What Theater Can Teach You About Writing For the Movies

by Christina Hamlett

In the course of interviewing film experts for my articles and books, one of the pleasantly recurring discoveries is how many of them originally started out as drama majors. Is there something magical about the performing arts that helps pave the way for Hollywood screenwriters? Certainly my own background as a stage actress and director hasn’t hurt my ability to craft compelling characters and credible dialogue. Not until I started comparing notes with fellow scripticians, however, did the reason for such aptitude become clear: treading the boards and responding to the energy of a live audience gives you a perspective that solitary scribbling falls short of.

Looking for a new venue to jumpstart your screenwriting imagination? It may be no farther than your own college, church or community theater.

* * *

Former actress and published author Madeline DiMaggio is a successful television screenwriter whose trademark wit and imagination have been stamped on such shows as “Bob Newhart,” “Kojak,” “Three’s Company,” as well as documentaries, soaps, animation and movies of the week. Her work as a creative consultant and story editor for Paramount Studios and NBC has given her insight on virtually every aspect of writing for the industry. Back when she was still 17, though, all the signs seemed to be pointing toward Broadway, not Hollywood.

I was a drama major and saw myself as an actress. I was starring in all the school plays, I did summer stock, I went to New York, I got my degree in Drama. It was an incredible major for writing because the strength of my writing has always been my dialogue. But had I known that I would one day become a writer, I would have learned how to type. And how to spell! I never studied writing but every time I was in a three-act play, I was actually studying structure and character development and how people talked. A lot of actors end up being very good writers just for that reason. It was a good background to come from.

* * *

Professor Jerry Abbitt, Chair of the Department of Theater at California State University, Northridge, has taught his share of theatrical courses from Freshman to Graduate level for over 20 years. Not surprisingly, he’s seen a number of his drama students segue to successful writing careers in the film industry. His praise of theater as an educational tool is offered without a moment’s hesitation:

It teaches you how to tell a story! After all, that’s the essence of both theater and film. Both tell a story which helps people understand their place in the universe. In theater, we find this in a through-line of activity with the audience being an active participant. In film, the through-line only becomes fully realized through the editing process.

* * *

Screenwriter Ken Hixon was a struggling actor from Indiana before he began penning feature films like “City by the Sea” and “Inventing the Abbotts.” Like DiMaggio, he found he had an instinct for dialogue and structure, subliminally gleaned from performing the works of others.

When you have to say words out loud, you get a sense of whether there are too many or too few or just if a scene’s too long. Timing is a big thing you learn from physically acting because, in the doing, you appreciate how nanoseconds play to a real audience. Not just in comedy where timing is important but in drama or tragedy, too. Sometimes I’ll even watch a scene that I’ve written and I’ll think, “Arghghgh! Too many words!” It’s the practical, pragmatic stuff that I think lets acting serve writers well. I’ll search for cadence and try to get the “tennis,” the volley of words towards whatever creative effect I want to establish.

* * *

From the first time she trod the boards at age 10, film producer Laurie Durrett knew that acting and directing were in her blood. Today, she is literally running the entire show as the driving force behind the cameras at Mockingbird Productions in her native Texas. She attributes the first “stage” of her career as instrumental in eventually starting her own company.

Besides acting in school and professional productions, I was always the one given the responsibility of organizing the tournaments and awards ceremonies every year, as well as the one in charge of getting the groups together for our monthly theater outings. I was extremely shy throughout school, but theater made me learn how to relate to people and improved my communications and organizational skills tremendously. It also helped me in getting a theater scholarship to a small college in East Texas, Lon Morris, plus a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in LA and a scholarship in theater to White University in Europe.

The inciting incident that changed her focus was her job at a small television station in Beaumont, Texas where she hosted a morning talk show.

One day our production coordinator quit and they couldn’t find a replacement before my next show, so I told them I would book the talent and arrange the schedule. It was like old home week in high school! The job came very easily. They didn’t hire anyone and let me do the position, which I really liked because I could book who I wanted for talent and crew. It also gave me a job to go to after I graduated, it was much easier than acting…and it paid more!

* * *

Dillinger robbed banks because that’s where the money was. Theaters are where the actors are, actors who can help perfect your “voice” as a screenwriter and make the dialogue ring true. Using local actors to read for you in the screenwriting process is an invaluable exercise, as whimsically illustrated by Liverpool, England writer/actor Tommy Donbavand:

I'm presuming you don't already work in a theatre, or at the very least, a rest home for retired thespians - although if you do, simply provide some light refreshments or a solid defibrillation unit (depending on which category you fall into). If professional actors are hard to come by, then your next stop should be your local amateur dramatic group. Keep an eye on the What's On section of your local newspaper to discover their whereabouts. You should find anyone interested in acting more than willing to take part - even if only because they're hoping the film will get made, and they'll have the upper hand on Johnny Depp when it comes to casting ("He doesn't understand the motivation of the cyborg captain the way I do. I've played him, darling."). This is the only time that you, as a screenwriter, will feel any sense of power in this business. One other option is the drama club or theatre class at your local school or college. If you can convince the teacher that your project will be of great educational value to the students, you should be home free (and of course, there's always the chance you'll get the class that Spielberg's niece is in).

* * *

Like most actors, of course, the compulsion to read our works out loud and with great, dramatic gusto can have results we didn’t anticipate. Hixon shares this story from his early days in L.A.:

I used to have an office in an old building on Wilshire Boulevard and it had a transom window—sort of like Sam Spade—over the door. Anyway, one day my wife came to meet me for lunch and she said, “My God, your voice carries all the way down the hall.” And I thought about all the ranting and raving and verbal pyrotechnics that I was carrying on and realizing that now I know why all the other tenants on that floor were kinda polite to me but never really engaged me in a conversation.

* * *

Last but not least is the sense of economy and creativity that the playwriting process itself teaches you about developing a story that can stand on its own. Sadly, the eye-popping technological effects that make today’s films visually stimulating have often been at the expense of character and plot. (Pearl Harbor, for example.) I always advise my students and clients that it’s easier to sell a project wherein the “glitz” can be added later than to pen a weak storyline that relies heavily on the glitz to help it limp through.

While some might cite the parameters of a physical stage as limiting in terms of conveying spatial relationships and special effects, it’s actually the opposite. (“Titanic, the Musical” versus Cameron’s “Titanic” is proof positive.) Why? Because that which is literally absent from the set is figuratively filled in by the imagination of the audience. If you can harness that power of suggestion in your screenplay, you’ll be well on your way to a script that will engage viewers from its first scene to its last.

Former actress and director Christina Hamlett is an award winning author and Pasadena, California script coverage consultant whose publishing credits include 17 books, 106 plays and musicals, 2 optioned feature films, multiple shorts, and several hundred magazine articles and interviews. Her upcoming book, COULD IT BE A MOVIE, will be released by Michael Wiese Productions in Fall 2004.