Well it’s over… for now. On Sunday, I had the first public reading of my play, GARDEN OF DREAMS. I was nervous as fuck, but i got through it okay.
LESSONS LEARNED
– LISTEN TO YOUR ACTORS – A concern was brought to attention by one of the actors. He was having some trouble getting out some of the lines because they read melodramatic. Unfortunately, being the writer with blinders on, I couldn’t see it myself. He was absolutely RIGHT. What he calls ‘melodramatic’ I call ‘barf dialogue’. You know when watch something campy, and we see someone saying something utterly romantic or over-the-top that it makes you want to throw up in your mouth. Well, that’s what I had in my script by that character.
– OFFENSIVE ACCENT – An audience member came up to me telling me that 1) he liked the whistling device I used and 2) he found it offensive for someone to fake an Filipino accent. I told him that I appreciated his honesty. I’m not going to take that part out! but I will add on to Lisa’s character as a reaction to the use of this accent. It’s my hope that this is a powerful action by her as to how using this accent can be offensive to people. It was in the play for a reason, and I’m glad someone caught it, but lemme flip it on its ear to teach a lil sumn-sumn.
– DON’T BUTTER UP MY ACTORS – I did this. I’m not taking it back because whether they know it or not, they helped make one of my dreams come true. But moving forward, I’ll try and refrain from doing this publicly, but to let them know of this in a more private manner will work just as effectively.
Luckily, I have the reading on videotape which I’ll try to review tonight and come up with more notes to post here.
hello!!! first off, thanks for letting me be a part of this. it was an experience i haven’t had since GRADE school–hahaha!i had a question though because i feel bad about it, but what part did Lisa fake a Filipino accent? was it the Pacquiao line???
hi! it wasn’t your character with the accent. it was Moon. and that was on purpose to show my dislike for how filipino ‘elders’ use the accent by ‘young’ filipinos for comic effect in PCNs. my re-write will have Lisa being REALLY upset that R.J. wrote this in the script because she knows that’s what would’ve upset her lola. It’s a great addition to add another layer to the character.You did an awesome job and I loved having you as an ACTOR!
aahhh… ok. at first, i thought, ah shooot… it was the Pacquiao line. then again, Pacquiao speaks worse than what i did. i could have done an impression of him, but it would have been very WRONG 9regardless of what the truth is, hehehe).THANKS!