Writing from The Heart: Dramaturging for TheatreWorks Singapore: Shen

Writing from The Heart

"Writing from The Heart" is a workshop on creative writing, creative drawing, and creative drama. There are three available versions of this workshop: one for beginners on the secondary, tertiary, and graduate levels, and another for practitioners. A third version of this workshop is designed as an outreach program to disadvantaged and underserved audiences such as the disabled, the poor and the marginalized, victims of human trafficking, battered women and abused children, drug rehabilitation center residents, child combatants, children in conflict with the law, prisoners, and gang leaders. This third version incorporates creativity and problem awareness, conflict resolution, crisis intervention, trauma therapy, and peacemaking.

Friday, March 18, 2016

Dramaturging for TheatreWorks Singapore: Shen

Hello Shen!

I am glad that you finally finished writing this play. You will recall that it was incomplete when I read it in Singapore and had a long, overseas phone conversation with you while you were in Tasmania.

You have written a very interesting, multi-media play verging on Theatre of the Absurd, incorporating stage, video, visual art, and sculpture. (I was tempted to mention also puppetry but the stand-ups never actually interact with the players.) The final production design should be equally interesting. You will need, however, two directors to make the play succeed: a video director and a stage director, or someone who can be both.

All of the methods you used in this play are methods of alienation, and I can see why: the subject matter and dialogue are so brutally frank that some detachment on the part of the audience is necessary. The truth will remain, nonetheless, that the entire play entails raw honesty. This will work only in a venue that encourages intimacy, such as a night club or a chamber theatre with a small audience on sofas and throw pillows.

Be mindful of the length of your videos. They should not overpower the stage play. The video that opens Scene 3, for instance, is too long.

Like Isaac, whose play I dramaturged before yours, your dialogue tends to be comprised of questions and answers. That is not really how people converse in real life. Avoid the interview format, especially since it usually elicits mere exposition and not dramatic tension. Try doing writing exercises with small scenes in which NO ONE ever asks a question. What would they say to each other?

Your ending is abrupt. Ensure that there is adequate closure for all characters, including characters who are not onstage. Also, although the play opens with a video, do NOT end it with a video. It is emotionally unfair to your stage performers. In theatre, the live performance always rules.

Finally, I hope you are aware that this is a hard play to cast. You will need to sit in on readings and rehearsals and constantly adjust your dialogue to the truth, the choices, and the personality that every cast member will put forth. This is not a vehicle for an auteur director. It is one in which the cast must participate in the creation of the play.