Penn student's Web site aids new writers

Before last year, a banana harvester from Hawaii might never have believed that theater groups across the country would be producing the play he wrote.

But they are, thanks to Playscripts.com, an online publishing company that has enlisted playwrights from Luxembourg, South Africa and Canada, as well as across the United States.

Penn student Jon Rand and his older brother Doug started the company in March of 2000. Since then, they have been inundated with hundreds of submissions. There are currently about 45 plays available on the site, and the company has already sold the rights to those plays for nearly 500 different productions.

"You hear from theater groups that are having a great time, and from playwrights that can't believe their plays are being performed," said Rand, a College senior.

The project began as an alternative to the conventional system for publishing plays, which has been known to shut out budding playwrights who don't have Broadway connections and to destroy the careers of authors that receive even a single poor review.

"What I came to realize -- which is a sad reality in the theater world -- is if your play hasn't had a New York production and a glowing New York Times review, [publishers] don't want to see it," Rand said. "Which makes sense for them: there's no reason to take a risk on a play. But there are people who don't have access to New York, who don't have contacts."

Playscripts.com eliminates these obstacles by considering all scripts equally, showcasing plays based on their quality rather than the renown of the authors. And the company publishes plays of all genres and dimensions.

"There are no production requirements; you don't have to be famous. It just has to be a really good play," Rand said.

Users can search the site by genre, cast size or length of the the play, and the works run the gamut from experimental theater to comedy.

One of the key elements of the site allows ambitious directors to read the entire script of the play before committing to produce it. Rand said that this feature is crucial to eliminating the role that the author's reputation plays in the selection process.

"By letting everyone read every script cover to cover, they can make a decision about your script based on the quality of your work, not by whether they've heard your name," Rand said.

Initially, the concept for the website grew out of Rand's own experience getting his work published. He wrote his first and only play, a comedy called Hard Candy, in a single weekend, and entered it in a local theater festival.

The play won the International Thespian Playworks award in 1998 and was one of the most produced high school short plays over the next few years.

"Playscripts.com happened because of Hard Candy," Rand said. "It had almost 100 performances in the first year, and we were just like, 'Why can't this happen to other play scripts?'"

The company, which the two brothers run together, has been especially unique and successful because the technology it uses goes far beyond what is traditionally used in the theater world.

By giving playwrights an alternative to the paper-only publishing process -- providing online publishing with on-demand printing -- Playscripts.com has been able to enfranchise those who are normally cut out of the system.

Rand said that in reading a play, he asks, "Is it theatrical? Is there a need for this?... Whether we like the play or not isn't factored in."

Many in the theater industry have supported that kind of selection process, as evidenced by Playscripts.com's advisory board, which includes such big names as Harold Prince, Steven Schwartz and Neil Simon.

But Rand said that he needs to make sure the company remains innovative in order to stay ahead of other publishers. Plans for the future may include screenplays and musicals, with sound clips available on the website.

"Basically I never knew what I was going to do, ever, but this sort of fell into my lap," he said. "The goal was to wake up in the morning and be really excited about what I'm doing, and that's what this is."

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