Board 8 > My play ONLINE FIGHTING has been done ten times, AMA.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Tenth time just completed its run yesterday -- its second time in a school.

I'll probably answer questions when I wake up, but I'm feeling sick so forgive me if it's a little later please kthx.
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which one was your favorite time and why
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Yes!

1) How long did it take from when you started writing the script until the first show day? How did you even make that happen?
2) How involved are you in each production?
3) What are some script writing tips from your own experience?
4) If you were to write (or are writing) your second play what would it be about?
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Snrkiko posted...

which one was your favorite time and why

It's like choosing between my babies, ouch. Here, let me be a bad parent.

Stage reading from 2012 had such a great cast and its crowd was laughing so hard for what seemed like every joke. It also set a record for that theatre as being their best-attended stage reading...and this was set on Superbowl Sunday. This solidified two things: that it was going to headline the same play festival next year as a world premiere, and that I had legitimized my reason to move to NYC later that same year.

It was also the last time I saw a friend. We had been arguing a few months before but then he did this show's fight choreography. I made sure I hugged him despite our unresolved issues. Then, last summer, he had a heart attack in his office randomly and died. I'm really glad I hugged him that day.

EDIT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjX-G83l0Rg
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1) How long did it take from when you started writing the script until the first show day? How did you even make that happen?

So ONLINE FIGHTING started as a ten-minute stand-alone play in a month-long non-credit workshop for ten-minute plays. This was back in 2008. We all did stage-readings at the end of that month, so you could say one month. More realistically though, it took almost two years for another unrelated stage-reading as well as three years for its world premiere as a one-act.

I submitted that short play to a theatre I liked since they had a new play festival, and they liked it but felt it was too short...so in 2010 I basically spent the summer writing and got into the featival the next year for table-readings. Some table-readings each year become stage readings the next year, and one becomes a world premiere for a third and final year; that's what I achieved in 2013.

2) How involved are you in each production?

Varies, usually on if I'm producing it. If I'm responsible for directing, budgeting, casting, advertising, all that? Man, it's a ton.

If another theatre just wants to do my play though? I offer to attend and support however I can (loan costumes, teach stage combat for a day, whatever). While the play was developing I was still really stand-off'ish, to the point where I wouldn't attend rehearsals when invited because I wanted to see how others interpreted my show without me. I made that distance, and while I don't regret it I do really wish I could have seen my other timeline too so I try to be there more for my less developed plays now.
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3) What are some script writing tips from your own experience?

Everybody's got their process so don't stress if my style doesn't mesh with yours, but here's a few.....

*Entertain yourself first - you're not so different from the world, so go hard hard HARD on doing the best you can to make something you enjoy. Along the way, you'll find ways to make jokes more broad or cut inside things only you get, but start there. It's a great way to find your voice.

*Start somewhere interesting - ONLINE FIGHTING used to begin with "Hey, didn't expect to see you here" (added a console voice-over at the beginning since then with fun usernames, including a nod to Not Dave with NotJoshLOL). Other plays of mine started with "He'll never do it," "We've waited twenty minutes so let's not waste anymore time," "Beautiful service Sissy," and the project I'm working on during NaNoWriMo starts with "I'm still leaving." Starting with conflict is probably easier, but start in the middle of something and it'll be more interesting for an audience to catch up to you. Simple can still be interesting too!

*Ever struggling to keep an idea going? Try making your conflict go national. Boom -- heightening is quickly achieved and a whole new world opens as a writer.

*Have important stuff be included in the dialogue - maybe this is a play-specific piece of advice. In my theatre experience, I've seen lots of stage directions get cut and changed entirely whereas dialogue is usually more respected (besides Shakespeare which gets cut to pieces). If a picture, a fight move, a price tag...you name it -- if something's important for you to keep, then have a character reference it.

*Keep it fun for the actors - another one that's maybe play-specific. ONLINE FIGHTING's fun because at least seventeen characters have a fight in the show and there aren't many plays about video games (though many more than people realize -- there's an annual festival dedicated to them in NYC). I've had a newscaster who works at a different news station each time she appears and trashtalks the last one, an actor who kisses ass and prays to Dionysus, a family attending a cat funeral, a play where I rhymed literally as much as I possibly could in its dialogue...ask yourself: if you had to act in each role from your show, would each role have something you'd be excited to tell your friends about and invite them to see?

*Steve Martin won't approve of this: drink while you're writing and edit while you're sober. I like having two different mindsets working toward the same goal. Also though: don't rely on alcohol. Writing doesn't pay me well enough yet for doctor's bills, and writing shouldn't be an excuse just to get drunk either.
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4) If you were to write (or are writing) your second play what would it be about?

I've written a lot more since then! ONLINE FIGHTING remains as my first and most successful, but I'll run down the list:

Two-acts:
ONLINE FIGHTING (action-comedy about jealousy)
A COCAINE COMEDY (tragicomedy about peer pressure)

One-acts:
MAKING IT UP (metacomedy about reality television and improvisation)

Shorter plays:
ONLINE FIGHTING (hey, it's versatile!)
THOSE GIRLS (motivational piece I tailored for an all-girl school)
DOG WHISTLES (political comedy about what dogs really hear from dog whistles)
NO PROPS (prop-based comedy about show-business)
ALASKAN ASSASSINS (comedy of rhymes and wordplay)
WAS IT MINE (comedy about male feminists discussing abortion)

I also had a series of twenty short plays I wrote for friends based on titles they gave me. Of those that have been produced:

GRANDMA'S DEATH DISH (family comedy about a cat funeral)
THE INCONSEQUENTIAL CUPCAKE! (maybe my darkest piece yet, about a family divorce and murder plot)
ASKING FOR A FRIEND (a play about STDs and trust)
[JEFF IN SPACE is what I did for Board 8, but no success it though...YET]

And as for what I just re-began:

CUTTING TIES (family drama about seperation)
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I never really see any science fiction done on the stage. Is there just no market for it with the theater audience? Any kind of stigma from writers actors or directors?
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MariaTaylor posted...

I never really see any science fiction done on the stage. Is there just no market for it with the theater audience? Any kind of stigma from writers actors or directors?

I'll start personally in that science fiction's not been relevant to me personally (except Portal if that counts) so I know I'm not really helping that issue and may sometimes struggle to even label it right.

My broader thought's that doing difficult things on stage live and nightly is a different kind of difficulty than doing difficult things on film once. New technology will probably be presented by existing technology (maybe using a projector to shoot a laser into space), foreign locations (sometimes hard to show expansively in smaller venues), new species (to be played by humans)...I mean, there's a lot of excuses, but theatre already breaks these excuses.

Somebody probably needs to make a musical and it'll open up the genre.....

(I'm not sure if COPENHAGEN counts but your question reminded me of it and I thought it was an excellent play)
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yeah I was wondering if maybe sci-fi people would prefer to go into film rather than theatre because it's easier to make better looking special effects there. but honestly good sci fi isn't really about the special effects anyway. plus "write a play" I assume is still WAY easier than "get a movie greenlit" so it still seems like going to the theater would be easier...?
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Write a play (and produce it yourself) [and get accepted]
VS
Write a film (and shoot it yourself) [and get greenlit]

Pick what you will from each category, but try to keep them equal! #semantics
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HaRRicH posted...

I also had a series of twenty short plays I wrote for friends based on titles they gave me. Of those that have been produced:

How short?
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Ten-twenty minutes, give or take.
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It's the last day I can say "I've had plays done in NYC and LA in the past year," so I'm gonna say it while I still can!
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First time I've shared this...

HaRRicH posted...

THE INCONSEQUENTIAL CUPCAKE! (maybe my darkest piece yet, about a family divorce and murder plot)

...this was done in NYC a year ago today. Here's the video (NSFW):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwzoBmLsWbc
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Buuuuump.
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