Setting the scene

Some students pen scripts, others play characters, and then there are the directors, who make sure the stagecraft goes smoothly.

The 25 students enrolled in the New Script Development Workshop course—taught by Professor Karin Magaldi, chair of the Department of Theatre and Film—spent fall and winter term developing their skills for this term’s New Works Reading Series, the final installment of which will be held Monday, June 4, in Lincoln Hall.

The workshop course is the last in a yearlong, three-term sequence in which students pursuing a career in theater—be it in writing, acting, directing or a blend of each—get a taste of how the field operates in the “real world,” according to Magaldi.

Throughout the term, Magaldi gave the students certain performance “ingredients.” The students then have 48 hours to two weeks to develop a script. From there, the directors and actors take the script and work to create a polished piece of theater ready to be performed.

For the final performance, students were asked to incorporate into their scripts two to five characters, a box of postcards, something “inside a wall” and a believer in reincarnation. And, as expected, despite all of these shared elements, the performances vary widely.

“There’s some comedic pieces, and there are some that might push some people’s buttons but are still really funny,” Magaldi said. “It’s just a whole spectrum of writing that will be happening: some are serious, some are mysteries, some are Western, some deal with serious issues important to people and others are pure entertainment.”

Because the class focuses more on the “words” and “actions” aspects of theater, the performances will use no props. However, a narrator will be employed to describe the scenes as they unfold.

Afterward, audience members will have an opportunity to respond to the performance and ask the students questions. That plays a vital role in helping the troupe refine their skills. The audience serves as a new pair of eyes and ears, according to Richard Peterson, a theater arts graduate student.

“We pay attention to what they [the audience] clap at, what they laugh at—it’s very helpful to have that reaction and a test audience, so that when you perform it you can fix the bugs before people have to pay to see it,” Peterson said. “You start off with a more successful play or film rather than bombing at the box office and learning the harder way.”

Magaldi said that audiences not only help the students fine-tune their scripts, they help the students better understand the kind of writers, actors and directors they would like to be.

“I think it’s important that writers find their voice, and often in order to find your voice you need an audience. Reading each other’s work is great, but once you put it into a rehearsal process, you can invite an audience in to hear it in a new way,” she said.

This process also reflects what happens at the professional level.

“If you’re a screenwriter or a playwright, you’re going to need to advocate for your script,” Magaldi said. “Writers need to know what it is they’re really writing, and they need to hold onto that.”

Peterson has been writing plays his entire life, and the New Script Development Workshop course has allowed him to really focus on his craft.

“The thing that I love about this is that, as a writer, I get to hear my work performed from talented actors in the class. When you sit around a circle and read a script, it doesn’t have the same impact as actors on stage performing it,” he said. “It’s almost like that environment gives it more importance, more validity, and you focus more and listen harder.”