Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Despite being the backbone of theater, playwrights have recently gone unrecognized. The Tony Awards, theater’s most prestigious award ceremony, unfortunately omitted the categories honoring playwrights (and composers) from its 2018 broadcast. Dough Wright, president of the Dramatists Guild of America, wrote a letter to the CEO of the CBS Network, in which he criticized the broadcast’s omission. In his letter, Wright wrote: “…we remain dismayed that the awards continue to marginalize the roles of playwrights, composers, and lyricists in forging the American theater. This is especially ironic because without dramatists, there would be no theater to celebrate.” I could not agree more with Wright’s statement.
I have spent most of my college career and free time studying plays, and as someone who considers herself a playwright (and director), I understand the centrality and importance of playwrights in the creative process. In Wright’s letter, he says that before there can be opening nights, rave reviews, etc., “…a few brave writers must tackle the lonely task of scribing words in an effort to tell the stories that fill their hearts and minds.” As a playwright, I know this experience all too well. When I was writing an original play for my senior thesis, I spent many hours alone, typing or handwriting possible scenes for my play. It was my time to dive into myself and bring the story I had inside of me to the page. Since I know the struggle, I find that the ability to transfer one’s imagination into words and then to bring it to life for others is an amazing gift, and playwrights are the driving force behind this.
Thus, it is astonishing how often playwrights are dismissed, with directors and producers being favored over them (noted by Wright). In my directing class in college, I had the opportunity to direct a scene from John Logan’s play, Red. I studied the scene intently so that I could stage it properly and provide the best direction for my actors. I wanted to do my best to bring justice to the words and action of the play. I would not have been able to accomplish what I did if it were not for John Logan. Though I perhaps helped bring it from the page to the stage, Logan brought the story into existence because the story and words came from his mind. Without him, I would have been a director without anything to direct.
In Wright’s letter, he mentions how the Academy Awards and other award ceremonies honor the writers, demonstrated by this past Monday’s Emmy awards, in which television writers were nominated for their work. However, in the theater, writers are often dismissed, despite being “…generally recognized as the principal artistic force behind new work…and even retain ownership and control over the material [they] create.” I am reminded of the Stage Design class I took during my final semester of college. In it, my professor said that while in film and television the words of the writers can be changed, in theater, words cannot be changed without the permission of the playwright. If the rights of the playwright are heavily stressed in the theater, it only makes sense that they should be lauded for their work instead of dismissed by the Tony Awards. If other award ceremonies can recognize writers, the Tony Awards should too; especially since theater has been around centuries before film and television.
It seems almost as though the lack of recognition for playwrights has only occurred recently. Esteemed playwrights such as Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams were lauded for their work, achieving high status. It is therefore confusing as to why there has been a change and playwrights are now being pushed to the background, despite being the forefront for new plays. In his letter, Wright says: “Exciting new writers are joining their ranks every season on Broadway. But, by failing to grant them visibility, CBS is erasing them from the historical record.” This is very unjust, and it must be understood that without playwrights there would be no theater. It is therefore time that current playwrights begin to get the recognition they deserve.
Check out Dough Wright’s full letter here
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