Your Stock Photo is Distracting

Posted on 2012/12/03 by Jason Hensel

I recently saw a story online that says “Broadway plays written by women earn on average 18% more than those written by men.” It was a nice, short informative piece, and it raised the question of why aren’t more women playwrights produced on Broadway.

However, right before the story starts, there’s a stock photo of a woman looking at money. A woman in a jacket. A women with no shirt underneath that jacket. Take a look:

Of all the stock images out there in the world, why choose the one that features a shirtless female? It’s distracting. And yes, maybe it’s distracting because I’m a male. Still, to write a story about gender inequality and then post a picture that plays right into that is thoughtless.

Then again, maybe it was done on purpose, because sex sells. Either way, I found the dichotomy between the story and the image amusing, and a great reminder that when choosing photos, make sure they fit the theme of the story.

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Act One, Scene Two

Posted on 2012/05/02 by Jason Hensel

I fly to San Francisco this weekend to participate in a really cool festival produced by the Un-Scripted Theater Co. called “Act One, Scene Two.” It’s a show that’s one part scripted and nine parts improvised.

The site explains it best:

Here’s how “Act One, Scene Two” works: each performance is a collaboration with a different playwright. At the beginning of the show, we interview our featured playwright onstage to find out what makes him or her tick. Then, that evening’s actors do a cold “staged” reading of act one, scene one of the play, which was written for us by our playwright. When we finish the scripted portion, the actors continue on to finish the play — now un-scripted — starting from act one, scene two.

The goal is to finish the play as it might have been intended, continuing to honor the genre, style, and intent of the first scripted scene, creating a piece that causes everyone — playwright, audience, and actors — great delight.

And they don’t just finish the play in 20 or so minutes. It’s a full show, 90 to 120 minutes. All of that is improv. Based off my 10-page intro scene. Yeah, I know. Cool, right?

I’ll have to try out this whole mobile blogging thing and update from the road. Or maybe I’ll get so wrapped up in it all and just give a recap. Either way, I’m excited.

If you’re reading this and in the San Francisco area, please come out on Saturday, May 5, to the Phoenix Theater (414 Mason St, SF – 6th floor) at 8 p.m. for the show. It’ll be fun. Afterwards, we’ll get a drink.

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Review: The Night Season

Posted on 2011/11/21 by Jason Hensel

Ah, the family drama. What’s more fun than to learn about others, and what’s more disappointing than finding out that they’re just like you? I guess that’s the beauty of universal truths. Not handled well, though, these truths can drive you mad with boredom.

This is the case with The Night Season, by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, a play meandering for truth and completion. And what it does find is no different that what is found in hundreds of other stories. Some will welcome the familiarity. For others, knowing how it concludes before arriving at the end is an exercise in patience and concentration.

In the play, we witness a family drama set in Sligo, Ireland, which was once home for poet W.B. Yeats. Lenkiewicz–inspired by Yeats’ work–doesn’t handle language or image quite as well as her muse. However, like Yeats, she’s earnest with her ideas.

The family consists of three sisters (Judith, Rose, and Maud), a single father (Patrick), and a grandmother (Lily). The mother is never seen and living off in London, having left the family 15 years ago. This is the family’s underlying angst. Their need for love manifests itself in several ways. Rose sleeping with a visiting actor (playing Yeats…yes, Yeats, in a movie), Judith’s on again off again affair with Gary, and Maud’s care for her absent husband are the three most blatant examples. Patrick’s interest in a bartender with big breasts and Lily’s childlike adoration for the actor add levity to a play carrying a lot of woe-is-me weight.

Though filled with stock characters (e.g., the flighty grandmother, the drunken dad) and clichéd scenes (I won’t give away the ending), the writing’s structure is interesting enough to keep you reading. In fact, it feels like a screenplay, with quick, short scenes and various locations throughout its pages.

That’s actually what this play needs, to be made into a movie. If so, it will do well on Lifetime, where its tale of unrequited love would fit right in with that network’s programming.

With The Night Season, we have a so-so play by a promising writer whose ideas are still finding a foundation. Let’s just hope in the future, it’s one we haven’t seen before.

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Review: In a Forest, Dark and Deep

Posted on 2011/10/25 by Jason Hensel

Neil LaBute is my favorite contemporary playwright. His style, his subjects, his view of the world all appeal to me for reasons I’ve yet to figure out for myself. While I wouldn’t give all his plays five stars, most of them deserve that much praise.

In a Forest, Dark and Deep, however, is not one of those. It’s the worst LaBute play I’ve ever read, with its lack of nuance and its overt narrative cliches reminding me of rookie scripts in a playwriting 101 course. Seriously, LaBute, you’re going to put in thunder and lightning to mirror the storm between the characters? That’s bush league.

The two-character play focuses on a brother-sister relationship. The brother, Bobby, comes to a cabin in the woods to help his sister, Betty, clear it out for some new tenets. Throughout the play, we learn more about Betty and the cabin and her real purpose for being there. But the story is so predictable, because in our crime drama-driven world, you’re able to pick up the clues if you have half a brain and give it a 10th of your attention.

And how does LaBute lead you to the conclusion? Through pages and pages of arguing and yelling. Now maybe this is the improv side of me coming out, but I’m tired of arguing in scenes. I’m tired of seeing it, hearing it and participating in it. It’s more fun to engage in conflict subtly. LaBute is great at that, or has been in the past. I don’t why or how he lost his cool in this play.

LaBute writes in the intro

We miss the missing. It’s a simple enough concept, I suppose–when someone has made an impact on our lives and then they’re gone, we long for them and what it was that made them special.

What makes LaBute special is his subtly, his finely tuned dialogue full of understated tension, the way he keeps you cringing but eager to continue watching disaster unfold. Let us hope soon it is that talented LaBute who returns from the missing.

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One Day Only 17

Posted on 2011/06/302011/09/27 by Jason Hensel

I did it again. I participated in Rover Dramawerks‘ One Day Only festival. It was my second time to be a writer for the event, and it went really well.

The short play I wrote is called “‘Fraid,” and the acting and direction were really well done. The whole process of putting on a play in 24 hours can be stressful, frustrating and bewildering. In the end, though, it’s a rewarding experience for all involved.

Tetra Media Group filmed the plays, and below is mine. I hope you enjoy it.

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One Day Only: Part 3, The Show

Posted on 2011/02/212011/09/27 by Jason Hensel

Busted poster — Poster for my play, "Busted," at the One Day Only Festival

I saw my 10-minute play, “Busted,” on Saturday night as part of Rover Dramawerks‘ One Day Only festival. This is the first time anything was performed for an audience that I had written. It turned out great.

I was concerned that what I had in mind, as far as how the dialog should be delivered and how the characters should act, would not come through to the director. That was a needless worry; the director, Ashley White, did a wonderful job. The actors were great, too. The casting was just who I had in mind for the roles.

My play seemed to be shorter than the others. Maybe it was, or maybe I was just concentrating on it so much that time went by quicker. I was confused during one part of the night, because my play was supposed to be the first one after the intermission. It ended up being moved to the second to last play of the night. Nothing wrong with that.

One thing I learned is to make sure I include specific technical directions in the script. For example, I envisioned a quick lights out at the end; however, the play ended with a slow fade out. That’s not a huge issue, though. I just think that a quicker lights out would have made the last line pop more.

I had a great experience participating in the festival, and I’m planning on doing it again in June. I’m not sure if it was recorded (Rover recorded shows from the last one); but if it was, as soon as a copy is available I’ll post it on here.

Now, I need to write more plays and get them on stage.

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Writing at the One Day Only Festival

Posted on 2011/02/19 by Jason Hensel

I wrote my 10-minute play last night for Rover Dramawerks‘ One Day Only festival. After a meet-in-greet that included a speed-bonding exercise, we writers were stationed with laptops as the directors and actors went home.

The suggestion I drew from the hat was, “When I go walking I strut my stuff. I just might stop to check you out.” Ah, the Violent Femmes, a band I hadn’t listen to in a long time. It made me want to listen to them as I was writing my script; however, I didn’t bring my headphones with me. A couple of the other writers did; that was smart. Another writer changed into soft pants. Maybe smart?

I wrote my script first in long-hand. I kept remembering what my playwriting teacher kept telling me–overwrite at first, then cut. Writing it out long-hand really helped with the pruning round, because when I started to type, I automatically started cutting out lines and merging dialog.

In a 10-minute play, it’s hard to, as people say in improv, burn the leaves (really exploring a topic for awhile). I could have done that; however, I wanted to make sure I told a story while at the same time defining the relationship between the two main characters. I realize, in the end, my script may be brisk.

What I ended up writing about, and what I put as the play’s synopsis, is how being noticed carries a price. There’s some physical fighting between two women, some cattiness throughout, and, I hope, some questions raised about what it means to be noticed in the world and why one would or wouldn’t want to be noticed.

I think that’s a topic that can be explored in a future, longer play. I’ll be keeping it in my back pocket, for sure.

The writing experience was fun. I’m looking forward to watching all the plays tonight. It will be interesting to see how my play is brought alive by others and how they interpret the theme.

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One Day Only Festival

Posted on 2011/02/18 by Jason Hensel

I’m participating tonight in something I’ve been wanting to do for years—taking part in Rover Dramawerks‘ One Day Only festival.

I’ve either been out of town or forgetful about signing up the last couple of years. This year, though, I made sure I was at my computer at the correct sign-in time. I had trouble signing up at first; the website wasn’t refreshing in my Chrome browser. I switched over to Firefox and made the cut, no problem.

The One Day Only festival brings together seven playwrights, seven directors, and approximately 40 actors. I’m participating as a playwright. I go to the theater tonight at 9 p.m. and work on an original 10-minute play throughout the evening until 5:30 a.m. The directors and actors arrive early in the morning and work on the plays all day, which are then presented at 8 p.m.

I’m not sure what my theme/suggestion will be (it will be drawn from a hat), so I’m not certain what kind of story I’ll write. I’m not worried, though, because I’m primarily there to have fun and experience the energy of producing a festival of plays in a 24-hour period.

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