tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post6967358779823160007..comments2023-12-20T17:20:22.032-05:00Comments on 99 Seats: Screen Play99http://www.blogger.com/profile/11955916620902994495noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post-64159385315675114272009-04-18T19:33:00.000-04:002009-04-18T19:33:00.000-04:00great post. I actually think a lot of the theater...great post. I actually think a lot of the theater artists who say they don't want to make film onstage are in fact the very artists who are most trying to emulate film.<br /><br />Often this route to "not making film onstage" becomes about creating exciting visual images. Exciting visual images are great, but tv and film have us beat on that front! Or it becomes about let me throw some weird shit in the mix. Weird shit, as I believe I've heard it written on someone's blog (can't remember where), equals theatricality. Now, don't get me wrong, I love weird shit, but weird shit is not what separates theater from TV/film. Weird shit does not equal theatricality. <br /><br />What separates the two is liveness, making use of the liveness, creating an actual event. Now, this is all very heady and ethereal, but perhaps you know what I mean.<br /><br />All too often the shows that attempt to be "theatrical" are the ones that for me fall flat--they become a presentation, a museum piece about bodies in space and not an event with action.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post-60250407730404200252009-04-17T08:46:00.000-04:002009-04-17T08:46:00.000-04:00Great topic! There is a growing movement I have no...Great topic! There is a growing movement I have noticed in producing "TV-like" shows in the theatre. Established theatre seems to have accepted this transition and even rewarded it (i.e. Linsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole). I personally don't like working on shows that do not allow the opportunity to utilize the tools that theatre has exclusive to television and film.Austin Barrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12372135546233684440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post-36966298084272058412009-04-17T08:45:00.000-04:002009-04-17T08:45:00.000-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Austin Barrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12372135546233684440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post-63663023773474343082009-04-16T11:05:00.000-04:002009-04-16T11:05:00.000-04:00Defensiveness totally understood. I KNOW you dig T...Defensiveness totally understood. I KNOW you dig TV and get that there's a lot of complexity and I know you're no enemy of "realism" on stage. And I do get what you're saying. I just think that kind of criticism (and even the compliment that the woman gave me at the writers group) can be clearer and treat theatre on its own term. I think saying that it was written (and produced) in a "presentational style that didn't take advantage of being live theatre" is clearer than "it was like TV." No offense meant, brother! I hope you know that...99https://www.blogger.com/profile/11955916620902994495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post-80919451818133017202009-04-16T10:54:00.000-04:002009-04-16T10:54:00.000-04:00Hey 99,
Just to be clear...(and not to get defensi...Hey 99,<br />Just to be clear...(and not to get defensive) I wasn't deriding television when I said the scene felt like a teleplay. There's plenty of TV that I love as readers of my blog'll know, I just meant that it in no way took advantage of theatre's strengths in either its writing on production values and instead had a very presenational, television-on-stage feel. <br /><br />THis is a very good post, BTW. I've read some of Johnson's book when I was visiting my parents (my dad was reading it) and the section on the evolution of the cop show from Starsky to Hill St. is really masterful.isaac butlerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07815094790605298884noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post-31349252391560080462009-04-16T10:53:00.000-04:002009-04-16T10:53:00.000-04:00That's probably true. To be honest, I didn't catch...That's probably true. To be honest, I didn't catch or read <I>The Scene</I> so may really have felt like a "teleplay." I guess I'm just getting at us being specific as to why.99https://www.blogger.com/profile/11955916620902994495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post-79117972080875990082009-04-16T09:34:00.000-04:002009-04-16T09:34:00.000-04:00I love this post. The idea that theater can claim ...I love this post. The idea that theater can claim any kind of superiority over television is just preposterous.<br /><br />I think what Isaac was referring to with THE SCENE was Rebeck's not using the tools specific to the theater medium in her storytelling.macrogershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00763086848960021250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post-76834269208626064262009-04-15T17:21:00.000-04:002009-04-15T17:21:00.000-04:00That book really did some eye-opening for me. I've...That book really did some eye-opening for me. I've kind of reconsidered by long-standing ban on reality shows because of it. I don't think I'll be tuning into American Idol anytime soon, but maybe the Amazing Race.<br /><br />I wonder what kind of plays Sorkin would have written if he'd been working at a time when it was a bit easier to be a playwright AND a television writer. I could be wrong, but that double success seems like a more recent development. It seems like fifteen, twenty years ago, the talent immediately fled for L.A. after only a successful play or two and then never returned. In the last few years (and possibly with the return of television production in NYC), it's much more possible to be Warren Leight or Craig Wright or Theresa Rebeck and have real success in both mediums (media?).99https://www.blogger.com/profile/11955916620902994495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731242543254491491.post-45159472425589145002009-04-15T12:21:00.000-04:002009-04-15T12:21:00.000-04:00Great choice of clip, and way to reference S. John...Great choice of clip, and way to reference S. Johnson. I certainly gave TV writing (if not actual TV watching) some more considered thought after reading that book. <br /><br />Now, if only Aaron Sorkin's theatre-writing was as punchy and fun as his television writing.Slayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10656452743341698813noreply@blogger.com