Saturday, October 25, 2008

Theatre and Gender

Found an interesting article in the NY Times about the lack of representation in producing female playwrights Off Broadway. Had to smile when I was reading it, especially the quote from Andre Bishop (AD of Lincoln Center) that “most artistic directors are men, and they don’t relate to or connect with women as much as men.” This is basically the same statement I made in the Comedy and Gender post--comedy club owners are men and do not relate to women. I think the lesson to be learned (and the one I’m moving forward on) is that you must take the bull by the horns and just go out and do it. Even if that means you’re going to write and produce it. If you really want your statements/issues/point of view shown out in public, start doing it. It does no good to have your work sitting in a closet waiting for “approval” from the powers that be. At least, that is what I have taken (and will continue to take) away from this situation.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Fate

Two posts in one night—I’ve got a life! Recently, though, I have had a lot of doors close. I’ve had this happen a number of times before, and I can’t help but think that fate is kinda pushing you in a direction. I’m talking about pursuing a direction in life and coming across dead end after dead end. And no matter what you do, it seems that every door is slammed in your face. Every time this has happened to me, I have made a major change in my life. Anybody else out there had a similar experience?

Directing for Better or Worse

I have not posted recently because I am in a lot of turmoil. (Did my last post give me away?) Anyway, after much gnashing of teeth, I have decided to make the current show I’m working on multi-person. Yes, a cast. And so I have chosen to direct it. So…some of you knowing people are probably already smiling, and I can understand. I know I have no idea of what I am getting myself into. And with that knowledge, I have been reading up on the subject and picking my acting teacher’s brains. I have gotten some really good information from Creating Life On Stage (I’m talking about basics of directing), because, among the myriad of pointers MWM gives out, he outlines a rehearsal schedule, with the breakdown of who needs to attend. One of the top items my acting teacher had mentioned about directing was “respect the actor’s time”. Not a problem, I can’t stand it when my time is wasted. Anybody else out there have some tips for me directing?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

AA

Artistry is like Alcoholism. You’re addicted. You lose your friends and family. They think what you’re doing is wrong. They want you to stop ruining your life. And it all makes you depressed.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Artistic Funk pt 3

I’m hoping that these blogs about funk and its aspects will help other artists who are dealing with the same issues, but have not had many people to talk to about it. Another aspect of the funk is loss of goals/vision (I guess you could call it a real funk). In the past, the vision of making a project a concrete reality has always kept me buoyant, but with this last bout of funk, the loss of goals/vision has been very scary to me. I’m still pursuing goals I have set up, knowing that I do really care about my vision, but in the short term, the feeling has been more like “why bother?”. I realize the funk is a stage, but it is still unnerving. I am hugging my Artist’s Way very closely.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Artistic Funk, pt. 2

I blogged recently about artistic funk. Although I made headway last week, there still have been residual, fleeting feelings like, “this work is relevant, how come no one gets it?”, and “if they don’t get this, they’re certainly not going to get what’s coming down the pike”, which leads to questioning/doubting yourself as an artist. (So painful can’t even put it in the first person :-)). So, I’ve been rolling around in this, thinking, “let time pass”, and well, basically, it wasn’t passing fast enough. But I was talking to a friend today, a dance choreographer, and she was like, “who cares what the critics say, is that going to stop you from creating your next work?”. I just smiled. I’ve known what she said is true all along, but it really helped me to hear this from a fellow artist. So, it was just wonderful to be reinforced by someone who really knows what it’s like, putting yourself out there and (trying to survive) the criticism. Thank you!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Script and Dialogue

I’m finally at the point on this script that we are now getting down to the meat of the scenes, the subtext, what each character wants from the other. It’s the moment-to-moment orchestration of the script I guess you could say. And it’s really the most exciting for me, it’s the part I love the most, refining and tweaking scenes. I find in writing scripts that the daunting part is taking something from nothing and forming it (initial background on characters, flushing out the plot). That for me is the real gruntwork, you’re unsure of where you’re going, you don’t know what to do with the sketchy framework you already have, you’re almost immobilized by the number of decisions you have to make. So, other script writers, what is the part about script writing that you love? Dislike?