Thinking About Writing About Thinking About New Plays

You may have already seen this essay by Jeffrey Jones about providing
context for plays. If you haven't, it's worth the look.

http://jeffreymjones.blogspot.com/2007/10/thinking-about-writing-about-thinking.html

h/t Histriomastix

http://histriomastix.typepad.com/weblog/

I saw Local Story last night

It's pretty freaking great. Now, it's true that I'm biased. I have friends in the cast and I'm marrying the playwright. But part of the reason I fell in love with her was this amazing poetic play. Please go see it here or in LA. I know the show here is great and I can vouch for at least two of the actors in the LA show and they are tops. I also recommend Rag and Bone if you have not yet seen it.

Floyd tries to compete with Master of the Universe, Freeman

http://floydbritch.blogspot.com/

Help some kids

I just donated to this. It's a great way to keep theater alive and help some poor kids. Bush may not give them health care but we can give them theater, by Jove.

http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2007/11/tis-the-season.html Update: The project was funded. Good job, folks.

Matthew Freeman continues to astound

How to name your play

http://matthewfreeman.blogspot.com/2007/11/naming-of-plays.html

08

See which candidate you most agree with here h/t Chris Durang

Local Story in NYC

http://www.villagevoice.com/nycguide/ev118859,8.html

Local Story in LA

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=7518622&blogID=331361445

things to do

I'm on page 55 of a new play. It's about this time usually when I get a little sick of what I'm writing. I start to think maybe it's not as great as I think it will be. It's too similar from my last play or it's not deep enough or funny enough, etc. And I know I will keep writing and by the end be happy to have written it. And then I will think that it's a great work of art and also not very good. And both of these things will be true for me at the same time. And then there will be the depression that comes right after the play is finished and I will scramble to figure out what to write next. A new screenplay, a pilot? go back to the novel? Write that clown murder mystery play? Or the winter play? Or the pirate play? The two people in Paris? The amnesia guy? The second act of Bee Eater? Maybe turn Herbie into a musical? And then there are all the revisions I need to do. And I was going to slow down. Slow down, Adam. Slow down.

need stocking stuffers?

How about my plays? get em here

Jaime on the same topic

http://fishunderwater.blogspot.com/2007/11/for-fans-of-straight-drama-replacements.html

Isaac's letter the the editor of the Times

http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2007/11/charles-isherwo.html

Why write about theater in the theater section? I go to the Times
theater section to read about the grocery store. Don't you?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/theater/21surv.html

what the left hand does while the right hand sleeps

Check out this Parabasis Hal Brooks interview. I especially liked this section, which I think is the best articulation of this particular playwright dilemma I’ve seen. The main challenge of working with the writer in the room is finding a way to run the room, while knowing that the guy/gal who wrote the play might have the answers - but that you might be the best person for a variety of reasons to answer the questions. I think actors sometimes want to get the answer from the playwright - because he's/she's there. But often times a playwright, having written their work, tapping into their unconscious might not have the actable answer...or they might. It depends. I love it when a writer doesn't know the answer. It makes the whole room freer, I think.. I am often afraid to open my mouth in the room for this reason. I don’t want to say the thing that is true but not useful. And I don’t want to say the thing that is not true and not useful because sometimes I’m not sure what made me write a line 3 years ago. This uncertainty is sometimes what makes people (not Hal) think they can help us write our plays. Because it’s not always easy to translate the subconscious into something everyone can understand. And when you can’t explain something, people sometimes thinks that means that they can do it better. Or that you need help. I think it’s actually a separate skill to try and be able to talk about what you’ve written while keeping safe the things you can’t say and yet keeping your confidence or appearing to keep your confidence while you deal with a question that you’re not sure if you should answer or are unable to answer. Meanwhile, you have to figure out in the rewriting process what things your subconscious put there that have to stay and which of them have to go. Because a lot of this is instinct, other people are often not helpful with this. What they can do is see the play with their eyes and tell you what they see. Which is helpful because you can never see the play with their eyes. It helps if these people are smart and know things about plays. And it helps if your subconscious doesn’t want to kill you. You see how I ruined a perfectly good essaylet with that? That was my fucking subconscious mind getting involved. And you know what? That probably shouldn’t make it to the next draft.

Matthew Freeman is a genius

And so are his rules for the writing of plays

http://matthewfreeman.blogspot.com/2007/11/rules-for-writing-of-plays.html