Writing the Perfect Play!
When I direct, my sole intention is to make every moment perfect and connected to the dramatic arc of the play. If there is one word, one moment, that is incongruent to what the audience has experienced so far, they will check out, and the play will fail, maybe not horrible fail, but it won't be an amazing play. It won't be perfect.
It will sing mediocrity!
The big challenge I come up against is that many plays are not perfect, and they need to be developed, hopefully, with a playwright in rehearsal, to insure that all the creative and dramatic ducks are in a row, so I will work tirelessly with or without a playwright, to come as close to perfect as possible.
They say nothing is perfect in life, but heck, I can only seek perfection when I direct, and on a number of occasions, I have directed a perfect play.
It is rare, and it’s addicting for it's like the golfer who plays a perfect round, the golfer will always seek to do the same again and again.
Here is where playwrights falter in the perfection game:
TOO MANY WORDS.
TOO MUCH BACKSTORY THAT DOESN'T NEED TO BE THERE.
NO STRONG EVENT IN EVERY SCENE THAT PROPELS THE ACTION OF THE PLAY TO THE NEXT SCENE.
FAILING TO HAVE ANYTHING ACTUALLY HAPPEN ON STAGE IN REAL TIME IN FRONT OF THE AUDIENCE.
So let's look at each of these play imperfections:
TOO MANY WORDS.
In 90% of the plays I read, characters simply say too much that we really don't need to hear to propel the dramatic action of the play.
When you find you are writing in paragraphs when your characters are speaking... STOP immediately, unless there is a dramatic event connected to that paragraph.
Try writing dialogue in 1 sentence or half sentences, where a character will say a sentence or a half sentence and the other responds or cuts the other character off.
Why do you need 5 sentences to say "I LOVE YOU?"
Actors are embodying your characters, we will get it.
We really will.
So start writing in sentences and half-sentences and transform your playwriting.
TOO MUCH BACKSTORY THAT DOESN'T NEED TO BE THERE.
Sometimes we don't need to know about a character's past in order to grokk the story you are writing. Sometimes we just need to know we have a competent doctor on stage having an agrument with a shady lawyer. That is all we need. We will get it and go for the ride!
If you have an important reveal, and you need to set up the back story, ONLY DO BACK STORY IN THE MIDDLE OF ACTION. Do not under any circumstances have your character tell a story about his childhood because the other character says "Tell me about your childhood?" NO. NO. NO.
Characters telling back story in stories on stage unless there is a big strong dramatic event underneath it, is BORING and causes your play to STOP. A backstory is not a dramatic moment. It is just back story.
NO STRONG EVENT IN EVERY SCENE THAT PROPELS THE ACTION OF THE PLAY TO THE NEXT SCENE.
Why is it that so many playwrights don't put a strong event that propels the action of the play in every scene? Some playwrights don't even put events in scenes, just a lot of talk. Talk, unless it is intrinsically connected to the dramatic action of a play is BORING. SO BORING!
Make sure every scene has an event in it that propels the dramatic action of your play. A BIG EVENT, something unique and fun. Trust me here. Doing this will make the difference between a mediocre play and a great play!
FAILING TO HAVE ANYTHING ACTUALLY HAPPEN ON STAGE IN REAL TIME IN FRONT OF THE AUDIENCE.
I don't understand this, but this happens all the time. I saw this play last year Off Broadway with a great cast, where nothing happened on stage at all, just stories from the past that people were emoting about. At the end of the First Act, there is a fight, but the playwright had someone run into the room and say "Everyone! Fred and Frankie are having a big fight out side in the Living Room!" and the cast ran off to see the fight, and the curtain came down!
HAVE THE FRIGGIN' FIGHT RIGHT THERE ON STAGE!!! and then have the curtain fall on ACT 1. This way the audience will really want to see what happens next and come back for ACT 2, because they EXPERIENCED IT!
That is your job as a playwright, to CREATE EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES ON STAGE, not write words.
And if you start writing your play with dialogue without mapping out Emotional EVENTS in every scene that HAPPEN ON STAGE in advance of the dialogue, you are destined for mediocrity.
Dialogue comes out of characters struggling with each other and with the problem of the play. Dialogue does not come first. DON'T DO THAT. Stop it now.
Build an Emotional Event Map from the beginning of your play to the end of your play, with emotional events in every scene that propel the dramatic action of the play, and then write the dialogue based on what is happening on stage.
I have directed so many plays, where I, as the director, had to make up action and events for a playwright didn't. And these are not all new plays. Many "classic" plays suck in the live action world, for the dialogue is just clever or witty, but devoid of any real life.
If you are not getting any real traction on your plays, maybe you need to change the way you are writing, for when you write dialogue based on what is happening on stage, it speaks truth.
If you write a play to create an Emotional Experience for your audience, it will ring true, and make them laugh, cry and root for your characters.
So how do you make a play perfect?
For many of you: Change the way you write!
Cut words.
Cut backstory.
Add events every scene.
Have everything happen on stage in front of the audience!
Perfect.
