Madrigal:  Scripts

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Doug Smith

Madrigal Script Author

What inspired you to write a script?
I have been in 4 different madrigals during my life, and unfortunately, they have all pretty much been the same thing, medieval renaissance stories, etc, etc. Granted, that’s what madrigals are SUPPOSED to be like, but I wanted something different. I've always been one to step up and try something NEW in the setting of something OLD. Originally, the show was going to be a medieval renaissance murder mystery: Murders in the Knight. But the more I played around with it, the more I realized that it was still too boring. I wanted the audience to be able to laugh at everything, especially if they didn’t know much about renaissance jokes. I asked the director if she'd mind something a bit different from previous years. She said no, so I took off! (She enjoyed it so much, she was willing to give up all the dancing, live music, and renaissance themes every other madrigal has had!)

How did you decide what to make your madrigal about?
I decided to write about what I knew best: myself. Pretty much everything in the script has significance in my life. The people in the show that knew me really well caught most of the inside jokes that I put in there. I have a rather bizarre sense of humor, sometimes crude, and sometimes rather strangely intelligent. I tried to gear the jokes towards all ages. Not everyone would understand every joke, but the adults would get some the kids wouldn't understand and vice versa. I had always wanted to write a murder mystery, simply because I’ve never written that genre before. 

One of the reasons it took me so long to write the script was because writing a murder mystery is extremely challenging. You pretty much have to write it from the end to the beginning starting with who committed the crime and why, and progressing back through his/her motives and background. I’m a huge movie buff, so I included a lot of movie references in the script- everything from Star Wars to Gladiator to The Little Mermaid. I wanted to write a comical farce for the people who wanted to watch if for simple amusement, but I wanted it to be intelligent for the people who really wanted to think about it. Sadly, most people walked away not realizing exactly everything that was involved or said. If you read through the script and truly think about what some of the jokes or lines mean that on the surface, you'll eventually realize the true meaning behind a lot of what was written. It’s one of those things where you don’t completely understand it until you’ve thought about it for a while.

What would you suggest to other people who are trying to write a script?
Let me write it. Just kidding. If you mean writing for a madrigal dinner, you first must decide how much you want to stick to traditional madrigal settings. After that, decide what type of show you want, straight comedy, farce, mystery, etc. After that, take a look at the people who will be involved- not just numbers, but personalities of the individuals, acting experience, etc. 

One thing that truly helped me, was I sent out a survey to all members of Chamber Singers, asking them to give me info about how many years of acting experience they've had, what all they have done on stage, and how many lines they'd like- a lot, a few, none, etc. That gave me an idea as to the potential to work with. The next big thing after deciding on the plot, is character development. I created the characters how I wanted them, and then modified them SLIGHTLY (if necessary) to fit the person I thought could play them. I can honestly say that the characters were played exactly how I imagined them to be played. Don’t write FOR the people in the show, but develop the characters how you want them, and then make small adjustments if necessary. 

Above all, make sure you're writing jokes the audience will not be offended by, and will understand- not necessarily all of them, but enough to spread the humor around to all age groups. The most important thing, however, is that you write a show that the people will enjoy performing night after night. They can’t rehearse over and over a show that gets boring or dull after the first few times. It has to be a show where there is a lot of creative potential, where characters can constantly evolve from rehearsal to rehearsal and from performance to performance. 

What was the most difficult part of writing a script?
The most difficult part of writing the script was making sure that, in the end, all the loose ends were tied up and the audience understood exactly what had happened. In the last scene, where the Butler is explaining everything, there is a lot of information to throw at the audience. It needs to be in a clear enough form for people to understand it. Sure, that may come in the delivery of the lines, but the lines themselves must clearly explain everything. Especially in a murder mystery, everyone’s motives for doing what they did must be completely clear.

What was your favorite part about writing a script?
My favorite part was including my personal humor and references into the script. Making people laugh and offending them at the same time is one of my hobbies...ha ha...so I had fun with the humor. I also liked putting in as many different present day references I could- i.e.- Patrick Swayze, etc, to see how many of them were caught by audience members. It was also fun to costume the characters and bring them to life on stage EXACTLY how I had them pictured in my head.

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