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.

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