Authors Intentions

>>"You are approaching this discussion as an actor, I as a writer/director and I suspect that most of our differences arise from this." You're right, most of our differences aren't that different. Although actually neither are our approaches. Although I AM an actor, I don't think that's the main influence to my approach here. As an actor I interpret dialogue and impose physicality to my characterisation but only have secondary control over stylistic choices as they evolve in the rehearsal room. I HAVE occasionally been a director. I definitely found myself looking at the text with a view to finding a 'different' or at least a personally satisfying way of delivering it. But I'm always aware of where the author's intent and the director's intent must merge...I never approach with MALICIOUS intent. In your example above, if the political aspect is an essential central issue to the play, I imagine it would be highly unlikely someone would reverse it, even though you say it's possible. But in 60 years' time, when that political context is overshadowed by whatever Orwellian government we have imposed on us at the time...those strong political views may appear quaint and even bemusing, and the director may well need to interpret it in a totally different way than you can foresee now, so as not to make your writing appear farcical...which I'm sure would be your REAL concern. I also approach this discussion as an audience member, who is acutely aware of the power of good writing, the power of good direction, and the possibility of fucking up both. We're all talking about RESULTS; how the end product reflects on those who contributed...and this is ultimately decided from the audience's perspective. And I DO approach this, too, as a writer. I don't have any play scripts to my solo credit, although I have contributed to group devised efforts (which doesn't just mean improvising as an actor, but researching, writing, and editing dialogue, and having quite a strong input into structuring the script as well). Professionally, my main strength would be as a lyricist, and having written the lyrics to a musical which was performed at several international festivals and was then translated for a production in Spanish (!), I am quite aware of the oddness of that feeling that you are 'losing control' of the meaning you specifically crafted into your words! A comical song lyric, with its carefully measured rhythms and rhymes, the onomatopoeia, assonance, alliteration, deliberate phrasing, and reliance on puns and double meaning is probably the most concrete example of an author having a very specific intent with each and every word, and yet the moment it was translated into another language that all went out the window! As the production was directed by the original writer/director (who nonetheless didn't speak Spanish so needed to work through a translator!) I am sure he did his utmost to see that the overall intent of the play was retained. But for me, I had to let it go. They actually used the exact same recorded arrangements of my music, so there was no huge stylistic change, but the precise meaning..? I can only assume they did their best. I really wish I understood Spanish and was able to attend; I would have been fascinated to discover how they coped. The show got good reviews, so I guess it worked well enough. What would be your thoughts if one of your plays was to be translated? Reassured, perhaps, that the overall gist of your intent would remain true, but resigned to the fact that each and every well-crafted sentence would be, of necessity, reinterpreted? It's an interesting slant to this argument! And interesting to think that a lot of the stylistic examples we might be thinking of (Brecht, Chekov, Sophocles, Ibsen...) are only really known to us as translations. And finally, I also approach this argument as a writer, not in any theatrical sense, but as one reading and communicating here on a website blog. I see an argument I'm interested in, and I like to contribute, clarify, contest, compose and compete! Particularly since this argument is all about writers trying to get their point across clearly and every reader responding in their own personal way, I think it's rather a good case in point of the topic we are dealing with! As writers with a precious point to impart, we don't want to let go...but the reality is, once the message has been posted, it's not in our control. Cheers, Craig ~<8>-/====\---------