Writing Active Dialogue

by Cate Cammarata | Aug 6, 2019 | Directing Theater, Dramaturgy, NPD, Theater

Let’s Get Some Action Going

Have you ever been reading a script when the action suddenly felt clunky, heavy-handed or, even worse, stopped mid-scene?

Probably it was the result of poor dialogue.

Like everything else on stage, dialogue must push the story forward and reveal character, plot points and exposition on stage. When inexpertly done, the action drops dead on its feet. Poor dialogue makes the audience disconnect, makes the plot unbelievable and results in actors overreaching in their attempts to make their character come to life.

It’s the worst.

The Rehearsal Process in Development

Recently I was directing a new play by a young, inexperienced playwright who was clearly overwhelmed by the production process. In a particular scene the actors were presented with some very poetic, very flowery dialogue. It was beautiful prose, but it definitely wasn’t something that would come out of anyone’s mouth.

My actor was talented and experienced, and everyone in the scene tried really hard to make this dialogue work – but it was extremely difficult to justify these words on stage. Our many suggestions for a modification of these lines were all turned down, and so we were left struggling with a very clunky, heavy scene that stopped the action mid-play. Not great for a comedy.

What to do?

Active Dialogue is not Prose

Aristotle wrote in his Poetics that diction was the 4^th most important element of dramatic action. Although Aristotle seems to infer that diction was more part of the production process than the writing process (more pertinent to the art of the actor than the art of the poet), he also defined diction as the metrical composition of the play, the way that spoken language is used to represent the characters themselves.

Diction is the actual composition of the lines spoken; if Aristotle’s “thought” deals with what is said, then diction deals with how it is said.

In other words, Aristotle’s diction we now call dialogue – not only what a character says but how he says it. If the words don’t sound believable coming from a character in this moment, it is not good dialogue. If it sounds good on the page but completely wrong when spoken out loud, it is not good dialogue.

Prose is not good dialogue, no matter how eloquent it appears on the page.

How to Write Good Dialogue

Dialogue isn’t an issue with writers who know their characters. If you live with your characters for any period of time, you can write dialogue that accurately reflects who they are and what they’re thinking.

In writing dialogue, use this as a checklist:

Dialogue must accurately represent the character in terms of background (geographic, socio-economic, era, age, time of day and state of being)
The structure, or meter, of the spoken dialogue must stay true to the overall structure inherent in the play (that is, whether the play is written in verse, is a sung-through musical, is sparsely written with minimal lines, composed of long monologues, etc.) and true to the rhythm, pacing and tone of the script
Great dialogue reflects the internal action, or psychological action, of the character in that moment. What does the character want right now in this scene, in this beat, in this moment in time? It gives insight to the character through both psychological and physical choices, and changes to reflect a different intention.
Active dialogue moves the story, or the plot points, forward in every moment.

Is This Really How People Talk?

Always give yourself a reality check: is this really how people in the world of my play talk? Are these lines moving my plot forward, revealing something about the character or giving important exposition that the audience needs to know? Is it structured in a pleasing way? Typically, long monologues tend to stop the action, as will flowery, detailed passages trying to pass as dialogue.

So what happened in the rehearsal room after that? As a director it is my job to justify the words of the playwright, no matter how expertly (or inexpertly) written they are. My choice was to tweak the action of the character to read word for word the flowery prose from her journal, to reveal the “hidden poetry within her soul.” Since this character wouldn’t speak like this, I had her write like this to reveal something hidden within.

The audience bought it, enjoyed the scene and gave accolades to the young playwright. A job well done.

Ah, the hidden art of the director.

How to Get to Broadway in 3 [Not So Easy] Steps

by Cate Cammarata | Jun 24, 2019 | Broadway, Theater

Still Flying After the TONYs?

How many of you are still flying high after the 2019 TONY Awards ceremony? The encouragement to all performers to continue the work, to celebrate our diversity, and the overall pure celebration of this art form in general and our NY Theater community specifically was so clearly demonstrated and felt. I want to hold on to this positivity and feeling of limitless potential – especially when life clearly wants to show me the opposite.

Who here wants to feel that you too can get to Broadway? How do we – we, the little people sludging through the theater pipeline – escape the muck and murkiness and come out shining on the Great White Way?

How do WE get go Broadway?

I’ve given this a LOT of thought – after all, it’s what I do – and from where I stand, here are my observations from watching how many of my friends who were present (and on screen) at the TONYs got there.

Here are my three not-so-easy steps on how to make it to Broadway:

Get an idea that’s highly relevant
Be prepared to do the work – for a long time
Don’t be afraid to self-produce your own work.

Get an Idea That’s Highly Relevant

What speaks to you? What story, mission or message is burning a hole in your heart to get out to the world?

THAT’s the story you need to tell.

Chances are, if it’s burning a hole in your heart it’s burning a hole in many other hearts as well. You’re just the message-bearer meant to bring it to everybody else. And remember, karma’s a bitch.

Now what do I mean by “highly relevant”? By that I mean a message that:

Speaks to a larger issue in our culture that is of great concern. By identifying and promoting a larger conversation you are participating in the current cultural conversation and sharing the right ideas at the right time.
Topical or Universal. If your story, mission or message cuts across the cultural and chronological divide, you have a timeless human story with a thread that resonates for human beings everywhere. Human beings love to watch inspiring stories about other human beings struggling to succeed with something that’s important to them.
Stories that engage both the audience’s head AND heart. As I tell all the writers I work with, write from your heart first and edit with your head afterward.

If the message is important to you and you can answer the question, “Why this story NOW?” then it’s a highly relevant story.

Be Prepared to Write and Re-Write

Getting to Broadway is a marathon, not a sprint. If you only hold the vision of seeing your work being celebrated on a Broadway stage somewhere in the future, you’re in for many long, dark days stuck in the pipeline. Find joy in the process and understand that not every script needs to find its way to Broadway.

There are many smaller achievements to celebrate as you travel along en route. Learning to recognize and celebrate the little things that put a smile on your face gives you your daily inspiration to keep going.

Celebrate every “aha!” moment that comes from the daily work in the trenches (yes, I said daily). There’s joy in that delicious idea that manifests itself
Celebrate the YOU that’s becoming. You are DOING what you said you’d do for yourself, and in the promise you are growing into what you said you wanted – someone who writes successful plays or musicals. How many people that you know actually do what they dream? Remind yourself, “I AM a writer/composer/lyricist.”
Find the joy that comes with collaborating with other creative people. Part of becoming a successful writer is knowing and working with other creative and brilliant artists. Take joy in immersing yourself in all of the creativity that’s around you, until one day you realize this is where you belong. This is who you are.

A note of caution here: don’t feel compelled to listen to everyone. Not every opinion needs to be addressed by anything more than a brief acknowledgement. “Thank you, that’s interesting. I’ll think about it,” should be your most frequent response. However, if the same comment, in various forms, appears more than three times, it is probably something you should look at.

Don’t Be Afraid to Self-Produce

THE DREAM: I need to find a [producer, theater] to produce my script. I’m a writer, not a producer.

THE REALITY: You need to be your own producer – at least at first.

How many of you were always the last to be chosen for the softball teams? Doesn’t sitting on the bench suck? It’s the same here. Be proactive in your life. Start the momentum by producing your own work.

Overwhelming, you say? Take it easy. Start baby-stepping your way to success.

Save your money. No one is going to love your baby (your work) more than you do.
If you don’t have money, be creative about finding people who do.
- Learn how to start a Kickstarter fund
- Ask! Start with those who know and love you, and their friends and family.
- Make relationships with theaters near you. Volunteer, donate, go to their galas. Show up on their social media. Be their local ambassador and build a relationship with them.
- Find groups, companies, non-profits or institutions who resonate with your show’s message and target audience. Find ways to introduce them to your show.
Network! Join communities online (like createtheater.com) as well as your local networking groups. Believe that synchronicities are always around the corner, and they will be.

Whoever promised that achieving a life-time dream was easy? Was anything worthwhile ever easy? Is life really a Staples commercial?

If You Are a Writer, You Write.

Ask any of the recipients that earned their stripes – er, TONYs. Nothing is easy. Ever! Nothing is promised.

But as trite as it sounds, “the joy is in the journey,” and if this is WHO you are and this is WHAT you do – it’s worth all of it.

Do what you have to DO to BE who you need to be.

DO BE DO BE DO.

Ok, let’s get to work! 🙂

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The Fine Art of Collaboration

by Cate Cammarata | Nov 7, 2018 | Dramaturgy, Producing, Theater

What are the steps to finding and maintaining a great creative team?

Putting together a collaborative creative team is more of an art than most people realize, especially for a musical.

After having experienced both good and not so good collaborations, it all boils down to a commitment to the process and an inherent respect for the other’s contributions.

Ask for Referrals

First, look for someone who is not only experienced but also capable, knowledgeable and dependable. Many experienced people are so overbooked with projects that they don’t always have as much time and energy to contribute to yours as they would like.

I strongly suggest that you first seek word of mouth recommendations from people you know and trust. (Putting out a request for referrals on Facebook is fine). You can also check out resources from professional associations, do an internet search, or use other available sources like those found on MusicalWriters.com or Theater Resources Unlimited.

Do Your Research

Before you contact anyone, make sure you do your own research.

Ask yourself questions like:

Has this person worked on shows similar to mine in the past? Do your own due diligence and find out all you can about their experience. Ask others in the industry about them if possible, or check their contacts on LinkedIn.
Does this person have a network that may be interested in and may help my show’s progress? Do they work with key level producing organizations or directors that may be interested in my work? They may be willing to introduce you.
Do I believe they have the level of experience that I could trust to help me move my show forward?

Schedule an Interview

Narrow your possibilities down and start communicating by email, and set up an interview in person or over Skype or Zoom.

Always trust your instincts. Some things to discover:

Does this person have passion for your project?
Do they listen to your ideas eagerly, or politely?
Do they offer what they believe is a “better” idea, or jump on board with your ideas?
Are they prepared for the interview, and bring in their visions or ideas to you?

Twice when interviewing a potential director, candidates came in with a book of images and other printed material to show us that excited them. This preparation got them the job, and they were terrific.

Finally, remember to make this first step a short “coffee date,” not a LTR. Have the goal to collaborate with them for a specific reading, workshop, etc., not the goal to get to Broadway together. That’s too huge a commitment! Start first with the intention of, “I like you pretty well, let’s see how it goes.”

Take it step by step.

Be Part of a Community

Theater is all about community and relationships, and authentic friendships sometimes create wonderful collaborations. Keep networking online here at CreateTheater, go to theater conferences and galas, join your regional Dramatist Guild chapter or participate in local theater events near you. Meet people and talk about your work.

In the end, it’s all about the work. Remember the improvisation mantra, “Yes, and…..?” Always respect each other’s creative ideas, get excited about adding in your own and stay focused.

The art of the theatre is all about creative collaboration.

What Do Producers Look For in a Script?

by Cate Cammarata | Nov 18, 2017 | Broadway, Theater

What Do Producers Look For in a Script?

From Page to …

You’ve finished writing your script, held a few readings and incorporated the feedback, and worked with a dramaturg. Maybe you’ve even had a showcase production of your show and have a website up with clips to prove it.

Now you need someone to help you take it to the next level!

Where’s a producer when you need one?

The Writer-Producer Relationship: First Steps

The writer-producer relationship is a special marriage of business savvy, creative vision and aesthetic resonance. Somehow your play must powerfully connect in some way to the producer’s psyche, to his “mission” as a producer, in order for him (or her) to go out and raise the kind of money that is needed for production. A producer must BELIEVE in your work and in your voice as a writer.

How do you as a playwright connect with producers?

Get to know producer’s tastes by studying what s/he has already produced and email them a synopsis of your script
Study regional theaters to find out the personality of the artistic director, and look for patterns that emerge when you compare their past seasons
Network through local theaters, the Dramatist Guild, Fringe Festivals, theater meetups, and CreateTheater masterminds, courses and Facebook Live groups.
Attend readings and workshops as much as possible, then stay and talk to people. Their connections can become your connections.

What Are Producers Looking For?

All producers are different and look for different things. I’ve asked a few of my friends what they look for in a new script.

Patrick Blake, Off-Broadway producer (The Exonerated, In The Continuum, Play Dead, 39 Steps) and Founding Artistic Director of Rhymes Over Beats Theater Collective

There are only so many stories, and they have been told dozens if not hundreds of times. What I look for is how fresh or stylistically interesting they are.

Daryl Sledge, Off-Broadway producer (Fried Chicken and Latkes, My Father’s Daughter)

What attracts me about a script is how well-written and how “produceable” it can be. For instance, what I look for are projects that have very few actors, very few settings and costume changes. That way you can keep your budget down … and it should be commercial. It should have acting opportunities for superb actors. I’m looking for things that challenge us, that set the mark for today, that say something about the type of society that we live in today. I’m looking forward to producing scripts from new writers that we’ve never heard from before that challenge us – that challenge us to be better people, better Americans, better citizens of the world. I’m looking for projects that really resonate with people today that will also bring in a new audience.

Jeremy Handleman, Tony Award-nominated Broadway (On The Town) and Off-Broadway producer (Fking Up Everything, White’s Lies)

The first thing that’s important to me is that I have to be emotionally affected by the material. That sounds rather basic, but not every script is going to move me and maybe something that doesn’t move me is going to move somebody else. So it has to be the right fit between the material and the producer. I also have a couple of other initial filters that are specific for me, which is that I tend to be drawn to character-driven work. Since I am a commercial producer, there has to be some gut level feeling that I have that there is a commercial path to this even if I don’t quite know what it is at this point. My third filter is whether the writer or the writing team a person or a group of people who I feel good about the possibility of working with, because possibly this is a relationship that could go on for years and years and years, so that relationship has to be strong.

Michael Alden, Tony Award winning Broadway (Come From Away, Disgraced, Grey Gardens, Bridge and Tunnel) and Off-Broadway producer (Not That Jewish, Becoming Dr. Ruth, Bat Boy, The Last Session)

First of all you want to find good writing, but the thing that intrigues me the most is stories about misunderstood outsiders. People that are having a hard time either finding themselves in their own community or being understood by their community. So the shows that I’ve done in the past speak to either about a child or the child inside of you that’s seemingly isn’t being connected with what’s going on around you, or not being understood by what’s going on around you. So that’s why I like Grey Gardens or Bat Boy the Musical. That’s what speaks to me.

Cate Cammarata, Off-Broadway producer (The Assignment) and Associate Artistic Director of Rhymes Over Beats Theater Collective

As a producer I’m looking for a script with a strong female protagonist that challenges an audience and inspires them and gives them some kind of a fresh idea, a new thought that maybe they never had before.

CreateTheater is about Connections

Join our email list and start making connections with producers, general managers, playwrights and other theater industry professionals. We need to hear YOUR voice.

Comment in the section below and contact us on Facebook and Twitter.

Come network online with us – and CREATE THEATER.

Welcome to CreateTheater

by Cate Cammarata | Nov 5, 2017 | Theater

Connection is the Currency of the 21^st Century!

I am so excited to launch CreateTheater, the online community for theater professionals.

What would it be like to be able to meet other working theater artists online? To take classes, join in industry seminars and network like you know you should, and to find your creative “tribe”?

One of my core beliefs is that connection is the currency of the 21^st century.

And those connections can be made online.

I’m Cate Cammarata, a producer, director and dramaturg, and I know this: the internet was developed for one main purpose, to make connections. Connections with ideas, connections to new resources, and connections between people. But as a theater artist, I often find that traditional ways to make connections are difficult, online or off. Yet we all understand the necessity of networking, of finding a community of people you know and trust, where you feel like you belong. That sense of home, of belonging, is usually what got us into the theater in the first place.

But where are all of these people? And where can I meet them?

Your Social Network: Beyond LinkedIn

If you’re a playwright, even with a social connection or an introduction, it’s hard to get people to read your scripts. How do you meet producers? How do you know what they want?

If you’re a producer or director, where’s that next play that resonates with you? Where’s that new voice that needs to be developed? And where’s the theater willing to join you in that development?

CreateTheater is a way of getting out there and meeting other theater artists – right from your own home. It’s a place to find your creative community, for collaboration, for spreading ideas, learning and meeting other theater people online. It’s a way to connect playwrights with producers, directors and artistic directors, librettists with composers and music directors, in order to make theater happen. It’s your online space for networking with other working theater artists.

It’s Not What You Know, But Who You Know

This truth certainly predates the internet. It holds a lot of truth, though. Statistics show that people rate their personal connections, both professional and personal, as the most effective means of finding jobs. And we’re told that we are an average of the five people we spend the most time with.

You know you need to be a self-starter. You have to be out there. Finding ways to meet the “right” people, to drum up interest in you and your work, is necessary so that your script doesn’t arrive “unsolicited” on a producer’s desk. You have to create your own opportunities. You have to introduce yourself to the right people. You need to network.

Your social network is the web of connections you have with the people you know, and the people they know, and so on. Social networking is the effort you make to create and maintain relationships within that social network, to move you ahead in your career.

But deeper bonds are forged in true community. Community is formed when a group of people share the same beliefs and have the same goals. Community offers us a home, where we are accepted unconditionally for being who we are. It offers us a sense of belonging, of safety, of being truly “home.”

Connections Form Community

Today around seven in ten Americans use social media to connect with one another, to engage in news content, to share information and entertain themselves. People hold meetings and classes online, collaborate over apps and search for their soulmates on their cell phones. Let’s use that power of the internet to create theater.

Join us in making this theater community come alive. We’re producers, general managers, playwrights, directors, artistic directors, entertainment attorneys and other industry experts who are passionate about this art and moving it forward into the 21^st century.

Let’s translate this social currency into creating theater! Sign up for our emails and join in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Post your comments below.

I look forward to meeting you and hearing more about your work!

Denial is not just a river….

by Cate Cammarata | Feb 8, 2016 | Theater

Money. There. I said it.

As much as I try to avoid it, everything comes back to one thing: money.

As artists that’s a dirty word. Our art, our mission, is what’s important. It’s our life’s work, our passion, what means more to us than anything in the world. And we’re right – our art IS the most important thing that gives meaning to our lives.

But we are composed not just of spirit, but body. And that body needs to eat, to be warm, to be refreshed, just as much as any stock broker, engineer, or doctor. No value judgements on what we each contribute (which is significant, speaking as an artist). The plain bare bones facts are that artists can’t starve – they have to eat too.

Just as important – artists have to sell their art to create the significance both their body and spirit need. Engaging an audience and getting our message through to them is at the heart of our art. But it’s a constant struggle.

Rule of Engagement

The truth is, there are no rules to find the money you need to get your art, your show, out there. And if someone tells you there is, a quick google search will prove them wrong. Ingenuity trumps all rules every time. But the reality is, if you don’t make the effort your play will wither on your hard drive or your heart and be buried faster than my car in this current blizzard.

Since this topic is at the top of my pre-frontal cortex now as a creative producer, artist, and as human being, I think it’s a topic worth exploring. The mission of this blog is to Create Theater, and raising money is a major challenge to that in the current economy.

Raising Money for Theater is necessary. Nobody likes it!

The next few posts will delve into raising money both as a non-profit, for a commercial venture, and as a mixed hybrid of both. So stay tuned, and let me know your thoughts. This isn’t meant to be a monologue, but an dialogue – or maybe an improvisation!

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