Clean Up On Aisle Three

Well, it's about that time again to break out a red pen and start massacring the play I love so dearly. Sigh. It has to be.

But now I get to use Yoooouuuur Help!

In order to get from draft to draft I'd send the play out in various forms to get feedback from friends, fellow writers, people who have never seen a play, and people who love theater to the point where it's nearly a disease and I have obtained a great deal of notes that have influenced the current draft. And that's great and all...

..but none of them have acted in the parts.

Even though the reading was cancelled, all of you wonderful cast members have walked a bit in your characters' shoes, and that's very helpful to me. For example, Beth will be saying "boy-slash-girl" now thanks to Maja, and Rachel will have slightly less to spit out as Ms. Barron, for some of her lines should be cut.

However, as you can tell, those are only two characters and, while I gleaned a lot from the first reading, it's not enough to warrant doing another draft without your help. So, at some point in the weeks ahead, we're all gonna have a nice sit-down and talk about your characters. Consider this your heads up, giving you enough time to poke your heads out of your Seussical tome of songs you call a "script" to consider some things.

We won't be asking if you like your role, if you have enough lines, if you should be in more scenes. That's certainly not the point. But, if you've gone through the script and feel like one of your lines doesn't fit your character, or that there is a line that could be expanded upon to fit the situation, that would be nice. If there is something that you don't know about your character's back story that isn't explained, if your character feels shoe-horned into a scene, or asking why they would say "this" at that time, those things could help a great deal.

Another big key is if a line sounds clunky, or doesn't feel completely natural coming out of your mouth (save for Barron; remember, "slightly" is the key word from earlier!). You have an experience that is unique unto yourselves: actually saying these lines in character.

And just for the hell of it, a general question survey, too! God bless the internet.

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Hope you all have noticed the little Swinton College crest that sits on the top right of the page. It is done by the wonderful and talented Erik Didriksen, and yes, that's real Latin and is spelled correctly (according to a guy who took Latin in high school). It's by no means a final draft, but it spruces up the page (notice how the crest colors are the blogs colors? ZOMG!) nicely. Also, the t-shirts for this show could be awesome.

So read up! Get useful questions! Fill out the survey! Rah Rah! Etc! See you soon!