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David Crespy

    David Crespy

    In this chapter, David Crespy shares his dreamwork for dramatic writing workshop that he has taught through such venues as the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the Mid-America Theatre Conference, the International Association... more
    In this chapter, David Crespy shares his dreamwork for dramatic writing workshop that he has taught through such venues as the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the Mid-America Theatre Conference, the International Association for the Study of Dreams, Hollins University PlayLab, and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. The work here focuses on dramatic writing, but the notion of the dream cache is useful to any storyteller looking for a creative method to innovate their story technique. Using the lens of phenomenology, and techniques suggested by performance theorist Bert O. States, Crespy attempts to “unmask” the way dreams and fiction interact for the playwright or screenwriter. Dreams offer an unlimited supply of ideas, form, technique, and structure for writers who are trying to surprise themselves out of cliches received from the echo chamber of Broadway and Hollywood. This form of dreamwork is about transforming as a storyteller and changing one’s ideas about what makes an adventurous tale.
    Although Adrienne Kennedy does not cite Eugène Ionesco as an inspiration, one is struck by the common thread of dreamwork in the nonrealistic, nonlinear dramaturgy of both playwrights.1 Though these two authors could not be more different... more
    Although Adrienne Kennedy does not cite Eugène Ionesco as an inspiration, one is struck by the common thread of dreamwork in the nonrealistic, nonlinear dramaturgy of both playwrights.1 Though these two authors could not be more different culturally or stylistically, the oneiric, in terms of dream-like images, action, and characterization, is a common element of both writers’ work. If a historical linkage need be sought to somehow bridge the divide between these two authors, it should be noted that Kennedy began her career as an early student of Edward Albee’s playwriting workshop at the Circle in the Square and Albee was the coproducer of her first production of Funnyhouse of a Negro. Albee was himself profoundly affected by Ionesco’s work, and shares with Ionesco a method of dreamwrighting, a chance-oneiric style, that subverts traditional linear dramatic structure—something that can be seen in many of his less naturalistic plays such as The American Dream or more recently, Me, Myself, and I.2 It is not so far a leap to make that Albee naturally influenced Kennedy’s early work as a playwright, and perhaps it is here where one might find a connection between Ionesco and Kennedy’s writing. However, this is of less interest to me as a playwright and teacher of playwriting than the fact that both authors specifically cite the use of their dreams as a means to developing a dramaturgical framework for their plays. Given the paucity of published pedagogy on nonrealistic, nonlinear playwriting technique it is instructive to look closely at the work of these unusual playwrights and compare their oneiric strategies. Both authors seem to “teach” a new kind of playwriting technique with their plays by using their dreams to subvert psychological realism and traditional dramatic structure. Both writers have had enormous influence on contemporary writers. Ionesco’s absurdist influence can be seen perhaps in the works of the language-writers like Mac Wellman, Len Jenkins, and Jeffrey Jones, and also in the dark comedies of John Guare, Christopher Durang, and Nicky Silver. Kennedy’s influence on black women playwrights is equally
    In this chapter, David Crespy shares his dreamwork for dramatic writing workshop that he has taught through such venues as the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the Mid-America Theatre Conference, the International Association... more
    In this chapter, David Crespy shares his dreamwork for dramatic writing workshop that he has taught through such venues as the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the Mid-America Theatre Conference, the International Association for the Study of Dreams, Hollins University PlayLab, and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. The work here focuses on dramatic writing, but the notion of the dream cache is useful to any storyteller looking for a creative method to innovate their story technique. Using the lens of phenomenology, and techniques suggested by performance theorist Bert O. States, Crespy attempts to “unmask” the way dreams and fiction interact for the playwright or screenwriter. Dreams offer an unlimited supply of ideas, form, technique, and structure for writers who are trying to surprise themselves out of cliches received from the echo chamber of Broadway and Hollywood. This form of dreamwork is about transforming as a storyteller and changing one’s i...