Development Before Production
Audiences see the finished production.
They see the actors, the set, the lights and the opening-night photographs. What they rarely see is all the work that happened before anyone bought a ticket: the revisions, readings, creative disagreements, difficult decisions and long conversations that shaped the production.
That is development.
And development must come before production.
Last week, we held a small private table reading of a new play I have been developing with Debbie, a talented writer and member of Experts Theater Company, the writers’ residency within CreateTheater.
I began working with her on this play in late 2025. From our first sessions, I saw once again her distinctive voice: clever contemporary dialogue interrupted by flashes of unexpected surrealism. The play is timely, engaging and funny—and I became convinced that it needed to be onstage.
Once we made the decision to move toward an Off-Broadway production, I engaged a general manager and an attorney, found an appropriate venue and reserved the dates.
But new work development rarely moves in straight lines.
The director we initially engaged had a very different interpretation of the play from our’s. Creative disagreement can be productive, but the director must still understand the essential identity of the work. When it became clear that the project was moving away from Debbie’s vision, we began a new director search.
We ultimately found someone who truly understands the play—and understands the vision Debbie and I share for it.
That change, however, meant returning back to the script, and back into rewrites.
First she scrubbed the text from the previous director’s interpretation, and we tried to get back the essence of the original draft that worked so well. The new director added some new comments, but had a previous commitment. While he was otherwise engaged we had to prepare the script for our private table reading to hear the new draft.
But the new draft wasn’t ready, held up from a death in her family. But we needed to get back to work.
For two intensive weeks, Debbie and I worked through draft after draft. She sent me new pages. I responded with comments on what I loved and where further revision was still needed. She addressed the notes and sent another draft. Then we began again the next day.
That cycle required tremendous dedication from the writer, and I deeply admire the energy, talent and trust she brought to the process.
My role was not to rewrite the play for her. It was to help her strengthen what was already distinctive about it.
In this case, that meant leaning further into the surrealism.
Because the play engages with current events, it could easily have become overtly political or overly literal. Its surrealistic theatrical language keeps it surprising, contemporary and fun. Instead of smoothing away the unusual elements, we made the decision to lean into them.
That is one of the most important principles of dramaturgy: development should not make every play sound the same. It should help the writer reveal more clearly what makes this particular play worth producing.
One of my favorite dramaturgy quotes is from Lynn M. Thomson, the dramaturg who worked with Jonathan Larson while he was writing RENT:
“Dramaturgical skill is generally expressed in process, [and] is about process, including those often indetectable contributions that transform moments in rehearsal or meeting rooms.”
Wearing Two Hats
When I develop a new play or musical, I am usually wearing two hats at once.
As a dramaturg, I advocate for the writer’s vision and ask whether the script is fully delivering on that vision.
Does the story work? Is the dramatic action clear? Is the tone consistent? Are the theatrical choices helping the audience enter the world of the play? Does the ending of each scene ‘button up’ the action and/or function of the scene?
As a producer, I am asking a different set of questions.
Where does this work belong? Who is its audience? What separates it from other current productions exploring similar subjects? What venue, director and production team will best serve it? Can the financing and infrastructure support the artistic vision? What elements should we highlight and lean into for marketing? How can we communicate what this play is about?
These two roles are deeply connected.
A producer cannot position a play effectively without understanding what makes it artistically distinctive. A dramaturg cannot ignore the practical realities of how the work may eventually be produced.
This is where experience, relationships and instinct matter.
Why Readings Matter
The private table reading gave us something the page alone could not: the opportunity to hear the play in the room.
Theatre is meant to be spoken, embodied and shared. A scene that appears clear on the page may feel confusing when actors read it aloud. A joke may land differently than expected. A surrealistic moment may suddenly make perfect sense.
A private reading is not a performance or a promotional event. It is a working room.
It allows the writer, director and producer to listen, investigate and decide what the play still needs before the financial machinery of production is fully underway.
Too often, writers are encouraged to pursue exposure before the work has had enough development.
But exposure is not the same as progress.
Sometimes the most valuable step is another draft, another conversation or another quiet reading around a table.
The process cannot be rushed. You can’t rush a show into production, and you shouldn’t try.
The CreateTheater Process
At CreateTheater, we begin with the work.
We develop new plays and musicals through dramaturgical conversations, revisions, readings and collaboration with professional theatre artists. We identify what makes a project distinctive, assemble the right creative team and consider where the work belongs within the larger theatrical landscape.
Then, when the script is ready—and when the financing and production structure are in place—we move toward the stage.
That process may take months. Sometimes it takes years.
Production is not the beginning of the work. It is the point at which the development work becomes visible.
This fall, we will bring The Blue Violinist Over West End Avenue to Off-Broadway. Over the coming weeks, I will share more about how that journey unfolds—and how other CreateTheater projects are moving from script to reading, workshop, showcase and production.
Because a new play does not simply arrive onstage.
It is developed beforehand, one decision at a time.
