Feedback: Friend or Foe?

Last night I hosted a reading of a new and very funny screenplay in my living room. I love being surrounded by talent - actors, writers and comics - and it's wonderful to see a writer's growth on the page, when a draft has actually changed and has gotten better as a result of those changes. I've always believed that rewriting reveals a writer's true talent - do you have the bravery to "kill your babies" and to completely overhaul those first instinctive raw words? Are you able to retain the original intention in the process?


After the reading, a few people stayed behind to offer the writer feedback and it got me thinking about this component of creativity - the "notes sessions" that are part of the creative process. Certainly, we can lose sight of our own work while in the midst of it - we often speak about being "too close" to the material or feeling overwhelmed by the size of the task. Maybe the changes we're making seem to be unraveling every line, the paints we've chosen to "correct" have now "ruined" the original vision or an actor is "grasping" in the middle of a limited rehearsal schedule.

There is that moment, in the middle, when it seems we will never reach the end. It is often when we are feeling the most lost that we reach out and ask for help, ask for notes, ask for feedback -- I'm starting to think that is THE WORST time to ask. The work itself is fragile and the artist behind the work needs nothing but love and passion and support to keep going. If we aren't very careful as artists, we may hear words that STOP our creativity rather than SUPPORT it.

How can you keep this from happening?

HANDPICK THE PEOPLE IN THE ROOM.

If you need to hear something read, work with actors you trust and know. If the song isn't working, schedule a meeting with your mentor. If you're just about to throw the painting through a window, take a breath and track down an old classmate to talk shop.

If you can't handpick the people, is it possible to meet with a cheerleader in advance to boost your confidence? Or perhaps, you can visualize the meeting/notes session in advance and come up with a plan about how you can handle yourself if the going gets tough - ask for a glass of water or step out for a bathroom break to stop the flow if you're feeling overwhelmed.

CONTROL THE CONVERSATION, IF YOU CAN

Limit your audience to three questions you want answered during the feedback session. Write those questions down and have them in front of you. Give each person a limited period of time in which to answer those questions. When the time is up, it's up.

In industry situations, this may not be possible but have you tried? Some wonderful ways I've heard of artists dealing with executive notes sessions is to A. request written notes in advance of the meeting, B. to take a tape recorder to the meeting or C. to request that the notes sessions be broken into "acts" so that there is more frequent feedback but the information becomes very specific.

FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE

Don't ask what is wrong with your piece - ask what works, what moved people, what stuck out as really interesting, what they liked, what draws their eye, what makes them feel. Focus on ways in which those positive aspects can be enhanced.

As they say in the South - you catch more bears with honey...if you know what people love about your work, you'll focus on your strengths and hey, you may even be more motivated to finish!

Last night's screenplay had already been through numerous drafts and the writer was seeking very specific information from her audience. Her readers had read several drafts and were able to reference the changes and speak about the script with the full history of the project in mind. The tone was helpful and friendly and the notes were uber-specific.

But I've certainly witnessed NIGHTMARE situations with other creative projects where an artist is nearly being attacked by a well-meaning friend who actually harbors quiet jealousy or even worse, given notes by a room full of strangers who have no concept of an artists entire body of work and how this piece relates.

Maybe your piece is in an earlier state and needs more protection. Maybe it's ready to be seen and you're feeling super confident. Either way, the most important element is your own awareness of what you NEED from the feedback in order to continue the work.

Before you open yourself to feedback, listen to your gut then choose the format and venue and way that you WANT to receive your notes. We are only at the mercy of others if we allow ourselves to be.

How do you handle feedback?

set the intention

Declare yourself! Use the comment box below to announce the creative project you intend to start and finish -- if it doesn't have a name/title, just give us a brief description. And hey, even better, set a date for when you want to finish the piece/painting/score/film/etc. Put it out there - set the intention and see what happens!

call for submissions

Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre

PO Box 1720

Mars Hill, NC 28754-1720

828-689-1384

fax 828-689-1272

sart@mhc.edu

www.sartplays.org

Thank you for your interest in ScriptFEST 2010, the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre’s 29th

Annual Playwrights’ Conference. We welcome your submission and hope the following information will

answer your questions. If you need more information, please call the SART business office at 828-689-1384.

AN OVERVIEW

SCRIPTFEST, the Playwrights’ Conference typically receives 100-200 scripts each year. A small army of

SART volunteers read each submitted script; those recommended for further review are read again by a

committee of theatre professionals. Once all scripts have been reviewed, SART invites up to six playwrights to the annual conference to hear their plays read by SART actors and Mars Hill College Theatre Arts students. Playwrights join the directors, actors, and audiences in discussions and critiques following each reading. One script may be considered by SART to be included and fully produced in a following SART summer season.

The 2010 Conference will be held in October over one weekend in the historic Owen Theatre on the

campus of Mars Hill College in Mars Hill, North Carolina. The Conference is free and open to the public; all are welcome to attend. Playwrights invited to participate in the conference are selected by late-August and receive room and board while attending the conference. If a play is chosen for production to be included in SART’s regular summer season, it will be scheduled for a one to three week run in Owen Theatre during June, July or August of one of the subsequent years, earliest being the 2011 season. The author of a script selected for production in a regular SART season will receive a $1,000 honorarium plus room and board.

Since its opening season in 1975, SART has produced fifty-seven new plays, many supported by a New

Works grant from the North Carolina Arts Council. World premieres at SART include Ark of Safety by

Howard Richardson and Francis Goforth in 1975; Wednesday’s Children by C. Robert Jones (1980); Ed

Simpson’s The Battle of Shallowford (1990); My Castle’s Rockin’ by Larry Parr (1993); William Doswell’s Full Moon Over Montmartre (2001); Finding Clara by June Guralnick (2003), Mountain of Hope by William Gregg and Perry Deane Young (2004); Finding The Absent Crescent by Gina Pauratore (2005); Taking A Chance On Love by C. Robert Jones (2006); The Memory Collection: The Legend of Bascom Lamar Lunsford by Randy Noojin (2007); Miracle in Bedford Falls by Mark Cabaniss & Lowell Alexander (2008); Home Again by William Gregg & Perry Deane Young (2009). Recent ScriptFEST winners are Ruthie by David Wright (2008), and Big Criminals by Steve Wisniewski (2009).

SART recognizes that developing new scripts is neither an easy nor a short process. The testing and

development of new material at the conference allows the playwright to refine and build the work toward

possible production. SART’s commitment to developing and producing new plays has distinguished the

company from other regional summer theatres and earned a Professional Division Award from the N.C.

Theatre Conference (NCTC).

SART MISSION STATEMENT

A professional theatre dedicated to proven favorites, heritage of the Southern Appalachians, new works development, and opportunities for students and playwrights.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION

• New scripts of full-length plays and musicals in English that are unpublished and previously

unproduced. No One-Acts. (Scripts that have gone through a developmental process or other readings

are eligible. Scripts produced by amateur community theatres and/or educational theatres are eligible.

Scripts produced by professional theatres are not eligible.)

• TWO “hard” copies of scripts are required. And one author resume.

Author’s name and other author information should not appear in the scripts.

• Playwrights may submit up to two different titles each submission period.

• Excerpts and summaries will not be accepted without the FULL script.

• No One Acts.

• No film or television scripts, translations or adaptations.

• Adaptations of novels and short stories are acceptable. Adaptations of movies and stage scripts are not

acceptable.

• If you have submitted a particular title of yours in a previous year, it may be submitted again IF and

ONLY IF you have made significant revisions to the script since it was last submitted to us.

• Provide a LARGE self-addressed, stamped envelope if you would like for SART to mail back your

script. The size of the envelope should be appropriate for the size of the script, and postage should be

the required postage necessary to deliver your script from Mars Hill NC to your address.

• Preferred submission: ALL pages at least standard 3-ring hole-punched, if not in a binder.

1. Title Page: with no other information on it but the title

2. Synopsis Page(s) (optional) inserted directly behind the Title Page: containing play synopsis,

character descriptions, and other notes. (Do not include synopsis, notes, or other important

information in your cover letter. It will not be read by the adjudicators.)

3. Script

*DO NOT have the author’s name anywhere on the Title Page, Synopsis Page or the pages of

the manuscript. If you do, your submission MAY NOT be accepted!

4. Provide ONE additional and separate Title Page including author’s name, date, etc.

5. Author’s resume or some given background including thorough information.

6. If you include a cover letter, do not include synopsis, notes or other important information in the

letter. Anything you want the adjudicators to read, include on the inserted synopsis page(s) of the

manuscripts.

• White paper. Two-sided or one-sided pages is author’s choice.

• Musicals should be submitted with the above materials, and in addition a score and/or a recording of at

least four songs on cassette or CD. (Only ONE recording is necessary for each title.)

• SART will not notify you of receipt of your submissions, unless with your submission you provide a

reply-postcard for us to send you, including postage. (optional)

• SART will contact you by email if your submissions are not chosen in the final twenty. If you would

prefer postal-mail notification, you must provide a SASE with your submission. (optional)

The deadline for submission for the 2010 ScriptFEST Conference is a postmark of no later than October 31, 2009.

Submit to: SART ScriptFEST ‘10, PO Box 1720, Mars Hill NC 28754-1720.

(We suggest you mail by the US Postal Service. UPS will not deliver to PO boxes.)

writing intensive in nyc

PLEASURE AND RISK: Testing the Limits
a weekend writing intensive with Brooke Berman and Karen Hartman

Explore pleasure and risk-taking (and the pleasure of risk-taking) in this two day exploration of what lives at the edges of your own writing.

Saturday August 8th and Sunday August 9th
1-6 pm both days
Art New York - 520 8th Avenue b/w 36th and 37th

What is more delicious, safety or breaking boundaries? This workshop will help you figure out what is SAFE, how to make a haven for yourself as an artist. We will also approach what is UNSAFE, how to move beyond individual boundaries and "limits" to create work at a new level.

Both instructors will be present the entire time, with lots of writing ideas and exercises, and opportunity to share work as well.

$250 for the weekend.

Limited space, write to Brooke and Karen at karensworkshop@gmail.com
with questions or to reserve.

Who We Are:

BROOKE BERMAN's plays have been produced and workshopped across the US and in London. She is a two-time recipient of both the Francesca Primus and Lecompte du Nouy awards; she is a recipient of a Berilla Kerr Award, a Helen Merrill Award, and a commissioning grant from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture for the play Until We Find Each Other, which was produced at Steppenwolf in 2002, directed by Anna D. Shapiro. Brooke’s play Hunting and Gathering premiered at Primary Stages, directed by Leigh Silverman, and was named one of the Ten Best of 2008 by New York Magazine. Her memoir, NO PLACE LIKE HOME, will be published by Random House in July, 2010. Brooke is also a screenwriter whose credits include the short ALL SAINTS DAY (directed by Will Frears), MAJOR MINOR DETAILS (the Mark Gordon Company), DISOBEDIENCE (Vox films), and an adaptation of her play SMASHING. Brooke has taught playwriting and creative writing as a guest artist in the New York City public school system, at assorted colleges, as well as privately to adults and through the “24 With 5 Teaching Collective” which she co-created at New Dramatists with Karen Hartman, Lynn Nottage, Jorge Cortinas and Dominick Taylor.

KAREN HARTMAN has taught playwriting for years at the Yale School of Drama, Yale University, Bennington College, and other universities and New York companies. She is the author of Gum, Leah’s Train, Goliath (Dorothy Silver New Play Prize), Going Gone (N.E.A. New Play Grant); Anatomy 1968; Girl Under Grain (Best Drama in NY Fringe; ALICE: Tales of a Curious Girl (Music by Gina Leishman, AT&T Onstage Award); Troy Women; Donna Wants, Goldie, Max, and Milk; Sea Change, a musical with AnnMarie Milazzo, and MotherBone, an opera with Graham Reynolds. Her plays have been performed in New York at the Women’s Project, NAATCO, P73, the NY Fringe, and Summer Play Festival, and at regional theaters including Center Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, the Magic Theater, Dallas Theater Center, and elsewhere. She was awarded new play commissions from ACT in San Francisco, McCarter Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, and others. Her work is published by Theater Communications Group, Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Backstage Books, and NoPassport Press. An alumna of New Dramatists and Yale (B.A., M.F.A.), Karen has received playwriting support from Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio, the N.E.A., the Helen Merrill Foundation, a Daryl Roth "Creative Spirit" Award, a Hodder Fellowship, a Jerome Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship to Jerusalem, and Core Membership at the Playwrights Center.

STUDIO DEVELOPMENT: FROM SCRIPT TO GREENLIGHT

Thursday, 2/26, 7:30 p.m. WGA Theater, 135 S. Doheny Dr., Beverly Hills. RSVP: (323) 782-4602.

On the Thursday after the Oscars, join the WGA Writers Education Committee in a frank discussion about studio feature development today all the way up the "ladder."

Panelists include: the screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh (Armageddon, The Punisher, The Rock); JC Spink from BenderSpink management; development executive Navid McIlhargey (Sr. VP of Production at New Regency; previously of Silver Pictures); producer Derek Dauchy (President of Davis Entertainment); studio executive David Beaubaire (VP of Production at Paramount; previously studio executive of DreamWorks and Warner Brothers - he knows how each works); and a Surprise Guest. And if you just want to just support me, I have the responsibility of moderating the panel.

At the end of the panel, there will be an audience Q&A via note cards, where we will ask this group of execs YOUR burning questions (in case I missed it). What do you most want answered by those who hold our dreams in their hands? I will try to get real answers. Think about it...

Members in good standing, plus a guest. Please tell and forward this to your writing staffs, team you went on strike with, all your writer friends and writing groups. It is also open to NYU Tisch west alumni film as well. This is going to be a very informative night with an opportunity to get to know these big, behind-the-scenes decision-makers who can get our projects made, which means something in this economy.

A special thank you to Patrick Brennan of Team Todd for having me do a panel like this with different execs for NYU Alumni last year, which inspired this event. Please RSVP at (323) 782-4602. I hope to see you all there.

Thanks.

Kind regards,

Michael Tabb
WGA Writer
WGA's WEC Event Chair for this Panel

Head of Submission for www.Strike.TV online - the filmmaker's homepage for original content