News

US playwrights and ‘development hell’

A follow-on from an earlier Arts Hub news story about US playwrights finding themselves stuck in “development hell.” How does the development “system” work? Does it in fact keep playwrights from getting full productions, as a growing chorus of critics charge? What are the alternatives for a new playwright?

28 Mar 2007 12:00

Howard Emanuel

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Writing and Publishing

If you were to gather a group of fledgling playwrights and ask them to discuss their chosen profession, chances are good that before long the conversation will turn to the difficulties many feel they are encountering with the new play development process that has only recently come into being in this country. Following a build-up of the debate, the discussion crescendoed to a deafening roar in recent weeks, as playwrights Richard Nelson and Madeline George, dramaturg/agent Morgan Jenness and Time Out New York’s David Cote participated in a panel about the topic, sponsored by the Summer Play Festival.

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Howard Emanuel

About the Author

As an actor, Howard Emanuel has appeared across the USA in regional theatres ranging from The Paper Mill Playhouse and The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey to the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera and Houston's Theatre Under The Stars. As a playwright, he has recently completed his first full-length work, Last Supper. As a novelist, his urban fiction manuscript, Naked Angels, is currently being shopped to various publishing houses. He is currently hard at work on his second and third plays. He holds a B.F.A. in Acting from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.