I'm midway through the first draft of a play. And I'm finishing my thesis. Which is why this has become a video blog of late (one of the reasons anyway). I'm caught up in these two storms and that's where the words are going, where the energy is being applied.
I don't know what everyone else does - I can guess what Albee does - when confronted with the prospect of writing a character description. I'm sure Albee does it first thing. And it would be easy for him because his process is all about knowing the characters before he starts writing. But for me, a character description, if I write one, is pretty much the last thing I write. I didn't used to write stage directions either - just dialog. But I've branched out a bit - forced to branch out in grad school screen-writing classes. My scripts got notes like - can you give me at least one scrap of description here? And so I made myself do it and it was pulling-teeth painful. Dreadfully painful. I guess I don't think I do it very well. Which is why I'm not a novelist. But anyway, I've overcome it and even though I still don't think I do it very well, I do realize I've gotten better and reading screenplays is why. Screenwriters can be very clever; they can convey amazing images in just a scrap of description. And then there's Tennessee Williams with the poetic images and O'Neill with the lengthy descriptions down to the color and curl of the hair - very literary that. And for both of those writers, what they do seems right. For them.
But when I do it, it seems suspect. The convention itself. I doubt it for some reason. I've been trying to sort out why. I guess it has something to do with the fact that I self-produced for a long time and have seen so many auditions that I realize I'm not going to the get the right actor by giving them a list of personality traits to portray. That for me, finding the right actor has as much to do with how much I like working with them and how strong my reasons and my instincts are (and whether the feeling is reciprocal - also very important), as it does with the fact that they can run through a set of behaviors (I'm more interested in the actor's behavior to be honest). I've also written roles for and with actors in mind and that has its downside too. Mostly because, then, it isn't necessarily always about the story.
I'm sure a character description is helpful to actors (maybe?). Yeah. It helps me as an actor. At least in an audition. As a kind of shorthand. A way of capturing the essence of something. But beyond that - not sure. I know I don't spend much time thinking about how the character is described. I read the script (of which, technically, the character description is a part). So I read the script except for the character description. I read all the blocking notes. I read all the lines. And I figure out my character in action. I find them physically. More and more as I read and move around in rehearsal and at home.
Okay. So. I'm not acting. I'm not directing. I'm not producing. I'm writing a play. That's it.
This has been very difficult for me. It's something I've been dealing with for the past 7 years. Just doing the one thing. Because one of the things I realized about self-producing is this: doing everything can get in the way of the one thing and can start to have an effect on the one thing. And did have an effect on it. Grad school was kind of great in that way. It gave me the freedom to only do the one thing - tell the story. Focus on the story. And forget about everything else. Not my problem, the everything else. Tell the story.
And it works so well. The leaps I made are huge. And continue to be. I've written things that I wouldn't have if the pressure had been on, the work had room to breathe and I had time to observe and assess all the impulses that were coming my way and decide which ones were right. There was no panic. This spaciousness is necessary for me.
And suddenly I'm back in it - the pressure. The machine. And as grateful as I am about being given the opportunity to write and get produced, it's also jarring. Right now, it seems like so little attention or care is being paid to the story or the process of how the story comes about. I get a directive to provide a character description and this is necessary, of course. But what gets lost is the process. What gets lost is the story. So. Right. Writing a character description means a complete shifting of gears for me. It's a different process. And even more so because I doubt the actual convention. And am trying to figure out what it is and make it mean something for me. And to the story. It's so alien to what is actually happening in the script. To what the script actually is. And now this is part of the process. And accommodation should be. The flexibility to go with things that are flying at you. And it's been productive, in its way, this prospect of writing the character description. This setting aside time to think about who these people are - distilling them into a few sentences.
But - round and round -
So much really depends on the actors...but you can't get the actors if you don't advertise the auditions and how will the actors know if they're interested if they can't read about the characters? So yeah. But. But. But. When it comes down to it, the character description is going to be a poor way to judge whether you want to be in this play or not. Because it in no way prepares you for the ride you're going to take. And that's where it becomes important who the actors are. Who they are as people. As artists. And maybe this has nothing to do with the story either.
not finished...
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