HowlRound: I am a professional playwright. I make a living writing plays. But I haven’t had a professional production in seven years. I write plays for the school market and student performers.
For many years I avoided saying the above out loud, in public. “I write for the school market.” I didn’t want to admit to the kind of plays I write because I felt there was the stigma to writing for youth. For kids. It’s not real writing. It’s not writing “real” plays. It’s kiddie. It’s cute. I was embarrassed to admit that the only place I could get produced was in schools. In every social situation I dreaded the question “What do you do?” and the inevitable follow up question “Have you written anything I’ve seen?” The answer was always no. And that seemed to make me less of a playwright. It meant I wasn’t living up to the expectations of what a writer does, or who a playwright is. I wasn’t following the traditional path to success.
5 comments:
I feel like many people at this school could learn from reading this woman's story. A lot of us are here to learn our trade, be it design, management, acting or musical theater, and eventually rise to fame and success; right? Because after all, what are you as an artist if you're not recognized by crowds, not know by the world? I think a lot of people here have this mindset; not that it's wrong to want success! On the contrary, I love that Lindsay Price provides another definition of success by showing the process she's gone through to come to terms with her own path and experience as an artist.
I have walked this path and now I am walking back. I have spent 12 years in educational theater. I have taught young actors and produced show that they could participate in. I did make apology to my professional friends for doing kids theatre. At the same time, I found it very rewarding AND if I could make it pay better I may even still being doing it. It is theatre for funs sake. I think the way that theatre should be. I see myself in my “retirement” going back to doing theatre for kids. I think this article is a great addition to the green page. I hope those good people in on the web blog talk about this.
This is awesome. How great for Lindsay that she has become comfortable with herself and her work and where she works. It is unfortunate that so many people feel like they're not successful or impressive or cool enough because their work isn't mainstream or in the corporate sector. Sure, that kind of work can be awesome, but what Lindsay proves here is that that kind of work isn't suited for all theatre artists. Some people find other venues for their work to be more fulfilling. It's so easy for theatre people to have huge egos and beat up on each other, but we need to understand that there is a place for all of us in this industry, and that a person is not necessarily a better or moe successful theatre artist because their work is more widely produced or more flashy. The work that people like Lindsay are doing is so important, and they should be applauded for bringing the arts to so many different types of people (like student) and making it mean something to them.
Well... I guess it's at least kind of comforting to know that my constant insecurities regarding my own success as an artist won't cease when I start working professionally. Wait, that's not comforting at all.
I guess it actually is comforting to know that some artists are able to create their own definition of success and are satisfied in their work. Ms. Price's definition of success isn't at all like mine (though to be fair I have yet to decide what exactly success means to me) but I'm glad that she's happy in what she's doing.
Her concerns are something I worry about a lot about my career. Because of the nature of this business, I feel as if I constantly need to be looking ahead, planning where I should be, and working hard to get there. Goals are great, but what happens if I'm not working my dream job in 10 years? What happens if CMU talks about other alumni in my class but never mentions me? Success is something that is an individual thing, but the arts seem to constantly define it for us. Bravo to Lindsay Price for finding her niche and finding success in it. My experience doing these kind of plays in middle and high school influenced me greatly.
Post a Comment