We had an Ambassador meeting today at Gulfshore Playhouse. For those of you who don’t know, here at The Playhouse we have a group of very dedicated patrons who support the theatre and what we are doing here in a lot of really wonderful ways. These are our Ambassadors. And during tech for every production we have a meeting at the theatre where the Ambassadors can watch a little bit of rehearsal and then have some nosh, generously provided by a few of The Ambassadors, and then there is a discussion of some sort, generally focused around the show we are doing.

Jeffrey Binder and Laurence Lau in Tech Rehearsal of The God Game

Today Suzanne Bradbeer, the playwright for our upcoming World Premiere of The God Game was the guest speaker and was kind enough to open up about the genesis of this play, about the process here, and even hint a little about a play that she is beginning to work on.

This was a wonderful Ambassador meeting.

I have not been shy about my love for new plays on this blog. New play development has been one of my favorite parts of my career. Working with playwrights, a singularly talented group of artists, is such a thrill to me. And to be part of an institution that is at the beginning of its journey with new play development is so exciting. To listen to Suzanne and Kristen speak about the work they have been doing during this rehearsal process was inspiring. And then Kristen turned to me and asked me to speak…

There are books and blogs and websites doing much better critical thinking and writing about new play development than you will read in this blog today, and if you’re interested in pursuing that, write me and I will send some info your way. However, I do have lots of thoughts and opinions, both as an artist and as a staff member, and to be in a position here to have those thoughts and ideas help influence policy, or creation, or programming is such a huge boon to my career. Any work that I have done in the past with new play development has only been as an actor, a freelance actor, and while I know that is a very important part of the development process and I am always, always thrilled to do it, I am equally thrilled to be helping in other ways now.

And so today, when Kristen turned and asked me to speak in the meeting, I cannot tell you how much I appreciated the opportunity to speak to a very mixed group (patrons, actors, designers, playwright and director) about my experiences with, and deep love for new work. It made my day to turn to Suzanne and tell her how excited I was when I first read her play. I couldn’t have been happier to share my gratitude and delight with Kristen about the respect she shows me and my ideas and opinions about this kind of work. I loved helping make it a little clearer to our patrons what this kind of work entails, and why it is important, and why it is our duty as theatre makers to embrace new work, new voices.

So yeah, another grand day in the ongoing and mysterious thing we call collaboration. Thanks to all the playwrights who put pen to paper or fingers to keys. And thanks to everyone who is out there looking for new voices, enabling our audiences of today help foster the theatre of tomorrow.