Writing Dialogue for Actors by Richard Washer

Enough with the "he said-she said." It's time to show--not tell--your story. Playwright and TWC workshop leader Richard Washer on the collaborative experience that is dialogue and playwriting:



Writing Dialogue for Actors
by Richard Washer

Each genre of writing presents its own set of unique challenges for writers. Playwriting is no exception. Some of the basic tools and skills can be gleaned from reading one or more of the plethora of books on playwriting, or by taking workshops where a writer can practice, test, and hone such skills. But playwriting, at the end of the day, is a collaborative craft and as such playwrights write for other interpretive artists. The more a writer understands the craft of these artists, the better the blue print we call a play script is likely to be.

This is hard to convey in a workshop. I provide anecdotes from my experience as a writer, director, and dramaturge to convey a sense of how much an actor or designer can bring to all aspects of a play. While this is helpful, I can see in the eyes of everyone around the table the hunger to experience this. And in these moments I am reminded that the best instruction I received came from watching seasoned and talented actors take my words through the paces of rehearsal, previews, and production. However, as ideal learning experience as this might be, it’s not a practical one. It should come as no surprise that theatres are not likely to spend any of their budgets on helping a new playwright learn.

So, I started to look for a way to bring this experience to my playwriting workshops. I brought in actors for the last meeting of a workshop so that the writers in the group could hear their words performed. But the lack of follow-up always troubled me. There was no time to comment, discuss, or debrief on this experience and focus on lessons learned.

A while back a local high school invited me to offer some playwriting workshops and figuring there was safety in numbers I asked an actor (Hope Lambert) to join me. Hope not only brought her experience of working on new plays in New York, Washington D.C., and National Tours to the workshop, she also articulated and demonstrated the actor’s approach to the craft in a friendly, fun and inviting series of exercises. Watching her I realized that she brought my anecdotes to life and even more importantly, made the writers active participants in the lesson.
Hope and I now offer various presentations of this workshop (one-day or one-weekend seminars, short-term workshops of four to six meetings and longer-term workshops). In all of these the focus is on developing a basic understanding of the actor’s craft and using that knowledge to write dialogue that engages an audience in a story.

If you are new to playwriting or you are frustrated with trying to bring your dialogue and characters to life, this workshop will help you: better understand what the actor looks for in a new script; break out of the habit of TELLING the story and move into showing the story by appealing to the actor’s skills in your writing; have fun in a safe environment trying out some new acting skills and applying them to your plays; and along the way, add to your writing toolbox a deeper knowledge of the collaborative journey you take the instant you put dialogue on paper.

Richard Washer will be leading “Dialogue: A Practical Approach” at The Writer’s Center starting September 27.

Richard Washer, M.F.A., playwright and director. Richard was a co-founder of Charter Theater, a company devoted to developing and producing new plays. His recent productions include Quartet at the Hamner Theater and Getting It produced at the National Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. Richard is the Inaugural Playwright in Residence at First Draft Theater and a workshop leader at The Writer’s Center since 1994.

Richard Washer on Using the Rehearsal Process in Workshops

Richard Washer is our guest today. He is a playwright, director, and educator, and currently serves as Company Dramaturge at Charter Theater. His most recent play, "The Fetish," was produced at The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in December, 2008. His play "Quartet" was performed at the Hamner Theatre in Nelson County, Virginia in April of 2009. He has led Playwriting and Mixed Genre workshops at The Writer’s Center since 1995, and he'll be taking over for Michael Kinghorn on the workshop "Playwriting from Scratch" beginning May 1.


I recently attended the American College Theatre Festival (ACTF) held at the Kennedy Center, an annual springtime event that celebrates the talents and accomplishments of university students and their instructors from schools across the nation. As both a playwright and an educator I was reminded of the challenges faced by those who attempt to guide others through the creative process of writing plays. I know some of these university teachers and I am humbled by their unflagging energy, enthusiasm, and dedication. I also know they face the same challenges as I do: how do you teach this stuff?

Actually, I resist the label of teacher and in workshops I make a point to introduce myself as a facilitator, a guide, and later in the process of developing a play, as a dramaturge. Most writers I know agree that writing is a process of discovering one’s voice, or at the risk of sounding a little precious, a journey of self-discovery. I can’t teach that voice. What I can do is share the craft and encourage the discovery.

That’s all very nice, but how does one go about doing this? I have been wrestling with that question in the twenty-some years I have led workshops. Similar questions motivated me in the first years of Charter Theatre, when I set up an outline for a developmental process that is only now (thirteen years later!) being realized and refined by the talents and energies of director and playwright Leslie Kobylinski and dramaturge Suzanne Maloney.

The basis for the developmental process at Charter Theatre grew from a fundamental precept for writing in general: writers learn by writing and rewriting. Extrapolating from that I argue that playwrights learn more from the rehearsal process (and the subsequent rewrites) than any other method. At Charter the idea was to bring in actors and rehearse the script with the playwright in the room where he or she would listen to the actors question, grapple, and improvise ideas with the script. This was not a new idea, but the implementation and logistics remain a challenge today (cost, schedules, rehearsal space).

This approach yields a benefit almost immediately: elements of craft rise out of the world of theory and become practical tools; theory becomes palpable as the words on the page leap to life through the actors. However, I have always been frustrated by how few playwrights we can serve in this manner. Playwriting presents challenges similar to the composer or arranger who has to know the qualities and limitations of musical instruments in order to write for them. The requirements for a playwright is perhaps less demanding, but the more familiarity the writer has with the collaborative nature of theatre, the better.

Recently, working with some high school seniors, I applied this rehearsal principle to my workshops and looked for ways to simulate the process of working with actors on a script. This included asking questions the actors might ask, or exploring some scenes where I take on the role of director. The limitations of this approach is the lack of acting experience among the writers in the room, so another solution is co-teaching the workshop with an actor and in some cases bringing in actors periodically during the course of the workshop. This makes the workshop more engaging and provides the writers in the room with insights won through discovery as opposed to theories discussed in the abstract.

Nothing can replace a full rehearsal process for production (and the terrifying experience of an audience watching your work); this is the ultimate teacher for the beginning or even seasoned playwright. But those opportunities are woefully scarce. Based on what I observed at the Kennedy Center festival, universities provide wonderful production opportunities for student writers. However, this experience may not be replicated for many of these students in the years after they graduate, when they will join a legion of playwrights striving to grow as writers. I remember the frustration and struggle of that growth. I suppose for that reason I continue to look for ways to offer what I longed for as a young playwright: practical ways to learn practical lessons.

Instructor Wednesday: Playwright Richard Washer on DC Theatre as "Second Rate"

Okay, so the DC theatre scene got slammed recently. When I heard about that I thought, Hey now! And I knew I just had to invite WC instructor Richard Washer to share his thoughts on the matter. Richard is a playwright, director, and educator, and has led Playwriting and Mixed Genre workshops at the Writer’s Center since 1995. He currently serves as Company Dramaturge at Charter Theatre (which incidentally got its start at The Writer's Center. His play Quartet was scheduled to be produced early in 2009 at Charter Theatre, but that's been put on hold for now. These are lean times for the theatre, which makes Slate's comments all the more egregious (at least for me). Anyway, enough of me. Here's Richard:

A recent article in Slate claims that Washington theatre is "… still second rate at best" caused me to laugh and sigh in almost one breath. I have worked in the Washington theatre community for some twenty-five years now (that statement alone is enough to make anyone sigh). The last ten years I have worked with Charter Theatre, a company devoted to developing and producing new plays, and this has provided me with the opportunity to meet and work with some of the most talented local artists (actors, designers, directors, and writers). That privilege of that experience alone is enough to make me laugh at the absurdity of the statement. Besides, it seems pretty clear to everyone that this is an instance of sloppy journalism. So why even honor it with another moment of attention? Because I sighed.

I sighed because I thought this conversation had finally faded away. I sighed because I felt like Washington theatre artists and residents are once again being called upon to defend our theatre community. And many are speaking up. Helen Hayes, Vice Chair, and Glen Howard over at DC theatre scene have begun a lively conversation on this topic. There are now more than sixty professional companies in Washington. A number like that reflects a vibrant and engaged community on both the part of the artists and the audiences that support and attend the events.

But I also sighed because in some ways the judgment that theatre here is second rate conjures in my mind the extra effort it takes to get the word out to the greater community about the good work being done. It's not just a matter of producing quality work. It's a question of reaching out to people who don't go to theatre, but would enjoy it if they did. If you are not a theatre enthusiast, or an artist working in theatre, an article dismissing the entire community as second rate can drown out any invitation to participate in theatrical events.

I have every confidence that President-elect Obama and his family will open to the Washington Post's "Guide to the Lively Arts" and be overwhelmed by the diversity and richness offered by the theatre community here. By all indications, from what I have read in recent articles, they will attend some performances. And they will judge for themselves. By then a careless, thoughtless and misguided comment made in Slate will be long forgotten.