One of my dearest held principles that I share with as many actors as possible is actually quite simple: read poetry. This is even more applicable if you’re also a playwright, writer, director, or composer. The overlap between theatre and poetry is huge, and not just with the classics. Music and poetry are inextricably linked. Reading poetry, both casually and out loud, can really help you grow as an actor and give you the skills to better understand text and subtext when it’s presented to you. Below are some of my very favorite poems for actors. Enjoy.
So between grad school and whereismh370 I’ve been a little too busy to work on shafiq28 or similar. However, I am making use of shafiq28 for something related and would appreciate some editing help.
I’m adapting this short story about Sabila and Faizal’s decision to raise Ayesha primarily in English (based on a personal true story) into a 10-min performance piece for presentation at my MFA showing in April, as well as potentially the Short + Sweet Theater Festival.
Short + Sweet doesn’t allow fanfiction, so I’m rooting the story in more realistic terms, and it’s quickly turning into historical fiction: both parents survived the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War in their own way.
I haven’t written a short play in a long time, and a lot of the war information is news to me too. I want to make sure I get the language right, as well as make it presentable. It doesn’t have to be pitch-perfect or super polished, but I would like it to be good at least.
If you’re willing to help look over the play, please let me know! You don’t need to know Bengali or even have any particular experience in playwriting, though that helps.
I know I’m known mostly as a prose writing blog, but I write screenplays and have done A LOT of reading about screenwriting craft, business, and formatting.
I’m not sure how to narrow what I know into posts, so please send me Asks about what you’d want to see covered!
Like I said, I have a lot of background in the actual craft, the business end, and the technical/formatting details. You can ask for vague topics like how long should a script be or very specific ones!
A good amount of this also applies to playwriting as well, so don’t be afraid to ask. I should be able to answer.
xx thank you
I loved doing this the first time, so send some screenwriting and playwriting questions my way!
We all know the feeling of impending doom that comes when you feel your creative resources have been drained. (And if you don’t, stop reading right now! You’re making the rest of us look bad.) Here are some strategies for the next time inspiration ghosts you.
Micro Problems (“I can’t finish this page, scene, chapter, etc.”) This is your everyday, garden-variety writer’s block. You know what you want to do with your script overall, but you just can’t make it to the next step.
1.Give yourself a mini-deadline. For example, I will finish this scene in the next two hours, and quality does not matter. All that matters is that I make it to the end. Set a stopwatch if you have to. You might be surprised by the quantity (and hopefully, quality) of material you generate under pressure. If you’ve ever written something the night before a deadline (no one’s ever done this, right?), you’ve already used this method.
2.Write the end of a section (scene, act, etc.), then work backward. Sometimes it helps to get where you want to go then retrace your steps. Plus, if you are a by-the-book person, you might feel the thrill of getting away with something. Think of it as literary jaywalking!
3. Use improvisation. I know, I know. This is many writers’ worst nightmare. I understand your concerns, but this is my personal favorite kind of improv. The hovering-over-my-computer-with-the-door-closed-so-the-haters-can’t-judge-me kind. We’ll call it “desk improv.” Here are three magic words: Initiate. Copy. Heighten. These are tools that improvisers use to propel a scene or game forward, and it works for playwriting, too. Here’s an example: A: I love you. (A initiates a motif, pattern, or, in improv, a “game.”) B: I love you, too. (B copies A’s move in the “game” and shows agreement.) A: You’re my everything. (A heightens the game.) B: Yeah, you too. (B copies, but there is some serious subtext here.) A: Sorry? (A initiates something very different. Uh oh!) And we’re off! The drama! The angst! The psychological realism! And all from a little desk improv.
4.Take a break. Sometimes you have to practice self-care, whatever that means to you, in order to move forward. Take a walk. Eat a snack. Netflix and chill. This does not mean abandoning your project! But do give yourself some breathing room, if possible, and come back to your play with fresh eyes.
Macro Problems (“I can’t finish this play, screenplay, pilot, novel, etc.”) These tips are for when you are having trouble with the piece as a whole. Your issues are bigger than a single scene, and you are considering calling it quits on the whole project.
1.Go back to your outline or create a reverse outline. Review and adjust your game plan, if you have one. Or, if you don’t, reverse engineer your script and create an outline from the pages you’ve already written. This will give you a more detached way to figure out what is holding you back. If your script is presented in chronological order, take a look at how each event leads to the next.
As Trey Parker and Matt Stone famously said in a lecture at NYU (watch it here), each beat is deeply connected to the beat before it. Think cause and effect. A happens and therefore B happens OR A happens but then B happens. To use Romeo and Juliet as an example: Romeo is rejected by Rosaline, therefore he goes to the ball, therefore he meets Juliet and is enthralled, but then he learns she is a Capulet.
2.Discover your influences. Think about the story you want to tell and how it relates to similar stories that have gone before. Is it a love story? A cautionary tale about the abuse of power? A memory play about a messed-up family? It can help to read works by other writers with similar themes. To use the second example, how do the writers of Richard III, Frost/Nixon, or ENRON deal with the same themes of power and corruption? How would you? In what ways do you think they succeed or fail? How does their work reflect your own struggles with this particular project?
3.Get a little help from your friends. Reach out to your crew, whether that is something as formal as a monthly writer’s group or as simple as a friend or two whom you trust, and enlist their aid. Some of the best ideas I have gotten have been from other people who have provided much-needed perspective. Never be afraid to ask for help! Even if the ideas you hear don’t work for you, they might lead you to one that does.
The next time you get stuck, take a look at these tips and keep writing! I know you’ve got it in you.
Prompt 1 Write a play inspired by your last social media post. Repeat Bonus Prompt! Relatives going through a deceased loved one’s belongings find something shocking.
PROMPT 1 Write a play that moves backward in time.
PROMPT 2
SWAG SHOP REMINDER!
Reminder: This year all the money made off of the 31/31 Swag Shop will go to the National New Play Network! The National New Play Network supports playwrights and theaters across the country and internationally with a bevy of wonderful programs like Rolling World Premieres, the New Play Exchange, the National Showcase, and so so so much more. We are proud to support an organization that’s dedicated to new plays so ferociously. We just ran an awesome little piece about NPX by our co-founder Rachel Bublitz. Check it out!
(Photo: OF SERPENTS & SEA SPRAY by Rachel Bublitz -Custom Made Theatre Company production from 2016)
As you’re getting through the month, you might be wondering what you can do with all the work you’ll be generating over the days of August, and I’m here to tell you about one possible place for you to share them: The New Play Exchange.
The New Play Exchange, also called NPX or @NewPlayX on Twitter, was created by the folks over at the National New Play Network, and is a new avenue to get your work read and to connect with new play advocates. As the National New Play Network puts it, the New Play Exchange is, “A cloud-based script database, enhanced with a robust search-and-filter mechanism, crowd-sourced recommendations of plays, and personal script and coverage information storage, plus the connectivity of a social networking site.”
Once you create a profile and upload scripts, you’ll be emailed opportunities as your plays qualify and you’ll have the chance to “tag” your work. Once your play is tagged, the theater or festival that put out the call can include that script in what they’re considering for the project. Gwydion Suilebhan, project director of the New Play Exchange and fierce new play advocate, wanted to give some of the power back to playwrights when it came to submissions. To create a space in which playwrights had more options for production and development, where theaters found us, instead of the other way around.
And, while all of that sounds pretty great, it took me a bit to figure out how to use the site to its maximum benefit. I’ve had a membership with the New Play Exchange for years, and it wasn’t until last Fall that I felt I’d really cracked into its true potential. Because, while it is a place for theaters to find plays, it’s also a place where new play lovers to read thousands of scripts and promote the work of other artists. And that to me, is the biggest boon of the New Play Exchange, with their recommendation system they have created a vibrant new play loving community.
Anyone with a membership has access to all the plays on the site. You can download and read as many as you’d like, and recommend any that strike your fancy. Reading a ton of new work has been so beneficial to my own writing. It’s inspiring, thought-provoking, and even when I don’t love the play, I feel like I learn something new about the craft of writing for the stage. Through the New Play Exchange I’ve been introduced to a ton of new artists, and new styles, and the funny thing about writing recommendations is that once I started writing them for other plays, I started to get them on my plays. The New Play Exchange is a magic place of karma, apparently, and, for me at least, the more I put in, the more I get out.
(Photo: CHEERLEADERS VS. ALIENS by Rachel Bublitz at the Egyptian Youtheatre 2018)
But that’s enough from me…. Here are some other wonderful playwrights and their thoughts on why the New Play Exchange is the cat’s pajamas:
Hannah C Langley (playwright): “The community. I’ve met so many amazing writers and artists from around the country that I now consider friends and colleagues.”
Emily Hageman (playwright and educator): “Having incredible current playwrights posting their work to be read, admired, and studied! New friendships, networking opportunities, and being able to get your work out there.”
Shaun Leisher (producer, director, dramaturg, and nominator for The Kilroys): “NPX has made it clear to me that Broadway is not representative of the state of today’s theatre. New York isn’t representative of today’s theatre. Without NPX I would have no true grasp of how rich, diverse and vibrant the state of theatre is today.”
Andrew Roblyer (director, acting coach, playwright, and actor): “My favorite thing is that it levels the playing field a bit in several ways. First, ease of discovery and access makes it more appealing for small theatres to produce new work. Second, search parameters make it harder to argue that lack of exposure is the reason playwrights from marginalized communities don’t get exposure. And third, it just makes it fun to read new plays!”
Diana Burbano (playwright, actor, and teaching artist): “Feeling heard and paying it forward. It’s a golden age of new plays and the @NewPlayX is leading the way.”
Rachael Carnes (playwright and educator): “NPX is a wonderful way to read new work, and build community. Through sharing my plays on NPX, and reading other writers’ work there, I’ve developed meaningful and supportive collegial connections with writers all over the country. I’ve made friends through NPX! So much so, that when I’ve seen these same playwrights in real life, it feels like we already know each other. NPX has been an incredible resource for me — I take better care of updating and archiving on my NPX profile than I do my personal website.”
Jessica Austgen (playwright and actor): “Not only is it a great way to make your work available to a national network of theaters, but it’s a powerful tool for community building among playwrights. On NPX, I can read and recommend the work of my peers, make connections with playwrights around the county, and feel like part of a community.”
Caroline Cao (playwright): “Getting stuff done, playing with content.”
Hope Villanueva (playwright and stage manager): You don’t need to be famous or established to be on NPX. All playwrights are welcome and, if you show dedication to the craft, you will be embraced.
Jordan Elizabeth Henry (playwright): 1. COMMUNITY – 2. reading brave/strange/wild work encourages me to make brave/strange/wild choices with my own work – 3. totally changed the way I think about scarcity and abundance re: submitting/rejection/etc
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I could go on and on and on, seriously, I got a LOT of messages from folks telling me how excited they were about the New Play Exchange. So head on over to the New Play Exchange, get a profile, put up your plays, and dive in, the water is fine!
