Essays on Writing, Directing, Producing Plays

by G.L. Horton

G.L. Horton's newest essays are now being posted on her stageblog.

Self-Production
Whether 'tis better to seek or not to seek a grant: Grants to individual artists are rare and very competitive. You can do it on your own...

Ambition in Writing
The Great Moderns were in an epic struggle to discover and communicate Significance, wrote in conscious reference to and competition with great works of the past, and hoped their efforts would be rewarded with a place in a Classic Canon that they regarded with something very like religious awe.

How I Got Started Writing Plays
I had no idea that play writing was so difficult as to be impossible for a female until I got to college c.1959 and my professors and textbooks and the theatre department directors told me so...

Kate Snodgrass & Writing Subtext Workshop
Kate's example of subtext was Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants," which she read aloud. Some knew it, many didn't. Of those who didn't know it, about one third didn't "get it" until others explained what is going on between the lovers. While a solid minority of readers think subtext is a dirty trick (authors should just come out and say what they mean), Kate points out that actors ITCH to stage this story, so spare with words and so rich with subtext . . .

Sundance Experience
MP wrote: "What was your Sundance experience like?"It was thrilling-- besides being luxurious beyond a humble writer's dreams. It was also a big disappointment . . .

Author's Intent
NA wrote: "Better to talk to the dead author than the estate when seeking the theatrical intent of a work."A lively discussion of issues affecting authorial intention ensues -- ranging among copyright and copy"left", Rubens and altering works of art in France, stage directions in Beckett and Beckett's estate . . .

Comedy Script Ideas
JH wrote: "It made me think of a funny script idea. I have this character who defends ~something~ obtuse and arcane..." GLH replies: I began work on a script like this. Didn't work. As a Saturday Night Live sketch, a Monty Python "bit" in Spamalot-- or best of all in a subplot in a sprawling Elizabethan-structured play-- it works very well. But . . .

Stage Directions: How Much To Use and Director's Reactions
JL wrote: "A director [said] he finds the play very interesting but I have too many stage directions ... I put in stage directions as I write to help me see the action of the play and the development of my characters. The dramaturg never [said] there were too many directions, though ... How do you deal with stage directions?" GLH replies: The Actors List has been kicking this one around. Readers appreciate ... Many directors are snotty ... Some actors are grateful ...

Audience as Scene Partner?
Really old plays: The Mysteries, Shakespeare, Commedia, Restoration, Romantic-- everything up to the invention of the spotlight and darkened auditorium, in fact-- were written with the intent that the actor would engage the audience As A Scene Partner.

Production Managering
ECA wrote: "Could you recommend anyone with relevant experience [for Production Manager]? It is a paid..." GLH replies: My theory is that all the people with this skill set who used to devote themselves 40 hours a week to Theatre are now working Real Economy jobs with forced overtime—or 2nd jobs—just to keep afloat in our cruel economy...

Playwrights as Hawkers?
JEH wrote: "Folks, theatre is a business. Playwrights are hawking a product..." GLH replies: I find this upsetting. It may be true ... but I have never thought of this list as a place where writers are "marketing" or "hawking" themselves...

The "N" Word in Mouths of "Good" Characters
GL wrote: "Some of the actors have changed 'that N word.' I admit I am one of them, partly because it sounds harsh coming out of a character who is so good and kind." GLH replies: It does-- and that's important, isn't it? Even more shocking is that the admirable responsible housekeeper cannot be left any money in the will...

Coaching from a Distance?
CBH wrote: "I'm doing your monologue the Elegy and i would love advice ... a.s.a.p. sorry to cause you any trouble." GLH replies: It's no trouble, but I don't know how I can coach you at a distance. Acting is "present"...

Talent and Impossible Personalities
JEH wrote: "Who wants to work with a raging, angry, nasty, whining person? No one. Certainly not me." GLH replies: One of the astonishing things about talent is that it often comes wrapped in quite impossible people. I don't particularly want to encounter those nasty talented people in person ... but I don't want to be deprived of their wonderful work! ...

Talent and Women Playwrights
SP wrote: "I also sent the Humana article to express JOY that a woman playwright was being produced to such acclaim." GLH replies: The Better Angel of my Nature rejoices. ... The selfish devil in me that writes plays, however, is howling with rage...

Talent and Elite Schools
Webber wrote, "Talent is rare enough that it tends not to stay hidden. Those 30 or so plays ... are the ones by writers ... touted by their teachers at the important playwriting departments..." Playwright comments: "So glad to know that all 'talent' comes out of 'important' formal education programs." RLW wrote: "...so glad to know I wasn't the ONLY one irked by this comment..." GLH replies: Irked?!!?? I am boiling with bile!...

Entrepreneurial Spirit Alive and Well
DJ wrote: "Some of my friends and I have recently started our own company." GLH replies: Good for you! Best wishes for success, financial and artistic! OTOH, don't be too hard on yourselves...

Repertory Success
UK wrote: "First three productions were completely new ... our audiences are growing every day ... new play series ... sold out every performance..." GLH replies: This is such an accomplishment!! I know that readings of new plays are fun ... At Playwrights Platform, we can get wonderful experienced actors to be in the readings-- but sometimes I hesitate to ask them...

Hiring Guest Equity Actors
On the controversy about Reagle's hiring Equity guest artists from beyond Boston to work with their community theatre: I love the Reagle shows, which miraculously combine the "heart" of community theatre with the rigor of Broadway's demands re skill. Some, at least, of the "amateurs" at Reagle are "retired" musical theatre professionals who settled in the Waltham area to raise families, but keep up their skills so that they can be in the shows they have always loved...

When Actors Cannot Do Readings
Sometimes an actor who is talented (and may have been brilliant in a recent mainstage production) but can not read English has been cast in a reading and when the problem shows up in rehearsal nobody has the guts to discard him or her and get someone less talented who can read...

Rapping People on the Knuckles
When I was scolded for posting a freshly written unpublished stand-alone monologue in response to a specific request ... the rejection was one of the most painful I've ever had ... To be told my work's not worth the nanosecond it takes to delete it!...

On Wearing Different Hats
One of the fun things about working in an ad hoc "developmental" situation is the chance to explore the material wearing different hats. This summer my piece "Autumn Leaves" was ok'd for my group's June festival, and I turned it over to an experienced director...

Ethics for Writers on Violence
As studies continue unveiling a causal relationship between violence and aggression in children and the violent content of the video and movies they are exposed to, the next question is-- what do we as artists do about it? Easy to say, but very difficult to do...

Taming the Shrew: How to Direct?
My concept of direction? Well, I try to find the basic emotional shape of the piece-- the author's if it exists, an invented one if necessary-- and make sure that every element of the eventual performance contributes to its realization ... SF wrote: "[Taming the Shrew] was written 400 years ago, but, well, it's terribly sexist." GHL replies: True: but it ain't just women who are second class citizens, oppressed and humiliated if they step out of line. Servants have to obey too, and this also is enforced by beating and starvation and verbal abuse as well as...

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