One must let the play happen to one; one must let the mind loose to respond as it will, to receive impressions, to sense rather than know, to gather rather than immediately understand.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I get the impression sometimes that a play arrives in a sequence of events that I have no control over.
In the first place, it must be remembered that our point of view in examining the construction of a play will not always coincide with that which we occupy in thinking of its whole dramatic effect.
Sometimes it's learning how the play wants to function rather than imposing something on it. For me, that's the thrill in directing.
For my part, I confess I seldom listen to the players: one has so much to do, in looking about and finding out one's acquaintance, that, really, one has no time to mind the stage. One merely comes to meet one's friends, and show that one's alive.
You instinctively discover how to entertain an audience.
Acted drama requires surrender of one's self, sympathetic absorption in the play as it develops.
You write a play mostly out of yourself. There's a need to get a certain thing down.
To play is to act out and be willful, exultant and committed, as if one is assured of one's prospects.
The whole thing about writing a play is that it's all about controlling the flow of information traveling from the stage to the audience. It's a stream of information, but you've got your hand on the tap, and you control in which order the audience receives it and with what emphasis, and how you hold it all together.
A play should give you something to think about. When I see a play and understand it the first time, then I know it can't be much good.