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Editor’s NoteClarifying GoalsI was recently given theopportunity to be a screenerfor the National Endowment forthe Arts New Play DevelopmentProgram hosted by the ArenaStage. They’ve had a terrificresponse to their initiative,and were blown away by theamount of interest in the program,especially in terms of justhow many more applicants applied this time aroundversus the last time the NEA did a program similar tothis. But from a reader’s standpoint, what was evenmore impressive was the high percentage of proposalsfrom writers whose work has appeared at largeregional theatres, received buzzworthy showingsOff-Broadway and been featured at prestigious newworks fests. The quality of the proposals, and the artists,were uniformly high, uniformly ambitious — anduniformly wacky.As anyone who has tried to do it will tell you,writing a grant app is an art form unto itself, andoften has nothing to do with the completed work.Not out of malicious or deceitful intent, but simplybecause it comes so early (generally) in the artisticprocess and is meant to support that exploration,it can sound a little strange. The creation of a newwork is not a linear progression, and artists trying tostretch themselves and advance their work will trysome fairly out-there ideas in order to find the pathsthat work. They have to. The best apps were onesthat could: clearly state the methodology and goalsof this learning process; give some sense of the artist’shistory and aesthetic; show how the relationshipbetween the artist and the theatre was a good fit andwould support this exploration to produce the bestshow possible.It’s a good exercise for starting any artisticendeavor — from applying to school, to startingrehearsals, to auditioning, to sending out scripts.If you know how you work, what you want to learn,what your aesthetic is and why you think you’ll workwell with a particular faculty or troupe — well, it’llsave you a lot of time from auditioning for the wrongparts, sending Buckets of Blood, The Revengining toUtah Shakes, or trying to study musicals in a programdevoted to Chekhov. The middle will be weird, nomatter what you’re doing, but if you go in witha clear head you’ll have a much better chance ofgetting what you want.Dan HernandezJacob CoakleyEditorStage Directionsjcoakley@stage-directions.com6 October 2008 • www.stage-directions.com