All Grace Movements

There's this odd little class that we're taking this year with dramaturg Robert Blacker. It is in three movements, here they are again:

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.

As of now, I'm in between the second and third movements. The first movement was very hard on me. All fifteen people in the class, including Robert, threw questions out at me and I was completely overwhelmed. Most people didn't realize that Lipchitz was a real person. This was something that I never considered. Could people relate to the play if they didn't know Lipchitz and his work? How do you create a "full" character onstage without showing his or her entire life on the stage? The play is about Lipchitz, yes, but it's also about Father Couturier and the Virgin Mary. So, then the question becomes: how do you create THREE full people in a play?