In pursuit of fruit: After multiple revisions, student playwright introduces full-length debut
Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008
It's tough writing scripts. Clinnesha Dillon, a third-year Master of Fine Arts in Play Writing candidate at the University of Arkansas, should know. She's seen her full-length debut," How To Get The Mango (When The Lizard's In The Way),"go through nearly a year of revisions.
"This play has gone through so many changes, and has taken me through so many changes,"Dillon said.
The process is ongoing. She just retouched a scene within weeks of the debut performance of the play, which will be staged Thursday through July 27 at Nadine Baum Studios as part of the UA Boar's Head Players' summer series.
Now complete -- relatively speaking -- the play will go through the final critique: that of an attentive audience.
Kate Frank, who is directing the inaugural production, said the audience's reaction is just as important to the playwrighting process as any other step.
It's part of the blessings -- and challenges -- of working with a new play.
"I feel a bigger responsibility to the living playwright that is sitting next to me, to make sure we are on track with what she intends,"Frank said during a phone call about two weeks before the production debuts. "That's part of the whole process of writing a new play."
The play is about a woman named Jo, played by Christy Hall, who is pursuing a doctorate degree. A severe storm rekindles memories of her past, specifically, a horrifying event that took place many years before at the base of a mango tree.
Primarily, the play is a study about spirituality and the human spirit, said Dillon, a native of Mississippi. It was similarly inspired by the rigors of academic study.
Dillon hopes audience members take a journey, just like Jo does.
"I want them to find what it is emotionally and internally that keeps us from pursuing our gift from a higher being,"said the playwright. "And to embrace that [gift], as opposed to run away from it."
Despite the ominous overtones, there is also room for humor, which primarily comes from the different personalities of the 10 characters involved.
The play's strengths are in the poeticism of the lyrics, Frank said.
"She's unique,"Frank said of Dillon. "And she has a unique voice, and it comes out in the subject matter and the way she writes dialogue. Not all playwrights have that."
The play has "very believable dialogue that has a rhythm to it. It sounds real,"Frank said.
The play will have a minimalist look, Frank said, noting the surrealist elements of the script are difficult to translate onstage. The production is heavy on lighting and sounds, as lightning and thunder are strong elements of the script.
After examining the script again after the production, Dillon plans to submit the work for playwrighting competitions and publication, she said.
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