New Play Project Deadline

Who needs the beach with all it's sand and sunshine when you can spend the day in a cold, dark theater?

The deadline for the New Play Project is March 16th, 2007. I want you all to submit your 10-minute plays.

I did the New Play Project last year and I can't tell you what a great experience it is, especially since all of you are new to playwriting. It's a fantastic group of actors, writers, directors--all working together to make an excellent piece of art. It's exciting to see the final result of all your hard work performed on stage in front of a live audience. I highly recommend you all do this. It's an experience you will not forget.

If any of you have questions or want to discuss your 10-minute plays (if you wish to submit), email me and we'll talk.

Here's the specifics/guidelines you'll need to know:

New Play Project (ENGL 5970), which will be meeting M and W 9-noon, with performances during three Thursday evenings, and rehearsals on Monday evenings (times as listed in the course book).

The class includes between twelve and eighteen playwrights, twelve to fifteen actors, five directors and two stage managers. During the course students will have one of their plays rehearsed for two weeks and produced as a script-in-hand public staged reading. Additionally, playwrights will participate during the seven and a half weeks as dramaturgs, stage managers, and actors (sometimes as directors) on their fellow playwrights work, and as company members in ensemble developed plays and activities.

Admission for playwrights is on a competitive basis, and for actors and directors by permission of the Theatre Department (please contact Mark). Interested playwrights should submit two copies of a 10-30 page one-act play to the mailbox of Dr. Steve Feffer (sixth floor Sprau) with complete contact information by Monday, March 16th. You will be notified soon after that date.

Please note: We have changed the submission process slightly this year. Playwrights who are currently in ENGL 3680, have already taken 3680, but not a 5000 level playwriting class, or have not taken playwriting at Western are strongly encouraged to submit a ten minute (10 page) play. Playwrights who are currently taking 5660, have taken 5660 or a previous New Play Project, or have instructor permission, may submit a longer (up to 30 page) play.

What is Leigh Fryling up to?

Leigh will be performing in Blue Kettle (by Caryl Churchill).

Where:
The York Arena at the Gilmore Center.

When:
Sunday, Feb. 25th at 5pm.
Monday, Feb. 26th at 6pm.

The show is free.

Leigh is also directing Little Shop of Horrors for Three Rivers Community Players. Auditions will be held on Feb. 27th and 28th at 6 pm at the Three Rivers Playhouse. A prepared Broadway song with sheet music or CD is needed. Auditionees will be requested to read from the script/and do a small dance combination. Carpooling is available.

Adaptation Exercise

Find yourself a Shakespearean Sonnet. A sonnet you dig. A sonnet that really turns you on. Take a good look at it. Read it several times. Write down your thoughts. Why did you choose it? What was it about this sonnet? What wow-ed you?

Read it again. Now I want you to think about visuals. What visuals does this sonnet evoke? What do you see? Maybe you see this or maybe this--whatever comes to mind. Weird or lovely. Both. Go with it.

Now I want you to organize what you see. Put all the visuals in some kind of order. Think about the setting. The environment. Think about what you want on stage.

Read sonnet again. Why again? Because maybe something new will jump out at you.

Now tell me WHO do you see? Write a brief description of this person (man in top hat). Bring in one more person. Just one. Tell me about that new person. Describe he or she.

Read sonnet again. I know, right, you're beginning to get annoyed. Good. Write a scene between these two characters. A silent scene. No talking. Think about silence and how they move. Think about activity. What does one character like to do? How about the other? Move them around. But no speaking!

Read the sonnet again. You want to kill me now. Good. Use that anger. Circle five words in the sonnet that you like or that you're intrigued by or maybe you don't know what the word is and you like it. Circle it.

X out a word you hate. You hate this word. You wish it weren't in the sonnet. X it out.

Start a dialogue using one line (or favorite word) from sonnet. Now have the other character respond using the X'd out word.

Write a dialogue with these two characters. One character wants ______ from the other; the other will not give _______ to he or she.

This exercise should get things moving. If you don't like sonnets, try using a fable or a fairy tale.

Good luck, and have fun.

The Pillowman at WMU

THE PILLOWMAN
by
Martin McDonagh

February 22-24 | 8:00 p.m.
February 25 | 2:00 p.m.
March 1-3 | 8:00 p.m.
in the Multiform Theatre
General Seating

A gripping crime drama set in a totalitarian state, The Pillowman investigates a series of gruesome child murders that bear an uncanny resemblance to short stories penned by a local author. Once under interrogation, the author and the sadistic guards reveal surprising and alarming information about themselves and the crimes.

An engaging drama for mature audiences.

Mr. Edward Albee

Edward Albee is one of my favorite writers. Why? He takes chances. He's not afraid to go there. And if someone doesn't like his plays--so what? He's unapologetic.

I've seen him give a talk in Chicago a few years back. He's cocky, smart, and wickedly funny. He's also 79 and still writing great plays. Pretty impressive. I found some quotes (and advice) that I thought you may appreciate.


His thoughts on audience:

"I want them to start thinking about whether the stuff they think they believe is really what they believe. To reconsider their values. In The Goat, I want an audience to go there and not make value judgments about the lives of the characters, about what goat-fucking really means. I want them to imagine themselves being the characters in that situation. I don't want anybody to go into a play of mine and come out exactly the same person."


His thoughts on writing what you know (and a slam against Williams' The Glass Menagerie--which I'm sure some of you will appreciate):

"Don't write about yourself very much. . . . I'm one of the few people who think `The Glass Menagerie' would have been a better play without Tom. . . . The more you invent, the more freedom you have to get to the truths you're after."


His thoughts on why he writes:

"I write to find out what's going on in my head. I always have ideas for plays. They come into focus, and I write them down, and I know why I wrote them down. I usually have three or four plays swimming around in my head somewhere. I'm writing one right now, not this instant we're talking, but these days, and I have two others that are lined up, like aircraft waiting to get clearance to land, that are waiting to be written down. I don't examine the process terribly carefully, because I think it's dangerous to. As James Thurber said, let your mind alone. It knows what it's doing."

Why do we go to the theater?

1) to be entertained
2) to be informed/educated
3) to be excited/provoked
4) to feel something