Here is the transcription of my most recent video blog:
(And here’s the audio on AnchorFM)
Hey everybody! This is Queen Mab. I’m recording using my phone today, so pardon the shakiness. And today, I would like to talk to you about editing a solo show. Now, again, I’m going to reference the work of Jessica Lynn Johnson, who is my director, because I think she’s got a really great process for how to do this. During the writing portion of the show, she recommends just writing and writing and writing and writing and not censoring anything, and then taking everything and putting it together and doing a reading. So when I did my reading of “Yes, No, Maybe So,” I think it was like…I don’t know, an hour and a half long…something crazy like that. And the whole reading process was about two hours, because after that, there was Q&A, and I took audience feedback, so that was the first step.
And after that I edited it down to be about 75 minutes, and so the first two performances of it were the 75 minute version, and I felt pretty good about that. However, there was no audience, so I wasn’t holding for laughs or anything like that. So for Hollywood Fringe, what I did was I changed a part that had been dialogue, and I repurposed it as a song, but that didn’t really cut anything out, and at Hollywood Fringe when I had an audience and people were laughing, and I had to hold for laughs, or tears – just kidding! I don’t hold for tears. Anyways, it took about 78 minutes, and I wasn’t really happy with that. I felt like it was too long.
So for Binge Fringe, which is gonna be October 19 at 7:30pm Pacific – and you can get your free tickets in the link that I will put below. You can do in-person or streaming. But anyway, for that one, I am editing it down to be an hour. This is my goal. And I’ve heard that quote about editing from Steven King: “Kill your darlings!” And it always sounds so brutal. And it always kind of makes the assumption that oh, well, we all just have so…big egos, and you know, we don’t wanna cut our stuff. But the thing is, I will tell you it is much easier to kill one’s darlings when you have first had the chance to try them out. So that was why that staged reading was really great. I could do it and then go, “Oh yeah, you know what, this is too much, this doesn’t work, da da da.”
And NOW that I’ve had the chance to do the 75 minute version a few times, I can really see that first of all, it needs to be shorter for my own sanity – that makes it MUCH easier to kill your darlings – but second of all, there are some bits in there that just aren’t really necessary to the story, and it’s much easier to find those now that I have performed it.
So anyway, this is what my process is looking like. I’m actually feeling really excited about the edits that I’ve made. I think it’s going to make the show a lot shorter and easier to pay attention to and follow. The thing I’m not looking forward to is having to do some re-memorization, but that’s what I’m going to talk about next time.
So anyway, I hope to see you on October 19 at 7:30pm Pacific – either in person at the Santa Monica Playhouse, or virtually. Thanks so much, and hey – leave me a comment and let me know what YOUR editing process looks like, ‘cuz I’d love to know. Bye!