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13P (Thirteen Playwrights, Inc.) is a collective of thirteen playwrights devoted to realizing full productions of our plays. We formed in 2003 in response to what we perceived as the growing predominance of readings and development workshops as the primary theatrical experience of American playwrights. We believed then, as we do now, that a theater dominated by staged readings risks becoming a timid theater, a conservative theater, and we wanted to work against this trend towards conservatism. We also believed that playwrights can only grow as artists through seeing their plays fully mounted. So we decided to take it upon ourselves to make our own productions happen.

13P is unique among organizations producing plays in New York, both in terms of our structure and our ambitions. 13P is a finite project, and as an organization we are simple, focused, and lean. Our plan is to produce 13 shows, one by each member of 13P. We operate under a rotating artistic directorship: the playwright whose play is up is the company's artistic director during production.

In the course of being a bunch of emerging playwrights, that is in the course of sitting around complaining, it occurred to us that we should actually do something. If we were tired of having endless readings and workshops purported to “help the play grow” and sponsored by companies that were unlikely to ever produce the play (no matter how successfully it “grew”), we should show the producing community that their money could be better spent. We would produce our own work, in inexpensive but fully realized productions that we were unafraid to put before an audience and the press.

We didn't, for the most part. In fact, most of us cheerfully expected that it would never come to anything. We joined because we thought it was a good idea, in theory, and it sounded like a fun group of people to hang out with for a few meetings before it just naturally fell apart.

Everyone in the group knew at least a few other people, but no one knew everyone.

That's how many people showed up for the first meeting.

We chose the order of our 13 production slots at that first meeting, in fall 2003. We all wrote down our preferred spot on ballots. Everyone ended up getting within a slot or two of her preference. Young Jean Lee and Erin Courtney, both of whom were suffering from acute writer's block at the time, fought for the last spot; Erin got it because she has two kids.

We implode.

Because we don't want to be an institution. Our mission is very simple, and we want to complete it and call it a day. 13P isn't really a theater company; it's a 13-play test of a new producing model.

Our motto could also be rephrased to say that we develop plays through doing them. Readings and workshops can be a very helpful part of understanding a play, and working on a play, but, ultimately, for the playwright to understand a particular play, and to have a larger understanding of how her voice functions on stage, she has to see a work up. We believe that all of the tinkering and worrying and attempts to perfect a play that take place during the development process can retard a talent; it's important for the playwright to be rigorous and demanding with herself but it's also important to put a play up, see what it really is, succeed or fail, and move on. Look at Shakespeare's early plays. They're interesting, but they're a mess. Do we wish that he had sat down and really labored to make them immaculate? Or are we glad that he moved on?

We hope to inspire other companies to commit to the playwright by committing to produce her work; any development that happens on the way to that destination should be initiated by the playwright.

No. 13P is supported financially by government, foundation, and individual gifts solicited by 13P's all-volunteer fundraising staff, by income from an annual benefit evening, and by box office income. The playwrights and staff, all career professionals dedicated to the theater community, draw upon a system of relationships extending into and throughout the many levels and reaches of American theater.

Of course, you need to build a reputation before you can expect any foundation or government grants; at the beginning, we raised individual contributions by pooling our contacts and asking any interested persons we could think of.

When 13P was formed, we were most of us in our thirties. Many of us had, in our twenties, had that experience of belonging to small theater companies or collectives, running lights when we weren't strictly qualified to do so, trying our hand at PR etc.—producing in ignorance. These things are excellent to do, but we knew by now that they weren't in our skillset, and we were all juggling our own work with full- or part-time jobs (writing, teaching, temping, proofreading, assistanting, whatever).

Because we were at a certain point in our careers, the most significant thing we were able to do for the group was to pool together our credits and awards, so that we looked fundable, and our mailing lists, so that we had a community to come see our work.

We help out as much as we can, and we communicate a lot as a group by email, but we don't run 13P on a day to day basis. That's done by a staff of 10 volunteers (including 3 of the 13 playwrights) who meet every week to keep our fundraising and production schedule moving. The staff is led by 13P executive producer Maria Goyanes, who has been hired by 13P to produce almost every show since the beginning, and managing director Rob Handel, who is a fundraising professional as well as one of the 13 playwrights.

The playwright serves as Artistic Director of 13P during her production. The process for each production begins with a meeting between the playwright, executive producer, and managing director. The playwright is asked to dream out loud about her ideal venue, director, cast, and other collaborators for the play. The production staff then makes every effort to realize these wishes by renting that venue and engaging those artists.

In the American theater playwrights are always involved in casting but in this case the playwright, as the most institutionally powerful person in the room, really does have final say.

Beyond the artistic side of the production, the playwright is as involved in (say) the marketing of the play as she chooses to be: selecting poster and postcard design, approving text, planning strategy—or not. Each playwright and director team works with the producer to select the theater space which, within budget, feels best for the play. We think it's important for the playwright to see her work realized as fully as possible according to her own vision of the play. We also think it's important for playwrights to think proactively when it comes to the nonscripted elements which are part of a production.

Please do. It's hard, but possible, and useful for everyone. And if you do, let us know.

The two most important decisions we made were hiring an experienced producer and hiring an established press representative. While it's educational to learn how to do things like buy insurance for public performances, deal with Actors Equity paperwork, and find a load-in and strike crew, you probably have enough to worry about (fundraising, for one; being an artist, for another).

Our press rep, Jim Baldassare, has been critical to our success. Anyone with the cash can rent a theater and put up a show in New York, but that doesn't mean the reviewers will come. The press rep's fee is the most important budget line for a 13P production, because engaging someone with decades of experience lends us legitimacy. The press knows Jim, and as a result they have taken us seriously from early on.

There are fruitful variations on this model for people in other phases of their development or with other points of focus. A group that combined directors and playwrights, or playwrights and actors, could explore long-term collaborations. Groups of playwrights exploring a shared aesthetic (unlike 13P, which features considerable aesthetic diversity) could bring deeper attention not just to a group of artists, but to a particular theatrical arena. Really established playwrights could band together and accomplish all kinds of mad things.

A good group of people working together will attract other enthusiastic people. If you lack fundraising experience, you might want to look to theater management programs for recent grads, or for young producers who are just starting out to include in the process.