[Writer Post] The Play’s The Thing
I’m going to make this week’s writing post a look at this play process I’ve been through. It’s been a highly stressful, highly rewarding experience as a writer and a person. You see, it all started with me shooting off my mouth… which is how most great adventures begin.
Our Crew of Wise Guys
After our church did basically the same play (with nearly the exact same cast) for three years in a row, Larry Launders and I started talking about how we could come up with something totally different. Then the brain storming began and an idea formed and the “What ifs†flowed. And the next thing I knew we were committed to coming up with a new and different Christmas play for our church – based on this idea.
Updated “shepherds” and angel.
So…the idea was to take the Luke 2 Christmas story and put it into modern terms – which I remembered from a lesson Benjie Spears taught when he first started working at McKinney Bible Church **mumblety** years ago. And our Wise Men were actually “wise guys†teaching a new one what Christmas was all about. I wrote it in the Spring and Summer –with feedback and comments from Larry. And made him take half the credit/blame.
Our Modern Family
We started rehearsals in September and immediately had about half the cast bail. We had a leadership change which ended up with Larry and I being directors (because he wasn’t going to take full credit/blame). He did most of the acting/blocking because he’s the actor. I did technical and blocking because I was out in the house and could see it. And though I think the cast would probably say I did a good job being a co-director, I found it stressful and not in my wheel house. I don’t mind acting or singing in a choir. I love writing . Not so much good with the cat herding when it comes to people.
I did appreciate having something to do during the performance so I wasn’t obsessing over the audience reaction – which I’m told was good, though we didn’t hear enough UPROARIOUS laughter to pause the show. It ran SHORT – only 25 minutes. But the audience was appreciative, I’m starting to come up with ideas for expansion in case we want to do something else with this show – because it’s a GOOD SHOW. Especially when you’re not married to the words and let the actors (even volunteer, untrained ones) DO THEIR JOB. Oh, man, some of the things my crew did made my script sound more brilliant than it really is. I need to remember some of the adlibs and get them in the actual script.
2 Comments
We both experienced “firsts” with this! I am impressed with so much of that play, much as you state here, for all the same reasonse. A number of weeks ago, I forced myself to shed the phrase “not really actors” from my head because of what everyone managed to do with their character. They may not have had any previous experience with acting, but they were actors for us.
25 minutes? I think you are being generous!
And yes, I have had some thoughts on what could be added to make the play longer. Concepts, mostly. But I’d like to take a bit of a breather when it comes to the play, so we can talk about them later!
One of the firsts for me was seeing the actual ‘how a transcript varies from the script’ process I’ve heard so much about. Where the actors embrace their character, and in the process of getting the story told, customize the script to their role. Hence the ad libs, etc.
Oh, I’m not doing anything more than jotting done some general ideas while I have them so I don’t forget them later when it *is* time to work on it again.