A Group of Angelic Troublemakers*

This is what I try to be.  This is what I hope the actors, directors, and the other artists and crew are, who perform my plays.

My scripts are my dreams.

I am not and do not wish to be an actor.  I am not and do not wish to be a director.  I am not and do not wish to be a producer.  If necessary, to see my work on stage, I will do any of these, but first I will do my best to find someone who is competent at these gifts.

I have found someone who is taking the first steps to being a great director.  I know this, because every time I run into her she is learning everything she can about the theatre.  (by the way, how the hell do you spell theater.)

She is directing my short play, "Go Home, Mister Chaplin," next week.

I am going to my first rehearsal today.

I deliberately stay away after the read through with the cast.

At the read through, I answer whatever questions the actors and director have... if I can.

I've mentioned before, in earlier posts, that, when writing, I tend to take in large volumes of information on all kinds of topics, some directly related to what I'm writing about, some background, some random.  Then I write.  Notes, outlines, character sketches.  Then I write.  Even for a short piece, this is generally how I work.

So far, the read through's, have been months after I wrote the piece.  I've moved on.  I review my notes before a read through to try and spark my memory, but a lot of what ends up on the page is... intuited during the writing process.  By the time of the read through, what ever I was thinking is no longer in my memory.  I also allow my intuition to make decisions about my plot, despite the fact that I have an outline.  Sometimes those decisions are not part of a conscious decision making process.

What I'm trying to say is that when the director or the cast ask questions, I sometimes don't have a coherent answer... And I'm okay with that.

The read through for "Go Home, Mister Chaplin" was at a staged reading.  Not only did the director and cast have questions, the audience had questions.  And as usual, I didn't always have answers.  Some of the questions made me very happy because they indicated that I had achieved my goal.  Some of the questions indicated that the audience didn't like those goals.  Some of the questions showed me where I had created confusion that I didn't want to create.

Rewrite.  Minor.

And then men, women, and children were killed in Paris.

Rewrite.  Minor.

I stay away from rehearsals because I want the other artists to deal with the confusion I have created in whatever creative manner they can.

My scripts are my dreams.  I hope they inspire others to dream.


* Bayard Rustin