Developing New Plays for Imagination Stage

New plays are the life blood of live theatre. Our culture and priorities change so quickly nowadays that even versions of classic stories written two decades ago feel out-dated. The female characters are too passive, or the action too violent, or the messages too pat to speak meaningfully to today’s young people and families. That’s why at Imagination Stage we are always working on four or five new plays at a time. Each new commission is different. Sometimes we have an idea and go to a particular playwright with it and other times a playwright comes to us with an idea. That was the case with THE NEVERENDING STORY. Toronto-based playwright David S. Craig obtained the English-speaking theatrical rights to Michael Ende’s novel while working on another project in Germany. Because the Ende estate commands considerable respect internationally, David needed to promise its agent two productions at leading American Theatres for Young Audiences. I called up my counterpart at the Seattle Children’s Theatre, Linda Hartzell, and suggested that we share the premiere of the play and open it on both coasts in the same season. The fantasy novel turned out to be a favorite of Linda’s only son. She was not hard to convince!

And, as a seasoned playwright, David was not hard to work with. Once the commission was negotiated, he holed himself up on a beach in some South American country for a month to write the first draft. I then met with David and the Linda in Seattle to talk about how to maximize the dramatic elements of the story. The threat of the evil Gmork and The Nothing needed to be established early in the play and build to a climax. David’s second draft was not as faithful to the book but it was a much improved vehicle for the stage. Then when Seattle opened the first production last holiday season, I met David out there again, we talked at length about the production choices there which were, of necessity, very different from what Imagination Stage was planning. The Seattle Children’s Theatre has 600 seats (as opposed to the 380 we have) and the stage is a traditional proscenium, or picture frame stage (as opposed to the thrust that we have). David and I also talked about some possible adjustments to the script that would work better in Bethesda. David arrived about midway through our June 08 rehearsal process and jumped in immediately to make several cuts since the show was running long, and to make line adjustments that helped our particular production. David was ultimately very pleased with Imagination Stage’s production of his show. At his encouragement the artistic directors of two other TYA theatres have traveled from Milwaukee and Tempe to check out how we have solved some tricky staging problems. It is above all gratifying to know that a play that Imagination Stage helped to give birth to is already scheduled to have at least one more year of life at numerous other theatres across the USA next season.