Today we have our illustrious author, Hunter Styles, sharing some thoughts about last Sunday night's Modern Scribes reading with Artists' Bloc. We'll be doing one more private reading while Hunter continues tweaking the script, and then we'll have a public reading in less than two short weeks:
Freud Meets Girl: A Modern Scribes Reading
Thursday, June 3 at 8:00 PM
Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Melton Rehearsal Hall
641 D St, NW
Washington, DC 20004
It'll be your big chance to hear the script in action before the Fringe Festival, so definitely don't miss it. Here's Hunter.
First off, Artists' Bloc rocks. It's a real pleasure to get involved with them after the success of developing Seamus's play Skywriter last year. The Bloc has a great attitude to workshopping that's both rigorous and carefully considered. Even after the workshop was over, taking a few extra minutes to brainstorm with moderator Lee Liebeskind at his car gave me a lot to ponder for the next draft.
This was the first time I've heard virtually any of this thing out loud. Until the first workshop it had only been playing out in my head. So, I was surprised to find some spots in the text that are overwritten - where simplicity is best, and where I can really pare it down - and that some ideas and sentences I always considered 'placeholders' actually sound pretty great out loud!
That's one of the great things about theater, though. A good actor communicates so much through the quality of their voice and their body language. In the earliest draft of a play like this, it's hard to imagine exactly what the live actor will contribute, so at times I've struggled to make perfect sense on paper. But now, hearing it performed, I feel compelled to strip it down, strengthen the action, trust the actors, and trust the audience to follow along with us.
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