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Playwrights Program Co-Directors Win Prestigious Margo Jones Award By BATHSHEBA DORAN
After theater producer Margo Jones died of accidental poisoning in 1955, a medal in her name was established by playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee in 1961 to honor this pioneer of the American professional theater. It is awarded annually to citizens of the American theater who have made an outstanding contribution. This year, it will be awarded to Marsha Norman and Christopher Durang. They are receiving the medal for their exceptional achievement as playwrights, and for their commitment to teaching others the craft.
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| Marsha Norman and Christopher Durang teaching. (Photo by Jessica Katz) |
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Both were surprised when they heard the news. "I had heard of the award, but didn't know much about it," said Durang. "I knew that mostly artistic directors of theaters seemed to win it." He's right. Typically, it is a producing award; Durang and Norman are the first playwrights ever to receive it.Jones herself was a visionary producer who championed the work of new writers at her Dallas theater and elsewhere, including a young Tennessee Williams, William Inge, and Horton Foote. Awarding the medal to playwrights themselves is logical. Awarding it to playwrights who nurture young writing talent is perfect. "It used to be said that playwriting can't be taught," wrote the selection committee. "Miss Norman and Mr. Durang have made it clear that it can and shown us precisely how."Durang and Norman, who co-direct Juilliard's playwriting program, started teaching at the School 10 years ago, replacing John Guare and Terrence McNally. The School approached Norman initially. "They asked me who I wanted to teach with," she explains. "So I thought about it. I asked myself: 'On those days when you don't want to go teach, who would you be willing to go up to Juilliard in order to see?' And the answer was Christopher." She called him to ask if he'd be interested."I said yes," says Durang. "Then I called back and said no. I was afraid of teaching. I didn't want to spend the time. She said, 'Why don't you say yes, and if you hate it you can quit.' I thought that made sense."Durang had worried that teaching would tire him. Instead, he discovered that not only did being in class energize him, it influenced his work. "I've learned a lot from listening to Marsha," he says. "In my youth I loved quirky experiments that ignored the well-made play model. But as I've watched plays that felt stagnant or circular or stuck, and listened to Marsha's thoughts on the need for strong action, I much more consciously think about that now."For Norman, teaching at Juilliard has changed how she talks about writing. "We've got some real doctrine now—or I do, anyway. I hope people will put it aside and not treat it as gospel, except when it seems right, of course."Norman's flexibility about how seriously to treat her playwriting "doctrine" reflects how both playwrights perceive their roles as teachers. "I'm not sure we do any educating in the old sense of the word," says Norman. "We share our way of looking at plays and invite people to develop theirs." They both agree that there are some aspects of playwriting that can't be taught. As Durang puts it, "A tone-deaf person can't be taught to sing." Instead, he believes, writing can be mentored. The difference between teaching and mentoring, he explains, is subjectivity. "There aren't set rules for writing. It's subjective. And so, to me, mentoring is more subjective than teaching. When Marsha and I mentor, you're getting our sensibilities."That said, Norman explains, "there are discussions that it is useful for writers to hear: what constitutes a good subject, how long to work on a play, what kinds of things shouldn't be plays at all, what to look for in a director, how to tell when it's your fault, how to learn when you are being lied to. Without having a curriculum, we arrange in our clever way to make sure we have these discussions every year, so everybody hears them."Above all, though, Norman observes, what she and Durang offer is simply their presence, as two successful professionals in such an uncertain and unconventional field. "You know the Buddhists have this thing called the 'secret oral transmission.' Which means some of what you get from the teacher is just the presence of the teacher, not anything he or she says. The idea of Chris and me in a room, on the other side of the table from you, is what really works on people; that we would do it, that we will be back again next week—that's the thing that is truly instructive."Over their years at Juilliard, Durang and Norman have waded through applications and script after script to find the talent that will make up each class. They have found and nurtured playwrights who have gone on to be Pulitzer Prize-winners and internationally produced. But in addition, as Norman points out, "I believe we're also training a group of astounding teachers."Bathsheba Doran is a playwright fellow at Juilliard.
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