I recently found myself talking about a new hit play, telling someone who hadn't seen it that it "used every trick in the New Play Playbook." This person, not a new playwright, asked (reasonably) what that meant.
Fair question, right? And in that context, "I know it when I see it" won't do. What I meant was: there are certain choices, either in structure or presentation, that one often sees in quote-unquote "hot" new work. Some of them indicate a certain skillfulness or playfulness, some are winks to an educated theater audience, some are nods to popular culture, contemporary life...ANY of them, used intelligently, can add great layers to a production. ALL of them, used together, tend to make me think that a playwright has looked at recent successful plays, compiled a checklist of theatrical/storytelling elements, then gone down the list in a cynical attempt to garner attention from critics, literary managers, directors -- from gatekeepers who, we playwrights imagine, have seen it all and are looking, always, for what is "new."
At worst, any of these tactics are a shorthand to signal to the gatekeepers that the playwright is "new" and hipper than the next scribe in the critic/litmgr's/director's ever-growing slush pile.
So, below, a list of a few of the tactics I keep seeing in new plays...for worse or, sometimes, much much better:
Integration of "new" media like video and projection...
Integration of Youtube
Txtspeak
A million short, short scenes (yes, you could argue that Shakespeare did some of this too)
Pop culture references to "Geek" or "Cult" movies like Star War, Legally Blonde, etc...ditto obscure hipster bands...
Sex on stage...whether or not it's relevant to the plot...
Pop Culture references to things like wrestling (I'm talkin' you, Chad Diety, but God did you use it well -- an example of how these tactics can be used beautifully)
The Spoken Stage Direction
The random musical or dance number in what is not, necessarily, a musical or dance show
The EXTREMELY-RIPPED-FROM-HEADLINES title or topic (yes, Enron, that's you)
The extremely meta/self-referential production
The random "this is what my whole experience means" monologue that stops the production in a direct address to the audience
The reference to metaphor...which might turn your metaphor into an analogy, if you think about it...which really is different than a metaphor...
from friends...
| "I would add Bold visual conceits that bear no actual metaphoric weight nor stand up to any scrutiny of their symbolism" Slacker Men Extreme Sarcasm Comic Book Aesthetic or Reference "Zany Characters" -- ones you'd never look at and say "that's me," but rather, "what a fun cartoon" Tons of (realistically staged, but not credible) onstage violence "Postmodern Myths" (guilty as charged, on that one) The "we're gonna take an 'issue' (global warming, financial collapse, school shootings) and mix in just enough plot to call what we're doing a play...then create a forum to educate/pontificate for 50 minutes" play. AND THIS IS A RESPONSE/ADDITION FROM A PLAYWRIGHT FRIEND: Funny thing is, I actually feel like this is completely UNCONSCIOUS on the part of up-and-coming playwrights. I also feel it can be traced directly back to what is being taught in many MFA programs in the country: the idea that "inspiration-based writing" is somehow separate from "nuts and bolts" (or structure based) writing. I think the two must be linked - what's popular now in MFA programs is telling students to go with their gut; to write what they want for no apparent reason; to scorn structure or - really - story, in any form. There was a play produced Off-Broadway several years ago. That play featured a scene with a man speaking to a snack item. That playwright was taught by a world-famous playwright who scorns story in favor of inspiration. THAT I call bullshit on. A snack iteml? Fuck's sake, you know? That drove me NUTS. Also, I'm furious at the latest wave of devised theater, the majority of which I feel is driven by their own marketing gimmicks and - again - no story. Call me old-fashioned. So I guess basically what I'm saying is: plays with no story. They LOOK sexy on the page - ooh, weird language! Ooh, weird punctuation! Ooh, lots and lots and lots of images! - but in production, they're nothing, nothing, nothing. |
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