Thursday, March 11, 2010

What I've Learned

Now that I've had time to process the fact that an original work of mine was actually performed on stage in front of a paying audience, I'll jot down a few lessons learned.
1) Seeing a play on its feet is a whole new ball game. How's that for mixed metaphors? Even though I followed all the good advice of having it read out loud multiple times, and even though it was workshopped in a staged reading, there was so much that I still missed! Lines that interrupted the energy. A ponderous beginning. A tongue twister of a line. I think I'll have to build in some sort of process in the future to allow for some tweaks after a play is on its feet.

2)Make the words match the vision, or the vision will be made to match the words. I had written a character who I envisioned as a party-people dance music performer. The director made her a girl with a guitar. Everything I had written pointed to a girl with a guitar. He was right. I either need to go with that, or make the words make it impossible to see her as anything other than a techno dance queen.

3) Patience. So the clouds didn't break open and choirs of angels sang with doves flying through the air. It wasn't perfect. I have work still to do. But patience, grasshopper, it's not over til the fat lady sings. This was my first work (which never gets produced--I'm such a lucky duck)and I still have lots to do.

So back to it!

No comments: