Saturday, March 29, 2014
Writing the Fight: What Playwrights and Dramaturgs Need to Know About Staging Violence—Part 2
HowlRound: Before I go into depth, I want to say upfront that I am dealing with what happens in the rehearsal room under what is usually limited time and with what is usually a limited budget. There are those who have seen this discussion as a threat to creativity and said that “playwrights should write what they want” and that “anything can be staged.” I agree on both counts. But theater happens in real space with real actors, and some things can be more easily staged than others.
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2 comments:
After being exposed to a lot of violence in scripts this year, it was interesting to see this article, because I haven't read any about stage violence yet. In props we read The Pillowman, in Foundations the Lieutenant of Inishmore, and there has been a variety of stage violence in CMU productions this year. It is interesting to consider how much playwrights think about the staging when writing violent scenes. One aspect of this article that stuck out to me in particular was at the discussion of break away glass and the idea that it is an issue "that comes from playwrights being unduly influenced by film." I had not given much consideration to the idea that increased violence in film influences contemporary playwrights, but it makes a lot of sense.
I thought that this article was really interesting. I didn't really consider it, but it's really important that playwrights understand what they're asking for. I liked the insight that the author gave on the subject of stage violence, and I had no idea how much went into it. I also found the list of tasks that are really difficult to complete interesting. Even little things like breaking bottles are super important, which is something that I never considered.
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