Intermission
a creative coffee break from writing the play

I took a foray into screenwriting that lasted about three years. Not unusual for playwrights to undertake film writing. A lot of us seem to be writing for television, too.

I didn’t plan it. It just came over me one evening. A story announced itself in the way that stories do. A story that clearly wanted to be a movie and not a play. And so I wrote it. It’s a strange story, and trust me, no one even wanted to talk to me about it. If I could figure out how to pick up a camera, making it myself is the only way it will get done. As my first film script, it’s highly flawed by the laws of filmmakers. And very ‘talkie’ of course. I wish I knew how to either adapt this to the stage, or how to re-write it as a film. There’s this cat that plays far too an important role in the story. I love the story as it is too much to change it. That is problematic in and of itself.

To someone accustomed to writing plays, screenwriting is something like a foreign language. After much study and humiliation, I’ve gotten I’m better at being more visual on the page. I still miss visual opportunities and talk, talk, talk. While I believe myself to be a highly visual theatre artist, that doesn’t translate into a screen experience. My stage visuals are stark, sparing, and fluid. Sometimes somewhat surreal.

My second film script felt, to me, more salable. Still very much not a story for stage. The story was dark and morose and ultimately an independent film in tone. I realized after some experiences with this script, I was not a writer looking for a job in screenwriting. I don’t want someone else telling me what to write. I mean, I can do that, sure. I like telling my own stories. I want to tell my own stories. To do that….well…I’m not sure I have it, yet, in me to pick up a camera myself. That’s what it will take, I know now.

After my third film script, I realized I had written something that ultimately would make a great play, and returned to my senses and put my energies back into playwriting. The Safe Group was happy to see me leave filmwriting behind, having tolerated this long extended vacation away from playwriting longer than they cared to.

Somehow learning a bit of screenwriting opened up my playwriting. It’s allowed me to be bigger in my stage choices, more complex in my theatrical visuals. And while I’m not exploring filmmaking at this juncture, MBH and I are working on an experiment for the smaller screen. Its slow going, in between all our other individual projects, and lots of fun. I’m not supposed to talk about it. We agreed. Hopefully he won’t kick me for saying even that much.

Act two of the play is not yet done. Almost, almost, almost, almost there.