The website enotes.com provides this description of the story: ..."Set in a Chicago recording studio in 1927, the two-act drama tells the story of a recording session with blues legend Ma Rainey, her band members, and the white producer and agent who made themselves wealthy through Rainey’s recordings. The play explores race relations between blacks and whites in 1920s America and the African-American search for identity. The title comes from the song of the same name, which is at the heart of a major conflict in the play. Of particular note is Wilson’s character, Levee, who literally embodies the aspirations and disappointments of black males during this era and, arguably, today. Wilson pits Levee against Rainey, the band members, and the whites, examining various stripes of inter- and intra-racial conflict."
The play was entertaining to read, and the playwright's descriptions of the stage and set made it possible for me to adapt a short story I'd written into a play.
One of my favorite courses in the School of Cinema, "Screenplay Structure," was taught by Don Bohlinger. Though I'd read books about screenwriting and had taken courses from a producer, directors, and screenwriters, Don's course helped me become comfortable while writing. The semester I took the class, the majority of the students were in production/directing programs. Directors think visually, and listening to production students analyze a movie was a different experience from courses I'd taken with writers. Directors think visually.
During Don's course, the movie I learned the most from was "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." I wasn't looking forward to watching it twice (at home and later in class), but it has become one of my favorite films.
I learned how the audience joins the story, experiencing momentum as the story unfolds in sequences. The audience becomes more deeply involved in the story through planting and payoff (revealing a prop, a sound, or any element in a film which appears more than one time and has deep meaning or significance). The pens in the characters' pockets (the psychiatrist; the charge nurse; and two of the patients: show who is keeping records, who is in charge and who are the followers; who is keeping score. This from a note I wrote to the teacher:
One planted image [in the movie] are containers of pens and pencils on the psychiatrist's desk. The antagonist, Nurse Ratched, also had a pen. The only other two characters who had pens and/or pads of paper (displayed in their uniform pockets) were [patients] McMurphy and Harding. They were keeping score, records, self-proclaimed leaders in the mental hospital. It was fascinating to watch Harding and McMurphy battle to control the tone of the ward (easy to see who was creating the rules during the card and board games through the imagery/pens...it was McMurphy or Harding, the other patients were followers).
I also saw the importance of naming characters.
The antagonist, Nurse Ratched (her name sounds like wretched or wrench)
Martini ( a happy-go-lucky patient)
Billy (a childish name and character)
RP McMurphy ("Mac" everyman; RP/"rest in peace" he finally leaves a world where he never really fit in)
In storytelling, the characters' names can provide powerful payoffs, revealing, reinforcing the characters' roles and personality when the names are spoken, even when the character is not in the room.
NOTE: These entries are inspired by the final assignment for The Business of Writing for Screen and Television, a School of Cinematic Arts' course taught by Frank Wuliger. Hoping to help his students become working screenwriters, he asked us to create a personal, five-year road map into the industry.
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