The Amazing Joy of Collaboration!

As a playwright, we often live a very solitary life.

Writing a compelling live story that is congruent and real is not an easy task, so most playwrights spend hours upon hours creating and refining a play.

I have been lucky for I am not only a playwright but I am a director too, and I have had the opportunity to direct 20 of my own plays, in multiple productions, and well over 100 plays in my lifetime.

That is where I learned about the power of collaboration.

A play is a live event, a collaboration between playwright, actor, director and the creative team. The playwright creates the map, and then the team collaborates to bring it to life.

And that is where all the magic begins.

Here is a short clip from my play Tales of Terror, that I have directed 3 times in the last 15 years. Tales of Terror is 4 short plays with comedic takes on four classic horror stories from the 40’s and 50’s. This clip is from THE DUMMY, which is the classic story about the ventriloquist dummy that comes to life and murders people, but with a comic spin on it. This clip features two fantastic actors, Bill Morton and Danny McWilliams.

What was unique about this production was working with Bill and Danny. When we were working on this scene, I had written no comedy act - in previous productions, I had the actor who was NOT the dummy mime speaking in silence while the dummy spoke, but in rehearsal for this production I got the idea to actually do their comedy routine.

So I turned to Danny McWilliams (who is a veteran Stand Up Comedian and one of my favorite actors at Manhattan Rep) and I said to him “Danny, we need a comedy routine - What is it?”

Danny looked confused at first, and then smiled and said “Give me a sec!… Ok, I got it.” And he told me the first bit.

“Fantastic! Let’s do it!” I said.

They quickly learned the lines and we worked the bit and it was great!

Bill went on with my scripted lines, and then I said to Danny again:

“We need another bit!”

“Another?” Danny retorted.

“Yes, this is super fun.”

“Ok, I got one!” And then right there, he pulled the next bit right out of his butt. It was amazing.

We worked it and Wow, what fun!

And then I asked Danny once again to pull from this Comedy creative consciousness, and BAM! We had our third bit.

We worked it, and it rocked, and then we put it all together with the two previous bits, I added some 1940’s old time comedy piano, and it turned into one of my favorite moments in Tales of Terror.

If I was locked up in my office writing this play, this never would have happened. It was the creative team and the creative synergy, and the comedy genius of Danny McWilliams and Bill Morton that made it come to life in ways I could never have imagined.

So this is a great reason, as a playwright, to learn how to direct.

You will create better plays with the kick ass power of collaboration!

When it Gets Tough, Get Creative!

Five years ago, I had a really great CREATIVITY LESSON. Would I want this to happen again? No. But I did learn something absolutely awesome, for I was able to make a little bit of lemonade, out of a very sour lemon.

For our 10th Anniversary Event at Manhattan Rep, we decided (because it is great fun and we like fun) to bring back my crazy fun play about dating, THE MATCH GAME for a very limited run. Jen Pierro, my partner in life and Manhattan Rep and I actually met during a production of this play many years ago so we thought it would be FUN and fitting to bring back THE MATCH GAME to celebrate our Tenth.

Initially, rehearsals went great. It was awesome to step back into this play and participate in the FUN of acting with Jenny again. It was such fun and going so well, and then suddenly, a week before opening, an original member of The Match Game cast (my dear friend Anthony J. Ribustello) had a health issue and had to pull out of the production. We frantically looked for a replacement who was right for this role who could get it together in time but to no avail. It looked like we were going to have to cancel the 10th Anniversary production of THE MATCH GAME.

I hate to give up. I just do. Giving up is not in my nature. If I choose to do something, I will do my crazy best to make it happen, and I fervently believe THE SHOW MUST GO ON.  

So sitting in front of my computer, late one night a week before The Match Game was supposed to open, I made a crazy choice.  

I would rewrite THE MATCH GAME and make it work.  

What? Pull out this Anthony’s character? What?

Yes, and I did just that.

I literally pulled Anthony’s character off stage and made him a much smaller off stage presence with some creative phone calls which would be voiced by pre-recorded sound bytes. Phone calls were already a part of THE MATCH GAME but I figured I could use this phone vehicle to propel the story and still present the true essence of The Match Game and Big Bobby B, the missing now off-stage character.

The cast was concerned and ready to call it quits but I convinced them to give my rewrites a chance. I was determined to make this work.

So that weekend, I recorded the off stage voice of BIG BOBBY B and I put together a rocking crazy fun soundtrack that would power The Match Game through to its crazy fun conclusion.

Spending hours and hours putting this all together, I just barely got it done in time for our Sunday TECH rehearsal. Luckily, we were blessed with one of the best Sound Light technicians in the world, Katherine Cartusciello, who took my 95 sound cues and created theatrical magic. Our tech took only two and a half hours (The show is 90 minutes.) and when we ended, we all knew it was going to work. We had our dress after that, and WOW, a miracle! The play was tighter, more concise, and more streamlined than ever before! And then we opened, and it was such awesome fun!

(BELOW IS VIDEO TRAILER # 1 FOR THE MATCH GAME 2015 LIMITED RUN.)

Choosing to let go of something in this context worked.  

I let go of the old way of telling this story and I found another way which actually worked too. I had one of our resident playwrights attend on opening night and he was struck by the dialogue and the acting work in the show, AND he had no idea we had actually taken a character offstage. No idea! Crazy fun!

Do I want this to happen when I produce my next play? Absolutely not. But I do know that when the going gets tough, CREATIVITY is the answer.

Accept what is. Get creative with it, and then make it work.

Below is a blind date scene between Peggy Sue (Jennifer Pierro) and Ted Fox (Yeah, that’s me.) This is fun.