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I Don't Make Fun Of

I have fun with.

Posted by Stephen Evans at 8/15/2008 6:41 PM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment

Writing Commedy

Here is a link to an interview I did with Wordybirds, a weekly radio discussion about books and ideas, hosted by Liz Humes on 97.3 FM in Richmond, VA.

http://wordybirds.org/2008/07/08/stephen-evans/

I was appearing  on a panel that night discussing writing comedy (fortunately with thoughtful and very funny people: Kelly Justice of The Fountain Bookstore, Brett Leake and Lord Carette), so some of the interview questions focused on that topic. Her questions were interesting. You'll have to judge my answers for yourself.

Posted by Stephen Evans at 8/9/2008 12:19 PM | Add Comment

Genius

is the inability to not see.

Posted by Stephen Evans at 6/30/2008 6:28 PM | Add Comment

Top Ten Plays Written in English

Here is my list of the top ten plays originally written in English:

  • A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • The Tempest
  • King Lear
  • Henry IV (Parts 1 & 2)
  • Our Town
  • As You Like It
  • Antony and Cleopatra
  • Twelfth Night
    •
  • The Importance of Being Earnest
  • A Long Days Journey into Night

I was going to put in Waiting for Godot, but I think that was originally written in French.

Posted by Stephen Evans at 6/15/2008 5:33 PM | Add Comment

The Greatest Short Novel Ever Written

I have concluded that my novel The Marriage of True Minds (http://unbridledbooks.com/trueminds.html) is the greatest short novel ever written. To explain my criteria and decision-making process, let's examine some of the other fine contenders:

Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad): I never laughed once.

Breakfast at Tiffany's (Truman Capote): Does not appear to be set in Minneapolis.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolstoy): The letters in this book look funny and I'm not entirely sure it was written in English.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce): Has more than five words in the title.

To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf): Was not written by me.

So, to sum up, The Marriage of True Minds is the greatest short funny novel set in Minneapolis written by me in English with a title of not more than five words.

Posted by Stephen Evans at 6/2/2008 9:39 PM | Add Comment

Directing Shakespeare

There are two keys to directing Shakespeare for a modern audience:

1) Physicalize the transitions
2) Everything works on stage

By physicalize the transitions, I mean identify the emotional and intellectual transitions both within and between the lines, and use a physical change (blocking, business, set, lighting) to emphasize the change. This is the only compromise to you need to make to help the audience comprehend the story. You don’t have to set it in Nazi Germany or the Stone Age or the Far Future, all of which is usually a distraction after the first five minutes anyway.

By everything works on stage, I mean assume that whatever is written will connect with the audience if properly performed. He wasn’t having a bad day or attempting the impossible or trying to solve a theatrical problem. If it’s in the play, it works on stage. If it isn’t working, it’s your problem, not his.

Posted by Stephen Evans at 5/29/2008 6:47 PM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment

What If

I became a vegetarian a dozen or more years ago not because it was more healthy or even more ethical, but because I did not want to add to the anguish in the world. I have never regretted that decision, or even seriously questioned it.

But what if every one was a vegetarian? What if overnight some switch was thrown and no one ate eat meat any longer?

Sounds great at first. But what would happen to the billions of animals raised for food around the globe? Would they starve? Would we have massive euthanasia because we couldn't afford to feed them?

And suppose it was a gradual transition, no massive change, just fewer and fewer animals slaughtered. That would certainly mean fewer and fewer animals raised. Is it really better for them never to live than to live a while?

Take away the quality of life issues: if the life was comfortable and the death painless, which would be better-some life, or none? If you had to make that same choice for yourself, or your family, which would you choose?

Animals cannot choose the life we give them. But they can't choose the life we don't give them either.

Posted by Stephen Evans at 5/8/2008 3:29 PM | Add Comment

Oh, Well That Explains It

"Every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great and original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished."

                                                       Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Posted by Stephen Evans at 5/6/2008 11:06 PM | Add Comment

In Case You Were Wondering

where the title of my novel comes from:


Sonnet 116

by William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

 Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

 Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

 That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

 Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

 Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

 But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

 I never writ, nor no man ever loved.


Posted by Stephen Evans at 5/1/2008 11:49 AM | Add Comment

It's Here. And/Or There.

My novel The Marriage of True Minds (http://unbridledbooks.com/trueminds.html) is now available in (I hope) your local bookstore or library, as well as online retailers.

I'd like to thank—

(ORCHESTRA PLAYS LOUDLY AS THE AUTHOR IS CONDUCTED OFF STAGE).





Posted by Stephen Evans at 4/29/2008 11:38 PM | Add Comment
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