Why I Love Writing Plays #21: NOTES

The coversheet for JULIE AND THE STARMAKER with various notes and questions written in red ink with a red pen resting on it.

As most performing artists can attest, notes are an essential element of the development process and I love them! When given with the intention of building up the work (and artist), notes are the hallmark of true collaboration. And in the same spirit of collab, notes should also be questioned at times, especially between artists. And one of the good things about theatre is that several notes can be given and worked on before locking in what truly works for everyone.

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Why I Love Writing Plays #14: HUSTLE

Pictured: The staged reading cast of WELGA with fists raised as performed at Z Below in SF produced by SFSU, Greenhouse Festival.

Normally, this is my least favorite thing about writing plays, but with a change of attitude, I’ve come to appreciate my courage in doing what I need to do to make my name as a playwright. So call it what you will, hustle / network / ~~submit~~ / post, the main objective of being a playwright is to get other theatremakers to put on my play in some capacity. So being able to believe in my work enough to tell others about it is a part of the gig. The belief of “oh, I’ll just write my plays and when someone finds them, they’ll hype them up for me and I’ll get work that way” doesn’t really fly all the time.

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Why I Love Writing Plays #26: MYSTERY

A photo of three book covers for Mian P. Manansala's mystery novels, Arsenic and Adobo, Homicide and Halo-Halo, and Blackmail and Bibingka.

I forgot what book I read this from, but it said something to the effect of, All plays are mysteries. It’s like the author need to always be one step of the audience. As the playwright, one of your jobs is to NOT give everything away. But part of that job is trying to solve the mystery of HOW to put the play together so that it feels like a mystery that the audience solves and will eventually, and hopefully, remember the play after they leave the theater cuz they figured out what was happening. That figuring out part is so hard to do in the writing process and definitely one of the things I love about writing plays.

Pictured: A photo of three book covers for Mia P. Manansala’s mystery novels for the Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery Series: Arsenic and Adobo, Homicide and Halo-Halo, and Blackmail and Bibingka.

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Why I Love Writing Plays #18: IMAGINATION

A fallen angel trying to convince her boss to stay on earth to finish a mission, an axe chopping off the foot of a certain wicked witch, and a wind pointing a princess towards her freedom. These are a few of the things I love about being a playwright: creating worlds for the most unimaginable actions can happen. Sure, writing plays is mostly about the dialogue, but it’s so freeing to be able to write something with the hopes of having a director and designers to take those written directions and create practical magic on stage.

Pictured: A photo of Ramon Abad and his merry band of puppet and theatremakers for the show, PICKLES! at Bindlestiff Studio.

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Why I Love Writing Plays #34: OPPORTUNITY

Step #1: Write Filipinx American plays.

Step #2: Provide Filipinx American actors to PLAY Filipinx Americans in those plays!!!

I think I learned the power of opportunity of this when I was with the Sinag-tala Filipino Performing Arts Associate in Sacramento, CA: give people the opportunity to do something that they wouldn’t normally be able to do on stage. That something is being able to play a Fil-Am character. But in order to provides those opps, I needed to be one of those writers that get to do that! It’s hard enough to get POCs into a theatre to watch a play so I thought, well, if they’re not coming in, then we should give them a reason to come through those doors. My home theatre, Bindlestiff Studio, gives the venue, and playwrights like myself there have been able to provide those stories to give actors the time to hone their craft on that stage… and hopefully will go on to other stages if that wish to continue to share their gifts. Just need that shot.

Pictured: a photo of a scene from my short play, OUR LAST DANCE, written for The Love Edition Short Play Festival at Bindlestiff Studio.

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Why I Love Writing Plays #8: TABLE-READS

Actors getting together to read a first draft of something I write is terrifying and really humbling. The last thing I want to do is get people together to help me out on a play and then having it be so bad that I wasted their time. That’s one of the worst feelings. But at the same time, it’s one of the most motivating things, ESPECIALLY when something gets green-lit for a production. What started out as me, to having 4-5 peeps around a table, to having an entire cast, creative team and crew, and extending that to audiences….! Oh, that’s actually nerve-wracking come to think of it now. Uh… let’s not dwell on that, but think about the amazing times spend at the very first moment on a play with other people.

Pictured: A table-read of my full-length, THE PERFECT AMERICAN. Closet it come to a production was a “on-your-feet” staged reading in Chicago for a festival.

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Why I Love Writing Plays #28: SHARING

More than fame, recognition, and notoriety, I love writing plays because it’s an opportunity to share my work with so many other artists and an audience. It’s probably why I send my plays to other theatremakers with that hope that they’ll like it enough to say, hey! let’s share this play with our community too!

Pictured: a photo of the first read-through of WELGA with the theatre class produced by Cosumnes Oaks High School. Elk Grove, CA.

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Why I Love Writing Plays #20: COMPENSATION

A photo of three envelopes containing playwright compensation with return addresses of theatre companies.

I was debating whether to post this or not and I think that’s a problem! Sometimes, I think of writing as just a hobby. You know, do something you love because it’s something you love doing… like breathing. But as I move further into existence, I’ve come to believe that what I do has VALUE. Of course, it’s awesome to know that my work is appreciated by audiences, but it also means a lot when theatre companies acknowledge the time, effort, craft, and the education I put into writing a play that I get recognized in a tangible and sustainable way. Having the self-respect as an artist in receiving compensation of fair value needs to be recognized and accepted.

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Why I Love Writing Plays #35: AUTHENTICITY

Pictured: two actors, Akiko and Patrick, in my play DEVOTED having an authentic moment on stage about to kiss... or won't they?

The first time I “believed” in theatre was when I acted in a play called WALLS by Jeannie Barroga at Sac City College. It was prolly the 5-6 show of the 3 weekend run so I was starting to get into my character. But that ONE performance was when things locked in and I was saying lines as my character to the other people on stage. I forgot I was on stage and just spoke to the other person. It was just weird… I just felt connected… authentic.

And from that point on, finally knowing what it feels to be connected like that to others on stage, I knew I wanted to keep working at writing plays for other actors to feel that connection with each other. And in turn have the audience also feel connected with them and the message of the play when everything falls away for everyone in that space to be one with each other.

Pictured: two actors, Akiko and Patrick, in my play DEVOTED having an authentic moment.

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Why I Love Writing Plays #25: REPRESENTATION

A photo of a female actor wearing a barber's apron and a male actor sitting in a barber's chair in a short play titled, REMEMBERING THEM, about the power an old barber shop chair to bring back the memories of the manongs who sat in it.

I proudly wear the Filipino American Playwright Identity because I grew up not seeing a lot of people who looked like me or shared my same background represented anywhere else. I went to a conference while in college called, Know History, Know Self… No History, No Self. And in one of the workshops, the attendees talked about representation in media. Back then, I didn’t see many fil-ams on tv as opposed to now. And I think from that workshop, I made it my vow to write more parts for Fil-Am actors to represent the lives of our stories.

Pictured: a short play titled, REMEMBERING THEM, about the power an old barber shop chair to bring back the memories of the manongs who sat in it.

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Why I Love Writing Plays #37: SURPRISES

It’s taken me a while to think of another reason than the other 36, of why I Love Writing Plays, but being away from writing anything creative has reminded me of one: being surprised!

There’s absolutely nothing like being in “the flow” of writing when a character takes over my fingers and starts to say things I never even thought they would say or go. Or if I’ve already outlined everything that’s going to happen, a character does something to change the direction of the scene or entire play. Luckily, I’ve been writing long enough to embrace those surprises! Being a control freak, those instances could be maddening, and in real life, those times would drive me up the wall, but in the creative safe space between the margins of a Final Draft page riding on a floating cursor, those surprise journeys makes writing the story really enjoyable.

Also, those are the times when I feel like I’m more than the person I am. I don’t know what I did to have those “superpowers” of storytelling, but I’m truly grateful for those moments.

Pictured: a photo of a scene from my play, JULIE AND THE STARMAKER, written for The Kwento Times Full-Length Play Reading Festival at Bindlestiff Studio.

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