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Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week, ML Kinney.
It started with an iota of an idea. It actually started by me getting rather pissed off one day by something I read. I don’t need to go any further with the “what.” My friends and family already know how I deal with getting pissed off – I rant, I rave, I write! (Usually taking an opposing argument, most times theirs, and using it to push my own home.) It gets frustrating for them that they have no rebuttal in my process, but it makes for good theatre.
So this iota of an idea, this tirade took form, of course, as a play. It actually took form as a one-joke play of thirty pages. I brought it to the Milk Can and asked for a read. So one evening we sat down as a group and read out loud the jumble of pages I had assembled. From feedback, and me listening to both the script and comments, it became clear that this joke was more. It was more than an iota of an idea, a joke, but a reality for a script.
I spent some months reviewing the script and making notes. I then sat down with the arguments in the background, an echo bouncing in my skull, and I started in earnest to form a fully evolved reality that went beyond the punch line and actually became a play.
With this draft, I started in the Milk Can’s Scene Herd Uddered (SHU) development workshop series. After seven weeks of working, I was amazed at how the script grew -- it become a world of its own, which is Life Among The Natives.
I am now in the midst of pre-production for the premiere of this new play, a play which has taken a two-year trip down the aisle to center stage. The process and the piece astound me daily.
That’s not to say that my work is done. We are two weeks into the rehearsal process and I find myself re-writing as we go along. Most evenings I sit in the rehearsal room cutting and pasting scenes beyond recognition, where the actors can’t even follow along. I change a word, a sentence, I write a monologue. I come home and re-write new pages and drift off to sleep with the characters talking new arguments in my ear. I listen, re-write and listen again. And through this process, I watch as a world takes shape and an event, the event of theatre, takes form.
I sit nightly humbled in rehearsals by the energy present from a group of artists who are there to fully realize an iota of an idea that formed in my brain some two years earlier. It would have remained there, floating voices for my therapist, or stayed splayed on an unread page, but for the ability I have with the company I work with. This play would not be if it wasn’t for a group of people, The Milk Canners, whom I respect and cherish. They prodded and pushed for me to take this iota, this joke, this part of me to its realized conclusion, which shall complete its two year journey on May 8, 2010, as it is handed to an audience to devour and enjoy.
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Showing posts with label Milk Can Theatre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Milk Can Theatre. Show all posts
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Cultivating a Theatre to Grow Plays
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Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week, ML Kinney.
I have been around the OOB block more times than I care to admit. Through the years I have discovered a diverse community and an amazing wealth of talent. I am happy to say that I consider OOB my home. I live, I work, I create, and I thrive within this community. I am fed daily on its spirit.
I have been involved with The Milk Can Theatre Company since its inception in 2003. I believe in its mission, I helped to form it, and I have worked towards strengthening its purpose to the OOB community and to itself as a producing theatre company. The Milk Can’s work is primarily new play development. We work diligently to foster an environment where plays can grow. We examine and change this process yearly to help improve, not only the end result, but the path taken to get there.
As a playwright I know just how difficult it is to get an idea onto paper, into dramatic form. I also know how difficult it is to get that idea off the paper and into a living, breathing theatrical entity. Before 2003, when I started working with the Milk Can, I had acquired file folders full of first and second drafts; I had badgered my friends and family into reading and critiquing beyond politeness; and I had received enough rejection letters to wallpaper my bedroom. Yes, once or twice I was lucky to have some group take pity on my pages and allow me to hear a group of actors sit in chairs and speak my words. I even had the luck to be commissioned twice for projects, where I actually got to witness my ideas take form and play to an audience with costumes, lights, sets, and music. I know that this is an amazing thing. I know there are playwrights who have not gotten that far, and I also know that some of my work was produced before it was ready for prime time.
In formulating our mission and methods at the Milk Can, we agreed as a group that this phenomenon happens more times than not when producing new plays onto the OOB stage: most are just not ready to be in the spotlight. We decided to wrestle with the problem and came up with some solutions that have worked very well for us. We not only continue to produce quality new works, but we also help develop the artists creating them.
The Milk Can as a company takes an innovative approach to developing new work. We believe and think a play must have a fertile environment and time to grow. We provide artists with the opportunity to work on their plays in a no-pressure environment. We provide money, space, and time. Our seven-week "Scene Herd Uddered (SHU)" workshop series is the perfect opportunity for artists to develop an idea, and to concentrate on process rather than product. The end result is a solid foundation where a play can blossom.
The SHU process is divided into three phases:
PHASE ONE: In the first four weeks, a team -- usually composed of a playwright, a director, designer, and a group of actors -- goes into rehearsal and development. At the end of this period, there is an in-house run-through of the project. Extensive feedback is given to the creative team. The focus is on script development.
PHASE TWO: The playwright/director team is given a "quiet week" -- one week to write, re-write, and consider how to deal with feedback before going back into rehearsal.
PHASE THREE: Over the next two weeks, groups rehearse and continue to polish and refine the play. The focus is on performance, though the process of script development continues.
After the performance, there is always a talk-back to get audience feedback.
I have had the pleasure of experiencing this process five times as a playwright, with the end result being five scripts that are stronger, more focused, and workable as a theatre product. It is amazing to have the time to write, listen, re-write, listen, and write some more. The ability to be in a room with actors, director, and designers working on a script is the most amazing experience I have had, and to do it without the pressure that it must be perfect for a performance gives you the perspective on how the play works and doesn’t work. The final stage of the SHU is a staged reading, where the community is invited in to see the work and comment -- the final piece of the puzzle.
We all know that the process of theatre is collaborative, yet as playwrights, we are most often working alone. We sit with the voices in our head creating theatre; theatre as an art form that is three dimensional, a living breathing entity, which does take a village to create. Writer, director, actor, designer, and audience all make the art of theatre. So doesn’t it make sense to have everyone involved in the process of developing? The Milk Can’s answer is yes! We have produced twenty-three SHU workshops in the last seven years; from this group we have produced six new plays, world premieres, for our mainstage, and we still have projects under consideration for the future.
As a playwright, I have found that the SHU experience has helped me write better plays, and has allowed me to form bonds with directors, actors, and designers who now share with me a common language and a style of working. It has also allowed me to take risks and grow both personally and creatively.
x
Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week, ML Kinney.
I have been around the OOB block more times than I care to admit. Through the years I have discovered a diverse community and an amazing wealth of talent. I am happy to say that I consider OOB my home. I live, I work, I create, and I thrive within this community. I am fed daily on its spirit.
I have been involved with The Milk Can Theatre Company since its inception in 2003. I believe in its mission, I helped to form it, and I have worked towards strengthening its purpose to the OOB community and to itself as a producing theatre company. The Milk Can’s work is primarily new play development. We work diligently to foster an environment where plays can grow. We examine and change this process yearly to help improve, not only the end result, but the path taken to get there.
As a playwright I know just how difficult it is to get an idea onto paper, into dramatic form. I also know how difficult it is to get that idea off the paper and into a living, breathing theatrical entity. Before 2003, when I started working with the Milk Can, I had acquired file folders full of first and second drafts; I had badgered my friends and family into reading and critiquing beyond politeness; and I had received enough rejection letters to wallpaper my bedroom. Yes, once or twice I was lucky to have some group take pity on my pages and allow me to hear a group of actors sit in chairs and speak my words. I even had the luck to be commissioned twice for projects, where I actually got to witness my ideas take form and play to an audience with costumes, lights, sets, and music. I know that this is an amazing thing. I know there are playwrights who have not gotten that far, and I also know that some of my work was produced before it was ready for prime time.
In formulating our mission and methods at the Milk Can, we agreed as a group that this phenomenon happens more times than not when producing new plays onto the OOB stage: most are just not ready to be in the spotlight. We decided to wrestle with the problem and came up with some solutions that have worked very well for us. We not only continue to produce quality new works, but we also help develop the artists creating them.
The Milk Can as a company takes an innovative approach to developing new work. We believe and think a play must have a fertile environment and time to grow. We provide artists with the opportunity to work on their plays in a no-pressure environment. We provide money, space, and time. Our seven-week "Scene Herd Uddered (SHU)" workshop series is the perfect opportunity for artists to develop an idea, and to concentrate on process rather than product. The end result is a solid foundation where a play can blossom.
The SHU process is divided into three phases:
PHASE ONE: In the first four weeks, a team -- usually composed of a playwright, a director, designer, and a group of actors -- goes into rehearsal and development. At the end of this period, there is an in-house run-through of the project. Extensive feedback is given to the creative team. The focus is on script development.
PHASE TWO: The playwright/director team is given a "quiet week" -- one week to write, re-write, and consider how to deal with feedback before going back into rehearsal.
PHASE THREE: Over the next two weeks, groups rehearse and continue to polish and refine the play. The focus is on performance, though the process of script development continues.
After the performance, there is always a talk-back to get audience feedback.
I have had the pleasure of experiencing this process five times as a playwright, with the end result being five scripts that are stronger, more focused, and workable as a theatre product. It is amazing to have the time to write, listen, re-write, listen, and write some more. The ability to be in a room with actors, director, and designers working on a script is the most amazing experience I have had, and to do it without the pressure that it must be perfect for a performance gives you the perspective on how the play works and doesn’t work. The final stage of the SHU is a staged reading, where the community is invited in to see the work and comment -- the final piece of the puzzle.
We all know that the process of theatre is collaborative, yet as playwrights, we are most often working alone. We sit with the voices in our head creating theatre; theatre as an art form that is three dimensional, a living breathing entity, which does take a village to create. Writer, director, actor, designer, and audience all make the art of theatre. So doesn’t it make sense to have everyone involved in the process of developing? The Milk Can’s answer is yes! We have produced twenty-three SHU workshops in the last seven years; from this group we have produced six new plays, world premieres, for our mainstage, and we still have projects under consideration for the future.
As a playwright, I have found that the SHU experience has helped me write better plays, and has allowed me to form bonds with directors, actors, and designers who now share with me a common language and a style of working. It has also allowed me to take risks and grow both personally and creatively.
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Guest Blogger next week: ML Kinney
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We would like to thank Gyda Arber for being our guest blogger last week and sharing some of her insights into producing Indie Theatre.
We are happy to announce next week's guest blogger is ML Kinney.
ML is a founding member of the Milk Can Theatre Company. She has been working in New York Theatre for over twenty years. ML has worked as a playwright, lyricist, director, producer, stage manager, and actor and has a strong background in technical theatre. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild. She is currently in pre-production with The Milk Can for the spring premier of her full length play Life Among the Natives and ten-minute play What if… as part of the Disorder Plays. This is her second full length produced by the Milk Can, with her script Ashes produced in the Fall 2004, and her seventh endeavor in the Milk Can’s Annual Ten-Minute Play Festival.
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We would like to thank Gyda Arber for being our guest blogger last week and sharing some of her insights into producing Indie Theatre.
We are happy to announce next week's guest blogger is ML Kinney.
ML is a founding member of the Milk Can Theatre Company. She has been working in New York Theatre for over twenty years. ML has worked as a playwright, lyricist, director, producer, stage manager, and actor and has a strong background in technical theatre. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild. She is currently in pre-production with The Milk Can for the spring premier of her full length play Life Among the Natives and ten-minute play What if… as part of the Disorder Plays. This is her second full length produced by the Milk Can, with her script Ashes produced in the Fall 2004, and her seventh endeavor in the Milk Can’s Annual Ten-Minute Play Festival.
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