Put it in Writing

At the end of this post there will be a chance for you (the audience) to respond, so start thinking about your answers now.

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Last night I went to the Globe Theatre and saw a production of Anne Boleyn by Howard Brenton. This is notable for a few reasons: I did the cheap-ticket-groundling thing and stood the whole time (are we just too lazy to do this kind of thing in America?); they don't usually perform non-Shakespeare plays at "Shakespeare's Globe"; the performances were pretty fantastic (and it was fun to see some of the same actors I've seen in other plays in repertory at the Globe - yay, RSC!); and while (or 'whilst', rather) the script was very good, it wasn't completely brilliant (as I would hope from something that signaled a huge departure from the Globe's status quo).

This afternoon I took in a matinee of a French film, Sarah's Key. (I figured it was time I saw something from European cinema, it stars Kristin Scott Thomas, and it looked at least a little depressing - which obviously means it will be good for me.) I thought it was a pretty good film. There was enough English to keep me engaged, I didn't mind the subtitles for the French, Kristin Scott Thomas really is excellent, and I quite liked the interchange of the two story lines. (Also, the girl who plays Young Sarah was riveting.) HOWEVER (spoilers!) - with such a compelling basic story, who decided it needed all the soap opera stuff heaped on top? KST carried her storyline and was always interesting to watch - how much better could it all have been if she'd been given simpler, more emotionally true writing to work with? WHY was there no dramaturg working on this movie?!?*

The point: excellent acting can elevate almost any piece of writing (a phenomenon we see with nearly everything Peter Gallagher** does, for example) - but the talented presentation of a piece of work does not generally make the work itself any better***. Wouldn't it be more effective to produce pieces of really good writing showcased by really good acting? I know this seems obvious, but if it's so clear why isn't it happening more? Avatar = great production values, terrible script. Twilight = built-in fan base, all the money they could use for the production - they couldn't afford quality writers? I don't know how many times I've walked home after a show and said "That was nice. Too bad the script wasn't better."

This is an area that at least one group I know of, Pinnacle Acting Company, focuses on - and their intention to produce award-winning and verifiably well-written shows is one reason (I believe) that their productions have been nearly consistently excellent, despite the shoestring budget. They usually manage to recruit skilled, talented actors and directors, true - and even the best theater practitioner benefits from really good source material. (Go see their shows.)

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So: what plays would you list as the most "well-written"? You don't necessarily have to be talking about a production, just the play itself. Let's accept that Shakespeare's plays are in a class of their own (although they're certainly not perfect - fodder for a different discussion). Please list your recommendations in the comments: plays you've read, plays you've seen and thought, "Wow, great script - I'd like to read that!", rumors you've heard of really terrific writing...  written 2000 years ago, or written yesterday. (I also accept honorable mentions of the best-written movies, as well.)

Come on people - all suggestions considered!





*And WHY do people keep allowing (SPOILER!) Aidan Quinn to cry on screen? SO. Awkward.


** I call it "the Peter Gallagher Effect". Consider Center Stage II: Turn It Up - it stars two of the least-talented actors I have ever seen (they were obviously cast because they can dance, not because they can deliver a line - any line - effectively), but when they each played a scene with Peter Gallagher it was like they were magically yanked up a few levels closer to his. The power of his charisma (and eyebrows) is such that it makes even the cruddiest of actors seem believeable, if only for that one scene. (If they had been in a scene TOGETHER with PG, I don't know that even his mojo could have withstood the great sucking black hole of badness that is their respective acting ability. But I digress.)


*** One exception I saw recently was a production of Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, in which the direction and one particular performer's interpretation solved, in subtext, the plotting problem that has troubled audiences for many years. Good show.

Review of Anne Boleyn

Read 'The Graveyard Book'*

Neil Gaiman's advice to any aspiring writer:

"Write.

Don't think about writing, don't plan to write, don't hope to write.

Just write."

 - from the behind-the-scenes 'Neil Gaiman on Writing for the Doctor' video, BBC

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This could mean you'll be seeing (a lot) more random blog posts from me. Just FYI.




* Seriously, it's amazing. And kind of what you'd think, only not really at all. (Just look at those reviews!)

Every Year

That's right, it's here again - Ernest Shackleton's birthday!  (I don't know who that is, but Google thinks it's important, so... Oh, and it's ES's big day HERE, but it might not be back in the States yet. Just FYI.)

In honor of the big day, I decided to combine work and relaxation - I watched Valentine's Day (no reason) and charted the storylines in order to analyze them and break down the structure.  You sure catch a lot more of the details on a second viewing! Gary Marshall must have had all kinds of spreadsheets (possibly Gant Charts) in order to keep track of all those characters. I can only imagine what got left on the cutting room floor! (Well, if anything.  There is a LOT going on in this movie.)

Also, just for fun, I'm including here a piece I wrote in a workshop this morning. Any resemblance of person (or date) is purely coincidental. (The title was random, came from someone else. It's really not anywhere near finished. Like I said, it's just here for fun. Coincidentally.)

Doorbell Doesn’t Work, Enter Around the Back

 Doris had always hated Valentine’s Day. Ever since she could remember, pink-and-red had given her a migraine, and pictures of chubby cupids made her instinctively reach for her taser. Last year’s work party, with the 4 Aortas Barbershop Quartet, didn’t go so well – and February was a lousy time to be looking for a job. Doris would know.

She had seasonal allergies – they always flared up around floral shops the weeks before and after February 14. Chocolate gave her hives – but only once a year. Coming within 20 yards of a Hallmark store brought on a rash, and commercialization being what it was she had to avoid them for nearly two-thirds of the year.

Doris was not anti-love or anti-sex or anti-romance or anti-anything, really – she’d tried every known cure. Dating sites, a singles’ cruise, immersion therapy… that last had driven the dog crazy (poor thing could handle only so much Michael Buble, Barry White, and Andrea Boccelli – it was more of a Nirvana kind of terrier). She even went to work as a holiday temp at Niagara Falls one year.  It was no use, though – the doctor’s bills and restraining orders just kept piling up.  And, Doris admitted to herself, she really SHOULD have taken her husband along on that cruise. That had been a bad Valentine’s Day for everybody.

Doris had had enough.

This year, she had a plan – she would sneak up on her own neurosis and clobber it into submission (with two dozen roses – long-stemmed, naturally).

TBC (someday, maybe...)

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Enjoy Ernest Shackleton's birthday!  (Research time! Woo!)

Words to Live By

"The only way to become a writer is to write. Don't talk about it; glue your behind to the chair and write, at least four pages every day, even if you end up throwing them out. If you can't make the time, you aren't a writer. You have to motivate yourself; no one else can do that for you. If you can't do that, you are never going to be a writer. Write until you've finished a book, then send it out and write another one. And keep doing it until someone buys one. It's just that simple."

- Mercedes Lackey

Author of the Heralds of Valdemar books (plus many terrific others)

The Valdemar Companion: An Interview with Mercedes Lackey (p. 70)

*Bonus* On solving previously unforseen challenges: "Problems generally create books as long as you set your mind to asking questions instead of seeing blockages in the road." (p. 80)

Goal

Writing well means never having to say, 'I guess you had to be there.'

- Jeff Mallett