WATCHING MY PLAY IN COMPETITION: A Big Thank You to Cheverus High School!

A production of my play, "The Dark Tower" presented by Cheverus High School
From Left to Right:  Jesse Rodrigues, Heather Bridge, Zoe Leblanc, Abby Thomas

Greetings theater lovers!  Welcome to Theater is a Sport, my little piece of the internet where I talk about all things theater!  My name is Bobby Keniston, and I'm a playwright, actor, and director who's been at it for about 25 years, and am still learning more and more each time I'm involved in a play.

Today, I want to talk about the joy a playwright feels in seeing their work performed.  After all, that's why we write plays in the first place, right?

I live and work in the state of Maine, and, even though I have 33 published plays for the youth, high school, and community theater markets published, I very rarely get to see a production of one of my plays performed in my home state, except for productions I put on myself.  My plays have been performed in 43 different states, as well as in Canada, Australia, and even Prague, but, for whatever reason, I don't get a whole lot of action here in Vacationland.  For whatever reason, I seem to be most popular in Iowa, Nebraska, California, and South Dakota.

So, naturally, when I learned that Cheverus High School in southern Maine was producing my play "The Dark Tower" for the Maine Principal Association's One Act Play Competition, I was thrilled!
The talented group from Cheverus won their regional competition and made it to the State's.  I had the good fortune this last weekend to travel up to the state competition held at Stearns High School in Millinocket and cheer them on!  I remember when I was a high school student how much I loved the one act play competition, and to know that now, all these years later, a play of mine was there at the state level, in a location I may very well have traveled to, was a genuine full-circle kind of rush for me.

First, I should say, I was a little nervous.  Not because I was worried about their production--- after all, they had made it to the state competition, so I knew that they obviously had worked hard and done well.  I was nervous because it's always a little nerve-wracking for a playwright to see how well their script does in competition.  I wanted it to serve this group well.  I wanted their decision to do my play, and work their hearts out on it, to be one that they didn't regret.  And, of course, as I had never seen a high school group do this particularly challenging play, I was desperate to see if the play itself worked as a performance piece.  No matter how proud I am of a script on the page, seeing if it works on its feet is a whole different story.

I am proud to say that I was blown away with what Cheverus did with the play.  Their costumes, set, lighting, and sound were all fantastic, and really brought together a stage picture that captured the mood and tone of the play.  It is a bit of an epic fantasy in forty minutes, and the teenage actors handled the heightened language with ease, and made it accessible.  It was clear they had studied the script, and the legends it portrays with a a serious eye for detail, and had internalized the feeling and themes throughout.  In short, they got it.  They knew what I was trying to say with the play, and served the intentions, while also making it their own.

They made this playwright very proud.

I must give special props to the added fight choreography, which helped to break-up and change the pace of a very dialogue heavy script.  Well done!

After their performance, I waited in their section of the audience to make their triumphant entrance after striking the set.  I shook all of their hands.  They were tired from a long day of travel, tech, and, now, the performance, but their smiles and appreciation for my support was evident, and meant a lot to me.  I shook each of their hands and thanked them, and had them sign my playbill, and then let them rest.  After all, it was their moment.  While I wrote the play, this was their production, and I wanted their experience at states to be about them, and not about the playwright.

Their director told me that it was the first time their school had ever made it to the state competition, which made me feel good, too.  Now, obviously, I know it wasn't my play that gave them the edge to make it to the state's, but, rather, their hard work and dedication, but it still felt good all the same to have my work represented there.

The other plays performing that evening were "Dogg's Hamlet", "The Dancers", and "A Doll's House".  I must confess, I couldn't help but smile at the fact that I was on a bill with Tom Stoppard, Horton Foote, and Ibsen.  That's something that doesn't happen for me very often.

So, once again, thank you to Cheverus High School for choosing my play, "The Dark Tower".  I hope it is something you will  always remember with fondness, just as I will always remember watching you perform this play that is so special to me.  Your production is a prime example of why I write for teenagers, and you definitely showed the audience that theater is, in fact, a sport.

Until next time, thanks for reading my blog, and feel free to comment below, and follow me.

HOW TO BE A PLAYWRIGHT or HOW TO ENJOY REPEATEDLY BANGING YOUR HEAD AGAINST THE WALL

Hello everyone, and welcome to Theater is a Sport.  I'm excited today, because it's Tuesday, and Tuesdays are going to be the days where I talk about one of my favorite subjects:  playwriting.  I hope the title of this blog post does not deter any potential playwrights--- trust me, banging your head against the wall can be very rewarding, especially if you have a finished play to show for it.  Perhaps the greatest perk of writing plays for me, is when I am in the middle of writing, everything else goes away (just like practicing music for Natalie in Next To Normal).  This is a source of great peace, no matter how frustrating composition may become.  So, if you've got the discipline and the courage, I would like to welcome you to the odd and beautiful world of drawing the blueprint of a play, so that other artists may build the house which is known as a production.  Feel free to bring a helmet.

I would like say in earnest, before I begin, that I love playwriting, and love everything about it, the highs and the lows.  And while I can teach you all some simple tricks to help you along the way to avoid the many pitfalls, I cannot make anyone a great playwright.  I can assist you in avoiding some common mistakes, give you some exercises and reading material that may serve to build some skills, but being a "great" anything comes from within.  It is a matter of love and drive (and for some lucky few, genius).  Person A may write a really good rough draft of a script, while Person B writes an absolute stinker.   Person A, however, may settle for good enough, while Person B writes draft after draft, mounts workshop after workshop, and keeps fixing the PU script until, perhaps after years, it becomes a great script.  So, there you go.

All right class, I like to begin my playwriting classes by talking a little bit Aristotle and his Poetics, which is his guide to tragedy.  Aristotle had an opinion about everything, but there is a great deal of merit in how he discusses the structure of a play.    Here is a link to perhaps my favorite outline of Aristotle's theory on tragedy.  It helps cut through a great deal of dry reading.    http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html

I'm going to apologize in advance for the inherent sexism of Aristotle's day and age.  Some of my favorite playwrights are women, including the nearly divine Paula Vogel and the breathtaking Suzan-Lori Parks. 

I have my own language when I describe the overall structure of a play to my high school students.  It begins as follows:

CATALYST:  This is what I call the beginning of a play.  Others may call it the "incentive moment", but I prefer catalyst.  It is the moment or moments that cause every other moment of the play to occur.  For example, in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire, I might argue that the catalyst is Blanche moving in with her sister Stella, and her sister's husband Stanley.  This action allows every other action to happen.

After the catalyst, we have RISING ACTION, or what I call CHEMICAL REACTIONS, where we learn about the characters, how their wants fizz and bubble, we discover the protagonist and antagonist, and, most importantly, we learn the major CONFLICT of the show (more, heck, MUCH MORE on CONFLICT as this online tutorial continues).

So, as the characters and actions fizz, bubble, hiss and steam, and, in time, come to a boil, we have what's called the CLIMAX ( I could pretend I call it something more chemical sounding, like the BOILING POINT, but that would be a lie--- I mean, who doesn't like the word climax, after all).  People think of the Climax as the turning point, and event or action that alters the rest of the play.  Think Hamlet killing Polonius. Romeo killing Tybalt.  Corie and Paul's big fight near the end of Act II of Barefoot in the Park.

Important Note:  You may not know the plays I talk about.  That's okay.  One of the first assignments I'm going to give you is designed to help remedy this. 

Okay, so after the CLIMAX, we have FALLING ACTION which leads to the RESOLUTION, or, more appropriately, the DENOUMENT, where all the loose ends and subplots are tied up and, in a tragedy, everybody of importance dies, and, in a comedy, they live happily ever after.  Of course I'm being a bit over-simplistic here, but I think it's good to start with a generalized version of things before moving into the areas where black and white become a gazillion different shades of murky grey. 

This is a good deal to throw at you all at once without being able to stop and have you ask questions.  Don't worry.  Take from this what you can.  Digest what you can.  And, of course, if you have a question, I'll give you my e-mail at the end so you can ask it, or you can always drop a question in the comments. 

If you will allow me to turn on some headlights as we drive this road together, I'd like to offer some thoughts I find illuminating when first tackling the craft of playwriting:

1.  Characters have to WANT something.  Every character, always.  This is where CONFLICT, and, hence, DRAMA come from. 

2.  Most great plays are about an event.  George and Martha having guests in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", Hamlet's mom gets married to his uncle and he sees the ghost of his father,  Aleksandr and Yelena visit Vanya and Sonya, throwing their quiet life into disarray... you get the idea.

3.  Point A leads to Point B, Point B leads to Point C, etc.  This may seem fairly obvious, but, trust me, it's not always. 

4.  Human beings are not perfect.  Characters shouldn't be either.  Audiences like characters with flaws.  It makes them relatable, human. 

5.  This is very important:  don't be afraid to get messy.  Playwriting is messy.  Allow yourself to make mistakes in the act of writing.  And don't stop when it gets hard.  It is much easier to fix a draft of something than recapture an idea you have completely deleted when the going got tough. 

This is a very rough overview of ideas that will be explored in greater detail as Tuesdays come and go.  Your assignment for next Tuesday is to take a look at the Aristotle link, but, beyond that, READ SOME PLAYS.  The best way to learn to write plays is to read plays and to watch plays.  Now, you may not have a chance to watch a play before our next class, but I still want you to do this for me:  if you watch a movie or a TV show, try to break it down from a structural standpoint (old reruns or "Law and Order", the original, are good for this:  crime is committed, detectives work to find the person, the lawyers try to convict, and either they do or do not.  Beginning, middle, end).  See what works.  See what TV shows or movies do this well (believe it or not, in TV and movies, they do refer to having and Act One and an Act Two, sometimes even an Act 3). 

If you want some suggestions for plays to read, drop me a line.  Better yet, think of the types of stories you would like to tell, and try to find plays of that genre.  At this point in your lives, reading should be enjoyable, so I don't necessarily want to dictate what plays you read, just so long as you read some plays.  Still, I'm happy to offer suggestions.

Next Tuesday, our class will be discussing monologues, and we will begin writing them.  How 'bout that?  Soon, you will be an honest-to-God playwright.  Aren't you excited? 

To go right to LESSON TWO, simply click HERE

Thanks for reading this installment of Theater is a Sport.  If you would like to drop me a line, please do so:  theater.is.a.sport@gmail.com.  If you want to learn more about me as a playwright, feel free to visit my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bobby-Keniston-Playwright-Page/148232788536601

If you would like to become a fan of Theater is a Sport on facebook, do so here:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bobby-Keniston-Playwright-Page/148232788536601#!/TheaterIsASport

So, thanks again.  Tune in tomorrow when I'll be giving out some simple audition tips for community theater actors.  Until then, have a great time in your lives, and remember:  Theater is a sport.

MY HERO WORSHIP OF CHRISTOPHER DURANG



ONE OF MY FAVORITE PLAYWRIGHTS, CHRISTOPHER DURANG

To me, Christopher Durang is a perfect example of why theater is a sport.  From his early parodies to his one-act absurd pieces, Mr. Durang's plays are bold, daring, funny (often in a darkly painful way), and full of energy.  Anyone who knows me well is aware of how energy is one of my favorite words and concepts, so perhaps it is only natural that I was drawn to Durang as soon as I was introduced to his work, and how he inspired me to want to write wild plays of my own.
I was a freshman in high school when I was cast in the lead role of The Actor's Nightmare, one of Durang's more mainstream, but still wildly funny, plays.  Once I recovered from the shock of being cast in the LEAD of the COMPETITION PLAY (completely rare and unexpected for a freshman), I hunkered down and read the script over and over again.

I never got tired of it.

The acting edition of The Actor's Nightmare is published by Dramatists with perhaps Durang's most successful (and controversial) one-act, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All For You (these two plays ran together on a doule bill Off-Broadway at the Westside Arts Theater, where it ran for a couple of years, marking the first time Durang could make a living as a playwright).  I devoured that play as well, darker and edgier than the play I was in, and it was all over--- my adoration was cemented.  I attacked my drama coach's file cabinet of perusal scripts, and read every Durang I could find.

I read and saw a lot of plays growing up.  My parents were very active in different community theaters, and I loved the very idea of plays.  I would check out collections of "America's Best Plays" by the decade from my hometown library.  But Durang's style was an eye-opener, and unlike anything I had ever read:  the absurdity, the dark comedy, the almost wildness of it all--- and, yet, all of these qualities seemed rooted in pain.  As I grew older, I would discover others (like Arthur Kopit's Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad), but, for me, Durang was the first. 

My friends and I were all about dark humor and absurdity (being such a small circle on the outside looking in, this was most likely out of self-preservation).  We pushed our jokes to the most satirical ends possible, trying to one-up each other.  Reading Durang in high school made me feel like he could easily be my friend, obviously the smartest of a pretty smart group. 

When I started writing plays in college, I found myself pushing absurd, dark comedies, just like my hero.  I look back on these plays and admire the energy and glee I put into them.  Obviously, I was not trying to write "just like" Durang, but was trying to capture this kind of freedom he has in his work, this catharsis of lunacy and hurt, and find my own voice with it.  A kind of poking back at the world I felt had pushed me around pretty hard in my first nineteen or twenty years. 

During this period, these are the plays I loved by Mr. Durang (please note that these play contain naughty language and adult themes):

The Nature and Purpose of the Universe, a one-act variation on the story of Job, where two of God's agents torment a poor housewife with a truly miserable life;

and

The Vietnamization of New Jersey, a full-length parody of the plays of David Rabe, where a "normal" American family's life is blown apart when the oldest son returns from Vietnam blind and with a "Vietnamese" wife.  This play is giddily outside the realm of political correctness, it makes me want to cheer.

Of course, I like all of Durang's plays:  Beyond Therapy (his most mainstream, but still hilarious), Baby With the Bathwater (an absurd play about parents who have no business raising a child), and all of his many one-acts, which are anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour long.  And reading the two fine collections of his plays (volume I features 27 one-act plays, Volume 2, his complete full-length plays up until 1995) is a true treat for a fan like me, as Mr. Durang opens each play with some biographical notes about the writing of each of his plays.  These notes are so charming and generous, it feels like you have made a new friend who happens to be a bit of a twisted playwright.

As it so happens, reading these plays now, I would have to say my two favorites are The Marriage of Bette and Boo, a semi-autobiographical piece about his parent's unhappy marriage (which deserves far more productions, in my humble opinion), and the aforementioned Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You.  Oh, and on a side-note, The Actor's Nightmare is a very popular play with high schools, and is produced all over the country every year.  Aside from its humor, it is also educational in its send-ups of Hamlet, Noel Coward's Private Lives, Samuel Beckett, and A Man for All Seasons.

About a month ago, I was feeling very dry in my own writing, and a little glum about my creative source.  So I went back and re-read my Durang collections, and almost immediately felt a sense of renewal.  Durang himself has stepped away from writing for some "fallow" periods, and always seems to emerge reinvigorated.  In fact, as I was reading him all over again, I searched the web and found that his latest play, Vanya, Sonya, Masha and Spike has received rave reviews, and has a stellar cast, including Sigourney Weaver (Durang's old friend from Yale Drama School and frequent collaborator) and David Hyde Pierce (who appeared in Beyond Therapy as one of his first professional theater gigs).  I read that this new play will be moving to Broadway for a 17-week engagment.  I was so happy for Mr. Durang--- he's never been exactly a "fit" for Broadway.  His two plays to make it to a Broadway production in the 80s had a combined run total of  a month or so.  If he were my friend (and, yes, I wish he were), I would be so proud and happy that he is finally getting some decent Broadway recognition.  From what I understand, this limited engagement begins some time in March, so if anyone wants to get mea belated birthday gift....

In any case, it makes me happy to share my geeky fan boy feelings about Christopher Durang.  If you had never heard of him before reading my post, I am happy to have introduced you to him.  If you were already a fan, please feel free to comment below about your favorite Durang works. 

To learn much more about Christopher Durang, follow this link to his website:  www.christopherdurang.com

To learn more about Vanya, Sonya, Masha and Spike, follow this link to a video about it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THhCO3dN8Hs

Thank you for reading this post of Theater is a Sport.  Come back tomorrow for my very first online playwriting lesson!

If you would like to learn more about me, follow this link to my playwright's page:  https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Bobby-Keniston-Playwright-Page/148232788536601

If you would like to become a fan of Theater is a Sport on facebook, please follow this link:  https://www.facebook.com/#!/TheaterIsASport

Thanks again, and if you like reading my posts, please follow me and tell your friends about me.  See you tomorrow!

Oh, yes--- please remember:  Theater is a sport.