Professional Playwriting in a Hostile Context

Abstract

Crises do not provide opportunities. Crises are moments of great difficulty, uncertainty and pain. Our work, playwriting, is a fragile and uncertain occupation, but it is also a long path, which should be professionalised and taken very seriously. We often associate playwriting with some romantic concept of authorship, but the playwright should have knowledge of all the cogs in the industrial, public and private theatre system. What does this industry expect from us and what can we contribute? What are the tools that playwriting professionals have in order to make their craft artistically and financially viable? What are the models that do not fit in with the most romantic stereotypes of authorship? What are the strategies or models that playwriting professionals can use in order to establish their career? What are the production mechanisms that can give freedom and continuity to text-based theatre creation?