How does your play push the boundaries of theater?
I’m submitting to Inkwell again this year, and they asked some questions that I must have missed last year. I submitted “Magician’s Apprentice”, and was asked to describe how this play pushes the boundaries of theater…
I think I may have responded with the end result in mind, not my current draft..
There are three ways that I believe this play pushes the current boundaries of theater.
One is the cast size. I try to keep the amount of characters in my play to only the most essential. This play has three character, the last had three, and the only I’m currently working-on has four. This allows me to address the superficial parts early, and really spend time digging into the character’s philosophical goals, their feelings towards eachother, and the desires that make them HAVE to speak at this moment.
Second is the philosophical meaning behind this play. Many writer’s portray their characters as deeply-flawed and seeking redemption. The characters may make a mistake at the beginning that they spend the rest of the play compensating for, or they search for a piece of their life that is missing. My protagonists don’t function like that. I take Ayn Rand’s point of view, that the purpose of art is to display people as they should be, the ideal. Ruth (my protagonist) is a hero, who knows exactly what she wants. It is other people who get in her way, and the audience watches her dispatch them. It is the surety of the hero versus those who want to suck the hero to their level. I see this play as a character proudly walking forward, assured of her steps, as opposed to a flawed individual, tripping and apologizing on his path to redeem himself.
Third is the theatrical conventions I employ in this play. This is a play about magicians, and stage magic. As a result, I use magic tricks which can be used either literally, or theatrically. In scene 1, Ruth performs a disappearing-rod trick, which is a simple one to do. As the play goes on, she hides her sister in a table (the Vanishing Man), this is a trick which can either be done literally or theatrically. I think that a play which uses magic is something which can provide a very powerful experience.
