Here are the guidelines:
- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 350 words.
- Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
- From the "Comment As" drop-down menu, choose Anonymous, then click "Publish."
- Reading responses are due by 10pm on the day PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
I personally have such a big passion for theatre, in fact, I’m even minoring in it. Because it is my minor I have already written multiple short plays in some of my theatre classes. I really don’t find it that different from other short stories. In fact, I believe it gives a smaller job to your imagination because it has the stage directions right in front of you telling you what the characters are wearing or doing. Because I have read many plays and even participated in some, playwriting seems like any other kind of writing to me – except for the fact that a lot more detail goes into writing them because they will “be performed.” Like any kind of writing, the readers (and in this case, even actors) are able to interpret what the characters say in whatever way they want. The writing style is just like witnessing an ongoing conversation. I believe the hardest job for a playwright is ultimately choosing a good theme and giving the characters meaning behind what they say. In my classes, I learned that it’s best to keep the characters relatable so the audience can connect with the protagonist – much like any other kind of writing. Other than that, it is just like reading a fictional story. I know when I read anything it’s almost like a little movie is going on in my head, except with plays it will actually be performed live. Because of this, it’s best to keep things semi-realistic. Many plays tend to have up to 200 or even 250 pages in a script, but when performed it will only come out to about 30 to 40 minutes long because the writing style is completely different. A play is made up of beats and movement, these take up a lot of the time because the characters motives are often shown rather than put out there on a paper (like when words that are italicized resemble thoughts). I’m really excited to discuss this more in class, I really enjoy reading plays and maybe I’ll even learn something about them that I hadn’t before.
ReplyDelete-Alyssa Ramos
Sure Thing by David Ives. This piece was a bit confusing. I thought it would just flow like a movie script or something. The different scenarios that “could’ve” happened between both Bill and Betty throughout their many conversations. All the what if’s the conversation went in one direction or another. The author had a very interesting take on the conversation topics. Jumping from random topics. Towards the end of the play I’m assuming they hit if off because they decided on the Woody Allen Festival and starting talking about their kids. All the conversation topics kind of lost me.
ReplyDeleteTrying to Find Chinatown by David Henry Hwang. This play caught more of my attention because I actually envisioned the two guys having a dispute on the sidewalk. When the conversation started getting heated I got more into it. I actually followed how the guys got from point to point. When Ronnie started getting offended by Benjamin’s accusation of his violin and calling it a fiddle. Ronnie was really disrespecting Benjamin when he said he was a redneck and sleeping with his cousins in the beginning of the play. Ronnie couldn’t believe that Benjamin was a Asian American because he looked like a white man. Once Benjamin starts talking about his college experience Ronnie gets the jist of why he feels so strongly about the place he needs to go. At the end of the play Benjamin finally gets to building number 13 and remembers all the memories of his father and takes him back to being a kid eating his candy.
The Divine Fallacy by Tina Howe. Another play I didn’t really understand. Why did the cameraman Victor start feeling bad about not seeing her beauty in the first place? He was so set on catching his plane and taking her picture for the back of the book. When she starts getting comfortable in his studio she cuts herself on the camera when Victor chases her. It’s the beauty behind the glasses and thick sweater when Victor notices how great she really is. Much more beautiful than her super model sister; he was even okay when Dorothy mentions he missed his plane to Paris. He gets the perfect sot of her in the great lighting.
- Monica Barbosa
I enjoy reading new things and even with the most obvious things I did not know I learned from David Starkey. I always wondered what those two masks meant, the sad and happy mask face. It all makes sense now with comedy and tragedy. Reading how there is screen plays and playwrights peaks my interest. Maybe someday or now I will get into it. There always has to be a conflict in a story along with the characters, dialogue, and stagecraft just as quoted. Drama fits in any story line and playwright. It all goes back to the Greeks and that is what makes playwrights even more interesting is the history of a different culture that started with the inspirational Greek theater.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare being the most famous theater play writer depicting humanity with great skill that no one may ever match. Starkey explains here about verisimilitude where writers bring out the realistic images of people and where they are at which is the important part of writing. This would be most challenging writing a play just as good as Shakespeare. It is really cool to know that other writers were inspired by Shakespeare and because of him we can watch and learn from other plays other writers have created. I am appreciating creative writing more and more. Knowing that there is a difference between screenplay of movies and a play in public with actors with no take backs of a ruined line is amusing. I have not been to a play in a long time or honestly maybe ever but I have gone to elementary play to see my niece perform. But maybe one of these days I should check one out in the adult world and hopefully appreciate it more.
-Adelisa Fuentes
Sure Thing by David Ives struck up a topic that I ponder over quite often; the “what if’s” of life. The characters, unlike reality, get re-do’s throughout their interaction that are based on the different outcomes depending on what a person might say. To me, the story moved at a fast pace, going back and forth through the same conversations, but it was structured well enough for the reader to grasp what is going on and teach us the importance of how a small factor, such as a few words, could have an impact on the future. I believe that the best work done on this play was with the characters, they can be both seen as an average/casual person, making it easy for the reader to relate to.
ReplyDeleteTrying To Find Chinatown by David Henry Hwang. The literature and language used in this play was very straight-forward and direct, some examples such as the use of profanity and the continuous interruptions between both characters. The language really brought the characters to life for me, as I could vividly picture the scenario, not as a moment in life but as an actual play. The atmosphere is set with several moods, going from the aggressive confrontations between the characters, the empathy for the father’s death, and to the journey of finding your identity. Emotions are vital to every story, I believe that they are the final influence on a person’s opinion of literature, and setting the right atmosphere is key to a successful writing.
The Divine Fallacy by Tina Howe was a bit difficult for me to understand, but it did finalize in teaching me the importance of language used in conversations. In comparison to other literature, plays are mostly composed of conversations, and not only is the importance on what a character says but what is going on when it is being said. One example would be in the beginning of the story when both characters are talking at the same time, it is not something commonly found in writing, but in cases like this play, was helpful to bring out the personalities of the characters.
-Jesus Pena
Yikes! This section has me the most nervous of any other section we have approached thus far.
ReplyDeleteDialogue is the biggest star and structuring it in to the Ten-Minute play takes a cleaver mind. It’s not only that you write dialogue that can hold ten minutes but that you chose the integral ten minutes of life that is worth displaying. This one very important point that Starkey makes on age 264 in the section titled On the Other Hand, Don’t waste Time states “Every exchange between your characters should tell us something vital about who they are, while moving the action forward”.
As I was reading along I keep trying to put all that advice into perspective and so far I got that a play is not a rant, screen play, essay, or conversation. In my initial thought I had the idea of just a really interesting conversation, Starkey set me straight though.
I really appreciate the formulaic way of setting up the conflict build and resolution through page check points, for example: page 1-2 is introductory; page 2-3 is dramatic big question; page 3-8 complications and turns; and pages 9-10 resolve (page 262). I like that it needs not end on happy notes. I know that life often doesn’t get that type of ending.
Starkey advises us to stay away from the stereotyped character and go for the more rounded and emotionally complicated. He also seems to asks us to steer clear of too many actors and this is the main point that made me realize the heart of why a play is so different form everything else. I really visualized how awkward it would be to have no real lines but be stuck in a conversation. I already have to put up with this type of thing when I attend odd family get togethers- I am just looking for the exit.
When Starkey brings up the idea that dialogue can cause your play to take on a life of its own this makes me very nervous because essentially I want to control the chaos but I will need to come to terms with the characters and how real they want to be.
Out of the three plays that were given as examples, I wasn’t partial to any one of them but found that the easiest action to follow was Trying to Find Chinatown. I could visualize it as I was reading and grasp the emotions that the characters were enacting. I thought that The Divine Fallacy was the most action packed and would be the most entertaining. Starkey also brought up a good point about writing in monologues- they help the audience place the stranger and hard to understand characters. As a playwright, I understand what great tool monologues can be. The play that made the most out of dialogue was Sure Thing, which pegged two characters in a quick back and forth exchange; which in my opinion, relies heavily on timing and actors’ chemistry in order to succeed.
~Brenda Gomez
While reading this in my head I have been clearly intimidated. I do believe that the creativity of writing any play even a ten minute play, it’s quite intimidating imagining how much creativity and probably revision one would need for this. But with that being said it’s not an impossible task as the structure is straight forward. I guess the only problem I see that could be created is, what the hell would the dramatic question be?
ReplyDeleteWhile I was reading Sure Thing, I was actually very entertained. I loved the idea of the silent bell that both didn’t hear but once that bell rung the situation started from a certain point and continued until the ending result was exactly what it was. It makes you think of exactly how awkward and complicated it is just to interact with another human being because of how many endless possibilities of conversation that can either make or break what you just tried. It’s probably how most encounters go except we don’t have a bell so we are forced to stare down our decisions right then and there. Tragic. It’s so easy to read and understand the concept and idea of what this play is telling us.
With Trying to Find Chinatown, If I am being completely honest, which I am, the whole thing was pretty boring. I mean I understood the dialogue between both Ronnie and Benjamin and see the problem that arose out of it all, but it was just blank somehow. I get the idea of how the characters felt and that was nice but I don’t know what it was exactly but it was not interesting to me. But, I will give it props to the use of language between the characters, some humor is always a good relief of an intense situation.
Now for The Divine Fallacy it was probably the most well composed play I read out of the three. I loved Dorothy, she was a very entertaining character, especially with how she spoke to Victor and clearly didn’t hold anything back. She showed herself and Victor realized it too late in the end and was taken back that he didn’t notice her beauty before. Yet, it was all structured well and the interaction was very well thought out and put into a dialogue that made clear sense. Will I be able to write my own nice thought out ten-minute play? Probably not but at least I have a guide and idea that Starkey was so kind to give.
-Victoria Benavidez
I see a challenge approaching! To be honest, this reading was overwhelming. I am going to find this section very difficult, but it seems that this section itself is very exciting to come across. Writing the ten-minute play, the way Starkey introduces it, is very straight forward, a little to forward. With his idea and how he brings Marsha Norman into it, along with Tina Howe, Émile Zola and the writers of many play writes. With all of the above, he takes us into learning the true meaning of what it actually means to write a ten-minute play. He states that play writes come from the struggles of our life, and we then take it from there, like we do need to state it and say it, write and have you relate to it and think. It is all acting, with the understanding that this is not a movie, screenplay, or anything like a typical conversation or an essay. It is much more, it needs elements of creativity, the then moves into characters, characters with a voice, and then a scenario of a theme that goes with it. Along with this, Starkey demonstrates that we have more than two characters, we can surely end our plays with style and we can convince the people who have read what we wrote could be or was actually true. Believing is big here, answering questions that weren’t even asked and make them okay to implant them into our minds is genius. I think that overall we need to be brief and at the same time we need to be quick. I think that we need to be sneaky, how many of the models shown, we need to give our characters, mention the setting and then the important note. To me all theses three things, are like make a braid, we are taking three pieces and then combining them to make one thing, one story. It is embedded in the braid, how one can see the different strands, yet not actually know which one is which, this is what I mean with being sneaky. And with the details implied, we do succeed in the play.
ReplyDelete-Maria J. Salinas
I have absolutely zero experience in writing a play or script, let alone writing a ten minute play. I have been in courses where the class as a whole reads a play… the professor assigns characters to students and the whole class reads it aloud, each student reading his or her lines so the story makes sense. That’s about all the experience I have with this genre. I immediately got nervous upon reading this section and after reading the samples within the reading I can honestly say I don’t feel any better about the genre. It seems very tedious and kind of confusing writing a play. The one thing that I feel kind of makes it easier is the part before the actual start of the story where the characters are introduced, the setting is established and the “important note” part. I think this “background” information is very helpful in allowing readers to not just dive into the piece, it sort of sets readers up to better understand what is going on. Then I noticed one of the samples did not have any notes before it started so that threw me off. I assume writing plays still follows the free and unchained style of creative writing where there really aren’t any rules, if the writer wants to put notes they can, if not, too bad it’s still the writer’s choice. It seems as if plays are purely (for the most part) dialogue. That could be easy to write but then where I think the difficulty will start to show face is when scenes and actions need to put in. If you’re watching a play, you see the actions and scene but when writing the actual play, I think it will be more difficult to smoothly put the actions of the characters into the writing.
ReplyDelete-Alfredo Montemayor
I have never written a play...I mean I have thought of many ideas after watching some shows like The Originals, Once Upon A Time and Vampire Diaries. I would think of what the writers of the main story thought of to get the settings and dialogue or about how the directors put together just the dialogue to bring the stories to life. Then sometimes I play out conversations in my head and told myself once I should try to write a play, but never got around to it. Reading this info makes me a bit glad I didn't but a bit upset that I never did because I could have fixed errors. It was a bit of a challenge reading through this genre and the scripts, well not reading it but grasping the idea of me writing a play or drama. Page 234 compares plays to poetry because of the maximum use of words, which aren’t as much as an essay, true, but to build a character through just dialogue and few actions seems to be a challenge, an exciting challenge. I’ve seen very few live plays and when I have everyone seems to congratulate and applaud the actors on a job well done but I am guilty to not take the writer into consideration. Like the other genres plays have their technique that Starkey lays out for us. In the plays, I noticed “Trying to find Chinatown” was a lot “wordier” than the other two. It was a drag trying to get myself to read it. In all plays I tried to read as I would imagine the characters would speak to the best of my ability. That is something I always wondered too: How does one read plays if we never considered ourselves actors? Like does one just read as you normally would unless you read it to a live audience letting the few details of a character guide your tone? Or perhaps I am just over-thinking it, but I am already wondering for when I will need to build my play with my characters, but the checklist Starkey left for writers seems fair enough to follow. The other thing is point of you, when characters speak I guess it would be important to focus in what tense an actor or character is to speak when speaking.
ReplyDeleteLisa Marie Serna
When I read the title of this weeks reading I was not excited at all. I can say I was a little more on the, I am not prepared for this more then anything. Writing a screen play can be something that is the most difficult for many writers, but for some like Starkey stated can be a hidden talent just waiting to be reveled. For myself I believe this will be the most difficult assignment that will be presented to us this semester, and like Starkey stated who would want to compare themselves or even get near to the greatest play writer of all time (Shakespeare).
ReplyDeleteIn this reading the author was able to give some great pointers to those who have never written a play before on how exactly to approach the stages of writing a ten-minute play. My favorite pointers that the author gave in my perspective were, “A play is not a conversation, a play is not a rant, a play is not an essay.” With these simple things that were stated I was able to get an understanding, as I believe other students were on how exactly to view a play. Not as a common written essay or a conversation, which to some it might look like exactly that but as something that takes more time and effort as well as creativity to create. The helpful hints that were given after these three points help the written understand what Starkey finds to be the base fundamentals of what is needed in a ten-minute play. Which are beyond helpful for those who are not sure on how to start a play in any way.
The examples that were given by different authors who have written short ten-minute plays helps the writer get an understanding and a view on how to approach the matter of play writing. The way that language is being used, along with dialogue, setting, and characters, the way these things were established is of benefit to the reader to understand as well as being able to conclude some questions to later on ask fellow classmates or the professor.
-Alicia Lucio
I can imagine how difficult and time-consuming writing a ten minute play can be. Within Starkey’s pages two hundred and thirty three to two hundred and eighty four he gives a very detailed descriptions on the many different aspects you must consider when writing a play as well as steps on how to achieve a credible play that lasts ten minutes. This reading is mainly a, I would say, a how-to section that explains how one would go about creating a ten minute play. Starkey even goes to provide three possible models in which you should shape your play around. The point of this is to learn how to correctly structure a ten minute play, as well as creating believable characters, and then finally writing a convincing dialogue that would provoke the audience to feel any type of emotion. These pages provide an in-depth insight into how one would go about writing a ten minute play, Starkey even provides samples of different models on how one would go about writing a play.
ReplyDelete-Lowen Sauceda
So, writing a ten minute play… it sounds interesting especially since I’ve never ever thought of writing one before, but it is nice to expand the horizon and explore new things so let’s do it. From the plays that I’ve seen, I feel the most interesting part of it all is that the play writer is able to get an actor with a completely different personality than his character and the actor changes completely into a whole new person and do things he might never do before at his own will, if that makes any sense or in other words and I’m quoting the book, “What ever happens to them, it really, really happen.”
ReplyDeleteSure thing – David Ives seems to be about a conversation between Billy and Betty about a seat Billy wants to sit on and after each time the bell rings the responses betty gives are different from no, it’s taken to sure come talk to me about the book I’m reading to are you trying to ask me out. I over all enjoyed the content of the play because the author was very open about the content which I feel attracts people to continue reading the conversation these individuals are having.
Trying to Find Chinatown- David Henry Hwang
The structure of this play is different compared to ives in that hwang adds a more descriptive background on what is happening in the play so I think that really sets the mood on what is going to happen in the play. Hwang was also very open in the content of the play but what I like was that he added the gestures inbetween so I can really imagine what is going on between Ronnie and Benjamin.
The last story had a similar structure of hwang and I feel like the way these two authors structured it gives it a better understanding for the reading.
Over all I’m really excited in writing my first play.
-priscilla pena
As far as getting into the theatre world I find it very interesting. I remember in high school when theater or drama was an elective. It always ran across my mind to join but I didn’t think I could fit into that crowd. Anyways, Im glad this class will show us an intro into theatre because it’s something that interests me. One thing that was mentioned that stuck to me while reading, “it provides the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.” I love that because overall this is what I personally think theatre revolves in. I feel it’s more like they want to create a play so they figure out the characters and their personalities then finding people who can act or be that way for a while during the play while having to create a specific setting and their roles are interesting to me. While reading the play, “Sure Thing” I didn’t quite understand it. I understand the setting is a couple of chairs and two people in their twenties discussing about sitting here. But it keeps going back and forth while answering the same questions. After reading it a few times, is it more like different scenarios on how to approach someone? Im not too sure. Towards the end, their conversations start adding the word sure in front of after they speak hence the title? There was a lot of dialogue with the selection, “the divine fallacy” because while one character is speaking…there is other words itaclized to show what the character was doing while us reader can only read what is being written but at the same time try to visualize what the character is trying to do.
ReplyDelete-arianna tabares
The ten-minute play reminds me a lot of the other elements associated with writing fiction. The introduction reminded me a lot of all of the same pointers as the fiction area. The dialogue is something that I am particularly excited to touch on. It has always been an area that I have been the most nervous about in my writing because I feel like there is so much incorporated with it that it makes me a little overwhelmed and with so much great dialogue in books it often feels like I have nothing very great to bring to the table. However, I enjoy how Starkey points out the fact that our generation has so much examples and are exposed to a variety of dialogue that it just comes naturally. Another area was the character development section. Usually in my writing I develop one or two characters very well and the others become what Starkey warns about. “two dimensional” characters. I can see how it’s easy to fall into that mind set, creating a stereotype, just to keep the story moving. But as Starkey notes, the characters have to be believable or the reader will be detached from the story. Focusing on a theme isn’t something that I have really focused on which sounds bad but in my experience, I usually write and the theme, although it isn’t exactly clear, comes out. That isn’t exactly the best way to approach it, as evident through the theme portion. I can see how subtly moving your play in the direction you want your audience to follow rather than just spewing out everything at the end will have a greater effect on viewers. All of the elements, like your dialogue can hint towards your theme. It really plays along the lines of Hemmingway’s iceberg theory, where the less exposed the greater it makes the story. The part dealing with actors, sets, and all of those other aspects is very new to me. I have no experience with any of that but Starkey’s guide is pretty helpful, makes me think like it wouldn’t be that hard.
ReplyDelete-Alvaro Pulido
Everybody loves watching movies, and plays are very similar in nature. When I think of plays that I have gone to go watch, for example, it is part of the audience's job to get lost in the dialogue and scenes to make the theatrical experience more rich. The most impressive part is when actors are able to stay in character and not mess up a single of their lines. But before any acting or theater directions can happen, there must be a playwright to innovate a 10-minute play or whatnot. I have never tried writing a play at all. The one assigned for this class will my first one ever, and I can say my experience with it started off challenging because I was not aware with how I wanted to envision the scene, it needs to be substantial in regards to efficiency and money. Starkey points out that 10-minute plays are the most effective when 1. the characters are multi-dimensional along with their persuasive dialogue and 2. a dramatic occurrence takes place. I focused on those two qualities in writing my 10-minute play and now I will be more open to reading other plays as well.
ReplyDelete- Cecilia Ramirez