All posts by Robin Byrd

Picture Exercises…

LAFPI, Playwright, playwriting, , , , , , ,

From time to time, I have taken acting classes. While studying at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, I learned a technique called the “Picture Exercise” where the actor finds a picture of a person/character and recreates the picture by recreating the exact pose and costume.  This exercise helps the actor find specific character traits to incorporate into life-like behavior for the character.  Once the actor is dressed and posed like the picture, the actor must answer one question, “What does the person in the picture say at that moment in time?”  In order to answer that question, the actor must get a sense of the inner and outer voice of the character/person in the picture.  The actor has to create backstory and has to create the moment before.  The actor has to know what frame of mind the person in the picture is in, where they are physically, how they move, if they move, and why they move.  Then what do they sound like when they talk, do they have an accent, a lisp, are they loud or quiet…

I did my exercise from a picture of Sethe from Toni Morrison’s Beloved who is patterned after Margaret Garner, the slave who killed her young daughter rather than let her return to slavery. I used a photograph by Ken Regan (found in the book Journey to Beloved by Oprah Winfrey) on page 48.  The actress who played young Sethe, Lisa Gay Hamilton has a video of that scene “get in the shed”  and while I did not recreate her scene, I did recreate her look and the look of the babies for my exercise.  The picture I used was of Sethe holding her two infant daughters in her arms – in complete controlled hysterics.  I made my costume, bought two dolls – a small brown one and a larger white one, as there are seldom brown dolls to be found in stores.  I bought paint and mixed it to get the perfect hue and painted the white one brown, after the paint dried, I glued hair onto the head in little braids all over. I made dresses for the babies.  Grabbed a knife – one that could slice skin and created and reenacted what I considered fitting backstory that would make a mother slit her baby’s throat.

What did she say?  “Dey be dead or dey be free.”

I always liked the picture exercise but hadn’t thought of using it for a writing exercise until I participated in a playwright’s workshop at Native Voices the Autry with Bernardo Solano.  The seminar was right around the time that I lost my niece and I needed to do something to get my mind off my grief.  I needed to write and I was craving the company of other writers…  It was hard to focus; however, when we were asked to select a picture and write whatever it inspired us to write, I found the selection process somewhat soothing.  I selected a picture of a man and an infant lying dead on stone steps.  The picture began to speak almost immediately – “the bombs came in the night…”  The resulting piece is a 10-minute play titled MILK DUST.

I don’t usually do writing exercises because I believe to get better at writing, you have to write…  Writing is like doing pushups, the only way to get better at pushups is to do more pushups.  I do like this exercise though; I like the way it can be used from the acting and the writing perspective. It’s close to what I do in my head when I visualize the characters that I am writing about, when I am listening to what they say.  This exercise is a perfect way to find an unexpected way into an unexpected play…

Jenische (Gypsies)…

LAFPI, Playwright, playwriting, , , , , , , , ,

They were camped less than a mile outside Cooke Barracks in the empty field on the way to town for months.  The young children would wave at me as I passed by.  I would walk because, 1. I was in tip top physical shape and, 2. I did not have a license to drive in Germany.  Everyone on Base noticed them – the gypsies – camped like something out of a movie. Dark haired, dark complexioned – a beautiful and intriguing people… One weekend, the children waved as usual but the teen-aged girls called me over to have me show them how to put on makeup.  I showed them how to apply eyeliner, mascara, blush, lipstick… losing my stash of course to their giddy “May I haves.”  I asked them if they were gypsies, “No, we are German” they answered.  Adamantly, Wir sind Deutsch.  We are German.”  The next time I walked to town, they were gone…

I think about them sometimes – German, not Armenian, not gypsies – and the freedom I felt standing there in their camp.  I think about their claim to a land, a heritage not expected by outsiders or even by insiders with standardized tests.  They did not look the part but the field settled softly beneath their trailers disguised as carts disguised as trailers.  And the trees hung over them shielding their skin from the penetrating sun as if ordained as covering since the beginning of time.  And when they were gone, the trees sagged and could be heard moaning for the children.

Gypsies; part of the world but not confined by the world, always ready and willing to move anywhere to find home – never losing the authenticity of self.  Owning their space and place in time, they drew you into their story…made you look…made you want to know…

Sometimes, I feel like a gypsy (submitting work authentic to me and clearly not on the same-dar as what is being selected).  Sometimes I consider “what if I changed”…but never do because it’s the me way down on the inside that’s got so much to say and there is somebody somewhere who needs exactly what I write, how I write it, because the feeling of freedom when I write is worth the waiting period needed for that gypsy spark to ignite.  It must be the softness of the ground beneath my feet begging for seed during the planting season promising fruit during the harvest that keeps me pushing on head first into the wind and rain…into the fray…because I belong…because I am a storyteller…

When contemplating words and worlds, sometimes I go to the movies to see what other stories are being told.  It inspires/fuels/rouses me to create another day…  On my last such outing, I went to see THE GREY by Joe Carnahan and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers (based on the short story by Jeffers titled GHOST WALKER).  It is a wonderful movie, wonderfully told.  There is a poem in it that made me think of my life as a writer… in this time just before…

Once more into the fray

Into the last fight I’ll ever know

Live and die on this day

Live and die on this day.

— from THE GREY

And all the artists said, “Amen.”

The Promise…

LAFPI, Playwright, , , , ,

I have a dream that one day I will get to the promised land…  I will be sitting before a window, looking out into the day/night/day; I will be writing…and the sun sets and rises will not deter me from my place before my computer.  There will be no alarm clock going off in the middle of my thoughts to alert me to the time.  I will not have to shower, dress and make my way down the 405 to work; I will sit contemplating the next words.  And, I will be happy…

But right now, at this precise moment, I have to pull out my ‘pick me up poem’ and carry on till then…

I Will Go In The Strength Of The Lord

i will go in the strength of the Lord / i will make mention of Him to the people and praise Him always for His tenderness toward me / for the kindness with which He shows me / because there are times… /when within myself i cannot find the strength / …to take the journey / i am overwhelmed by even the thought of it… / and stand paralyzed /behind a wall of “i can’ts” / shifting my weight from foot to foot / pretending “i’m gonna try” / but…it is too much for me…at times / and i cannot wade the waters…they are too deep / and i have to seek rest in Him / so i can scatter my apprehensions to the four winds / it is then / in times like these… / that i find solace in the hollow of His hand / and lay myself down to rest awhile / then we take the journey together / and windsurf above the clouds / up where eagles dare / up where the sun lives / and mountaintops look like small hills and stormy weather is beneath us / and we glide…glide…glide / into the promised promised land…

“I Will Go in the Strength of the Lord” by Robin Byrd

Grace…

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Every year, I plan my summers for last touches on new plays so they will be available for the September 15 deadlines.  Spring is spent going through rejection letters and reassessing where to send plays for the next go-around and getting a start or finish on any piece I think I can have ready for that next go-around.  This year was the first time I was contemplating poetry manuscripts into the mix.  This year, like every year, I asked for grace to make it through the madness.  Things were going well until I was rear-ended twice between April and July, the injuries have made it hard to sleep (muscle spasms in the middle of the night suck) and the time it has taken to go to the doctors is very disruptive – I have never been to the doctor this much in my life.  The lack of sleep has been cutting into my writing time but up until August, I still felt I could dig down and make my deadline goals.  Then the unthinkable happened, I lost my 35 year old niece on August 16. 

My niece, Tracie, had a kidney transplant in early summer; the kidney was working when she passed away from other complications.  She left behind a daughter, TéAnna, who turned 9 yesterday, October 4.  Working through the pain of lower body and upper body spasms,  has made it challenging to sit long enough to hit a flow in my writing.  Losing Tracie has forced me to have to consciously talk myself into putting together all my packets because I really did not feel like doing the drill.  Not now.  But if I didn’t, it would be a year till the next window and Tracie was always so excited about my writing…

What do you do when your world collapses on you and you have a deadline or two to meet?

Focusing on tasks can be a great distraction and writing is always in itself, a peace-giver, a life-saver, a place of solace.

My niece was in pain every day, yet she took care of her daughter and was a very good mother.  While cleaning out her apartment, we found that Tracie wrote down her prayers.  What we learned was that Tracie was always thankful for each day…she always had a Praise for God in her heart.  She loved music and all her baby sister’s missing CDs were in her possession.  She was beautiful and we miss her…  I am so glad that I end my calls with “I love you”…

Have you ever written down your prayers?

I write my dreams and visions down but my prayers, I say them and go on.  They’re something I speak into the atmosphere. 

In September, I went back home for a wedding.  It was bittersweet.  Death has a way of pulling things together or tearing them apart.  There is no neutrality.  We, my family and I, choose to pull together.

I know that I will write about Tracie in some way.  I can feel the story forming.  I’ve had a few bad days but mostly, I haven’t really grieved yet.  I am hoping to do it in the writing…

Do you find you use your writing to work through issues? 

Everyone grieves differently; there is no set way to take that journey…  I find that writing is the best way for me to find, maintain, and be my self in the middle of a raging storm…  It’s also my saving grace…  It’s times like these where I am reassured that writing is something I must do – I survive and thrive by writing…it is the greatest gift of grace….

The National Kidney Foundation / Mayo Clinic

Timing…

LAFPI, Playwright, playwriting, , , ,

Sometimes I feel as if my timing is off.  I miss my freeways exits.  Miss my lunch.  Miss events.  Miss the post office.  Miss calling family in other time zones.  Then I sit down to write and all the goofy day-to-day stuff doesn’t matter anymore.  I fall right in sync with the world I am creating.  I find my rhythm and start my dance.  When I am done and must return back to the world where I’m a step off and slightly out of place, I’m a little less weary of the drill even though timing where my writing is concerned can be a decade off.  The hard part as a writer is coming to grips with the fact that what you wrote/write may be too early, too late, or worse, too different and it locks you out of the proverbial box.  And, you – as artist, as representative for your work – don’t fit in a box yourself so you can’t just sneak into the “box” without being noticed.  And, though you shy away from boxes, the box is where all the children must play per se…for now…

 

Box – part of playing area.  SPORTS in sports such as baseball and soccer, a marked-off part of the playing area used for a special purpose, or subject to special rules.

Sport – competitive physical activity.  An individual or group competitive activity involving physical exertion or skill, governed by rules, and sometimes engaged in professionally (often used in the plural).

Play – activity.  The free-ranging and varied activity of something, e.g. the imagination.  perform dramatic work by somebody.  To perform the work of a particular dramatist.

Free-range – not caged.  Free to move about and feed at will, and not confined in a battery or pen.

Pen – writing.  The written word considered as a means of expression.  confine somebody or something.  To keep somebody or something in a pen or other enclosed area.  female swan.  A female  swan.

Swan – SWAN (Support Women Artists Now) Day.  A new international holiday that celebrates women artists. It is an annual event taking place on the last Saturday of March (Women’s History Month) and the surrounding weeks.

Artist – creator of art.  Somebody who creates art…  skilled person. Somebody who does something skillfully and creatively.

 

What if – the box were bigger and included more sand so there would be room for more children to play? 

What if – the box was an archaeological site and all the children were allowed to pretend the sand was a cave and put their gifts just beneath the surface to be discovered and valued like scrolls found near the Dead Sea?   

What if – there were “perimeter free” cards that could be used to override “un-box-able’ children so they could play from the perimeters of the box even though they weren’t actually in the box? 

What if more swans were allowed to play?  Would the sand turn to water and would the water be a better channel for sharing?

What if – there was no box?  Would timing matter then…? Or, would all art being created equal be allowed…to be…?

 Just thinking…

Addendum 2 to Playwrights in Mind: A National Conversation

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Below is a reprint from the Dramatists Guild July 14, 2011 e-Newsletter regarding the streaming videos from the conference to help you find and view  them:

 

DG’s First National Conference Videos Courtesy of New Play TV

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_2a79a31d-4c43-4e0b-9381-14ea742c663c
Gary Garrison welcomes everyone to the conference and does a brief introduction. Conversation with playwright Chris Durang.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_6873f662-f252-409e-af18-1a870052bae7
Artistic Director of Arena Stage, Molly Smith, gives her keynote speech.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_7d089833-ab2a-44de-8afd-298ef47b619d
Artistic Director of New Dramatists, Todd London, gives his keynote speech.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_6a4cd002-1a97-4fa6-a7b7-0ef138316b4c
Question and answer session with Todd London.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_69b9d282-3057-4d2a-b82b-c09b6bc35ce4
Mame Hunt on how to survive an audience talkback.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_52351dcc-80e1-4d49-b15e-7843e8657473
Conversation with Artistic Director of McCarter Theatre, Emily Mann.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_9012adee-a340-40d9-a35a-20cd4ea3cbf6
Conversation with Stephen Schwartz, President of the Dramatists Guild.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_ecb4d8c5-5e30-43e4-9f79-f9f5baae2200
Stephen Schwartz speaks about crafting musical theatre.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_0631e030-f47e-4010-a06b-b42fc551eab5
Playwright Julia Jordan gives her keynote speech.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_5877629f-5478-4676-95ba-3035de5e3e1b
Conversation with playwright David Ives on crafting comedy.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_4906313c-ca68-4d5d-8000-ed092fca7620
Conversation on internet piracy of sheet music.

 

http://www.livestream.com/newplay/video?clipId=pla_e2a7bf01-e104-4452-aa5c-93b299593b0a
“A National Conversation” – a question and answer session with a panel including esteemed playwrights, librettists, lyricists, composers, artistic directors, executive directors, etc.

Trust or Consequences…

Playwright, , ,

A lack of self-trust brings consequences —  to a writer, the greatest consequence being an inability to create a true authentic work of art…

Recently, Native Voices at the Autry had readings of the four plays that were part of their 2011 Playwrights Retreat and Festival.  I went to all of the play readings, but the one play that stood out to me was Ungipamsuuka (My Story) by Susie Silook.  

Silook, a carver, sculptor, playwright and Alaskan native, showed up at the playwright’s retreat with two acts.  Instead, of rewriting those acts (which was the expected thing to do during the retreat); she wrote a new second act to sandwich between the two acts.  Her process for writing the new acts was so in-the-moment that the actors, director, dramaturge, etc. assigned to her play found they could not follow their business as usual plan for her play or for themselves during the retreat.  Nor could they help but attend to her as she delivered the pages breath by breath.  They had to allow her to birth it, right there in front of them.  Sometimes, to be born, the work spends all of the artist who is creating it, blasting through every fiber of the artist’s being until reaching the air… 

The play is autobiographical; it took us on a journey through Silook’s life – through the tragedies and therapy sessions that have fueled her art over the years.  Silook made the conscious decision to include therapy as part of the play.  She felt that as a culture, Alaskan Natives know tragedies first-hand but don’t always seek counsel.  Silook wanted to cover the road to recovery in a way that would inform and entice the audience to seek healing.  She wanted the play to have an ultimate purpose, a voice all its own.  Silook includes some of her sculptures in the play.  The stark beauty and spirit of her art pieces lift the symbolism of the play to a higher dimension.  Some of the pieces were carved from whale penis bone.  Some of the tragedy deals with rape. 

The play is magnificent and in my eyes, perfect.  While the story is beautiful and ugly at the same time, it triumphs as a story that leads the way to redemption…  I commend Susie Silook for her effort, for refusing to settle for a good play but pushing for a great one.  I commend Native Voices for trusting the artist and allowing Silook’s piece to become on its own terms…  I am excited that one day, I will see Ungipamsuuka (My Story) on stage…   Thank you, Susie Silook, for sharing your art…

White Fluffies and Butterflies…

playwriting, , ,
Butterfly on weed by marilyn958

When you go to script readings, do you comment?  And when and if you comment, do you tell the truth or do you give white fluffies and smile for the imaginary camera?  Are you concerned that the director may find out who you are and put you on a list? 

On the flip side, when it’s your turn to receive comments for a script that you have written, do you want white fluffies or the truth?  How difficult or easy is it for you to see through the fog of fluff?  Does your inner radar sound off?  Do you, as storyteller, know the story you are trying to tell?  Do comments assist or hinder you in your process?

I personally hate white fluffies.  I tend not to give them.  Okay, I don’t give them.  I don’t want anyone giving them to me either; just tell me straight out.  The thing about comments is that it is ultimately up to the writer whether or not they want to incorporate them or not anyway.  But, it’s a lot easier to wade through the information if there are no fluff balls crowding constructive comments.  I think that as fellow artists, if we give a comment it should be an honest one.

I went to see a new play where the playwright participated in a talkback after the production .  The audience did not give white fluffies; they gave something worse, convoluted and somewhat idiotic rants and rails that could never help the playwright.  I hope the playwright was able to let it roll off his back like water on an oiled surface.  So brave, he was, to sit there and take questions, so vulnerable; unsure of the work maybe because it materialized in a radical new way this time, unsure, like a new playwright just trying out craft.  I could feel his butterflies in the room fluttering about…  It made me wonder if the they ever go away – the butterflies — when we send the children out into the world to play… 

Careful, watch out for the fluffies…

*Art by Marilyn MacCrakin, a California playwright and photographer. http://marilyn958.deviantart.com/

Addendum to Playwrights in Mind: A National Conversation

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The Dramatists Guild Conference, “Playwrights in Mind: A National Conversation” was held in Fairfax, Virginia from 9 – 12 June, 2011.  This was the first conference held by the Dramatists Guild.  To hear some of the speakers: Molly Smith, Arena Stage, and Julia Jordan, 50/50 in 2020, Todd London, New Dramatists, go to http://livestream.com/newplay.  You will have to do a lot of scrolling but it worth hearing.

Kitty Felde did an excellent job of covering the events, please read and reread her coverage at https://lafpi.com/author/kfelde/  or at

Day One

Day One continued through Day Three

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 Addendum for the last day of the conference:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

THE DRAMATISTS GUILD FUND

The DG Fund seminar with Fred Nelson and Tari Stratton covered the many aspects of the Dramatist Guild Fund.  There are two types of grants, individual (Kesselring Grant) and theater.  The estate of Joseph Kesselring provides grants to professional dramatists who are experiencing extreme personal hardships, health or otherwise.  The recipients don’t even have to be members of the Dramatists Guild.  It’s a confidential process.  And grant means you don’t have to pay it back.  This is the only program that I know of that helps a playwright in need.

Regarding the theater grant side, a rep from a theater that has received a general operating grant from the DG Fund was present in the seminar (City Theatre of Miami); she said that their City Theatre Summer Shorts Festival was happening due to a grant from the DG Fund.

The other project that the DG Fund discussed was its Legacy Project.  This project films an interview between an emerging playwright and an established dramatist.  The interviewer is one that has somehow been greatly affected by the interviewee.  The Fund realizes the urgency of creating this interview series and started with the oldest playwrights, lyricists and composers.  Carol Hall “The Best Little Whore House in Texas” playwright and DG Fund vice president discussed the feeling of just being in the room with the interviewees and the moments that were caught on film.  She discussed how Horton Foote was scheduled to be the first interview but passed away before it could be done.  Joe Stein was interviewed by Lin-Manuel Miranda; Edward Albee was interviewed by Will Eno.  Lanford Wilson and Romulus Linney were missed…

I met Romulus Linney at a conference in Nebraska, I really wanted to sit down and talk with him about Appalachia and how it creeps into my work though I am two generations removed.  I wanted to just be close enough to see that glint in his eye and maybe just maybe decipher it.  I liked him.  It was 2007 and that was my first encounter with his work and it was excellent, lively and funny…

It would be great if the Legacy Project could find a way to do the interviews (for the artists that passed) anyway using those closest to the artist.  Not the same as an interview with them but something. 

During the seminar, some of the audience members offered ways to create donors for this project.

Volume One of the Dramatists Guild Fund Legacy Project documentary series is complete and work has begun on Volume Two.  For more information see http://dramatistsguildfund.org/programs/legacy.php. 

*I just went to the legacy site and found out that Lanford Wilson was not missed!!!  8/11/11*

_______________________

 

MYTH ADAPTATION FOR PLAYWRIGHTS: Archetypes and Inspiration

Myth Adaptation for Playwrights: Archetypes and Inspiration with Laura Shamas was a two-hour seminar squeezed into 45 minutes (due to a change at the conference) and she didn’t miss a beat.  Laura discussed why myth matters.  Myth, she said, represents what is eternally true; it’s a tool and it’s active.  For the playwright, myth can be useful in plot, character and theme.  “You don’t find the myth, the myth finds you.”  There are three archetypal planes, celestial, earthly, and underworld.  If you visualize the archetype it is easier to use it in your writing.  Each archetype has props that stand for something in their picture, i.e., Zeus sits on a throne, with a staff topped by an eagle in one hand, always bearded, etc. – each of those things mean something like the fact that Venus was born an adult.  Laura says, “in order to translate a myth, you have to know the props of the myth and update the props for your story. 

Notes on Myth Adaptation Process:

  1. When researching myths, one should look at 1 to 7 versions of the myths because the stories can vary slightly and you need to find the one that best fits the story you are trying to tell. Document and list chronologically.  Note any important rituals or rites.
  2. Identify: 
    •  central archetypes
    •  symbols (including props),
    •  setting and other metaphors,
    •  plot,
    • transformation,
    •  psychological function (thematic): why does it matter for you personally, and why does it matter for humanity at large.

The above archetypal elements are needed to incorporate into your work to update and keep the elements that will make the story mythic.

Laura gave a list of Myth references books.  Some of the books are “The Power of the Myth” Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers, “The Heroine’s Journey” Maureen Murdock.  Even though, Laura got through everything, we still wanted more…

For more information about Laura Shamas visit http://laurashamas.com/.  Laura is also co-founder with Jennie Webb of the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative (LAFPI).

Writing on the Verge…

LAFPI, Playwright, playwriting,

Over the years, I have found myself writing on the verge…a lot – on the verge of losing the last bit of sanity/strength/peace/hope/ I have…  Yet still…I write, even with the waves of life beating rapidly and endlessly in the fore/back/foreground, with me straining to catch my breath and trying to step out of the way of the onslaught of water but never making it to a dry patch of earth in time.  Drenched/soaked to the bone in water that covers me, my pen and paper, swollen with the wet liquid so wet the ink bleeds the letters into each other, bleeds word into word into word into word but I write anyway because nothing short of death can stop me from putting pen to page, my thoughts ebbing into and through my hands ever so precisely ever so like and unlike the water rushing over me… so… unstoppable… so unmistakably lucid despite the fog…

Writing… on the verge of finding that one sure vein that leads to my well/spring, that sways to my authentic rhythm playing the song of my authentic self…  Writing to find the whole of the story dancing past my inner ear begging to be told, aching to “be born & handled warmly”1  On the verge of living my dream of writing full-time…  It’s hard to know and feel the tide is changing but you still can’t quite see it though you feel it deep inside your self and it’s so real you can’t stop writing, can’t stop kicking and pushing against the stones…can’t stop living… and writing on the verge of whatever comes in on the tide…

                                                     

1 “dark phrases” from For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange.