In February, APAC hosted our Midwinter Reading Series at the Queens Council on the Arts. It featured a play, Carefully Taught, by Cheryl L. Davis and a musical, Love, Always, by Bill Connington and Michael Cooper. We asked the writers of these pieces to share their experiences for the APAC Blog. Here’s what they had to say:

Artistic Director Dev Bondarin gives a curtain speech.

I wrote Carefully Taught some years ago, in another racial time - before Ferguson, Garner and even before Obama’s name was on the national scene. When a friend asked me if I had any small-cast plays in my metaphorical “trunk,” I thought of it again, and it seemed to call to me to be revisited. With the help and support of Astoria Performing Arts Center, I was able to hear the play again with fresh ears, and get feedback from a new audience. While some of the issues the play raises are all too timely, I was able to hear what sounded dated, what was repetitive, and happily enough, what still works. I now feel like I have the courage to dig back into this play again and do some things I was afraid to do before. Thank you, APAC.

-Cheryl L. Davis
Playwright - Carefully Taught

Actors Sarah Rolleston & Brian Detlefs in rehearsal for Love, Always.

As a writer, there is only so much work you can do in the privacy of your apartment, at your computer, by your piano. The opportunity to see and hear your work on its feet-performed by real actors, in front of a real audience-is invaluable. Only a crowd of people watching and listening and experiencing your work-in real time-will inform a writer about the show/songs that have been banging around inside of your head. Is that lyric as funny as you wanted it to be? Did the audience understand what you meant by that line? Did what you INTEND to say come across and resonate in a real way? Those moments of clarity - and the problems (and solutions!) that result - are absolutely essential in developing brand new work. APAC provided us with the time, space, resources, and an audience of attentive people who truly became the final piece of our collaborative puzzle. I learned so much by just sitting in the back of the room and feeling them take it all in and react to what we had created.

-Michael Cooper
Composer/Lyricist - Love, Always

While we’re all dependent on mobile devices of different kinds, there is still no substitute for live theater-where people gather together in a communal space, and performers make it happen-in real time. It was invaluable to have this opportunity, and it will influence how the piece will be developed going forward. It’s a privilege for writers to be given the gift of a discerning audience, which helps teach you what your musical is about. The APAC reading at Queens Council on the Arts enabled us to get a sense of the audience reaction, and the flow of each scene leading into the next-especially important in a musical which moves backward in time. It was also helpful in pragmatic ways, in making such decisions as whether or not we will add ten minutes to the piece.

Michael and I are grateful to APAC and Dev (the dynamic new Artistic Director of APAC who makes magic things happen!), for bringing quality theater to the Queens community, for supporting new work, and we hope we’ll be asked back!

-Bill Connington
Bookwriter - Love, Always

Photos courtesy of Michael Cooper.