General theatre making sidebar:
DO NOT CUT OR CHANGE THE STAGE DIRECTIONS.
THAT IS PART OF THE PLAY. THERE'S A REASON.
You can always ask me for clarity or intention but don't ignore, cut or modify stage directions. Action, gesture, visual storytelling are as vital as dialogue.
DO NOT CUT OR CHANGE THE STAGE DIRECTIONS.
THAT IS PART OF THE PLAY. THERE'S A REASON.
You can always ask me for clarity or intention but don't ignore, cut or modify stage directions. Action, gesture, visual storytelling are as vital as dialogue.
I swear I even had someone add an intermission in the middle of a 90 page play. Just stuck it in.
WHAT. No.
You have to build dramatic structure that earns an act break, you don't just pause the play to go buy wine.
Storytelling is precise stuff.
Trust your storyteller.
WHAT. No.
You have to build dramatic structure that earns an act break, you don't just pause the play to go buy wine.
Storytelling is precise stuff.
Trust your storyteller.
Also *do not work with directors who do ignore the playwright.* Find and work with directors who respect the work. I'm always looking for awesome directors who get what the play is doing, not ones who force the play into what *they* are doing.
Serve the story. Trust the play.
Serve the story. Trust the play.
Blocking is different than action, gesture, silence.
It’s not about controlling where people walk or sit, it’s about protecting critical elements of complex storytelling which include what characters do with their bodies, how they’re making choices nonverbally, how they live.
It’s not about controlling where people walk or sit, it’s about protecting critical elements of complex storytelling which include what characters do with their bodies, how they’re making choices nonverbally, how they live.
Discounting stage directions or playwright-soecifiedaction is like ignoring the pauses in music composition or not reading the letter writing in Jane Austen Or not reading any of the sonnets in Shakespeare. This is critical, story defining stuff
Aristotle says that character is defined by what character *does*, not what they say. To discount what a writer has written about what a character does, even something as small as stealing a glance at someone they shouldn’t, is vital to that particular story.
Think of stage directions as the secret code to unlocking the true meaning of the play, what’s *actually* going on. They nonverbally tell you who is lying, stealing, desirous, depressed, etc. They are the soul of the story. Human truth is often silent, hidden, slowly revealed.
"Paula Vogel sat her playwriting class down and read them the opening of Tennessee Williams play saying 'these aren't stage directions, these are love letters to the reader over time.' - The Drama & Theatre of Sarah Ruhl
"Stage direction gets at what's happening on stage that you can't describe in dialogue." Marcus Gardley
regardingarts.com/theater/gardle…
regardingarts.com/theater/gardle…
