The Power and Guile of the First Line

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

That's the first line of a play.  Easy enough to guess Shakespeare, but which one?  Taming of the Shrew?  Richard III?  Midsummer?  If you guessed Twelfth Night, you'd be correct.

From a dramatic standpoint, the first moments of a play have to hold the heart of the conflict.  It's disguised, layered, waiting to be unveiled, but it has to be there.  The first moments have to sustain an energy that will propel the characters through the next two hours.  

"What I find most astonishing... is the belief that I might very easily-- as they say-- lose my mind one day, not that I suspect I am about to, or am even... nearby...."

The author throws in a few extra clauses into that long sentence that I omitted, sentence fragments meant to disguise the central theme of the play, but you can still feel the energy.  And if you know what play it's from, you feel it even stronger.  Guesses?  It's the first line of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance. Yeah, makes sense now. 

It's rare, though, that I writer invests the central conflict or theme in the very first line.  Typically, it's spread throughout the first scene.  It takes enormous control of your narrative to successfully embed it the way Albee does here.  So it's with a bit of awe that I write Jez Butterworth's first line for Jerusalem.  

"Time."

A question delivered as a statement.  Though spoken to Parsons, Mrs. Fawcett is calling "time's up" on Johnny Rooster Byron; Butterworth is dramatizing the changes of time in England, from the glory of old-- with its myths and power-- to the mundanity of new.  Nearly every character in Jerusalem refers to time, and for Johnny Rooster the question is whether he can call the ancient power of the past into the present in time to save his skin.

Powerful stuff, first lines.

My Director's Notes Go Video

The Disappearance of Mary Rosemary has opened with a bang!  For the past couple of shows I've wanted to do my "Director's Notes" in the program as a video-- accessible by QR Code in the program.  Previously, the last weeks of rehearsals/load-in/tech have been so hectic that I haven't been able to even attempt video notes, but this show I finally did it.  I don't know whether it will truly prompt people to use their phones to see/hear my notes; we'll see.

For those without smart phones, here it is:

 

2nd Wind's 5 Most Useful Posts for Producers, Directors, & Designers

Second Wind’s blog has posted over 60 entries into our behind-the-scenes diary over the past four years. So we’ve decided to cull the best of our resources and guides for producers, directors, and designers (sorry actors, you’ll have to wait your turn). Here they are:

Your Design Portfolio / Getting Hired
Advice from the pros and tips for sealing the deal. Get hired as a designer.
http://secondwindtheatre.blogspot.com/2011/12/your-design-portfolio-getting-hired.html

Strategic Marketing Plan for Theatre
We lay out our complete marketing plan for The Tender King, no holds barred. How does yours compare?
http://secondwindtheatre.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-least-favorite-thing-about-producing.html

Starting a Visual/Emotional Palette
You’re a director—what do you know about design? Help on using visuals to hone your directorial work, and communicate better with designers.
http://secondwindtheatre.blogspot.com/2010/03/starting-visual-emotional-palette.html

Taking the Press Photo
We share our top six tips for a knock-out press photo.
http://secondwindtheatre.blogspot.com/2010/03/starting-visual-emotional-palette.html

Ah Paperwork!
Nobody likes it; everybody’s got to do it. No, I’m not talking about death— I’m talking about paperwork. We share some of our more useful examples of forms for producing, including press releases, contracts for designers/actors, rehearsal forms, marketing tools, etc.
http://secondwindtheatre.blogspot.com/2008/11/ah-paperwork.html

And a bonus... Mastering the Art of the Question

Directors are forbidden to give "line readings" and for good reason. Telling an actor exactly what you want is a sure-fire way of creating an awkward, unconvincing performance. There are a number of ways to "guide" a performance; the most effective technique is about asking the right questions that create a common viewpoint. And it cannot be practiced-- or utilized-- enough.

http://secondwindtheatre.blogspot.com/2010/03/mastering-art-of-question.html

And We're Back... The Tender King

On Monday we started rehearsals for The Tender King... a sexy, provocative, and controversial thriller about secret politics at the end of World War Two. It's derived from hundreds of declassified documents from the Truman era, as well as biographies, memos, and letters. Join us for a peek behind the political curtain-- you can start with our promo clip and first rehearsal:

Director's Tool: The French Scene

Today we're looking at a script analysis tool called the French Scene. It's useful in both understanding the pacing and relationships of a play, and in developing rehearsal schedules-- who to call, how many pages they have together, and from that you can calculate how much time you should allot. For rehearsals, I typically allot four minutes of rehearsal time for each page of script. This is each time I return to a scene. Altogether, I'm likely to spend 75 hours in rehearsal before Tech, or about 40 minutes to a page. But I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, the French Scene....




You can find my French Scene diagram for The Woman in Black here:

On Directing as the Playwright

We're entering a more frenetic time, production-wise. The flurry of activity and tension is due to the fact we're scheduled to film the video segments of the play this weekend-- and thus need costumes, lines, and scene work to be spot on-- and also because we're about two rehearsal days behind where I'd like to be. It's unusual for me; most of the time I'm able to pace the process more closely, but so many elements (and as I've said before, so much physical movement) have made it more difficult. Yesterday was the first formal "off book" day. It was rough, but in general they did pretty well. There are glimmers of beauty, but a lot of mud to clean up. So I thought I'd talk about my approach to directing, particularly as it relates to the strengths and weaknesses of being the playwright.

Purchase your tickets here!