Due to circumstances beyond out control (namely, an upcoming Lady Gaga concert), the world premiere of INTOXICATED here in Singapore has been moved to 31 July 2012.
Please adjust your calendars accordingly. 
"Intoxicated" actors Gareth Prosser and Earl Mallari
After finally completing the script, it was time to take off my Playwright hat and put on my Director hat. It’s a weird feeling. On one hand, there’s a particular image that I have in my head as I’m writing the play; on the other hand, I have to completely ignore all that while directing it. The best way I’ve found to be able to deal with this disconnect is to trust my actors.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve had onstage experience, but I’ve found that, generally speaking, an actor’s instinct on how to play a part shouldn’t be ignored. This became more clear to me when my actors and I had a couple of sessions where all we did was talk about their characters. We went through everything from the little, seemingly insignificant details to the major character traits and decisions made in the play. It was a fascinating and enlightening experience. My actors Earl and Gareth provided a lot of insight into their characters based on how they read into the script. Some of it matched what I had in my head, but some things, I never even thought about or considered.
By the end, we’d taken the play into a completely different place. The input from my actors helped elevate the play to another level. It was a fantastic experience, and definitely got me more excited about working with Earl and Gareth. I knew that they were both thinking actors, that they could put something interesting and special into their characters. Gareth even brought up writing a character bio without my prompting. It definitely showed me that I could trust my actors with this material. The play and its characters were definitely in capable hands.
It was clear that the “character-building” sessions did their job. The next read-through we did was a lot more informed, a lot more exciting, and a lot more interesting as a result. The play was definitely shaping up.
“Intoxicated.” A new play by Ren Robles. Starring Earl Mallari and Gareth Prosser. Coming May 2012.
Have you liked Roofdeck Productions yet?
Writing a play, at least in my experience, is a collaborative effort. Sure, it’s my name that you’ll find beside the Playwright credit of whatever play I write, but the end product is more often than not the result of various consultations and script readings with numerous people. I, of course, have final editorial say on what goes in the script, but it’s good to have other eyes and opinions to help me along.
As I mentioned previously, “Intoxicated” isn’t new material. It has never been staged, but it was completed a few years ago… or at least, a version of it was completed a few years ago. Indeed, when I last did a reading of the script (back in Manila), the general consensus was that it was stage-ready. Cut to Singapore, a couple of years later. In search of something new to stage, I dug out the script and decided it needed an update.
Before we even started with the first read-through, I sent the script to one of my friends so he could read it with fresh eyes and give me his comments. He came back to me with a number of comments; some were useful, while others were to be kept in the back of my mind when we did the reading.
Probably more helpful for me as a writer was the read-through. The success of this play lies mainly in its dialogue. It may look good on paper and in my head, but it’s a totally different experience actually hearing and listening to how it sounds. When I had my cast read the play twice, it was easier to notice things like clunky sentence construction, unnecessarily wordy dialogue, and annoying repetition of words. One could perhaps get away with these on the written page, but as it is meant to be a staged production, it needed to be fixed.
"FIX THIS!" sums up what rewriting is like.
Following that session, it was time for some much needed rewriting. My best friends were a black marker and a pencil. Some bits of dialogue were reworded or deleted entirely. A few lines were added, some spurred on by suggestions from my cast. When that was done, it was time for a second read-through session. The play was tighter and flowed better, and only needed a couple of minor edits. One final read-through last Sunday sealed the deal.
final read-through with MacBooks: because printed scripts are too mainstream
So for now, I’m done writing and rewriting “Intoxicated.” I’m now satisfied with it enough to move on to the next phase of production: Staging.
Yesterday was an exciting day for me, as it marked the beginning of another new journey as far as my creative side was concerned. I had the first script read-through of my latest one-act play, Intoxicated, with my cast.
Intoxicated isn’t actually all that new. It was first completed at least four years ago, but it was never staged. After staging All I Want here in Singapore in August 2011, I wanted to put up another one-act play. Intoxicated was the most polished out of the remaining completed scripts, so that was the most logical choice to work on.
The first thing that needed to be done was rewrite it. The original play felt like it was written a lifetime ago, and after a whole bunch of new experiences, it was time not just for myself but for the characters and situations in the play to grow up a little. The most major change was that the characters went from being college students to working adults. Lines had to be tweaked here and there, and even some names were changed. The overall core of the play was still the same, though.
Next was casting. With such a depth of talent to be found at work, the problem wasn’t finding people to play the parts. It was figuring out who would be a good fit for the play, who I thought would work well together, etc. It was tough, and I honestly wish I could cast pretty much everyone I work with (gotta write more, then). To make a long story short, I picked two people, sent them the script, and happily, both agreed to do it. I’m proud to present the stars of the show, Earl Mallari and Gareth Prosser:
Yesterday marked the official start of the production process. Like All I Want last year, I’ll be writing and directing this one. Unlike All I Want, I don’t have previous productions to refer to, so this is all new territory. But before we could start actually staging the play, I wanted to make sure the script was up to my standards. Hence, the first read-through. It was also be a great way to get my cast together and see whether or not this would actually work. I’m happy to say that Earl and Gareth are more than up to the task ahead.
As for the script, while a lot of things worked, the read-through also exposed some flaws, which I’ll be addressing in the rewrite. We also came up with a couple of ideas that could work. So now comes the rewriting and editing stage, and maybe after a few more read-throughs, we’ll have the final working script.
As it stands, it feels good to be working on something new! I’m excited about this little project, and when we finally stage it, I hope you’ll be there in the audience as excited as I am.