Friday, June 26, 2015

Playwriting (12) David Hare



Nobody’s dialogue is real. It’s not real life conversation, and it ought to not be. Otherwise it would be tedious.


Start with a startling image.

By being great, Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Beckett have been “disastrously influential.”


In life not everything fits. We can be such different people in different situations.

Man on Wire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

The “telling detail” was when Philippe Petit slept with the first woman he met, upon coming down, and thereby destroying an 8- to 10-year relationship with his girlfriend, who had spent months and months with him preparing for the high wire act.
 
John Osborne.

Play writing is about expressing something that you’re burning to express. Don’t do it, unless you have to do it.

Over the next few weeks, I capture episodes of the National Theatre: Playwriting series. These are instrumental lessons, as I work at my play "The Room." The above are my notes.
 

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Playwriting (11) Finding a writing style






Theater must show how people become the way they are and what potential they have for something more, something else, or something evolved.

Be true to your own voice, your authenticity as a writer.

Over the next few weeks, I capture episodes of the National Theatre: Playwriting series. These are instrumental lessons, as I work at my play "The Room." The above are my notes.