29 Oct Introducing the Dynamic Duo: Heather and Kieran

Announcing BAPF’s Literary Team!

We sat down with our new Literary Team to ask some questions about their interest in theater and new play development. Read more about our Literary Manager, Heather Helinsky, and our Literary Associate, Kieran Beccia.

What excites you about new plays and new play development?

HH: Since starting my career as a freelance dramaturg, I’ve mostly worked directly with playwrights over the course of several plays, which is different from being an institutional dramaturg who may just work on one production. I’ve traveled around the country a lot for and on behalf of writers. I’ve enjoyed building relationships with writers over several different plays. I like the journey, especially when I get to be the first person a playwright trusts to read their work. I like being a playwright advocate & ally.

KB: I am constantly in search of new stories. I want to hear from new perspectives that I haven’t encountered before.

Why do you want to work with Playwrights Foundation and what do you hope to bring to the position? 

KB: Working with PF has put me in touch with so many artists who impress and inspire me. I’m thrilled to be bringing my enthusiasm and dedication to the development process.

HH: A new generation of Artistic Directors are stepping up as leaders, and I’m excited to see what Jessica Bird Beza’s vision is for this forty-three year old organization. With leadership shifts, it can be an opportunity for dramaturgs to move around as well. Back in 2005, I originally trained as a dramaturg with Robert Woodruff at the American Repertory Theatre. Even though I’ve certainly grown and changed as an artist since then, he certainly had a formative role in shaping how I think about new work, and I’d like to bring that part of my dramaturgical training into this organization that he founded.

What do you look for in a play? 

HH: There’s so much to say here. I always keep an open mind when I get a new play, and I enjoy diving into the world of the play, and really want to listen to where the writer wants to take me. I certainly try to suss out what I feel what the writer’s intent in writing the play, and what they’re responding to in the world. Honesty, empathy, relevance, risk-taking, heart…those are some qualities to start. Every play is on a different journey, though, and you have to be open to plays that might take audiences to a place you didn’t originally expect.

KB: When I encounter a play for the first time, I want to be surprised. I want to find new insights and innovative approaches to storytelling.

Who are some playwrights you are following? 

KB: A few off the top of my head would be Sam Lahne, Preston Choi, Julius Rea, Kate Cortesi, Sylvan Oswald, and so many others.

HH: Ha, well that’s an unfair question! My role right now is to be as fair as possible to the 800 playwrights who just applied this season, so right now, I am organizing and diving into learning all about the writers who submitted their plays this season. I know I will do my best to research each individual writer, where they are now, where they are frustrated or feeling stuck, and what I can offer them. The writers who know me already know I’ll dive deep and do my best.

What are you excited for as you begin the Bay Area Playwrights Festival reading process?

HH: As a dramaturg, I always have a lot of questions, so I’m excited to see how BAPF answers them. As a board member for LMDA, I’ve been working on a series with dramaturg Anne Morgan on topics of best practices, so I’m on a sharp learning curve with BAPF to understand what their practices are here, and how I can share my own insights. I’m especially eager to get to know all the Bay Area local writers, and will be reading them as I get to know this job. I’m also grateful to all the script readers I’ll be working with this season, and reading their reports on what looks like to be a great season of script reading.

KB: I’m excited to read work from new playwrights. I see some familiar faces on our list of submissions and a lot of unfamiliar ones. I’m excited to find more playwrights to add to my list of artists to keep an eye on.

Heather Helinsky, Literary Manager (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based dramaturg that playwrights have recognized as “especially adept at freeing energies in unexpected ways. She encourages discovery.” Nationally, her dramaturgical work has been seen at the Accessible Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, the Apothetae, Arizona Repertory Theatre, Arkansas New Plays Festival, Athena Project Festival, Best Medicine Rep, Borderlands Theatre Company, City Theatre, Colorado New Play Summit, Denver Center, Great Plains Theatre Conference, James Madison University, The Kennedy Center, The Lark, Lee University, Moscow Art Theatre’s American Studio, Omaha Community Playhouse, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Phoenix Theatre, Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Plan-B Theatre, Plays and Players of Philadelphia, PlayPenn, Salt Lake Acting Company, Telluride Playwrights Festival, Unexpected Stage, Woolly Mammoth, Venus Theatre, and the 6NewPlays collective in San Francisco. For two seasons, she served as a Barrymore Judge for Theatre Philadelphia, which adjudicates 60-100 productions in the Philadelphia region and is currently a board member for LMDA as VP of Freelance. She’s read and evaluated scripts for The O’Neill, PlayPenn, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Jewish Plays Project, Seven Devils and Sundance Theatre Lab. She has been the Literary Manager of the Pittsburgh Public and PICT Classic Theatre. For the Kennedy Center, Heather mentors student dramaturgs, regionally and nationally, since 2012, and reads for the David Mark Cohen & Steinberg award. Other Kennedy Center projects include the Undergraduate Playwrights Workshop, the VSA Discovery Series, the Page-to-Stage Festival, and two seasons of the MFA Playwrights Workshop for NNPN. She was a Visiting Professor of Dramaturgy at Carnegie Mellon (’12-’13), University of Arizona (’07-08), Lesley University (’15-’16) and Brooklyn College (’15) and taught a workshop in Spring ’19 to the Yale School of Drama 1st & 2nd year dramaturgs.  She holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from the ART/Moscow Art Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard ’07, where she studied with Playwrights Foundation founder Robert Woodruff. www.helinskydramaturgy.com