In a move that could significantly enhance the visibility of Tampa Bay area playwrights, a group of writers met Tuesday night at St. Petersburg's Studio@620 with a representative of the nationally based Dramatists Guild as well as representatives from Tampa's Stageworks and Sarasota's Florida Studio Theatre. The meeting was organized by Bradenton playwright Jack Gilhooley and was limited to members of the Guild in the area from Clearwater south to Venice.
Ten persons, including several whose work has been produced in New York and locally, talked with DG representative Rob Anderson of Orlando about starting a website, organizing play readings, publicizing local playwrights and stimulating local theaters to be more accepting of locally produced work. Following a welcome from the Studio's artistic director, Bob Devin Jones, the playwrights spoke of the difficulty of getting produced locally and expressed a desire to emulate Miami-area DG members who have recently had success in making themselves more prominent.
A common theme in the discussion was the seeming refusal of local theaters, from St. Pete's American Stage to Sarasota's Asolo Rep, to promote and produce the work of their areas' writers.
This article appears in Mar 18-24, 2009.