Echo

I was really interested in seeing "Echo" because I wanted to know how the projects I was working on in class could be turned into something that would end up the stage. It made the process I was engaging in in class more consequential, like something really could actually come of the ideas and drafts I was producing now. After seeing the play, I could pretty much guess which assignment it originated out of (the character driven play?). Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed in the writing.
I walked into the theater expecting to learn more about post-traumatic stress for soldiers returning from war. I wanted more than just the vague idea that it ruins their life because no one knows what it was like overseas and now they can't function normally in everyday life back home. But I walked out feeling like I hadn't learned anything more about PTSD in soldiers returning to their family and to America. This really reminded me to write what I know.
Writing only what I know seems limiting and branching out into the unknown may be tempting. But writing what I know means that I can provide greater depth. I can go further, explore more angles, avoid cliche. I can make it more believable. I think some of the plays I outlined this semester did delve into situations I didn't really know. I think my character play was one of them. Writing about a divorced wife with three children...that isn't something I can relate to. Loss, rejection, feeling like a failure, distracting oneself from the more pressing traumas...that I can relate to and those feelings I did include in my play. I also tried to develop the three children which is something I know more about (what it's like to be a 15 year old girl, what it's like to reject my family) and I think this personal understanding also helped ground the play. These are risks we take...writing what we do and do not internally know in our gut, on many many levels of our consciousness.