Meron Langsner
  • Home
  • About Meron
  • Blog: Taking Note and Taking Notes
    • Most Popular Blog Posts from Taking Note & Taking Notes
  • Playwright
    • Plays Available for Production or Development >
      • Playwriting Press/Book Covers/etc
    • Slippery Slope Podcast
    • Selected Videos of Short Plays from the Gi60 Festival
  • Theatre & Performance Scholar and Dramaturg
    • TEX Talk: "The Impossible Body" (Tufts Idea Exchange)
  • Fight Director/Movement Specialist for Theatre, Opera, & Film
    • Photos of Combat & Movement Compositions >
      • Press Quotes for Stage Combat & Movement Work
    • Stage Combat Resources >
      • Martial Arts Resources for Fight Directors
      • Cautionary Tales: Stage Combat Gone Wrong
  • Educator
    • In-Class Group Exercise Based on MARISOL
    • In-Class Group Exercise for CLOUD NINE & BLASTED
    • Class Exercise: Muppets, Casting, & Shakespeare
    • Sample Assignment: Towards a Dramaturgy of Stage Combat
    • The Cinematographer Exercise: Introducing Non-Contact Blows
    • Dramaturgy Prompt Assignment
    • Selected Comments from Student Course Evaluations
  • Contact Meron

On the September Small Theatre Alliance Readings...

9/21/2011

5 Comments

 
This past Monday I took part in a  Small Theatre Alliance of Boston Open Mic Night at the Charlestown Working Theater.   I brought in a section of a new full length play I'm working on called Burning Up the Dictionary, which I'm billing as "a story of language, love, lust and loss."  I'll be having a round table of the entire thing at the Lark Play Development Center in New York City next month, so this was a great opportunity to test-drive a section of it in front of an audience and see how things play in front of an audience as I work on it in preparation for the Lark.  I've been developing it through the Playwrights' Commons/Company One Playwrights' Playground this past summer (which was quite a blessing), but this was the first time I'd heard it in front of an audience as opposed to workshop participants.

_
"Open Mic" is a misleading name for these events.  The playwrights are selected in advance, and at that time they state the casting needs of their play.  The event itself is attended by various members of the Boston theatre community, including quite a few actors who come to read.  Roles are distributed among the actors in attendance at the start of the event, and they have time to read the plays over before performing them.  Then the plays/excerpts are read and there is a moderated discussion after each one.  Our moderator for this Open Mic was Ron Pullins, a playwright who I've been fortunate enough to share a billing with several times and a great facilitator.  The other playwrights having work read were Kelly DuMar, Emily C. A. Snyder, and MJ Halberstadt.  There was a pretty impressive range of actors in attendance (far too many to list), as well as many people who were just there to see new work being performed.

For those of you unfamiliar with play development, the reading is a widespread practice intended to give the playwright an idea of how their script is working out without having to commit the resources of a full production.  There are several levels of readings/staged readings with different amounts of rehearsals as well as different degrees of access for the public.  The STAB Open Mic is a fairly low key event that tends to be by and for theatre people  (it often takes place in a bar).  Now, a reading is supposed to be a means to an end, and that end is a stronger play that will receive a full production.  There is no end of argument of whether or not writing can be taught, but the conditions under which good writing can take place can most definitely be facilitated. 

Burning Up the Dictionary is still in a fairly early stage of development, and is a new type of play for me.  I'm writing about human intimacy in ways that I haven't really explored in my earlier work, so I was really curious to see how this would play out in front of an audience.  I got laughter in the places that I'd hoped I would.  This was in part because my actors (Elana Friedland and Tim Hoover) had great instincts, and hopefully in part cause I was actually funny.  I've learned as a playwright that you can find out a lot about your play based on the instincts of a good actor (I actually had quite a bit to say about that in an interview for another blog on that very topic  not too long ago), so it was really useful to have an actor who I know and has performed my work before (Tim in this case) as one of my cast members.  As I think that this play is ultimately going to be very sad, it was really good to see that the humor was working (some of you recall my theory that no audience will cry until after they have laughed).

The section I brought in was a ten minute excerpt that's from the middle of act one.  I was curious to see what elements of the story stood alone, what really required backstory, and how the dynamics of the characters were being read at that particular time.  It's tricky to select a piece for en event like this as one wants both to bring in something finished enough to make it worth the audience's while in being there, and something rough enough that one can still learn about what they want to change.  I heard several lines that can either just be cut or will need modification, and several gaps where I'll be filling in more details.

By the time I get to the Lark next month I'll most likely have a very different play on my hands, which, after going through one of their round tables, will most likely be in for another seismic shift.  The Lark is a really great place to be a playwright.  An earlier full length of mine, The Devil's Own Game, has had two round tables there and I know from that experience just how good they are at opening new perspectives and options.  The first time I went I was hitting a wall with that particular piece and then in my head it got blown apart in the best possible way and I was able to reassemble it into something I am much prouder of.   I hope that once I'm done with the next stage of my current play I'll be able to arrange for some way to show it in Boston.

A couple words on the other playwrights.  They were awesome.  Really diverse subject matter and styles, engaging work that made use of what theatre does best.  The other plays were all self contained 10-minute plays.  One was a piece about Perseus and Medusa that would be a really interesting challenge as a fight director.  I spoke to the playwright (Emily) briefly about the sort of staging she might expect considering the parameters she had set up.  It would be really fun to compose the violence for that play as most of its demands are outside the common vocabulary and/or would involve some pretty funky modifications.

I believe that this event is bi-monthly.  Those of you reading that that are  in and around Boston should consider checking it out. 

EDIT: My Round Table for Burning Up the Dictionary  at the Lark PDC has been rescheduled for early November.
5 Comments
Ron Pullins link
9/22/2011 02:06:21 am

Thanks, Meron. Yes, a fun evening of theater and theater / play discussion. And a great night for audience to be audience, so we really hope that theater lovers interested in hearing and discussing theater with playwrights and actors join us.

Reply
Emily C. A. Snyder link
9/22/2011 06:02:26 pm

Meron -

It was great not only to hear your play (love the concept - SO true about the vocabulary we evolve between ourselves) but then to learn more about fight choreography and Ph.D. programs! Thank you for your well-spring of knowledge!

And if ever you feel like taking "Turn to Flesh" on...I wouldn't stop you!

Reply
Ian Thal link
9/23/2011 01:42:20 am

<i>I'm writing about human intimacy in ways that I haven't really explored in my earlier work</i>

Having read a few of your shorter works prior to this excerpt, I'd have to say that human intimacy is a major theme for you. Certainly I would say that this being a longer work, you're allowing yourself to explore more dimensions of intimacy simultaneously.

Is it the more multi-dimensional approach you're taking, or is it the specific dimensions?

Reply
Meron
9/23/2011 03:13:07 am

>Is it the more multi-dimensional approach you're taking, or is it the specific dimensions?

Yes :)

Reply
John Geoffrion
9/23/2011 11:36:24 am

I'm glad that I was there. I found all four works very interesting and enjoyable, and it was inspiring to know that there are so many talented voices.

A followup on my comment that night. Since yours was the only play that was an excerpt of a longer work, I naturally attempted to extrapolate where the story would go. Any sense of doubt I had about your play was a reflection of the limits of my imagination. I look forward to seeing the end result.

JG

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Taking Note & Taking Notes

    Meron Langsner, PhD

    Playwright, Theatre & Performance Scholar, Fight Director/Movement Specialist, Director, Educator

    Archives

    June 2020
    May 2019
    December 2018
    February 2018
    January 2017
    October 2015
    October 2014
    August 2014
    April 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    May 2013
    January 2013
    August 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    Categories

    All
    9/11
    Acting
    Adaptation
    Anthropology
    Boston
    Business
    Christie Gibson
    Collaboration
    Comic Books
    David Gram
    Directing
    Dramaturgy
    Edward Gordon Craig
    Fight Directing
    Filmmaking
    Freelancing
    Gi60
    Godot
    Hamlet
    Imaginary Beasts
    Internet
    Israel
    Israeli Stage
    Jewish Theatre
    Justine
    Lark Play Development Center
    Lmda
    Macbeth
    Marketing
    Marquis De Sade
    Martial Arts
    Merrimack Rep
    Metathearicality
    Mitx
    Muppets
    New Hampshire
    Opera
    Pedagogy
    Performance Theory
    Playwrights Commons
    Playwriting
    Psychology
    Puppets
    Romeo & Juliet
    Rory Miller
    Scholarship
    Shakespeare
    Silvia Graziano
    Skydiving
    Small Theatre Alliance Of Boston
    Social Media
    Social Sciences
    Stage Combat
    Stagesource
    Ted
    Tex
    Tom Stoppard
    Tufts University
    Vagabond Theatre Group
    Violence
    Whistler In The Dark
    Writing
    Youthplays
    Zeitgesit Stage
    Zillah Glory

    RSS Feed

    Follow @MeronLangsner

Resources

Plays Available
Stage Combat Resources

About Meron

Playwright
Fight Director
Scholar
Educator

The Blog

Taking Note & Taking Notes
Most Popular Posts

Contact & Press

Links to Press
Student Testimonials
Contact Meron
All content Copyright Meron Langsner 2011-2020 unless otherwise specified