The Heather Parady Show

Playright’s Advice on GREAT Content (Jack Canfora)

content creation creativity Feb 27, 2023

"Be mindful of the fact that there's an audience for you."

If you are a content creator, you have to study storytelling. You may not be writing novels, but we have an opportunity to not only create better work but connect deeper with our audience by studying the greatest form of communication– story.

What better person to ask about creating better strories than an award winning playright with over 25 yeas of experience of writing? Today I connected with Jack Canfora, the Artistic Director of the online theater company New Normal Rep.

In this conversation, we dig into his writing process, not being attached to lines we love, putting ourselves in our audiences shoes, and being confident enough to put our work consistently out there. Check out Jack’s latest project, Step 9, a free audio play available on all podcasting platforms.

FROM TODAY'S EPISODE:

Understanding what is important to the story and “removing all the good lines”
Looking at the world around you for inspiration and creating through a lens of empathy
Developing thick skin and looking for honest feedback

WHO IS JACK CANFORA?

Playwright Jack Canfora’s Off-Broadway plays include Poetic License, (59E59 Theaters), hailed by the Associated Press as “White-hot entertainment,” and Jericho, (59E59 Theaters, a New York Times’ “Critics’ Pick”) The NY Times called Jericho, “witty and poignant,” adding, “Jericho is also painfully significant, an intelligent intertwining of the nature of grief, cultural identity, fraught relationships, and shared tragedy.” Theater Communications Group hailed it as “…an important addition to the repertory of the American Theater.”

His regional productions include Place Setting (New Jersey Repertory), a finalist with plays by Teresa Rebeck, Elaine May and Edward Albee for The Newark Star Ledger’s Best Plays of 2007; Tennessee Williams: A Life with Harris Yulin (Guild Hall), featuring Eli Wallach, Harris Yulin and Mercedes Ruehl; Jericho, (NNPN Rolling World Premiere: New Jersey Repertory Company, Phoenix Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, UpstART theater); The Source (NJ Rep); Poetic License (NJ Rep); and Fellow Travelers (Bay Street Theater), which was optioned by the Shubert Organization for Broadway.

Jack is the recipient of several playwriting awards, including two Edgerton Playwriting Awards, for Jericho (2010) and The Source (2018). He won the 2016 Webby Award for Best Writing in a Web Series.

Jack is also the Artistic Director of the online theater company New Normal Rep, has two children who are both smarter than he is, and lives in New York with his two dogs.

CONNECT WITH JACK CANFORA:

Website: https://homestudiomastery.com/

QUOTES:

Be mindful of the fact that there's an audience for you. @JackCanfora CLICK TO TWEET

For your own mental health, as well as your creative health, you're absolutely well served by constantly putting yourself out in different worlds and seeing through the lens they filter things through. That of course requires imagination. @JackCanfora CLICK TO TWEET

Regardless of what art you're pursuing i don't think you can be any good at it if you don't have empathy.That's the one major requirement for any artist, because you have to be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes. @JackCanfora CLICK TO TWEET