Writers’ Roundtable 2022

• How have expectations changed – for Writers? For Producers? For Audiences? How should they change?

• What writers want to explore, what theatres want to produce, what audiences want to see—do they align? Should we focus on the intersection or use the healthy tension to expand?

• How are producers handling unique or unconventional stories? How do we make space for more than one musical with a specific perspective or about a given community? How can we better prepare audiences to engage with unique stories?

• How do we scale-up grassroots excitement for a particular story or show? How do writers keep producers’ attention when culture and politics are shifting so quickly?

• How are we balancing staying safe and doing the work? How do we make sure COVID doesn’t run (or ruin) our reading, workshop or production process?

• In what ways can we make working with COVID-safety protocols more sustainable? How do we transcend the now-omnipresent COVID threat to keep new work development moving productively forward?

• How is live capture and streaming re-shaping our new works process? Does the future of theater exist in a hybrid of in-person and digital programming?

• Can we better plan and prepare for exploitations in film, television, etc. during the theatrical production process? How do writers and theatrical producers work together in pursuit of this additional life to a play?

• Are there programmatic trends in television and film that can help inform how we program our theatrical seasons? Are other media (TV, film, video games, books, etc.) taking more programmatic and content risks than live theaters are taking? Are there lessons we can learn from other media?