Philly to host 3 theater conferences this week. One will highlight collaborative creation.

Area stages have quieted for the summer, but theater professionals are busy in three back-to-back conferences here that span the range of theater offerings.

“Philadelphia will participate in three national and international theater conferences, all of which tackle a different area of performing arts,” said Jacqueline Goldfinger, the Philadelphia playwright and author who is chairing the host committee for the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA).

By “participate,” Goldfinger means host as all three groups are gathering here, although some with online components.

Besides the LMDA conference, the two other theater organizations holding events this week are PlayPenn, which supports playwrights as they develop their work, and Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET), dedicated to collaborative creation.

The groups are collaborating with each other and cross-promoting the events.

“PlayPenn features text-based plays produced on a proscenium stage. We [at LMDA] are having conversations about all the work outside the stage,” Goldfinger said, while NET will focus on “how work is made with more than one author.”

What are literary managers and dramaturgs anyway?

When we go to the theater, we see the actors and know they have been directed. We are, of course, aware of the work of the set and lighting designers, and as we are led to our seats, we experience the efforts of front-of-house managers and their crew of ushers, plus ticket sellers and building staff.

But there is another, invisible category of expert influencing what we see on stage, or even offstage in a different setting. These are the literary managers and dramaturgs — many of whom belong to the (LMDA), which is holding its annual international convention at Arden Theatre Company’s Hamilton Family Arts Center in Philadelphia July 20-24..

Some 300 people — about half in person and half online — will gather for workshops (mostly online during the week) and social events (mostly in-person). The conference’s title, Performance Outside the Proscenium, recognizes how theater has changed during the pandemic with more online and outdoor performances.

“Literary managers — and we don’t have many of them in Philadelphia — are the first people who see the script,” Goldfinger explained. Script in hand, playwrights and producers approach theater companies hoping to convince them to stage their works. The literary manager reads scripts on the first go-round to determine if they might be suitable for the company.

Once a play is chosen and is in the process of being staged, “the dramaturg steps back and looks at the whole piece, much like the audience would,” Goldfinger said. Actors concentrate on their individual roles, directors work with the actors, while set and lighting designers focus on physical attributes, but the dramaturg “makes sure the themes are coming through.”

“The general idea of the dramaturg is that you have an individual overseeing that nothing gets lost as everyone does their individual jobs,” Goldfinger said. “By providing research early in the process, the dramaturg sets the boundaries. Everyone’s ideas may all be wonderful, but which ones are going to work together to support the artist’s intent?”

Unfortunately, Goldfinger said, “a lot of these positions have been cut. Literary managers have gone the way of the dodo.

“We talk about wanting more diversity in the theater, but if you don’t have someone actively looking for scripts that are diverse, the chance of getting a diversity of scripts is lower,” Goldfinger said.

It’s a funding issue, she said. Funders prefer to underwrite specific productions, she said, and aren’t as willing to sustain general operating expenses, including salaries for non-production personnel such as literary managers and dramaturgs. If, as part of their vetting process, funders would require a staffing list, including wages, “they’d get a better idea of what is actually happening in these decimated artistic offices.”

Too often, Goldfinger said, funders donate to companies promising to stage a low-cost show without looking into the details. The companies “get to the lowest bid by making their workers work long hours” at such low wages that they need second jobs or have family money to support them, she said.

Goldfinger herself has had a busy summer. Her play Babel, staged here by Theatre Exile in 2020, was performed July 9, one of six chosen to be presented at the Contemporary American Theater Festival at Shepherd University in Virginia. Her second book on playwrighting, Writing Adaptations and Translations for the Stage, coauthored with Allison Horsley, will be released next month.

Through July 24, Performance Beyond the Proscenium LMDA Conference. Some events are open to the public. Among them are a bring-your-own-picnic from 5 to 7 p.m. July 22 at Washington Square, 210 W. Washington Square, to mingle with conference attendees; a pop-up theater book sale sponsored by Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee and Books at Arden Theatre’s Hamilton Family Arts Center, 62 N. 2d St., 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 23 and 24, and a networking happy hour at Upstairs at Fergie’s, 1214 Sansom St., 6:30 p.m. July 23. Register for a fund-raising gala at 6:30 p.m. July 24 at Union Trust, 717 Chestnut St., $50 for drinks and dancing to the West Philly Orchestra. www.lmda.org/2022-conference

PlayPenn artistic director Che’Rae Adams hopes the literary managers and dramaturgs will grab free tickets and come to play readings at PlayPenn’s 2022 Annual Conference, which is in its final week. “It will be a town full of literary people,” she said. “I know a lot of the people who are coming [to the LMDA conference]. I think it’s going to be great — an exciting week, a lot of literary energy in the city.”

PlayPenn has been holding free readings of playwrights’ works. Early in the month, there were readings of works by playwrights enrolled in PlayPenn’s Foundry, an intense three-year program to develop playwriting skills, work, and contacts.

Last week, there were first readings of plays by six local playwrights whose work was chosen from 123 scripts. For the playwrights, it was a first chance to hear their work performed by professional actors.

After feedback from the audience and their PlayPenn colleagues, the playwrights revised their scripts and will have second readings this week incorporating the changes. More feedback is welcome. Readings are free and open to the public.

Through July 24, PlayPenn at the Proscenium Theatre at the Drake, 302 S. Hicks St. Check the website for the schedule. playpenn.org or 215-242-2813 ext. 407.

Typically, in theater, actors and others carry out the vision of playwrights and directors. Ensemble theater takes a different approach, with actors, and perhaps community members, cocreating what is staged.

“We always have said an ensemble is two or more people engaged in working together over time to create a body of work. Everyone involved in the company, whether artists or administrators, has a role in decision-making,” explained Alisha Tonsic, executive director of the Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET), which is holding a one-day conference in Philadelphia July 25. She expects several dozen in-person attendees, primarily locals, with another 50 or so joining online.

“We have a very vibrant membership in Philadelphia,” Tonsic said, crediting, in part, Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre Co. and its School for Advanced Performance Training.

“Because they’ve had their training program in devised theater and ensemble theater making for 10 years, there’s a legacy and generational impact,” she said. “A lot of companies end up getting founded in Philly and elsewhere that are oriented to make work in that way.”

The conference, titled BREAK/through, is both in-person and online. Workshops will include a variety of topics and modalities, with participants dancing, singing, moving — all “designed to share restorative inspiration and build mutual support,” according to the flier.

Some events will be open to the public, including an in-person discussion between Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., artistic director of HartBeat Ensemble in Hartford. Conn., and Rhodessa Jones, who is moving from San Francisco this month to begin a yearlong residency in Philadelphia as a Pew Fellow in Residence. Jones founded and serves as artistic director of The Medea Project, developing performance pieces with incarcerated women.

Monday, July 25, Network of Ensemble Theaters , Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St., Phila. www.ensembletheaters.net

Poor Cassiopeia, the young tooth fairy, poised to retrieve her first-ever tooth. But Mia, 7, doesn’t want to give it up. Now what? The fairy kingdom is in an uproar. Without Wings, geared for children 3 to 12, will be performed outdoors, starring Maddy Gillespie as Cassiopeia and Amanda Malandrino as Mia. Without Wings is a double premiere — the world premiere of Ilana Zahava Abusch’s play and the first production by Philly Children’s Theatre, a new company led by artistic director Sarah Gordin and Erin Gaydos, assistant artistic director.

July 23 through July 31. Philadelphia performances at 10 a.m. on July 23 and 30 at the Wyck House, 6026 Germantown Ave., and at 2 p.m. July 23 and 30 at Hawthorne Park, 1200 Catherine St. Bring your own chair or blanket to 2 p.m. performances July 24 and 31 at The Farm at Awbury Arboretum, 6336 Ardleigh St. Free. For rain dates, phillychildrenstheatre.org

Queen of Fishtown, written by and starring Katierose Donohue Enriquez, is a character comedy set — guess where? There’s gentrification, “woo-woo” healing, and the working class, all in time for the main character’s 40th birthday. Directed by Corey Podell. After its run here, Queen of Fishtown moves to London and then Scotland for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

July 20-24, Skinner Studio at Plays & Players, 1714 Delancey Place, Phila. www.queenoffishtown.com.

Check with individual venues for COVID-19 protocols.