Friday, November 07, 2014
New Play Wizard Richard Washer on First Draft and the D.C. Theater Scene
HowlRound: Richard Washer is a Washington fixture, having worked in the Washington, D.C. area for more than thirty years as a playwright, director, dramaturge, and educator. He is humble, unassuming, and quietly essential to many in the DC area who are developing new plays. For two decades, he has been one of the few playwriting teachers at the NEA-funded Writers Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where classes in poetry and prose predominate. He was a founder and staff member of Charter Theater from 1997 until it closed six years ago. The reading series he led at Charter survived the theater’s closing, acquiring a new name, First Draft, and a new director, Leslie Kobylinski. As a director and dramaturg, Richard remains heavily involved, working one-on-one with playwrights to develop their scripts and leading post-show discussions.
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I don't think many people realize just how great the DC theatre scene is. there are SO many theaters in Washington, D.C., and they're all doing really cool work. There are both large and small venues, many are rented for the production, and the companies are doing really fun and high quality work. I did an opera/dance double bill show that was with a mostly Latino based company. We rehearsed in a church, barely had a set, and all did more work than was within our actual practice, but the quality of theatre that came out of that process was so worth it in the end. I had a blast working for that company because of the excellence of the artists involved. It is truly a secretly artsy city, but if you ever get the chance to go see the Fringe festival in D.C. you'll see that the city is thriving with possibility for involvement with a theater.
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