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York_M_Chan posted:My plays tend to be a lot more bare-boned than my screenplays. I try not to put as much tonal direction i.e. BRADLEY: (Curiously) But why have you chosen brown slacks? I would just leave out the "curiously" and leave it up to the director/actors to determine the tone. I also leave out most of the movement direction. Instead of "Bradley pulls the closet door open, runs his fingers along the fibers of her Angora sweaters, then yanks one viciously from the hanger." I would just put "Bradley crosses to the closet and takes out the sweater." I don't know why I do that, probably because I think plays are made to be done over and over again with a different motif and view with each new performance depending on the troupe while film is meant to be done once in a very defined way. I'm working on a commissioned play at the moment that's being workshopped in a few weeks and of all the things I've learned during the process (it's as much a development programme as it is a commission that I'm involved in), this is one of the biggest. Trust the actors and the director to find the tone and the energy, even if it's not what you thought it would be - cutting down tonal direction and movement (not completely, just in comparison to a screenplay) is key in this, because it gives them a lot more freedom to move. Also, Griff, drop into the Theatre Thread if you haven't already - there's some playwrights and actors over there who could give you a lot of pointers (not that Magic Hate Ball's advice isn't excellent, because it is).
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Sep 15, 2011 05:11
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MixMasterGriff posted:EDIT: Holy gently caress, writing comedy plays is hard. All my favorite comedic plays are musicals, Avenue Q, The Producers, The Book of Mormon. Without the singing, I'm kind of lost. If you want to write a musical, write a musical. Might make it a bit harder to get produced, but I wouldn't refrain from writing something because you're afraid people won't like it. It's a risk you always take. I feel your pain re: comedy though. The play I'm working on at the moment has taken a pretty hard turn into black comedy over the last couple of drafts (the first draft was needlessly serious and tone-deaf, among other problems) and making jokes feel both natural and funny is a hard game to play at. I find it helps getting a really solid idea of who your characters are first - it allows to come up with more organic jokes because you know the personalities at play. That said, I'm just a new writer and you do not need to listen to me because it's likely none of my jokes work and I'm the worst person to talk to. 
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Sep 19, 2011 00:45
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York_M_Chan posted:I have the same problem. I would recommend seeing the film 3-Iron and do exercises, just write short scenes of no dialogue. Just any film by Kim Ki-duk, really. He is exceptional at advancing the plot through actions rather than words. 3-Iron is the apex, but Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter...and Spring, Bad Guy, Samaritan Girl and The Isle would all be massively helpful in terms of seeing how it's done. And that's my gush about Kim Ki-duk.
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Sep 22, 2011 00:39
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