Plays like the Glass Menagerie, Death of a Salesman, and Long Day’s Journey Into Night left indelible impressions on me, having been benchmarks in the literary education of my own and other generations for years. When I became a playwright I wondered what the “modern” equivalent would be.
Angels in America is having a revival in New York at the Signature Theatre, and a few other theatres around the country simultaneously. The Times and New York Magazine have run recent articles about the canonization of Kushner’s work.
And having read and see the HBO special, I can honestly say the lauding and praise are very well deserved.
What an amazing feeling it must be to know that millions of young people are studying your work and regarding it as part of the canon of American literature.
–Sue
October 26th, 2010
At around two or three o’clock in the morning, at one of the quietest parts of the day (and hence some of my favorite time to write), I wrote about six lines…give or take a line or two… Those lines were in addition to a few I had earlier, which were so simple as to be a single syllable.
I thought I’d be writing a grand monologue… it’s what I had psyched myself up to do (so much so, I even wrote about it in yesterday’s post… and much of writing is exactly that, planning and psyching yourself up).
But when it came down to it, I took the opposite tack… Instead of going big, I went basic. More than anything, I just wanted to give the actress and character a chance to just be… be a mother, be a person, with real fears and real vulnerability.
I’m not sure how it will translate, if at all. I think it’s very much a moment I need to hear and see on its feet, but it definitely surprised me, and I think it will surprise audiences too.
–Sue
October 22nd, 2010
The draft that preceded this one had a wealth of monologues in Act II, and I got a lot of feedback about them, so I decided to cut almost every single one in this draft.
But I’ve come to a moment that really needs one, a moment where the character finally finds the words she’s been looking for for the duration of the play and years of her life.
When I mentioned that I am incorporating a new monologue, after having cut so many, my sister asked why I go to extremes in my drafts…and my response was simple, it’s like a pendulum… I have to go to one extreme and then the other to find the middle.
–Sue
October 21st, 2010
Well, I was rushing towards the end…because let’s face it, it’s been a while that I’ve been working on this. (About ten years on and off.) And each time I finished a draft, I was sure I had nothing left in me for this play.
Feeling like I needed a fresh perspective, I sent it to one of the members of my cabinet of three (my three closest and most trusted advisers). And though she said more than once, “You’re really on to something,” she also said, “There are things I still don’t get.”
And so, I have two scenes that need some work… one is a possible redo, and another needs a few key lines to bring together everything that came before and will come after it.
The end is in sight, I just have a little more to go before I get there…
–Sue
October 20th, 2010
I read a comment on a friend’s Facebook feed today about surrender and yoga today that rang so true, it opened my eyes to what the body is capable of, and what a wonderful gift it can be. It also made me think about the word “surrender”, and what a bad rap it gets. It’s associated with weakness, wherein in many instances, it’s really about strength — similar to being vulnerable, which is also associated with weakness, but oftentimes requires quite a bit of strength.
My current challenge is surrendering to the ending of this play, to give myself, the characters, and the audience a moment and feeling of release, which is essential and what the play has been moving and working towards.
We struggle so hard when we don’t know or aren’t sure how things are going to turn out… but it’s just a matter of taking that breath and trusting that everything you need is right there… ready when you are.
–Sue
October 19th, 2010
I mentioned the upcoming broadcast a few months ago, and it’s finally airing on PBS this week. Check local listings here.
Enjoy!
–Sue
October 18th, 2010
I’ve found myself and those around me very consumed with tying up loose ends lately… Taking care of big and small things to move on to other things or just clear one’s plate a bit.
While this might be satisfying in “real life” — checking things off the “list”, I don’t think the same holds true for theatre. I oftentimes find that I like to leave the door open, just a little bit, so that the audience has something they can take away with them… something to keep in their pockets and think about after the house lights come up.
I’m currently considering how to advance the story towards a satisfying end that still gives the audience a chance to question and find their own answers…
–Sue
October 15th, 2010
Building up to the moment I mentioned in an earlier post this week, I was looking for just the right words. Some feedback I had gotten with a recent draft of this play (when it was full of monologues), was that these characters were still looking for the words to talk with one another.
And so, I realized that my ability to pull back… to actually make the moment simpler with LESS words would provide the impact I was looking for. It would give the characters and actors the actual space to find one another.
Restraint and an editing eye and ear are oftentimes more valuable than volumes of words can be.
–Sue
October 14th, 2010
I love talking with the “common men and women” about theatre… finding out what they think it’s about. More often than not, I get lists of what a person has seen and what s/he thought. Today I spent quite a bit of quality time with a cable/phone technician as he did an installation for us. For the record, he recently saw Avenue Q and thought it was a “great” show. On the other end of the spectrum, he also saw God of Carnage, which he said was great — specifically for James Gandolfini. Of that show he said, “It was all dialogue, two hours of talking on a sofa, just straight talking, but it was really funny.”
When I showed him an actual script, he said, “Wow, so you write all the dialogue and stuff?”
I laughed and said, “Who do you think writes it?”
“I know what a writer does, I just thought the actors ad lib a bit.”
In explaining the difference between improvisation and straight up theatre, I said, “No, actually they aren’t allowed to do that. They have to say every word I’ve written as I’ve written it.”
“That must be hard for the actors.”
“It’s part of their job… and it’s part of my job to trust them to bring the characters to life… and trust the director to help them find their way into these characters and find a way to make this world believable.”
“So they can make your story come to life!”
“Exactly!”
Sometimes, the best way to reach and educate the masses about theatre is one person at a time.
–Sue
October 13th, 2010
I’m at a critical moment in the script, the culmination of what the rest of the play has been working towards.
I realized it a few days ago…thinking about where this scene is going.
And though I’m glad to know how this moment unfolds, I find myself jumping ahead to try and figure out how the ending will unfold, and find myself worrying about the end without enjoying this moment… savoring it for what it means for these characters and this story.
Endings are so tricky in that they are fraught with expectation, and I don’t want to disappoint. I also don’t want to sell the characters or story short… The only answer is to savor this moment and see how it opens into the next, trusting that it will naturally work itself through, without much direction from me.
–Sue
October 12th, 2010
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