Advice to Young Playwrights
From International Artists to LEAP
“Dream big. Dream the impossible. Against all odds. Tell your stories from the most vulnerable and open place within yourselves. Not easy to do, but it's not worth it otherwise. Learn everything you can about theatre - lights, design, acting, costumes, sound, working crew.... all the lessons go into the writing and understanding the many possibilities and practicalities available in this form.”
--Caridad Svich
Playwright/Songwriter/Translator/Editor
Founder, No NoPassport pan-american theatre coalition
Member, New Dramatists, New York City
“An African tradition says that it is auspicious to give 5 of something, so here are 5 suggestions:
1. ENTERTAIN ALL YOUR FAROUT IDEAS. It's no good having a Bouncer working the door of your creative mind. You know what I'm talking about, right? Like that Bouncer at the club who looks over the hopeful entrants picking and choosing "you, you, but not you" letting some in, keeping others out. As an artist, as a writer, its your mission to entertain all your farout ideas. Welcome every notion that comes into your head. Invite every farout idea into the house of your creative mind, offer it a seat at your table, give it a good meal, let it sleep over if it needs a place to lay its head, let it move in if it needs a place to stay. Who knows, a notion that, at first glance, looked farout and worth dismissing (you know, with words "oh, that’s not a good enough thing to write about") that very farout idea may be a Sequoia Tree in seed form. A beautiful tree, just beginning. So many of my plays started like this.
2. PRACTICE RADICAL INCLUSION. Along the same lines as Suggestion #1, but now branching out from your creative mind this suggestion informs the way you conduct yourself in the world. In your creative mind you are welcoming, and as you live your life you are inclusive of all ideas, all people, all paths, all ways. Everybody is invited to the table of your heart. Everybody is welcome in house of your spirit. And there is always enough food to go around. No scarcity. I continue to tell myself, "everybody gets a seat at my table and there is enough pie for everybody!" This practice will help your life-conduct which will in turn turn you into a better conducting rod and reward your writing 10-fold.
3. PRACTICE TWO KINDS OF COURAGE: WRITING AND REWRITING. In your writing, there are 2 kinds of courage, The first is Writing, the second is Rewriting. While these are distinct, too often we make the mistake of practicing them at the same time. Separate your Writing from your Rewriting. Like, its not hard to talk with a friend over tea, but try talking with that friend in person AS you hold another conversation with another friend on your cellphone -- and you'll clearly know why writing AS you rewrite is difficult and confusing. So distinguish the two. When you are Writing, you are in a fertile forest. You are surrounded by green and growing things, there are singing parrots in the trees and a canopy of green leaves overhead. The sunshine through the leaves making, all along your fertile earth, a warm and dappled shade. Delicious. You exist here. You are entertaining all your farout ideas, your censor is fast asleep: you are Writing and Creating. When you have written (and I always work to write a complete draft, straight through from beginning to end) -- when you have finished the Writing, now it is time to turn to the second Courage: the Rewriting. Again, many writers rewrite AS they write and they wonder why the writing process is so difficult. First you Write. AND THEN! And then you Rewrite! And when you Rewrite, you move from the beautiful fertile rainforest and out into the plains. Your censor wakes! The grass is long and you can see for miles. You have a horse and you are riding. In your hand you hold the Sword of Discrimination (not "racial discrimination," ok? but the sharpness of mind that allows you to distinguish what "works" in your Writing from what "doesn't work.") There's some grand and swelling music playing. Richard Wagner opera music, if you like. And you are riding that beautiful horse and wielding that silver sharpened sword. This is Rewriting. Both take courage. Practice them separately for maximum enjoyment.
4. LANGUAGE IS A PHYSICAL ACT. Language is created by your ENTIRE BODY and not just by your head. Write with your whole body not just from the neck up! Get your guts involved! Get your feet involved! Your arms your legs and your aura even! And while yr at it, PUT ACTION IN THE LINE! Like in Euripides' Medea when she is begging Creon and he says "Let go of my cloak!" We know what she is doing NOT because of a stage direction, but because the writer put her action (holding on to the cloak) into the lines of dialogue!!! Also notice Shakespeare. Very few stage directions in his plays but lots of action, right? Cause most of his actions are embedded in his lines of dialogue!!
5. SHARPEN ALL YOUR 8 SENSES: Your basic 5 senses, your 6th sense (ESP), your 7th sense which is your common sense and your 8th sense which is your sense of humor!
I hope you enjoy these 5 suggestions! Enjoy your writing life!!
xoxoxoxo “
--Suzan-Lori Parks
Playwright/Essayist/Screenwriter/Novelist
Recipient, Pulitzer Prize, Macarthur “Genius” Grant
Venice, California
“I takes a lifetime to find your purest voice --don't lose hope, always try new things, never think you know anything, write to make existence better not worse, bring people together, eat words, stay ready, remember that everyone is interesting, take time out to have a life, never start with "no," truth is more interesting than reality, your passion is your energy source and it can be inexhaustible”
--José Rivera
Playwright/Screenwriter “Motorcycle Diaries”
Los Angeles, California
Advice for young playwrights...
Querida Elaine -
I'm so excited about your venture...it's near and dear to my heart...having spent the last 11 years working with young playwrights. Most of my students had never seen a play, much less written one...but I never ceased to be amazed at the wonders that came out of their pen and imagination once they were given permission to write from the heart.
I always remind them that ...No one can write your story the way you can. And yes, write with no editing...and then...focus on the re-writing.
Our web page has lesson plans and information that may be helpful.... www.yptdc.org
(Young Playwrights' Theater in Washington, DC)
Un abrazo fuerte-“
--Karen Zacarias
Playwright/Founding Artistic Director, Young Playwrights’ Theatre
Washington, DC
1] Find your niche. There is an audience out there waiting to hear what you, specifically, have to say. There is a producer out there waiting for a play that only you can write. It's a matter of finding them. So, think about what you're passionate about, what your unique background is, your experience is, your interests, your community. These things are your
"edge". They make up your voice. They will also help direct you towards your producer and audience. Honor who you are, what you come from...and often honoring means you challenge. For instance, as a teenager I became involved in the Christian community and I had a lot of interest in God and faith but I had a lot of questions about religion and "rules" and how to integrate a spiritual life in the modern world, particularly in regards to sexuality. The first play I had produced professionally was at Rosebud Theatre in Alberta, a Christian dinner theatre. I was eighteen. This seemingly "geeky" and small accomplishment lead to other opportunities and within eight years I was being produced internationally and was running my own theatre company.
2] Make your play a question, not an answer. If I start writing a play thinking to myself, "I'm going to write about racism because racism is wrong!" then
despite my very good intentions, it's very likely I'm not going to be exploring new territory and risk writing something that is moralizing and preachy and
worse: dull! I always start my plays by challenging my own beliefs and asking myself a question I don't have the answer to. Like in Cariboo Magi, it is all about racism. But the question I ask is: "If someone idolizes a nation/race/culture, is that also harmful/patronizing/a kind of racism?" I write about
things that make me feel uncomfortable. When I start from that place of, "Man, I really don't know how I feel about that..." I have a journey before me. I have something to explore. I try to explore both sides of an argument as fairly as possible so that the audience can make up their own mind about the issues explored.
cheers,
--Lucia Frangione
Playwright, Vancouver, BC
“When people ask me if I ever get writer's block, I tell them "no... and I don't intend to."
Censoring yourself before a play is finished is lethal. Maybe the play won't be your favorite when it's "completed." But typing the words "End of
play" is such a misnomer anyway. Because it's only the beginning of the journey. You'd never say a baby who's just been born is ready to go to college.
So it is too with a new play. Once you've written it, you can begin to dissect it more clearly, worming your way into every layer.
But while you're writing, is the time to listen to your muse and explore what feels true to this play's
soul. You can always change directions or paint over part of the canvas. But you can never find the play's soul again if you're busy judging every few pages.
That's my two cents,”
--Francesca Sanders
Playwright
Portland, Oregon
“This is what I tell my students when we begin a collaborative project. DON'T EDIT. Just start to write. Writing is writing, GOOD writing is RE-writing. You can start with anything; a character, a situation, a time or a place, start with that and let it speak to you but don't edit to start and don’t worry about art.”
--J.Ed Araiza
The SITI Company,
Performer/Director/ Playwright
New York City (Originally from San Antonio)
“Leap Writers: Congratulations on having voluntarily chosen this maddening vocation. As someone once said, being a writer means having homework for the rest of your life. Below is another of my favorite quotes about writing. I have it taped across the middle of my computer screen so its message is always foremost in my mind:
"Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators." --Albert Camus
I only remove the tape when I know I have something really good to say. It works for
me!”
Best regards,
Hiro Kanagawa
Playwright/Actor/Screenwriter
Vancouver, BC
“write about what you love until your audience has no choice but to fall
in love too.”
--eisa davis
writer and performer/hip hop artist
Berkeley, California and New York City, NY
"write like you're eating your way out of a fire. there is no time for anything but the forward move. brook no cant or can't.
listen to your play first,
then yourself, then be brave and hear the world. a play is a skin, like a drum - an eardrum - its tensions are its strengths."
--Erik Ehn
Playwright
Dean, California Institute of the Arts School of Theatre
Founder/Instigator, Regional Alternative Theatre (RAT) Movement