CHRIS LEYVA
  • Home
  • Plays
    • Plays For Adults
    • Plays For Young Audiences
  • Podcast
  • About

Out of the Comfort Zone

10/11/2014

0 Comments

 
PictureMy son, Jack, my wife, and me with "Real Thomas" in Lebanon, OH.
I'm currently working on three projects: a screenplay with my writing partner, a play that will (hopefully) be performed at the Columbus School for Girls, and a play for children. Two of them, the screenplay and the children's play, are a bit out of my comfort zone. I have written screenplays (my writing partner and I have written two others together), but I'm still not comfortable with them. People talk about how a play is verbal and a screenplay is visual, but is that it? For me, a screenplay feels like writing prose or a novel, but writing a play feels like, well, writing a play... Or maybe more like poetry. In a screenplay, you have to completely show every detail possible and make sure that the reader can see your characters and settings with great clarity. Writing a screenplay feels like I'm writing stage directions in an O'Neill play. I don't write O'Neill plays. So, stretching my detailed action lines and descriptions has been a great exercise. I still feel as though I'm not myself when writing a screenplay, that I'm wearing some kind of skin over my skin as I write. Maybe that will change with practice, but, for now, that's what it feels like.

The children's play comes from an experience my son had seeing Revenge of the Space Pandas by David Mamet as performed for CATCO is Kids here in Columbus. My wife and I thought that he'd enjoy it. He was almost 2 at the time and is pretty adventurous and enjoys interactive things. However, the play spooked him. The lights and sound was a bit too much for him and my wife had to leave with him. The director, the kind Joe Bishara (who directed the reading of my play Books & Bridges), found my wife and Jack in the lobby and comforted him. Joe even invited Jack into the booth to watch the show, separated by the glass.

Joe and I had lunch some time after that (Jack had turned 2) and he asked if I'd be interested in writing a play that could be possibly performed in the future by CATCO is Kids. He said that Jack's reaction to Space Pandas made him wonder if I could write a play that would be enjoyable for kids Jack's age, something that he would enjoy and not freak him the hell out (my words). So, I'm in the midst of wondering what story could I tell that this kid who loves (seriously, LOVES) Thomas the Tank Engine and Abby Cadabby and Daniel Tiger and running and jumping would enjoy. That pic is from his birthday. Thomas was actually in Ohio. On his birthday. It was amazing. It looks like we're in front of a green screen, but no, Thomas, ("Real Thomas" as Jack calls him), is really there! 

Here are some things that I know the play would have to entail:
  • Music
  • Dancing
  • Interaction
  • No crazy lights
  • No loud noises (scary ones)
  • HUMOR
  • HEART

I've written a couple of children's plays before, but those were exercises. They weren't ever planned as something to be performed. Actually, I've also written some plays that were performed on Christmas Eve for family services. But this play is different. This would be a 45 minute play, not a 7-10 minute play. I'm out of my comfort zone on it, but I'm excited to try it. I have a couple of ideas, but they're not quite fully cooked. 

I'm, at the moment, concentrating on the Columbus School for Girls play: Persephone (Not the title). I've laid out a lot of the plot and have even written some really awful jokes that may or may not make it to the first draft. Oh, and there's at least one Eddie Izzard reference. So far. 

What are you working on right now? What are you struggling with? Are you out of your comfort zone? if you are, be brave and take some hot chocolate. It's getting cold. 

Take care of yourselves and be excellent to each other.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Archives

    September 2018
    May 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    Much Older Archives

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Acting
    Alliance Theatre
    Auditions
    August Osage County
    Authorship
    Bathtime
    Book
    Breaking Bad
    Caryl Churchill
    CATCO
    Children's Theatre
    Collaboration
    Columbus Theatre
    Columbus Theatre
    Copyright
    Cowgirls Don't Ride Zebras
    Day Job
    Dialogues With Lars
    Directing
    Ending
    Fatherhood
    Hamilton
    Iowa
    Irene
    Joss Whedon
    Leak
    Little Shop Of Horrors
    Marketing
    Musical
    New Play
    Not There Anymore
    Outline
    Persephone
    Play
    Playwriting
    Popeye
    Prestige
    Process
    Rebecca Gilman
    Rehearsal
    Roger Rabbit
    Sacred Space
    Submission
    Synopsis
    Theatre
    The Woman
    Tony Kushner
    Woman Studies
    Work Life Balance

Home

Plays

About

Contact

Copyright © 2020
  • Home
  • Plays
    • Plays For Adults
    • Plays For Young Audiences
  • Podcast
  • About