Chapter 1
I’ve written this book for playwrights (of all levels) who want to learn how to master the art of writing a ten-minute play. This book can be a valuable add-on to the knowledge you already have about writing plays. Writing a ten-minute play is more than just condensing a story. The form and demands are very specific, and even success as a playwright of full-length plays doesn’t necessarily mean you can successfully write ten-minute plays. They’re similar—but different.
This book is also written for actors who have never written a play. I was, and still am, an actor. As you’ll discover in my bio, I more or less fell into playwriting. It all began with writing my first ten-minute play. In this book I guide actors through the process of learning how to write a ten-minute play, beginning with the skills, knowledge, and experience you already have as an actor. Actors may discover, as I did, that it’s really not that far a stretch from being an actor to writing plays. The ten-minute play is one of the best ways to learn about playwriting.
And finally, this book is for those people who have never written a play, but always wanted to. The ten-minute play is a great way to start. I’ve included basic information on playwriting that should be helpful to you.
Learning Playwriting from Many Sources
Over the years I have taken several playwriting classes and joined several playwriting groups. One thing that I’ve learned is that the craft of writing plays, whether it’s a ten-minute play or a full-length, can be approached from many points of view. It is not an exact science. What I’ve attempted to do in this book is to distill much of the information I’ve learned over the years about playwriting from my personal experiences, from playwriting classes, from the books I’ve read on playwriting, from discussions with successful ten-minute playwrights, and from producers of ten-minute play festivals.
My goal was to get as many points of view on this subject as possible. You’ll notice that in some of the interviews there are similar responses to the interview questions, while in others there are different ones. I’ll let you, the reader, judge which answers are the most helpful to you.
When I was a young actor I studied with many of the great acting teachers in New York, from Stella Adler to Mira Rostova, Terry Schreiber, Michael Howard, Wynn Handman, Larry Moss, and on and on. I loved studying and learning about the craft of acting. I learned different things from each of the teachers. Similarly, I want this book to show you the many approaches there are to writing the ten-minute play (or any play).
About forty years ago I was a working actor. I performed in plays, in theater, and on TV. About thirty years ago I became a writer: first a monologue writer, then a book writer, and then a playwright.
Like many actors, I was always looking for new monologues for auditions. It was a tiresome process. Each monologue that I’d find seemed to have something wrong with it, something that eliminated it from my being able to use it for auditions. It was a very frustrating situation. I was constantly monologue-hunting when I could have been better spending my time looking for acting work.
One day, on a whim—well, actually out of total frustration—I decided to try to write my own monologue. Considering that I had no background in creative writing, I knew it was going to be a challenge. After all those years of monologue hunting, I certainly knew what I wanted. The monologue that I was going to write would have a beginning, middle, and end; a conflict of some kind; and a character that interested me, one I could identify with. But, most importantly, it had to have a good yarn, an engaging story.
It was trial and error for quite a while. But one thing I gradually began to realize was that I could use my acting skills to help me write monologues. Some of the same skills that I’d used as an actor to create characters in plays, I also could use to create characters in monologues. After a few very long, trying weeks I completed my first monologue. I felt a tremendous sense of achievement.
I was studying acting at that time with Wynn Handman in New York. When I brought my new monologue to class one night and nervously performed it, it went over very well. Everyone wanted to know where I had found this great new monologue. And so it began: I started writing monologues for the other actors in the class. This went on for months. At each class someone would be performing one of my monologues. The more I wrote, the more I realized I was on to something. I started to develop more efficient ways of working. I learned more from my mistakes than from my successes.
At the end of that first year I had completed over a hundred and twenty-five monologues (not to mention the dozens of discarded ones). I was now what I considered officially a “monologue writer.” My monologues became very popular around the New York theater scene, and eventually my first book of original monologues, Street Talk: Character Monologues for Actors, was published by Smith & Kraus. The book was quite successful. Without making a long story longer, many books of original monologues followed, and then many theater-related books. Somehow I had gone from being a monologue writer to being a book writer.
It was during this prolific period of monologue and book writing that I decided to attempt writing a play. It seemed that ten-minute play festivals were turning up everywhere, and I just wanted to see if I could write one. As with the monologues, I’d never written a play before, had never even thought about it. But I realized: I’m an actor, I’ve been in plays, how hard could it be? So I decided to attempt writing a ten-minute play.
I’d heard you should “write about what you know.” So I wrote a two-character play about these two guys, best friends in Brooklyn (where I grew up). I figured I’d just let them “talk.” I’d heard from other playwrights that the best way to write a play is to set up your characters in a specific place and let them speak to each other. I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but I gave it a go. Well, the play seemed to write itself. I let my imagination be the ringmaster. After some cuts and rewrites, my first ten-minute play, Goin’ Round on Rock Solid Ground, was born. When it became a finalist at the prestigious Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Ten-Minute Play Competition, I was hooked. I was now a playwright.
Since then, I’ve written dozens of ten-minute plays, short plays, full-lengths, and screenplays. I’ve been lucky enough to win many awards, and have had many productions in the United States and in Europe. There’s no doubt in my mind that luck came into all this, but, to some degree, so did craft. And of course being proactive about getting my plays out there.
Ten Ways to Get the Most out of This Book
1. This book is written for experienced playwrights, beginning playwrights, actors, and just about anyone who ever wanted to write a ten-minute play. If you wish, you can read the book from cover to cover, but it may not be necessary for the first read.
2. I suggest that you first look through the Table of Contents; see what stands out. Look for those things that interest you at the present time, that pertain to your specific situation. Then skim through the book, stopping at those chapters that you feel are of interest to you right now. For instance, if you’ve never written a play, I suggest you read Chapters 4 and 5, which deal with playwriting technique and proper playwriting format. If you’re an experienced playwright, these chapters may be of interest just to review; or you may wish to skip them for now.
3. After you’ve read through the particular chapters that apply to you, I suggest that you THEN read through the entire book, taking notes or highlighting those things that you find apply to your particular situation. Experienced playwrights, you can skip some of the basics, unless you want to review them.
4. As you begin working on your ten-minute play, you may want to refer to the sections in Chapter 3 that help you in getting started. If you’re not sure how to start writing or feel blocked, I recommend that you specifically read and do the freewriting and clustering exercises.
5. If you get stuck at any point as you are writing your play, refer back to earlier chapters to see where you might have gone off track, or how to continue when you’ve hit a wall.
6. During the rewrites, or even after the first draft of your ten-minute play, you may find some inspiration in rereading some of the experiences of other playwrights, producers of ten-minute play festivals, and publishers of ten-minute plays.
7. Once you’ve finished reading the entire book, put the information you’ve learned to practical use. You can then use this book as a checklist while working on your play.
8. This book is meant as a starting point, a launching pad for your ten-minute play. Refer to it as often as you need to.
9. Depending on your playwriting experience, you may not feel the need to apply every rule in this book. If something you’ve learned prior to reading this book still works for you, continue using it. But always leave room for the possibility of discovering new ways to add on to what has worked for you in the past.
10. My purpose in writing this book was not only to instruct, but to inspire. The point of the book, the reason I wrote it, was to encourage you, whether you’re a beginning playwright, an experienced playwright, an actor with no playwriting experience, or someone who’s never written a play. Whether you aspire to write short plays, one-acts, or full-lengths, this book is designed to help you get your start. Good luck.