DramaLit Blog 1.0: BU School of Theatre

This spring I taught an Intro to Creative Writing course.  In the beginning, I asked my students how many had seen a play in the last three years.  An alarming number kept their hands down.  By the end of the course, however, I was surprised when three of my very best writers told me how much they preferred playwriting to fiction writing.  (One had even signed up for Advanced Playwriting next semester.)  I wondered how this happened, and this is what I came up with.  Students writing fiction for the first time invariably have a problem with overwriting.  They try to sound literary instead of just telling the story, and in so doing, doom themselves with stuffy, nonsensical sentences that result in stuffy, nonsensical narratives.  Playwriting gave them the freedom to use their own voice and the voices of people they knew.  The shift in the quality of work was rather astounding.  I’m teaching another Intro course in the fall and I’m considering switching the order of my assignments and beginning with plays, then shifting to fiction.  I want my students to realize sooner rather than later how much value there is in their own natural mode of expression.