On Writing

“Don’t decide the play. Discover the play.”
-Eduardo Machado, author of the Floating Island Plays

5/20/11: I 'm currently re-working the essay on writing to include a dinner I had last summer with Brother Bob Baxter and the friars at the Mary Anderson Center, my thoughts on "good" writing, "anekantavada" writing, molecular gastronomy, and Paul Auster. Right now, this is just amess, but it will provide some ideas on writing.

 

I call my esthetic “American Baroque.” I start with an organic, character-based story, often dealing with American issues, and then build the setting around the wants and needs of the characters. Then I stretch and twist the world as if it were a reflection in a funhouse mirror. I try to ground the audience in something they can relate to, while adding separation with the fantastic. I focus on structure, shape, emotion, and the time and space those elements need to be communicated.

 

More stuff...

It is imperative to expose today’s student to the numerous degrees of writing, despite their chosen emphasis. I have students build notebooks with Albert Camus’s Notebooks From 1935-1951 as a guide. I use Kurt Vonnegut’s rules of writing from Bagombo Snuff Box, and I teach Stanislavski’s An Actor Prepares as an example of organic construction of art. I also have students study the boxes of Joseph Cornell with the observation of “collecting” to build work. With regards to playwriting, I have each student adapt classic Greek stories the way Shakespeare did in his day and Chuck Mee does today, with an importance of turning the Greek tale towards the relevance of contemporary life.

 

Timothy Braun