Local discussion of Outrageous Fortune, Chap 2

Christina Ham, John Heimbuch, Joshua Humphrey, and Brian O’Neal continue discussion with a breakdown of chapter II of Outrageous Fortune, The Lives & Livelihoods of Playwrights. 00:00-04:36: Our conversation begins with the most troubling statistic of the chapter: productions of plays constitute only 15% of a playwright’s income. 04:36-05:45: We touch briefly on “premiere-itis” and the consequences of taking a show to New York. 05:45-13:14: There’s talk of sustaining your career and not becoming a big-name playwright before John moves into talking about the staging and scope of plays throughout American theatrical history. Can you say 900 fairies? 13:14-18:52: I swing us back to the conversation back to the income of playwrights, toward grant-writing and the money available for “emerging” playwright. We also discuss the training of theatre artists and how their educations effects the plays they want to produce and watch. 18:52-25:02: The level of expectation associated with graduate track programs for playwriting and the inability of playwrights to support the level of debt they entail. 25:02-26:52: Something not mentioned in the book are those of franchised shows–like Triple Expresso and Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding–that are “off-the-radar” because they’re not canonical. 26:52-30:39: Submission and productions of plays and their drain on a playwright’s time and resources enters the conversation. 30:39-34:30: The depressing nature of the book, in particular this chapter, the career path in which playwrights find themselves, and how John and Christina have benefited from writing and producing in the Twin Cities. 34:30-37:35: We touch on the other ways in which playwrights earn a living and discuss the lure of television. 37:35-43:00: I quote a specific passage on the “ego” of the writer in order to gauge Christina and John’s reaction.