Adam Szymkowicz's Blog, page 2
April 2, 2024
Letters to a Young Playwright
I wrote a book about playwriting that will be coming out in late August from Applause/Rowman. Here is their description--
preorder here
Letters to a Young PlaywrightPractical and Impractical Advice on the Art of PlaywritingADAM SZYMKOWICZ
Adam Szymkowicz is that rarest of things: a working playwright. At a time when the entire business model of American theatre seems on the verge of implosion—and most dramatists survive only through soul-sucking day jobs, the largesse of patrons or their own families, or writing for television—Szymkowicz has carved out a distinctive niche for himself without relying on big institutions or the brass ring of a Broadway production. Each year, his body of work—over 20 sharp, funny, pop-culture-inflected plays animated by an unabashed romanticism—is staged everywhere from major urban theatres to colleges and high schools.
In Letters to a Young Playwright, Szymkowicz dispenses hard-earned, unsentimental, and entertaining advice to early-career dramatists. Modeled on Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, it covers topics like writer’s block, self-promotion, and the pluses and minuses of pivoting to Hollywood in insightful and digestible short essays. Perfect for beginning playwrights as well as mid-career writers looking to reinvigorate their craft and career, it contains endlessly useful advice and reflections from one of the most-produced living playwrights in America.
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March 26, 2024
Clown Bar 2 in NYC in April!
Clown Bar 2 (Don't worry if you didn't see the original) will go up at the Parkside Lounge as part of fringe starting April 14. Just a few performances but I hope we will be able to add some more. (This is the same venue where the original Clown Bar was done by Pipeline 11 years ago.)
https://www.tdf.org/shows/21540/clown-bar-2
Produced by SparkPlug Productions, Directed by Andrew Block, starring Sean Leigh Phillips, Rebekkah Ross Lee, Christopher Le Crenn, Christopher Lee, Kelley Rae O'Donnell, Chris Cornwell, Kim Bollard, Nadel Henville, Catie Marron, Jim Hawkins!

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December 25, 2023
My 2023 Year In Review

I've been doing these summaries for a long time but also they start in 2007 when I was at Juilliard and exciting things were already happening. I don't have a year in review about 2000 when I was in Foxboro, MA working as an Asst Mgr at a Hollywood Video, writing plays and mailing them to people. I had just graduated from college and was living in a small apartment with my girlfriend at the time. I knew almost no theater people. I hadn't gotten into any of the grad schools I had applied to.
Twenty-three years later, my life and my playwriting life are a lot different now. I started writing a book this year about playwriting for playwrights starting out so I've been thinking about what it was like early on. What I knew. What I didn't know. I started writing plays in college and I didn't really know what I was doing. It took a long time to figure out how to write and even longer to build a career.
Last year I wrote in my year end summary about how it seemed impossible to make a living as a playwright. But then this year I had a lot of productions and I made a lot more money as a playwright. It no longer seems out of reach.
I quit my job at Juilliard this summer, after 8 years. My wife took on a full time job making slightly more than what I was making at Juilliard. And now that we have health insurance through her, I am a full time writer, making, as a writer almost what I made 8 years ago at my day job at Juilliard.
I'm making about half of that money from high school and college productions and the other half from (mostly) small theaters. The first time I had a production of one of my plays at a high school was 10 years ago. Today I have a lot more plays appropriate for high schools and some high school versions of plays that weren't initially appropriate. I'm really thrilled to have plays done at high school which was where I acquired my love of theater.
As a full time playwright now, I also took over a lot of child care and home duties so my day is a lot shorter than it used to be, because I operate on the school schedule. But I'm also not trying to do 2 full time jobs at the same time.
I wrote a lot this year--4 one act plays, 3 full length plays, one short film and a book about playwriting. Also working on a musical version of Marian. And I did a couple big revisions. I can't say for sure, but it may be my most productive year ever.
I was in a writing group for parents again with Project Y, and took part in Flux's Core Work writing group. Did a signing at the Drama Book Shop. Did a reading at Drunken Careening Writers. Made some short films about playwriting for PlayPenn. Did a podcast with Mershad Torabi at We Are Actors and a podcast with Erin Mallon at My Job Is To Play.
This year apart from being in NYC a lot, I was at the Chance Theater in Anaheim for a reading, went camping in CT, went to Cape Cod and Delaware, spent a week in upstate NY at Theater4ThePeople's At The Barn. Went to Flux Retreat at Little Pond. Had a reading in NYC with Project Y. Zoomed with a lot of students. Visited Paris by myself. Was a guest speaker in MO at Lanford Wilson Fest. Spent time in Hoboken rehearsing for a premiere.
Heather Cohn and I worked on my play God Splat with NYU students for four 4-hour sessions.
I also started running 5k races. Did the first one in August of 2022 and have now run 8. I am not fast but it's good to do things you're not great at. I'm trying to get faster. Sometimes I place in my age group if not many people are running. There is a thing in CT where people try to run one race in each of the 169 towns. Don't know if I'll ever accomplish that but even running one race feels like an accomplishment right after I've run it.
I had the most productions this year than ever before.
This year, I had 79 productions of full length plays and 59 productions of one acts. There were 2 productions of nights of short plays. Almost all the one act productions are high school productions. Of the 79 full length productions, 19 were at colleges/universities, 23 at theaters and 37 at high schools.
My two most produced plays by far were Kodachrome and Marian. Kodachrome one act was produced 14 times and the full length 19 times. My play Kodachrome will have its 100th production sometime next year. (In this count, I'm including productions of the one act version too.)
Marian (normal and teen versions) was produced 32 times in 2023. Speaking of Marian, a cancelled production in Ft Wayne, IN made national news when students decided to produce it themselves. They raised 80k to do the show for one night in a 1000 seat arena. It's possible I'm getting more productions of Marian because of this.
Another play done a bit--The Bookstore was produced 12 times this year.
First production of The Night Children happened this year-- they also took the play to Edinburgh.
The Christmas Tree Farm premiered this December at Mile Square in NJ where my friend Kevin R. Free is the AD. Was subsequently done at Actors Bridge Ensemble in Nashville (who have done 3 other plays of mine) and by a high school in CA.

photo by David White Studio
Clown Bar Christmas went up for the first time at Little Theater in MN.

Hearts Like Planets was done at a couple of schools. I saw the one at AADA that Alberto Bonilla directed.



Also of note, Nerve was done in Mexico in Spanish. Clown Bar was done in Türkiye again. Marian had an English production and a couple Canadian productions. Kodachrome was done in England and The Bookstore was done in Canada. Ubu maybe happened in Australia.
I have a lot of full length plays that had one or two productions this year.
Publications this year included my book of monologues, Small Explosions from Applause, 100 Things I Never Said To You/100 Love Letters I Never Sent from Concord, When Jack Met Jill and Heart of Snow from Stage Partners, and The Wooden Heart from Theatrical Rights Worldwide.

Next year, look for my book about playwriting from Applause and hopefully some more plays. So far, 26 productions of full lengths slated for 2024 and at least one production slated for 2025.
Love to you and yours. Here are my previous years in review.
202220212020 20192018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
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December 1, 2023
"My Job Is To Play," with Erin Mallon
It was a lot of fun. Here's a clip. Link below to the full conversation.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2244660/14066528
https://tinyurl.com/42xzy2nr
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November 21, 2023
Premiere of The Christmas Tree Farm
If you're in NY or NJ, come see my play, The Christmas Tree Farm. Directed by Rachel Dart. Amazing very funny cast. It's less than 10 min bus ride from NYC.
https://milesquaretheatre.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/events/a0S6T00000tCfZDUA0
Nov 30-Dec 23. Nov 30 is Pay What You Can.

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September 11, 2023
I Interview Playwrights Part 1117: Paola Alexandra Soto

Paola Alexandra Soto
Hometown:
I was born in and grew up in an impoverished community in Santo Domingo the capital of the Dominican Republic. Although at the time I did not realize how poverty stricken the community I lived in was because my family gave me all that I needed. Though I must admit that recently I have become preoccupied with how I was potty trained when the shack I lived in had no indoor plumbing and only had access to one dilapidated wooden outhouse that we shared with another dozen or so families. This was in the 80s and 90s when the internet existed.
Current Town:
When I was about seven years old my mother brought me to the US. When I arrived and saw the NYC skyline I thought this was a land of giants. We settled us down in Harlem, which is one of the best choices that she could have made. If for no other reason than within walking distance I had access to both a large Dominican population a few blocks north in Washington Heights. I was also within walking distance of 125th street and access to one of the most beautiful and historic neighborhoods in the city. Filled with people that looked just like me but spoke a different language, but once I learned English, as they say, “it was on, like Donkey Kong”.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Right now I’m working on what I hope will be my first full length play, La Sosa Sisters, which was a semifinalist for the National Black Theatre Playwriting Fellowship. It is a play about two sisters who are mourning the death of their mother. In the process of burying they uncover the secrets that their mother had been keeping from them. The play is about how death changes a person and transforms relationships. I am currently in the middle of rewrites. Every time I think that I know where the play is going I am surprised by a new turn, a new development that leads down a completely different path. I find myself in this state of start/stop, with the whiplash effect of when one is learning to drive a car. The more I write the less I know. As much as I love playwriting I am in that stretch of time where I’m struggling as a playwright. After spending so much time and money it seems that all that I learned is that I have so much to figure out. The irony of this paradox is not lost on me.
It seems that for many the pandemic was inspirational and they were able to start and finish projects with ease. For me I found it to be incredibly harmful to my process. Playwriting is an isolating endeavor but COVID-19 really took it to another level. A very sad and depressing level.
I think that finally I’ve cracked the structure of the play and now have the difficult work of figuring out the new flow of the story. The play is about two sisters who have lost their mother to cancer and unearth the secrets that their mother hid while in the process of burying her.
Q: Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.
A: When I was a toddler, my mother left me in the Dominican Republic while she came to New York City in the hopes of finding employment. Before she left I remember we were in one of the rooms in my aunt’s two room concrete shack, it was a sunny day, with the sun’s rays bouncing off the aqua blue walls. My aunt was painting my nails to distract me as my mom left for the airport. One minute I was with my mother trying to paint her nails, and the next minute she was gone. I didn’t see her for another three years. The loss and pain I felt when I realized that she wasn’t coming back, the thought that I would never see her again, I broke down, I started crying and in a way, it’s like I never stopped. I think in a way that experience has defined both my way of being in this world and the work that I do. That’s why I’m fascinated with telling stories about the mother and daughter dynamic.
Q: If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?
A: Theater is a healing process, or at least for me when it’s done well the experience can be cathartic. It’s a space that has great potential to help entire groups and communities heal. More and more theater is starting to feel like a commodity as its primary function rather than the artistic journey that it is. It feels more and more like a product instead of the communal process that it is. I think it’s time to decolonize theater. Time to center the artists, workers, and audience. To create a more holistic path it is essential and timely to engage with indigenous and BIPOC communities. Who better to address theater’s flaws, than those that have been overlooked and ignored for far too long.
Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?
A: There’s so many people that I can list that I look up to and have loved their theatrical career Lynn Nottage, August Wilson, David Henry Hwang, Chuck Mee, Lorraine Hansbury, Carmen Rivera, Joe Papp, James Houghton, Paula Vogel, Katori Hall, Emilio Sosa, Danny Hoch, Kamilah Forbes, and Maria Irene Fornes. I know there’s so many that I’m forgetting.
Q: What kind of theater excites you?
A: For me the most exciting theater is when it’s a small intimate space and it’s really about the story that the characters are telling. Of course a reveal or theatrical revelation is always so much fun. I think one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time was the theatrical effects in Fat Ham. A great song and dance is pure joy and a great fight or physical sequence is truly exciting. One of my favorite part of watching a play is sitting in a dark room. There's a surprising moment where folks gasp, or laugh, or when we applaud after a particularly wonderful section that communal experience is the reason I go to see plays. Flex is a great example, there are moments where I’m not sure if I was watching a play or a basketball game.
Q: What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?
A: I would say the same thing that my mentors and professors told me: go to see and read plays to really get an understanding of the work that is being done and the legacy that you’re inheriting as a theater maker. Go to the theater in your community or the one that you love and find a way to work there. This is also a great way to get to see plays. Make sure to take care of your physical and mental health.
Q: Plugs, please:
A: On September 15, 2023 I will have a reading of my play La Sosa Sisters at the NoMAA Studies located in the United Palace in Washington Heights. I am one of Oye Group’s Resident Artists for 2023-2024 where I will be developing two of my plays, Lucha Libre and D’Carnaval.
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August 31, 2023
The Library (short film) in Soho in Sept

https://sohofilmfest.eventive.org/fil...
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March 8, 2023
Two Upcoming Events (New York City)
I have a reading coming up March 18 in NYC. It's another big hearted ensemble play that's meant to be inclusive (although it is admittedly kind of Christmas centric.)
Please come if you can.
THE CHRISTMAS TREE FARM
by Adam Szymkowicz
directed by Kelly O'Donnell
starring Nandita Shenoy, Alisha Spielmann, Ryan Vincent Anderson, Matthew Trumbull, Natalie Kim, Emily Ma.
Saturday, March 18 at 5 pm
The Music Hall at Dramatists Guild Foundation
520 8th Ave. Suite 2401
RSVP: pcplaywrightsgroup@gmail.com
This reading is presented by the Parent-Caregiver Playwrights Group, a selective workshop for playwrights who are also parents or caregivers. The group is sponsored by Project Y Theatre and has received support from New Georges, the Juilliard School, and others. Group members include Liz Appel, Eleanor Burgess, Mathilde Dratwa, Enid Graham, Mary Elizabeth Hamilton, Ying Ying Li, Erin Mallon, Deepa Purohit, Deneen Reynolds-Knott, Lia Romeo, and Adam Szymkowicz.
2.
An event at the Drama Book Shop celebrating my monologue book out from Applause. Tues March 21 at 7:30pm A bunch of lovely folks have agreed to read a few monologues at the event including Erin Mallon, Kevin R. Free, Justin Woo and more! RSVP here (You buy a book for your admission ticket)
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December 28, 2022
My 2022 in Review

This year we went camping twice, visited VA and Cape Cod both twice. I was in Los Angeles for a week for meetings. I was in Vegas for a week for the premiere of Clown Bar 2.

I was also in the Bay Area for a silent writing retreat with Erik Ehn for a week. During that week, I wrote about half of my output for the year. Those retreats really work for me. Every day was like half a month of normal writing time.
Writingwise in 2022, I wrote 30 short monologues for a book coming out next year. I wrote an hour long pilot, a 15 minute podcast pilot, three full length plays, most of a feature screenplay and one one-act play. I also did quite a bit of revising.
I did only 10 interviews this year. I'm kind of semi-retired now at the interview thing. I used to do 100 a year.
I counted how many books I read this year. 50. I didn't count how many plays I read for my job but it was probably more than 100.
Four plays of mine hit their 50th production this year: Clown Bar (2011), Hearts Like Fists (2012), Kodachrome (2018) and Marian (2017).
Marian had 20 productions this year and Kodachrome had 25, which were both records for me. The most I ever had of a full length in a single year was 14 of Kodachrome last year.
This year I had a record shattering 6 plays published with 4 more coming next year.
From Sam French/Concord,
One Act version of Kodachrome
Clown Bar 2
UPCOMING: 100 Things I Never Said To You/100 Love Letters I Never Sent
From Stage Partners,
Old Fashioned Cold Fusion
UPCOMING: When Jack Met Jill
Heart of Snow
From Broadway Play Publishing Inc,
Stockholm Syndrome
From Theatrical Rights Worldwide,
UPCOMING: The Wooden Heart
From playscripts,
The Bookstore
The Night Children

Next year, my monologue book comes out from Applause, Small Explosions, containing 90ish never before seen 1-2 minute monologues.

This year I had 67ish productions of full lengths. (20 more than my best year) Caveats— Some of them were probably one act versions of Kodachrome but I'm not sure how many. An overwhelming amount of these 67 productions were high schools and college productions with some notable exceptions. Only 12 were not done at schools. (This is, I think still a lot about the pandemic. Lots of small theaters are just now starting to do work again.) In terms of foreign productions, Kodachrome was done in England. Clown Bar was done in Turkey and at a university in Ireland. Marian was done in Wales, England, and Switzerland and also in Germany, in German at a 1000 seat outdoor venue.
Including productions of one-act plays, I had just over 100 productions this year. Now I don't know exactly what the money is I'll make for all that because it sometimes takes six months to get paid but probably it's somewhere around what I made this year which is still far from making a living at this. I would venture to say a modest living would be 2 to 3 times what I make now. (So I really want to have 200-300 productions. Or even more than that if so many of them continue to be school shows where, if they only do one or two performances, I often make under 100 dollars per production.)
I started writing plays in 1997, the summer after my sophomore year of college. And that was 25 years ago. I have written at least one play but often two or three every year for 25 years.
And I’m doing really well in a lot of ways, but I’m not making a living. Would I be making a living if we weren’t still in a pandemic? Probably not. Definitely not a consistent living. I really thought after doing this for this long I'd have more movement in that way but I can never quite make the math work. On the upside, this was still a good year for me in a lot of ways.
Love to you and yours. Here are my previous years in review.
20212020 20192018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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December 5, 2022
I Interview Playwrights Part 1116: Julia B. Rosenblatt

Photo Credit:Seina Shirakura Photography
Julia B. Rosenblatt
Hometown: Hartford, CT
Current Town: Back in Hartford!
Q: Tell me about Can't Make This Sh*t Up
A: About two months ago Tjasa Ferme introduced me to Transforma Theatre and The Science in Theater Festival. While I believe in science thoroughly, (which is actually something one has to make explicit these days), I am terrifyingly intimidated by the subject. My freeze response kicks in and I assume I am incapable of understanding any of it. So when Tjasa said she needed a play about an eco-toilet connected to a laboratory that uses excrement to produce biogas, my head started spinning.
Jaewon Cho's BeeVi toilet is nothing short of mind blowing. And yet it makes so much sense, I can only assume the reason we haven't heard more about it, is that it involves acknowledging what the great children's author, Taro Gomi, has been telling us for decades: everyone poops. As we get closer to the point irreversible climate change, it's clearly time we get over ourselves and insist on sustainable forms of energy, no matter what (or whom) it comes from. Can't Make This Sh*t Up, is loosely based on my home, a small urban commune once known as the Scarborough 11. The play imagines the year is 2030. After yet another devastating natural disaster has wiped out the city's plumbing and sewage system, we decide to build a Biological Anaerobic Digestion System in our backyard. Our NIMBY neighbors go nuts, and drag us before the zoning commission, bringing national attention to our family once again. It's a comedy.
Q: What else are you working on now?
A: Group! (lyrics by Eloise Govedare, music by Aleksandra Weil) is a musical that follows six women through intensive outpatient therapy for drug and alcohol addiction. The show has had two workshops and a brief run at Passage Theatre in New Jersey. We are now in the process of rewrites, and looking for the next development opportunity.
Q: Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a
person.
A: Like many other playwrights, I have been "devising theater" in my parents' basement since I was in elementary school. I spent hours creating and rehearsing epic plays and musicals with anyone who was willing (most often my younger sister). I am eternally grateful to my parents, older sisters, aunts and uncles for sitting through our "performances."
Q: If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?
A: Purpose and access. Theater is essential to the human condition. It should not be something that is elite or reserved for specific times and places. Theater should be made and enjoyed by whomever chooses to do so.
Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?
A: August Boal's Theater of the Oppressed changed my life. It set me on a path that I have rarely veered from in the last 30 years. As far as current playwrights, I fall in love with everything Lynn Nottage creates.
Q: What kind of theater excites you?
A: Real, complex stories that use humor to challenge the status quo and demand systemic change.
Q: What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?
A: Oof, this is a hard one because every day I feel like I'm "just starting out." I guess I would say write with passion and seek feedback with humility. We should always be learning.
Q: Plugs, please:
A: Well of course coming up, Science in Theater Festival.
I am a co-founder and ensemble member of HartBeat Ensemble.
Check out the professionally immersive theater training program at Capital Community College!
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