Why Bother With Self-Producing My Own Work?
The reality is that even with billions of edits, revisions and stoyline reconfiguring, most playwrights' work may never see the light of day.
But there are ways of sharing your work and getting your script in front of people, such as submitting to opportunities for festivals, residencies, and consideration for a performance venue's future season...or emailing producers, maybe sending unsolicited manuscripts, and hoping that maybe one of them will take a chance on your little play...
But that's the thing. You're busy waiting for someone else to bring your play to life.
And the truth is, most producers or companies aren't even going to look at a script under it's had some production history. And some submission opportunities also probably won't consider you if you've had a major production.
Which brings to us to the solution to this catch-22: the art of self-production.
Bring the play you love to life yourself. You won't have to pay any royalties or for any copyright permissions, since the script is yours. Gather some grant funding (check out my $7 e-book on that subject here), rent out some random large space like a church basement or a community room in your local center, recruit some actors that are willing to support the cause (can even be some people you know!), and then spread the word around. And invite those bigwiggy names, who will see the work in action before determining whether they can stand behind it.
While self-producing seems simple from the get-go, that doesn't mean it comes without some pitfalls that one can accidentally slip into, especially when embarking on this for the first time. So here I give you, 5 fatal mistakes a playwright must avoid in the realm of self-production, regardless of genre.
Mistake 1: Underestimating the Budget
Many emerging playwrights fail to properly budget for their production. Because if this is your first go-round with producing the play yourself, it can be easy to overlook how expensive everything is. We live in a time of inflation and weird price hikes and everyone getting underpaid what they're really worth. A breakdown of necessary expenses of things like your venue, actors, a director if you're not doing it yourself, marketing stuff, and techy stuff among other things can prevent financial oversights.
If you can afford to pay for all your expenses yourself, then great! But if not, there are ways to gathers funds to bring your production to life. Besides sites like IndieGogo and linking people directly to your Cash app, you can also apply to a few grants. If you need some help as to how to go about the grant funding application route, download my $7 e-book here that will detail all the steps from where to find grants to the tax reporting aftermath.
Mistake 2: Skipping On Pre-production Planning
The importance of a detailed production timeline and action plan cannot be overstated. Because you need to specify when the production is going to happen at least a few months before it happens, since realistically your funders won't give you your funds until at least a month after you apply depending on their release schedule. Which is why you need to outline the critical pre-production tasks that need to be planned in advance. Your auditions (should you have any) and casting need to be planned out with the length of rehearsals you want before the actual performance. If you require a more elaborate and specific set and other technical elements like lights and sound, you will need to reach out to designers who will need ample time to come up with a plan that meet your goals.
And this comes highly recommended: create a production team with clear roles for every member. Every event I've been a part of, from my playwriting debut back in 2019 to my parents' book launch, has involved a team of people who are responsible for several different aspects of the event to make sure everything runs cohesively. Because with any public event you can't do everything yourself. Well, you can, but then you run the risk of your production missing some crucial elements that would be better served by delegating.
Mistake 3: Neglecting Marketing Efforts
Marketing is key to attracting an audience, yet many playwrights overlook this aspect. Because if you spend all that time creating a glamorous play showing, how sad would it be if no one apart from your friends showed up? And I'm assuming you want a larger turnout.
So utilize every avenue you have, such as social media (use all the ones that have been around for awhile, but I would also utilize TikTok before it gets cut off again), announcing it at any social things you frequent (like a church, hobby group or you can ask your friends/family to promote it to their circles as well) and handing out flyers in public. I also cannot underestimate the power of putting up flyers in coffee shops and placing a small section into a newspaper.
And build audience anticipation before the premiere. The week before your performance is too soon to start promoting it since people tend to have evenings planned out weeks in advance, so I would advise that you start sharing about it as soon as you know when it is. If you eradicated Mistake #2 and have a clear production plan, you should know when the play is months in advance at least!
Mistake 4: Ignoring Feedback during Rehearsals
All creatives that put their art out there (and anyone that shares anything, regardless of their field for that matter) have to be willing to take constructive criticism. Not just the actors on their interpretation of your script, but also for the playwright so that they know that the impact the play is supposed to have is clear. So create a culture of collaboration with everyone involved - when I was producing This is Not a Bill, we were constrained with the amount of actors of color we could find, so I had to chop down the script to five characters at the advice of my team. And the actors, as they were reading it, were able to point out historical inaccuracies. Having a perspective other than yours can help you see what needs to be changed in the script, and what realistically can be done in your production if you're not immediately aware of it.
Mistake 5: Rushing the Production Process
Moving from auditions to rehearsals to a finished production within a few weeks or some other tight timeframe is hard to accomplish if you're trying to produce a polished project. The end result could be something reminiscent of a badly directed student play in which people remember very little of their lines or the emotional content of the piece. And since you can't rush art, as they say, you might not even have a fully realized set or other elements that will enhance your production. You have your regular rehearsals with actors to tighten up what you have and fix any script errors. But you also need thorough tech rehearsals so that your board operators and stage manager can get their cues on point so that there's no strange awkward stage pauses or malfunctions during the actual performance. (We all know this to be a real nightmare, and we also all know that not everything goes to plan sometimes, so prepare for anything to happen.) Time for fine-tuning is essential, so give yourself ample amount of time to get the piece to the best it can be. Patience is a virtue.
Conclusion
So, like I said in the beginning, self-production is pretty straightforward. But by avoiding these common mistakes, you'll increase the chances of a successful theater production and maybe some repeat productions in the future. Continue to learn and grow in your craft. And I hope that by you starting to embark on the journey of self-production, you empower yourself as a writer and build an audience that will follow your career for years to come.
And if you determine that you need some funding help and want to learn more about my expertise in grant funding, you can purchase my e-book Grant Funding for Unconventional Creatives: The 7-Step to Artistic Freedom below!
Stay educated,
Alexia