Update (and outpouring of bile)
hullo!
important bit:
im in the process of settling on an acceptable template that we can all use to standard format our final scripts, as per Shernaz's mail. Any inputs, suggestions are welcome...
I'm currently tinkering with the Script Smart template from the BBC writersroom resource. Any other templates, links will be useful. will mass mail shortly.
random bit:
got shitloads to say on multiple issues and im not in the mood to be eloquent, polite, overly coherent or PC... so...
1. as writers we've been influencing each other. there were several points in the workshop and while watching the performances when i felt beats in plays that were very similar - (involving ants, globs of blood, sunsets etc...) ... it feels odd but nice in some way... like we have a common voice at some level. it's only expected when we are all writing together. it doesn't bother me. from my lit.crit. days - Bloom's 'anxiety of influence' is a bucket o' crap tht doesn't matter to me. similarly, thematically the plays may/may not be covering radically new ground, it doesn't matter... we're developing our voices and we are honest in our attempt.
some wanker digs up an existing text and levels the charge of plagirism - that fucking matters! you belittle the efforts of the writer and you trivialise the emerging voice as being redundant, unoriginal. take any of our texts and we can all dig up similar works that already exist. have we been stealing? fuck you. is my work unimportant because the ground has been covered already? fuck you. do you have a problem with my writer's voice? I'll quote Kane, Mamet and Marber at you - "Fuck you."
2. there's a difference between feedback, criticism and opinion. each is a very different reaction to a work. figure out the difference and accord each its due.
3. voices of dissent are important. they make a space healthy, honest. they result in fucking noisy spaces, but i'd rather a noisy space where people speak their minds, than a fucking set of sitting room tea cup conversations that reek of hypocrisy. crush the voice of dissent and you might as well quit being a playwright... at some level you ARE the voice of dissent.
4. if there are hardly any playwrights, there are even fewer critics.
5. the general critical reaction to the festival is understandably predictable - 'personal apolitical voices', 'dominated by relationships', and somewhere a comment on a generation - "technicians before wordsmiths" ... this is food for thought. i may not agree with many things, i may have counter arguements for all of these, but it is something to think about. and confront in the WORK. there will always be mischief makers/genuine colloborators, adoring/dead/disinterested/electric audiences, grumpy/sensitive/archaic/perceptive academics/critics and fellow playwrights/intellectuals/critics/writers... that's the fun of it, that's the big fuckup too...
6. how is everyone? i'm suffering a major case of post-festival depression. i wish you lurkers would stop lurking and fucking post man...
7. isn't it funny, how all the different processes merge into the final performance? it's like i'm invloved in making scrambled eggs. some might like the final taste, some won't. what i find hilarious is when someone tries to isolate one element beyond a degree of accuracy and ends up making an ass of themselves... and then you get a comment like... "yes, i found the french toast was poorly prepared, it was all scrambled and full of egg..." sigh... no wonder people keep saying that playwriting is thankless...
8. hmmm... im done for now. miss u guys like mad! and before i turn into a puddle of sentimental goop, i'm off. ciao...
important bit:
im in the process of settling on an acceptable template that we can all use to standard format our final scripts, as per Shernaz's mail. Any inputs, suggestions are welcome...
I'm currently tinkering with the Script Smart template from the BBC writersroom resource. Any other templates, links will be useful. will mass mail shortly.
random bit:
got shitloads to say on multiple issues and im not in the mood to be eloquent, polite, overly coherent or PC... so...
1. as writers we've been influencing each other. there were several points in the workshop and while watching the performances when i felt beats in plays that were very similar - (involving ants, globs of blood, sunsets etc...) ... it feels odd but nice in some way... like we have a common voice at some level. it's only expected when we are all writing together. it doesn't bother me. from my lit.crit. days - Bloom's 'anxiety of influence' is a bucket o' crap tht doesn't matter to me. similarly, thematically the plays may/may not be covering radically new ground, it doesn't matter... we're developing our voices and we are honest in our attempt.
some wanker digs up an existing text and levels the charge of plagirism - that fucking matters! you belittle the efforts of the writer and you trivialise the emerging voice as being redundant, unoriginal. take any of our texts and we can all dig up similar works that already exist. have we been stealing? fuck you. is my work unimportant because the ground has been covered already? fuck you. do you have a problem with my writer's voice? I'll quote Kane, Mamet and Marber at you - "Fuck you."
2. there's a difference between feedback, criticism and opinion. each is a very different reaction to a work. figure out the difference and accord each its due.
3. voices of dissent are important. they make a space healthy, honest. they result in fucking noisy spaces, but i'd rather a noisy space where people speak their minds, than a fucking set of sitting room tea cup conversations that reek of hypocrisy. crush the voice of dissent and you might as well quit being a playwright... at some level you ARE the voice of dissent.
4. if there are hardly any playwrights, there are even fewer critics.
5. the general critical reaction to the festival is understandably predictable - 'personal apolitical voices', 'dominated by relationships', and somewhere a comment on a generation - "technicians before wordsmiths" ... this is food for thought. i may not agree with many things, i may have counter arguements for all of these, but it is something to think about. and confront in the WORK. there will always be mischief makers/genuine colloborators, adoring/dead/disinterested/electric audiences, grumpy/sensitive/archaic/perceptive academics/critics and fellow playwrights/intellectuals/critics/writers... that's the fun of it, that's the big fuckup too...
6. how is everyone? i'm suffering a major case of post-festival depression. i wish you lurkers would stop lurking and fucking post man...
7. isn't it funny, how all the different processes merge into the final performance? it's like i'm invloved in making scrambled eggs. some might like the final taste, some won't. what i find hilarious is when someone tries to isolate one element beyond a degree of accuracy and ends up making an ass of themselves... and then you get a comment like... "yes, i found the french toast was poorly prepared, it was all scrambled and full of egg..." sigh... no wonder people keep saying that playwriting is thankless...
8. hmmm... im done for now. miss u guys like mad! and before i turn into a puddle of sentimental goop, i'm off. ciao...
posted by ramganeshk at 9:20 pm
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