As I attend rehearsals for "The Most Wonderful Love," scribbling down line changes and lying on my back, I find myself thinking a lot more about what's next. Blue Coyote is producing an evening of FCC challengers called "Standards of Decency" so I figure that'll be next on the plate. Then, I want to finish up this new adaptation I'm working on, and get back to writing "The Lower River" which is a sort of follow-up to "The Americans" in style. I've also recently been enamored of "If on a winter's night a traveler..." and I've been batting around an homage to that in my head a bit too.
It's been a bit of a funky career (I'll call it that) stylistically for me. Two verse plays (Arthur and Genesis), a short (465), three full length plays about suburban ennui (Reasons for Moving, The Great Escape, the Americans), and one play that is a three monologues in tandem (The Americans). All of them with very, very different tones, structures and subject matters. I've never really settled on a voice for myself, which I'm going to abitrarily view as healthy. I've almost made it a point to write the next play in stylistic opposition to the last one.
That's why it's hard for me to defend an aethetic. I don't feel any aesthetic is superior to any other. An aesthetic, a structure, a narrative...these are tools through which a writer expresses whatever it is that amuses or exposes him or her. The current play (which I hope many who read this blog will come drink with me after checking out) is a comedy in its bones, and ends with pairings, and talks a lot about marriage and religion. It's main character is a woman in her late 50s or early 60s. It was written by accident, like all good things, and it's taken time to give it real shape. What you'll see is the result of intuition more than planning, at least on my part.
Anyhow, I've been thrilled by the creativity of the cast and the oddball nature of the entire endeavour and the dilligence of skill of Kyle, the director. When it's on stage, costumed, with the songs written and the teddy bear props in the right hands and the stage blood ready for its close-up, I'm sure it will delight and frustrate more than it's share. I am, though, already sort of moving out of the comedy mode in my brain, and already sort of doddling with this new play about water and healing and resentment and fatherhood.
Onwards and upwards.
I'll be in San Francisco from Tuesday-Saturday attending (what else) a wedding. If I don't blog before I leave, best thoughts to all.
A question to leave you with: "Is being a playwright the same thing as being a storyteller?"
About Me
- Freeman
- Matthew Freeman is a Brooklyn based playwright with a BFA from Emerson College. His plays include THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR, REASONS FOR MOVING, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE AMERICANS, THE WHITE SWALLOW, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR, THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE, WHEN IS A CLOCK, GLEE CLUB, THAT OLD SOFT SHOE and BRANDYWINE DISTILLERY FIRE. He served as Assistant Producer and Senior Writer for the live webcast from Times Square on New Year's Eve 2010-2012. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to Gamespy, Premiere, Complex Magazine, Maxim Online, and MTV Magazine. His plays have been published by Playscripts, Inc., New York Theatre Experience, and Samuel French.
1 comment:
Yeah, I’ve never been able to defend any particular aesthetic as better as the next, either. I think that’s mainly because it’s dependent upon the content (i.e., the horse), rather than the form (i.e., the cart). Some of the best plays, movies, comics and bands I’ve seen/read/heard are pretty much uncategorizable.
As for your question, of whether being a playwright the same thing as being a storyteller, I guess…um…no. I mean, a playwright can be a storyteller, and most often a playwright is a storyteller, but I wouldn’t say the word “playwright” is a synonym for the word “storyteller.”
Anyway, I’ll try to check out The Most Wonderful Love, since there seems to be some overlap between its run and the run of The Adventures of Nervous Boy (my own show).
James Comtois
www.nosediveproductions.com
Post a Comment