Marsha Norman's Playwrights and the Theater

Playwright Marsha Norman had an opinion piece in the New York Times the other day about playwrights attending theater. When you boil it down, for her, a dramatic writer's experience of the theater is one of relationships with colleagues, actors, directors, and the audience. Sometimes the feelings run to jealousy or sympathy, but they (well, sometimes) move quickly beyond it: "The main thing playwrights understand from very early in their careers is that any successful play is good for everybody." Success means that more people go to the theater, which means more chances for people to do theater. Using the current hit "August: Osage County" as the impetus for the article, she notes that playwrights need long-term relationships with theatrical companies:

If we wanted to do one single thing to improve the theatrical climate in America, we’d assign one playwright to every theater that has a resident acting company. ... Playwriting in America has suffered a devastating blow from the development process that keeps writers separate from the rest of the company, working on the same play for years. What playwrights want is what Steppenwolf has given Mr. Letts: a way to get a new play done, see what works, and then go on to the next one. “August: Osage County” is way more than a wonderful play. It is how we get back to having American plays on Broadway. We get them written for actors who want to do them, then producers get on board and start selling tickets.

Imagine, writing plays with the expectation that they might be produced. This short falling is the reason that some playwrights have taken on producing themselves. For all the Shakespeares and Chekhovs and Mamets and Wassersteins, there have been many more who had to create their own opportunities. It was either that, or see no theater done at all.