{"id":39,"date":"2010-07-14T11:48:52","date_gmt":"2010-07-14T18:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/?p=39"},"modified":"2010-07-16T14:00:03","modified_gmt":"2010-07-16T21:00:03","slug":"a-few-comments-about-watching-a-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/?p=39","title":{"rendered":"Playwrights Notes Part II: A few comments about watching a play"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned in a earlier post, I attend a local theater group, the Playwrights Collaborative, hosted at the BIT Theater<\/a>. \u00a0The\u00a0Playwrights Collaborative gets together once a month to listen to staged readings. \u00a0It’s a great experience, even if you are not an actor or a playwright.<\/p>\n

Attending these readings is a must for me. \u00a0The readings are really workshops, a place where the pieces of a play are tested, pulled apart, examined. \u00a0Sometimes a play needs to be reconstructed, sometimes just a bit of polishing will do. I find it a valuable experience. \u00a0I learn something new each time.<\/p>\n

I must confess for most of my life I hardly ever saw a play. \u00a0I had no idea at all that Sacramento much of a theater scene. \u00a0But it does. \u00a0And the BIT is quite an experience — very small and intimate. \u00a0(I saw Richard III there recently — the actors were about 6 feet away. \u00a0That kind of experience you don’t get by watching television.) \u00a0Writing plays has given me a new appreciation for the theater.<\/p>\n

So I want to honor the process of playwriting, try to give back a bit to a community of people who have, and are, helping me learn the craft. \u00a0But since these are plays are works in progress, I don’t think I want to present a criticism. \u00a0I just want to write about the process itself. \u00a0The opinions here are my own, they are completely subjective, and they are the musings of someone who has not had a play published or produced.<\/p>\n

Last week I attended a reading of a play, and I want to use that experience as a springboard for talking about the theater arts. \u00a0I want to relate to you how it feels for me, a playwrite, to attend a play. \u00a0To put a fine point on it, I want to talk about what level of investment it takes to experience a play fully from the perspective of someone who wants to write plays. \u00a0 If you assume, as I do, that that arts are a fundamental part of the moral conscience of society, then going to a play (or attending to any of the arts) is not mundane. \u00a0Which doesn’t mean it’s a solemn event, but it does mean you really have to be there. \u00a0Fully invested of yourself in that moment. \u00a0I find this difficult to do.<\/p>\n