Thursday, February 28, 2013

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.

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