The Compass

Issue date: 10/9/07 Section: Entertainment

Professor of English, Dorothy Blais.

About thirteen years ago, Assistant Professor of English, Dorothy Blais took a risk and set a goal to write her first play, "Telephone Tag". "It was a great relief for me because it was an extremely difficult piece," Blais said referring to when she completed it. This play was her first to be produced. "It was very exhilarating to see my play performed," Blais said, "and it was an incentive to write more." She loved theater and eventually playwriting became her passion.
Neil Simon, who was the assistant director of the play "Broadway Bound", helped inspire her to write plays. Since then Blais has written several plays, seven of which have been produced including, "Aftershocks" and "Three Cornered Love". She hopes for more to come.
Writers have to go through a process of having a vision and then trying to translate that vision into words. "I'm going through the same process as my students," Blais said. "I feel their pain, frustrations, and anxieties when trying to write something." She is a member of the non-profit corporation, Working Title Playwrights (WTP), a professional organization dedicated to developing new plays for the American Theater.
Blais currently has a play in development at the Academy Theater in Atlanta. The play, "The Rub", is based on the Shakespearean play, "Hamlet".
"I wrote this play with the inspiration of my students. Many of my students identified with Hamlet and in this version, a young, female college student identifies with Hamlet and the many struggles he undergoes," Blais said.
According to Blais, during the development of a play a cast of professional actors and the director will run through a stage reading of the play, as it is not a full production yet. "It's very satisfying to see the actors and community audience can appreciate the hard work," Blais said. When plays go through a staged reading, a public audience is allowed to watch as well as possible producers. This experience gives the writer immediate results after presenting their ideas.
"Once my play is finished with development, I definitely plan to send it off to New York and other regional theaters with the hopes of it being produced on stage," Blais stated. She has many current works, some in their "infancy." Presently and in the future, Blais plans on trying to get many other plays and genres of writing produced.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools