Writing a Play
Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2016 4:14 pm
[Mods, please feel free to move this thread to somewhere appropriate if you see reason to.]
I count myself fortunate (some of that fortune self-made) in that my first play Carmilla has not only been produced three times but has been published.
Right now I'm working on the sixth draft of my second play (and the first of my third) with at least two others simmering on the mental back burner. Initially I wrote Noah's Cove in something of a white heat, partially in reaction to a promising but ultimately mediocre play I saw and reviewed which had been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. It belonged to a genre kinda/sorta invented by Anton Chekhov, that of a family drama wherein the family is a metaphor for society as a whole. And my play is that as well, albeit in a somewhat covert way.
Elements in Noah's Cove I see now were brewing somewhere in my head for many years now. The fictional town of the title comes not only from my own experience growing up in a similar place but also my fascination with such over the years, up to and including Collinsport and Twin Peaks! Likewise the family dynamics involved echo my own, albeit with a distorted reverb.
Getting feedback is so tricky, though. Two (and a half) readings of the play have gotten such a varied and frankly odd set of reactions. Ditto showing the text to others, nearly always fellow writers (Note: Showing scripts to non-writers or at least actors tends to be useless--they just don't understand the process, 99 times out of 100). At least once I found trying to follow some directions threw the whole play's character balance out of whack. Ended up cutting half of what I'd added and re-arranging the rest. But such feedback has proven good overall. I'm amused at least a handful of folks were genuinely shocked at one point. Shocked and disturbed.
Right now I'm at the point where the play seems to need some kind of workshop production, to see the thing "on its feet." Don't quite know how to go about that yet, although I'm courting a few small theatres with that in mind. With a cast of four and one set, we're talking a fairly straightforward play to produce at least technically. Half a dozen intense rehearsals might well get it ready, if the cast is really good.
More news as it comes.
I count myself fortunate (some of that fortune self-made) in that my first play Carmilla has not only been produced three times but has been published.
Right now I'm working on the sixth draft of my second play (and the first of my third) with at least two others simmering on the mental back burner. Initially I wrote Noah's Cove in something of a white heat, partially in reaction to a promising but ultimately mediocre play I saw and reviewed which had been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. It belonged to a genre kinda/sorta invented by Anton Chekhov, that of a family drama wherein the family is a metaphor for society as a whole. And my play is that as well, albeit in a somewhat covert way.
Elements in Noah's Cove I see now were brewing somewhere in my head for many years now. The fictional town of the title comes not only from my own experience growing up in a similar place but also my fascination with such over the years, up to and including Collinsport and Twin Peaks! Likewise the family dynamics involved echo my own, albeit with a distorted reverb.
Getting feedback is so tricky, though. Two (and a half) readings of the play have gotten such a varied and frankly odd set of reactions. Ditto showing the text to others, nearly always fellow writers (Note: Showing scripts to non-writers or at least actors tends to be useless--they just don't understand the process, 99 times out of 100). At least once I found trying to follow some directions threw the whole play's character balance out of whack. Ended up cutting half of what I'd added and re-arranging the rest. But such feedback has proven good overall. I'm amused at least a handful of folks were genuinely shocked at one point. Shocked and disturbed.
Right now I'm at the point where the play seems to need some kind of workshop production, to see the thing "on its feet." Don't quite know how to go about that yet, although I'm courting a few small theatres with that in mind. With a cast of four and one set, we're talking a fairly straightforward play to produce at least technically. Half a dozen intense rehearsals might well get it ready, if the cast is really good.
More news as it comes.