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Jeffrey M. Jones @ CSU
December 5th, 2011 No comments
Jeffrey M. Jones
Trying to catch up on my happenings, as a lot has been going on and I've been negligent in my posting. A few weeks ago I went down to Cleveland State University to sit in on a class whose guest was Jeffrey Jones. It was a pretty interesting time just sitting and listening to the stories that Jones was telling about all sorts of things, including his own writing process and current project to tales of his days with and around the Wooster Group in New York and earlier days when theater was just breaking out in the 60s with folks around like Sam Shepard and Fornes and even an early encounter with David Mamet, etc, at the theater door: "It's Mamet, the writer." (Sexual Perversity in Chicago). I should make clear, right away, that I'm talking about Jeffrey Jones the playwright (Seventy Scenes Of Halloween) and NOT the pederast movie star of Amadeus fame.
I also heard from David Todd, my one-time professor who now works down south at Otterbein, who had recently referred me to Jones' blog: http://jeffreymjones.blogspot.com/, which is quite interesting, revealing, and often aggressive: with Jones not being shy about his opinions when it comes to things theatrical. To tell the truth, I wish he posted more often. One entry that I found especially of this type was entitled "How Theatre Works" from 2008: http://jeffreymjones.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-theatre-works.html; and at some point I'll post a response to it as I found some of what he had to say quite surprising given his own style of play creation and works.
In his talk at CSU, Jones touched on how he created plays: for instance, that he has a strong interest in creating a "pastiche" of other materials, such as Harlequin romances (bodice rippers) and Nixon's White House tapes, etc. That is creating a collage of materials and seeing what comes out of it. In terms of his process, he says that he likes to set up a rule or process and to follow it to see where it leads. For instance, on the Flea Theater website Jones has a workshop listed which discusses a process that he uses for play creation. For an even more elaborate discussion of Jones' approach, take a look at Broadway Play Publishers.
In some ways, the very act of creating plays in this manner flies in the face of the traditional notion of the playwright as authority or playwright as author. The notion of "author" has been a subject of much speculation in general over the past thirty to forty years (See Barthes, Derrida, Foucault, etc.). For instance, what to make of a playwright such as Charles Mee and his (re)making project. Me, who does not "write" the words of his play, but instead "orchestrates" the words of others (found texts) into a play. But beyond this, the question was raised in the discussion regarding the "new trend" of "devised theater"–that is, plays being created using a physical process or a theatrical/spatial approach, rather than a scripted approach. Often you'll find actors and a director working to create plays as an ensemble, possibly using myth, fairy tale, or other found texts as a guide that is then reinterpreted or re-constructed. This approach to playmaking often cuts out the playwright or, in some cases, has been seen by playwrights as a direct attempt to cut the playwright from the process. Jones' thoughts on this–while being familiar with this approach under various names–including that used by the Wooster Group, or even Shepard/Chaikin–are that playwrights create story and pattern. Playwrights are responsible for the orchestration of events, and Jones felt that this is not a likely outcome from devised theater or spontaneously created pieces. Jones felt that, while actors may be able to create a character or even a series of actions that have some meaning in a given context, they are, in his experience, not likely to be able to create an overarching story, a grand pattern, and that the pieces are unfocused, and thus lose power, energy, and possibly meaning over the course of the event. Playwrights, as the name implies, are supposed to be master builders of story. Playwrights should be familiar with how story works and the energy potentials of its various constructs, rhythms, and events–be they in a beat unit, a scene, or in larger blocks across the play–even if they intend to violate these rules or work against them. Some actors may have an understanding of the constructs, rhythms, and events in story, but most do not. Directors had certainly better.
I have taken steps into this arena of playmaking by pastiche or collage, though not to the extent that Jones has, nor do I have his track record, pedigree, etc. My thesis play, Patterns, for instance, was a collage of generic forms, as well as a collage of various texts brought together to reflect and refract one another: an effort to force meaning to be created by the audience who experiences the play and, in some ways, to deny that I as the playwright am the sole source of meaning with regard to the text. (That is, not to deny my importance entirely.) My play Andrew Jackson ate my Homework: A racial farce, is another example of this approach to playmaking. The problem that I have run into, or have noted to myself, when writing plays that reject the Aristotelian dramatic structure–or at least one of the issues–is where does the play end? Or how do you craft the ending without falling into the trap of "forcing" the ending or dulling the play, somehow–that is, as Jones might have it, without killing the energy, power, and meaning. This is a question of editing and has been addressed in many locations by playwrights smarter than me, one of which I have pointed to before: an interview with Wallace Shawn in an issue of American Theatre. For Jones, the question of where or when a play ends is when you, as playwright, have exhausted the material or your ability to create new things with the material. Or, to use the words from Jones above, when you set up a rule or process and trace it out to see where it leads, it is precisely when you have run out of leads that the play must be done–in one sense. Then there is the cleaning up. For Jones, this represents the other important facet of playwriting, which he posited in a question: "is it tight"? That is, have you gone back into the work and edited every line to make certain that it is as tight and clear and clean as it can be? That there is no fat, no laziness, nothing imprecise? Has the waste from each line been removed?
The event at CSU was lively and important for me, and I look forward to my efforts at revising the plays mentioned above using Jones' guidance and thoughts for both ending and tightening plays.
Jeffrey M. Jones Cleveland State University CSU Mike Geither 70 Scenes of Halloween Charles Mee Death of the Author Wooster Group Devised Theater
Another Off-Topic Post: An open letter to my parents (and all others)
March 18th, 2012 No comments
I'm just typing here to let you know that I've ordered for you and sent out a DVD called Forks Over Knives. I was recently referred to it by Mike Geither, who was my playwriting professor at CSU.
The conversation came about because I was talking about the movie Food, Inc. which I had just watched, and how the American food system was not only corrupt, but dangerous. I was talking about how Kirsten and I were looking to buy food from local farms and CSAs (community supported agriculture) associations. I was really miffed because in grocery stores you see all this product marketing and labeling that shows sunshine and farms, etc, when really most of the products in stores come from 4 or 5 corporate industrial farms that could give a shit about anyone's health or safety.
Mike told me about Forks Over Knives. In it there is detailed information that the Western diet POISONS the vast majority of people who ascribe to it. Not by design or malice, of course, but because the evolution of man has not prepared the body for the diet that we have today: high in sugar, salt, fat, and animal protein. There is such a vast amount of data that points to the fact that the eating of meat, dairy, processed sugars, etc. causes cancer, heart disease, coronary artery disease, diabetes, allergies, etc., that I just could not ignore the parallels. One of the lead researchers is from the Cleveland Clinic. I am changing my diet for good. Kirsten and I have been talking for a while about changing our diets and the diets of [our children]. This is the foundational change that we will point to. We are going to ease into the transition, and we are not likely to be as radical–meaning we'll eat, occasionally, some cheese and free-range eggs, etc. But we will be discontinuing the consumption of meat because the evidence points to how devastating it is to the arteries, heart, and how the consumption of animal proteins and by-products causes cancer of the liver, colon, breasts, etc. Not to mention the hormones, antibiotics, and other crap that has been injected into the food supply for so long.
A while ago I asked Dad what he was doing to change his diet in the wake of his colon cancer and he said that he didn't know and hadn't seen any resources to help. The DVD I'm sending is a wake-up call for me, and I hope it is for you, too. It is accompanied by a book about diet and has recipes that advocate for an all vegetable, whole foods diet. The DVD talks about cancer and how such a diet REVERSED many of the forms of cancer and other diseases people had, as well as their heart conditions–far more so than prescription medication. Kirst and I are under no illusions about how difficult such a transition will be, especially with kids; and I have no doubt that it will be tough for both of you, given the cultural history of food in this country. I cannot, however, be more convinced of what this DVD has to say and the necessity of making the change.
Forks over knives food inc diet
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