by Clare Solly, Apprentice Director
There are many, many reasons to workshop a play.  If you’re reading this, you’re probably already a part of our community and attend our Monday workshops.  (Stay tuned for our Fall 2019 schedule!)
One of the main reasons I love attending play workshops is the connection to the theater community.  It’s one thing to have friends and family sit around and read or listen to your script.  It’s another to have a group of strangers who know nothing about you show up to hear new and original works and give you their unbiased opinions.  Terrifying and thrilling at the same time, to hear your work read aloud is an amazing experience.    
Another exciting outcome, besides hearing your words out loud is the  feedback is when there is a connection to the work from an attendee.  Although it seems to happen often, I’m always amazed when there is someone in the audience who has a very specific connection to the work presented that evening.  When someone has an insight to a character or their background it is a fabulous connection.  Isn’t that the reason we like the theater?  Connection to each other in some strange miraculous way--the fact that someone else offers perspective that is insightful and touches us.  Someone else who has the ability to say or portray what we feel and made some sense of it.  Or at least made it a conversation piece.   
In the last two workshops this spring, that I’ve had the pleasure of leading, I was incredibly delighted at the collaborations that started.  In our April 1st reading when we discussed Ellery by Jennifer O'Grady one of the audience members related so much to the script and actually warned the playwright about diving into writing about the afterlife as she had friends and had heard other stories where the writer was then after plagued or worse. 
Then last week when we discussed Dykes on Wheels by Raechel Segal, it came up that an audience member actually attended the workshop because of the plot of the script.  Our audience member was a roller derby gal and had interesting insight on being inside the ring, and also shared resources with our playwright. 
As an artist it is my goal to reach out and show someone something or assist them to feel something.  This kind of connection, collaboration, and a giving back to the writer is the reason I keep coming back to Bechdel, and I hope you do, too.    

New Board Member Clare Solly has adapted some of our prior questions for our writers with some of the Proust questions for you to get to know our playwrights better!  This week's spotlight is on Raechel Segal who's play Dykes on Wheels will be part of our final Spring 2019 workshop at The Tank May 6th.

BechOust/ ProuDel Questions:
 
What comes easily and what challenges do you face in the writing process? 
Authenticity, characterization, and dialogue all come easily.  I just spit it out!
More challenging is maintaining the truth when editing dialogue so characters are communicating their wants instead of just talking.  I also find plot challenging since I am mostly a character and dialogue writer.
 
What are your two most favorite writing tools? 
Background music, laptop, cappuccino
 
As a writer, what is your process?  (Are you more of a worker bee or do you feel the muse? Do you usually outline or free flow?) 
Fuck outlines!
 
What is your motto or main goal as a writer/artist? 
Unleash the beast!
 
What talent or super power would you most like to have? 
Small motor skills
 
Favorite words of advice or quote you drift back to? 
You do you, and the rest will follow.
 
Feminist writing--what do you look or aim for in this genre?
Get the cis white men off the stage! (Just kidding!)
 
What would your mother tell her friends about your writing career?
Mom:  It all started in third grade when Raechel won the Reading Rainbow Contest.
Raechel:  And that explains it all!
 
What can we look forward to hearing next from/about you?
I’m drafting a play about liberal elitism.

Come meet Raechel and see her work Monday May 6th at 6pm at The Tank. Click here for more info and your free ticket!