Authors Intentions

Jessmess, this is a good example to explore. In all the previous discussion, no one's gotten down to specifics, which is why it still seems a vague concept. I think a good rule of thumb in drama is, where possible, 'Show, Don't Tell'. It's a visual, physical medium. Yes of course dialogue is hugely important, but its power is in its efficiency. There is so much you can show the audience before you open your mouth, and that is what subtext is, and that's why we need direction and why we're having most of this discussion in the first place. I agree with you: Mike: You suck, and this makes me feel depressed. is a pretty bad line! It seems to be stating the obvious, unnecessary, and it would be far more powerful for the actor playing Mike to express the emotion in delivery rather than literally. Occasionally the author really wants the character to play the opposite of the way the line reads. So it may be valid to write Mike: (grinning playfully) You suck. which changes the subtext considerably, if this was the author's intent. In your example above, Mike: You suck. (He sighs as the rain begins to pour). is valid in so much as you are painting a picture for the readers of the script. Mike doesn't just feel depressed, but it appears the world around him is joining in to add to the gloom. Now the important point is, this stage direction has now done its job. It stops here. The director and actors get what you are trying to say. So this DOESN'T mean their production now has to have rain effects, or that Mike has to literally sigh after saying the line. You've given a clear subtext, now it's up to the director and actors to reproduce that subtext however they see fit. This is what we mean by interpretation. It could be a mood created with a lighting cue, a music cue, a physical gesture, a facial gesture, a vocal quality, a symbolic way of standing or moving, a sound effect, an audio/visual image projection, drawing attention to a particular prop, changing the physical energy compared to what it was before the line, changing the proximity of actors to each other, it probably can be demonstrated in the ongoing dialogue and how other characters react...there are a myriad of ways to demonstrate a status-change. I have gleaned these examples from a two-word piece of text. With more information from a larger script, there would be more possibilities. Maybe the whole play builds to this moment, maybe it's a recurring theme that can unify other moments in the play. Maybe there is a historical or stylistic or contextual metaphor that could have been utilised. Maybe I turn the sprinklers on in the roof, and the rain actually begins to pour. At no time do I feel I have seriously misinterpreted the author's intention or reinvented the work. But neither do I feel I need to strictly follow the stage direction, if I don't believe it is something the audience needs to see, or can think of another way of expressing it. That stage direction is the author's private note to me as a director, not to the audience. It's to give me a clue as to what intention he had in mind when writing the line. But it's my production, and the audience has come to see my interpretation. I'm not just making these decisions in order to be an arty-farty wanker or show off my ego. I take it the reason many here object to this concept of re-interpretation is because they've seen it botched by such wankers, so let me assure you I dismiss them just as heartily. I'm only talking about GOOD directors, good actors, people who respect the playwright and text but also trust their ability to genuinely create exciting, valid theatre. And in the hands of those types of creative people, this act of interpreting a drama script/blueprint and coming up with a version that is fresh and original is what is exciting about theatre. It's almost the only reason we should bother revisiting a script more than once. And it is understood by good playwrights, who are secure in their work and don't feel threatened by this process of positive collaboration. Cheers, Craig (sighs and looks out the window as the Easter rains begin to pour) ~<8>-/====\---------