A Year in the Blog of a One-Act Play
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Canadian actor, director, and playwright Sterling Lynch celebrates the first anniversary of his blog today, November 26, 2009. Congratulations!

Sterling and I started working together several months ago when our paths crossed on Twitter (@MareBiddle and @SterlingLynch).  Though we each bring a unique perspective and process to the composition of a play, Sterling and I appreciate a similar aesthetic in the form.

My first plays, Throwing Snowballs at the Moon, and its companion play, Post Game Show, are both one-act plays. I am drawn to the short form. In fact, working with the small canvas is largely why I write for the stage. Sterling’s body of work consists largely of one-act plays. Sterling has been produced both in Canada and the U.S. His one-act play, Tangelico, is slated to make its U.S. premiere in 2010.

Though Sterling and I share the small canvas, we come to the middle of the page from different edges. He says about the form, “I'm not attracted to the small canvas specifically. My aesthetic certainly lends itself to shorter works because I enjoy precise writing.”

We both lean on an economy of words as our foundation, but for me, I also tend to look to the various page limitations as part of my expression. How can I take a large dramatic arc, strip it back to its most primary elements, and maintain the arc? When the words decrease, the stakes increase. Sterling offers, “When I set out to write a play, I normally have a hunch about its length but, ultimately, I let the requirements of the story determine a play’s length.”

I asked Sterling if he notices a difference in his process between the longer and shorter forms? “There are no substantial differences in my writing method because of a play's anticipated length. For longer plays, I am more inclined to draft a formal story outline but I do this in my head for shorter works as well. With the shorter work, I don’t bother writing up a separate document because there are fewer balls to juggle.”

I can only note the differences between a 1-page, 10-page script and a 50-page script. With few exceptions, I know where the story begins and where it ends. The journey through the woods is the difference: the smaller the landscape, the shorter the trip. My goal in a 1-minute play is to show the entire character and conflict arcs just as it is in a longer work.

Sterling’s body of work is available on his blog. When I began reviewing his material several months ago, I wondered about the absence of a 10-minute play. He said, “I’ve never had any reason to write a 10-minute play. If I were asked to write a 10-minute play -- say for a contest or a festival or a production -- I'd probably give it a go. I wouldn't, however, write a 10-minute play for the sake of writing a 10-minute play. For me, the story determines a work’s length.”

Of note are the potential production limitations with the short form. To be sure 10-minute plays can find a stage, however, short plays and one-act plays pose a challenge for Artistic Directors. The problem of a “full evening” is certainly solvable albeit with a change in audience—and perhaps Board—perception. I like Sterling’s optimism, “Short plays are great for the Fringe circuit, contests, university theatre, and cabaret nights. A good play is a good play, whatever the length. If a producer likes it, s/he will figure out a way to mount it.”