I have used three different ways to "create" characters for my plays. My favorite way is to write for the actors in my company.

Several times in my life I have been part of a group of people who loved being in plays. They either wanted to be actors, wanted to expand their lives to include the theatrical form of expression, or they wanted the comrodery of a group with similar interests.

I am a practical playwright and my goal is production. Having a company of people is a blessing. Having a company of people who want to say your words, dance your dances, and play your plays is beyond a blessing, it is a practical playwright’s heaven.

If you can come across another artist who shares your passion for any length of time, one who takes your words, takes your dances and helps make them plays, conceder yourself at the top of the playwriting world. All that is left is fame, money, and more self-discovery.

It is my understanding that Shakespeare wrote for his company of actors. I think my influences are more modern. Perhaps my main influences are Rock and Roll bands of the fifties and sixties and Saturday Night Live.

Every fifties or sixties band started in the garage or basement or barn or small bedroom. Most played songs someone else had written or versions of those songs dictated by the talents of their band. At some point a "Lennon and McCartney" stands up and says, "We can write our own songs and songs that will fit what we do best."

The "Buddy Holly’s" move on to write what they want and play with other musicians. They expand their pallets, to new sounds and different talents. They paint their music with changing instruments. The portraits of players give rise to symphonies of imagination. No matter if the brush stokes become bolder or more controlled for detail, the first Song Remains the Same, "I want to create. What do I have?" That is the tune of passionate practical artists. It is a step on the working canvas of musicians, photographers, filmmakers, painters, dancers, and playwrights.

It is this low fat breakfast, short-grain brown rice, jalapeno spiced black eye peas and frozen corn, that reminds this 49 year in self-discovery mode of his past. It was my time as a self indulgent teenager with a lust for girls, life, and burgers with cheese and bacon, French fries with salt and pepper, 32 oz bottles of Coke-a-Cola, Pralines and Cream ice cream, Snickers, Three Musketeers. The world was girls and cars and music and staying up all night…

And three weekends every month it was, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner and Laraine Newman, The Not Ready for Prime Time Players. Saturday Night Live completely opened the doors to my imagination.

I have written extensively about SNL and its influence on me. Not until today have I thought about that influence as it pertains to writing… plays.

Of course I have written some sketch comedy, vaudeville type routines, political and social satires. I have written spoofs and newscasts and phony commercials. I have written campy song or two. This influence deals with specific writing for specific actors.

The writers of SNL did not just write material. They wrote to the strengths of the performers. They wrote away from the weakness. Whatever the actor brought to the table, the writers worked it, not against it. A playwright like a photographer can bring out the outstanding qualities of the subject and put the flaws into the shadows. Like the painter and the sculptor, the writer can create a vehicle that monumentalizes the actor, but does not limit the actor.

Some of the SNL writers only wrote for one or two actors. Many times the actors brought ideas to the writers or worked with the writers to flesh out the scripts. My friend JR said that every playwright needs two things, a director who is a creative reader and actors with good natural instincts. "They help."

Luckily, "good natural instincts" doesn’t require training, although it may require un-training. As for creative reading directors…

SNL writers directed the scenes they wrote. I have for the most part adopted that philosophy over the objection of my friend JR and the theatrical community as a whole. Almost every book or article I have read on playwriting says, "Do not direct your own plays." That is foolish and outdated and a good topic for another time.

It must have been a joy to write for the seven actors of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players. Not that there weren’t all kinds of production problems and set backs and temper tantrums. That is working with artist and the nature of production. Stress and euphoria share live performance. But writing? It is the "burgers with cheese and bacon, French fries with salt and pepper, 32 oz bottles of Coke-a-Cola, Pralines and Cream ice cream, Snickers, Three Musketeers."

Yes, it is the world of girls and cars and music and staying up all night.

I enjoy writing for actors. –jdj-