Cheep Cheep Blog 5 - Joseph Workman

Here are some notes I got on paper during tech and run-throughs that I haven't been able to transfer here until now.

It's been a pleasure seeing everything working together with new layers being added night by night. I'm surprised (and rather relieved) I didn't have to change the script much more over this process since the first major draft changes at the beginning of rehearsals.  It can definitely be improved, I think, and I had some desire to break/rework some things, but at a certain point you have to stick with what you have and push it through to the end.  Last minute changes are a risk; you can throw so many other elements off.

Our professor, Liz, has given the actors a note about getting the playwrights' words out exactly as they're written instead of paraphrasing.  Of course this is important, and it's the kind of discipline I feel I must approach a work as an actor, even if it's amateur writing (La Vie en Rose by Ricky Zipp). However, since we're beginning writers, sometimes the words/phrases just sound clunky or superfluous.  Also, I've noticed in rehearsals that sometimes my actor's paraphrase works better than the actual script, and so I've given them permission to change it.  I realized that this isn't always due to the fact that I'm a clumsy writer. Sometimes the rewrites the actors do in their heads helps them find the intention or access the emotion Alex and I are looking for in the scene.  While my original line still makes sense and could be delivered as it is with that same energy, it works/sounds better for the particular actor and how they're playing the character and where the emotion of the scene is.  Or it's just better.  So long as it doesn't affect the story or break context of character or scene, I've been fine with it.  However, it makes me want to get to a point where I can write something refined where each word is deliberate and tested thoroughly.