Attn. JMS: Verse drama? WAS Room for Improvement - Kitchen?

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: jwkenne at ibm.net (John W. Kennedy)
Date: 16 Jan 1998 15:43:37 -0700
Lines: 21


In <19980116072600.CAA19707 at ladder01.news.aol.com>, jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5) writes:
>There isn't any part of it that I think I've totally whipped...and I hope I
>never do, because the moment you think you've got it all sussed, you've stopped
>trying, and the work stultifies.
>
>So there isn't really any one area, just a general sense that I have to
>continue to get better...and the only way you get better is to keep trying new
>things, in different combinations.

Ever try verse drama?   (Ever read Walter Kerr's "How Not to Write a Play"?)
I know you're fond of "The Lady's Not for Burning", but you may not know
that Fry actually represents the trailing end of a long tradition of (mostly
Christian) modern English verse drama.  Dorothy L. Sayers (of Lord Peter
Wimsey fame) and Charles Williams (of the Inklings) produced some very
impressive work, and, of course, everyone knows about Eliot's work.

It really isn't difficult to throw your brain into pentameter mode.  All
actors learn the trick.  (After a little accident, I once saw a Benedick
pick himself up, and as he dusted himself off, remark to Beatrice "Thou
canst not say I did not fall for thee.")

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 17 Jan 1998 13:11:30 -0700
Lines: 11

I've tried verse drama, even tried to do it with the new play I'm writing, then
finally had to abandon it...it's just hideously difficult and I find gets in
the way of my saying what it is that I want to say; I concentrate more on the
how than the what, the pattern rather than the content.  I guess my brain can
only work in one direction at a time.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
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http://www.thestation.com
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