scripts/punctuation
Colin Pink (colin@cpink.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 19 Aug 1999 13:21:09 +0100
In message <0FGP00759BFQO7@acf3.nyu.edu>, Camille Scaysbrook
<c_scaysbrook@yahoo.com> writes
>Michael Gow (who, ahem, just
>directed a play I contributed to - was that a name I just dropped? (: Guess
>name dropping isn't so potent when you don't actually know who the person
>is. Okay, try this then: one of his plays gave Cate Blanchett her first big
>break and also starred Geoffrey Rush) who has decided to actually eschew
>punctuation altogether in his plays. As a drama writer as opposed to a
>prose writer, this is a very interesting route to take, as it acknowledges
>the inherently collaborative nature of drama. While it is giving the actor
>the authority of the words, it's also giving him or her extra-ordinary
>leeway in their interpretation of them. It's a technique that has rubbed a
>few playwrights I know the wrong way, but it's certainly an interesting and
>I think very brave approach. Because despite all, we tend to hope that
>people will be nice to the little child-stories we send out there into the
>big world.
>
That's very interesting. As someone who writes plays as well as prose I
always feel very undecided about how explicit to be in scripts.
Certainly there is a current tendency to be more and more 'trusting' in
the writing. Maybe different approaches can work equally as well? One
could go from one extreme to another, the 'script' of say a Theatre de
Complicite (they're really big in Europe have you seen them in
Australia?) play is really just a summation of what has evolved in
rehearsal and performance. With their improvisatory approach the script
is something you arrive at as a result of the performance rather than
something given at the beginning which determines the performance.
At the other extreme you could take a script by say Edward Albee (one of
my favourite playwrights) where the script is like a score of music,
almost every line of dialogue contains instructions as to the delivery
and for Albee the punctuation is intended to be interpreted almost as
precisely as a metronome marking. Samuel Beckett (not just a writer
more of a God) of course is famous for being very precise about his
punctuation. It is punctuation, after all, that creates the pacing of
the piece. Changing the pauses can radically alter the meaning and
impact of what is being said. In short, the pauses are as important as
the words in a script.
The transition from words on the page to words in performance is a
fascinating one and, I think, one of the things which makes writing for
performance so exciting/interesting. I'm always very interested in what
an actor brings to the words when they embody them in a performance but
at the same time I feel I should try and be as clear as I can about what
I'm trying to achieve in a script. I think it's a delicate balance; one
wants to try and write a script which will generate performances that
bring out what one is trying to say while at the same time not unduly
inhibiting the performer.
--
Colin Pink