Ken Wolf, Artistic Director of Manhattan Rep

and Producer & Director of Powerhouse Off-Broadway!

Do you want to join the revolution?

I believe theatre is the most powerful art form on this planet.

The live emotional experience called a play not only entertains us, it can transform us. A live story that we associate with emotionally, can shift our perception, and literally cause us to ask new questions, and then make new choices about our life and our world.

A great play is not a debate of the issues. It is a call to action.

A thrilling performance is not the acting out a character's journey.

It is the actual living out of the character's journey.

And the applause at the end of the evening, is not because the production was magnificent, it is because the audience is inspired, moved and somehow changed. Changed, by the most powerful art form on this planet, the live emotional experience called a play.

So do you want to write good plays, or great plays?

Do you want to write plays that inquire and inspire, or plays that are cute?

Do you want to write plays that will stand the test of time, or plays that disappear faster than a post on your X feed?

Do you have the courage to dig deeper, go further and do what it takes to create a perfect map for a live emotional experience called a play that could help transform the world?

A great night at the theatre, where the audience is moved and inspired, is like a small pebble tossed into a large pond, which ripples out to help shift our society and our world. The play can be dramatic, comedic or absurdist. It doesn't matter. It only needs to connect emotionally, and in that emotional connection in the theatre, the audience and the actors become one, and that's where the magic begins.

And created correctly, Theatre really is magic.

Much of the theatre world has been mediocre. Yesterday's plays told in yesterday's ways.

Now is the time as live theatre comes back to life, to tell today's stories and tomorrow's stories in new ways to help propel us all as one to a new and more compassionate future.

So, do you want to join the revolution?

WHO AM I?

AND WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING HERE?

I have been a theatre creator for over 35 years. It is my passion, and my grand obsession. I personally feel that plays are one of the most important and powerful art forms on this planet.

Plays take you for a ride.

They make you feel. They make you think.

And they make a difference.

I am blessed to have experienced a crazy, wonderful life bringing plays to the stage. At the humble young age of 66, I have written 20 plays and 19 have been produced in NYC. I have directed over 100 plays, and at Manhattan Rep from 2005 to 2022, I produced over 1000 full-length plays and over 6000 short plays.

And in Fall of 2022, we produced our first official Off-Broadway show:

Powerhouse by David Harms.

I directed it, and produced it, and we receive great reviews. What fun!

And I have many, many more plays to bring to life! We all do.

We have stories to tell, and adventures to share.

And now is the time to write like never before!

Now is the time to write plays and look for ways to get them produced as soon as possible for as we really know coming out of the pandemic:

LIFE IS EPHEMERAL.

And as playwrights, we have much work to do.

In this Brave New Normal, society needs these new live stories to help people FEEL connected again to what’s important, for so many of us, are still vacillating between fear and denial, stuck in our heads, disconnected from our old world feelings of joy, love and community - and it has been 3 years since theatre returned!

As Playwrights, we are magicians, therapists, comedians, and superheroes, and we have our work cut out for us now. But the good news is, we are so much bigger than that little Global Pandemic which changed many of us, inside and out.

And the time is now.

Each week, since June 2017, I have been sending out a care package to playwrights all over the world, in the form of The Playwriting Podcast. You will find ALL of my over 400 Episodes on this website for your creative consumption!

On the podcast, I talk about strategies to write better plays, ways to get into that crazy wonderful creative space we so love, and ideas and strategies to get your work out into the world. I also occasionally interview playwrights and theatre professionals.

I have never had so much fun in my life!

(What? You haven’t listened yet?)

And I just opened up a YOUTUBE CHANNEL:

HOWTOWRITEPLAYS

to connect to an even bigger audience with video.

I want to do more for you: the playwright out there who is stuck writing his first play, and the seasoned professional who may need a kick in the bum to get moving again!

My perspective on playwriting is very different than the literary style of writing plays that is taught around the world “since the beginning of time!”

Old school sucks. It doesn’t work anymore with modern audiences. There are new playwriting principles and exciting outcomes.

I am all about helping you write a compelling and compassionate play that is PERFECT. Where there is not a single moment of your play that is not connected to the main character’s journey, where the audience stays 100% focused 100% of the time and where the audience and the actors go for an incredible emotional rollercoaster of a ride!

That is what live theatre is all about, and I want to teach you those principles, concepts and more, so that you can create a stunning play. Not a good play, or an interesting play, a f-ing STUNNING PLAY, be it a comedy or a drama!

I have directed over 100 plays, and I have worked with thousands of playwrights. I know what works in REAL LIFE, on the stage ALIVE AND KICKING. Nothing works on the page for a play is not a reading experience. It is an emotional experience, a live passionate emotional experience be it a drama or a comedy

Write me at: How2WritePlays@yahoo.com, if you are stuck or lost, of if you just don’t know what to do next. The answer is always simple, but often being inside the problem, one can’t see it.

I want to give you solutions so you can write like never before.

I want to offer you questions and perspectives so that you can see this world in a new way and take you life to the next level.

And I will challenge you to be more, do more and have more!

I will rant and rage, dance and sing, and celebrate the good, the bad, the magical and the ridiculousness of this Post Pandemic Brave New and very different World!

And I will celebrate the possibilities ahead!

It is time to write like never before.

And it is time to LIVE like never before, despite the circumstances life has handed you!

Please stick around.

Ken Wolf, Artistic Director, Manhattan Rep

WRITING YOUR PLAY AT THE COFFEE SHOP!