TIPS FOR READING A PLAY

When we “read a play”, what are we actually reading?  Literature?  Dialogue? A performance? Is “a play” the script or the production? Are we reading something that was meant to be read for leisure? It’s hard to pin down what a play actually is.

R.A Foakes, in his introduction to King Lear in the Arden Shakespeare wrote:

Plays have a double life, in the mind as read, and on the stage as acted; reading a play and seeing it acted are two different but equally valid and valuable experiences. Shakespeare’s fellow-actors provided in the First Folio of his works a text for readers, and all later editors have had readers in mind; even acting versions have first to be read. There has been a fashion in criticism for claiming that the ‘real play is the performance, not the text,’ or that a play is a 'communal construct,’ and 'exists in relationship to scripts we will never have, to a series of revisions and collaborations that start as soon as there is a Shakespearean text.’ It seems to me rather that the 'real play’ is as much the text we read, and perhaps act out in the mind, as the performance we watch; and scripts are what directors and actors make for the stage out of the reading text provided for them by editors… The life a play has in the mind may be very different from the life it has on the stage.

On the most basic level a play is any or all of these three things:

·         A story to be told by either reading a script or seeing a production.

·         A written representation of the playwright’s intentions.

·         A blueprint for directors, designers, and actors to use in an executed production.

Innumerable articles and books have been written on this subject, not to mention classes taught.  There are whole fields of study on this called “text analysis”.  (If you’re interested in this sort of thing, I highly recommend David Edgar’s book HOW PLAYS WORK.)

For our purposes, the most practical and helpful goal of reading these plays is to gain a sense of the narrative story being told and the theatrical tools the playwright might be using to tell it.

Many of the plays we’ll be reading are “big” shows that can be fairly complex logistically (you’re welcome).  They likely have many characters and locations and call for very specific design needs.  It becomes important to use your imagination to envision the story that the playwright is sharing.  Below are a few tools that you can use if you find yourself stuck or frustrated with this unique form of literature.

·         Read the stage directions. For several decades it was in vogue in drama to encourage students not to read the stage directions. They wanted you to come to the text uninfluenced by anything but the dialogue.  I think this is complete and utter hogwash.  For many decades, the published script was a record of the first production of a play and the stage management team was tasked to mark every cross an actor made, the description of that specific set and those specific costumes.  (None of the scripts we are reading fall into this category.) Most times this information didn’t come from the playwright.  Over time, this form of production recording fell out of fashion, as playwrights became more and more specific about the world they were creating.  My philosophy is to grab at every single piece of information that the playwright gives you as it is a clue to their vision of the play. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve begged for the playwright to give me just one more stage direction at a problem point in rehearsals.

·         Picture the set. If there is a description of the set, maybe sketch out a simple, rough estimation of it according to the stage directions. This can help envision the world of the play as the playwright sees it.

·         Tracking characters. If there are a lot of characters, write out a list as they come up and make any notes that will help identify them later, whether in relation to other characters in the play or locations or vocation.  If they seem to belong to the same group or family, it also helps to group them together.

·         Cast your production. Assign an actor you know to each of the parts (local actor, movie star, your call). This will both help you remember the characters more easily and also help with establishing relationships between them.

·         Speak the speech. If you have trouble understanding or following a passage, it sometimes helps to slow down and read it out loud.  This can often help reveal the character’s emotional state or need or desire.  Sometimes a line will only make sense once you have figured out the rhythm of it.

·         Write it down. If you have ideas or questions or something in the play piques your interest, jot down notes in the text at the location where this comes up.  It can help tie ideas to specifics in the text.

·         Embrace your inner Gomer Pyle. Note when something in the text or story SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISES you.  This will help give you insights into what the playwright is driving towards.  It’s a shift that takes you from “what you THOUGHT the play was about” to “what the play seems to be about NOW”.

The purpose of these tools is to enhance your enjoyment of the play, not to sound like a bunch of homework that you didn’t sign up for.  Only use them if you find yourself getting stuck or frustrated.  Also, feel free to reach out to me if you’re feeling challenged by the readings.  I’m happy to help any way I can.