A few years ago, someone told Steven Dietz that he lacked a “brand” and that would hinder his success.
“I was advised that my plays were all over the map, that I had confused my brand,” said the playwright whose award shelf holds two Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Awards, the PEN USA West Award in Drama, the 2007 Edgar Award for Drama (the Mystery Writers of America highest award), and the 1995 Yomuiri Shimbun Award (the Japanese "Tony"), among other honors.
His original works tackle everything from 21st century conspiracy theories, such as Yankee Tavern at ACT, to comedic forays into modern life, like Becky’s New Car. Dietz's stage adaptations of other people’s work also run gamut of ideas and themes, ranging from complex historical novels like Endo’s Silence (for which he received the Shimbun Award) to the sparse but delightful wordplay of P.D. Eastman’s Go, Dog, Go, a work that he co-authored with Allison Gregory for Seattle Children's Theatre.
His more than 20 plays may lack a unifying theme, but then Dietz has no desire to write about only one thing, even if it makes him hard to define in an elevator pitch. What he wants to do is tell good stories that engage, entertain, or even enlighten his audience. He thoroughly enjoyed the lobby discussions heard after performances of Yankee Tavern’s previews, as his audience left his darkened New York bar discussing “well, what if…”
“I write the theater that I’d like to go to,” he said. “I think the universe gives you your first two or three plays. After that, if you decide you want to do this with your life, you have to concentrate on the craft: how do you tell a story.”
It’s a lesson that he imparts these days to his students at the University of Texas at Austin. “They are an amazing group,” Dietz said, “and hopefully will surpass my generation in what they bring to the theater.” He also has seen a new openness to new work in the large regional theaters where the majority of his plays have been produced.
“Much more new work is done now than when I started in the 1980s. That’s a momentous change and the upside,” he observed. “Unfortunately the traditional funding for new playwrights has dried up. It’s so much harder to make a living as a new playwright now.”
However, for Dietz, writing plays remains a steady gig with the new assignments, as usual, going all over the map. His next commissioned work for Seattle Children’s Theatre will be a play about baseball legend Jackie Robinson, opening in April 2011. Go, Dog, Go also returns to SCT in January.
“I was advised that my plays were all over the map, that I had confused my brand,” said the playwright whose award shelf holds two Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Awards, the PEN USA West Award in Drama, the 2007 Edgar Award for Drama (the Mystery Writers of America highest award), and the 1995 Yomuiri Shimbun Award (the Japanese "Tony"), among other honors.
His original works tackle everything from 21st century conspiracy theories, such as Yankee Tavern at ACT, to comedic forays into modern life, like Becky’s New Car. Dietz's stage adaptations of other people’s work also run gamut of ideas and themes, ranging from complex historical novels like Endo’s Silence (for which he received the Shimbun Award) to the sparse but delightful wordplay of P.D. Eastman’s Go, Dog, Go, a work that he co-authored with Allison Gregory for Seattle Children's Theatre.
His more than 20 plays may lack a unifying theme, but then Dietz has no desire to write about only one thing, even if it makes him hard to define in an elevator pitch. What he wants to do is tell good stories that engage, entertain, or even enlighten his audience. He thoroughly enjoyed the lobby discussions heard after performances of Yankee Tavern’s previews, as his audience left his darkened New York bar discussing “well, what if…”
“I write the theater that I’d like to go to,” he said. “I think the universe gives you your first two or three plays. After that, if you decide you want to do this with your life, you have to concentrate on the craft: how do you tell a story.”
It’s a lesson that he imparts these days to his students at the University of Texas at Austin. “They are an amazing group,” Dietz said, “and hopefully will surpass my generation in what they bring to the theater.” He also has seen a new openness to new work in the large regional theaters where the majority of his plays have been produced.
“Much more new work is done now than when I started in the 1980s. That’s a momentous change and the upside,” he observed. “Unfortunately the traditional funding for new playwrights has dried up. It’s so much harder to make a living as a new playwright now.”
However, for Dietz, writing plays remains a steady gig with the new assignments, as usual, going all over the map. His next commissioned work for Seattle Children’s Theatre will be a play about baseball legend Jackie Robinson, opening in April 2011. Go, Dog, Go also returns to SCT in January.