Andrew Heinrich Playwrights Festival Playwright

The Road Theatre Company Proudly Presents

The Eighth Annual
SUMMER PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL

8 Days! 30+ plays!
Receptions and live music nightly!

This year’s festival will include a 50/50 parity of male and female playwrights and runs Sunday, July 3Oth through Sunday, August 6th at The Road on Lankershim, in the Historic Lankershim Arts Center in North Hollywood at 5108 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood  and at The Road on Magnolia at 10747 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood  at the NoHo Arts Colony!

 We will feature spotlights on all the playwrights of full length plays over the next few weeks. This week the spotlight shines on Andrew Heinrich, author of Flood*.

What is your familiarity with The Road and the Playwrights Festival? If you have been here before how would you rate your experience? If not, why did you choose to bring your play here? Have you seen work produced here?

My familiarity with The Road was limited to my internet search when I first came across the submission opportunity. Jim Price, who heads up the MFA program at Texas State, was familiar with the company, and his recommendation carries a great deal of weight with me. This will be my first trip out to The Road. I spent about six weeks in Los Angeles about 15 years ago, but have not been back since.
 

What is your process for writing and rewriting? Anything you care to share here as advice for other playwrights would be welcome.

I'm a new playwright, so I'm still developing my process, which more or less varies from play to play. If I'm writing from a place of strong inspiration, however, I tend to let a story run around in my head for a while before I ever sit down at the computer. Often, that will give me some visuals, some scene ideas or character sketches or other thoughts, and help solidify my dramatic premise before I begin. With Flood, the play was running around in my mind's popcorn popper for about a month before the election. The play poured out of me thereafter.  I try to put as many trusted eyes on my first, raw draft as I can. I do an edit, then try to arrange a reading (which, admittedly, is a lot easier at a University than it might otherwise be). After a reading, I'll attack the script and try to fix what didn't work. From there, I really believe it has to be on its feet to find any remaining bugs.

I suppose my advice is this - trust your poetry, and develop relationships with other artists that you trust, whose talents lie in the areas yours do not, and who love your work and want it to be successful. The value of their analysis will really help.
 

What is the value of having your work done here at The Road in California? What are your expectations and hopes for your play for the future?

I'm so unspeakably excited to have my work performed by such incredible artists, people I have seen in film and on television for years and years. I expect I'll learn a great deal by working with such incredible people.  Beyond that, I hope that this play reading will introduce me and my work to the theatre world in L.A. I hope the people that attend the reading enjoy the play, fall in love with the characters, and are moved by it to think about our world and where it might be headed.  Furthermore, I hope (like all playwrights) that someone will fall in love with the play and want to produce it. 

Remember: The Road on Lankershim is located in the Historic Lankershim Arts Center in North Hollywood at 5108 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood  and The Road on Magnolia at 10747 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood  at the NoHo Arts Colony! There is street parking available in both locations, but come early, at least a half hour before curtain.

Because SPF8 is a fundraiser, tickets are by donation only and are only available at the door! Suggested donation for a single performance is $15 –or this year, try a weeklong festival pass for the suggested donation of $50! 

*To be read Sunday July 30 at 8 pm at Lankershim.