Workshopping a play

Since the author has probably lived a great deal of his time with the characters and plot while writing the play, things that seemed obvious to the author may not be so logical once the play is read aloud. At this point the author is free to manipulate that which he has already created by adding, deleting or changing lines, stage directions and anything else that impedes the flow of the production.

Ideally, some sort of reading before an audience is the final step in the workshopping process. Most playwrights enjoy not only the feedback from the actors but also the reactions from an audience. If there’s humor in the play, do you get the laughs? Does the play keep their attention? Can they relate to the characters?

But playwrights beware! If the audience is filled with friends and relatives you may not receive the objective feedback you seek. They’ll either love it (even if it’s bad) or they’ll have tons of suggestions on how to make it better (at least in their eyes). You can only hope for genuine, objective feedback representing the opinions of the average theatergoer.

No matter how many drafts of a play I’ve written, I always see things differently after workshopping my material.

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