lot of podcasts and recorded books. I recall hearing someone speak about the power of letting an audience come to a conclusion rather than spelling it out. The example given, if I recall correctly, featured a woman who worked in housekeeping exiting an elevator. It’s the end of office hours. She tells a story of woe a few different ways. In the first she says things are terrible—a parade of horribles. In the last, she says just enough for us to realize she’s experienced a life-changing loss. I’m trying to figure out where I heard this. Is this idea of having the audience ‘bridge’ to a conclusion spoken of in dramaturgy?

I'd like to write a musical, but I've never written music before and I'm sure it would be just terrible if I tried to compose something; that said, I could take a hearty stab at some lyrics. Would I need to connect with a composer before trying to do anything with it?

Very clearly, I know next to nothing about this process :) I have a one-act play being produced next year from a local contest win but have never dipped my toes into the musical side of things.

I wrote a play. It's pretty good. I'm just wondering what I have to do to restrict myself from getting exploited. Is there a union or a sample contract to look at before sending it to theatres or production companies. How do I make some money from this?

I haven't written anything before, but have done a lot onstage and a little directing/producing for our small community troupe. I've now written a framework, a couple sub plots, main plot, character designs, and written the first scene of 8. Should I show this now to someone for feedback, or get to the halfway point and then see if its any good? When do I take to put it on its feet and do some dramaturgy?
Little daunting because I need it to be good, my group is relying on it to save us from ruin but people say everyone's first attempts are trash. Any advice welcome on all parts of the process.

Basically, my college hosts a writing journal every semester, and accept any 'creative writing' submissions. I took an act of the script I'm working on, and tweaked it slightly to work on its own, before submitting it to the journal. If I ever do finish this script, could it still be published if an act has been published before? Does the writing journal now hold the copyright or something?

I’m a published playwright with multiple productions, WHERE and HOW do I find an agent? The being my own manager piece of this is getting really hard to balance with a day job and would love some help.

As the title says - I want to write a play. I'm an actor who has written short films and TV scripts in college. Of course, I haven't written anything in YEARS. I want to write a play based on an idea that I used in college for a short film. How to start or where to start with it. Do I write ideas down and then dive into the play? Do I create scenes? How do you work when it comes to new work.

If so I would really like to hear the whole experience (e.g. the procedure, royalty, the feedback, etc.)

I recently had a theater professor (someone from my old theater network) at a small Midwestern college reach out to me because their program is doing a student directed/performed showcase of short plays and she had heard that I was getting back into playwriting after years away from it.

So it turns out that one of the students would like to direct one of my 10-minute pieces and she asked me about rites fees.

It's been a while since I've had a production; but my understanding is that $25-40 per performance is the typical range. Does that sound right?

They are doing four shows and not charging admission (but the professor feels that it is important that playwright be paid for their work), so I am thinking of asking for the lower end of that range.

Hi there,

I recently finished the first draft/manuscript of my newest play and I'm seeking some outside feedback from any interested beta readers to help steer the direction of this play's future development.

The play in question is a full-length seriocomic drama with seven characters, spanning two acts (about 180 pages)

Here is the plot synopsis:

In the small suburb of Black Oak, Indiana, a newly-divorced failed congressional candidate returns home to his parents and brother for the first time in five years. Locked in a custody battle with his estranged ex-wife and in debt to his former campaign manager, he reckons with the weight of his failures in the confines of his childhood home, and attempts to reconcile with his two troublesome families. In doing so, he uncovers the true meaning of his tumultuous past, and how to find peace in starting over again.

If you're interested, either send me a DM or leave a comment and I'll message you. I have some specific things I'm particularly looking for feedback on, but any sort of general thoughts and insight would be greatly appreciated. We can discuss more in depth if interested.

Thanks and good luck to all the writers in this community.