Writing a Play, Hearing It Read by Real Actors

Three months ago it never would have occurred to me to try writing a play.  But in the voice class I took at Freehold Theater in the fall the teacher told us about the theater's annual Incubator series.  "Go ahead," she said, "try something."  I had written a short short story I called "Offramp."  The story is basically a sales pitch being made by a guy who approaches panhandlers and demands forty percent of their take in exchange for marketing support and not having them beaten up.

It dawned on me I could work up what happens to the panhandler and to the enforcer who comes to work him over after the initial pitch is declined.  I spent a week or so writing a script, checking the internet to see how to format a play, and sent it in. 

What do you know, "Offramp" was accepted, one of fourteen works to be presented at the end of March.  I found a  director who liked the script, who in turn had auditions and selected five actors and a stage manager.  Last week we all sat around my living room and did the first read-through.  It's hard to describe the experience of hearing a scene you imagined and wrote down the words for being brought to life by experienced actors. 

I learned something worth pondering in the discussion after the read-through.  Jesse, the director, encouraged the actors to talk about what was going on behind the lines, what they felt about the characters they were portraying.  One said the play was about mercy.  Another said it was about fatality.
Jesse asked me what I thought the themes were.  I was reluctant to say much because I didn't want to constrain the actors' creativity. 

But I realized I didn't actually have much to say.  I did not write the play with a theme or big idea in mind.  I imagined some people in a particular situation and wrote down what I imagined they'd say.  A very bottom-up process.  I listened to the actors' ideas, and realized they had a grasp of the whole more complete than mine.  The creator of the trees may not be able to see the forest.  I can't wait to see how they develop these characters in rehearsal.

The Novel and Its Cover

I have been working with an artist in Portland on a cover for LIFTERS.  I was surprised at how blank my mind went when I tried to think about covers.  I could remember only a few from recently read novels.  Some are photos, some are drawings ranging from semi-realistic to abstract.  I would be interested in talking with a publisher about "what sells" if you're lucky enough to have a copy of your book facing forward on the shelf.

Apart from graphics, the question is how closely the images reflect the events of the novel.  I decided I wanted fashionable gloves, which are the key item stolen by the lifters from department stores, and an image suggesting mountaineering, another major theme.  The artist found a good image, a silhouette of a climber in a vaguely threatening posture, an ice pick overhead ready to be swung down into the ice or into someone's head.  I added a third thematic element, a poker hand.  Several of the covers I looked at picked up two thematic elements from the novel; I've gone for three.  Is the cover too busy?  Does anyone look at it that closely?  I'll wait for feedback.