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Updated: July 20, 2009, 3:45 pm	Share    Print    Email

Playwriting Conference Directors Steve Hamilton and Emma Walton Hamilton address attendees at the opening day reception of the Southampton Writers Conference. Photos by Douglas Harrington

Southampton - The rhyme of wry and dry may be the best opening to our first installment of this year's coverage of the Southampton Writers Conference, as in a wry expression of unexpected perfection, a dry sunny day ushered in America's greatest summer literary conference. There is no hyperbole here as, literary icon himself, Tom Wolfe, described the Southampton Writers Conference as, "The best conference in the country."

This was indeed one of the very few perfect afternoons of this wet Hamptons summer, but even if it had been a rain drenched day, the enthusiasm of the participants could not have been dampened by a monsoon.

Children's book author and keynote speaker, Norton Juster, signing copies of his books at his special pre-conference session.

The passion for the written word associated with this 36 year literary event infects the neophyte students that hope to achieve the illusive vocation of writers, the working writers that hope to improve and enhance their skills, the established, often famous, authors, poets, playwrights and screenwriters that generously share their insight and experience and the dedicated faculty of the MFA Program in Writing and Literature at Stony Brook University/Southampton that are entrusted with and committed to the preservation of this seminal celebration of the art of writing, held each summer on the SBU/Southampton campus.

Although, since its inception, the SWC has been identified as a gathering of the nation's most celebrated writers, it is first and foremost a "serious working conference," as described by Robert Reeves, who is the chairman of the MFA program and executive director of the SWC, "Everything we do here emphasizes new work, work in progress, very much the workshops, it is all about producing art, not finished productions or finished work. We have a thriving program in the winter and these are summer courses for our students. Because they are such wonderful summer courses we invite people from all over the country, indeed all over the world, to study with our writing faculty and we have distinguished visitors [guest faculty] as well."

Reeves went on to say, "We are trying for this very rich lab experiment that offers opportunities of participation for the community, but at the center of it are these workshops, where people are very serious about their writing." There are indeed numerous events open to the community, which have come directly out of the conference's recent expansion. Last year the SWC added the elements of a Children's Literature Conference and a Screenwriting Conference to the core, four decade old Writers Conference."

This year a Playwriting Conference was added and collaterally, members of the prestigious Ensemble Studio Theatre are in residence as resources for playwrights, performing works in progress and providing feedback to the writers, including a reading of a new play development that will be one of the many SWC events that are open to the public. The conferences overlap each throughout the almost month long SWC, with the Playwriting Conference element running throughout all the sessions.

The events open to the community in the first week's Children's Literature/Playwriting session alone include: From Page to Stage: Theater Adaptation Panel with Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman and iTheatrics CEO Tim McDonald; The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley, based on the classic children's book series by Jeff Brown; A Celebration of Poetry for the Whole Family: Highlights from the soon-to-be released Julie Andrews Collection of Poems, Songs and Lullabies with author/actress Julie Andrews, her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton and artist James McMullan.

The keynote speaker for the first session of the SWC was beloved children's writer Norton Juster, author of numerous children's books, but most remembered for "The Phantom Tollbooth." In the afternoon prior to his evening keynote address, Juster held an informal workshop where he shared his writing history, process and advice with the aspiring writers in attendance.

After being introduced by Children's Literature Conference Director Lou Ann Walker, ironically, Juster described himself as an, "Accidental writer, I had no training at all in writing." Nonetheless, whatever he picked up along the way of his illustrious career was generously shared with the aspiring children's writers and the treasures of his insights were devoured by the audience.

Southampton Writers Conference Executive Director Robert Reeves.

Anyone familiar with live theater on the East End will agree that the selection of Emma Walton Hamilton and her husband Steve Hamilton as directors of the newly created Playwriting Conference was as obvious as it was fortuitous. Co-founders, along with Sybil Christopher, of the Bay Street Theatre of Sag Harbor in 1991, the Hamiltons have given voice to numerous new plays, drawn world renowned actors and artists to Bay Street and sent numerous productions to New York City, including Broadway.

Steve explained that playwriting unto itself is not actually new to the SWC, "There have been playwriting workshops in the past as part of the Writers Conference itself, Marsha Norman and Chris Durang have taught workshops, but this is the first year wherein playwriting is its own conference." Emma added, "One workshop under the umbrella of the whole writers conference, as opposed to a designated conference with its own workshops, labs and elective events."

I asked Emma who approached whom regarding the directorships, "They came to us, happily. We had stepped away from Bay Street in the spring of last year and Bob [Reeves] reached out to us and said, 'I'd like to talk to you about creating a playwriting component for the conference' and we were delighted." Steve added, "It has always been such an esteemed conference, but we were always so busy with Bay Street in the summer that we never had the opportunity to really participate in it."

They have certainly found the time since coming on board, as they explained that preparation for the Playwriting Conference started last fall, with their official designation as directors coming in January.

Along with their work for SWC, the Hamiltons created and produce the Young American Writers Program (YAWP) throughout the year, which provides writing workshops and mentoring to local school districts. Add to that, Emma is wearing two hats at this year's SWC. As the popular children's literature author of "Dumpy, The Dump Truck Series," "Raising Bookworms" and "Simeon's Gift," which was recently adapted into a stage musical, she is participating in the children's literature component of the conference as well.

The Hamiltons eloquently summed up the goals of not only the playwriting component, but the aspirations of the Southampton Writers Conference as a whole, "Writing can be a very solitary profession, the real goal here in general is to provide a fertile environment to support work in development. To support writers in every possible way in developing their craft. For playwriting, it is one thing to sit around and support and critique each others work, but to actually be able to come to a place like this where you actually have professional actors in residence available to read your plays, and teachers of someone the status of playwright Craig Lucas supporting you in that process, raises the bar quite a bit. It just elevates everything to another level."

Look for continuing installments of the Southampton Writers Conference Reporters Notebook during the course of the conference and to find out more about the SWC, which runs through Aug. 2, go to: www.sunysb.edu/writers.