INTRODUCTION

Recently, while participating in an on-line playwright’s group doing a reading of my play “Betty, The Staten Island Ferry Fairy,”
I expressed my concern that “Fairies” (or other groups of people) might find the character of Betty “offensive.” One person,
a successful playwright with stellar credentials and an active mentor to many aspiring playwrights, made the comment,
“If you’re not offending someone, you’re not doing your job.”  I’ll let you stew on that idea for a while and, for now, just say
that comment motivated me to think about “my job” as a playwright, and by extension, the “Playwright’s Job.”

WHAT WE ARE

If I am asked, what are you? A list is of titles pops into mind, so, of course, I consider the context. If a musican asks, I’ll say, “I’m a trombone player!” If a student asks, I’ll say, “I’m a professor!” What makes me a trombone player? A Master of Music Degree and sixty-five years of playing the slide trombone. What makes me a Professor? A PhD in Psychology and forty-five years in the college classroom. What makes me a Playwright? Ah...that’s a tricky one. Claiming to be a Playwright, is putting myself (ourselves) in the company of the greats: William Shakespeare for example. This is like my three-year old grand-nephew Miles, who can kick a soccer ball quite well, putting himself in the company of Lionel Messi, one of the greatest soccer players in the world.

Now, I’m not so modest as to hesitate to claim to be a playwright. No, I do not have a degree in playwriting; I’m self-taught...and independent learner. And that learning has allowed me to write almost a dozen original plays in the last two years. And so, if a theater person asks, "What are you?” Well, I’m willing to say “Playwright.” So then, how to describe the distance between me and William Shakespeare? Simply this, data points on a continuum...to the left rank armatures just starting out...to the right...well, to the right are the folks who actually get their plays produced.

So, where do I fall on that continuum? I don’t know...somewhere in the middle, hopefully inching to the right. But one thing I do know, until my plays are no longer self-produced, until I no longer need to participate in five on-line playwright groups, until the audience lets me know “I’ve arrived,” I shall remain unfulfilled, for, as I argued in my Op-Ed “The Playwright’s Dilemma” the fulfillment of the playwright’s fundamental purpose is to have their work experienced by other human beings, the more the better. Never the less, writing plays and musicals is what I do every day, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, but every day I write. (Today I’m writing this!) So, yeah...I’m comfortable identifying myself as a “playwright” and I encourage my peers in all those on-line groups to do the same.  What are we? We’re playwrights! Boo-ha!

WHO WE ARE

This is addressed to my peers and friends in my groups with this full disclosure: my observations as to “who we are,” are based solely on numerous conversations and observations I’ve had with folks over time. And, what I have observed is that we tend to be a mature community with many of us retired and officially senior citizens. And, if I’m not mistaken, many of us are somewhat new to writing plays. I have been writing and producing musicals for decades; I only started writing plays (dramas and comedies) in 2021. (So much easier than musicals...trust me!) And now here’s an interesting observation, we may be more female than male; at least it seems I see more women coming forward with their plays across the several sessions I attend than men. This is a good thing, I think. If you look at the full history of our art, you will find a pre-dominance of male playwrights. But, if you google “Best playwrights of the 21^st Century” you see names like Annie Baker, Lynn Nottage, Kate Mulvany, Tracy Letts, Sarah Kane, Theresa Rebeck, and Suzan Lori-Parks to mention a few women who are on the right of that previously mentioned continuum. And us? Well, I supposed were all data points on the way to the right. But since I’ve not seen Annie, Lynn, Kate, Tracy, Sarah, Theresa, or Suzan in any of my groups with their latest play or scenes in hand waiting to be scheduled for a reading, I will assume that most of us are “Gods-in-progress” (see below!).

WHAT WE DO

Well, obviously, we write plays; defined as works “...written for the theater that dramatize events through the performance of dialogue and stage directions.” (source)  We structure performances into acts and scenes, to help build the tension and present the story in a compelling way. We are like Gods! We create characters and give them names, personas, sexuality, histories, contexts, joys and sorrows, hopes and fears. We give them beliefs, opinions, prejudices and agendas. We decide who lives and who dies. We decide who is good and who is evil. And in those decisions, we have the power to engage, entertain, inform, and/or motivate other human beings which brings me to why we do what we do.

WHY DO WE DO IT?

I’m guessing there may be as many reasons why we write plays as there are playwrights. But I think there are things that tie us together. We are all, in my view, storytellers-at-heart. Storytelling is the genesis of our art; if you can’t tell a compelling story, you’re probably not a playwright. I know several storytellers and the all seem to have similar goals; first, to engage listeners and then to entertain listeners. In other words, capture their attention and then hold their attention. So, I would say that pretty much applies to us as well. We write plays with the intention of gaining the attention of and holding the interest of audiences with our story...that’s our job and, I would say, “If you’re not engaging and entertaining audiences, you’re not doing your job.”

And that is a not too subtle segue back to what I ask y’all to stew on. Remember my esteemed colleague’s observation, “If you’re not offending someone, you’re not doing your job.” (I’d be curious as to your feelings about that statement.) To be honest, it struck me as counter-intuitive. Most folks, in my experience, tend not to find offensive material “entertaining,” especially if they are the object of the intended offense. And, offended people either do not stick around for more offense, or they retaliate. I’m not just talking about negative critical reviews, in this time and context, offended people often retaliate violently. (Ask Salman Rushdie about that!) So, my considered view is to try to avoid offending as many potential listeners (aka, audiences) as possible. And, therefore, I would respectfully disagree with my colleague. To accept that offending audiences is “doing your job” is offensive to the legions of playwrights who have managed to produce highly successful work without offending reasonable people.

I do concede there may be times when a playwright starts out with the intention of offending “someone” or many “someones.”
For example, political plays. I would not recommend performing a Left-biased play at a MAGA rally or a Right-biased play at the Democratic National Convention. That said, plays that take a stand on socials issues are great vehicles to inform and motivate (while entertaining). In fact, most all of my plays have peace and social justice themes: from elder disabilities (Coke? I don’t like Coke!), to individual identity (Betty, The Staten Island Ferry Fairy), to deep religious beliefs (The Evolution of BillyBob Goodfellow). So, I did worry about offending old folks (like me), gender-benders (like Betty), and upwards of 10 billion, give or take, Jews, Muslims, and Christians (like BillyBob). Religious folk tend to take suggestions contrary to their beliefs disquietly.

So, with the above in mind, I have learned to choose my audiences (when I can get them) carefully. I was an actor for a full year with the Pipeline Collective before I submitted one of my plays for their Salons. I knew the folks that show up all the time. I’ve read their plays...many with social issues...abortion, gay rights, immigration, civil-rights...great stuff. So, I was pretty sure these liberal folks were not going to be offended by my liberal-biases and indeed, they were not. Granted, there are times when playwrights might just not care if they are offending an individual or a group of individuals. (Mel Brooks, a Jew, was not too concerned about offending Nazis when he wrote “Springtime for Hitler!” in his musical “The Producers.”) My point again is that it makes no sense to alienate potential audiences; better to persuade.

SUMMARY

What are we? 
We’re playwrights and fellow journeyers on a shared path.
 
Who are we? 
We’re a diverse mature community with shared goals and interests.
 
What do we do? 
We engage, entertain, inform and motivate.
 
Why do we do it? 
We’re storytellers; it’s our nature.

John McDonnell Tierney
Heath, Massachusetts
December 19, 2022