workshopping scripts

I said this in another thread, but I can't keep my pretty little blonde head, out of discussions on writer/directors cause I eat sleep and breath it at the moment. The first play I directed was not, the first play I had written or been staged (although many were not aware of this.) It went to the festivals and recieved lots of positive and constructive feedback. Before this I had workshopped it extensively--and more interestingly each bit of adjudication and feedback contradicted the last. Till the point I had no idea what to do with it. Oddly enough, the 'direction' was never criticised, so as to whether mad hatters like me should be directing their own work who knows. As to the feedback. I couldn't possibly do what was suggested. Not without the play turning quickly schizophrenic, there were just too many opposing viewpoints. In the end I realised however they were all about the same part of the play. No one liked the end. So although I decided to ignore the solutions offered, I took a very long hard look at the problem, and rewrote the end. That same play went on to be shortlisted in the national inscription awards, top thirty out of three hundred plays and has subsequently been published. I am convinced it would not have happened if I hadn't listened to my feedback. And if I had put it through Stages...who knows? At the end of the day it's still not perfect, and I could end up rewriting that same play for the rest of my life if I'm not careful! By the way Johnny, I enjoyed your play more and more with each subsequent re-watching. I thought the characters were very well constructed and consistent, and enjoyed the balance between the drama and the comedy. I didn't think it was an editing problem, but maybe a plot construction issue. The first act was all exposition, enjoyable exposition, but I would have liked to have seen a clear protaganist and a bit more tension. The second act however was much better than the first, which is impressive, and that fight scene was brilliant. To the post about never seeing 'imaginative directors' in community theatre, you haven't been to see Bannockburn!