One of our assignments in Plays and Playwrights is to write a Major Dramatic Curve for an original play – – not the whole of the play – but simply an outline or structure FOR a play. The plans for this play SOUND quite simple but prove to be more difficult. The first problem that the students run into is that they want to introduce car chases, shootouts, clever escapes from prisons, superheroes doing their magic and all sorts of techno bells and whistles to their play. I do all I can to validate that they DO have a valid story – BUT it is a story that is best saved for the movies.
These theatre students of mine have just seen WAY too many movies – and world class movies. No wonder they cannot imagined that a play can keep you riveted even if it happens in one space with just two characters and no high tech shenanigans. What can of action can possible happen in a living room? They would be surprised . . .
This really is my most difficult task in these early months – – I have to wean students off of movie thinking and get them to embrace the possibilities of the stage. The big obstacle, I believe, is that they have never seen anything happen on stage live that could compete with the awesomeness that they find in the moves each and every day.
It should be required that all students spend a serious weekend in NYC seeing shows BEFORE they enter their first class in Plays and Playwrights.