#51
Posted: 1/31/13 at 8:33pm
The Texas petition was the one I wanted to grant, so I only paid attention to that.
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Jungle Red, two men kissing in the mid-1960s was a helluva lot louder than a gun shot, I promise you. But I hope your teacher only meant that's all the playwright HAS to write, not that that is all she is allowed to write and expect to be honored.
I've taught playwriting myself and sometimes young playwrights get so busy staging the work in their own mind that they forget to put it down on paper. It can be helpful to say, "Cool it with the stage directions for this draft." But playwrights often create detailed on-stage worlds and it's only narcissism on the part of directors and designers that causes those details to be ignored.
For the record, I might also defend the right of a thoughtful director to ignore a playwright's stage direction if the director truly believes another choice is better for his interpretation of the play. But that's not the same thing as just shrugging off the playwright's instructions because some twit doesn't understand what playacting is.
***
Jungle Red, two men kissing in the mid-1960s was a helluva lot louder than a gun shot, I promise you. But I hope your teacher only meant that's all the playwright HAS to write, not that that is all she is allowed to write and expect to be honored.
I've taught playwriting myself and sometimes young playwrights get so busy staging the work in their own mind that they forget to put it down on paper. It can be helpful to say, "Cool it with the stage directions for this draft." But playwrights often create detailed on-stage worlds and it's only narcissism on the part of directors and designers that causes those details to be ignored.
For the record, I might also defend the right of a thoughtful director to ignore a playwright's stage direction if the director truly believes another choice is better for his interpretation of the play. But that's not the same thing as just shrugging off the playwright's instructions because some twit doesn't understand what playacting is.
Updated On: 1/31/13 at 08:33 PM
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