In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, I love the quiet absorption of being in a darkened theater and the vicarious release of watching a movie or a play. I know I am not the only one.
I suppose there has to be a balance: have a working story to lend a frame or a direction to your play, yet allow yourself to freelance, so to speak, and perhaps to plunge 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.
Iago is the Devil, but he’s got the juiciest parts.
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.
Don't be afraid to write shit. Don't be afraid to write shit.
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.
We mustn’t cut the tongues of young people. Create something you want, if it doesn’t yet exist. Hall wanted to see brownness on stage. I’ve been called “nigger” and “Black bitch” before. She writes about what she wants to learn about. The US has made strides, as far as social rights were concerned, but in the deep South people were still backwards. For example, people cried when Obama was elected President. The seeds of racism are still growing (rf. Donald Sterling as Lightning Rod). I have a starting point… I’m always surprised about what my characters say and do. I write about family members, and even take on their nicknames. This grounds her on dialect and content. We have to be truthful to our characters and how they speak.
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.
Conflict | a clash of interest, motive or plan. Subtext | two things have to be happening at the same time, sometimes people don’t say what they mean. Dramatic irony | we as the audience know something, but then the characters do something we didn’t quite expect.
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.
Politics is in everything we all do, including theater. It’s about economics and government, about gender and class. It’s a form of collective action, which we don’t all have the same agenda. You don’t choose to be a political playwright, rather you just happen to see the world that way. The seeds of racism are still growing in our world. ~Katori Hall, who’s been called “nigger” and “Black bitch” before (rf. Donald Sterling as Lightning Rod). You need to weave politics into a story. Politics is always a human story, because it’s about needs and wants. Hall’s teacher couldn’t think of a scene or two of two African-American women, so she created a play with them herself.
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.
