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Dan Weatherer

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The Dead Stage: A Journey From Page to Stage Kindle Edition

by Dan Weatherer (Author), Crystal Lake Publishing (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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“The Dead Stage – the period of time between completing the working draft of a stage play and placing it with an interested party.” – Dan Weatherer

Dan Weatherer, an author turned playwright, learned quickly that there are practices playwrights can implement to dramatically increase the appeal of their work.

Inside, you’ll find advice that will enable you to better tailor your work to the needs of the theatre industry, without having to compromise on style, content or subject matter. Dan discusses his early mistakes, and presents the advice of notable theatre professionals including the award-winning playwright, Deborah McAndrew, noted actor Matthew Spence, and London Horror Festival producer, Kate Danbury (along with many, many more!).

You’ll also be able to read several of Dan’s completed stage plays, which are presented in a preferred industry format, and often contain side-notes detailing the success (and failures) of said pieces.

From budgets to set design, run-time to cast size, if you ever felt the desire to write for the stage, following the advice presented in this book will help improve your chances of pairing your script with an interested party, hopefully making The Dead Stage pass almost unnoticed.

Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.

Interview with the author:

What makes this non-fiction book so special?
“Placing a stage play with a theatre company is (in my experience) more difficult than placing a book with a publisher. Open theatre calls are highly competitive, seeing hundreds of entries for a call that can possibly stage only three or four pieces. Quality of work is no longer enough to guarantee consideration for performance.

The tips and advice contained in The Dead Stage allowed me to build an impressive portfolio of theatre work in a relatively short space of time. I believe it is important to share experiences if they may be able to help others achieve success.”

Tell us more about why you wanted to write this guide.

“Throughout my career, I have worked to create opportunities for others, believing it is better to be a small fish in a thriving ocean, rather than a big fish in a stagnant pond.

This book is about sharing my experiences and mistakes, in the hope that I can help others avoid the pitfalls that I fell into.

Theatre, more than any other medium, is a tough industry to break into. Every piece a playwright will write will always be in competition with work from the greatest playwrights of all time. Theatre is a business: seats need to be sold in order to keep theatres running, and so often established pieces are booked instead of the work of what many might term the ‘New Writing’. This is because they are considered safe bookings, and the theatre will, in most instances, not lose money. New writing is considered a risk. Usually, theatres set aside a budget for new writing, but this is often small and tightly contested.

But theatre needs new voices and there are theatre companies willing to give new writing a chance. This book is my way of saying that yes, it is possible to see your work performed on stage, no matter your previous experience in the theatre industry.”

If you have a passing interest in the theatre industry, either as a playwright, director, producer, actor or working behind the scenes, then this book is for you. It includes insights and advice from an array of professionals working at all levels of the industry today. Their advice helped me see my work performed on stage, now it’s their turn to help you.”

From the Publisher

Tales from the Darkest Depths

Since its founding in 2012, Crystal Lake Publishing has quickly become one of the world’s leading publishers of Dark Fiction and Horror books. With multiple award nominations and wins (including the HWA’s Specialty Press Award), we put integrity, honor, and respect at the forefront of our publishing operations.

Crystal Lake Publishing is a part of Crystal Lake Entertainment, which is a multi-award-winning IP company weaving narratives across Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and the intricate spaces in-between.

Join the Crystal Lake adventure as we strive to present only the highest quality fiction and entertainment, while also supporting authors along their writing journey.

	Shadows & Ink Vol.1	The Science Fictionary	Where Nightmares Come From	It's Alive	The Horror Writer	More Modern Mythmakers
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Blurb	From the Bram Stoker-award-winning editor, publisher, and CEO of Crystal Lake Entertainment...	The ultimate reference guide to science fiction, fantasy, and horror terminology.	...focuses on the art of storytelling in the Horror genre, taking an idea from conception to reality—whether you prefer short stories, novels, films, or comics.	...focuses on learning the craft in order to take your story from concept to completion.	Some of the very best in the business from whom you can learn so much about the craft of horror writing.	Features Horror, Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy’s most influential writers and filmmakers interviewed about the art and craft of their genres.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book is such an asset for playwrights and new playwrights in particular with lots of great advice and perspectives from all around the industry. This is a must-have for anyone who wants to see how people view their work and how it can be used and handled within the industry.Tom Slatter - Actor

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07JVRGCGH
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crystal Lake Publishing
Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 19, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5.0 MB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 440 pages
Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #2,136,989 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #411 in Playwriting (Kindle Store)
- #1,120 in Playwriting (Books)
- #1,141 in Play & Scriptwriting Writing Reference

Customer Reviews:
4 ratings

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About the authors

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Crystal Lake Publishing
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Since its founding in August 2012, Crystal Lake Publishing has quickly become one of the world’s leading publishers of Dark Fiction and Horror books in print, eBook, and audio formats.
While we strive to present only the highest quality fiction and entertainment, we also endeavour to support authors along their writing journey. We offer our time and experience in non-fiction projects, as well as author mentoring and services, at competitive prices.
With several Bram Stoker Award wins and many other wins and nominations, Crystal Lake Publishing puts integrity, honor, and respect at the forefront of our publishing operations.
We strive for each book and outreach program we spearhead to not only entertain and touch or comment on issues that affect our readers, but also to strengthen and support the Dark Fiction field and its authors.
Not only do we find and publish authors we believe are destined for greatness, but we strive to work with men and woman who endeavour to be decent human beings who care more for others than themselves, while still being hard working, driven, and passionate artists and storytellers.
Crystal Lake Publishing is and will always be a beacon of what passion and dedication, combined with overwhelming teamwork and respect, can accomplish. We endeavour to know each and every one of our readers, while building personal relationships with our authors, reviewers, bloggers, podcasters, bookstores, and libraries.
We will be as trustworthy, forthright, and transparent as any business can be, while also keeping most of the headaches away from our authors, since it’s our job to solve the problems so they can stay in a creative mind. Which of course also means paying our authors.
We do not just publish books, we present to you worlds within your world, doors within your mind, from talented authors who sacrifice so much for a moment of your time.
There are some amazing small presses out there, and through collaboration and open forums we will continue to support other presses in the goal of helping authors and showing the world what quality small presses are capable of accomplishing. No one wins when a small press goes down, so we will always be there to support hardworking, legitimate presses and their authors. We don’t see Crystal Lake as the best press out there, but we will always strive to be the best, strive to be the most interactive and grateful, and even blessed press around. No matter what happens over time, we will also take our mission very seriously while appreciating where we are and enjoying the journey.
What do we offer our authors that they can’t do for themselves through self-publishing?
We are big supporters of self-publishing (especially hybrid publishing), if done with care, patience, and planning. However, not every author has the time or inclination to do market research, advertise, and set up book launch strategies. Although a lot of authors are successful in doing it all, strong small presses will always be there for the authors who just want to do what they do best: write.
What we offer is experience, industry knowledge, contacts and trust built up over years. And due to our strong brand and trusting fanbase, every Crystal Lake Publishing book comes with weight of respect. In time our fans begin to trust our judgment and will try a new author purely based on our support of said author.
To date we’ve published around 100 books, and with each launch we strive to fine-tune our approach, learn from our mistakes, and increase our reach. We continue to assure our authors that we’re here for them and that we’ll carry the weight of the launch and dealing with third parties while they focus on their strengths—be it writing, interviews, blogs, signings, etc.
We also offer several mentoring packages to authors that include knowledge and skills they can use in both traditional and self-publishing endeavours.
We look forward to launching many new careers.
This is what we believe in. What we stand for. This will be our legacy.
Welcome to Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.
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Dan Weatherer
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Previous works are available online or via the second-hand market. Stageplays continue to be sold and performed worldwide.
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pvlimbaugh
Great Advice!
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2018

Dan Weatherer’s The Dead Stage: A Journey from Page to Stage is the latest one of Crystal Lake Publishing’s non-fiction offerings of writing tips/advice books. Now, it may not appeal to everyone if you aren’t interested in writing plays but if you enjoy reading plays there a few of those included as well. The plays are shown in the industry format so for those of you that are unsure of what’s acceptable you will have a guideline to refer to.

Weatherer opens with an essay filled with the dos and don’ts of getting one’s play to the stage and follows with a series of Q & A posed to different people in the industry. From award-winning playwright, Deborah McAndrew, to various actors, and even a theatre technician the advice given is solid information that will help guide you along in writing and (fingers crossed) getting that play from your initial concept to an audience.

Lastly, as mentioned above are several of Weatherer’s plays included. I like that he has the plays laid out in the industry format as it really gives you a sense of what is going on, how the scene is set, which makes reading them that more enjoyable.

So… why should you take any advice from Dan Weatherer? Well, he is an award-winning author who knows how to tell a story! When switching over to writing stage plays he found there was a difference in presenting the story to be told and had to learn through trial and error what worked and what wasn’t acceptable. Now with many of his plays on stage he hopes by sharing what he’s learned over the years can help others sidestep his mistakes. Of course, while following his advice is no guarantee of becoming a successful playwright it will at least give you a push in the right direction!

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