To introduce myself: I was a theatre director and teacher for a number of years, then became interested in writing: books, eBooks, screenplays, and recently two plays in which I bend narrative time, continually dipping back into the character's past: HAMLET DEAD (starts at the moment of Hamlet's death) and RELUCTANT PROPHET (about the life of the mystic psychic Edgar Cayce), in a serpentine dramatic structure.
Introduce Yourself : George Schwimmer, Ph.D. by George Schwimmer
George Schwimmer, Ph.D.
Other topics in Introduce Yourself:
Check out Trending Discussions
Register / Log In
So...here comes the question George...which one is your favorite - theater or writing?? Looking forward to you contributing to discussions in the lounge - I think you probably have some amazing stories to tell.
Welcome to the community George! My mom is a theater director as well- man what a taxing job! But definitely rewarding! I hope you really dive into the site and get active in the lounge discussions, I agree with Julie that you probably have some great insight to share!
It's an impossible question to answer, which is my favorite, theatre or writing: it’s like, do you prefer your heart or your lungs? As you can see, however, I wrote two plays in the past three years, so writing and theatre have been combined. Now, if someone would hire me to direct one of my plays, it would be the perfect marriage. However, I want to point out two things: 1) theatre is a live group interactive activity, which can involve a hundred people to get done and a thousand or more in the audience, whereas 2) writing is mostly a solitary effort. Theatre is literally magic: a woman psychic once reported seeing lines of energy coming from the actors’ heads in a performance, going to a ball of light floating near the ceiling, and lines of energy also rising from the audience members – all of which disappeared when the audience clapped at the end of the performance. There is not enough space for me to get into the magical performances that I’ve seen, by Alec Guinnes, Anthony Quinn, Lawrence Olivier, Ian McKellen, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stuart, Siobhan McKenna, Richard Burton, and some actors who I directed, and the marvelous Broadway productions I’ve seen, not to mention the magic of some of my own directing efforts. However, no matter how great, an actor and director are only interpreters, collaborators. The playwright and screenwriter builds the skeleton, around which the actors and director grow the flesh. So, I not only ventured into writing because I love the written and spoken word, but because as I writer I can be the prime architect, selecting the ideas and words and structures that I want to put forward to audiences. This is the third stage of my adult life, and only time will tell how far I’m able to run with it.
What a heartfelt answer... Love your creative spirit and you dedication to both. Cheers to you!