I’m musing on the worth of showings or rehearsed readings of developing work.
I think they’re valuable for scripts that are at least at a finished first draft stage. But for scripts that are still being developed, is feedback really helpful?
I’m debating this because I’ve spent the last three weeks working on a new play at FreeRange – the Metro Arts creative development festival. It’s been a fabulous process and I’ve gone from a 20-page script at the start of the workshop to 66 pages and going strong at the end. But I haven’t finished a first draft. I’m nowhere near finishing a first draft. Although I was a lot closer to finishing before I had a closed reading of the developing play.
On reflection, I think I agreed to a reading for two reasons;
- Because I thought it was expected of me and I needed to show I’d done something in the time I’d had.
- Because I was so in love with what I was writing that I thought everyone else would love it, too.
Point one is common to people-pleasing, goody-two-shoes like me.
Point two is a common delusion among writers – it’s why you should never send your play/novel/story to publishers when you first finish it. That’s when you hide it in a drawer for at least a month before looking at it again. Taking some time out hopefully makes you better able to see the flaws in your work so you can fix them.
Now, my closed reading went really well. There was a small audience of dramaturges, directors and writers in the room and their feedback was accurate, useful and enlightening. But I didn’t need it then. I hadn’t finished writing the damn play, and hearing that some characters weren’t needed, while others needed to be re-written didn’t help me in my quest to finish this version.
What I needed was to finish writing the first draft. Now I’m stuck halfway through with too many questions. Do I go back and start it again? Do I change it according to what X said? Or should I listen to Y instead?
The best thing for me to do is to forget all the feedback and just get on and finish the play. Once I have a first draft I can then work out whether the suggestions are what this play needs. But can I get on with it? No. I keep remembering comments from the reading and stumbling. I’ve lost my stride and I need to get it back.
If you’re a writer or have been involved in a feedback process on new work, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you find other people’s input helpful?
It's an interesting question, Katherine. I come from the perspective of a solo performance-maker, and have often shown work that is 'in development'. The last time I did it in a closed formal setting I asked the audience to respond in writing to some questions I proposed rather than feed back to me directly. In the end I did not read the responses because, like you, I needed to finish making the damn thing. What WAS useful about that experience, was the sense of amplification - I heard the work more acutely because I had witenesses. and this was very useful.