Writing the Solo Show, Pt 9: Page to Stage

Plays are peculiar things.  Sure, you can read a play, but the truth is that a script is a blueprint.  The performance is the building.

I’ve said this over and over, but I firmly believe this more and more as I work on writing this solo play. 

So where am I in the process?

After many months of writing various stories, notes, observations, I have to compile these pages into a binder.  

This binder is becoming the “script”.

It's still a complete mess, of course.  It's like a taking the clay and getting the shape and size right for the sculpture with only hints of what form that sculpture will take.

The problem here is that I want to write a play.  Not vignettes.  Not the facsimile of a therapy session.   I have no desire to get up on stage and just tell personal stories about my pain and grief and hope the audience “gets” me.  My desire is the universal truth of storytelling, finding the metaphor for the story and relating that to my audience in an entertaining way.

I’m not worried about whether or not the story seems personal or not.  If it comes from my sense of truth, it will be inherently personal, as all great stories are.   

What’s funny is that I’ve already written a solo play before—And I completely forgot about it.  The play is called Material Girl and its about a 15 year old girl waiting in line to get an autograph from Madonna because this will logically prove the existence of God.  Okay, it’s a short play, but still…I’ve done it before. 

In fact, if you’d like to read it, go to Original Works and take a look.