Is It the Words You Say or How You Say The Words?

Here's a bit of a conundrum that's been circulating in mind for a while: Is it the actor that makes a role or play great or is it actually the material?

Here's what lead me to this deliberation:
A while back, I attended a local Community theatre production of a play adapted from a famous novel. (without upsetting any friends by giving away the title - a clue would be - the novel was by a Southern female writer who has only ONE book to her credit published in 1960)

Anyway, the overall production was OK. I mean to say, it was a very amateur production with some mediocre performances, laughable set design, but you know, sometimes you must adjust your judgement to fit the presentation. Of course, in the case of this play, the material is the strong point, plus I am a major fan of the book and the movie so perhaps, my judgement wasn't as adjusted as it could have been.

Afterwords, word began to spread and filter from from others who saw the production and the consensus was pretty much off the charts - rave reviews and positive judgments. I began to wonder if we all saw the same play? Of course we did, perhaps my maladjustment was to blame. Maybe the patrons of this play just appreciate theatre in whatever form they can get and don't have lofty or jaded expectations. They aren't affiliated or associated with performing arts, nor do they have much experience with theatre in general. Maybe. I don't know.

So, I began to consider the material again, it's powerful stuff and I considered the performances, they were all right but.. the material - the performance - the words on the page - the words spoken on stage - oh Wait A Minute! I get it now! Perhaps the "rave" reviews could be directly attributed to the play or more specifically: the structure, tone and language of script. The message of the source material is dynamic and sure, the lead actor did a decent job in his role but consider the dialogue he had to work with - that could lift almost any performance up a few notches. (I said "some", not all)

I have heard that great actors could simply read the phone book and make it sound interesting, then would it follow that a well written role could make a mediocre actor sound brilliant? Through the ages, have there been inspiring or even award winning performances by unexceptional actors because the material lifted their perceived talent up to notable heights? Maybe.

But is this really the case? Could Don Knotts have played Hamlet? Could he as an actor captured the nuance and depth of the character just by uttering the dialogue? Could Richard Burton or Laurence Olivier have played Barney Fife and rendered the correct comic timing the role calls for? Maybe. I doubt it.

The take away is this - at times a well written play can vault the appropriate actor, regardless of their individual talent, over the hurdle of a less than stellar production. Also, it helps to consider the material within each performance as an entity of its own. You know the saying, "a whole being the sum of all its parts" or in this case a play being the sum of all its parts. And a big part is the script.

What do you think?

What's The Story on Your Story?

From time to time I will be the victim of the proverbial question:

Did you always want to be a playwright?

And depending on what frame of mind I am in, I will give any number of answers that segue into obscure explanations.
Example: I will say, Yes. Why? Well, you see I was an only child. When you'e an only child, whatever mischief or havoc you may cause rests solely on you and your excuse making skills. There is no sibling in which you can toss the blame.

"Well, ummm see, the lamp fell over because...ummm.. Johnny was running with scissors and I tried to make him stop and.. and.. then.. he looked at me and ran into the table, bumping it just so..tipping the lamp. Ergo, it fell and broke."

No sir. No Mam.
The art of the (non-sibling) excuse gave birth to storytelling in my adolescent brain.

"Well, see the lamp fell over because... a gypsy caravan came by offering wares and tinker trades. I refused their offer and when they turned to leave, the elder gypsy's long coat brushed the lampshade, tipping the lamp. Ergo, it fell and broke."

Now in some strange way, it is possible that this only-child-excuse-embellishment-ability did provide fodder for my imagination faculties. Maybe possibly.
Another contributing factor points to something I found while clearing out some storage bins in my basement - a dusty yellowed 8 x 10 album entitled: "Baby Record Book (Our Child's First Seven Years)" - of which my mother managed to fill up the first Four years.
Apparently, it was a book provided by the hospital as a gift for new mothers, (to off-set the trauma of childbirth and medical expenses I guess.) The idea of this book was to capture each new special moment in diary entries, questionnaire and photos of your offspring.
First tooth. First words. First steps. First questioning of existence, you know, the ususal.
In one chapter of this book there is a category for "Development" such as "keeping time with music" and "placing meaning to words" - and I noticed a extra note my mother wrote next to the category of "Storytelling", after 3 years old she added "Loves to make up his own".

Honestly, I can remember this. I recall rambling on about nothing at an early age, pure stream of consciousness, as if I were a pint sized James Joyce. I have a vivid memory of sitting with my mom and dad at neighborhood hangout called Miller's Confectionery and entertaining them all evening with my imagination. There was a Miller Beer advertising clock on the wall of the confectionery that had a back-lit waterfall as part of its display, I remember creating a complete fictional story that related to the waterfall. It had something to do with Yogi Bear finding survivors of a car accident in the falls. I guess I was big on tragedies at the time.
A side effect of being an only child lends you ample time to spend alone. According to my mother I created an imaginary friend name "Bobby", (I don't remember this fact) but I do remember spending time by myself lost in my own imagination and I guess my imagination gave birth to Bobby. I don't think Bobby had his own Baby Record Book, but perhaps he did, I haven't found it yet.

Now I'm sure that studies will show that most children, whether "only" child or one of many siblings, share an "overly active" imagination period and once they become acclimated to lager social groups such as grade school, high school and so forth, the "overly active" side of the imagination regresses into the background.
However, for some of us, this chain of imagination evolution doesn't happen. Either that or we continue to cultivate it throughout our lives, in essence, keep it alive as we continue through life and it manifests itself through each of us in different forms: Artist. Writer. Actor. Musician. Film maker. Playwright. So forth.
Our craft in a sense, becomes our imaginary friend and we simply choose the outlet or profession that accommodates this friend.
Did I always want to be a playwright? Well, no. I just found a place that I could spend time by myself and tell stories. I just found a branch of that world called theatre. So, that my long answer. That's my story. And it's not a tragedy.

It's What You Do not Where You Live

While cavorting around various Playwright websites and Twitter accounts, I noticed a particular trend among some writers and that is to attach a location to their vocation such as:
New York City Playwright!
OK. And? So?

Yes I know, living in NYC affords you certain opportunities as a playwright such as...umm.. Ok yea, access to a plethora of independent theatre works, artists and other trendy inspirational fuel that setting up camp in Des Moines would not afford you.
All right, I get that, but still - does that make you a better writer?
I've known several people who declared their calling to be a writer. They immediately deem it necessary to decorate their writing desk with a bottle of bourbon and a pack of filter-less cigarettes and dream of moving to NY or Paris. Because, you know, that's what writers do. That's how they roll.
Also, writers wears second-hand tweed sport coat with leather patches, chinos or a long black overcoat with a well worn copy of a Kalfka or Camus paperback in the pocket. Grow a beard and top it off with a beret. And then you need to hang out in coffee shops or better yet, outdoor cafes talking to other writers, exchanging witty literary jokes and criticisms about John Dos Passos and Henry Miller. Of course, however esoteric it gets, you pretend to understand. What's important at this point is to "look" like a writer and do and say "writer" things.

Yes, OK, I am profiling just a tad here, but the truth is - I have known (and still know) these people, these "writers". And what have they written you may ask? Go ahead, ask! Well, nothing yet, but believe you me, they do have the lifestyle down! Oh yes indeed! They are in love with the "look" and "lifestyle" of a self declared artist, but do they love the actual art itself? Well, truth is they're just "friends" right now.
Most have a play or a book they are working on and yes, they have been working on it for years. It's sitting in a shallow pile of papers on their desk. It's under the bourbon bottle right next to the ashtray.

And yes I admit it! I was one of those pretensive chotchkies sitting around with my head full of Kerouac, Vonnegut, Herman Hesse, and Dostoevsky, sipping on Seagrams listening to Coletrane and Charlie Parker at an outdoor bistro in the West End of St. Louis, (which was only a few blocks from the apartment where Tennessee Williams had lived and based the location for "The Glass Menagerie" -how cool was that right? Because you know, proximity breeds talent.)
I could talk for hours about literature and even pretend I fully understood Thomas Pynchon and James Joyce. Back in those days, I believed that's what writers did! (Which was everything but writing.) But hey, I had the lifestyle thing down. And sure, I dreamed of moving to New York, just so I could add that "brand" to my psyche.

I'm not sure when I woke up from that dream, but one day, I sat down and just started writing. No bourbon or smokes. No tweed and Chinos. No cafes and Coletrane. I just wrote.
And I discovered what I really loved was the actual process of writing. I enjoyed creativity and imagination. It didn't matter what I was wearing, drinking or really even really where I lived. After all, my creativity lived inside my mind, it didn't live in a particular city or have a specific lifestyle. Being a writer was being alone in a room putting thoughts down on paper, it really didn't matter what skyline loomed outside my window.
One of my old "artsy" friends from college named Jason Wells has done very well for himself as a screen actor and a playwright. No he doesn't live in LA or New York, he lives in Chicago.

I know playwrights who live in Louisiana, Montana and yes even Des Moines. They all do very well because the bottom line is their talent and inspiration lives in their thoughts not their city.

Of course I realize that generations of playwrights will still dream of living in New York and hanging out at Elaine's discussing Bergman with Woody, a small part of me is still in love with that fantasy, but really, I've moved on to being more than just "friends" with the art of writing than I am with the style of living.

Lee on Google+

Are Videos Killing The Story Teller?

When I was young and impressionable, I was privileged to be surrounded by story tellers. Stories from my family, especially my Grandpa Leo.

He had tales that would make my head spin and in general, make me laugh. Like the story where he and his friends visited the Courthouse late one night and filled the cannon with dirty laundry and fired the apparel toward the Knox College girls dormitory. A few open windows were visited by socks and underwear.

Sure, now as I hit the rewind button in my mind to replay the story, my impressionability gives way to logic and reason. I have to question a few things - such as the law of physics in firing clothes from a cannon salvaged from the Spanish American War. Seriously?

But then again, maybe it did happen. Or maybe a small fraction of it is true. After all, they say within every lie is a grain of truth.
Grandpa Leo also told a story concerning an Uncle who owned a very intelligent dog.

With a word, this dog could be commanded to run into town and fetch the mail and other sundry items and bring them home.
Again, maybe it did happen. Maybe it's a Tall Tale.

I think with every story we hear from a friend or family member, we allow for a little embellishment. Especially, stories that have been handed down through time. An incident that happened to a great great grandfather is going to change slightly as it's retold over generations. Each person will add or subtract slightly from the truth. Our imaginations can't help but do rewrites.
The bottom line is that stories from the past are free to change and improve with each telling because we have no real way to validate or question their authenticity. All the parties concerned are no longer around. There is no written record or at the time, photographic evidence. It's just a story. A memory. There's no video on Youtube for all the world to see.

And this brings me to the current generation. If I gather some friends and sneak down the Courthouse and load up an old cannon with dirty laundry, someone will have a camcorder or take pictures or video with their phone. An intelligent dog that picks up mail would probably go viral online. There is no need to pass down your stories to the next generation because you can show it to them with videos. Anyone can check out the photos on your Facebook.

Is this a sad state of affairs? I don't know, I think it depends on how you look at it. It certainly does diminish the art of story telling and certainly destroys any chance of embellishment (yes, it keeps stories honest but also keeps them fat free of imagination.)

I could say we are living in the world of "Show don't tell" and to me that is a tad sad because I had a great relationship with my grandpa and others who told me stories. I became involved and it provided quality time.
Camping out in the woods and sitting around the campfire telling scary stories - what's next? Sitting around the campfire passing the iphone to watch ghost videos on Youtube? Seriously?

I believe, telling stories from the past will never die away because it's too much a part of our human nature. Time will still be spent interacting with relatives and friends and conversations will begin with "Let me tell you about the time your Aunt Helen.."

I'm not fatalistic about the death of imagination and creativity. I think technology on one hand provides accessories for story telling and on the other hand can put a dent in old fashion story telling. But I don't believe it will obliterate the art form. I mean, even if it did, someone will have to tell the story of how that happened.

Lee on Google+

Can You Call Personal Preferences Criticism? My Review

I read a review recently of one of my plays - Murder Me Always and it reminded me of an annoying habit that some reviewers or critics have - and I know, I used to be one.
You see, many years ago, I wrote "music" reviews for a local St. Louis entertainment paper that a good friend of mine created. Each week, we would receive a plethora of cassettes, CD's and albums from local and region bands and I among a few others would take them home, listen to them and write a music review.

Now understand, there is a major difference between a "reviewer" and a "critic". A reviewer simply does what the name implies, reviews what you can expect from the product, whether it be music, literature, a movie or play. For example, my job was to tell the reader about the album, what style music it was, how many songs were on the recording and just basically summarize it without interjecting too much of my opinion.

A "critic" on the other hand, injects his or her opinion all over the place: e.g. "The third song is horrible. It sounds like hippos mating in a shower. It sound like the melody was lifted straight out of Led Zepplin Two." A good critic will also attempt to back up any opinion expressed with evidence. (sometimes)

So basically a "reviewer" tells you what to expect and a critic tells you if it's good or bad.

Now there were times I was guilty of stepping over into the personal opinion realm as a reviewer and became a critic. But one thing I would never do is to coat a review with my own personal preferences or beliefs. This is the "annoying habit" I first spoke about above.
I would never write a review of say -a country and western band and start it off by saying, "I hate country and western music." Or criticize a guitar solo by saying "A nice solo played on a Fender Stratocaster but I wish he would have used a Gibson Les Paul, it has better tone."
Even if you are a knowledgeable critic, your own personal tastes have no place in your writing. It's like me sitting across the table from you at dinner and saying, "Why are you eating turnips? I hate turnips! They taste like old socks washed in dirt!" - Who really cares that they taste like dirt to me and that I don't like them. Seriously. That's my opinion not yours.

From time to time I will read "reviews" of my plays and for the most part - they are reviews: The name of the play was this. It had these actors. This happened and that happened. etc..
As I was saying, this recent review I read could be qualify as a criticism, (Which I have no problem with) but it contained a few remarks that blurred into the world of the writers own personal preferences. First let me clarify -the reviewer in this case was a college student - so it may be excusable for now.
The review stated that other dinner theatres she had attended, the actors actually served the food and "Murder Me Always" was lacking in this. OK. Fine. Personally, I have never ever been to a dinner theatre were the actors were the waiters nor do I write into my script that the actors should do so. Actors in plays have other things to do that to bring out your meals.
She also stated that the "dinner" was actually "a self serve buffet" (which may explain why the actors didn't bring the plates to the table -maybe? ) and this fact "took away a little bit from the dinner theatre experience."

OK. Should the group have advertised the event as a "Self Serve Buffet Theatre?". Interesting note here is that the first 3 "dinner theatre" plays I was involved in as an actor were in fact, self serve buffets. No one ever complained that this "took away" from the experience. Or How could we call it Dinner Theatre when there was a buffet line?

So, while the reviewer may have been used to actors serving dinner in her life experiences, I actually was not.
What does this mean? It means, that everyone's experience and/or preferences are not the same. Therefore, I should not attempt to state that what I am accustomed to - is the way of all things. And if it's not something that lies in my personal preference wheel house, then it must be a flaw. It should have no bearing on the experience or really any place in a review of play.
Yes, I know. That's just my opinion not yours.

Lee on Google+

Some thoughts on becoming an Indie Playwright (Act I)

How does a playwright promote and/or market themselves? Specifically, an independent playwright -that is without a major publishing company representing them? This topic came up a few weeks ago on a writer discussion board and it lead me to consider my own history, philosophy and methods of self promotion. How did I do it?


History

Back in 2000 I got the idea to offer the murder mystery comedies I had penned for a local group to the world at large. Now here is where most Business/Marketing Guru types throw concepts out such as "Feasibility studies" and "Researching your Market" and other text book terms. I read those books and...pretty much ignored them.

I knew there were some big time play publishers out there such as Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service but at the time, I didn't feel confident enough to submit my quirky little plays to the big boys. No. I decided to try it myself.
I went on-line and searched for "Murder Mystery Scripts" to see how many other "indie" playwrights were dwelling in that genre. Hmmm. Not too many.
How much did they charge for performance rights and royalties?
How did they send the material to the customer?
OK. That 20 minute research session seemed feasible to me. No Power Point with nifty lines and graphs needed. My market research said I just needed a name and a website.

I had dabbled in a few amateur websites before, so creating my own site was not an issue. Of course, here in 2011, there are a multitude of Do-it-yourself Web Creation sites that hold your hand through making a website in a virtual click by number process. Back in 2000, not so much. I had decided on the name "Play-Dead" for the site. (There is a post here: Grateful For The Name that explains how I came up with "Play Dead".

I admit, the first version of play-dead.com was a bit over the top. As most people who create their first websites, we tend to go crazy with fonts, colors and designs. I was guilty.

As far as promotion went, well.. I submitted my site in a few Free "Get Your Site Listed on A Million Search Engines" type deals. That was it. Promoted. Remember in 2000, Social Networking was not around. I created and waited. And waited.

Almost a year to the day I first published my website I got a request from New Hampshire for a script. Wow! Cool! I was going to be produced in New Hampshire!
I printed out a copy of the script, drove down to the local Post Office and mailed it off. Here would be the test of my talent. A theatre group I did not know personally, would be mounting a production of a script I wrote. There would be no patronizing friends patting my back saying, "It's really good. It's very funny." This would be an impartial jury. It is this fact that ties into my philosophy.

Philosophy
You can promote the utter crap out of yourself with ads, billboards and every marketing trick in the world, but if what you do; your product or talent is not very good, no amount of promotion is going to overcome that fact.

I heard a story about the old Heavy Metal Hair Band called W.A.S.P Blackie Lawless was the lead singer and created this crowd pleasing stunt where he would shoot Roman Candle style fireworks from the saw blade-codpiece of his costume. One night, something happened and the device didn't go off but instead exploded. Needless to say, a minor implosion in that region of the body is not pleasant. As they carried him off the stage he said to his band (paraphrased)"See! If we could write good songs I wouldn't have to do this (stuff)!"

Sure you can resort to gimmicks that will create a buzz - but that will only last so long. It comes down to your actual product whether it's songs,books or plays. I believe the end result will be the measure of your talent. Not the buzz you create.

But doesn't "buzz" get you noticed?

Yes, of course it does. I'm not knocking creating a "presence" or a "buzz" about yourself, that's an important path which allows people to find you. But when they find you, the songs, books or plays you create need to be as strong as all the buzz. The bite needs to match your bark.

This was and is still is my philosophy. If I was going to make it as a playwright, I wanted to rely on the actual plays I write to be the litmus test. So you could say I chose the "organic" route of marketing. I wanted to make sure the work I created had legs to stand on before I resorted to the larger promotion arena.

A few years went by and I got more and more requests for my scripts. It began to appear it had developed legs. And I didn't to place a Roman Candle codpiece between them.


More on promotion (the bigger arena) to come.

Lee on Google+

On Being an Indie Playwright and Indie Promotion (Act II)

As I was saying in my last post, for the first several years I maintained a low profile insofar as promoting myself as a full fledged independent playwright of murder mystery comedies on line. It was around this time my old good friend Bob Baker of The Buzz Factor began his Indie Music Marketing and Self Promotion empire. Needless to say, (but I will) Bob is tremendously well versed on "branding and promoting" and all around Guerrilla Marketing for creative types from musicians to authors. He was always amazed that I wasn't actively marketing my site or myself on line.

But you see, the thing is - I didn't wake up one morning and decide I was going to become a Murder Mystery Playwright. I didn't spend all my energy everyday pursuing the dream of being a playwright and overusing the word PASSION. No, I had other things in mind and this playwright thing was just.. a goofy little hobby thing I did on the side.

This goofy little hobby kept getting bigger and bigger. And Bob would shake his head at me, "I can't believe you aren't marketing yourself!"

OK. So what IF I did market myself? What would happen? After all, I had essentially found a niche in writing Murder Mystery comedies and many theatre groups seemed to enjoy breaking up their production seasons of "The Odd Couple" and "Bye Bye Birdie" with something a bit different.

Clean the Dancing Kittens from your Home

An important piece of wisdom Bob instilled in me was: Keep Your Website Clean.
After all your website is your home base, your featured presence. This is the place all your marketing is going to point to. It should be clean and simple. No dancing kittens or flashing fonts dripping with blood. No embedded music players cranking out Death Metal. Your talent should entertain customers not your website. People want to find out your information and they want it quickly.
What do you have?
How much is it?
How do I get it?

If they have to click on the Skull that explodes into flying monkeys to see a list of your plays, then forget it. Look at the high commerce Websites out there such as Amazon or E-bay. A plain white background and plain font.

It's also helpful to provide as much information as you can in the most concise manner. Since I have play scripts, I provide a brief plot summary, the number of characters, how much it is and how it will be delivered.

Once my website was clean I began the process of promotion.

The Market

So I began reading various SEO, Marketing Tips and Promotion articles on line and taking the advice of my friend Bob. Now, granted, there is a lot of information to learn out there, but not everything applied to my particular field.

No Newsletters, Thank You Very Much

Many Marketing magnets will insist you get people to sign up for a Newsletter. Yes, sign up is the key. Create an email sign up form. This is called "Permission" marketing. You must ask very nicely if you can send out a newsletter with updates and all kinds of cool stuff. You must get permission otherwise it's called SPAM. I personally do not subscribe to the Newsletter philosophy. Sure, it keeps your name out there and reminds customers of your presence but for someone like me... Why? I could not imagine what kind of updates and cool stuff a playwright can send in a newsletter.

Update: I was at the store today and had an idea for a play!
Cool Stuff: I wrote 3 more pages of that one thing I've been working on!

But again that's just me.

I have found a Blog accomplishes the same thing. I can post updates, performance information and news. Establish a presence on-line that's here if you want to read it and saves everyone from hitting the delete button or filling up the Spam folder.

Hello World

So the main point in promotion is letting to world know you exist. The first method is letting people find you. How do they find you? One way is advertising.

One of the first forays I explored in advertising was Google Adwords. You know, those little ads that occupy the right side of Google's search page. If you are searching for Left handed Octagon Widgets, you will see ads related to 'Widgets'. It is easy enough to set up and there are plenty of tutorials and pages devoted to Adwords. Every time someone types a few keywords, such as "Plays", "Scripts" etc.. your Ad will appear. If your ad is clicked, you pay a small fee. You do not have to spend a fortune. I have my budget set for the absolute minimum and you can "pause" or "stop" your ad at anytime. The bottom line is that anyone searching for "Murder Mystery Plays" will see my ad on the right side. An association begins to develop: "Murder Mystery Plays" = "Play-Dead.com".

Another Link in the Chain

I found quite a few theatre websites that would link to my site for free. Doollee.com allows playwrights to list themselves and their work for free.
Stageplays.com offers a Banner Exchange program where you create a free banner for your site in exchange for allowing other theatre sites to display their banners on your site.

These are just a few of the avenues I pursued, there are many others out there that will link back to you if you link to them. The more links you can get, the higher your rankings will appear in search engines. Again the bottom line is letting the world know you exist.

If your work is published by a major or minor publishing company, they may do some of the promotion/advertising for you. But again, they may not. I personally chose not to let an unknown entity handle the work I created. Sure they may have inside roads to promote your work with a full color ad in Playbill, but then again, they may not. Who better to let the World know about you than you?


Next: The Social Scene

Lee on Google+