Why can't we all write a Warhorse?

[breakinglight11]

One thing that I found really frustrating during residency was the constant hammering of the notion of keeping your play as basic as possible because otherwise, nobody would want to produce it. Keep your cast tiny. Keep your sets minimal. Your milieu inexpensive. Your themes current. Make sure the audience understands it and blah blah blah. It was kind of maddening to me, as it seemed like unless you wanted to write some more fucking Beckett-style nonsense, nobody was ever going to be interested in your plays.

But today my mom told me about this new play on Broadway called Warhorse. She said that it's a meditation on wartime about a boy whose beloved horse is drafted into service in War World I, and he follows him through the war to take him home. She said that the show portrays horses with gorgeous, fully articulated puppets that move and behave so much like real horses that it's mesmerizing. She suggested I look them up on Youtube, and my God, I was amazed.

Look at this. This is magic. This is fabulous theater. I am in AWE of how much those puppet draws me in. They are huge and gorgeous and they move like real horses. They are so fucking beautiful and ingenious and perfect that I can't imagine how much more powerful my theater experience would be going to see this because of that touch.

And this play demands it. The heart of the story of Warhorse is about how the best in the human spirit is brought out through the love of horses. You don't FEEL that on a visceral level without the force and shape and awe-inspiring presence of a horse right there to drive it home to you. But how would you ever get a horse onstage? Does this story not belong onstage because that's an impractical thing to write into a show?

But the play was good enough that somebody made it happen, regardless of the difficulty. And this show is a smash hit. I think it just shows that if your play is good enough, people will make it happen the way it needs to happen. Yeah, we are certainly not all going to get lucky enough to get such a big budget, or even any attention at all. I just can't help but think why teach people to write a worse play just to handle concerns of ever getting off the ground?

Comments

[katiescarlett29.livejournal.com]

I am *mesmerized* by this video. Thanks for sharing!

You absolutely can write a Warhorse, though. Just because you're being discouraged from it (which I think is dumb, and the opposite of what a creative program ought to be doing for you) doesn't mean you can't still do it. And the people who write Warhorses are going to be the people who hear their professors or whomever telling them it's not a good (or widely-marketable) idea, and go for it anyway.

[morethings5.livejournal.com]

It always baffles me to hear people talk about the restrictions their teachers try to place on them in writing (or any kind of creative art) school. Hasn't history proven time and time again that the greatest artists are the ones who ignore or consciously defy everything status quo in their art form?

Yeah, those horses are amazing. Theater is a craft. If you try to strangle away all of the production that can go into it, you might as well just whittle it down to words on a page.

[arthoniel.livejournal.com]

Oh, Warhorse. I really want to see it - I mean, it won the Tony for Best Play and everything - but... yeah, it's true. It does have incredibly elaborate prop!characters, but it needs it, and it works. I think there's a point at which you do need to have basic plays so that basic theater companies with small budgets can do them, and because when they're simpler, they can be left up to greater interpretation which is a good thing... but elaborate plays can work too~

[youareverysmall.livejournal.com]

Heyyyyy you should totally go see Warhorse. Oh, no, it's on Broadway?! You'd have to come to New York to see it?!?! THAT'S JUST TERRIBLE you could stay with meeeee

[valleyviolet.livejournal.com]

There are two kinds of creativity. Sometimes you're creative for other people: for your teachers to get through school, to sell ad copy to pay the bills, etc. Sometimes you're creative for the art (or for yourself/your muse/however you want to see it). Neither kind is a wrong kind of creative, but one kind is infinitely more fulfilling.

You should feel free to push the boundaries. You should also feel free to point out to your teachers that you are going to write a Warhorse some day. They may not accept it right now, but some day they won't be able to stop you and if they don't want to recognize their fallacy in telling you to be practical over art forever (instead of just so you can be noticed), well you will graduate some day.