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Beginning the workshop process

by Susan Myburg, Company Member and actor in Tympanic Theatre Incubator

I have always been more apt to act, direct, or be a proverbial cheerleader for new work as apposed to classical works or already published plays.  This is mostly due to selfishness and partly because this is the stuff Chicago breeds on. And if I were to be completely honest with myself, because I like the idea of a play getting published, making if big and knowing I was a part of the process (I mean, let’s get real, right?). As an artist, there are few things more enticing to me than sitting in a room full of individuals focused on shaping a new piece of writing into something truly original and whole.  I want to be there every step of the way, to see the play evolve, take shape, and ultimately come to live in front of an audience.

As we close out our first week of round table discussions for Verse Chorus Verse I find myself becoming more and more enthralled with this script.  This is my third time in the past year to be working on one of Randall’s plays and the third time I have found myself becoming obsessed with the world he’s laid before us.  What I discover time and time again to be most captivating about his plays is the absolute raw and truthful way he portrays his characters.  Their psychology.  Their dirty secrets.  Their ugly actions that make you know you should hate them but only make you love them more, because who hasn’t had those same thoughts but were too cowardly to act on them?

Aside from having (in my humble opinion) one of Chicago’s most exciting new playwrights in the room we are also joined by four incredibly talented and intelligent actors and our charmingly truthful and intuitive director – who seems to be channeling the same wave-length as Randall every step of the way.  Watching them talk about the script is reason enough be in the room for these workshops.  Thanks to our ‘motly crue’, our first act has already received a huge face-lift.  Our second act is set for some major reworking as well.  As we pick away at the play, line by line, we start to see the…thing…this play is shaping into.  And while the astrological signs have changed and my psychic abilities have been spun out of wack, I am willing to test the universe and say that Verse Chorus Verse will be a damn fine play.