WordPlay Tuesdays at Diversionary

Inaugural WordPlay Tuesdays will be a great big hit when it catches on 

by Kevin Six

 I was honored to be chosen as one of three playwrights to present work at the first WordPlay Tuesday, a collaboration between Diversionary Theatre and the Playwrights Project. Being chosen makes me feel good. The event, which should grow into something that every San Diegan who loves theatre will attend, is a place for playwrights to present work early on in its development.

So I brought something I'm working on that isn't near finished and got to see what it sounds like with actors and an audience who knew nothing about it. This is a situation as unique as a unicorn because in the world of theatre, the actors are well rehearsed and the audience has a pretty good idea of what to expect due to all the Facebook events, e-mails, preview articles and marketing material. Because let's face it,very few people willingly go out to an evening of complete surprises.

The idea behind WordPlay Tuesdays -- at least for me -- is to see just how actor-proof your play is. I cannot tell you how many playwrights blame actors for their plays, that it works when the actors are rehearsed, that blah blah blah. The fact is that if someone can't pick up a script and make sense out of it in a few short minutes it will never get produced.

This is because play readers don't rehearse. The people who read your play are literary assistants, volunteers, writers themselves -- theatre people. And it is they who you have to impress; and you'll note that I didn't mention actors in this bunch. Actor-proofing is something every good playwright should do because literary people are not good actors.

If they were, they would be out acting instead of reading your play. The point being that if it's good, anyone -- regardless of training -- can make sense out of it. So I have a little work to do because some of the readers (playwrights, administrators and trained actors among them) had trouble making sense out of my ten minutes. I didn't blame them. I also didn't rehearse them; I wanted to see how it read cold. And, thanks to the Playwrights Project and Diversionary Theatre, I got a a pretty good real-life sampling of the kinds of people looking at my play for the first time.

As this program gains in popularity, more professional actors will be enlisted -- either by playwrights who want ringers or because it's just good, free, training for actors. But I was thoroughly satisfied.

Thanks to all who made this happen, especially Cecilia, Derek, Olivia and Heather!

Line Reading = Creative Death

By Kevin Six (future former actor)

A message to directors the world over: When you direct a play, please try and refrain from giving line readings.  It not only makes us actors feel like we're being babysat, it also makes us wonder, Director, if you think you can do it better.  Actually, if you're doing lines technically, with emphasis on certain parts of it -- you're missing the fucking picture.

Some actors thrive on this kind of attention and some directors love these kinds of actors.  But really, what a director wants is the best possible production and I for one do not believe you can get there telling people how to say things.

The way acting works is you feel everything in every moment and --if you happen to get into a long series of moments -- no one line is going to matter.  Because you are a living, breathing, thinking, feeling person -- entirely different from the person you are off stage.  The problem with line readings is that they are the function of the actor -- not the character.

And audiences can see it.  They may not be able to determine if an actor is giving a line reading instead of feeling or thinking.  Look next time you see a play and see which actors are engaged -- who have something going on behind the lines and the blocking.

I got a note last night that, "for the third time", I was doing the line wrong.  I was inflecting up and not down.  I asked what the director wanted.  He replied "a declarative statement."

The problem with line was that I was thinking too much about the previous notes on how to deliver it -- to give the proper line reading -- and it ended up cold and dead.  I was cold and dead in that moment -- the character not me.  The character had ceased to exist.  Killed by an insecure actor believing that a note on inflection, delivery or the dreaded Line Reading.  Line readings kill actors little by little -- that is if they brought any life into the part they play.

Many actors believe a director who says, "Just learn your lines and blocking and I'm happy".  You're not happy.  You're dead inside.  Like my career.

Actors: if a director insists on giving you line readings, make sure to have a family emergency early on in the process.  Get the hell out.

Directors: if you hire actors you trust and let them breathe life into a role it's not like working at all.  If you made a bad choice in casting, get rid of the actor and find the right one.  You are doing no one a favor by keeping an actor in a play if little is working.

Me: two more note sessions.  Oh, and try not to say: "Why don't you call my phone and read the line
exactly the way you want and I'll copy it exactly" in front of people.
The line reading killed the moment, threatens to kill the creativity every time it is given and has nothing to do in this world where directors are supposed to create safe places for actors to create.

Vote Today, Baby

Vote, Baby.