Playwrights' Platform's 33rd Annual Spring outing again ran this year at Boston Playwrights' for two weekends in June. The program featured works in development by fourteen writers, so new to such efforts, others old hands. Two general questions occur. What are the pros and cons of authors directing their own work? And is the proliferation of ten minute play contests limiting the imagination of some writers?
In the first instance, about half of the plays in this festival were directed by their authors, a few of whom appeared in their own plays, or some one elses. Working on a new script often requires considerable focus and a certain distance from the actual staging. With the Marathon only a month earlier, there was a lot less talent available, so perhaps that was part of the problem. Several of the writers and directors participated in the event as well. Most of the scripts got a fair presentation, but whether much development was achieved remains a question. The preponderance of short plays--at least half the festival were 10 minute type pieces--also meant that a number of scripts, like Patrick Brennan's bits or the Burns/Bruce collaboration SPAM seemed more like sketches than plays. Two more serious pieces which seemed to be trying to emulate Beckett were less successful.. Note to beginning playwrights; don't. Finally, Hortense Gerado's Rivers of Babylon like her effort in the Marathon, cried out for more stage time and a clearer focus.
On the other hand, Gail Phaneuf's Orwellian The Trouble with Pistils was too programmatic and the skilled cast couldn't bring the polemic to life. Kelly Dumar's Bloom, which has another try in NY soon, is a nice family comedy exploring a mother and son relationship that for once isn't dependent or hostile, just pleasantly realistic. It would make a sound start to a real play. The same thing is true of Michael Collin's The Playground, which was seen in the Marathon and substituted into this Festival quite late. Collins played the lead himself this time quite capably. His dialogue is quite in the style of tough Irish theatre, but the play is all setup with no pay off.
Chris King's Comfort Measures, a senior theatre vignette which she directed with two fine veteran actors, was effective in raising themes about the end of life without becoming bathetic. It may have a place in that growing segment of community theatre. Wendy Cincotta's Norway, a timely marriage comedy had good characterization and an interesting setup. Now the trick will be finding the play that follows. Jerry Bisantz and Steve Gilbane's Hollywood Insider! the Musical which pretends to be an "expozay" of a child star's neuroses needs to be twice as long with songs to support its action, have a recurring song for its narrator--a sleazy magazine reporter--and shorter dialogue scenes. The show might also try to find some reason for existence other than being another Tinsel Town parody. Otherwise it should become Hollywood 101 and shrink down to 10 minutes.
Certainly the author of a work has certain insights as to its presentation, and playwrights can produce creditable productions of their own work. But the danger of being too close to the material exists. It's very hard to step back and know what to cut, what needs no merely rewriting, but reconceptualization. Writing brief scripts is of course good training for working in other dramatic media, but the ten-minute form may be too limited, however challenging a compressed form may be in the short run. It will be interesting to see how things work out later in the summer whem the Hovey Players, instead of presenting Summer Shorts as they have recently, opts for longer pieces of varied lengths.
prepared for Theater Mirror