Writing through Performance - Interpreter vs Author – part 1

posted by Vijay Mathew

What is immediately striking about Moisés Kaufman's rehearsals for his new play 33 Variations is that the text of his play stays fluid and in process. He's both the director and playwright for 33 Variations and he's visibly playing both roles during rehearsals. His text is not finished and locked during the first few weeks of rehearsal, so his role as director is not as a traditional interpreter, but as creator or author. His directing actually functions as a way to write the play, usually using primary source material (such as historical documents) as starting points. The primary source is then adapted, through the actor and design elements, to become an event on stage – the text becoming lines spoken by a character or dialogue in a scene between characters. This is a fascinating process because the rules and techniques are unique to the needs of the project and to Moisés' background as a theater-maker. You’ll hear more from Moisés about this technique in an audio post coming soon.