Mayo Simon: The Audience and the Playwright - Notes 1
OVERVIEW
“In the theater, the imagined is more powerful than the observed.” (p.37)
- All playwrights everywhere have had to deal with the same problem—how to keep [the audience] in their seats—which they have all solved the same way, by giving the audience a powerful role.” (p.23-24)
- It is out of your desire to understand that the playwright constructs your role. It’s not easy. If he gives you too much to do, you’ll get annoyed, too little and you’ll start inventing your own role, which usually means laughing at the wrong lines, or thinking about business or sex or dinner. But when the playwright gets it just right, you play your part eagerly and with great pleasure.
- “The strength of the audience’s desire to understand can be measured by the playwright’s use of the tactic of withholding. The playwright tantalizes, teases, even frustrates in order to raise the stakes, to make you care more and more about reaching that final moment of illumination.” (p.22)
- Entertainment is based on understanding. You don’t laugh at the joke until you ‘get it.’
- “In the ordinary world you rarely get any kind of vision. Life is too confused, too messy, too many unknowns, too much background noise. It’s in the theatre that you get a chance to see clearly. Theatre clarifies life.”
- “A play, taken as a whole, may be seen as an exercise in misdirection, as it moves from illusion to reality, from innocence to knowledge.
- Why design a whole play this way? Why not move directly to reality? Then the play would be no play, and there would be no place for you. No privileged seat and nothing for you to know that they don’t. No detective work and no analysis. No caring for the innocent and vulnerable who live by their illusions while you see reality. No raising the stakes to heighten fear and hope. No chance for you to choose sides, to become an advocate, to get invested in someone’s life. No pleasure in uncovering the truth. [etc] (p. 129-130)
- “The basic rule of thumb in playwriting is to give the audience more rather than less information.” p.145)
“In the theater, the imagined is more powerful than the observed.” (p.37)
- Avoid showing sex (embarrassing), and violence (seems unbelievable).
- Don’t try to make theater a window on a realistic world – that is the province of film
- “In the 1950s, plays began trying to imitate films using multiple sets on turntables and levels. That only emphasized what the stage was not—a window on everything. Now the stage has learned something much more important from film—how to create fluid changes of time and space without distinct entrances and exits, and this has given rise to whole new techniques for storytelling.” (p.39)
BEGINNINGS, MIDDLES, ENDS
Beginnings
“The beginning of a play announces the universe of the play, not just the visual setting, but the interior geography, the logic, the ground rules. In each play you enter a different universe. Where am I? What are the rules here? Is it okay to laugh?” (p. 67)
“At the beginning of a play, the playwright gives you—and only you—knowledge that puts you in a privileged place. Then he gets you into your detective role of questioning, evaluating, and anticipating by using precious moments to convince you that something urgent is happening right here, right now, with hopes and fears for innocent and vulnerable people you care about.” (p.63)
Middles
“The middle of the play tends to be about what the characters want. . . . The middle has the turn-around scene, where illusion meets reality and commitments test each other, raising your hopes and fears for the innocent and vulnerable people you care about.
Ends
The end tends to be about what [the characters] get. The end has the consequences, followed often by a moment of self-knowledge, and then the final action where the main character, having moved from one world to another, makes his choice and pays the price.” (p.156)
Beginnings
“The beginning of a play announces the universe of the play, not just the visual setting, but the interior geography, the logic, the ground rules. In each play you enter a different universe. Where am I? What are the rules here? Is it okay to laugh?” (p. 67)
“At the beginning of a play, the playwright gives you—and only you—knowledge that puts you in a privileged place. Then he gets you into your detective role of questioning, evaluating, and anticipating by using precious moments to convince you that something urgent is happening right here, right now, with hopes and fears for innocent and vulnerable people you care about.” (p.63)
Middles
“The middle of the play tends to be about what the characters want. . . . The middle has the turn-around scene, where illusion meets reality and commitments test each other, raising your hopes and fears for the innocent and vulnerable people you care about.
Ends
The end tends to be about what [the characters] get. The end has the consequences, followed often by a moment of self-knowledge, and then the final action where the main character, having moved from one world to another, makes his choice and pays the price.” (p.156)
TWO WORLDS (ALSO, INNER AND OUTER STORIES)
- In most plays, the characters can be divided into two worlds (division is not always immediately obvious – it’s not Montagues vs Capulets, but a world with a tradition of hate vs a world of rule-breakers).
- In most plays, one world is under siege by another.
- Most plays have both a large outer story (the two worlds) and a more personal inner story. These two stories connect.
- The inner and outer stories develop and test each other. In plays, what you do in one story always affects something or someone in the other story. (p.131)
- “A key scene . . . [is] always marked by a new commitment that will test out other commitments in both the inner and outer story. And it’s usually marked by a change in your role. Your hopes and fears intensify. You choose sides. You know what you want.” (p.104)