Kirk Carter@ Chew Bear Productions@ Copyright 2014
PLAYWRIGHTS-THE STUDY
When you think of a playwright, I always go directly to my mentor Neil Simon.
I admire how casually he developed such awesome fields of thought.
His construction is flawless, and just like myself, we plot stories on what pleased ourselves, on what appeals to us. If the public happens to enjoy the script too, all the better!
I'm a big believer in writing for yourself, not the audience. If it's good, you will develop a fan base, sooner or later. And one would think, "Hey, what about Ray Bradbury and Rod Serling, like they just popped in and started taking names...hardly!
Ray managed over 30 stories before anyone even took notice, and Rod was at 50 writings before he sold anything worth mentioning. How about this, Steven King...some 26 tries before he got Carrie sold, and the Queen Bee herself J.K. Rowling labored through 30 attempts before Schoolastic took a chance on her odd little epic, better known as Harry Potter!
But, the one that stands out is Tennessee Williams who was in a constant stage of ridicule from his Father and just about every critic out there. Despite the fact that his health was not great, it wasn't until he changed his name and renamed a play he wrote that had just been rejected.
The "Glass Menagerie", now a classic and went on to be followed by "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", and I'm sure you know the rest!
Here's a couple of my other favorites (there are lots of us by the way), but George Walker born in 1947, was commissioned by the Factory Theater Lab in Toronto to resident and produce plays. He scripted The Prince of Naples (1971), Ambush at Teather's End (71), Sacktown Rag (72), Filthy Rich (73), and they all flopped! However, once he pulled away from that madness where he was expected to produce, rather than on his own good time, he had two good successes with "Ramona and the White Slaves" and "Theater of the Film Noir"!
Here's a mentor that I characterize as "Best In Show", and that is Thornton Wilder...his really big success was with "Our Town" (1938). The premise is when Emily ask the stage manager who was running heaven right after she passed away if he would allow her one more visit to her town, for one last visit with friends and family. In the end she cries farewell once she realizes that the simple things, like smelling flowers, hearing the ticking of a clock, and hot baths were the things she really cherished. And so in the end of the play, she ask the stage manager, if anybody appreciates life while they live it? He replies, "Well, except for Saints, poets, and writers, people generally exist blindly, insistent to the miracles of their own daily lives!"
So, let's end this with the original Neil Simon (if your comedic minded that is), to the first comical playwright that we have recorded as legitimate...that being none other than the
Great Euripides (485-406 B.C.) Although comedians that worked the street circuit in Greece gawked at his efforts, he wrote Bakchoi (405 B.C.), loved doing awkward plays about Barbarian women struggling to keep up with the social elite of Athens, like Elektra (417 B.C.), Alkestis (438 B.C.), The Trojan Women (415 B.C.), then there were the monster plays like the Cyclops (426), Andromach (426 B.C.), and of course everyone's favorite The Suppliants (took a while to put this together, try 420-418 B.C.). He entered a total of 20 plays to the Dioanysian Playwright Contest (hard to believe that was the first Sundance Film Fest?") and only won 5 allotments. Anything less than five and I believe you became Lion food. His absolute best play was "The Phonetician Women" (411 B.C.) The governors of Athens and the Athens Play Commission kept kicking him out of town...but he just kept coming back. He died doing what he loved, making fun of the better sex...just couldn't stop messing with the ladies. They found a quill in a Lion's stomach, rumor had it that it belonged to Euripides. Just kidding, he actually exiled to Macedonia, but you must admit he's one interesting dude, wonder if Marvel will try to do any remakes of his adventures?
A writer's style is personal, self-induced, and ego driven. If you doubt what someone might think of your work, if you care at all, don't...I mean don't become a writer!
As far as the ego part, it is what gives you the self-discipline to put a project together from scratch, or as I've said so many times, "Fill in the Blank Page!"
So, in closing...Rule number one-Don't care. Rule number two-Be passionate. Rule number three-Just enjoy yourself, the rest will all fall into place.
Remember the Golden Rule, self-discipline comes easily, if your doing what you Love.
Stay entertained, do what you Love, live the Good Life!
See you at the movies!
Ray managed over 30 stories before anyone even took notice, and Rod was at 50 writings before he sold anything worth mentioning. How about this, Steven King...some 26 tries before he got Carrie sold, and the Queen Bee herself J.K. Rowling labored through 30 attempts before Schoolastic took a chance on her odd little epic, better known as Harry Potter!
But, the one that stands out is Tennessee Williams who was in a constant stage of ridicule from his Father and just about every critic out there. Despite the fact that his health was not great, it wasn't until he changed his name and renamed a play he wrote that had just been rejected.
The "Glass Menagerie", now a classic and went on to be followed by "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", and I'm sure you know the rest!
Here's a couple of my other favorites (there are lots of us by the way), but George Walker born in 1947, was commissioned by the Factory Theater Lab in Toronto to resident and produce plays. He scripted The Prince of Naples (1971), Ambush at Teather's End (71), Sacktown Rag (72), Filthy Rich (73), and they all flopped! However, once he pulled away from that madness where he was expected to produce, rather than on his own good time, he had two good successes with "Ramona and the White Slaves" and "Theater of the Film Noir"!
Here's a mentor that I characterize as "Best In Show", and that is Thornton Wilder...his really big success was with "Our Town" (1938). The premise is when Emily ask the stage manager who was running heaven right after she passed away if he would allow her one more visit to her town, for one last visit with friends and family. In the end she cries farewell once she realizes that the simple things, like smelling flowers, hearing the ticking of a clock, and hot baths were the things she really cherished. And so in the end of the play, she ask the stage manager, if anybody appreciates life while they live it? He replies, "Well, except for Saints, poets, and writers, people generally exist blindly, insistent to the miracles of their own daily lives!"
So, let's end this with the original Neil Simon (if your comedic minded that is), to the first comical playwright that we have recorded as legitimate...that being none other than the
Great Euripides (485-406 B.C.) Although comedians that worked the street circuit in Greece gawked at his efforts, he wrote Bakchoi (405 B.C.), loved doing awkward plays about Barbarian women struggling to keep up with the social elite of Athens, like Elektra (417 B.C.), Alkestis (438 B.C.), The Trojan Women (415 B.C.), then there were the monster plays like the Cyclops (426), Andromach (426 B.C.), and of course everyone's favorite The Suppliants (took a while to put this together, try 420-418 B.C.). He entered a total of 20 plays to the Dioanysian Playwright Contest (hard to believe that was the first Sundance Film Fest?") and only won 5 allotments. Anything less than five and I believe you became Lion food. His absolute best play was "The Phonetician Women" (411 B.C.) The governors of Athens and the Athens Play Commission kept kicking him out of town...but he just kept coming back. He died doing what he loved, making fun of the better sex...just couldn't stop messing with the ladies. They found a quill in a Lion's stomach, rumor had it that it belonged to Euripides. Just kidding, he actually exiled to Macedonia, but you must admit he's one interesting dude, wonder if Marvel will try to do any remakes of his adventures?
A writer's style is personal, self-induced, and ego driven. If you doubt what someone might think of your work, if you care at all, don't...I mean don't become a writer!
As far as the ego part, it is what gives you the self-discipline to put a project together from scratch, or as I've said so many times, "Fill in the Blank Page!"
So, in closing...Rule number one-Don't care. Rule number two-Be passionate. Rule number three-Just enjoy yourself, the rest will all fall into place.
Remember the Golden Rule, self-discipline comes easily, if your doing what you Love.
Stay entertained, do what you Love, live the Good Life!
See you at the movies!
Kirk Carter
Soho, New York
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