What is “a play?”

that discussion i’ll leave for another time. for me, what works or doesn’t with these plays — or any plays for that matter — is which ones engage me, which ones make me laugh, make me want to watch them over again, which ones do i find myself thinking about a couple of days later, which ones do i turn to somebody i don’t really know and say “hey, did you just see that?”. for instance, right after i saw the Steppenwolf digital plays i emailed a colleague and said “go watch these Steppenwolf plays right now so we can talk about them”. so, for the sake of the blog, and because you’re my friend Brant, i’ll indulge. sure. i’d love to know what others thought of the these plays, too. here goes:

- Nine-Eleven: i loved how dry a rendering of such a “wet” subject matter it had. it’s rare we’re asked to think about 9/11 devoid of sentiment, and i appreciated that attempt. plus, i think computer voices are oddly effective. to my ear, for some reason, they make words mean different things than human voices.
- Talkback: i’m a playwright. i’m trying to finish a script right now. i laughed like hell. i watched it a second time and laughed even harder. stellar photogenicness by Dave.
- The Blank Before The World: i had to watch it twice to see if i was equally as impressed by the pairing of visual/sound the second time. and i was.

for what it’s worth, i posted a lengthy blog on The Next Theatre’s blogroll back in October (called “She’s Always Got Something Hidden Inside”) about how i found understanding in the week 48 plays; what process i used to get at them. others might find it interesting. also, i posted a blog on the Sandbox Theatre Project blog (called “Won’t You Be My Neighbor”) about how our use of space elucidated the week 34 plays.

What do you think worked about the ones you liked? And feel free to discuss pieces that you didn’t like, as well.

I’m curious about what determines “success” in this new form…

i especially liked Nine-Eleven, Talkback, and The Blank Before The World.

good work, people.