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Thread: Why would you want to read a play?

  1. #31
    Registered User kelby_lake's Avatar
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    To person who asked the question- why are you an actor then? You speak about plays so coldly and imply that reading them is a chore. Reading bad plays is a chore, like reading bad books, but here are some of the pluses of reading a play:
    1- No longwinded descriptions (you can make up what the characters look like)
    2- Better dialogue
    3- More dramatic/emotional
    4- Quick to read
    5- Better characters
    You can read a play after watching it to see how you would have staged it. What's wrong with reading a play? Plays have stories like novels do.

    And all the stuff about Shakespeare being old-fashioned: that's because he's a poet! that's why the words are like that and many of the speeches from his plays are known (or put down as) poems

    Read a play by Miller or Williams. It's like reading a very good novel but shorter.

    And read the plays all the way through so you can see how your character should act/speak.




    I love reading plays

  2. #32
    Plays aren't always even written for only the stage. Strinberg's Miss Julie had a preface which basically outlined his entire play and what it meant - his ideas on women and how they ruin men. (needless to say, his thoughts are extremely sexist).

    Goethe's Faust, especially Part Two, is almost never produced, and almost always read because of it's complexity on all levels.

  3. #33
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    i like shakespeare for the puns....but truly he is not my favorite...i agree with an earlier post about trying arthur miller or tennessee maybe. these really only feel uncomfortable for about a page. shakespeare feels uncomfortable because he coined words, he punned all the time, he referenced so many antique plays. he is the master by due right, though
    Last edited by lakeside_girl; 04-06-2008 at 03:48 PM.

  4. #34
    Registered User kelby_lake's Avatar
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    Shakespeare is harder to read because it is essentially poetry and he is more fussed with language than conveying an instruction. Nevertheless he is good- but only to read aloud or watch

  5. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by stlukesguild View Post

    While experiencing a play performed has sometimes given me a certain insight into how a phrase or grouping might flow... into how the words mesh with the action... I also find that I cannot catch all of Shakespeare's incredible word-play... that I cannot get my mind around some of his more cognitively challenging bits of poetry... that I miss out on the manner in which a certain image or concept runs through a piece like a theme in a piece of music if I cannot take my time... go back... re-read at my own pace and not that established by the director or actor.
    Yes, this is the same with me and I only fully enjoy watching a Shakespeare play that I am very familiar with. Even then I personally enjoy reading the plays over watching a production, despite the fact they were originally intended to be performed.

    I think this has more to do with me being more of a "reader" than a theatre goer, I rarely really enjoy a theatre performance as much as I do with a book, often little things bother me during the production: acting, stage set, annoying woman behind me rattling things, too hot, too cold, etc, my mind is rarely absorbed fully into the production to appreciate the performance and then I seem to find fault with things. Strange that I don't feel this way about film? Though I can't think of very many Shakespeare film productions that have really done much for me on film either.

    For me the beauty and power of Shakespeare comes through in the words and they don't need anything else.

  6. #36
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    Seriously, I've never heard anyone actually say that plays aren't meant to be read. A play in nothing less than a book, when it comes to literary value. It is different from a book because it has two aspects: the original text and its interpretation by the director and the actors.
    If one decides to read the original, he will
    a. have time to reread, understand and savour the play
    b. be reading the actual play, without any distortions or alterations made by the director and his colleagues.

    A play is a work of art that is meant both to be read and to be seen. To master a play completely you have to not only see it over and over, but to read it as well.

  7. #37
    Registered User kelby_lake's Avatar
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    I heartily agree. A lot of the time I prefer reading plays. Some make for fascinating reading.

  8. #38
    No longer confused... Lioness_Heart's Avatar
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    I like reading Shakespeare because there are too many bad productions. I hate coming out of them with that disappointment, because it spoils the whole play for me. But when you read them, you can decide everything about how it's 'performed', there's no bad acting... you can make it perfect.
    "The magic gave me insight, and you gave me a heart, but for all the heart and insight in the world, I am still a cat."

  9. #39
    Bibliophile JBI's Avatar
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    I would prefer to see every play I read, but that cannot be arranged, so I make do. Seriously though, it's a relatively strong literary form onto itself.

  10. #40
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    Yea, but how often do you get a chance to see Cymbeline or Coriolanus: about once every 10 years if lucky, which is sad. Same with Ibsen. Almost nobody does his lesser-talked-about plays, but they can all work to perfection. When was the last time you ever head mention of "John Gabiel Borkman"?

  11. #41
    Registered User kelby_lake's Avatar
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    A lot of plays are performed badly. Orpheus Descending is fantastic to read but didn't seem to work on film.

  12. #42
    Registered User DapperDrake's Avatar
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    "Why would you want to read a play? "

    Not all plays read badly, take Oscar Wilde for example, it's easy for anyone to read his plays and enjoy them without even giving second thought to the fact that they are plays. Yes a play should ideally be seen in theatre but that doesn't mean they can't be enjoyed on the page.
    Suicide carried off many. Drink and the devil took care of the rest. - R L Stevenson

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  13. #43
    Then dawns the Invisible Psycheinaboat's Avatar
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    When I read a play, especially a good one that engrosses me completely, I can see the players and scenes so crisply in my head. It is sometimes better than watching a play being performed by others.
    If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.
    - Emma Goldman

  14. #44
    Skol'er of Thinkery The Comedian's Avatar
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    I'd rather read a play than see one performed. For me it's a control thing -- in reading a play, I control the stage, character appearance, backgrounds, etc. . .in watching a play, I can never quite get past the fact that that I see people pretending to be other people on a stage.

  15. #45
    Registered User kelby_lake's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DapperDrake View Post
    Not all plays read badly, take Oscar Wilde for example, it's easy for anyone to read his plays and enjoy them without even giving second thought to the fact that they are plays. Yes a play should ideally be seen in theatre but that doesn't mean they can't be enjoyed on the page.
    If you can't read the play and enjoy it, it's a bad play. It has to be emotional and visual enough in its writing to be able to perform it well.
    Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? makes for fabulous reading

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