Is that Good Playwriting or Bad Playwriting?

Time often warps itself without the need for any of the exterior help that a lot of my fellow students take part in and here I've found myself a year later in the blink of an eye. I am no longer the playwright adjacent to the director in this year's One Act Festival, I am now the director. Look at me.

This time around, I didn't have the opportunity to write, so I decided to keep it relevant by choosing a play about playwriting. In fact, you could say that it's even an introduction to it. Playwriting 101: The Rooftop Lesson by Rich Orloff is a wonderful meta piece about the dangers of controlling your characters too tightly while crafting your piece.

I really ought to have done more of these posts by now, but I've been caught up in a flurry of theatrical activities, with rehearsals for this and rehearsals for 1984 (Which opens 5/10! Buy your tickets now!) but I finally have a moment to catch my breath and reflect on this project.

For my cast, I have three wonderful actors, all three of which are relatively new to the OSU theatre scene: I have Patrick Miller as The Teacher, Evan Granquist as The Jumper, and Connor Daliposon as The Good Samaritan. These three guys came to rehearsal every day ready to play, and as a budding director, it couldn't make me happier to have people that are just as excited to be there as I am.

One of the challenges that I;m facing down with this script is that it's short. At only 7 pages long, this is well suited to a one act festival. Almost too well fitted, in fact, to the point that I'm worried that it won't be long enough. In response, I am working on finding specific beats to fill time with physical comedy without adding in a bunch of space to the dialogue, or even slowing down. Such adventures and exploration lead to shots like this:

Thank you for reading and keep your eyes posted for more! The 2018 OSU Spring One Act Festival opens May 31st and runs until June 3rd, so buy your tickets now before we sell out!

Until next time,

Mike