The Process of Theater

There are those who feel about movies the way I feel about theater. There’s something about sitting in the dark with a group of strangers and experiencing the show with them while also being utterly alone as the memories brought to life are only mine. But the connection I feel to both the group and my own life intrigues me.

When I got my MFA in Writing for the Stage and Screen, I had to write two theses. One play and one script for television or film. The final two plays from the one thesis, Choices: A Play in Six Chapters, are going up as a staged reading this Saturday and I couldn’t be more delighted with the feedback from the first four.

People related to the characters and shared how the themes reminded them of things from their own lives. And, one of the actors said, “It’s so easy to play characters you’ve created because everything I need is on the page.” That’s one of the highest compliments an actor can give a playwright.

Most people don’t realize when they sit down in the theater just how long the process from starting the script to staging a full production really is. My play is barely out of the embryonic stage. After I wrote it in graduate school, it received critique from the program director as well as a dramaturg. Then I let it sit for nearly a decade before pulling it out and looking at it with fresh eyes.

I did rewrites and edits and received more feedback. Then came the first staged reading of the initial two plays of the full-length piece, which I produced investing my own money. The third and fourth plays were read out loud in April and the final two are being introduced to the world Saturday. I have been selling tickets to ensure the cast and crew get paid in something besides pizza.

In October, the entire play will be done in one go. But won’t be just the play. I have an idea I will be testing for this show that will make it more interactive and enhancing the community aspect of going to a play.

In the meantime, here are the descriptions of the final two plays, which have taken ten years to birth.

Endgame asks What happens when you put the widow, the mistress and the illegitimate daughter in one room? The answer is head games, ugly truths and, believe it or not, laughs! Freedom explores the conversation five characters from the earlier chapters have when they gather after an AA meeting to debate whether love is really just science. Throughout their discussion, a long-kept secret begins to unfold, leaving some of them to navigate what is still unspoken.

You can get tickets for the live performance HERE. And if you can’t make it next Saturday or don’t live in Pittsburgh, you can get tickets for the replay HERE.

Have a fabulous rest of the week!