The Power of Process

As a Theatre Educator, one of my favorite things to do is to develop new works with my students.  There is nothing that teaches the importance of process more effectively than play development.

Over the past year, I have worked with a group of students on a new play that began as a collaborative project in the IB Theatre class.  The initial script was a series of four monologues. There was no arc to the individual stories nor to the characters.  They were connected solely by a thematic through line that dealt with the very serious topic of teen suicide.

Inspired by Project Semicolon, the students were highly invested in the project and agreed to rewrite the play. After multiple revisions and readings, the play was presented at the International Thespian Festival in the Freestyle event this past June under the title Semicolon.  The playwrights also performed the play which ended with the definition and tagline "A semicolon is used when an author could have ended a sentence but chose not to. The sentence is your life." The response was overwhelming. It was evident that the subject matter touched the high school audience in a profound way.

Since then, the playwrights have continued to revise the play. The process has included more than ten revisions and readings. They have done statistical research and engaged in discussions and talkbacks.  What began as four separate monologues has developed into a thirty minute one act play with interwoven storylines and complex characters.

Through the process, it became clear that the original title no longer fit the play.  This was one of the harder editing choices for the authors to accept. The message of the play and the point of view of the characters shifted to a call to action.

The revised play with its new title, Speak Up! was presented at the Southern California Thespian Play Festival in January and was awarded second place out of eleven entries. The only original play in the festival,  the authors engaged the audience in a talk back after the performance.  The feedback from the teenagers and teachers affirmed that, sadly, there is a need for this play.  

I was uncertain whether the plot lines and character connections were clear.  Had we made the play too complicated? Had we watered it down? Did it still have the punch it had in its earlier iteration?  There always comes a point when one is too close to the work to be objective. That is why the opportunity to perform the play again  was such a valuable experience.  Indeed there was confusion about some story points. It didn't help that the author/actors also dropped some lines which impacted an important revelation.

Lessons learned.  The play is now undergoing one more revision.  The revised version of Speak Up! will have a reading done by other actors so the authors can hear the play rather than worry about performing it. Acting and writing are two separate roles and it is time for the student playwrights to hear what they have written without worrying about memorizing lines and emotional connection to the characters they created.

For these students, this process has included struggling over sentence structure, punctuation, word choice, character development and dramatic action. Most importantly, these student playwrights have engaged in an authentic play development process that will result in a play that could save lives.  What better way to discover the power of Theatre on Purpose?