My encounter with Edward Albee...

Last month the news swept through the theatre and entertainment world that Edward Albee passed away.  Unarguably one of America's greatest playwrights, Albee left a mark on American dramatic literature that has only been equaled by the likes of O'Neill, Miller, and Williams.  He was a towering figure and his work will live on after him as his plays continually come alive on the stages of the world.

During his professional life Albee also had a reputation of being a prickly and oftentimes difficult man whose arrogance could turn people off and that could make him a handful to work with.  I thought my own encounter with him several years ago might be interesting to relate in this regard.

Trusting the writing process...

I'm continually struck by the degree to which I find myself telling writers to take their efforts with creating a new script one step at a time.  There are days we all have when everything seems totally out of reach and all you can hear is that nasty whispering voice saying "who are you trying to kid."  And it's on those days that you have to step back, take a deep breath, and realize that it's baby step after baby step that allows a script to come into being.  It's all a process, with one element building on the next.

As I've often said in this blog, writing a play or screenplay is a big undertaking, a complicated and intricate puzzle to solve.  And like puzzle pieces poured out of the box and onto a table, you start by finding a method, an approach to organizing that jumbled pile of tiny cut pieces into a plan of attack that will eventually produce a beautiful finished picture.

Subtext: A key to the script writer's art

One of the most significant elements in this difficult game of script writing is working with that elusive and dynamic "thing" called subtext--that submerged nine-tenths of the iceberg underneath those words on the page.  How do you use it to drive your dialogue and your characters' motivations and behavior and to fill those silences and pauses with potent energy and lightning-like insight and meaning?  Why is it that some writers are able to have the words that are actually spoken in a scene consistently take on a power far beyond what they are communicating on the surface? How do they do that?  What strings are they pulling to create that kind of special excitement between characters that pulls the audience ever further into the story that's unfolding?

The answer to these and similar questions involves backing up quite a bit when it comes to the process of creating a new script.  It demands that you know your characters inside and out before you attempt going into draft--what makes them tick, what specific milestone events have emotionally shaped their lives and how, and in what ways have they been involved with the main issue of the story that the future script is going to focus on--meaning knowing thoroughly their involvement with life in the past, before they first enter the action of your tale.

Subtext is that baggage--emotions, memories, and relationships--that every character is carrying with them as they enter your story.  And if your story is a good one, it will create its own ways that that baggage is felt and exploited as your characters face the dilemmas placed before them.  How they behave in certain moments of crisis or accusation, how they relate to other key individuals, how they respond to a sexual advance, and on and on....   And much of this behavior is nonverbal and very subtle.  A silence when a question is asked.  A hand going for that third drink when a certain topic is broached.  A shift in tone or volume in a character's speech.  These are well-crafted signals good writers constantly weave into their work and that point the audience to that subterranean place where the real story is continually percolating.

One of the masters at this is Harold Pinter.  His work is a study in the dynamic use of subtext.  Here's what he has to say about the famous silences in his plays:  "There are two silences.  One when no word is spoken.  The other perhaps when a torrent of language is being employed.  This speech is speaking of a language locked beneath it.  It is a necessary avoidance, a violent, sly, anguished or mocking smoke screen which keeps the other in it's place. When true silence falls we are still left with the echo, but are nearer nakedness.  One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness."

That nine-tenths under the surface.

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I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-11, 2015 and we are currently accepting applications for starting the program at the following residency that runs June 19-28, 2015.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.

MFA student wins Screenplay Competition

This has been a great summer for the family of writers who make up our low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen program.  We had a highly productive residency in June with all eleven student writers and our small army of professional faculty.  And all of our students are now working on new projects with their mentors.

And to top it off, one of our current second-year students, Vicki Peterson, has just won the Best Screenplay award at the California Independent Film Festival with her feature Zoe and the Zebra that she wrote in our program during her first year.  Needless to say, Vicki, pictured below with her daughter, is making us all proud.

I take a special pleasure in this achievement because Vicki, along with all our other MFA students, are a part of a program that stresses story structure and form as well as extensive pre-writing exploratory work on backstory and the characters' emotional makeup.  I have no doubt that her screenplay quickly rose to the top of the stack of contenders for this award because of the strong forward movement of her unfolding story and the richness and depth of her characters.  Not to mention that we gave her screenplay its first read at a recent residency with professional actors--something that allows students to actually hear their scripts given voice for the first time.

Actually, the CAIFF award is the third festival where Vicki's script has received recognition.  Earlier this year Zoe and the Zebra was featured in a reading at the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto and is also a finalist and official selection at the upcoming  Southern California Film Festival.  

So congrats to you, Vicki.  Can't wait to see you at our next residency in January so we can celebrate these successes!

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I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-10, 2015 and we are currently accepting applications.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.