LAB: (period 1)
It's important for writers to remember that plays are written for the theater. Your story will be told not only by your words but by the actors that portray your characters and by a director that will shape and guide the other participants to create a unique live experience for a paying audience. Toward this end, this morning, please read the following article on Tips from Directors for Playwrights.
In the COMMENT section of this blog, please identify the most important or helpful advice for you as a writer from the article, and explain how you might improve one of your plays (any of the drafts you have already written) or improve the play you are currently writing using this advice. Try to be specific as you reference the article and your own work.
When you have completed your COMMENT, please continue writing your play script draft. This draft will be due at the end of next week.
Also, please note that there will be a quarter exam on the material we have covered this marking period next week. See below for a study guide.
Study:
Period 2:
We will complete reading the play The Vampire Lesbians of Sodom today in class. Please turn in your Commedia analysis of the play by the end of class.
If we finish before the end of the period, we will move on to our next play selection: The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel.
HOMEWORK: Study for your upcoming playwriting exam (see post above). Also, please complete the reading and analysis of one play you selected from the collection: The Tale of the Allergist's Wife and Other Plays by Charles Busch. Bring your books with you to next class.
Please note that all missing or late work must be turned in by Thursday of next week (the end of the marking period) for minimal credit.
It's important for writers to remember that plays are written for the theater. Your story will be told not only by your words but by the actors that portray your characters and by a director that will shape and guide the other participants to create a unique live experience for a paying audience. Toward this end, this morning, please read the following article on Tips from Directors for Playwrights.
In the COMMENT section of this blog, please identify the most important or helpful advice for you as a writer from the article, and explain how you might improve one of your plays (any of the drafts you have already written) or improve the play you are currently writing using this advice. Try to be specific as you reference the article and your own work.
When you have completed your COMMENT, please continue writing your play script draft. This draft will be due at the end of next week.
Also, please note that there will be a quarter exam on the material we have covered this marking period next week. See below for a study guide.
Study:
- Talking With by Jane Martin
- Spic-o-Rama by John Leguizamo
- Monster by Dael Orlandersmith
- 'Night Mother by Marsha Norman
- Oleanna by David Mamet
- The Dumbwaiter by Harold Pinter
- Topdog/Underdog by Suzanne Lori Parks
- Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry
- The Mystery of Irma Vep by Charles Ludlam
- The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel
- The Vampire Lesbians of Sodom by Charles Busch
- Any one other play by Charles Busch from the collection
- Premise
- The 4 types of conflict
- Structural unity
- monologues/soliloquies
- beats, scenes, acts
- Major dramatic question
- The inciting incident
- Major decision
- Rising action, complications, crisis/turning point
- Dark moment
- Enlightenment
- Climax
- Catharsis
- Monodramas or monologue plays
- Objectives (different types)
- Tips about writing dialogue, playwriting, writing for the stage
- Status quo & building a plot
- Themes
- Voice & factors that help define character voice
- Crossdressing, Pantomime, Commedia Dell'Arte
- Comedy characteristics
- The dramatic triangle
- 10-minute play structure
Please bring any script copies with you to next class so you can return them to me or the library.
Period 2:
We will complete reading the play The Vampire Lesbians of Sodom today in class. Please turn in your Commedia analysis of the play by the end of class.
If we finish before the end of the period, we will move on to our next play selection: The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel.
HOMEWORK: Study for your upcoming playwriting exam (see post above). Also, please complete the reading and analysis of one play you selected from the collection: The Tale of the Allergist's Wife and Other Plays by Charles Busch. Bring your books with you to next class.
Please note that all missing or late work must be turned in by Thursday of next week (the end of the marking period) for minimal credit.
11 comments:
The most helpful advice was probably from Cooper, who said one of his pet peeves is plays that want to be movies. I can relate to this, since upon finishing and editing my book, I went "Huh, maybe this would be better as a movie," but then I realized that it's just the way events play out and scenes are described, not so much the plot.
You could easily make your play more like a play by just relaxing on the action and sets, not making your play so dynamic.
The section on formatting was the most helpful and insightful. It showed that, for one, every director is different and two, using the "script format" is not actually required or desired by many directors, or at least the ones they asked about it.
Although, the comment section of this post intrigued me more as I now know Kaneil has finally finished that book, and I want to read it.
Every single piece of advice was helpful because it allowed me as a writer to look at things form the perspective of a director. Hensley's advice was very helpful since it is what I am trying to do in my plays, which is making it more realistic and involve characters from all classes, so that the audience can relate to them. It is important for the audience to see a play that they would enjoy or can relate to, or have a feeling towards it. That is why it is also important for the writer to notice their writing style and suggest to themselves the idea of diversity in the audience. It is important for characters to have a voice to provoke empathy in the audience. Plays should also be written of major human questions. I think that these thoughts by Hensley helped me a lot because it confirmed my belief in writing scripts since plays should have a moral teaching achieved to impact the audience.
When writing my plays I tend to feel like I'm not using enough stage commands and that I must add lots but then after reading this article I came to realize that I should be writing stage directions and what not as they come. They should be 'natural' to the play and not forced because some directors love stage directions while others found them annoying and "don’t like having things spelled out for me". This confused me at first because I was like, well so which is it? Then I came to my own conclusion that I should just use stage direction where they seem fit and not put them in just because I have not had one in a few pages.
All of the advice the directors gave were insightful but my favorite advice was about stage directions. They all had different personal preferences on how they would like to see stage directions, whether they don't like specificity because it takes up too much of the play and is too specific that it doesn't leave much imagination to the director or they want to see stage directions expressing the character and what they're doing because it gives an insight into their personality.
The advice that I would use in my plays is having a variety of characters and knowing that your audience is filled with all types of people. Your play should express that instead of showing just one particular group such as a rich aristocratic family and has to broaden to show everyday people.
It's refreshing to see new and different stories that involve variations of characters. In plays it's best to make believe, where as in movies they try to actually make it seem real. Different characters are important because that way the audience will be able to connect to some character. If they were all the same it would be a different story. In characters, its great to see how different they all are. By having some difference in their voices, and their actions allows us to set them apart. To make the story interesting, its best to have conflict. Characters should be filled with problems, so that way the audience will be hooked and will want to be involved in the outcome. As for stage directions, it's good to have them fully explained but they shouldn't be super long, the smaller the better. But make sure they allow the actors to know what they are doing.
The most important advice for me is that many formats work and so does double spacing.
All of the advice that was giving by the writers/directors was all helpful. The ones that I will work on the most are on developing my characters and the plot of the play. That is usually what I have trouble with most of the time. In plays, there should be something that connects with all of the audience. They should feel some type of emotion while watching the play. To keep the audience intrigued, the plot cannot just be bland. I will write down any ideas and develop them more.
All of the writers and directors had really great advice. I have quite a lot of trouble writing stage directions and plays in general so to read their feedback was very helpful. I also agree with what most of the writers and directors said about being imaginative and making it work with what you've got.
My favorite writing advice was from Michelle Hensley. She said that one of her biggest pet peeves is when people write about people from the upper middle class. I agree with her. I like reading and writing works about the problems of lower class people. That's what I wrote about in my second play, it needs more work though.
Overall, I found everything to be helpful in its own sort of way. They all offered different perspectives and ideas which was nice. It was nice hearing from several voices opposed to one.
With writing I always have trouble with stage directions. Instead I usually write none. It was very informative for me to read how to do so. Now on I will utilize them fully. In writing though it should be natural not forced.
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