The Playwrights Center previews plays on video before they have productions

Of all the options people have in the world of entertainment and art, performing arts may be the one they know the least about before they're expected to plunk down the usually expensive price of the ticket. We can't afford television commercials, and our "reach" is generally too geographically limited (even for the largest theater) to warrant national television, radio, or newspaper coverage. Music, movies, books all have numerous magazines and magazine articles devoted exclusively to them because the same movie, book, or compact disc can be enjoyed by a wide demographic regardless of location - but with theater, the audience gets little more than a blurb and maybe a postcard. If that's how the audience feels, imagine how artistic directors and theater producers feel when confronted with a new script. It's safer to do a familiar play in part because the audience will have more information about it from the get-go -- but it's also safer to do a familiar play because, often, the script format doesn't give the best sense of how that play will play on stage. So much has changed in the performing arts since Shakespeare - better lights, more sound, the advent of a wide variety of performance theory and physical and emotional techniques -- yet we're still basically delivering our play blueprints in the same format as Shakespeare. Perhaps this should change? The Playwrights Center, with the support of a MetLife/TCG A-Ha! Program grant (supporting innovative ideas in theater) and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has decided to leap into the process of changing how we present new work to theaters before a play has even been produced. Check out these newly-minted video trailers specifically created to give a more dynamic sense of these new plays. What do you think? Ya think it'll work?