| Author | Post |
|---|
karenjeynes
Member
|
Posted: Sun Feb 3rd, 2008 05:12 pm |
|
Hi All
I am a South African playwright and general performing arts practitioner, activist etc. I have had the pleasure of being part of ICWP and Naplwrimo and coming into other playwrights overseas through there, as well as Facebook! I am always keen to connect with playwrights around the world, and to share ideas about how to advance the cause of playwrighting. I am planning to start a Dramatist's Guild here, so I am really looking forward to Gary's "talk" later.
On a personal note I have written mostly for stage but also radio. I tend towards "realist comedy", be there such a thing, and have won a couple of awards. I'm currently working on two plays which, in very different ways, explore multimedia and theatre, something I've always been very sceptical of!
Karen
|
Edd
Moderator
| Joined: | Sat Jun 10th, 2006 |
| Location: | Denver, Colorado USA |
| Posts: | 872 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: |    |
|
Posted: Sun Feb 3rd, 2008 05:24 pm |
|
Welcome, Karen.
We have many countries represented here. You may be our first from South Africa, but I can't say for sure.
Looking forward to your participation and to meeting you in the Green Room later.
~Edd
|
Paddy
Moderator
|
Posted: Sun Feb 3rd, 2008 05:26 pm |
|
Karen.
How very nice to see you here. Lovely addition to this forum.
Paddy
|
Will Kemp
Member
| Joined: | Thu Feb 14th, 2008 |
| Location: | Kentucky USA |
| Posts: | 76 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Tue Mar 4th, 2008 09:59 pm |
|
Hi Karen,
I am curious as to why you are skeptical of multimedia and theatre. I know nothing about this topic myself. However, my first idea about this is that you do not like the idea of multimedia onstage because stage has always been about live actors, not about intermediate media that come between the live actor and his/her audience. ???
|
karenjeynes
Member
|
Posted: Wed Mar 5th, 2008 01:44 pm |
|
Hi Will
I think I've always been skeptical about it as I so seldom see productions where the multimedia is a) truly integrated into the production and b) really adds something to it. It so often tends to be gimmicky, and therefore often, as you say, distracts from the live performers.
x k
|
bkahn
Member
|
Posted: Wed Mar 5th, 2008 03:10 pm |
|
I recently wrote my first multi-media play. (see announcements--it opens tomorrow in New York City). The play is about silent movie making in in 1908. In Act One, set in the movie studio, the actors film scenes of a one-reeler. Between these scenes, they interact and reveal that what they really want is to be onstage. It seems the conflict between live action and film began a century ago. In Act Two, set on a Vaudeville stage, after the live performances, the payoff is showing the finished film that was being created in Act One. It was not nearly as difficult as I had thought it would be to pull this off. Now if I can figure out how to do multi-media without being so "literal."
Barbara
|
karenjeynes
Member
|
Posted: Wed Mar 5th, 2008 03:17 pm |
|
Sounds great to me! It meets both my criteria above. Break a leg.
|
IanFraser
Member
|
Posted: Wed Mar 5th, 2008 04:03 pm |
|
I hate to break it to the original poster, Edd, and other forumites - but I've been here a while, representing South Africa :P
(Grew up in Durban, moved to Pretoria, then spent most of my working life in Joburg, doing the annual trek down to Grahamstown Arts Fest). Now relocated to the US..
I'm this guy - not entirely a flattering biog but what the heck :P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fraser_(playwright)
I even have my own home made biltong hanging nearby here, drying slowly - just to demonstrate how South African I am :P (biltong = 'what jerky should be like') :)
That said, welcome to the new arrival, the more the merrier..
You still SA based, or are you operating from outside SA?
EDIT: D'oh - I see you're listed as from Cape Town.. beautiful part of SA..
Had a few plays staged there over time, at the Nico and the Baxter..
Last edited on Wed Mar 5th, 2008 04:09 pm by IanFraser
|
karenjeynes
Member
|
Posted: Wed Mar 5th, 2008 04:09 pm |
|
Hi Ian
I say the more South Africans the merrier - just because you're representing doesn't mean I can't also! I was born in Durbs, where all the best people come from, but I've lived most of my life in Cape Town, where I still am. Your bio looks fascinating - I'd love to read some of your work. I am facing a conundrum here in SA, as I keep getting told my plays "aren't South African enough" whereas friend and colleague Mike van Graan keeps getting told his plays are "too political". Apparently there is an tiny line we haven't found yet.
Apart from great connecting to another SA playwright it's great to connect to another comedy writer...which is a whole conversation in itself!
K
|
IanFraser
Member
|
Posted: Wed Mar 5th, 2008 05:49 pm |
|
heh - tell mike van graan I say howzit.. think we met back in ahem 'the old days' when we were all radicals :)
Main thing is to write stories that YOU would go and see..
which is why I guess some of my work has cheerfully odd touches.. (like live chickens getting hypnotized, lots of drugs, and explosions in the audience in the one piece 'Bliztbreeker and the Chicken from Hell' which CAPAB made serious money from)
CAPAB = onetime Cape Arts council..
I think the situation in SA is almost too serious to try encapsulate theatrically these days.
Although just before '94 elections, I was thinking what the future would bring to SA, and ended up winning the Amstel Award for a play dealing with my take on the possible future.. ('Heart Like a Stomach')
Concept was - a couple of white women picking up guys for the night, the whole play overlaid with cooking instructions, and we follow the sexual awkwardness, race angst, and events, through to the final poisoning of everyone in the cast by the 'black' character, (who chats with the audience throughout, as he's irritated at being a character in this damn play in the first place, and who's angry at the audience coz they can leave whereas he's trapped having to do this night after night. He takes the time to curse Fugard thoroughly for his lame writing that didn't change anything in reality)..
The piece ends with the angry character saying "I could tell you that I'm Black, and that revenge is a dish best served cold.. but you probably wouldn't get the joke"
He Exits, leaving dead bodies everywhere. Totally horrified audiences staring :)
Heh.. welcome to my rather grim view of the future, from ummm, 1992 I think..
I think there's perhaps more scope now outside of SA, for writing material - inside, as you have seen - there's so much 'baggage' attached to how people view things, that its hard to 'just tell a good story' (which may or may not have political relevance) - writers are made to almost feel guilty if they don't adress political/social issues..
And the theatre managements in turn, want both commercial hits, and 'socio-politically relevant' work - and try to balance this juggling act..
I've written more in the last two years in the US, than I did in the previous 10 or so in SA. (As things began getting grim, and audiences stopped going out as much - it became a little too weird for me to only have the Grahamstown Fest and other Fests to have work on..)
Its the other extreme, from only a few places to get work put on, to a vast almost infinite quantity of possible venues..
Too much weirdness in SA now - and the theatres seem to make 'value judgements' based on patriotism and politics, (and their own Government funding) instead of 'is it a cool story that audiences will enjoy'..
re my own stuff - well the National English Literary Museum in Grahamstown has a lot of my scripts - often in their original raggedy typed form :)
(I write first draft and thats it - all of my plays are first drafts, hand it over to the director, it goes onstage. I move on to another story..)
http://www.ru.ac.za/affiliates/nelm/
also there's a Drama faculty of some kind at Stellenbosch University, that has a collection of scripts and clippings. Dalro (dramatic arts and literary rights organization) have a stash as well.. but as they dont know where I am - I wouldn't advise ever giving them money for copyrights
Otherwise if you run across titles you'd like to look at, PM me..
|
Current time is 04:52 am | |
|
|
|
