Chapter 12
Interviews with Publishers of Ten-Minute Plays
Playscripts
Sarah Bernstein joined the Playscripts literary department in May 2009 and was promoted to literary manager in 2011. As literary manager, she oversees the ongoing development of Playscripts’ acquisitions strategy and review process, and works with playwrights, agents, and artistic directors to establish successful partnerships between artists and Playscripts. She has also worked in the finance and business affairs departments at the Weinstein Company and currently serves on the literary wing of the Lark Play Development Center. Sarah received a BA in literary arts from Brown University, where she studied playwriting with Paula Vogel.
Glenn Alterman: What do you look for when deciding which ten-minute play you’ll choose to publish?
Sarah Bernstein: We’re looking for plays that are both high quality and high impact. A powerfully funny or powerfully moving ten-minute play reaches an audience with a kind of directness and clarity that even excellent full-lengths can’t always achieve. It’s a unique medium in that respect. We want to publish the kind of short plays that have a lingering effect belying their brevity.
Because the market for ten-minute plays is smaller than it is for one-acts or full-lengths, we are especially drawn to plays that have the potential to be performed by a variety of groups. There are plays in our Great Short Plays and Great Short Comedies collections that have been performed at professional theaters, colleges, high schools, and community theaters all over the world.
Alterman: What things are definite “turnoffs” when reading plays you’re considering?
Bernstein: When writing a ten-minute play, simplicity and clarity are paramount, but this doesn’t mean you can coast on a good premise or hang all your ambitions on one funny twist. Many of the short plays we decline to publish have a promising conceit but fail to keep a reader or audience engaged from start to finish.
Alterman: Is there much of a demand these days from theaters and theater companies for ten-minute plays and evenings of ten-minute plays? If so, why do you think that is?
Bernstein: Just about every college with a drama department is in need of strong short plays, as these make excellent projects for first-time directors. We regularly license ten-minute plays to colleges and find that they are often interested in our more challenging material.
Our Great Shorts collections sell extremely well to both high schools and colleges. Even if the plays are only being used for in-class scene work, it means increased exposure (not to mention book royalties) for our playwrights.
Community and professional theaters will rarely produce a stand-alone ten-minute play, but many stage evenings of ten-minute plays. A theater might produce several short works from the same playwright, or they’ll sometimes present a collection of ten-minute pieces on a single theme. Your ten-minute play about dating, aging, or politics might catch the eye of a theater looking to build an evening of similar shorts.
Alterman: Many ten-minute plays are really just ten-minute “sketches.” What do you feel are the main differences between the two?
Bernstein: Many of the plays I referred to earlier, those with strong premises and spotty execution, could be called sketches. A play, whatever its length, is more than a vehicle for a clever joke or idea. Whether you are writing an absurd comedy or a wrenching drama, you should do the bidding of your characters and not the other way around.
Alterman: What advice do you have for playwrights who want to write ten-minute plays?
Bernstein: I think writing ten-minute plays is a fantastic exercise for playwrights. It strengthens your powers of focus and precision in ways that benefit all of your writing. Read (and see) as many ten-minute plays of varied content and style as you can. Note what works and what doesn’t. Why do some plays leave you exhilarated and other plays leave you dissatisfied? A good way to start building your catalogue of ten-minute plays is to write specifically for one of the excellent ten-minute play contests held annually in the US. Both the deadlines and the requirements of these contests can help spur you to write. For example, the ten-minute play contest held every year by Actors Theatre of Louisville now requires that all characters in your play be between 18 and 28 years old. You may never have planned to write about this particular demographic, but stepping outside your comfort zone can produce unexpected and exciting results.
Heuer Publishing
Geri Albrecht is editor in chief of Heuer Publishing, where she edited Eddie McPherson’s best-selling play Virgil’s Wedding and many other short and full-length plays. She helped to launch Green Room Scripts, an online self-publishing service started in 2012, and Dominion Publications, an online book publisher and distributor. Green Room Scripts is considered by many to be a model of self-publishing for theater, and a pioneer in developing and publishing anthologies for classroom and performance use. Albrecht is a member of Theatre Cedar Rapids, which is among the nation’s largest and longest-running community theaters.
Glenn Alterman: What do you look for when deciding which ten-minute play you’ll choose to publish?
Geri Albrecht: Good ten-minute plays require the same dramatic elements that exist in full-length plays; however, they must be more compact, dynamic, and resourceful. There is no time to waste. We look for the initial incident, the rise of action, climax, and conclusion. We expect to see vibrant character and emotive language, but yes, we still need a solid plot.
Alterman: What things are definite “turnoffs” when reading plays you’re considering?
Albrecht: It’s a deal-breaker when I can’t tell one character from another. I’ve read my share of ten-minute plays, and there’s nothing worse than bland, vanilla characters. Instead give me characters that demand my attention, characters that I want to know. I know they’re not perfect, and that’s what makes them perfectly interesting. Another turnoff would be overly complicated plots with multiple scenes. No, thanks.
Alterman: Is there much of a demand these days from theaters and theater companies for ten-minute plays and evenings of ten-minute plays? If so, why do you think that is?
Albrecht: Yes, I think there is serious demand for ten-minute theater. We’ve seen a tremendous demand for ten-minute plays at competitive thespian festivals (forensics, speech and debate), and growing interest at the high school level. Why? Broader involvement, arts-integrated classrooms; and the form itself is quick, pithy, and concise, something that is embraced and easily consumed by the digital generation. Community theaters are also beginning to embrace ten-minute theater, Reasons vary from increasing their volunteer and audience base, lower cost, flexibility in casting and rehearsal schedules, and improved quality of ten-minute theater.
Alterman: Many ten-minute plays are really just ten-minute “sketches.” What do you feel are the main differences between the two?
Albrecht: Aristotle’s basic elements of drama obtain for a good ten-minute play as they do for a good full-length play. The common mistake made by writers of ten-minute plays is that they tend to skip or overly abbreviate important elements, especially theme or thought, plot and action, language and rhythm, and reduce the play to nothing more than a sketch. That said, there is nothing wrong with a good sketch, much as there is nothing wrong with a good vaudeville act, as they both can be entertaining. However they tend to lack the ability to evoke emotion and stir thought.
Alterman: What advice do you have for playwrights who want to write ten-minute plays?
Albrecht: The most successful writers will construct a plot that allows the drama to flow quickly, emphasize language to color their characters, allow their characters to show more than they tell, maintain a strong central theme/thought (you don’t have time to manage subplots), and deliver something unique and completely irresistible to the audience (and to the editor).
Smith & Kraus Publishers
Lawrence Harbison was in charge of new play acquisition for Samuel French, Inc., for over 30 years, during which time his work on behalf of playwrights resulted in the first publication of such subsequent luminaries as Jane Martin, Don Nigro, Tina Howe, Theresa Rebeck, José Rivera, William Mastrosimone, Charles Fuller, and Ken Ludwig, among many others; and the acquisition of musicals such as Smoke of the Mountain, A . . . My Name Is Alice, Little Shop of Horrors, and Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down. He is now a freelance editor, primarily for Smith & Kraus, Inc., for whom he edits annual anthologies of best plays by new playwrights and women playwrights, best ten-minute plays, and best monologues and scenes for men and for women. For many years he wrote a weekly column on his adventures in the theater for two Manhattan newspapers, the Chelsea Clinton News and the Westsider. His new column, “On the Aisle with Larry,” is a weekly feature at www.smithandkraus.com.
He works with individual playwrights to help them develop their plays (see his Web site, www.playfixer.com). He has also served as literary manager or literary consultant for several theaters, such as Urban Stages and American Jewish Theatre. He is a member of both the Outer Critics Circle and the Drama Desk. He has served many times over the years as a judge and commentator for various national play contests and lectures regularly at colleges and universities. He holds a BA from Kenyon College and an MA from the University of Michigan.
*To begin the interview, Mr. Harbison requested that I include the following foreword from his book, The Best Ten-Minute Plays, 2011 (Smith & Kraus).
In years past, playwrights who were just starting out wrote one-act plays of 30 to 40 minutes in duration. One thinks of writers such as A. R. Gurney, Lanford Wilson, John Guare, and several others. Now, new playwrights tend to work in the ten-minute play genre, largely because there are so many production opportunities. Twenty or so years ago, there were none. I was senior editor for Samuel French at that time, and it occurred to me that there might be a market for these very short plays. Actors Theatre of Louisville had been commissioning them for several years, for use by their Apprentice Company, and they assisted me in compiling an anthology of their plays, which did so well that Samuel French has published several more anthologies of ten-minute plays from ATL. For the first time, ten-minute plays were now published and widely available, and they started getting produced. There are now many ten-minute play festivals every year, not only in the U.S. but all over the world.
What makes a good ten-minute play? Well, first and foremost I have to like it. Isn’t that what we mean when we call a play, a film, a novel “good?” We mean that it effectively portrays the world as I see it. Aside from this obvious fact, a good ten-minute play has to have the same elements that any good play must have: a strong conflict; interesting, well-drawn characters; and compelling subject matter. It also has to have a clear beginning, middle, and end. In other words, it’s a full-length play which runs about ten minutes. Many of the plays which are submitted to me are scenes, not complete plays; well-written scenes in many cases, but scenes nonetheless. They leave me wanting more. I chose plays which are complete in and of themselves, which I believe will excite those of you who produce ten-minute plays; because if a play isn’t produced, it’s the proverbial sound of a tree falling in the forest far away.
Glenn Alterman: What do you look for when deciding which ten-minute play you’ll choose to publish?
Lawrence Harbison: A full-length play in about ten minutes with a unique voice.
Alterman: What things are definite “turnoffs” when reading plays you’re considering?
Harbison: Nothing “definite”—just the same things that make any play good.
Alterman: Is there much of a demand these days from theaters and theater companies for ten-minute plays and evenings of ten-minute plays? If so, why do you think that is?
Harbison: Yes. Easy to produce.
Alterman: Many ten-minute plays are really just ten-minute “sketches.” What do you feel are the main differences between the two?
Harbison: My point is that a good ten-minute play is a full-length (i.e., complete) play which runs about ten minutes. Many ten-minute plays seem like scenes from a larger work (in fact, many of them are).
Alterman: What advice do you have for playwrights who want to write ten-minute plays?
Harbison: Go ahead and write them.