Expanding Your Horizons - Suggestions

Martin McDonagh is having a pretty good 1999-2000 season. The Denver Center Theatre Company is producing two of his plays; rather unprecedented. Yet he admits that he really doesn't like theatre. There is another playwright with dozens of plays published; yet he purposely doesn't attend or read any plays. Ever. He wants to ensure that his works are unaffected.

These are extremes, to be sure. Most schools of thought believe playwrights should love what they do and try to absorb the universal body of works as much as they can. I heartily agree. In my previous article, I suggested exposing yourself to plays, whether reading, attending, or participating. It's good for ideas, inspiration, and sometimes, examples of what not to do.

Here are some practical suggestions of what types of plays, or more specifically, which authors can help in which areas. Following is short list of some of the playwrights I find helpful, inspirational, motivational, educational, soothing, hysterical, adventurous, compelling, or just plain amusing.

William Shakespeare

There are two reasons I really enjoy the Bard. One is his ability to adapt. With few exceptions, his plays are adapted from history, legend, or mythology. Hamlet, MacBeth, and King Lear are prime examples of historical adaptations. A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet show what he did with myth and legend. The second reason for studying Shakespeare is to look at his stage directions: except for entrances and exits, there are none. The scenery, props, costumes, movements, and emotions are all contained in the dialogue. No other playwright has ever equaled this economy of format.

George Bernard Shaw

Some people consider Shaw to be excessively wordy. I think he writes terrifically insightful dialogue. I admit that his plays may lack physical action, but broad farce wasn't his goal; high and biting satire was.

Neil Simon

Another successful playwright whom I believe doesn't always reap adequate credit. In his early days, critics complained that all he wrote was jokes. And maybe that was a valid point, albeit Simon's humor seems universal. I believe his strength lies in the ability to write conversations that cross ethnic lines; in which many people see themselves or people they know well.

Moliére

Slapstick is thy name. Broad farce, physical comedy, and mistaken identities are constant and quintessential elements of his plays, which entertained royalty and peasantry alike in his days, and continue to do so today.

Alan Aykbourn

Innovative approaches and exciting uses of space are among the elements of Aykbourn's plays that appeal to me. Plus, he's pretty darned funny. One trilogy of full-length plays uses the same three couples, but takes place in each one's kitchen during consecutive dinner parties. Another trilogy covers the same holiday weekend, but takes place in a different room of the house. In each series, the individual plays stand alone as complete works. But in serial, they offer myriad pictures of the people and situations involved. In another of his plays, two apartments share the same stage space. Two sofas, two dining tables, two front doors, and duplicates of other furniture commingle upon the set. Four people may be on stage simultaneously, but one couple uses only a particular door, sofa, etc., and the other couple likewise. So the audience is treated to two separate sets of conversations and actions happening at the same time. But the use of the space helps the audience make the mental split to follow all the action.

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