In his playwriting blog, "The Producer's Perspective," Broadway producer, Ken Davenport, shared his thoughts and dispensed some advice to aspiring playwrights. In particular his contention that "new-er" playwrights over-write their plays.
This caught my attention and got me thinking about my own plays and whether they are over-written. Perhaps (speculation number gazillion) this could be yet another reason and rationalization why my plays have yet to see a stage.
As Ken shared in the blog, not merely long but too 'wordy' (my interpretation). Seems that we playwrights over-write to ensure the audience grasp our concept.
The problem from my perspective is that it's difficult to know how much is too much. I've strived to keep physical direction to a minimum and to focus upon the dialogue and more importantly, the story line. So if indeed I'm guilty of over-writing, it's difficult to ascertain if and where the edits should be made, having edited various parts incessantly over time.
Contributed my two-cents-worth to the blog topic in the form of a comment: "frequently, we never hear back again as to whether a play is over-written or whatever else is wrong." As I've often bemoaned and shared in this blog that the submission process more often than not results in never hearing anything back, period.
On one occasion, to a particular theatre's credit and part of its commitment to playwrights, a personal submission resulted in a complete analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the play, including suggestions as to changes that would strengthen its overall quality. How refreshing.
In the end, it's a waiting game dependent upon hope - thank goodness for hope - that someone, somewhere, will see the potential in our work. One never knows.
Meanwhile, here's the coordinates to sign up for Ken Davenport's blog: https://www.theproducersperspective.com/welcome-to-the-producers-perspective-forum He makes for some interesting views and points.
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