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Jul. 22nd, 2003 04:22 pm
Fin de partie
Last night, I visited Nuphy. He was tired, so I tried to sit quietly at his bedside and let him rest. But, while the nurse was fiddling with his feet, I filled him on the wedding. He listened attentively and then reached for the board: I d i d n ' t g e t a b i t o f d e e p what? oh, "sleep". "You didn't get a bit of sleep last night? In other words, go away and let you rest, right?" Right.
When I got back home, I weighed my options and then turned my back on the bills, the phone calls, and the mess. When I showed up at Rob's back door with a bag of longans, he was in the middle of writing a short story, "my best yet". I immediately felt guilty for not returning a copy of another story he had written with my promised commentary. Maybe tonight?
He said he was considering writing a play, since he "love[s] dialogue" and we discussed which was harder to write, a play or a short story. It's not an easy call, since too much freedom can be confining as too little, but I pointed out that a short story is "translated" only once, from author to audience, while a play is mediated by actors. For someone accustomed to the absolute control of short-story writing, writing literature that can survive being reinterpreted by performers could be immensely frustrating.
We both agreed, however, that screenplays are easier to write than stage plays. "That's why there's so many of them around." Seems to me this is a natural consequence of the fact that television and film are much more widespread and familiar media. Or as I phrased it last night, "Think of how many people have never seen live theatre. But how easy would it be to find someone who's never seen a t.v. programme?"
But, like most gross generalisations, this started to fall apart the moment we examined it. Rob described most theater as a "white middle-class experience", but then I said, "What about the chitlin circuit? We ignore it because it's not 'high culture' like August Wilson, but it's popular." A lot of people are first (and, sadly, last) exposed to theater in school and even crummy schools still mount productions. In addition, there are quite a few non-profit organisations whose mission is to bring performance--theater, opera, dance, etc.--to children who might not otherwise be exposed to it. When you stop to think, how many people out there haven't seen a single stage play at school, church, in the park, on vacation, etc.?
We stared at the remains of our shredded elitism, exchanged further banalities, and then I scurried upstairs to read just a bit more about Mandarin Chinese etymology before falling asleep.
When I got back home, I weighed my options and then turned my back on the bills, the phone calls, and the mess. When I showed up at Rob's back door with a bag of longans, he was in the middle of writing a short story, "my best yet". I immediately felt guilty for not returning a copy of another story he had written with my promised commentary. Maybe tonight?
He said he was considering writing a play, since he "love[s] dialogue" and we discussed which was harder to write, a play or a short story. It's not an easy call, since too much freedom can be confining as too little, but I pointed out that a short story is "translated" only once, from author to audience, while a play is mediated by actors. For someone accustomed to the absolute control of short-story writing, writing literature that can survive being reinterpreted by performers could be immensely frustrating.
We both agreed, however, that screenplays are easier to write than stage plays. "That's why there's so many of them around." Seems to me this is a natural consequence of the fact that television and film are much more widespread and familiar media. Or as I phrased it last night, "Think of how many people have never seen live theatre. But how easy would it be to find someone who's never seen a t.v. programme?"
But, like most gross generalisations, this started to fall apart the moment we examined it. Rob described most theater as a "white middle-class experience", but then I said, "What about the chitlin circuit? We ignore it because it's not 'high culture' like August Wilson, but it's popular." A lot of people are first (and, sadly, last) exposed to theater in school and even crummy schools still mount productions. In addition, there are quite a few non-profit organisations whose mission is to bring performance--theater, opera, dance, etc.--to children who might not otherwise be exposed to it. When you stop to think, how many people out there haven't seen a single stage play at school, church, in the park, on vacation, etc.?
We stared at the remains of our shredded elitism, exchanged further banalities, and then I scurried upstairs to read just a bit more about Mandarin Chinese etymology before falling asleep.