The Wilma Theater, Playwright Intern
Emily Feldman, 2009
Serving as the “first reader” on a play that is now in hot contention to be on the bill for the next season at the Wilma was a thrilling experience. I read a play that I thought was unique, funny, poignant, and highly theatrical, and I was able to express that to an artistic staff, that widely agreed. The process of formally passing thoughts about a new text through script evaluations, and the weight that these evaluations are given in the season planning process at a small theatre is fascinating. I spent my month working at the Wilma shadowing for the two-man literary team whose time is split between planning for future seasons and researching for productions that are about to get on their feet. My task was to assist the Literary Programming Literary Manager/Dramaturg and the Literary Programming Assistant/Casting director in research and preparation for rehearsals of their upcoming production of “Scorched.” I also read plays and wrote evaluations, and assisted with database updates and headshot cataloguing. I quickly learned that being a member of the literary department at the Wilma encompasses much more than simply reading and responding. During the month of January my supervisors both assisted the Artistic Directors in casting for the remaining shows this season, and directed and produced a month-long reading series.
Most of my research time at the Wilma was devoted to reading material and collecting images in reference to “Schorched.” The play was written by a Lebanese-born, French Canadian playwright named Wajdi Mouawad, and charts brother and sister’s journey though their mother’s war-torn Middle Eastern home. It is has had over one hundred productions worldwide, but the production at the Wilma will be one of the first in the English language. Because the play doesn’t specify a defined setting, the Wilma has taken a broad approach to its research and I was often given books or articles on civil wars, or genocide situations from all over the world. I was asked to pare down the relevant information for the dramaturg, the actors, and the director. I had fun nit picking the script for references that audiences might not understand, or hunting for pronunciations of Arabic, Vietnamese, and French words. Everything I learned in my research deepened my understanding of the complexities of the play, and gave me a sense of power of dramaturgy to bolster a performance of a script. Working as a dramaturg made me realize that it is possible to successfully tackle a script that seems to be beyond the director’s personal frame of reference, as long as he or she is supported by a capable dramaturg.
I was particularly thrilled to find positive connections between the work that it is done at the Wilma and the theatre I have experienced at Middlebury. Working with the Wilma has taught me the value of season planning, and how theaters strive to present surprising seasons that remain true to the aesthetic and the mission of the institution. What has most impressed me about the Wilma is its commitment to its mission and the high standards it sets for the political and artistic value of the work it produces. The Mission Statement at the Wilma is: ” to present theater as an art form, engaging artists and audiences in an adventure of aesthetic philosophical reflection of the complexities of contemporary life by producing thoughtful, well-crafted productions of intelligent, daring plays that represent a range of voices, viewpoints, and production styles,” and I think that this fits very closely with the objectives of the Middlebury theatre department. The Wilma has a strong preference for theatre that incorporates movement and design, and the shows are intended to be politically evocative rather than provocative. In reading for the Wilma, I came to develop a strong sense of what the aesthetic of the theatre is, and I was and make thoughtful recommendations with the theatre’s specific goals in mind. It has been interesting for me to read plays in the context of season planning, rather than simply for general intellectual and artistic value, and it is sometimes difficult to fall in love with a script for its artistic value, but not be able to recommend it for production in the context of a specific season.
The Wilma does not produce exclusively new plays, nor does it always choose classics, but each season the artistic staff tries to present a mix that will challenge audiences and provoke discussion. The co-artistic directors, Jiri and Blanka Zizka, are a married couple from the Prague, whose experience producing theater on both sides of the Atlantic drives them to choose plays from broad range of cultures. Despite different themes the plays often share a strong concern with the basic questions of man’s existence, and address those questions with a marked reverence for visual imagery. My sense of the Wilma aesthetic was reinforced in the readings I attended every Monday, during which Blanka, Jiri, or Walter (the literary manager) directed actors in semi-staged productions of some of the plays that they will be considering for next season. Local audiences were invited to come, hear the play for free, and then offer their impressions of what they heard
On a personal level, I had an extremely positive experience at the Wilma, and I think that one of things that made me feel that way was the trust and respect my supervisors had for me. There were many other interns working in various departments, however, I was the only intern who spent full days in the office, which I think contributed to my feeling included in the entirety of office life. My supervisors often expressed that they were happy with the work I was doing, and it made me happy in turn to know that the information I was giving them or the reports I was writing were helpful. As a result, they were comfortable giving me high priority items to work on, or plays to read. As I make the transition between Middlebury and the wider artistic community, it is nice to know that I will find other communities that speak the language I have studied here, and that share a common artistic background.
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