When you write your own play and the characters are based on people that you know, you know it was successful when you are starstruck by these friends or family members. I like when I write about something or someone in a personal essay and completely animate it/them, and then see them in person and watch them ACTUALLY do the thing I promised my audience that they do. It's a pretty cool feeling and I'm all of a sudden impressed with them because clearly they are influential characters if I chose to write about them.
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I'm not a part of the blog yet and I am not allowed to create my own post, so I have to write my theater manifesto here (sorry Kayla).
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I really agree with what you said. Animating people you actually know not only makes writing easier but also extremely believable and satisfying.
Here is mine. (Dun dun dunnn.)
Julie's Manifesto
There is no such thing as a good performance without good actors. Actors draw you in, and even though the script behind the scenes is crucial, the actors are the ones that a person feels taking him or her on a journey. To be really affected by a play, a person must identify with or empathize with a character. It's hard for a person to really love something that he or she can't relate to. From another perspective, the playwright also has to have some sort of relationship with the characters that he or she is creating. I think that the phrase, "write what you know," is definitely applicable to playwrights because writing about things that you know makes your characters and plot extremely specific and idiosyncratic.
I think ups and downs in plays are crucial because real-life people have ups and downs. It's unrealistic to think that you've really connected with someone without seeing different sides of them. Although a play can generally be somber and still be great, having different emotions make plays much more interesting and personal.
It's not good when an audience is extremely confused; however, it is good when they are left to wonder. I love suspenseful plays, ones that are actually suspenseful, not ones that are just really dramatic to add tension.
Plot. Plot can vary vastly, but it always has to drive the performance, it can never hinder or take the audience too far away from focus on the characters. I love plays with little to no plot; a lot of plays with one set, one conversation can be extremely interesting. I also love plays with a plot so intense that you leave the theater three hours later not the slightest bit drowsy.
Any play that has one of these elements very apparently has potential, but plays work best once the puzzle is complete.