Solo Performances!

I was so impressed with all of our solo performances in class!! I thought each piece brought a sense of personality and vulnerability, and I feel like we all bonded through the experience. It was so fascinating to see a glimpse into each person's life, even for a simple five minutes. Having said that, I also wanted to point out the excitement of being a playwright and seeing my friends as playwrights. I had never thought of myself writing my own work, but as I was creating my piece, I was literally going through changes in a script that hadn't been written on paper yet. At first, I did write everything down. I worked every line out in my head and put it on paper, including stage directions. And then I began working the piece, which was an entirely new realm. I had to change so many things! I threw most of my original script out (which was very difficult because I had put so much thought into it) and I re-worked a lot of bits. Originally I had two characters in the script, one character convincing the other of all the benefits of being bulimic. It made the piece ten minutes long so I cut down to just one character. Besides, it is a solo performance, right? But when I really put it on its feet, the piece came together on its own. I knew exactly where to go onstage, where to fit in my song and ten consecutive seconds of silence. It really was like magic. I think that says something about the "traditional" way of theatre, where there is a playwright, a director, and actors. As we combine all three in ensemble work, I find that the process is running much smoother than I ever imagined! I wonder how this will change when we work on a bigger piece with the whole class involved. I am curious to how you all became playwrights for your pieces. What worked for you? What was your process?