Workshop

On Monday, I had one of the best Workshop discussions about one of my plays. I took "Solamente Una Vez" to workshop. I was a bit worried, as I always am, wondering if people were going to catch what I was doing. Most of the main themes of the play are submerged in action or the physical traits of the characters, so many of people's questions were valid, but not necessarily things for me to change in the script. As Dare said, there were a lot of "Why" questions being asked and it shouldn't be seen as a "checklist" of things to answer, but be wary of the "mysteries of the play."

There were many good questions about themes that were dropped such as Becky's drive to lose weight before the wedding, David's harsh insults to Harry, the financial status of both "families," what is the larger world of the play, what is Connie and Fred's relationship? Most questions that people asked helped me see that I had succeeded in my goals, especially with the ending. People asked about the "complicity" of the ending, the frustration of these characters' choices. Yes, that's what I was going for.

In just a couple of hours I'll be hearing thoughts from the MFA directors, dramaturgs, and playwrights about "All Grace." I volunteered to go first for both Workshop and this "Special Topics in Playwriting" class. The Special Topics class is set up in three sections:

1. Everyone reads a play (each of the 5 playwrights' plays), then everyone discusses it.

2. A director and dramaturg are assigned to each play and then there is an unrehearsed reading with actors.

3. The director, dramaturg, and playwright set up a "rehearsed" reading with actors.

The class sets out to investigate how these different "professional" workshop occurrences help to develop a script. What do you learn from the different instances?

I've been hearing mostly good comments from people about "All Grace," but I know there are going to be TONS of questions. Just the other day people asked why a "Dominican" priest would have a French name. It took me awhile before I realized they thought he was from the Dominican Republic, rather than of the Dominican Order of priests. Interesting where people's minds go. I doubt most of the people will have read the play closely, so many of the major themes are probably going to fly over their heads. I wonder if knowing the source material makes that much of a difference... To what extent is knowing the source material going to matter with this particular play, especially since the form is more of a collage.

Speaking of collage (I didn't realize this post would be so long), I have decided that my thesis will probably be "All Grace." I've asked my friend, Andy, to write an introduction to it, though this is probably unheard of. Someone else writing an introduction to a thesis? I'm also going to get in touch with several artists from the art department to help me come up with "concept art" for the play as people do in the preparation of animated films. I feel that my thesis should contain artwork, perhaps photos, but mostly visual adaptations of the play that the reader can swim in. Not that anyone will read my thesis after I leave... But this is more an exercise for myself rather than anyone else, right?