We are not a theatre company. SPL is a resource for you, our Spokane playwrights. We offer an important step for your script to pass through before you submit to theatres for full productions in front of paying audiences.
We do not make decisions based off of selling tickets or driving season subscriptions. All our decisions are based entirely on assisting you develop your script. We are in the business of workshopping new scripts, and all of our energy and resources are dedicated to your success.
We do not employ any stage tricks that may divert an audience from noticing a flaw in the story. Because our company is playwright focused, The Lab’s final staged-readings look a little different from what you may have seen elsewhere. As a service to you, our playwright, we deliberately neutralize any production elements that are not story driven. The actors are in plain black clothes, the set and props are painted a neutral color, and the lighting is one simple clear bright light. We want you to see what you have written without distraction. If your story works under these conditions, it will work anywhere.
We are not presenting a finished script. The conceit of the Lab is that your script is still in development. The staged reading and audience talk back are important tools and are why we are collaborating with Terrain to use their space; playscripts are meant to be performed, not just read. As a playwright, you simply do not know if your play “works” until it has been staged. Do your jokes work? Are your characters relatable? Is the story doing what you want it to do? No one really knows until we test it. This idea of experimentation is where we get our name from. We want you, the playwright, to test your script before you submit it to theatres for full productions.
Therefore, we are not a theatre company. We are the Spokane Playwrights Laboratory.