SPECTRA DRAFT 2

March 28, 2019

The second draft of this script figured three major developments in the process of this project. 

Firstly, where previous drafts had largely remained within the realm of playwrighing, this draft was the first consideration of this project as a synthesis of comic book and playwrighting. The writing process as such began to consider how comic book panels might be integrated into the script of the project as a way to structure the narrative of the play, as well as offer launching points for designers and performers to respond to as opposed to the more descriptive stage directions that had featured in previous drafts.

Secondly, this draft featured more directly into the rehearsal process more intentionally, as actual staging of the script began as a mode of working in laboratories. However, during this time, directorial decisions were largely being made to try to completely stage the script in its entirety, rather than attempting to problem solve the structuring of the action of the text. As a result, rehearsals became a fairly one-sided collaboration in many ways, given that my directorial choices were simply being made as a way to force an understanding of my own vision and interpretation of my writing. 

Finally, this draft began the work of figuring out how to combine my narrative and dramaturgical interests as a writer with the rehearsal laboratories. By focusing on the characters of the last vignette of draft one, we began to create a world, characters and situations inspired Amazing Fantasy #15,  as well as workshopping scenes or situations in rehearsals that were then incorporated into the script. The writing process thus began to proceed counter to the previous draft, where rehearsals began informing the development of the text and my choices as a writer became how to bring the work of the rehearsals to structuring and story of the text. The major problems this draft revealed for my process as a writer, were how to consider structuring the action to create story, how to lead workshops based on the text written as opposed to making directorial decisions designed to obfuscate textual problems and finally how to more deeply engage comic books as a medium into the writing of the script.