THIS IS IT!!!
1 year, 5 months By Allyson
In: Allyson | Allyson Hibbard | August | Fall Semster | Playwrighting | blogging every day | theatre
Wow, the last day of the month and the last day of blogging every day in August. Well, do you guys feel like you know me any better? Ha ha. Today was my first day of classes for the Fall semester. I had playwriting. It was quite a bit of fun, and it flew by amazingly fast. There are 8 of us in the class total, but it looks like of the students will be dropping out of the class though. They seem like a nice bunch of people. And surprisingly we actually went to the theatre and got up on the stage and did some improvisational acting - which by the way was really really difficult! Part of the reason for it was to get some creativity started and get us in the mood. The other part of it was because writing a play and having it performed on stage can make entirely different things occur that you didn't expect to happen when you originally wrote it. That particularly really got me thinking because I hadn't really considered that the way I mean it to be in my head could be construed entirely differently by the time it gets the through the head of the director, and the scene designer, and most importantly the actors! Other things that I hadn't considered is that when some folks write they do it all in their head. And then there are playwrights who will write it, and then have it read to them or acted out by friends to them. I kind of do a hybrid of that. I write very little until I've had the opportunity to act it out myself. And then wherever the scene ends up that I've acted out I try writing it and see what I think. If something doesn't quite seem to mesh, I'll do the scene over again and try different things to see which one I actually like better. The other kind of odd ballish thing that I do is when I write I tend to use my friends as the characters. And I do not mean that I base the characters off of my friends. I mean I use my friends as my characters and then I place us in situations that you wouldn't normally find us. It's fun, but those are the stories that I usually keep to myself and are purely for my own enjoyment because people tend to find it awkward when you portray them in certain ways that they may have not considered of themselves previously. I have allowed one or two of my stories to be read by the people that were in them. But it's a pretty rare occasion sort of thing. The thing that I think is going to be most difficult about this playwriting class is I'm in a room filled with people who are actually aspiring to be playwrights, while I'm just taking this class as a fun pass time and some extra credits. And I'm going to have to actually share the stuff I write with the people in the class and I'm not sure that I'm ready to hear what their critiques will be. Also, I kind of feel more pressure to perform well. In past classes that required me to write it was pretty much a piece of cake because I didn't have to put a ton of effort forth. I was in a whole room full of amateurs and my natural talent and ability was enough to impress those reading. This time because its people "in the field" so to speak I'm going to have to work a lot harder to get that same sort of feedback and that is kind of daunting. But the challenge isn't a bad thing. I enjoy it. I'm just nervous I won't be able to do what I intend. Well, I'm working on a commission tonight and tomorrow night. And then I have to work on writing a ten minute play for my Thursday class. So I don't imagine that I'll be blogging in the next couple of days. I may even take a whole week off just to get some things caught up. I also have my daughter starting school tomorrow. So look for the next blog possibly this weekend or next week. I hope you are having a great week. ~Always Allyson
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