Workshopping Plays

Most college and professional programs that people interested in stage writing take as part of their education involve a chance to workshop an original script. While this is ultimately an impossible task for every work you have written, a staged reading or performance is a necessary step in preparing your script for public viewing.

Your task during period 1: choose one of the scripts you have completed this year (the monologue play, one of the 10-minute plays, the adaptation, the one-act play, etc.) and prepare it (see below).

NOTE: please pick the work you are most interested in revising and which you feel might have a chance to be performed in public. If you care little about this, pick the piece of which you are most proud. The point of this exercise is to learn to revise your previous written work.

1. Correct the format if you're still wrong or misformatting the play script. Actors and directors expect a professionally ready script to be in the proper format. It's just the way it is, so instead of complaining, just format your script properly. You can find the proper format for a stage play on the link page, throughout this blog, and by google-ing "professional play format." This is not rocket-science.
2. Remove any bad lines and filler. Remove all your "Ums" & "Wells" & "Hmms" & "So's"--if it doesn't advance the plot, we don't want to hear it. Let your actors emote where and when they feel like it.
3. Remove stage directions that are A). too obvious or B). too wordy and controlling. Your job as a playwright is to write beautiful, effective dialogue--not annoy the director or actor by taking on their role.
4. Reduce long complex sentences into short declarative ones. Fragments are okay. Run-ons are only used for a specific reason to create a specific effect. Don't use them if you don't know what I mean.
5. Proofread. No actor wants to think you're stupid. No director or producer will ever produce your work if it's not well written. Check your spelling and grammar. If you need help, ask. If you don't ask and are still making elementary mistakes in spelling and grammar--you're on your own to learn this. As a writer you need to know what you're doing if you want to be taken seriously. If you don't want to be taken seriously, that's your own problem. You could have saved yourself the trouble by enrolling in a different program or school.

Finally, 6. Please print enough copies of your play for as many actors as you will need (including you). I will be dividing you into groups to work with our actors.

More instructions will be forthcoming during class. Please pay attention to get the most out of this exercise.

HOMEWORK: Please review and note the Becket homework from December's last post. Watch at least one of Beckett's plays and respond to his work on the forum by January 9.