Lin-Manuel Miranda, Theresa Rebeck and More Participate in Dramatists Guild of America Conference in Chicago, Now thru 8/25

The Dramatists Guild of America is pleased to announce their Second National Conference Having Our Say: Our History, Our Future, which will be held from today, August 22-25, 2013 in Chicago, IL.

The conference will include keynote speeches, legal and business seminars, workshops, and conversations with theatre elite. Participating Council and visiting artists include Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Gretchen Cryer, Rebecca Gilman, Carol Hall, Winnie Holzman, David Ives, Lisa Kron, Martha Lavey, Bobby Lopez, Terrence McNally, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Marsha Norman, Theresa Rebeck, Stephen Schwartz, Jeff Sweet, John Weidman, George C. Wolfe, and Charlayne Woodard.

The Dramatists Guild's mission is to educate their members about policies and best practices that help shape the business aspects of their careers. By holding a national conference, their goal is to reach more members and share who they are with a larger community. They want to encourage participants to share stories and wisdom and celebrate their successes with like-minded artists that understand their journey. Theatre is one of the most collaborative art forms and the Guild believes that in order for writers to enrich themselves, they must step beyond their isolation to embrace actors, directors, designers and producers and discover what they contribute to the process of creating theatre.

"I am very much looking forward to the national conference, especially since at the last conference I had the opportunity to meet and interact with fellow dramatists from around the country, as well as the chance to hear lectures from playwrights I have always admired, such as Marsha Norman and Doug Wright," said Dramatists Guild President Stephen Schwartz. "To hear them describe in detail their sources of inspiration, writing process, and approaches to their work was fascinating, inspiring and very helpful to my own work in all sorts of practical ways."

"Plays are made of talk, and theatre is an art that's passed along through talk, so I can't think of a better way t o keep the conversation going than for the Guild to blend with a bunch of playwrights and lyricists and composers from across the nation -- and talk, and listen, and talk, and listen," said playwright David Ives. "It's also important for playwrights to give back, and since Chicago is my home town I feel as if I'm giving back something in return for all the years that great city formed me. Besides, it's beautiful and it's got great restaurants. What is there not to like about this?"

"Of course the conference is a chance to meet old friends and complain and catch up, but it's even better for hearing what's going on with writers I don't know, writers who live all over America, writers I'd never get to meet if it weren't for the conference," said playwright Marsha Norman. "It's really clear now that we are all in this thing together, so it's important that we know each other. That's what the conference is for, in my book, meeting our allies. It's a gathering of the troops. I guess I've been watching too much Game of Thrones. But that's what it feels like to me."

The conference will address broad areas of interest and will include four tracks of programming running simultaneously. One track will be devoted to business and legal affairs for dramatists, two tracks focused on playwriting and musical theatre writing, which will highlight many of the Council members attending the conference, and one track will be devoted completely to member-generated workshops and panels.

The League of Chicago Theatres and the Dramatists Guild of America will invite members of the Dramatists Guild conference to join Chicago area theatres for a Meet and Greet on Thursday, August 22 at 7:30 pm, the first evening of the conference. The event is designed so that playwrights, composers, lyricists and librettists from across the country can have an opportunity to speak with the artistic and literary staff of Chicago area theatres about their mission and the kind of new work they are interested in.

The Second National Conference of the Dramatists Guild of America Highlights:

· Keynote Speaker, Martha Lavey, Artistic Director, Steppenwolf, with Douglas Post

· The Chicago League of Theatres Meet & Greet, hosted by Ben Thiem

· New Media: Dramatists in the Age of Twitter and Facebook, with Gwydion Suilebhan and Seth Cotterman

· A Conversation with Theresa Rebeck

· Writing Wicked, with Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz

· Writing for Young Audiences, with Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez

· A Mock Producer's Negotiation, with Ralph Sevush, David Faux, Deborah Murad

· Writing the Musical Book, with Marsha Norman

· Adaptation and Translation, with Marsha Norman, Carol Hall, Winnie Holzman and David Ives

· Writing History, with John Weidman

· A Conversation with Lin-Manuel Miranda

· 100 Years of the Playwright, with Ralph Sevush

· Keynote Speaker, George C. Wolfe

· The Gifts of Failure, with Gary Garrison

· A Conversation with Terrence McNally

· Writing the Solo Drama with Charlayne Woodard, Lisa Kron and Gretchen Cryer

· Collaborations in Musical Theatre with Stephen Schwartz, Marsha Norman, John Weidman and Terrence McNally

For more information on events or to register, go to www.dramatistsguild.com.

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