courtesy of Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene

On August 28 and 29, Forest Park will host LouFest (sadly, not so free), an environmentally-friendly music festival featuring the likes of Titus Andronicus, the Fruit Bats, Built to Spill, Jeff Tweedy, Broken Social Scene, She & Him and other pop, rock, country and folk bands. This concert is the perfect way to end Orientation, start the school year and acclimate to the humid, stagnant, oppressive weather that is St. Louis in the summer. For more information, including the complete line up and tickets, check out: loufest.com

But the minute I met world-renowned dramaturg Liz Engelman, my fears completely dissolved. As Engelman said, dramaturgy “sounds like a disease,” but it’s definitely a disease worth catching.

The A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival is named in honor of the 1940 Washington University graduate (A.B. and J.D. ’40), who wrote novels as well as material for the stage and television. The Festival itself lasts two weeks and allots only 12 hours of rehearsal time for each play. At the end of a two-week intensive process of writing and rewriting, the plays are presented at the Hotchner Studio in Mallinckrodt.

The Festival begins with a competitive submission process, as any current University student can submit a play. Once the plays are chosen, a professional dramaturg is brought in to help the playwrights fine-tune their scripts and writing. This year, Engelman returns for her fourth Hotchner Festival and brings her vast experience, ranging from the McCarter Theatre at Princeton University to the ACT Theatre in Seattle.

I knew almost nothing about dramaturgy when I began the festival, but working under Engelman showed me the dramaturg’s integral role in shaping and contributing to the play.

“As a new play dramaturg, I try to refine and develop a playwright’s vision for their play,” she said. “I try to hold the play up to the playwright like a mirror, to show them what the play still is and what it might become.”

As the process continued, each play began to evolve before my eyes. We started with roundtable readings, where the cast assembled along with the playwright, director and dramaturg and heard their play read aloud. For Jessie Atkin, a first time Hotchner playwright, this experience was both helpful and challenging.

“The best part about working on the festival is the collaboration—and getting to see your work off the page. But I guess the best part about the festival is the hardest part,” Atkin said. “It can be very uncomfortable to relinquish control over your piece, even if it’s what is best for the play. But in the end, it makes it even more of a leaning experience.”

Interestingly enough, Engelman finds the writer-collaboration part of the festival to be the most challenging. Engelman asks playwrights to “Xerox” their brains in order to determine their vision for their play. But Engelman said, “It’s often a fine line between helping the playwright find their voice and inserting your own. The hardest part is having patience or knowing when it’s the appropriate time to give a suggestion or note. Sometimes, it’s difficult navigating different opinions and personalities and getting them on the playwright’s side. You might feel like you know the solution, but you have to wait for the playwright to figure it out.”

Playwright and 2009 graduate Jonathan Baude also found the process to be both intimidating and helpful.

“For me, the hardest part is opening up and letting everyone see my play. I’m very protective of things I write because I know they’re not perfect. I kind of want to stick it in a filing cabinet and say, ‘Oh, it’s not ready yet,’ and then never get it out,” Baude said. “It’s like Schrodinger’s Cat: When you’re not looking at it, it’s perfect, and it’s terrible. Only when you open the box do you find out what’s really going on. By that token, though, the best thing is finding out it’s better than you thought. The process just doesn’t allow for any pessimism.”

Engelman’s patience and advice obviously made an impact on second-time Hotchner playwright Maggie Stamell, a 2009 graduate who found the collaboration between dramaturg, director and playwright very helpful to her writing. “I love this process. Henry Schvey is a wonderful director to work with because he allows me to step in and give some direction myself,” Stamell said. “Liz is very insightful, and she honestly wants the play to reach its potential. Working with such a strong team makes me confident that my play is heading in the right direction.”

As the Festival continued, I also experienced a different kind of Xeroxing, as I was in charge of making copies of all the playwrights’ rewritten scripts. With every rewrite, the plays became easier to visualize and follow. Actors became more familiar with their roles, and playwrights made changes that helped clarify character journeys.

“I’ve learned a lot about my play from rewriting with the cast. Some of the actors really connected with the piece, and it was a little mind-blowing,” playwright Jessy Atkin said. “You always hope someone will connect with your work, but you don’t always write with that in mind. It really makes you think about what you’re saying on paper and what you’re putting out there.”

Each play began coming to life as we moved from reading the script in the Carson Room to actually rehearsing the play in the Hotchner Studio. I couldn’t believe the amount of progress that was made in such a short time. Sophomore Max Rissman took the challenge head on and not only edited out lines but cut an entire character out of his play, one that he originally wrote in high school and that evolved with his life experience.

“I felt like my play had been written by another person. But Liz, [director] Jeffery [Matthews], [resident playwright] Carter [Lewis] and the cast started coming up with these awesome ideas and suggestions,” Rissman said. “So I kind of had to dispose of some of my basic notions about the play and the characters in order to take it to another, better level.”

As we moved to the Studio, the directors began staging the play, playwrights kept discussing characters with the actors and Engelman continued to push the playwrights to refine their work.

“I have found the writers eager to work, quick and avid rewriters and very open to questions, ideas and feedback,” Engelman said. “The actors are engaged, the directors are great teachers and I’m impressed with how far the plays have come in one week.”

The festival will result in four world premieres being presented in the A. E. Hotchner Studio on Friday, Sept. 25, and Saturday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. After each play, the audience will be invited for a post-show discussion that will allow them to comment on the plays and ask questions of the playwright and dramaturg. The end of the festival, however, is not the end of the playwrights’ dramatic endeavors.

As Stamell said: “From here on out, I’m essentially on my own. Now, it’s about putting myself out there in the ‘real world.’ This festival has taught me that having confidence in my work makes a world of difference; and that weakness can become strengths when a play is paired with the right director. I can only hope that I will be given an opportunity like this again and will be able to work with such amazing mentors and actors in the new future.”

Even though my job basically consisted of making ungodly amounts of copies, reading each play’s stage directions and setting up for rehearsals, I still feel inspired by the process. The festival motivated me to continue with my playwriting. Who knows? Maybe you’ll see me in 2010. But for now, you should definitely come enjoy two nights of brilliant creativity and original work.

The bands are mostly on the small-but-mighty indie side. The aspect of discovery is one of the most fun parts about the festival. Notable performers include mashup kings The Hood Internet, Atlas Sound (a Deerhunter side project), Brothers Lazaroff, Midwest Avengers, recent W.I.L.D. performer Nite Owl, Illphonics, Superfun Yeah Yeah Rocketship and Ellee Ven.

The shows kick off on Wednesday and continue Thursday through Saturday. All 10 stages are at places on the Loop, including Cicero’s, Blueberry Hill, Vintage Vinyl, Racanelli’s Cucina, Chipotle and the 560 Music Building. Each of the venues hosts several sets each night starting around 7 p.m. Check out the full schedule at http://2009.playstlfest.com/.

In addition to the shows, the festival also features a series of advice panels for making it in the music business. Topics include basic business sense for musicians, how to get exposure, social networking and the questionable necessity of booking agents. Panels start Saturday afternoon at Cicero’s.

Wash. U. students can pick up three-day wristbands for $5 (about 5 cents per performance) at the Edison Box Office. That’s a $10 savings on the normal price of a wristband, plus all the swag that comes with it: Wristband holders get a free Chipotle burrito, a free drink or shirt, and preferred admission to panel discussions.

Head out to the Loop this weekend to find yourself a new favorite indie band!