letting go
An actor friend of mine just sent me this:
"As a writer you have to let go. Sit back, watch the results and learn from what you see. Its the only way for you to clean up your technique because you can perceive then how directors could possibly interpret your writing. And as you grow and develop as a writer you will find that sometimes its good to have your play turned upside down. After all, it is different interpretations that keep a play alive. No?"
And damn, I agree. I think thats the best thing about being a playwright! It is a strange challenge to have your play wringed, see what comes out of it and again, see for ourselves what possible value it has.
And it is absolutely a great learning experience to work with a director who doesn't bullshit. Amen.
"As a writer you have to let go. Sit back, watch the results and learn from what you see. Its the only way for you to clean up your technique because you can perceive then how directors could possibly interpret your writing. And as you grow and develop as a writer you will find that sometimes its good to have your play turned upside down. After all, it is different interpretations that keep a play alive. No?"
And damn, I agree. I think thats the best thing about being a playwright! It is a strange challenge to have your play wringed, see what comes out of it and again, see for ourselves what possible value it has.
And it is absolutely a great learning experience to work with a director who doesn't bullshit. Amen.
posted by Swar Thounaojam at 8:54 pm
5 Comments:
to begin with, i am not a very possesive writer and i like to think that i am not very naive when it comes to egos and politics. i started writing professionally at 18, that also for radio and fashion where things can get real ugly.
yes, when it is the first staging and you are opening it to the audience for the first interpretation, its hugely important that too many liberties are not taken with my text/vision. thats why i argued that if i dont get the director whose values i share, it wouldn't be possible for me to join the fest wagon.
when sunil came in as a guest director at our second workshop, i truly appreciated the way he understood the ethos of the play. he got it 'bang on' and my instinct told me 'this is it'.
and from the perspective of learning, i also want to see how he interprets my play on stage. after writing my play, when i was asked all those questions by you guys, i found that i didnt actually have any coherent explanations. i have written almost the whole of it by instinct and all these months, i have been trying to find for myself the answers to 'why', 'how', 'what'... got some answers and many remain unanswered. its really strange. someone would think that i was doped out when writing it.
i think in the hands of a director you trust it is a pleasure to see what has been lying hidden in your play that you yourself haven't been aware of. to just let go...and start writing the next play which is actually my job!
if my play manages to establish itself and if some people find that it resonates with another situation, another place, i would love to see how they would take it up and relocate it. if it fails, so be it. if it works out, great.
i read somewhere that somebody wanted to do godot with women and beckett tersely replied that if he wanted them to be women, he would have specified so. i also read a hilarious piece somewhere that his estate forbids any change, even in stage directions. hee haw. i would love to have such absolute authority. what a grand trip it would be.
on a serious note, your recent 'incident' reconfirms my weariness with 'established institutions'.
damn, i should just go somewhere and become a potato farmer.
My two bits...
Quite a bit of chatter about interpretation, ownership and the centrality of the text happening...
I'm tossing up a simple analogy.
The play's like a car. The writer designed the car, the director is going to drive it. If either of these individuals is incompetent you're in trouble from the word go - the car's engine is probably going to blow out after one lap, or it's going to be driven badly and into a wall. If there's a vast difference in the experience levels - one or the other will invariably end up guiding... so that's a great learning opportunity.
IMHO (from the point of view of the writer) a significant amount of time should be spent in watching the driver drive the car and seeing how best to enhance the performance and overall experience. And the driver (in a new writing set up at least) knows that the car is a prototype and potentially has all kinds of design flaws - irrespective of how skilled the writer is. Because frankly, there's a HUGE chasm between seeing something on paper and seeing it up and moving.
Too many directors pick up new texts and expect them to be stable and ready to drive. The sensitive directors pick up the play and start 'working it' to see how it drives.
I figure you do whatever it takes to make the play work and work well. You will be subject to real world dynamics - driver tries to do a wheel spin and you realise you haven't put in a handbrake, driver complains about the shape of the door and you tell him to live with it. Eventually the car drives, gets reviewed. If it does well, it drives again. Then you shut down the development process and release the car to anyone who wants to drive it - and that's when you'll see your Porsche 911 modified for desert rallies and go - "Augh! It works even on the dunes!"
Anyway...
Issues of ownership, voice, future life really take backseat to the most important task as of now - punching out a good play.
The slog continues guys... Hoping for the best ride for all of you. :-)
...the bitter revenge of writing - bad hair...(with due pilferage from salman rushdie's one liners)
Laugh plane dwellers, laugh...
When global warming drowns the lot of you, I'm going to be sunning myself a nd my bad hair on the newly formed beach at 17,000 feet.
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