Insight for Playwrights
December 2006 • Playwright: Sandra de Helen Hometown: Jefferson City, MO.
Selected Titles: 10 Minute Makeover, Witch!, The Bobbsey Twins Go to Hell, The Clue in the Old Birdbath
Unlike many people profiled in this column, Sandra de Helen didn't start writing plays as a child. “I wish I could say that I started writing plays as a child and charged my neighbors money to come watch them, but I didn't,” the Portland, Oregon resident says. “I lived out in the country in Mid-Missouri, and while I had an active imagination, my playing had more to do with running around in the woods than any stage work.”
Her call to playwriting came as an adult when her friend and collaborator, Kate Kasten, told her she should. The pair founded Actors’ Sorority in 1977, which ran for four years.
“We were starting a women's theater in Kansas City, Missouri, and she said I had to write a play because ‘you're the one with the ideas.’ I had wanted to put on a Woody Allen play in the fountain in the park. She thought that was zany enough that I could surely write something even zanier. So, I wrote a play about conjoined twins who were connected by their hair. While driving in the car one day, she heard the voices of her characters speaking to her and realized she was truly writing a play.
de Helen and Kasten co-wrote a spoof based on the Nancy Drew mystery series. “I would definitely say that Kate Kasten was my mentor. She bullied, oh I mean encouraged, me to write my first plays, then generously allowed me to share credit for writing the Nancy Drew play, The Clue in the Old Birdbath, just because I had a couple of ideas for it, and has always supported my writing throughout the years.” Kasten currently is an instructor at the University of Iowa.
What is the secret to successful collaboration? “It's not a secret,” de Helen says. “It's a mystery. No, wait. It's magic. I have no idea. I certainly haven't been able to recreate it, and I don't think I ever will. If you think you have something with someone ... go for it, because if you do, it's totally worth it. But, do sign a contract right away, just in case.”
de Helen later moved to Portland where she launched Portland Women's Theatre in 1981, which ran for 12 years. “The goals for both theater companies were to ‘put on women's plays and have audiences see them and enjoy themselves’. So yes, those goals were met. I had a great time, we didn't go into debt, or even broke. For the time that I was involved, we never even wrote grants, we just raised money, put on plays, and kept going that way.”
Advice for anyone thinking of starting a theater company: “Be young (in spirit) and full of energy. And go for it!”
de Helen has written between 20 and 30 plays, “depending on whether you count the ones I threw away.”
Another spoof, titled The Bobbsey Twins Go to Hell, was turned into a film by Moon Tribe Studios and is currently in post-production. “Gil Luna, the director, is great to work with,” de Helen says. “I wasn't involved much, except that I did have final approval of the script (a miracle in filmmaking, right?), and I got to see them shoot a couple of the scenes. I even got to take my daughter and her kids with me to the shoot. That was a special event. I'm looking forward to seeing the final director's cut.” Luna is planning to enter the film into film festivals, she says, so keep an eye out.
de Helen recently finished a first draft of a one-act called Blue Roses about two young women who end up in an asylum in 1940. “It's both funny and tragic, and I hope will be great fun to do.” De Helen has been described as a feminist, lesbian playwright, and grandmother — all aspects that have helped shape her writing.
“There should be a comma after lesbian. In fact, there should be a pause after lesbian ... a long pause. I've been single for what seems like a long, long time. One feels less and less like a true lesbian when one is not even dating. However, I'm a grandmother every day and a feminist in my blood. How did my being a mom get left out of that sentence? All of these things shape my life as a playwright, just as my living in Portland, living on Earth, being able to walk, regularly having migraines, eating yogurt, and drinking tea shape my playwriting.” She adds, “But, maybe the fact that I see lots of plays and read good books shape my playwriting more than any of those other things. It's hard to say. They're all important.”
de Helen is an avid theatergoer. “I try to see as much as I can that is produced in Portland, and I go to NYC twice a year to see both on and off-Broadway productions there,” she says. “I'm a huge fan of the new language-based works, but I also love musicals. I adored The Drowsy Chaperone, I was completely undone by Doubt on Broadway with the original cast, and Sarah Jones in Bridge and Tunnel is amazing. But, a local production of Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights, directed by James Moore, was unforgettable, and if you haven't read Sandra Dempsey's Flying to Glory, what are you waiting for? She's a genius and should have the MacArthur grant today.”
de Helen, a fan of mystery novels, has written one herself called The Hounding. While she has plenty of ideas for novels, the act of writing them is — “eeek” — isolating. “Writing plays is so much more fun. I was born to collaborate, no doubt about it,” she says. “When I write a play, at the very least I get to hear it read aloud. I can at least call on some actors, feed them a pizza, and they'll read the parts so I can hear them. If I'm lucky, I can get a staged reading. If I'm really blessed, I can get a real production and get to see what a director, set designer, costumer, lighting designer, props master, and all the other collaborators bring to the table. And then the other half: the audience! Who wouldn't choose plays over novels if they ever had a full production?”
Good question. What are you waiting for? Tips: Don't be married to your words, but know when to listen to others. Fledgling playwrights sometimes are afraid to change or let go. “Balance is tricky. You have to know whom to trust about your work, when to trust your own instincts, and when to trust someone else's feedback. I think it's harder today than it was when I started — too much development going on now and not enough production.”
Join the Dramatists Guild. See lots of plays. Read even more plays. Analyze the plays you like. Encourage everyone you know to see more live theater, especially new plays. Read good books. Write every day. Be careful whom you trust to read your work. Have your work read out loud, even if you have to pay someone to read it for you. Listen to it.
Sandra Hosking's plays have been produced in New York City, Los Angeles, Canada, and elsewhere. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the International Centre for Women Playwrights. Please submit comments and story ideas to Sandy Kayz.