Sunday, March 17, 2013

The Writer and the Audience

     
Well, all the plays that I was trying to write
were plays that would grab an audience
by the throat and not release them,
rather than presenting an emotion
which you could observe and walk away from.
—Arthur Miller



That's how I feel as a reader. I don't want to read a book where I'm an onlooker passively turning pages. I want to be so involved that it is as if I was right there within the story—intimately concerned about the happenings.

The good writer draws the audience in—then offers a respite of some distance before drawing them closer. I want an author to hold onto me and make me feel what is happening as if it were happening to me.

Poetry, good poetry, does that in a profound way by eliminating the unnecessary word and distilling everything down to the salient point. A poem often takes my breath away.

And then there's watching a play where the connection between the stage and the audience is so deep that I find myself holding my breath—waiting.

I applaud the writer who has the ability to grab the audience, the reader, the listener, and hold them until the end.

But the end is the beginning—

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home