{"id":1102,"date":"2012-01-16T01:16:10-05:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T06:16:10+00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterjanes.ca\/blog\/?p=1102"},"modified":"2012-01-16T01:25:56-05:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-16T06:25:56+00:00","slug":"playwriting-workshop-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterjanes.ca\/blog\/2012\/01\/16\/playwriting-workshop-exercise\/","title":{"rendered":"Playwriting workshop exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"

I participated in a playwriting workshop lead by Gil Garratt<\/a> on Sunday morning. It’s the first “workshop” event I’ve been to where the participants have actually had to work—hard! But it was worth it just for the creativity exercises, feedback and discussion; there’s good reason Garratt was chosen as the PlayWrights Cabaret’s dramaturg.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The workshop lasted for three hours, and fully half of that was straight-up pen-to-paper writing, based on phrases, drawings and photos. I wrote several fairly abstract pieces—series of related thoughts, really, more than “plays”—but here’s what I came up with when Gil asked us to create dialogue for the characters in photographs he handed out. Every few minutes as we were writing he’d drop off hand-written index cards with phrases like “a poem” or “a lie”, and mock-Tarot cards<\/a> with sayings like “There are no misteaks”<\/a>; you’ll see their traces below.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Photo: A nearly-naked woman sitting\/leaning on a well-dressed man’s lap, legs crossed, her back to the camera. His arms are awkwardly around her, trying not to touch her, fingers clenched.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

    \r\n
  1. Patrick<\/cite> Those are great shoes. I can never understand how women walk in them without pitching forward all the time.<\/li>\r\n
  2. June<\/cite> Well, I guess I put the lie to that, didn’t I?<\/li>\r\n
  3. Patrick<\/cite> I suppose. But you were graceful until then. An icon.<\/li>\r\n
  4. June<\/cite> An icon? Standing still, representing something but not actually being it?<\/li>\r\n
  5. Patrick<\/cite> No, no… you’re quite beautiful. An image of perfection.<\/li>\r\n
  6. June<\/cite> Until I fell over my own two feet. Umm… maybe I should get up now? The rest of the group need me for the finale, and I think people are starting to stare.<\/li>\r\n
  7. Patrick<\/cite> What if I said no?<\/li>\r\n
  8. June<\/cite> Would you?<\/li>\r\n
  9. Patrick<\/cite> Maybe.<\/li>\r\n
  10. June<\/cite> What if you said yes?<\/li>\r\n
  11. Patrick<\/cite> I… don’t know.<\/li>\r\n
  12. (together)<\/cite> What do you want (Patrick: me) to say?<\/li>\r\n
  13. Patrick<\/cite> Meet me after the show?<\/li>\r\n
  14. June<\/cite> I can’t. My fianc\u00e9…<\/li>\r\n
  15. Patrick<\/cite> Just for a drink?<\/li>\r\n
  16. June<\/cite> You don’t even know me.<\/li>\r\n
  17. Patrick<\/cite> We’ve been sitting like this for five minutes now. That has to count for something!<\/li>\r\n
  18. June<\/cite> I really need to get up. My leg’s starting to cramp.<\/li>\r\n
  19. Patrick<\/cite> Meet me.<\/li>\r\n
  20. June<\/cite> …One drink?<\/li>\r\n
  21. Patrick<\/cite> One drink.<\/li>\r\n
  22. June<\/cite> One drink.<\/li>\r\n
  23. Patrick<\/cite> Until then, then. “‘Tis better to have loved and lost…”<\/li>\r\n
  24. June<\/cite> Wait a minute. “Loved”?<\/li>\r\n
  25. Patrick<\/cite> It’s… an expression.<\/li>\r\n
  26. June<\/cite> You don’t know me. How can you love me?<\/li>\r\n
  27. Patrick<\/cite> It’s an expression.<\/li>\r\n
  28. June<\/cite> Yeah, an expression of<\/em> love<\/em>!<\/li>\r\n
  29. Patrick<\/cite> You’re the one who threw herself at me.<\/li>\r\n
  30. June<\/cite> That was an accident. A mistake.<\/li>\r\n
  31. Patrick<\/cite> There are no mistakes.<\/li>\r\n
  32. June<\/cite> Well, this was one. Let me go.<\/li>\r\n
  33. Patrick<\/cite> You’re not happy.<\/li>\r\n
  34. June<\/cite> That’s right. Let go of me.<\/li>\r\n
  35. Patrick<\/cite> Not not happy here. You’re not happy out there.<\/li>\r\n
  36. June<\/cite> You don’t know me.<\/li>\r\n
  37. Patrick<\/cite> Tell me you’re happy. Honestly.<\/li>\r\n
  38. June<\/cite> …<\/li>\r\n
  39. Biff enters. [New photo: a smiling yet tough-looking one-eyed man]<\/li>\r\n
  40. Biff<\/cite> Hands off, buddy.<\/li>\r\n
  41. Patrick<\/cite> We’re having a conversation.<\/li>\r\n
  42. Biff<\/cite> Hands off my girl, pal.<\/li>\r\n
  43. June<\/cite> You have to let me go. He’ll hurt you.<\/li>\r\n
  44. Biff<\/cite> You bet I will.<\/li>\r\n
  45. June<\/cite> I have to do the finale.<\/li>\r\n
  46. Patrick<\/cite> Look, sir… oh, I do apologize, I didn’t mean to call attention to your eye… I mean…<\/li>\r\n
  47. Biff<\/cite> Get your paws off my dame!<\/li>\r\n
  48. Patrick<\/cite> As soon as she answers my question.<\/li>\r\n
  49. Biff<\/cite> Buddy, I’m going to give you three seconds… two… one…<\/li>\r\n
  50. June<\/cite> No!<\/li>\r\n
  51. Patrick<\/cite> No?<\/li>\r\n
  52. June<\/cite> No.<\/li>\r\n
  53. Patrick<\/cite> Sir, my thanks and regards. Madam, it has been a pleasure.<\/li>\r\n
  54. Biff<\/cite> Get off him, doll.<\/li>\r\n
  55. June<\/cite> No.<\/li>\r\n
  56. (Patrick and Biff together)<\/cite> No?<\/li>\r\n
  57. June<\/cite> No. I’m not going anywhere.<\/li>\r\n
  58. Biff<\/cite> Get. Up.<\/li>\r\n
  59. Patrick<\/cite> I think you should…<\/li>\r\n
  60. June<\/cite> No.<\/li>\r\n
  61. Biff<\/cite> Get up. Now-ooowwwwww!<\/li>\r\n
  62. June<\/cite> Back off, or the next one won’t be to your foot.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n

    It’s rough, but not terrible for an hour’s work, right? I’m pleased with it mainly because it’s a conversation that’s full of subtext, something that I’ve never felt I had an ear for. (And maybe I don’t, but it’s a start.) It’s also the first thing I’ve written completely without self-editing in a long time: the few scratched-out words on my page are just where I got ahead of myself and started writing the wrong part of the sentence. So, all in all, I think it’s a pretty successful exercise that I’m eager to repeat.<\/p><\/div>

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