Beginning rehearsals of my short play Rainbow Round the Moon has led me to doff Playwright’s Mind for Director’s Mind. I like having to slow down, explicitly consider the beats, and articulate subtext. Whether or not it will affect how I write in future, the process stimulates me to deeper thought in the present: for example, when I was writing it didn’t occur to me that my narrative was an adumbration of the Fisher King legend, but now that I’ve had to come up with a central image to help the actors create their roles with the depth I and they desire, it seems natural. The old vampire is the keeper of that famous cup of blood, the Grail; his child-warrior daughter is the wise fool, a female Percival asking the Healing Question in all her naïveté. I love such work, and I think it may help my team play the shadow of the type or archetype they first see.
And yes, as in the cartoon, the little that is said carries a great load of meaning, emotion, history, desire.
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