Simon Stephens
Two of Stephens’ plays, PORT (2002) and ON THE SHORE OF THE WIDE WORLD (2005) premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, with ON THE SHORE moving on to the National Theatre. His other works include BLUEBIRD(1998, Royal Court); HERONS (2001, Royal Court); ONE MINUTE (2003, ATC/Sheffield Theatres/Bush Theatre); CHRISTMAS (2003, APE/Bush Theatre); COUNTRY MUSIC (2004, Royal Court); MOTORTOWN (2006, Royal Court); PORNOGRAPHY (2007, Deutsche Schauspielhaus, Hamburg); HARPER REGAN (2008, National Theatre). Several of Simon’s plays have been performed throughout Europe, the US and Australia.
The most important thing to remember about plays is that they must be dramatic. This doesn't mean they need to have killings or car chases or love affairs or sex scenes or violence or drug use or armed robbery or anything. Although, all of these things can be terrific fun. What it means is that the events we watch on stage need to be happening in the present tense. This is the biggest challenge facing any playwright. Plays are often damaged when they are built around conversations revealing things that have happened in the past. These plays are often constructed around the revelation of a big secret, often about four fifths of the way through a play. If they are too strongly constructed around that they won't work. Simply put they will be boring. Audiences will stop watching, regardless of how beautifully or wittily the dialogue is written. Audiences want to watch stuff happening.
Unfortunately this is also the most difficult thing to master. I find it, still, insufferably difficult. I use the same questions, over and over again to help me conquer these difficulties. I always try to build my plays around stories of one character. I try to find a character whose story best dramatises what I want to say. I try to answer the following questions as SPECIFICALLY, HONESTLY and CONCRETELY as possible: What does that character want? (avoid abstractions here - "car keys" is a much better answer than "happiness", if you don't believe me read Sam Shepherd's "True West") What's stopping them from getting what they want? And then what do they DO to get what they want? If you can answer that final question SPECIFICALLY, HONESTLY and CONCRETELY then you should build your scenes around that answer. And then you really do have the makings of a being a playwright.
Two of Stephens’ plays, PORT (2002) and ON THE SHORE OF THE WIDE WORLD (2005) premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, with ON THE SHORE moving on to the National Theatre. His other works include BLUEBIRD(1998, Royal Court); HERONS (2001, Royal Court); ONE MINUTE (2003, ATC/Sheffield Theatres/Bush Theatre); CHRISTMAS (2003, APE/Bush Theatre); COUNTRY MUSIC (2004, Royal Court); MOTORTOWN (2006, Royal Court); PORNOGRAPHY (2007, Deutsche Schauspielhaus, Hamburg); HARPER REGAN (2008, National Theatre). Several of Simon’s plays have been performed throughout Europe, the US and Australia.The most important thing to remember about plays is that they must be dramatic. This doesn't mean they need to have killings or car chases or love affairs or sex scenes or violence or drug use or armed robbery or anything. Although, all of these things can be terrific fun. What it means is that the events we watch on stage need to be happening in the present tense. This is the biggest challenge facing any playwright. Plays are often damaged when they are built around conversations revealing things that have happened in the past. These plays are often constructed around the revelation of a big secret, often about four fifths of the way through a play. If they are too strongly constructed around that they won't work. Simply put they will be boring. Audiences will stop watching, regardless of how beautifully or wittily the dialogue is written. Audiences want to watch stuff happening.
Unfortunately this is also the most difficult thing to master. I find it, still, insufferably difficult. I use the same questions, over and over again to help me conquer these difficulties. I always try to build my plays around stories of one character. I try to find a character whose story best dramatises what I want to say. I try to answer the following questions as SPECIFICALLY, HONESTLY and CONCRETELY as possible: What does that character want? (avoid abstractions here - "car keys" is a much better answer than "happiness", if you don't believe me read Sam Shepherd's "True West") What's stopping them from getting what they want? And then what do they DO to get what they want? If you can answer that final question SPECIFICALLY, HONESTLY and CONCRETELY then you should build your scenes around that answer. And then you really do have the makings of a being a playwright.