Such a ‘Bler: My First Playwriting Assignment

Playwriting is perhaps the theatrical class I had been most excited to take since I declared my Theatre minor. This is however, also a course that I feel equally anxious about. This is because I am a writer at heart, I am very rusty after taking more design-based courses in my first 3 semesters here, and in general lack theatrical knowledge in comparison to my peers who have been deeply surrounded by theatre their whole lives. Nevertheless, I am passionate and pumped to grow!

Our first writing assignment made me smile – frankly because it was fun, but also because it was exactly what I needed. We were asked to record a conversation between two other people, that had to be at least five minutes – equivalent to five script pages- long, and then transcribed it precisely. This meant every pause and stutter, no matter how odd had to be recorded accordingly. Our professor stressed the importance of this, even if it meant uncomfortable punctuation and grammar because that is just how people really talk!

I appreciated this because I’ve never been too great with dialogue if I must confess. This exercise really put me into perspective with the rawness needed to write good dialogue, or at least one pertaining to the naturalistic and realistic spectrum of theatre.

You could say this is a pretty good start and that this writer is ecstatic for an adventurous semester. Wish me luck!

 

HEY, I ALSO MAKE VIDEOS!

HERE’S THE SUCH A ‘BLER PLAYLIST: