Last November, Claire Danes, Zac Efron, and Richard Linklater—were in Washington, DC, speaking about the importance of arts education. They sat down with the Washington Post to talk about the impact the Arts, particularly in their formative years, has had in their lives.
The video of that conversation is up on YouTube and I found it very entertaining.
The best story comes from Claire Danes, recounting an early dance experience:
Every year we did a group piece but then every student at every age would choreograph their own piece. They would select their own music and their own theme. I was “Moth to Flame” one year.
Welcome to the Journey of a Play, in which over the next year, we’re going to take you through the step by step process of what happens to a play here at Theatrefolk. That play being, my play, Somewhere Nowhere.
This month I’m going to talk about re-writes. A play is never fully written in the first draft, it shouldn’t be anyway. It can take 2, 3, 4, sometimes five…. I like to call the first draft the ‘do’ draft. You do it, get it done. It’s the subsequent drafts where the real work happens. They’re called the why drafts. Why does this event happen? Why does this character act this way, say this thing. I read a post recently that described a first draft as the marble and the subsequent drafts as the sculpture the marble is made from. Great image. You can write a pretty good first draft. My first drafts are really far along in the process, I went through Somewhere Nowhere at least three times before I called it an official first draft. But if you’re not taking that extra step, digging in, going further, being specific, asking questions, asking why of your play, then the play’s never going to be as good as it could be.
So in the process of working on Somewhere Nowhere, and getting it past the first draft stage, the next step is to hand the play over to my trusted reader, Craig, who is the first eye on all of my projects. It’s important to have a trusted reader for two reasons: they’re going to be kind and they’re going to be honest. And that is a vital combination when dealing with the fragile minds of writers. Well, it’s not so much fragility; when you’ve put a lot of sweat and tears into something, you want a little positive feedback. Even if it’s just a teeny tiny shred. Having said that, you also want someone to be honest with you, especially when something’s not working. That’s what I trust Craig to do and that’s what he did with Somewhere Nowhere.
So first he was kind – he said the third and forth plays, the play is made up of four one acts, the third and the forth, they were his favourite. Great characters, very engaging. He then outlined two pretty big character issues. He said the second play was telegraphic. A character who turns out to be not very heroic at the end of the play, was seen that way from the get go. Telegraphic is a great word for a writer. It’s not a fun word, it means the end is being seen before we get there. But it tells me right away what’s been seen by an outside eye. And with the first play, Craig felt that the main character was very sombre from beginning of the play to the end of the play. Another excellent critique – characters need to change, they need to grow, and if they’re the same from beginning to end, then there’s none of that. That has to be there.
And that’s what I like about Craig’s comments, there’s always something tangible for me to work with. It’s important for characters to change throughout a play and it’s doubly important that plays not telegraph their endings.
So after that, two out of the four one acts pretty much had to be re-written. Two out of four. For some writers that would be a cause for alarm. How do you re-write without starting from scratch? And that’s why your work has to be really detailed. That’s why I went through three rounds with the play before calling it a first draft. Because, when your work is detailed you never have to start from scratch. You never have to feel adrift with your play. For example, I had already written a very detailed character profile for Echo, that’s the main character from the first play. So I knew her very well, and her personality didn’t change all that much between draft one and two. I just had to focus in on her emotional journey and why I wrote it that way. There’s those “whys” again. Why did I make her so sombre? What happens if I alter her emotional journey, make it a roller coaster, and still stay true to her story. If you know your characters and you know your story, re-writes aren’t scary at all. They take a long time but they’re not scary.
The other thing to is that if you are detailed it’s a lot easier to stick to your guns. If you know your characters and your story, you’re not going to waffle if someone comes along with an opposing opinion.
So, a number of the characters reappear in the four one acts. They change, they grow, they falter. And there’s a couple in the first and the forth, and they break up in the first one act and it is suggested they are going to get back together in the last. Craig wasn’t so keen on it, found it artificial. I disagree. I think they ground the play as a whole, I think it’s necessary, and I think I know these characters well enough that it’s going to work. Regardless it’s something I’m not going to make a final decision until I see it in production. That’s a really good point for writers. The more you know your work the more you can stand up for it. Never change something because someone thinks differently than you.
Seeing the play on it’s feet is going to be the focus of the next few videos. I’m very lucky that Somewhere Nowhere is going to have the opportunity to be workshopped and performed, and in full and in various section. It’s important for playwrights to see and hear their work. That’s where plays live, right? Plays don’t live on the page, they live and breathe on the stage which is very, very, corny, but it’s true. See you next time.
Are you looking for a one act play for a cast of 16? 25? 50? 100? This easy to stage crowd-pleaser may be for you.
Cat hair is infinite. No matter how much hair you brush off of a cat, there will always be more. Always.
Cat hair has existed since the beginning of time, and it will be here long after cockroaches have become extinct. It is the secret driving force behind business and politics, and is plotting the downfall of humanity even as we speak.
Unbelievable? Find out for yourself in this insidious and utterly terrifying tale, which is also totally hilarious, easy to stage, and suitable for an insanely large cast. Brenda! Put down that brush! Step away from the cat!
Cat Hair comes from the pen of Bradley Walton. It’s an hilarious highly theatrical romp that covers the stage completely in cat hair. Rather, actors playing cat hair. It fits perfectly in our catalouge as a play that can be very simple to stage, yet also allows the director’s imagine to run wild with all sorts of opportunities for clever staging.
Words! Love ‘em. Love the way they sound, love they way they can look entirely different than the way they sound, love words that sound like they should mean one thing but mean another. Pulchritude sounds like a rather homely word and yet means physical beauty. Sigh. I love words with accents and the way we say FRUS-trated and the British say frus-TRATED. That, gives me goose bumps.
So of course, I would be all over a post that heralds the new words invited to the Oxford English Dictionary ball. At least, I was before I actually SAW the words. I’m not sure I’m happy these particular words are invited to the party. The OED is somewhat of an institution and I’m not sure we should be encouraging words like bromance. Isn’t bromance just going to spike the punch and break a vase before peeing over the balcony?
And how exactly did a word like hikikomori get an invite? Kikikomori is ‘the abnormal avoidance of social contact, especially by adolescent Japanese males.” Who is using this word? I think Kikikomori snuck in through the kitchen with automagically.
But wait there’s more! Here’s a list of rejected words. No invite for you nudenda, vidiot, and polkadodge. Better luck next year….
HEY! DID YOU KNOW – (ok I’ll stop shouting). So I was surfing the net looking for a nice juicy example for a word that looks different than sounds and I stumbled across the fact that the word peruse doesn’t mean to skim. Which is what I thought. It actually means to examine carefully. Love that. Let’s start using that word properly, people!
This week on Spread the Love, Lindsay talks about Wenceslas, a Christmas play.
Transcript
Welcome to Spread the Love where we continue Christmas month this week with Wenceslas. Wenceslas, is a theatrical version of the traditional Christmas carol: “Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen….” The carol’s a rather uplifting tale of man helping his fellow man regardless of class or wealth. And that’s exactly what drew me to write a play about it.
The story focuses on two couples: King Wenceslas and his materialistic wife Queen Maryanne and poor Thomas who has nothing to give but love to his sick wife Kathyrnne. The themes touch on the true meaning of Christmas and relationships and this is right around where we reach the sticking point with the play.
Wenceslas is not really a children’s play so it’s not appropriate for the little ones. And it’s too long for competition so that’s out. Who will perform you Wenceslas, who?
Let me lay out the good: It has a big cast with room to grow. It has singing and movement so there’s variety in tone and you can use a wide variety of actor. It has the most lovely message. It is at heart, a true Christmas tale. If you’re looking for a secular play with a message, I would highly recommend this for some church groups for example, give Wenceslas a read. That’s it for Spread the Love.
The theatre is the funnest (can you believe ‘funnest’ passed my spell check?) building in the school. I’m not one of those Chicken-Little-alarmist folks but it’s probably also the most dangerous place in the school. Combine a group of Mountain Dewed teenagers with thousands of watts of electricity, an unguarded four-foot drop, and several hundred pounds of scenery constructed by the same group of teenagers, and you have what looks like a recipe for disaster.
Despite all the dangers, you don’t hear about too many serious accidents in school theatres. Theatre teachers are to be commended for instilling the discipline needed to stay safe in the theatre.
If you want to keep up to date with theatre safety, then you should check out Erich Friend’s Theatre Safety Blog. If you’re looking for some tips I highly recommend subscribing.
I learned about it this past January at the TETA Conference in Dallas and made a mental note to share it with you, but time slipped away and I’m about eight months late. Oops.
I taught a one week arts camp a couple of weeks ago. While not my finest or my funnest hour, it certainly was a learning experience. And, I’m extremely proud of how I handled most of the road blocks in my way.
Here are some do’ and some don’t's based on my experience.
DO be flexible.
It became clear really quickly, that though I was asked to prepare an acting skills program, the kids couldn’t have cared less about improving their acting skills. I got a strong impression that at least half weren’t interested in drama at all. Improv, yes. But acting? Not so much. At least half of my planned program went out the window. Add to that the fact that the participants were an “interesting challenge” when it came to focus. They would focus when a competition was involved. They couldn’t focus as a large group but were quite productive in groups of three. It became necessary to revise the program each day to meet these challenges and find the best way to engage the participants.
DO listen to what the participants want.
It’s important to remember the situation. This is a caaaaaaamp. It’s not school. It’s not a job. There is no grade at the end. It’s supposed to be fun. So, if you hammer home some program just because it’s what’s on paper you’ll have an awfully disgruntled group. It’s a balancing act.
This particular group loved doing improv. Fair enough, we played improv games every morning, (of my choosing based on the theme of the day) and then if they remained focused during other activities, they got to play games of their choosing at the end of the day. It’s amazing how much it meant to the participants to have that opportunity.
DON’T give up.
It would have been easy to throw my hands up and say – Forget this, improv all day for the rest of the week! It would have been just as easy to throw my hands up and say – these kids are unteachable! It’s all their fault! Every person is teachable and it was my job to look for the way in.
For example, I learned by accident that these participants were excellent readers and writers. I had planned to junk a monologue writing exercise before this and I’m so glad that I didn’t. It turned out to be one of the highlights of the week.
Also, just because someone don’t want something, doesn’t mean you can’t teach it. There are ways to teach acting skills without calling them skills. Sort of like hiding the spinach in the smoothie. Instead of having a teaching moment on how to properly use the voice in acting, we had a tongue twister competition. We sang camp songs every day in lieu of a vocal warm up. When participants wanted to play a specific improv game, we said “let’s do this character exercise first.”
And sometimes, when presented with a knee jerk reaction it’s important not to give into that reaction.
At the end of the week there was a showcase, which included each participant being involved with a short two to three page scene. When I gave out the scenes on Thursday, at least half of the participants expressed great concern about being able to memorize their lines. It would have been easy to let them not memorize, give up on the project given the loudness of the protest. Instead I encouraged, I said ‘let’s try first,’ and by the next morning every group had their scene down.
DO be on the look out for positive moments.
When dealing with a group with an “interesting challenge” it’s easy to find yourself feeling like the wicked witch of the west when it comes to discipline. Or, find yourself repeating the same request over and over and over again. And over, and over, and over…..It can be frustrating. That’s why it’s so important to always be on the look out for the positive. It’s supposed to be a camp. It’s supposed to be fun. All kids, no matter their behaviour, want to be acknowledged when they do something good. Whenever I had to discipline a participant, I made it my job to watch like a hawk for the opportunity to compliment that same participant.
On the last day, we had a huge problem with keeping the participants quiet back stage during rehearsals for the showcase. Yep, very focused challenged. I made sure, when chastising the group about their behaviour backstage, that I told them how proud I was of their work onstage. And I was! They did amazing onstage. But it would have been easy to forget to mention that because the negative was overwhelming. In the end, they pulled it together both onstage and off.
DON’T loose your cool
I wasn’t always successful with this one. And I fully admit, it’s an area that needs work. What I was successful with was the moment after: look for the positive, remind myself it’s a camp, try to have as much fun as the participants.
And in the end, while the experience wasn’t easy, it definitely felt like a success. It was downright rewarding! And I know everything I learned will only pay off the next time I step into a classroom.
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