You’re
Not Alone Up There!
Workshopping Your Solo Show by Joanna
Parson
 |
| Joanna
Parson is the host and founder of the Happy
Hour Salon. Her original work has been produced
in New York and regionally, and recorded for
WNYC's "The Next Big Thing" public
radio show. She has been a professional actor
for over ten years, and is co-writer and co-star
of "Reddy or Not" (New York International
Fringe Festival 2004), a musical comedy tribute
to Helen Reddy. She teaches a Writing for Performance
Workshop currently accepting applications for
the summer and fall sessions-- click
here for info |
|
You’ve
got an idea for a solo show. You’re a talented actor,
and you’ve improvised in classes and performances--
writing seems like improvising that you write down! This
will be a cinch. You decide to work on it on a Monday.
By Monday evening, you’ve got two and a half pages--
fantastic! On Wednesday you’ve got a big audition,
so you work on that, and on Thursday you deal with the
emotional aftermath by buying yourself a new shirt and
going out to your friend’s barbecue and drinking
too many margaritas. Friday you’re hung over-- you
need to rest.
On
Saturday, you score some tickets to see a solo show by
an established artist you’ve always admired. Perfect!
You know you’ll be inspired. Only-- you’re
not. Oh, don’t get me wrong-- the show is first-rate.
The audience laughs, cries, and walks out talking about
what and who they’ve just seen. But you’re
overwhelmed! How can you possibly write anything that good?
How can you follow your idea through until it’s seamless
and exciting? Maybe it’s awful, maybe it’s
navel-gazing crap. You shelve your idea for a little while.
You should be acting in plays, not writing them! Maybe
if you just “let it simmer” in your mind… you
decide to audition for a little while. And a few weeks
go by, and a few months. And a year from now your friend
comes over to use your computer and asks, ‘What’s
this icon here on your desktop, the one named “My
Dream”?’
Andrea
Reese performing her solo show, Cirque Jaqueline.
Photo by Lisa Kapler |
Writing
is hard. Solo shows are lonely. But writing a solo show can
be the most empowering and self-motivated move you can make
to further your acting career -- just check out how many
actors profiled on Actorslife.com rave about their experiences
producing their own work! So how can you make the process
of creating your own unique, personal show a little less
hard and lonely?
You can
ask for help.
There are
a number of options you can take along the way that will
help you develop your piece with peers and teachers who will
encourage, cajole, and influence you to write stronger pieces.
The writing and acting will still be yours, and will showcase
you, your specific talents, and the story you want to tell.
But just as novelists, journalists, and other writers have
found ways to band together through different development
phases, solo show writers, coaches, and teachers, are discovering
that even in a one-person cast, you
don’t have to be up there alone.
1.
Workshops
You can find workshops for solo performances in almost every city with
a large actor base-- and if you can’t find one, create it yourself!
Just keep in mind that solo shows have very specific requirements in
terms of drama and storytelling, and be sure you have a workshop leader
who can keep those rules of dramatic writing in mind.
Workshops
generally bring together writers who are at a similar stage
in the development of their work. Groups typically meet once
a week. Each member is given the opportunity to read new
material, and the others make helpful and supportive comments
that help pinpoint what in the writing is working, what is
most interesting, and what can be improved upon. A good teacher
will guide the discussion so that comments are not plot suggestions-- “I
think you should have the narrator switch bodies with the
chicken”-- but honest opinions about where the writing
is unclear or less strong-- “I wasn’t sure whether
the narrator is jealous of or attracted to the animals--
I just couldn’t tell.”
There are
a number of benefits to workshops. You can gain from the
experience and insight of the leader or teacher. Just make
sure it’s someone you find inspiring, and with whom
you feel comfortable. You can also gain from the opinions
of your peers. They should have only one objective-- to help
you look at your work from the point of view of a first-time
audience member. And the weekly deadlines cannot be underestimated
as a push to keep you moving forward!
You can
find workshops for whatever stage you’re at in your
writing. Some workshops include more storytelling and writing
exercises to help you at a beginning phase, while some can
include more in-depth structural help once you have a near-finished
piece. Ask the leader of the workshop whether there is a
session that will be right for you.
2.
Coaches
Many teachers, actors and writers who’ve had experiences with
solo shows are available for private coaching. They will read your
work prior to a meeting, and then talk through with you the strengths
and weaknesses of what you have, and where you would like to go with
the piece. They may be invaluable in helping you organize the material
you do have, and identify what you have left to write.
Solo shows
are a very specific genre of theatre, so it’s important
to find a coach who has a solo show background. They should
be familiar with many different styles of storytelling and
narrative possibilities. They can help you concentrate on
how to mine your idea for the most drama, and build a world
that will engage an audience that is listening and watching,
rather than reading, your work.
A solo
show writing coach can be like your own personal dramaturg--
but most won’t charge you a percent of the profit later
on down the line. They’re generally an extremely generous
lot-- they want to see their students succeed! And the best
recommendation for their workshop and classes is your fully-produced
one-person show landed on Broadway and beyond.
One note
on workshops and coaches-- be prepared to invest in yourself
here. I have consistently found that students who have committed
to paying a fee for workshops and coachings take their work
and deadlines more seriously than those who’ve found
ways around tuition and fees. Working with professionals
will help you become a professional, so don’t be stingy.
3.
Directors
Directors are different from writing coaches, but can also be invaluable
to the shaping of a piece. In staging the story you’ve written,
a director may come up with ideas that neither you, your workshop,
or your coach would have thought of-- you weren’t thinking of
a specific theater, a specific visualization or sound design when you
wrote your piece, as the director is.
As with
writing coaches, it’s important to find directors who
have experience with solo shows-- unless you have a previous
trusting relationship with a director who is new to the genre.
See as many shows as you can, and take note of who directed
the ones you like-- then approach them when you feel ready
to undertake a production. Or ask around! Some workshops
and institutions are known for creating relationships with
new young directors who want to make their mark with solo
shows.
After you’ve
found a director that you trust, he or she may work with
you on the shape of the play, and you may find yourself rewriting
again. Even a solo show is a collaboration! Be prepared to
re-think and re-evaluate.
If you
keep this in mind while you’re first writing your show,
you can be free to leave some staging questions unanswered.
It might be holding you up, trying to imagine how you could
possibly be pushing your small nephew in a swing set in one
scene, and climbing a mountain in the next. I always tell
my students to trust that some genius director is going to
solve that problem for you, with sound design, or inventive
staging-- or some device never before seen in the history
of theatre. If you believe that the storytelling requires
these scenes to be next to each other, then write it that
way, and look forward to collaborating with the very best
director you can find.
4. Performance evenings
I always recommend performance evenings as a way to get your show up
in small sections, before you embark on a full production. They help
you become comfortable with your language and the characters you’re
playing, and give you invaluable information about the audience reaction.
Are they shifting in their seats? Do they seem confused? Or are they
coming up to you after the performance and asking you how far along
you are in your writing, and when can they see the rest?
You’ll
also be surprised at how much you will tell yourself through
performance. You’re using a very different part of
your brain when you perform in front of an audience-- a part
that may instinctively know things that aren’t obvious
to you when you’re silently reading, or even sharing
with a coach or a group.
Performance
evenings are available to you in almost every city and town.
You may have to look for them, but the opportunities are
out there. Ask your friends whether they know of any variety
shows, open performance mics, or spaces dedicated solely
to one-person shows-- chances are you could compile a long
list in a very short time.
Try to
attend any performance night before you approach the booker,
and make sure you feel comfortable in the space, and with
the crowd. If you’re extremely nervous, make sure it’s
a place that’s open to new works (like my new work
variety show in New York City, the Happy
Hour Salon). If you’re the kind of person who worries
that your show may interest only other solo artists or actors,
find a performance night with an audience made up of disinterested
parties just looking to have a good time-- they’re
out there.
So get
back to that icon on your desk top, and let’s see if
we can do something about that three-page dream of yours.
Keep in mind that solo performance is just about the most
democratic form of theater. Everybody has a voice, everybody
has a story to tell. That means that far from being alone,
you can think of yourself as part of the largest group of
all. And keep writing!
Joanna Parson
Solo
Show Development Nights in New York: If you know of a show
development night in any city, let us know. feedback@actorslife.com
Be sure you do your research-- know which shows are booked, and which
are purely open-mic. Ask the contact person how shows get on the schedule
for development. E-mail and web sites are a great resource, but there's
nothing like hitting the street and going to a performance evening
to see what the performance space, quality of performers, and audience
is like. Here are a few nights to check out in New York City:
The Happy Hour Salon, first and third Friday of every month, Siberia
Bar
Web site: www.joannaparson.com.
Contact: Joanna Parson, happyhoursalon@aol.com
New York Solo Play Lab, twice-monthly, When Eagles Dare Theatre
Web site: www.cherylkingproductions.com
Contact: Cheryl King, cking3@nyc.rr.com
Pit Bosses, weekly, People's Improv Theatre
Web site: www.thepit-nyc.com
Contact: Jen Nails (www.jennails.com)
Open Performance Night, monthly, Dixon Place.
Web site: www.dixonplace.org
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