Spotlight! E-news from Theatrefolk

Issue 2 - The Creative Process: The Idea

Welcome!

Welcome to our second newsletter, all about The Creative Process. This is a great resource for anyone interested in plays and where they come from. Even if you're not a writer, you're sure to gain some valuable insights.

And, of course, don't miss out on your chance to download Lindsay Price's latest play, Tick Talk .

In this issue:

• THE CREATIVE PROCESS - Our writers share their thoughts on their newest creations.
• BOOK REVIEWS - Lindsay reviews two books about playwriting.
• HOW DO I FIND IDEAS? - Lindsay answers the question posed to every writer.
• YOU ASKED FOR IT - We answer your questions.
• IN THE NEXT ISSUE - What you can expect next.
• STAY IN TOUCH - Contact info/Read our blog.

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The Creative Process

We asked the writers of the new plays we have coming out this fall to talk about their creative process. Every writer was given the same set of questions. See what our writers have to say.

Lindsay Price
Tick Talk and …and a Groundhog in a Pear Tree

I have two new plays in the fall catalogue, a Christmas play, and an experimental play - two completely different writing experiences, which is always fun to do.

I also did an adaptation of Hamlet for our One Hour Shakespeare Series. I took the 4+ hour original and pared it down to an hour. I also did a ton of sidebar notes with vocabulary, plot and character help. It was a lot of work but I’m very happy with it. The story is pretty clean and it gives a great introduction to, what I think is, Shakespeare’s finest play. It was an honour to spend so much time with the text and to really analyze it.

Tick Talk

1. Where did the idea for this play come from?

I saw a movie last year called Elephant which is about a very ordinary day at a high school, that leads to a shooting. I was really struck by the sparseness of the dialogue. I can be somewhat verbose with my characters so I was inspired to go in the other direction. So much so, that for most of the characters in the play, I only gave them one word to work with.

2. How do you start writing a new play? (With an image? A line of dialogue? Always character? Always story?)

It’s different every time. I mostly start with a “what if” question, like, “What if the characters in this play spoke only one word?” Sometimes it’s much more logical, like I want to do a certain type of play or explore a certain theme. My second step is always character. I’m a character writer through and through.

3. Did you have any challenges or obstacles in the writing?

Tick Talk had a lot of challenges because most of the story is told through stage directions and how the characters say their one word. This is the opposite to the way I normally write plays. I always tell my playwriting students that everything must be in the dialogue. If it’s not in the dialogue then you can’t guarantee it will come across. So, there’s a lot of trust involved: I have to trust that actors will realize the need to follow the stage directions more closely than they might in a normally structured play. That’s somewhat nerve-wracking. And also exciting.

4. Have you seen it performed? How did it play? Just like in your head? Completely different?

The most exciting moment is when you see actors take a challenging play and it works! I was very concerned that Tick Talk wouldn’t work off the page, or that the stage directions wouldn’t translate to what I wanted. I did the writer's dance of joy when I saw that it did work.

…and a Groundhog in a Pear Tree

1. Where did the idea for this play come from?

This play was created quite logically. I knew I wanted to write another Christmas play for the catalogue because they are popular. I chose to write about The Twelve Days of Christmas because it would give me a large cast and that lead pretty naturally to incorporating other calendar days, which lead to the fact that the 12 days of Christmas aren’t in the calendar. (I think this answers question number 2 too!)

3. Did you have any challenges or obstacles in the writing?

For the first time ever I worked with a collaborator. I knew that I wanted the songs in the play to have more complexity than I could ever write. I have a colleague who is very experienced in choral music and this was the perfect project for that. This experience was really enjoyable. I had a clear picture in my head of how I wanted the music to sound, and Kristin was able to re-create the essence of that while coming up with something completely original. I think that’s an amazing talent and I look forward to working with her again.

4. Have you seen it performed? How did it play? Just like in your head? Completely different?

The greatest thing about this play is the music. I had an idea of what I wanted and it sounds great. The whole play is based on a weird version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and it’s a lot of fun to hear. Very rewarding.

Alan Haehnel
Will and Whimsy: Sixteen Dramatically Illustrated Sonnets of Shakespeare and Stressed: A Teen Symphony

We’re excited to have two of Alan’s plays coming out in the fall. We are dedicated to expanding our Shakespeare category and were so pleased to read Alan’s take on the sonnets with Will and Whimsy: Sixteen Dramatically Illustrated Sonnets of Shakespeare . Stressed: A Teen Symphony is exactly what the title says: A teen symphony. What a great image!

Will and Whimsy

1. Where did the idea for this play come from?

I have long been fascinated with the sonnets of Shakespeare. I found them concise gems of wisdom and humanity, and have memorized several of them. As an English teacher, I have often been bothered that my students had a hard time seeing the applicability of these poems to their own lives, particularly because of Shakespeare’s language. So, I thought I would try to pair the sonnets with modern-day scenes that would illustrate the points of the sonnets, or at least one point in them. I wanted to keep the scenes comic, for the most part, for two reasons: first, to make the sonnets more attractive to those reading or performing the play; second, to mirror the humor that Shakespeare has in some of the poems.

2. How do you start writing a new play? (With an image? A line of dialogue? Always character? Always story?)

Each play is a bit different. This one started with the overall idea: Could I dramatize Shakespeare’s sonnets with brief modern scenes? Thus, I ended up writing a series of mini plays for this project. I would read the sonnet several times, then let it stew in my mind for a while. Most of the scene ideas came as angles, and most of them came as quick flashes after I had contemplated the particular poem for a while. For instance, for Sonnet 130, I thought, “What if this girl was looking at a fashion magazine and spouting off about how ugly she was in comparison to all the gorgeous women in the magazine? And what if her boyfriend just kept agreeing with everything she was saying?” I also read many sonnets that didn’t spark any angles, so I couldn’t write a corresponding scene for them. Originally, I was going for twenty scenes. Sixteen was the best I could do, though.

3. Did you have any challenges or obstacles in the writing?

No, this project was quite enjoyable. Just when I thought, “No, I can’t come up with an idea. I don’t think I’ll be able to get a full play out of this,” I would glance at another sonnet and a new idea would arrive. The short scene format allowed me to feel a sense of accomplishment in a brief time.

4. Have you seen it performed? How did it play? Just like in your head? Completely different?

Though I haven’t seen this play performed onstage, I did try out various scenes in my classes - both advanced and standard-level Seniors. We had a lot of fun with them, even just with cold readings, so I was quite pleased that the ideas seemed to translate to performance pretty easily.

Stressed: A Teen Symphony

1. Where did the idea for this play come from?

This idea was actually spurred by the requirements of the contest I wrote it for. Though it didn’t win, I am thrilled that the contest gave me the impetus to write it, and even more thrilled that Theatrefolk found it worthy of publication. Specifically, this contest called for a short play featuring all, or predominantly all, teen-age actors, and a cast no larger than five. This was odd for me; I usually write large cast plays. The other requirement was that the play deal with adolescent issues. As a teacher of high school Seniors, I have found that stress is a huge part of their lives, and increasing every year. I wanted to examine, using a humorous tone, the various causes of stress for teenagers. I listed the most common complaints, and finally chose these four: parents, girlfriends/boyfriends, school and coaches.

2. How do you start writing a new play? (With an image? A line of dialogue? Always character? Always story?)

After choosing the four stressors, I knew I wanted to have four very different types of characters dealing with them. I linked an over-achieving, straight-A student to deal with school; a snow-boarding dude to deal with his girlfriend; an intense soccer player to deal with her coach; and a sarcastic girl to deal with her parents. Then, I basically let them start ranting away!

3. Did you have any challenges or obstacles in the writing?

I had a tough time on the rhythm of this piece. I knew I didn’t want to have just a series of monologues. Though the four don’t interact throughout the piece, I wanted them to overlap and to balance each other to show how stress is similar from person to person, despite the various characters and stressors. Variety was key, so I had to work hard to find ways to have these characters separate and non-interacting, but part of an almost musical whole (hence the sub-title “A Teen Symphony”). The part I am of proudest of is when all of the characters talk simultaneously, then come together suddenly for key lines they all speak together. Overall, though short, this was quite a challenging piece for me. I’ve never attempted anything quite like it.

4. Have you seen it performed? How did it play? Just like in your head? Completely different?

I have never seen this one performed. I certainly hope to some day.

Bob Wilkins
The Haunting of Chip Lake Lodge

The Haunting of Chip Lake Lodge is part mystery, part comedy and all entertaining. Four teens think they are headed to the prom and end up dealing with ghosts, a strange handyman and disco music. The Haunting of Chip Lake Lodge is the first play of Bob’s that we have published.

1. Where did the idea for this play come from?

I rarely remember where my ideas come from. In the case ofThe Haunting of Chip Lake Lodge my intent was to write something where the setting was a local landmark: Chip Lake. This play was written with some particular actors in mind (students at my school). I had never written this kind of play before and was interested in seeing if I could stretch the bounds of credibility and still make it believable, if that makes sense.

2. How do you start writing a new play? (With an image? A line of dialogue? Always character? Always story?)

I have written plays inspired by all of the possibilities you have listed. In most cases it is an image of something onstage that starts the process. I have also been inspired by conversations I have had.

3. Did you have any challenges or obstacles in the writing?

For me the challenge is to tell the story in a entertaining way, realizing that I have no clue what others will find entertaining.

4. Have you seen it performed? How did it play? Just like in your head? Completely different?

Since I produced and directed this play, it pretty much went as expected. Of course, teenage actors often bring perspectives to a character that I never considered.

Don O'Shea
Little Nell and the Mortgage Foreclosure

Melodramas are not easy to write. They must heighten the drama to an extreme without going too far. We loved Don’s take on the melodrama. It has all the necessary conventions, right down to the stovepipe-hat-wearing villain, but also accomplishes a great send-up of the form.

1. Where did the idea for this play come from?

The idea for the play came after our local Quad City Music Guild decided that the revenues derived from our "Winter Extravaganzas" were declining from year to year. When they fell to a $2000 net profit after a large cast fundraiser that took about 40 nights of work for 50 people, I suggested we try to raise money through "mini-shows." I suggested to the Board that we stage a melodrama. They told me that since it was my idea, I should go find a melodrama that would be suitable.

I decided I wanted a piece in the public domain, so that we would not have to pay royalties. But when I looked for such a play at the library, I quickly learned that libraries throw out old books, and that they had no melodramas in their collection.

It was then that I decided to write one. the result was Little Nell and the Mortgage Foreclosure.

2. How do you start writing a new play? (With an image? A line of dialogue? Always character? Always story?)

"Little Nell" began as a one act piece designed to run about 20 minutes. It proved extremely popular. To have a new vehicle available for audiences who had already seen the "first act," I then decided to write a second act, and before long, a third act.

I began with the idea that I wanted four characters:

1. A typical melodramatic villain
2. A heroine
3. A hero, and
4. A sharp old aunt who would turn out to be the real hero.

I also began with the notion that I wanted to incorporate every conceivable melodramatic cliche, but in a slightly unusual way. Before long, I decided to have a "stage manager" who would "pop" in from time-to-time with the "hiss" and "boo" signs. I developed that character into "Gideann" at the request of Craig, my editor at Theatrefolk.

Once I had the basic notion of doing a one act melodrama using four characters, I sat down at my computer, and the play just seemed to write itself.

3. Did you have any challenges or obstacles in the writing?

The biggest challenge was how to turn my "Stage Manager" into "Gideann." It took a lot of work, and a number of revisions.

4. Have you seen it performed? How did it play? Just like in your head? Completely different?

I have directed the play many times during the course of its development. When I offered it to Theatrefolk, I offered it as a straight play without music. But in its early days, we incorporated four songs from the public domain, in what is now "Act One." (In those days, of course, I was the villain.) Later, I staged it as a three act melodrama at one of the junior high schools where I direct plays. Whether performed as a musical, or as a three act melodrama, it is a piece that the players and audience have always liked.

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Book Reviews

Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
By Anne Lamott
Anchor Books
1994
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385480016/

The first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not share this longing which is one reason they write so very little.(p3)

One of my all time favourite books on the writing process is not directed at playwrights: Bird By Bird: Some Instructions for Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. Even though Ms. Lamott is a novelist (she also writes wonderful non-fiction) the manner in which she talks about process works well for any kind of writer.

Not only does she cover the usual topics of where to find ideas, character, plot and dialogue but she speaks with humour and personal stories that hit directly to the heart of her readers. I would fully recommend this book for student writers because they will instantly recognize even top-level writers suffer the same problems as novices.

For example, she talks about how easy it is to get overwhelmed by a project as a whole: a book as a whole or a play as a whole can be too much to think about and that's where writers block can set in.

To combat this, Ms. Lamott has a small one inch picture frame by her computer. Each day, she says, the writer's job is to fill the frame. Whether it's with a bit of dialogue, or a character description, or something about the story, the task of the day is to fill the frame. Now of course, you certainly may write more. But for the days when writing is hard, this concept allows for a completely manageable task, a place to start.

The following exercise is from the character chapter of Ms. Lamott's book. Again, it's for novelists but I use it all the time in my playwriting class, and for my own plays as well.

Acre of Land

The more you know your characters, the more you can write for them. In fact you can never know too much! It's particularly important to explore characters outside the world of the play: even if you don't use every detail, you are creating dimension and flesh for the bone.

To that end, create an acre of land for each character in your play. What would they have on their acre? Would it illuminate or create more questions? Would the character take care of the acre, or let it go into disrepair? Is it fanciful? Spartan? Lush? Rural or urban?

Bird by Bird was passed on to me by another writer 10 years ago and just recently I passed on my copy to a writer working on her first book. I find it inspirational, practical and a great laugh.

The Crafty Art of Playmaking
By Alan Ayckbourn
Farber and Farber
2002
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403962294

At its most successful, theatre views things from a human standpoint. It is after all the most human in scale of all the performance media. My feeling is that that's also a good place for a dramatist to start, at the human level. As a playwright it may be your intention to build a vehicle to take us to the stars. But do make sure you have people on board.(p9)

Alan Ayckbourn has a forty-year career as a playwright (I'm a huge fan of his Absurd Person Singular) and the sense of humour in his writing is definitely an influence in my own. It's this bone-dry wit that permeates The Crafty Art of Playmaking . To that end, I would suggest that this is a book for teachers to read and glean information from to pass along to students.

This book is divided into two sections: writing and directing. The writing section follows topics such as the initial idea, construction, time, location, characters and dialogue. But they way the topics are discussed is ingenious: Ayckbourn has come up with 39 (in the writing section) “Obvious Rules” of writing. Here are a few of them:

Rule Number 2: Never start a play without an idea.
Rule Number 5: They (the audience) need to care about your characters. So you should too.
Rule Number 14: At least fifty percent of your play is going to be visual.
Rule Number 24: Information gleaned indirectly by an audience is more effective.
Rule Number 38: Don't be afraid to throw it away.

The “Obvious Rules” are, clearly, quite obvious. But I like that about the book - sometimes we need the obvious pointed out to us. Furthermore, each rule is explained and there are many examples (in dialogue form, which I love). The rules, either individually or as a whole, would act as great talking points for a writing class. And finally, I think it's an added bonus that there is a directing section in this book - every writer should be aware of the other aspects in the play process.

Here are a couple of other books to look into…

The Playwright's Guidebook
Stuart Spencer
Faber and Faber
2002
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0571199917

The Dramatist's Toolkit: The Craft of the Working Playwright
Jeffrey Sweet
Heinemann
1993
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0435086294

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How Do I Find Ideas?

This is probably the number one question writers get and every writer has a different answer. I think it's the most asked question because getting the idea is the start of the creative process. So how does a writer find an idea to write about? Here are a few exercises to try:

Eavesdropping :
Eavesdrop (discretely!) on a conversation. You should try to write the conversation down as close to verbatim as possible. Create characters and a situation for this dialogue. Write an additional page of dialogue beyond what was overheard.

Newspapers :
Read the newspaper and cut out articles. Highlight any interesting detail. Pick one detail and write a scene. For example, if the article is about a car accident, you could write a scene about the person in accident, or the person waiting for the person in the accident to come home, or the person who just missed being in the accident.

Research :
Do you have an issue or topic that interests you? Start researching and writing down everything about it: stats, testimonials, facts, misconceptions. Keep writing details down until they start speaking back! When I wanted to write a play about breast cancer, I did a ton of research before I found a small website where a woman talked about unconventional treatments: I knew I had my angle.

Dictionary Dig :
Open the dictionary and pick a word at random. Preferably something with at least three syllables! Come up with a character through which you can demonstrate this word. Write a monologue.

History/Literature :
Take a character from literature or a person from history. Write about a moment in their life. Make up a moment. Take a fictional character and a historical figure and put them in the same room. Take a fictional character and write what happens to them after their story ends; or before their story begins.

Songs/Poems :
Take your favourite song/poem and use it as the basis for a character/monologue/scene.

The point is that a writer should never have to sit and stare at an empty page, waiting for an idea to come. There's always a way in.

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You Asked For It

We frequently receive emails such as this one:

Dear Theatrefolk,
Do you accept play submissions? If so, what are your guidelines?

Yes, we do accept submissions. We focus exclusively on the high school market, so we prefer plays that have a majority of characters of high school age. The exception to this is adaptations and parodies of classical work. Our Shakespearean spoofs Hamlette and Mmmbeth are very popular, for example.

We keep our author guidelines updated at:
http://www.theatrefolk.com/page_23.html

It normally takes us between two and three months to respond to a play submission.

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In the Next Issue

We have even more new plays coming out soon. In our next issue, we'll let you know about them.

Also, we'll tell you all about The Script Bank - our exciting innovation in script licensing.

Stay in Touch

Future issues will be guided by your suggestions. Email stories, tips, suggestions, and questions to us by visiting: http://www.theatrefolk.com/contact . This newsletter belongs to you!

Stay updated with our regularly-updated blog: http://www.theatrefolk.com/blog