That quote, cut for space, was made by Martin Esslin in the book "The Theatre of the Absurd" which is now on my wish list of theatre books I want.
So, during this week, I really wanted to take some time off from theatre. Really just to recoup and get ready for Pan. So I wasn't going to read anything or do anything really theatre-y. Then I got this invitation for a sort of mini-RROAPS for the Limelight Theatre. They are looking for one-act scripts for a possible production of a "night of one-acts" that they would produce in the fall. I thought to myself "Neat. This would be really awesome if I were a playwright!" and went on with my day. Then, my house mates/theatre people started encouraging me to write something, so I thought if I could come up with something interesting, I'll sit down and try to write a play out. Then an idea just hit me, randomly, while watching TV. And that's when this whole debacle started.
I got an idea for a short play with absurdist themes. And I wanted to be inspired, so I started watching/reading "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett. Now, I read this play when I was a junior in high school, and I will admit at the time I thought it was crap and didn't make sense. Now, as I come to a better understanding of theatre and start to appreciate it more, I really see the genius of it. How a "play about nothing" can still make you sit at the edge of your seat wondering "Who is this damn Godot?!?" But I digress...
So after finishing that, I wanted to learn more about the play and it's meanings, which led me to reading about Theatre of the Absurd, which led to me reading a good chunk of the book mentioned above. I'm so fascinated by it all. All the philosophies and ideals within it are very interesting. And, after reading a lot about it, it makes me a happier and more optimistic theatre-goer. Now I don't have to look at every piece of theatre and think "What's the meaning behind this" Sometimes I can just sit back and say "Maybe it is as it is". And I also love the idea that language really isn't that important. We rely so much on it nowadays in theatre, but really it doesn't mean a damn thing. I saw this a lot during the Pintor scenes some of my fellow students did for our final scene in Principles of Acting II. There are whole plays where the language is there, but it doesn't mean anything. You could basically throw it out the window and create a new diaglogue just with phsyical acting. I want to read more about theatre of the absurd.
After reading about all of that, I decided to go on with my original idea. But for some reason I got sidetracked, and came up with another idea just based off of premises of different plays/movies that I haven't read/seen. I know that's probably awful, but I guess you take your ideas as they come, eh?
So last night I just took this idea and started to write. And today I finished the script. All 13 pages. In all it's glory. I've popped my playwriting cherry! And, I'm not gonna lie, I think for my first one it's actually ok. I don't think it's completely awful. I know it's not Ionesco or Beckett, but I like it. Now, the hard part, is showing it to other people and hearing the critiques. I'm most nervous about that. I can take acting critiques because I 'm confident in my ability to hear the critique and adjust myself to become better. For playwriting...I don't know what the hell I'm doing!!! I've never done this before, never taken a class, never heard simple tips to writing a play...well except maybe Aristotles 6 aspects of a well-made play...but that all goes out the window with absurd theatre!
BUT, yes, I am nervous. I'm not the best writer in the world, or the most prolific, as you can read here. But I've got some great ideas of what I think might be good plays. And, who knows, maybe this playwriting thing will turn out well. Or I could just be writing shit like the 1,000's of other playwrights out there. Who knows!
0 comments:
Post a Comment