Some thoughts on the next
generation of playwrights & theatre artists.
This past year I’ve had the privilege to work with
playwriting students of vary skill levels and educational backgrounds at a variety of places and here
are some conclusions I’ve drawn . . .
1.) Playwrights need to constantly be putting
work up in front of an audience, even if it’s not perfect finished etc and
putting it up often.
Most of the writers I worked with
had no ability to see their work through the audience’s eyes. I found this fascinating. Whenever I
have a show going up or being workshopped, as soon as other people are in the
room I “see” the play through their eyes and learn so much, what is
over-written, what clunks, what doesn’t fit, what needs another beat etc. Somehow I learned this skill in
undergrad. Maybe it was because we were based on the writer’s workshop model
where our work was being read out loud constantly. The University of Iowa was
also production heavy. We had No Shame (which in it’s early days was mandatory
every week for the MFA’s), gallery shows, readings, workshops plus other
departments we would put work up in.
One of my colleagues at this event
confided in me that being able to see his play’s through the audience’s eyes
was something he had to learn over time and didn’t innately posses and was
something he was always working on.
I think being forced to put up
your own work all the time is a good thing. The French theatre teacher Jacques
Lecoq had his students put up work every Friday in what he called, auto-cours. Starting in the 1960’s Lecoq had the
students at this school devote time each day to working on pieces that they
would present to the school at the end of each week.
The pressure of putting up work
each week forces you to be okay with failure and learn to create when nothing
is truly happening for you creatively.
Through this process you will be
forced to wear different hats, that of actor, director, designer etc. I think
if more theatre training and education programs adopted some sort of system
like this, we would be making better and stronger theatre artists.
2.) Playwrights need to read more theatre and
watch more theatre.
A lot of these playwrights were smart, brilliant young
people but I found their depth and breadth of knowledge about theatre and major
theatre texts lacking. I found this shocking. I would reference a playwright or an essayist and I wouldn’t
find a hint of recognition on their faces.
The other problem lies in the fact that most art forms,
genres etc are self-referential. You can’t build upon and steal from other
people’s ideas if you haven’t read it or seen it.
3.) There is no substitute for solid dramatic
structure.
I will probably be crucified for this point, but it’s true.
Unless you are Mac Wellman or Erik Ehn I suggest hunkering down and really
learning structure. (I can hear
the movement theatre and devisor/collaborators in the world groaning as I
type!)
I have one thing to say to you, shut up and deal.
Even when I’m devising a project and putting the pieces
together I deal with structure. What is overall story we are telling?
Everything on stage must push the story forward. If it doesn’t move the narrative forward in some fashion it
doesn’t belong on stage. Other wise it becomes a cool piece of movement or a
pretty monologue or an interesting moment and that is death on stage. It might
be cool and you might be married to it, but if it stops the action (and that
word can have so many meanings and connotations) than it serves no purpose and
must go. If it doesn’t move the
message/politics/action/plot/narrative forward in some manner, cut it.
One of my early playwriting teachers, Thea Cooper, would
make us take a red pen to the page and draw shapes around very word that
correlated to it’s value. Then we would start cutting. It was a brutal
exercise, but brilliant and taught one to let shit go.
Another lesson in structure came from Nilo Cruz. He would
have us write scenes in the style of other playwrights. Oh, boy did that teach
us a thing or two about structure.
4.) All playwrights need to act and direct.
Again, I’m sure I’m hearing groans, guess what? I don’t
care.
All playwrights need to suffer through more than one acting
class and more than one directing class, why? It will make them better. My
favorite playwrights all started out as actors. If you suffer through more than
one acting class and are forced to act, forced to act in your own stuff, your
colleague’s stuff and if you direct your colleague’s plays, you will become
such a better writer.
Why you might ask? You will a.) Learn to think visually if
you are forced to direct as well as patch holes in other people’s plays and b.)
If you act and do it often you will hopefully ever write a character that
doesn’t serve a purpose or belong in the scene.
5.) Show, don’t tell.
I can’t tell you how many classes I’ve heard this in and
it’s true. The first 500 times you hear it, you won’t understand it and then
finally one day you will and your head will explode. The simplest way I can explain/describe etc this idea is
this. Write a monologue revealing something about a character, then, see how
you can relate the same information to the audience through physical action via
a scene using as few words as possible. Behavior not exposition is how we learn
about characters.
Believe it or not, but film and television writing are great
ways to drive this point home, since they are such visual mediums (as is the
theatre, hint, hint.)
6.) I believe in volume.
I was recently at a talkback for one of my plays and an
audience member (and budding writer) asked me if I believe in volume.
Yes, I do, to a point.
I don’t believe good writing can be taught. I think someone
is either a storyteller or they are not. I can teach someone how to write
cleanly, effectively and efficiently but inspiration, creativity and the
ability to make people shut up, sit down and listen to you? That can’t be
taught. But for someone who has the spark, yes they will get better through
everything they write.
Every time you write something you get better at structure,
you learn more about your voice, you grow more confident. Thinking about
writing won’t make you a better writer, only writing will. So when it comes to
theatre (notice I said theatre, not playwriting) I believe in the 10,000 Hour
Theory. Directing, acting, producing, stage-managing, designing and writing for
10,000 hours will make you a better playwright. Notice how really good musicians can play more than one
instrument? Theatre artists should be the same way.
Designers should direct, directors should write and
playwrights should act: get the picture? Trust me, it will make you better at
your primary art.
Also keep in mind that 99.9% of writing is re-writing. So
when I say volume I don’t necessarily always mean, volume – perhaps a better
way to describe it to say always be creating . . . something.
7.) Devising, company created work and other
popular trends.
No matter how you feel about it, devising and company
created work through the ensemble is here to stay. Even the Dramatists Guild is
addressing this current trend.
The elephant in the room is the issue that this
devised/company created work and the commercial theatre are currently
incongruous.
Theatre programs and educational institutions all across the
country are flocking to teaching students how to devise theatre and create work
as a company. I think that’s great. A class in devising should be a part of
every educational theatre’s curriculum. The issue arises when it comes to
making money and reproducing this work. It’s hard enough in this business to
make a living, have insurance and put into a retirement. Trying to do so with
devised/company created theatre is next to impossible. We don’t have a working financial model
for it. Also most companies that create this type of work have a hard time
reproducing it.
The way higher education is currently funded through student
loans and grants I see a problem brewing. Schools that receive federal funding
are now (or very soon) going to have to start posting learning outcomes and job
placement rates (in one form or another) on their websites if they want to
receive federal dollars.
While company created work is an easy way to claim students
are working, I feel an amazing use of curriculum would be a class in producing
and navigating the waters of non-profit management and commercial arts
management. This will only help a program’s graduates not just create their own
work, but able to create a long tem company and learn fiscal responsibility for
an arts organization.
What am I saying? Well, I feel any program with a sense of
being current, viable and serving the educational needs of it’s students should
have as a part of it’s curriculum a class in devised theatre, a class in
producing in the arts & arts management and last but not least some sort of
on-camera component.
Yup, I said it. Any educational theatre program in the
country that does not have an on-camera component is doing its students a
disservice. They all need to find a way to start integrating the camera into
their various disciplines be it design, writing, directing, stage management or
acting. Its where so many of their alumni will end up in one form or another
and to not prepare them, at least a little bit is criminal.
Stage managers will work in production, playwrights will
write television and actors – well, as a working actor I know how much of my
income comes from theatre and how much of it comes from film, television and
commercials and I know where my insurance benefits come from. I would be lost without SAG-AFTRA. Also
in this digital age of the Internet there is no excuse for not learning how to
tell stories and disseminate it through the web.
There is no excuse for not having it be part of the
curriculum, when the Playwright’ s Center puts trailers for plays on its
website and videos are an essential part of fundraising through crowd sourcing
on Kickstarter educational theatre must embrace the use of cameras, working on
camera and recorded media. To not
do so is negligent.
Bringing it back to the point of this post, which is
playwrights, I encourage them to put up their work in as many ways as possible, always be throwing something up in front of some kind of audience. I also want to challenge them with learning three things, devising,
producing and learning to write for film & television. At least experiment
with all three, you will be doing yourself, your career and your talent a
favor.
