Modern Playwriting

by Chōkōdō Shujin

Chōkōdō Shujin emphasizes that the essential progress of drama depends not on current theatrical equipment but on the freedom and creativity of the playwright’s envisioned stage, which transcends conventional theater boundaries and drives the evolution of the art.

In the case of a play, the author must have a clear image of a stage in his mind. In other words, the characters and events — their appearance — must fit perfectly into a single frame. This kind of mental image of the stage image seems to be most important in the creation of a play.

When it comes to distinguishing between novels, dialogues, plays, etc., the form of expression is probably the most important thing when it comes to the finished work, but when it comes to the author’s creative endeavors, it seems that the presence or absence of a stage image is the most important thing. No matter how dramatic a work may be, if it is not written with an image of a stage in mind, it cannot be called a pure play.

Of course, for an author, the more clearly the personalities, psychology, actions, language, and everything else of the characters in the play are visible, the better the work will be, but when it comes to a play, a container to hold all of these things — a stage — is necessary. It is necessary for the contents to fit perfectly with the container to form a world.

I think that is what is meant by “dramatic aim.” Therefore, the creation of a play is troublesome and restrictive. Most material is easy to aim for in the form of a novel, but difficult to aim for in the form of a play. However, that is not what I want to say. It is about expanding the scope of dramatic aim. The creation of a play is, therefore, a difficult task. Most of the material is easy to aim for in a novel, but difficult to aim for in a play.

There have long been terms such as “plays for reading” and “plays that do not anticipate the stage.” Let us consider them in their proper place.

If the above words are aimed at the stage of today’s theaters, they can exist perfectly well. However, in an absolute sense, they have no reason to exist at all.

A play is originally intended for a stage of some kind. If there is a play written simply to be read without anticipating any stage, it is not a play from the beginning. It is something like a dialogue, or a novel. It is unnecessary to describe the stage or to add set directions. Such things were anticipated by the stage and came into being later.

However, the stage that the author can imagine is not limited to the stage of the current theater. The author can freely put together in his mind a stage that the current theater cannot prepare. Therefore, plays that do not anticipate the stage of the current theater, and that are only read today, can exist perfectly well. Not only can they exist, but they are most necessary. The fundamental progress of theater is promoted by such plays.

Modern stage equipment has made remarkable progress. However, this progress is only the progress of the equipment, and the progress of the stage itself is insignificant. And the progress of the stage itself is difficult to hope for unless it depends on the progress of the image of the stage that the author has in mind. In fact, it can be said that it is absolutely impossible. Because the stage of the theater is set up for the performance of the script.

Although it is impossible to set up a certain level of stage in the current theater, the time may come when the impossible can be made possible. Even if the size of the theater is left as it is now, a completely different stage from the current one could be created depending on the method of setting. In drama, the abnormal and unnatural can be accepted to a certain extent — artistic exaggeration can be accepted most. It is the negligence of the playwright to not utilize this and to remain content with the conventional stage.

The essential progress of drama as an art is a matter for each individual writer. However, in order to avoid hindering its essential progress as an art form even in the slightest degree through external constraints, one way to do this is to guide the artist’s image of the stage into a more free and spontaneous realm.

Order Chōkōdō Shujin’s Finding Takashi here.