Everybody wants to get produced.
That is the dream, right?
The lights come up. The actors are in costume. The audience is in the room. Someone has finally said yes. Your play is no longer sitting in a folder on your laptop. It is alive.
I get it.
But after years of developing, directing, and producing new work in New York, I need to say something very plainly:
Production is not where the pipeline starts.
Development is.
And if you try to skip that step, rush through it, or pretend you are “ready” before the work has actually been tested, challenged, deepened, and strengthened, you are taking a much bigger risk than you may realize.
I know I may be preaching to the choir here, but during this summer season I see too many writers spend money on various festivals – and then be disappointed.
Not because they were disappointed with their work – but because they were disappointed that the results they dreamed about didn’t materialize.
The Truth About Festivals
Look, I know theater is tough. But here’s the truth:
Production is expensive.
Audiences are honest.
And industry people have long memories.
A mediocre production of a promising play can do more damage than no production at all.
That may sound harsh.
Good. It should.
Because if you care about your work, you cannot afford to treat development like some annoying little hurdle you have to clear before the “real” thing happens.
You do not want to rush into a “festival production.”
Development is the real thing.
It is where the real work begins.
What Happens When You Produce Your Work Too Soon
There is a dangerous fantasy floating around among a lot of writers.
It goes something like this:
“If I can just get my show on stage, then everything will change.”
Well … maybe.
But maybe not.
Because getting your show on stage too soon is not always a win.
Sometimes it means the writer had access to money before the play had access to enough development.
Sometimes it means the show got onstage before it knew what it was.
Sometimes it means someone was so eager to make something happen that nobody told them to slow down long enough to ask the harder questions:
- Is the story actually clear?
- Does the structure hold?
- Are the stakes high enough?
- Does the ending land?
- Do the characters have enough dramatic agency?
- Is the audience emotionally tracking the journey?
- Is this really a producible play — or is it just a strong draft someone really wants to be on stage?
Argh.
How many shows have you seen where you walked away shaking your head and asking, “How on earth did this script get on stage?”
The problems in your script do not magically disappear because you found a venue, hired a director, raised some money, and got your friends to come cheer you on opening night.
In fact, production often makes those problems louder.
Much louder.
Because once the work is in front of an audience, the weaknesses are no longer private.
They are public.
And like I said, the theater industry has a long memory.
A looong memory.
You may never get a second chance to make your show live up to its promise.
Think of Development as Insurance.
I know development can feel frustrating. And it takes so long.
You rewrite the draft.
Then you get notes.
Then you revise.
Then you hear it out loud.
Then you discover the second act has a problem.
Then someone gives you feedback you do not want to hear.
Then a director asks a question that makes you realize the emotional center of the play is not where you thought it was.
Then an audience laughs in the wrong place.
Or worse, they do not respond at all.
And you think:
“Am I ever going to get this play produced?”
I understand that feeling. But development is not punishment.
It is not busywork. And it shouldn’t feel like “developmental hell.”
It is the work. It furthers the work.
Development is insurance.
It is the process that protects the play before you put it under the heat of full production.
It gives you time to hear the work in different ways: with different actors, different directors, different audiences, dramaturgs, producers, and collaborators who can help you see not only what is on the page, but what is actually happening in the room.
That matters. Theatre is a collaborative art.
Because one person’s opinion is not development.
One reading is not development.
One enthusiastic friend telling you “I love it” is not development.
And one industry person giving you a note that sounds smart does not mean you should immediately rebuild your entire play around it.
Development is the process of learning how to listen.
To listen to your play. To listen to the room when your play is being read.
Does it hold the audience?
Or do they get distracted and pull out their phones?
Learn to hear what the work itself is telling you.
That takes time.
It also takes discernment.
CreateTheater Is Development
This is why I created CreateTheater.
Even the name denotes a process.
I didn’t form a theater company to rush writers into production before the work is ready, or to move half-developed scripts into festival showcases.
And I am not here to sell the fantasy that every writer dreams of: seeing their work in front of an enthusiastic audience before the piece is actually ready to meet them.
CreateTheater is a developmental theater company.
We concentrate on the part of the process many people would prefer to skip:
- The messy middle.
- The rewriting.
- The hard questions.
- The table reads.
- The feedback.
- The structure.
- The audience response.
- The honest conversation about what is working, what is not working yet, and what the piece needs next.
Because if your goal is to move toward production, the work has to be strong enough to survive production.
That is what a professional development pipeline is designed to do – to carefully learn what your show really needs.
Start Development This Summer
Our Production-Ready Writers™ 6-Month Play Writing Groups begin this week.
If you are serious about developing your play, I’d love for you to consider joining us.