Life as a Playwright

Life as a playwright is not as glamorous as one might think. Last semester I took a class on play writing, with the chair of out theatre department Ed Simpson (who is also a published playwright). The class was very interesting and by the end we had written a one-act play. I enjoyed the class, although having our plays acted out in the final was a little scary!

The struggle of being a playwright is the need to come up with both a good idea and compelling characters. If you don’t have a solid base, then it will all come crashing down. The first step is to come up with an idea. You will have hundreds, some will be absolutely terrible, some will be okay, but one will be perfect. The perfect one is the one that you expand on.

Then you create the characters. The goal is to create a compelling character who people will identify with. Hopefully, you have a picture of what they look like in your head so you can write a character description. Some playwrights have a very specific idea of what the character is supposed to look like, and will give you paragraphs of character description. Others (such as Shakespeare) give you nothing. Sometimes all you get is “CHARACTER NAME enters” (again, Shakespeare). It’s nice for directors to have some guidance, but not so much that it’s impossible to cast.

Now comes the hard part, the writing. You have to sit down and bring these characters and this story to life. You will do rewrites. SO many rewrites. You will be rewriting up until opening night sometimes. Often, playwrights will write the play, then take it to a group of actors who do a read through, and then get feedback from the actors and the audience. This could potentially go on for months. Then if you’re lucky, someone will want to produce your play, so production starts.

Again during the rehearsal process you will be making new discoveries, and rewriting parts as you go along. Eventually the play does open, and hopefully it’s a success. HPU is currently helping a playwright through this developmental process right now. John Cariani (he wrote the show Almost Maine) is currently workshopping one of his plays at HPU, and our department is premiering it as one of our shows next semester.

Currently in the HPU Theatre Department, we are working on our third show of the year aptly named Night Of The Originals. It’s a night of plays written by previous and current students. It opens this week March 19th! Get your tickets from the box office in Hayworth Fine Arts!

https://www.facebook.com/HPUTheatreArts

Like our Facebook page for more info on tickets and all of our other shows!