Tag: Wipe Away

Greetings from Heatwave 2010: July Edition:

WIPE AWAY is, a single line change aside, frozen.  My work as the playwright is pretty much complete.  It is an odd feeling – living and breathing these characters for weeks and months (and in this case, YEARS), and now becoming much more of an observer in the process.  But Jessica and Thomas are creating a Gina and Travis all their own at this point, and it’s exciting to swoop in every other day or so and see how the play is growing in their performances.  What I am most surprised by is how much I’ve discovered about the two shadow characters in the play, Dustin and Ray.  Each set of actors must create these unseen characters in their interactions with each other onstage, and I’ve learned some surprising new twists about them by watching these actors.

Re our director, Nick – I marvel at how artfully he is able to communicate with the actors.  It’s a tricky business, directing plays.  You can’t give away all the secrets you’ve discovered in the script, yet you must be open to what the actors bring to the table and flexible to allow change.  It’s all about change, and Nick is able to roll with those much more gracefully than I.  Thank God I have the pages of my script to clutch!

Heading into more rehearsals/run-throughs and no more rewrites!  I can’t wait to see the mailboxes – rusted or otherwise.

Hello friends,

So last night was our first* rehearsal with the new trimmed version of the script; WIPE AWAY has morphed into all sorts of lengths and configurations over the years (along with a barrage of titles) and this new version is a good 9-10 pages shorter than the one submitted to Samuel French. My concerns when rewriting are always about maintaining texture and character while getting to the point faster and more clearly than before. For this draft, I feel like I have about four spots in the play that still need a deeper emotional dive; thank goodness I have these actors and this director to help guide me towards them.

I LOVE hearing work read aloud, and Jessica and Thomas are already bringing the characters to life in a way that’s compelling and real; further rewrites will involve their voices and cadences and inflections: the way Thomas’ vowel sounds are stronger that most, for example. And the way Jessica’s laugh is already morphing into a dark siren call.

First week of rehearsal is always nerve-wracking and tense; I found today to be an awfully steep hill to climb. But we made some changes last night, the changes have been implemented and pdf-ed, and now off they go into the wilds of rehearsal. I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with “on their feet.”