Saturday, June 1, 2013
Put your monologue or play on the radio FREE! Audio Streaming Opportunity Thistle Dew Digital Radio Theatre, KTDT-DR needs Playwrights with Self - Produced Audio (.mp3) of their; One, two, and three minute monologues, and/or Ten minute two character plays, and/or Fifteen minute 3 - 5 character plays, and/or Thirty minute 2 - 5 character plays. Gather your fellow playwrights, actors, friends, relatives, neighbors for readings. Record them. Submit them. THERE IS NO SUBMISSION FEE. All submissions are subject to the approval of Thomas M. Kelly, Artistic Director, Thistle Dew Theatre and KTDT-Digital Radio. All Self - Produced Audio submissions must conform to Family Radio "Standards of Decency": http://www.fcc.gov/guides/obscenity-indecency-and-profanity and to the KTDT-DR content policies, including but not limited to the following (remembering that this is family radio); No overt perverse sexual behavior, No bathroom humor, No foul language, No pornography, No abusive, prejudicial or disparaging language against any race or minority, No sex, child, or adult abuse. No copyrighted music, (your un-copyrighted music is permitted, see sample on blog.*) All submissions must be accompanied by script in .doc format subject to Grammarly plagiarism check. See.....http://thistledewtheatreplaywrightgroup.blogspot.com/ For sample format, (i.e.: introduction, credit(s), et cetera.). visit audio streams at......... * http://ktdtdigitalradiotheatre.blogspot.com/ Submit .mp3 only (No cds) and script, to seamusoshea12@gmail.com. Playwright maintains full rights to their submissions except for streaming permit to KTDT-DR: Submissions to KTDT-DR are for the sole purpose of KTDT-DR streaming. Submissions fully produced, compliant with the above content policies and ready for radio streaming, will stream for a duration of one month (30 days) FREE. KTDT-DR blog: http://ktdtdigitalradiotheatre.blogspot.com/
Sunday, April 21, 2013
The role of 'conflict' in your play.
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| Triumphant smile vs. Humiliating Defeat |
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| Assassin/Traitor? vs. Hero? |
Conflict rises with every relationship: lovers, business associates such as competitive actors, horse races, et cetera. Look around your life. Husband and wife: Do they invite weird uncle Harry to John Juniors Bar Mitzvah? Suzan turns a corner: bumps into a cop, cop arrests her for hindering an investigation. Skip a rope: trip and fall skinning your knee, causing an infection, causing amputation, et cetera. Brothers sharing a bicycle: Who's turn today?... after they beat the crap out of each other and destroy the bicycle in the tumult (that's an antiquated Romney word: conflict!)? I know this all reads rather simple, even silly, but 'little conflicts' find themselves within 'larger conflicts' whether you or your characters recognize them for what they are worth in your larger story,... or not. You may even determine that they are ascending conflicts leading you through your character's arc.
Keep writing, but remember... "Writing is re-writing."
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Critical reading.
Today we read Brenda's first draft of her first play, "House of Cards". She took scrupulous and copious notes. One of the most important elements of playwriting, and there are many, is continuity; Continuity of character traits, Continuity of geography, Continuity of reactions of characters to each other, Continuity of time, Continuity of plot, et cetera.
Does your character 'Mary' continue down the path of alcoholism, and choose to prostitute herself when she's fired from her job? Or does she join AA and rise on her 'arc'. Whether your characters be normal human beings (Define normal human being*, I dare ya'.) or they show traits of mental disorder, agoraphobia, Borderline Personality Disorder, Bi-polar, post traumatic stress disorder, et cetera, they must continue unless they choose, or you, as the 'boss' playwright, give them another path. Using the aforementioned conditions can be tricky, because BPD victims can change their behavior in a heartbeat. "How dare you leave me! Get out!" Alcoholics can be great actors. Bi-polar victims alternate between mania and depression. There are a wide range of mental disorders where your characters can find themselves, or not, and your audience is lost, wondering, and wandering, looking for the exit at intermission.
Your characters can be at home behind the counter of a diner, or in a prison cell, or in a bingo parlor. Establish your character's geography. When you take 'Luke' out of his 'home', say behind a skid row bar and in the next scene put him in a Hilton hotel room, find a good reason and time for the change: don't confuse your audience or you won't have them very long.
Continuity of character interaction: 'Jill' hates it when 'Jack' is kind and gentle to her one moment and in the next moment he is treating her cruelly and in-humanly and she is loving it (barring some mental disorder for both characters) the audience will be confused and out of focus. You have lost their confidence in your ability to hold them.
If your character, in her dialogue states, "Today is Friday. I'll see you at noon for lunch. We'll have tuna on rye.", but the calendar on her office wall says it's Tuesday, and the clock reads one pm, you've lost your audience again.
If Henry, fourteen years old, tells Mercedes that his brother died sixty years ago in World War II, you've derailed the audience again. How old was Henry's brother when he died of his wounds on the beaches of Iwo Jima? How old was mama and dada when they had Henry. Yeah, I know. They adopted Henry.
From when will you stop with the abuse of continuity already? And you haven't even established that I'm yiddish. (From Brooklyn? No, Crown Heights.)
When your publisher sends you a proof? No. You will still find errors in continuity... : verbs, here and there a comma, colons, pronouns, adverbs, accent grav, et cetera.
Writing is re-writing.
Keep writing!
*To be a normal human being are you devoid of one or more or all of the following; schizoid, Pyromania, psychologically imbalanced, mentally ill, Bi-polar, PTSD, et cetera?
Does your character 'Mary' continue down the path of alcoholism, and choose to prostitute herself when she's fired from her job? Or does she join AA and rise on her 'arc'. Whether your characters be normal human beings (Define normal human being*, I dare ya'.) or they show traits of mental disorder, agoraphobia, Borderline Personality Disorder, Bi-polar, post traumatic stress disorder, et cetera, they must continue unless they choose, or you, as the 'boss' playwright, give them another path. Using the aforementioned conditions can be tricky, because BPD victims can change their behavior in a heartbeat. "How dare you leave me! Get out!" Alcoholics can be great actors. Bi-polar victims alternate between mania and depression. There are a wide range of mental disorders where your characters can find themselves, or not, and your audience is lost, wondering, and wandering, looking for the exit at intermission.
Your characters can be at home behind the counter of a diner, or in a prison cell, or in a bingo parlor. Establish your character's geography. When you take 'Luke' out of his 'home', say behind a skid row bar and in the next scene put him in a Hilton hotel room, find a good reason and time for the change: don't confuse your audience or you won't have them very long.
Continuity of character interaction: 'Jill' hates it when 'Jack' is kind and gentle to her one moment and in the next moment he is treating her cruelly and in-humanly and she is loving it (barring some mental disorder for both characters) the audience will be confused and out of focus. You have lost their confidence in your ability to hold them.
If your character, in her dialogue states, "Today is Friday. I'll see you at noon for lunch. We'll have tuna on rye.", but the calendar on her office wall says it's Tuesday, and the clock reads one pm, you've lost your audience again.
If Henry, fourteen years old, tells Mercedes that his brother died sixty years ago in World War II, you've derailed the audience again. How old was Henry's brother when he died of his wounds on the beaches of Iwo Jima? How old was mama and dada when they had Henry. Yeah, I know. They adopted Henry.
From when will you stop with the abuse of continuity already? And you haven't even established that I'm yiddish. (From Brooklyn? No, Crown Heights.)
When your publisher sends you a proof? No. You will still find errors in continuity... : verbs, here and there a comma, colons, pronouns, adverbs, accent grav, et cetera.
Writing is re-writing.
Keep writing!
*To be a normal human being are you devoid of one or more or all of the following; schizoid, Pyromania, psychologically imbalanced, mentally ill, Bi-polar, PTSD, et cetera?
Sunday, April 7, 2013
On character development and Lajos Egri.
Today I met with a newborn playwright. By "newborn" I mean she has never written a play. Prior to our meeting, I recommended she read the book I consider "The Bible" for writers, be they essayists or novelist, but most definitely for the playwright: The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri.
"Examining a play from the inside out, Lajos Egri starts with the heart of any drama" or comedy: it's characters. Good dramatic writing hinges on the playwright's characters and their relationships. Together their intent is to move the story forward. At the age of ten, Lajos wrote his first three-act play.
Like Lajos Egri, I am a firm believer in character development. I believe that a well-defined character will, as Omar Khayyam in Poem #545, The Moving Finger Writes; and having Having Writ,The Testament of Omar Khayyam (1907) by Khayyam, Omar/ Alexander, Louis Charles, to lead the playwright by the finger, if you will, through the story that the character wants the playwright to write.
Character development is achieved by what the character has to say, how she says it and when he speaks, or not. What that character says or does not say will have consequences. How that character voices his dialogue will affect other characters who in turn, because by definition, she, too, has the power and force (so she thinks) to move the finger and move on, to lead the playwright in her direction. When and whether the playwright gives voice to a character also affects the development of other characters. It's a game each character plays: with the playwright as the foilist, with or without the button.
Remember: Writing is Re-writing.
"Examining a play from the inside out, Lajos Egri starts with the heart of any drama" or comedy: it's characters. Good dramatic writing hinges on the playwright's characters and their relationships. Together their intent is to move the story forward. At the age of ten, Lajos wrote his first three-act play.
Like Lajos Egri, I am a firm believer in character development. I believe that a well-defined character will, as Omar Khayyam in Poem #545, The Moving Finger Writes; and having Having Writ,The Testament of Omar Khayyam (1907) by Khayyam, Omar/ Alexander, Louis Charles, to lead the playwright by the finger, if you will, through the story that the character wants the playwright to write.
Character development is achieved by what the character has to say, how she says it and when he speaks, or not. What that character says or does not say will have consequences. How that character voices his dialogue will affect other characters who in turn, because by definition, she, too, has the power and force (so she thinks) to move the finger and move on, to lead the playwright in her direction. When and whether the playwright gives voice to a character also affects the development of other characters. It's a game each character plays: with the playwright as the foilist, with or without the button.
Remember: Writing is Re-writing.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Continuing the re-write
Brenda has added two new scenes to her play. After a reading we showed her how she can expand the dialogue of her characters to reveal their arching. In the opening scene she had one character, 'Kip', using his friends to sharpen his weak and sometimes insulting attempts at comedy, only to create doubt in their minds as to his eventual success. By turning the tables on him in the end, they allowed him a graceful exit. Glib and facetious humor on his part was countered with tongue-in-cheek, friendly, mischievous and playful humor.
"Do my characters have sufficient 'skin in the game'? If they don't, there is no reason for them to exist in the little world you have created. They serve no purpose in your play. What compels them to live in your play? Have you created a place for them to complete their arch? With any luck, your life experience will allow them to lead you where they want to go. They want you to 'advance the plot' in their direction. This is what they want, and if they don't get what they want, there will be consequences. Your characters are under constant pressure. As individuals they have different goals and different ideals and their own methods to achieve those goals.
I cannot emphasize the importance of editing and re-writing your play. Even after their work has been published, playwrights, famous as they may or not be, continue editing and re-writing their work.
"When do I get to stop re-writing? Am I ever finished?" Yes and No. "Yes" it's finished when your characters tell you "Yes, I know I'm boring, but my arch is complete. I think." And "No" when your characters continue to say, "I wouldn't say that to her. Given the predicament you have placed me, and I didn't really want to go there in the first place, why don't you just have me turn slowly and stare blankly into her face. Yes! Now I'm finished! Wait... ! One more little tidbit. Please? It'll only take a moment of your time."
"Do my characters have sufficient 'skin in the game'? If they don't, there is no reason for them to exist in the little world you have created. They serve no purpose in your play. What compels them to live in your play? Have you created a place for them to complete their arch? With any luck, your life experience will allow them to lead you where they want to go. They want you to 'advance the plot' in their direction. This is what they want, and if they don't get what they want, there will be consequences. Your characters are under constant pressure. As individuals they have different goals and different ideals and their own methods to achieve those goals.
I cannot emphasize the importance of editing and re-writing your play. Even after their work has been published, playwrights, famous as they may or not be, continue editing and re-writing their work.
"When do I get to stop re-writing? Am I ever finished?" Yes and No. "Yes" it's finished when your characters tell you "Yes, I know I'm boring, but my arch is complete. I think." And "No" when your characters continue to say, "I wouldn't say that to her. Given the predicament you have placed me, and I didn't really want to go there in the first place, why don't you just have me turn slowly and stare blankly into her face. Yes! Now I'm finished! Wait... ! One more little tidbit. Please? It'll only take a moment of your time."
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Topics: (1.) Theatre group formation, (2.) Dialogue.
(1.) On forming a theatre group.
This morning I met with ten ladies whom I have asked to look into the possibility of forming an in-house theatre group here at the Unique Thistle Dew Dessert Theatre. Each of the women have written for, acted for, directed for and/or produced for, stage managed for the Thistle Dew and for other theatres. This group would be created by and for women: playwrights, actors, directors, producers, stage managers, et cetera. Let me preface this post by stating that I am not without experience in founding theatre groups and a theatre. (My brothers and sisters formed a stage company in our childhood home. One of our first productions was a re-production of The Mass.) I digress. After many years of writing, managing all aspects of the Thistle Dew, writing for theatre and working on the internet, monitoring and analyzing theatre related websites, I have a very good idea of the trends, needs and directions of theatre. Especially the Unique Thistle Dew Theatre.
Some of my suggestions to the group; (1.) Understand the difficulty of organizing a theatre group, the financial aspects of maintaining a viable theatre group, assigning and rotating responsibilities, reading play submissions, planning a season, operating a box office, monitoring reservations, advertising, et cetera. The list goes on and on. (2.) Volunteer your significant other to help with staging your play, managing the play and the theatre, and serving the dessert. (3.) If you are an actor and a playwright as part of the selection committee perusing submissions for your group, select plays that fit within the group's criteria. (4.) If you are a playwright, write plays exploring the affirmation of the vibrant lives, the inventiveness, the courage and vital spirit of women in your community. Can you create text that presents a feminine perspective and contains significant opportunities for female performers? If you are a woman and you have a play with the aforementioned criteria, please submit your play to the attention of Tom at tddtheatre@aol.com .
(2.) On dialogue.
Writing dialogue for some writers is easy, but it is not solely a "he said" "she said" affair. The writer has to take into consideration the nature of the character himself/herself; How old is he? Is he brusque or so easy going that he falls asleep between thoughts or even words? Is she grandmotherly? Is she a foxy lady searching for and entrapping a mate. Is the character setting the other up for a demonic fall? Each of the aforementioned will have a certain way of speaking and a certain way of emphasizing adjectives or verbs or the other character's name. Perhaps in a mocking manner or a dismissive manner. There are so many aspects of each character's dialogue which the playwright will have to take into consideration. Be careful to insert after your character's name [Desmond: (Brusquely and snidely.)] with certitude, direction the actor will need to give her/his character your life.
The character's actions, behavior, habits and accents are important to character development. A great failure for new playwrights is that all their characters sound an awful lot like the playwright. I was reminded of this bad habit long ago by a great actor, teacher and director, who read one of my first failures, which, upon re-write, and after dozens of re-re-writes has gone on to an off-Broadway production.
Hope to see you next Saturday, March 16, at 10:00am.
This morning I met with ten ladies whom I have asked to look into the possibility of forming an in-house theatre group here at the Unique Thistle Dew Dessert Theatre. Each of the women have written for, acted for, directed for and/or produced for, stage managed for the Thistle Dew and for other theatres. This group would be created by and for women: playwrights, actors, directors, producers, stage managers, et cetera. Let me preface this post by stating that I am not without experience in founding theatre groups and a theatre. (My brothers and sisters formed a stage company in our childhood home. One of our first productions was a re-production of The Mass.) I digress. After many years of writing, managing all aspects of the Thistle Dew, writing for theatre and working on the internet, monitoring and analyzing theatre related websites, I have a very good idea of the trends, needs and directions of theatre. Especially the Unique Thistle Dew Theatre.
Some of my suggestions to the group; (1.) Understand the difficulty of organizing a theatre group, the financial aspects of maintaining a viable theatre group, assigning and rotating responsibilities, reading play submissions, planning a season, operating a box office, monitoring reservations, advertising, et cetera. The list goes on and on. (2.) Volunteer your significant other to help with staging your play, managing the play and the theatre, and serving the dessert. (3.) If you are an actor and a playwright as part of the selection committee perusing submissions for your group, select plays that fit within the group's criteria. (4.) If you are a playwright, write plays exploring the affirmation of the vibrant lives, the inventiveness, the courage and vital spirit of women in your community. Can you create text that presents a feminine perspective and contains significant opportunities for female performers? If you are a woman and you have a play with the aforementioned criteria, please submit your play to the attention of Tom at tddtheatre@aol.com .
(2.) On dialogue.
Writing dialogue for some writers is easy, but it is not solely a "he said" "she said" affair. The writer has to take into consideration the nature of the character himself/herself; How old is he? Is he brusque or so easy going that he falls asleep between thoughts or even words? Is she grandmotherly? Is she a foxy lady searching for and entrapping a mate. Is the character setting the other up for a demonic fall? Each of the aforementioned will have a certain way of speaking and a certain way of emphasizing adjectives or verbs or the other character's name. Perhaps in a mocking manner or a dismissive manner. There are so many aspects of each character's dialogue which the playwright will have to take into consideration. Be careful to insert after your character's name [Desmond: (Brusquely and snidely.)] with certitude, direction the actor will need to give her/his character your life.
The character's actions, behavior, habits and accents are important to character development. A great failure for new playwrights is that all their characters sound an awful lot like the playwright. I was reminded of this bad habit long ago by a great actor, teacher and director, who read one of my first failures, which, upon re-write, and after dozens of re-re-writes has gone on to an off-Broadway production.
Hope to see you next Saturday, March 16, at 10:00am.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
On writing comedy...
Once you have been inspired by a personal experience or an inspiration from the whole clothe of your imagination as your story, you can begin making notes about your characters by giving them 'back stories'. Today's 'back story' is for Brenda's character 'Kip'. Kip is an aspiring standup comedian.
This morning we began our workshop with a reading of Act I, Scene 3 of Brenda's tentatively titled "House of Cards": Kip's trial by fire as a stand-up comedian.
Let me preface this session with a few rules about writing comedy: It is very difficult! What you or I as playwrights think is comedy may not be funny when presented by our actors/readers/critics/audiences. Unlike vaudeville comedians with their 'trunks full of jokes' (stolen or not) modern television comedians like Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, most successful comedians have a group of comedy writers behind them. Why? Because its in their contracts! Insurance! Producers (CBS, NBC, ABC et,cetera) insist upon the back-up team. Without his back-up team, Jay would be hard pressed to come up with a 'fresh' monologue every night, let alone as many as 260 'fresh' monologues every year.
So... with comedy being difficult to write... in mind... and bearing in mind also that the comedy writers at the Thistle Dew do not have back-up teams of writers, we rely upon our actors/readers/critics/other playwrights to help us achieve comedy on stage. Yes... that is where it really happens: on stage, in readings and even in rehearsal as re-writes. The collaboration between the actors/readers/critics/directors and the playwright is critical to the evolution and shaping of comedy. But it is not the genesis of a comedy for this or any other play. Comedy for this play, "House of Cards", is in the mind of playwright Brenda's character, Kip.
If Kip wants to do stand up comedy and humor he and the playwright must understand that creating comedy is an art and comedy is an art form. It is a skill developed by the comedian with a series of subtle changes in voice and/or facial expressions and body contortions and postures in front of a mirror or in front of sympathetic friends who can be used as foils, or in the lonely atmosphere of an attic or basement.
Comedy is a skill developed only with practice and rehearsal and re-writes and re-writes and re-writes by editing as you go: pre-writing, writing, polishing and revising also includes spelling correction, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure according to your characters' dialect, subject/verb agreement, consistent verb tense, word usage, story continuity, et cetera.
This morning we began our workshop with a reading of Act I, Scene 3 of Brenda's tentatively titled "House of Cards": Kip's trial by fire as a stand-up comedian.
Let me preface this session with a few rules about writing comedy: It is very difficult! What you or I as playwrights think is comedy may not be funny when presented by our actors/readers/critics/audiences. Unlike vaudeville comedians with their 'trunks full of jokes' (stolen or not) modern television comedians like Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, most successful comedians have a group of comedy writers behind them. Why? Because its in their contracts! Insurance! Producers (CBS, NBC, ABC et,cetera) insist upon the back-up team. Without his back-up team, Jay would be hard pressed to come up with a 'fresh' monologue every night, let alone as many as 260 'fresh' monologues every year.
So... with comedy being difficult to write... in mind... and bearing in mind also that the comedy writers at the Thistle Dew do not have back-up teams of writers, we rely upon our actors/readers/critics/other playwrights to help us achieve comedy on stage. Yes... that is where it really happens: on stage, in readings and even in rehearsal as re-writes. The collaboration between the actors/readers/critics/directors and the playwright is critical to the evolution and shaping of comedy. But it is not the genesis of a comedy for this or any other play. Comedy for this play, "House of Cards", is in the mind of playwright Brenda's character, Kip.
If Kip wants to do stand up comedy and humor he and the playwright must understand that creating comedy is an art and comedy is an art form. It is a skill developed by the comedian with a series of subtle changes in voice and/or facial expressions and body contortions and postures in front of a mirror or in front of sympathetic friends who can be used as foils, or in the lonely atmosphere of an attic or basement.
Comedy is a skill developed only with practice and rehearsal and re-writes and re-writes and re-writes by editing as you go: pre-writing, writing, polishing and revising also includes spelling correction, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure according to your characters' dialect, subject/verb agreement, consistent verb tense, word usage, story continuity, et cetera.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Inspiration
Where, o wherefore art thou, inspiration?
You are certainly not going to find it in that sentence.
Does that mean that your play must be based on a true story? Could be. Or does that mean that your play must be made from the "whole cloth" of your imagination? If the story of your play is made of "whole cloth", it is obviously not true. The question then becomes: How close to the truth do I want my story to be? Or... do I want any part of the truth? If a play is made of "whole cloth" and some truth, this may be where you want to be. Obviously there are many plays written entirely in truth, but if 'Hollywood' gets it hands on it... who knows what will happen.
Where to find your inspiration? In all of your years of personal experience there must be some little bit to inspire you to expand upon. That "little bit" could be a part of something you read recently or as long ago as your childhood. It could be a person. A person who made a life-changing impact upon you or one of your close or distant relatives... or a friend of yours.
Find a quiet place (a park, or your favorite chair) and spend some time alone. Don't take a notebook. Don't take notes until you get to your writing place. Do nothing but think. Most people don't do enough, or for that matter, any "peaceful thinking". Writers need to think... in peace.
Ah! An inspiration: Now that you have found a "little bit" maybe your personal knowledge and experience can expand upon it. Caution: You are not going to find every aspect you will need to expand that "little bit" in your storehouse of knowledge and experience. Resign yourself to that. If your play is to have any future on paper, you will need to research your "little bit" further. If your story has some bit of truth, it must be consistant with the truth.
Notes for ______(Tentative title)______) Inspired by my father's return from "Operation Enduring Freedom". He was a changed man. He was not the man who kissed me good-bye.
Query: What was "Operation Enduring Freedom"? (Research the net: Wikipedia (not totally reliable); George W. ("Dubya") Bush's remark that "...this crusade (bad choice of words given the "enemy"), this war on terrorism, is going to take a while"...).
Query: Why did it happen? (Research the net: Wikipedia.)
Query: How did my father get involved? (Ask Mom.)
Query: How far do I want to take this? The ethics of war? The terror of war and its aftermath? How did it effect Daddy? How did it effect his family? Me? Mom?
I think you get the idea.
Writers need to think... in peace. Find your peaceful place for inspiration.
You are certainly not going to find it in that sentence.
Does that mean that your play must be based on a true story? Could be. Or does that mean that your play must be made from the "whole cloth" of your imagination? If the story of your play is made of "whole cloth", it is obviously not true. The question then becomes: How close to the truth do I want my story to be? Or... do I want any part of the truth? If a play is made of "whole cloth" and some truth, this may be where you want to be. Obviously there are many plays written entirely in truth, but if 'Hollywood' gets it hands on it... who knows what will happen.
Where to find your inspiration? In all of your years of personal experience there must be some little bit to inspire you to expand upon. That "little bit" could be a part of something you read recently or as long ago as your childhood. It could be a person. A person who made a life-changing impact upon you or one of your close or distant relatives... or a friend of yours.
Find a quiet place (a park, or your favorite chair) and spend some time alone. Don't take a notebook. Don't take notes until you get to your writing place. Do nothing but think. Most people don't do enough, or for that matter, any "peaceful thinking". Writers need to think... in peace.
Ah! An inspiration: Now that you have found a "little bit" maybe your personal knowledge and experience can expand upon it. Caution: You are not going to find every aspect you will need to expand that "little bit" in your storehouse of knowledge and experience. Resign yourself to that. If your play is to have any future on paper, you will need to research your "little bit" further. If your story has some bit of truth, it must be consistant with the truth.
Notes for ______(Tentative title)______) Inspired by my father's return from "Operation Enduring Freedom". He was a changed man. He was not the man who kissed me good-bye.
Query: What was "Operation Enduring Freedom"? (Research the net: Wikipedia (not totally reliable); George W. ("Dubya") Bush's remark that "...this crusade (bad choice of words given the "enemy"), this war on terrorism, is going to take a while"...).
Query: Why did it happen? (Research the net: Wikipedia.)
Query: How did my father get involved? (Ask Mom.)
Query: How far do I want to take this? The ethics of war? The terror of war and its aftermath? How did it effect Daddy? How did it effect his family? Me? Mom?
I think you get the idea.
Writers need to think... in peace. Find your peaceful place for inspiration.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
This morning we met to continue discussion and critique of Brenda's yet untitled new play involving diverse characters in a weekly poker game. Today we read, with continued interest, the evolution of a major character and the possible romantic association of two others, although one of the characters seemed not too interested in the other.
Tip of the week:
Create Conflict. The heart of drama; someone wants something and people and things keep getting in the way of achieving the goal. At times, the obstacles can be common to both the protagonist or hero and the antagonist or villain The ultimate goal is a laudable one for both parties.
We will have readings of one act plays, shorts and shorters, as in monologues and poems next week.
If you are free on any Saturday morning and would like to be involved in the process of developing plays or have a play of your own to be critiqued, please stop by at or about 10:00am next Saturday or any Saturday that is not a major (Federal) holiday.
Tip of the week:
Create Conflict. The heart of drama; someone wants something and people and things keep getting in the way of achieving the goal. At times, the obstacles can be common to both the protagonist or hero and the antagonist or villain The ultimate goal is a laudable one for both parties.
We will have readings of one act plays, shorts and shorters, as in monologues and poems next week.
If you are free on any Saturday morning and would like to be involved in the process of developing plays or have a play of your own to be critiqued, please stop by at or about 10:00am next Saturday or any Saturday that is not a major (Federal) holiday.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Brenda brought the beginning of her new (yet untitled) play that we discussed in depth at our meeting on the 26th of January. She has six, now diverse, characters seated around the poker table. We read the play to Brenda so that she could hear and feel whether or not the characters each had different personalities. They do, but they can and will get better. The priest is there sipping his whiskey. The farmer is there hiding his cache of cash. The stand-up comedian is taunting and testing everyone with his good, bad and sometimes insulting jokes. The widower is there having nothing to do with anyone accept placing bets in the game of draw poker for the more than $60.00 pot.
We ended our meeting with the reading of several monologues: up or down toilet seats, man's best friends, lines used on every girl, 'looking hot', dancing with Mr. Wii, etc. Ceridyn is still writing "a little something". She says that she will keep working on it and hopefully drop by next weekend.
Until next time take a look at my blogs:
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013, 10:00am......
We began and ended our meeting with the reading of plays by Brenda. The discussion of her work progressed to a piece she had set aside some time ago. We discussed the last piece in depth because it involved four to seven characters of diverse personalities; a priest, a woman with an undisclosed phd, a young farmer; etc., centered around a poker table. If you can imagine these characters with nothing in common except their need to gamble... with a large buy-in or penny ante, it doesn't matter... and where ever each character, given their hidden or obvious agendas, leads the playwright to and fro across the stage. It is an intriguing premise to create and address: Why is each character at the poker table? What are they hiding? Why are they hiding? What does a gambling and whiskey drinking priest have to hide? Brenda left the meeting with a page full of notes and ideas to further her story.
I can't wait until next week's reading.
I convinced Natalie to submit a one page piece. I critiqued it on line and, if she agrees with me, I hope she will bring a rewrite the next time we meet. (She just emailed that she will bring the re-write February 9th.)
Ceridyn has also begun to write "a little something". She says that she will keep working on it and hopefully drop by next weekend.
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