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Theatre Vault proudly continues Dramatis Personae, a series of essays written by and about local theatre artists.  In this essay, Arvin Donner, creative force behind The Drama Foundry, a Central Ohio group dedicated to providing opportunities for dramatic writers to hone their craft and forge new work. The first writers’ group meeting will be held on Saturday, July 11 from 5-7pm at the Junctionview Studios in Grandview. Learn more about the group and the meeting by visiting The Drama Foundry website.

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What makes a great writers’ group? I thought I had been doing a really good job in my attempts to avoid answering this nagging question for the past two weeks. That is until Theatre Vault asked me to write about it for this series. The timing is uncanny…

You see, on Saturday July 11, 2009 from 5-7 pm I will be standing in front of a group of like-minded people proselytizing as a witness to the good news of cross-disciplinary collaboration. To put that another way, I am the guy who is starting The Drama Foundry, a writing group for dramatic writers at Junctionview Studios.

My intentions are to bring writers and actors together to develop new work, and to create an incubator of sorts to help foster new work for local theaters, filmmakers, and other dramatic artists. After careful thought and some teeth gnashing, here is a list of what I think makes a great dramatic writing group.

1. Be dignified
A great dramatic writing group promotes and values an environment where its members know they have the dignity to fail, find their own way, learn, and experiment.

2. Don’t hog the earth as it orbits around you
A great dramatic writing group has to be accessible. This includes everything from having a timekeeper to manage the critiques so everyone has an equal opportunity to share, to making sure everyone has an equal opportunity to submit work to be read.

3. Know whom you are ultimately serving
A great dramatic writing group cannot please everyone. At the end of the day when the chips are down, there needs to be a group consensus on how the group is going to best serve the writers. When people make suggestions on how the group can be improved, always ask the question, “How is this going to serve the writer?”

4. Have ground rules
A great dramatic writing group has some structure, but not too much structure. Ground rules are a jumping off point not meant to be a straight jacket. They are there to create a space so people will feel safe and respected during critiques. Rules build trust in the group by allowing everyone to know there is common ground shared among the participants that will foster dignity. Ground rules also help to manage focus.

5. Communicate
A great dramatic writing group has an email list, phone list, and uses them. Remind people when the next meeting is. If your dog used your only copy of your next submission as a piece of toilet paper, well… that may be a sign from the Gods that your play wasn’t very good. If it is a sign, then notify the group to let them know you won’t be reading at the next meeting and try and find someone to take your spot.

6. Be flexible
A great dramatic writing group knows that the Buddha said stuff is impermanent. The group’s needs change. Individuals’ needs change. Well-intentioned ideas thought up by guys like me don’t work and need to change. Have a regular group conscious to discuss possible ways the group can address new issues that arise and make changes accordingly.

7. Be predictable
A great dramatic writing group meets at the same place every week but also has some flexibility with the time.

8. Meet anyway
A great dramatic writing group meets anyway even if the members don’t have anything to read and critique. This is a good opportunity to do improvisational exercises on new story ideas and to work on all those exercises in those screenplay and playwriting books that are collecting dust next to your toilet.

9. Have Kibble
A great dramatic writing group has the writers being critiqued bring some kibble to feed the actors who are being very kind and generous with their time to come and read the writers’ brilliant-yet-stilted-and-unfocused first draft.

10. The writer chooses the focus of the critique
A great dramatic writing group puts the focus of the critique in the hands of the writers. Do you want to talk about a particular character, or beat, or event in the story? The writer can even choose to not have the piece critiqued and instead may just observe what the emotional responses are to the work by the group members.

11. Focus on the process and not the outcome
A great dramatic writing group focuses on the process of writing and the development of stories. Ultimately, if the writing is solid, the agents will come, the cinematographers and directors will find you, and the productions will happen. Though, it is nice to share the contact information of a good entertainment lawyer or two.

12. Have some fun
That’s the most important. If you are not having fun, what’s the point?

My hope is that with these ideals and some luck, The Drama Foundry will run smoothly and help forge the development of new work, and avoid leaving too many blood stains on the carpet.