Plays hold the power to reflect and illuminate elements of our daily realities in new, refreshing ways. Below, Guest Judge for Write the World’s Playwriting Competition, Kim Peter Kovac, announces his picks of the plays plus peer reviews. Kim highlights the importance of “subtext”, as well as the parallels between our Write the World editorial process and the worlds of professional playwriting and production at large.
THE PLAYS
WINNING ENTRY: Timeless Women by Brielle P. Chor
The strongest of the three finalist plays was, for me, Timeless Women, by Brielle P. Chor.
In three short scenes over four pages, she has created a portrait of three generations of women in a family. What makes the piece so strong, though, is that what it’s about is not what it’s about, as it were. It’s not about a fan over the dinner table, and dinner, but is about the passing of generations, about mothers and daughters, about the obligations of one to the other, about a culture that is changing, albeit slowly.
The footnotes at the end suggest that the family is Singaporean-Chinese. This is well-represented in the play itself, both by the comments in Mandarin, and even more by the minimalistic dialogue and stage directions. The play is rich and filled with subtext—the playwright uses her careful brush strokes to paint this family of three as it moves through time.
Bravo. I hope she continues playwriting.
RUNNER-UP: Michael and the Success Story by rosewater
What is most exciting about this piece is the meta-narrative structure. At first blush, the play seems to be about a male playwright and a female playwright writing a play about Michael at ages 6, 12, and 18. As the play evolves, though, we learn that the ‘playwrights’ are really Michael’s parents, plotting out his life in the present and future. There’s a nice interplay between Michael the character in these plays within the play, and Michael the ‘real’ person in the overall play itself, fully revealed at the end. This is a fascinating idea, and, indeed, could be expanded and fleshed out into a longer piece.
Keep writing plays, rosewater!
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Do You Remember? by Emi
PEER REVIEWS
GENERAL COMMENTS
The notes from the ‘peer review’ finalists all would be quite helpful to the playwrights and plays they reviewed. There is an emphasis on positive comments and questions about parts of the play that the peer reviewer did not understand. There were also plenty of appropriate qualifying statements such as ‘feel free to use these comments or not’, casting the reviewer as a helpful colleague. All of these are techniques that I use when giving notes to playwrights.
BEST PEER REVIEW
REVIEW OF TWO TEENS ON A BENCH BY JULIASOPHIA
There were many strong and supportive peer reviews for this competition, however, I feel the best was the review of Two Teens on a Bench by juliasophia.
Some things that stood out for me:
- The comment that she was ‘sucked into John and Ellie’s world’ by the stage direction ‘John is standing near the bench.’
- One of the words she uses to describe Ellie is ‘scarred’.
- Suggesting that the writer focus on the backstories of the characters and making sure those are incorporated into the play. She feels the writer knows the backstories but the reader/viewer of the play does not, at least not so deeply.
- Her suggestion that the writer reread her/his play as if he knows nothing about the characters or the situation to see if it makes sense.
This kind of peer review is analogous to the notes that a director or dramaturg would give to a writer—asking questions, making suggestions for how to move forward, talking about what ‘works’ for the reviewer and what does not work. Well done juliasophia!