Yesterday in Theatre Ensemble and Directing 1 we read through all of our ten- minute plays for the Director’s Project. Now, searching for these ten minute plays I kept coming across ones I really didn’t like and I rarely found any I truly enjoyed. I began to question why I found so many I disagreed with and if I thought a solid ten-minute play existed anywhere in the world. Now there are exceptions to this thought, like Jon Lipsky’s “Walking the Volcano” and Chloe and Natalie’s Antigone project that they are working on which I really enjoy. So searching through the shit I found a piece that I liked by Jose Rivera called Flowers, and its not perfect but I do really like it. I brought my piece to class, but I was more interested in what other people found because I considered myself lucky to even find one I could say I even enjoyed. Listening to everyone else’s piece, I realized that there was something very similar about all of our worlds, and I’m not sure if I can put it into words yet. I know that each play has a different world and that I have to prepare myself to enter a different planet whenever I read a new play. I don’t think I really realized that I had to construct a new set of planets in order to fully appreciate all of the ten minutes plays. They are ten minutes long. They have to be compact and sometimes blunt, or corny, or psychotic, or misunderstood, or dramatic, or even stupid in order to tell their story. I think I wanted them to be something more than what they actually were. I wanted them to be more fluid, languid, romantic, hearty, and austere. But they weren’t, I don’t think they could because of the time constraint to be honest. Which is something I should have realized before and put into mind while I was searching for my own piece.
2 Comments
kmjiang posted on October 18, 2011 at 10:50 am
…This is such a clever title.
POOR PLUTO. =(
lehuggin posted on October 18, 2011 at 12:20 pm
It’s great to hear another point of view about these one-acts! It’s funny because the exact reason that turned you off, Olive, is the reason why I love them. I have such respect for ten minute plays because they have to construct an entire world in so little time. I love that their concise, to the point, strange, corny, etc. I have immense respect for any playwright ballsy enough to write a ten minute play, because I also think they’re some of the toughest to write. I love that they are glimpses of experiences, little windows into a world much bigger than the ten minutes they have. I loved Flowers, by the way. I loved that the time limit of the play made the rules of that world much easier to go along with. It was strange, funny, sweet, and sad, all in 10 minutes! I also congratulate you for searching for something that you actually felt connected to. Bravo Olive!