It’s risky and bold for a theatrical organization to produce only brand-new original plays. But Orlando’s Playwrights’ Round Table – or PRT – has been doing it successfully for 25 years now.
What started in 1997 as four writers reading plays aloud in someone’s living room has turned into a storied playwright and performance group that stages at least four ten-minute-play festivals a year and one full-length original production.
WMFE's Nicole Darden Creston catches up with PRT Artistic Director Chuck Dent as he’s holding auditions for the next festival. As director, producer, writer, actor, set designer, and so on, he rarely stands still. But he credits other people’s involvement in PRT for keeping the group going so long.
https://youtu.be/sHWV95UJ9vo
Chuck Dent:
I want to say that as far as 10-minute plays, we've probably produced somewhere north of 500 or 600 over 25 years. We've had literally hundreds of people work with us over the years - hundreds of writers, hundreds of directors, an uncounted numbers of actors - and they're all part of the mosaic that has led to our 25th anniversary. We literally could not have done it without them. And so it's a tribute to them, as well, that we're still here, because all those people, they made their mark as well. And they're one of the reasons we're here.
Nicole Darden Creston:
You are one of the longest running theatrical groups in town. Twenty-five years is hard for any theatrical group to manage. Add on top of that, that you're all original plays. So people don't come to see your shows out of nostalgia, or, "Hey, that's my favorite play. I'm gonna see it again by this company." How do you think you have had such longevity, that you've been so successful over the years, and why?
Chuck Dent:
The success comes from involving primarily, first, at base, local talent and playwrights. This started with four actors-writers-directors in 1997. And we've always been welcoming and open to all. So, even if you're not, you know, [accomplished playwright] David Mamet as far as experience...you can be a brand new starting playwright, and we will take a listen to your stuff. And we have produced plays by first-time writers that were just amazing. So I think access is one reason, at least for the people working with us. Now, as far as the audience: you know, I try to figure that out every day [laughter]. But I will tell you that we do have a core group of people who love to come and see new work, who have been with us for years, including during the pandemic, which was no easy thing. And people who are adventurous, are always looking for something a little bit different. And they're the ones who come out and see us.
Nicole Darden Creston:
Let's talk about the workshopping that you do for new plays. How does it work for a brand new playwright?
Chuck Dent:
The workshops happen once every second Sunday. Currently, they're online only, which came out of the pandemic, first of all because out of necessity, and then we we discovered that we were getting a lot of people interacting, because they didn't have to leave their home on a Sunday and come out to have their plays read and be part of the actors reading the plays and stuff. So it turned out pretty good. We do that once a month. We're not doing it this year, but for the full-length [play] part of our processes, we choose three finalists for the full-length, we give them staged readings, and then we send it back to the playwright, and we say, "Okay, here's the feedback that you got from the reading and from us and everything, take about a month or two, get it back to us. And we'll decide which one of these we're going to produce." And the great thing about that is, even the playwrights who aren't selected, they get invaluable feedback. And oftentimes that feedback helps them and they're able to produce it elsewhere. In 2017, we had three plays and all three of them - not with us, obviously - but all three of them were produced, which is a pretty good score.
Nicole Darden Creston:
The people who workshop the new plays...are they experienced writers or experienced directors? Or are they people from the community who are interested?
Chuck Dent:
All of the above. So what's great about this is we get a diversity of voices. You know, we get feedback from the actors who read it, [who are] interpreting it on the fly. It's basically cold readings. And as an actor, you'll hear things, and ask [the playwright], is this supposed to mean this? And the writer will go, "Ah, okay, I didn't hear that before." You know, they'll learn something from that perspective. And then you'll have people who have directed before, and they're like, well, how does this work, that sort of thing. Then you have the other writers who are more than willing to give their feedback in a friendly way - which is one of the things that I enforce is, we're here to help. We're not here to harm. So you have this great diversity of experiences, that really enriches the feedback for those writers. And you know, they're always welcome to use it or not, but oftentimes they do and oftentimes, it really does help their work.
Nicole Darden Creston:
The plays that have been "born" here, and that go on to win awards: do the proud mamas and papas come back and tell you most of the time?
Chuck Dent:
Not always, because they're usually busy sending out 50 plays a month (laughter). Yeah, we've had a number of people. Actually, one of the fellows just was telling us yesterday, a play that he had workshopped with us just got its 14th production, and this was since last year. So yeah, he's doing really well. And the great thing was, it was a suicide prevention play. So that's really taken off for him. He's had a lot of success with it. And, you know, he workshopped it with us. I know several of our members - for example, David Strauss, Katie Thayer, Andy Haines, and I think there's a couple I'm forgetting the names of right now - but they've been published in the anthology that Smith and Kraus does of the best 10 minute plays of a given year. And I gotta say it was pretty awesome to go up to the Drama Bookshop up in New York and Manhattan and see our playwrights in a book that was for sale in the Drama Bookshop, which was awesome. It's such an institution that Lin Manuel Miranda actually bought it to keep it open.
