Saturday, May 31, 2014

The Next Time I Teach Playwriting...

The next time I teach playwriting I will do a few things differently.
My friend Jeff told me once that he was told that
the first time you teach is a blur,
the second time you correct the mistakes made the first time,
and the third time is when you really start to enjoy it.
My friend Tony and I were talking about that last night at a show as he was telling
me about his teaching experience this term.

I would love to teach less structure in my introduction classes.
When I was taught playwriting by my mentor, we wrote and we read.
And we talked.
That is the class I would like to teach.
I would also like to discuss how the structure in which you approach an idea
affects the play you write.

Some people are outliners,
some people are note carders,
some people are laundry listers,
some people write their way into the story,
some people do a lot of research,
some people don't,
some people write about people they know,
some people watch a lot of movies to prepare,
some people watch a lot of TV prepare,
some people watch or read a lot of plays to prepare.

How you organize your thoughts and take in information directly affects the outcome of your work.

Maybe you do all of these things or some of these things or none of these things.

And it's a fun exercise to play around with the way that you do things
and see what the best preparation is for you individually.

With this script I'm working on now, which is a TV script, I am using notecards.
I have never used notecards.
I outline.
But there's a new freedom in doing the notecards,
partially because I am new to it.
But also because it's allowing me to take thoughts down and put them on a card.
That thought might get expanded to a scene or an arc.
It might just be something that I need to think about or maybe it's a theme that
I need to remain focused on as I'm writing.
But seeing it in front of me helps.
It gives me the structure of the outline
and the freedom of putting a puzzle together.
I might be a new way of working.
I have known people who notecard for years,
but never tried it.
I always thought it was analogous to outlining.
It's nothing like outlining.  Outlining is so static.
I love outlines.
I love the organization.
But this is a looser, more interchangeable way of doing organization.
And it will affect the feel of my script.
I can't wait to try it with my next play.

The next time I teach playwriting I will have a lot more reading.
I will have a lot more discussion.
I will make the classes progressively less structured.
The intro class will feel more like a lecture and group discussion based course.
The advanced class will bring in more elements of workshop.
And the workshop class that leads to a public presentation will be a full on workshop.

But there will also be a counterpoint because the advanced class will have more elements of dramatic structure laid out.
And the workshop class will deal with rewrites and feedback.
Each class will have a clearer focus, but will feel like a completed arc when put all together.

I can't wait for the next time I teach playwriting.

I am grateful for having taught.
I am grateful for my body telling me to rest.
I am grateful for sore feet.
I am grateful for music.
I am grateful for the outside.
I am grateful for a sunny deck.

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