A sketch is a sketch
Argherargherargh. Late night blogging: the Sunday night affliction.
A sketch is a ‘sketch’, just like charcoal on paper. It’s a few bold strokes, a lattice of jokes, on which to hang behavior. I can’t count the sketch shows I’ve seen where the skeleton was sexy but the meat was missing. IATAS: It’s About The Acting, Stupid. People don’t come to theater (yes, including comedy theaters) to watch you read from the words you’ve memorized in your head — theater is a ritual of the moment, an invocation of the Holy Now-thank-god-these-people-are-living-in-the-moment-so- I-can-take-my-mind-off-my-life-for-one-blessed-minute. A sketch is an excuse to live fully. It’s the Official-Looking Documents we wave around so we can steal the Ferrari and get the hell out of there.
Specifics are good, yes. But they are less important than living in the moment. Write good excuses that’ll keep the censor in your head occupied while you have some fun.
I think from now on I’m going to work backwards when I write sketches. From the emotion to the behavior to the excuses. ‘Intellect following emotion,’ Eno said. Here, here.
Sketch, just like life, is not a process of refinement towards the absolute. Live fully before the paint dries.
Which is to say, leave some room to wiggle your ass. Argherargherargh.
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June 21st, 2004 at 8:14 am
I am with you Danny Wincks. First you have to make sure a scene makes sense at an emotionally logical level. Does each beat follow from the last? And to get at this it is good to play the scene without exact dialogue, just to get the sense of it. (In commedia dell’arte style shows, you never pin down exactly the dialogue, you just work on the flow of beats and finding a way to motivate that flow in the performance). Then I think it is good to sharpen the pencil and think about exact wording. Start with a good structure, then dress it as you please.