Roundtable 1: What’s Literary in the 21st Century Literary Office and Do We Need a New Name?
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 2014-08-14

First up, a conversation titled “What’s Literary in the 21st Century Literary Office and Do We Need a New Name?” David Dower suggested the literary office has become a catch all space in the theater with an increasingly long list of tasks and the result was a “sprawl.” Is this what the participants at the table are experiencing?

David moderated the conversation with Lauren Gunderson (Playwright), Elizabeth Frankel (Literary Manager, The Public Theater), Joy Meads (Literary Associate, Center Theater Group), Madeleine Oldham (Director of The Ground Floor, Berkeley Rep), Amrita Ramanan (Literary Manager, Arena Stage), John Baker (Literary Manager, Woolly Mammoth), Pat Flick (Associate Artistic Director, Orlando Shakespeare Theater), Ilana Brownstein (Director of New Work, Company One) and Jojo Ruf (General Manager, National New Play Network). As everybody talked about how they spend their days, most people at the table spend the majority of their time reading scripts, scouting in the community, and maintaining relationships with playwrights and agents.  Amrita Ramanan stood alone as the Literary Manager who spent the majority of her time working on audience engagement and enrichment although Joy Meads argued that the audience engagement is crucial in season planning. At Woolly Mammoth, those activities are run by the Connectivity Department, which works with the Literary and Marketing teams.  At Berkeley Rep, they are the responsibility of the Multi-Media Manager in conversation with the Literary Team.

Conversation turned to “the pile.” Orlando Shakespeare Festival has found artists from the pile but many others have had less success.  There was a feeling that maintaining open submissions is an irreplaceable service to the community.  “The pile” isn’t “soul-sucking” when there is enough staff to manage it or when it feels like “the pile” is a realistic avenue for plays to find production.  As the playwright representative, Lauren Gunderson advocated avoiding “the pile” at large institutions, fostering relationships with literary managers and artistic directors.  She found her start in submitting to development labs whose mission is to find new voices.

Lauren also talked about the literary office extending invitations.  Invitations to the audience by way of lobby engagement, etc. and invitations to the playwright. Literary offices can be a haven for playwrights to turn to for help navigating each unique institution.

The round table ended and the conversation amongst the breakout groups ran the gamut.  Groups spent time talking about soliciting for development and festivals versus production, how can the literary minds be most effectively used (it is often not in the rehearsal room), audience vent sessions, whether we’re training people for jobs that exist, the importance of developing relationships, and writing authentic pass letters.  One group spent the time making a laundry list of everything their literary offices are actually doing.  Here’s the list of the “sprawl”:

Season planning, reading plays, scouting, managing writer’s groups, playwright relationships, playwright advocacy, readings, workshops, dramaturgy, audience connectivity, lobby experience, post-show conversations, study guides, program notes, newsletters, marketing support, grant writing, catering, various meetings & administrative tasks.

- See more at: http://howlround.com/21st-century-literary-office-convening-day-2-nuts-bolts#sthash.hkLaLkkG.dpuf

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