On Tue, 13 Feb 2001, Dana Shilling wrote:
One reason that many actors and directors hate working with a living playwright who is present at rehearsals is that many a playwright doesn't WANT there to be anything for the director or performers to do other than do EXACTLY what the playwright put into the script.
Then they shouldn't be playwrights. If they're not willing to be pleasantly surprised by how their text is performed, why are they creating a text for performance in the first place? Certainly any playwrights I've worked with have been very interested in seeing what the actors do with the text: I'm optimistic enough to hope that the type you mention are in the minority.
Shakespeare didn't write stuff like
[HAMLET enters slowly, and sits on a dark wooden chair stage right]
HAMLET To be, or not to be: [BEAT] that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer [HAMLET LEANS TOWARDS AUDIENCE] the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune [HAMLET STANDS AND BEGINS TO PACE ACROSS THE STAGE] or to take arms [HAMLET RAISES HIS VOICE] against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? [BEAT] To die: to sleep; [HAMLET SITS DOWN, LOOKING DEFLATED] no more; and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache [TEARS WELL IN HAMLET'S EYES] and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation [HAMLET EXTENDS HIS ARMS IN AN EXPANSIVE GESTURE TOWARDS THE AUDIENCE] devoutly to be wish'd.
and I don't see why anyone else should.
Actually, while we're on the subject, could I take this opportunity to implore any Lystians who write scripts to remove evry stage direction that says [BEAT]? It's something I always find insulting, to be honest.
Maybe that's what being a fanwriter is about? Achieving Hitchcock's dream of treating actors like cattle because we have total control over them? Maybe bad stories come about from Mad Character Disease (which in turn, is caused by what we feed them?)
Possibly. However, I think bad stories often come about because the author doesn't have a good idea of how a particular actor would be likely to approach a particular piece of dialogue, and this gives a false feeling to the story.
Iain