For the last couple of months I have felt driven to write a theater script, yet I have yet to actually write one. I wrote two pages of dialogue between a comical bickering couple. That is all. My muse is hanging just out of reach it seems.
Theater was one of my early loves. As a child we would set the hallway by our bedrooms up as a stage and get our parents to sit in the kitchen and watch us perform "Cinderella" and "The Sound of Music". In my nostalgic memory we were quite talented. Witnesses may say otherwise...
I particularly devoured musicals. My siblings and I watched and memorized everything Julie Andrews. My father sang something from "Fiddler on the Roof" on a daily basis, it seemed... Usually "If I Were A Rich Man" - dreamer that he is - although sometimes it was "Matchmaker" since he did have four daughters.
As soon as I could be I was involved in school theater. From Mary Poppins to the walls that chanted Roderick Usher into insanity, I have played it all. I was involved in every play from 6th grade to graduation, and then continued to be involved in children's theater at my local library for a few years after that.
The Tony's are the only night of the year that I truly have to be near a television.
It only seems logical that my lifelong love of theater combined with my ambition to be a writer would one day turn me into a playwright. Though the drive is there, the muse is still beyond me. I feel like I am standing on the edge of something I would truly enjoy. Just waiting for the right plot line to push me over.
The angst of being a playwright - been there, experienced that. The best way (IMHO) to get started is to write dialogue based on an experience(s) that has emotionally affected you. For example, working with an autistic child that you shared in another blog posting here. Joys...frustration...exhaultation... Don't think - free thought writing. Life experience is the best subject.
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