Highlights from a report by Margherita Laera
The Gate is a partner of the EU-funded international project Fabulamundi: Playwriting Europe Beyond Borders, a network of European organisations supporting living playwrights and promoting their work across European languages.
Fabulamundi commissioned Margherita Laera, a Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at the University of Kent and co-Director of the European Theatre Research Network, to research contemporary playwriting and theatre translation systems, conventions and perceptions in Europe. You can read the full report here, first published by Critical Stages, but we wanted to share some of the interesting comparisons and ideas for how countries across Europe can nurture and support writing talent.
The countries studied were Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain and the UK. Questionnaires and interviews explored how each theatre culture in these countries supports living writers, how theatre is supported in education, what conventions drive the production and translation of contemporary plays and what perceptions are held by gatekeepers, theatre-makers and other cultural operators about the theatre system in which they work.
Which countries regularly programme contemporary foreign plays?
The country with the highest confidence in new plays in translation is Spain. The country with the lowest confidence is Austria. This is based on whether venues “regularly” programme contemporary foreign plays in translation, and whether theatre-makers and audiences are “interested” in them.
In which countries can playwrights realistically make a living from writing?
The countries where playwrights can hope to earn more from writing plays are the UK and Germany. The country where playwrights’ earnings are lowest is Romania, followed by the Czech Republic and Poland. In some countries, however, like Poland, Romania, Spain and Italy, it is common for a playwright to receive no advance fee for writing a play that is put on stage, and only be paid through a percentage of gross box office intake when the play is staged. This practice is unsustainable because it forces playwrights to either take on major financial risks, or give up.
Partners’ fifth meeting in Rome, Nov. 7, 2019. Photo: Fabulamundi site. Accessed Nov. 12, 2020
What are the other distinctive traditions in contemporary playwriting and theatre translation cultures in Europe?
- Education. In many countries, playwriting or writing for performance is taught as a distinct subject in Universities or Drama schools (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, U.K.). In others, dramaturgy, devising and directing are taught, but the art of writing plays itself can only be learned in informal settings or is considered a skill that can be acquired independently by writers (Czech Republic, Poland, Romania).
- Writers and actors. Some training contexts assume that writers, directors and actors need to learn the foundations of theatre practice together and then specialise in writing for the stage (Italy, Spain, France). Other traditions tend to expect writers to only learn alongside other writers (Austria, Germany). The UK offers both options.
- Repertoires and ensembles. State-run theatres in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Romania and Poland employ ensembles of actors on a full-time, ongoing basis and programme plays on a repertoire-style rota (the same play will be on once every 2–4 weeks for several months or years, depending on demand). All other countries employ actors on a freelance basis and programme plays in single-block runs of varying length, from a few days to several weeks, months or years.
- Writers’ agents.The most significant divide is between those countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, UK) where playwrights tend to be represented by agents or publishers and those countries where playwrights are expected to promote their own work and negotiate contracts themselves, or where only a few commercial literary agencies exist (France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain).
- Stage to screen. Countries were split between those in which dramatists generally also write for other media, such as radio, TV and film (Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Spain and the UK), and those in which this exchange was not frequent (France, Italy, Poland, Romania). Many countries reported a sense of mistrust from professionals in commercial media, such as TV and film, towards theatre writers.
- The press. While coverage of contemporary theatre in the printed press seems to be in decline in every country we surveyed, online criticism is growing. Specialised theatre press that covers new plays exists in every country. The most significant difference is whether national newspapers take an interest in contemporary playwrights and their craft. In Austria, Germany, Spain and the UK at least some national newspapers cover contemporary playwriting, while other countries lamented the lack of coverage in national printed press.
- Playtexts. In most countries, the majority of new plays are never published because of a lack of market (Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, Spain, Italy), while in other countries (Austria and Germany), publishing plays is simply doesn’t happen. In the UK only plays deemed financially viable are marketed. In France, where the publishing industry is subsidised by the state, new plays are considered for publication by specialist publishers independently of their staging history.
How can writers be supported?
- dedicated literary/dramaturgy departments in venues and companies, supporting the work of artistic directors with dedicated resources and expertise in establishing and cultivating relationships with writers
- commissioning practices where venues see it as their mission to nurture and develop artists, especially young authors
- established state organisations to fund, develop and support the field of theatre including playwriting
- dedicated professional associations or agencies negotiating contracts on writers’ behalves, promoting their work and offering development and networking opportunities
- dedicated structures, institutions or opportunities whose mission is to commission speculative play translations
- dedicated prizes, paid residencies and bursaries to support writers’ creative periods
What about money?
- sustainable length of runs per production, so that energies and resources are not spent on short-term projects with no future touring opportunities
- sustainable fee and share of copyright for writers, avoiding the box office share model
- sustained touring opportunities at national and international level
- widespread opportunities for playwrights to work in TV, film and radio, fostering a culture where industries talk to one another to innovate
How to support young artists?
- dedicated playwriting courses in higher education leading to qualifications in playwriting
- specialist literary and theatre translation courses in higher education
• playwriting and theatre translation courses and workshops for young people in schools - theatre and playwriting practice offered as curricular or extra-curricular activity in schools
- targeted audience development activities with young people and the community to engage the theatre-makers and theatregoers of tomorrow
Any ideas for the future?
These best practices are systems of support at national level. However, many partners suggested that the field needs systems or organisations that operate transnationally. The main suggestions were the establishment of a permanent, wider network of venues and festivals, like Fabulamundi, or the creation of a dedicated European Agency for Playwriting and Theatre Translation, in order to fund expert reading groups and support a programme of speculative translations from and into as many languages as possible. This would make it easier for Europe-based theatre-makers and organisers to share stories and ways of articulating the world through theatre, actively contributing to better representation and inclusion of diverse voices across European stages. We hope that, one day, in the not so distant future, this organisation may become a reality.
Click here to read the report in full, first published by Critical Stages.
Works Cited
Budapest Observatory. “Public Funding of Culture in Europe: 2004–2017,” March 2019. Accessed 27 May 2020.
Delgado, Maria, Bryce Lease, and Dan Rebellato, eds. Contemporary European Playwrights. Routledge, 2020.
Delgado, Maria, and Dan Rebellato, eds. Contemporary European Theatre Directors. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2020.
Kelleher, Joe, and Nicholas Ridout, eds. Contemporary Theatres in Europe. Routledge, 2006.
Lech, Kasia. “Jacek Sieradzki Announces the End of the Contemporary Polish Plays Problem: The 2018 Awards For Staging Contemporary Polish Plays,” TheTheatreTimes.com, 8 July 2018. Accessed 27 May 2020.
*Margherita Laera is a Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at the University of Kent, co-Director of the European Theatre Research Network and Online Editor of Theatre Journal and Theatre Topics. She is the author of Theatre and Translation (Red Globe Press, 2019) and Reaching Athens: Community, Democracy and Other Mythologies in Adaptations of Greek Tragedy (Peter Lang, 2013), and editor of Theatre and Adaptation: Return, Rewrite, Repeat (Bloomsbury, 2014). Margherita also works as a theatre translator from and into Italian and English. She won the TaPRA Early Career Research Prize for 2018.