Q&A: Do you find that you need to identify with one or all of your characters to write truthfully about their circumstances – and do you find yourself taking sides when your characters argue? - BW Yeah, I do feel like I need to identify with at least one of the characters in my play or screenplay to be able to write about their circumstances and I think its that kind of empathy that allows me to create the conflict that drives the play. With everything Ive written no matter how outlandish or far removed from reality it is, I can identify with the core desire, emotions, and motive of the characters and more often than not my plays are born from me having experienced something similar, like falling in love, moving to a new place, or wanting something I cant have. My play Tangerina has a character named Pete who buys a car off of Craigslist, has it break down, and isnt able to fix it up because he doesnt have the money. I had that happen with a motorcycle a few years back. In my play Love is like a Laser Beam, a guy meets a girl at a party and is struck by her presence right from the moment their eyes meet from across the room. Ive had that happen before too, also at a party. I think it is important for a writer to be able to connect with his work because how else is the audience suppose to connect with it, right? And to answer the second part of the question, I try not to take sides because in real life I am sure everyone thinks they are right and to make my characters more realistic, I try to make them right too. - Peter Hsieh
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 19:00:00 +0000