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Topic: Advice on the use of a ?pen name?( Topic Closed) | |
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Playwright
Celebrity Joined: 4/01/06 Location: Canada Online Status: Offline Posts: 126 |
Topic: Advice on the use of a ?pen name? Posted: 8/27/06 at 11:28am |
Hey, I recently attended my first Fringe play. Wouldn't have gone to see it except the leading man from my last play was in it. The play was an interesting one. The two leads performacnes (not my friend, thankfullly) were lack-lustre and carried no depth. There wasn't any layers to the characters at all. It was just actors saying lines. It would have been an entirely different play had the leads been cast differently. Anyway, I've been thinking of writing a fringe play. You know, going way outside of my usual genre and comfort zone. Well as it happens, and I know this sounds crazy, a play came to me in a dream last night. The entire thing basically I dreamed like it was actually on stage. And boy oh boy, is it way, way outside of my confort zone. It's so different from what I write that it will shock people I know. It's somewhat graphic in parts. I have no idea where this play came from becasue its topic is not based on anything that happened to me. At least not that I'm consciously aware of. I'm sure it would be accpted at this fringe festvial. I know I can cast it. Only two characters. I'm thinking, if I go ahead with this, I might do it under a pen name so nobody willl know it's me. This play could generate a lot of press and I'm not sure how that would reflect on my other works. I have a certain fan base and I'm sure that 99% of them would not approve of this new play. I guess most of them wouldn't see it so if I use a pen name they would never know. But it just might reflect back on me, you know? |
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castMe
Celebrity Joined: 11/02/05 Online Status: Offline Posts: 206 |
Posted: 8/27/06 at 12:00pm |
Sondra, I see no reason not to use an alias or pen name if you so
wish. It's a time honored tradition to not use one's real name
when crediting a work. Steven King becomes Richard Bachman, Evan
Hunter wrote as Ed McBain (and others), Agatha Christie used the name
Mary Westmacott for romance novels and, my favorite assumed name, Dav
Pilkey (who wrote Captain Underpants) used the name Sue Denim
(pseudonym).
Anagram your name, use the name of a favorite literary character or pick a name from the phone book for your alter-ego, other-genre play. Whatever strikes your fancy. (check out http://www.writing-world.com/basics/pseudonym.shtml One thought, though..........don't assume you will be able to remain anonymus forever. |
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Investigate. Imagine. Choose.
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castMe
Celebrity Joined: 11/02/05 Online Status: Offline Posts: 206 |
Posted: 8/27/06 at 12:26pm |
addenda to the above post....
My lovely, talented and brilliant wife informs me that in French "sous" (pronounced "sue") means "under" therefore, the psuedonym Sue Denim is not only a homonym but also a play on words in two languages since underpants are often found "under denim". You gotta love that name! (and my wife) |
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Investigate. Imagine. Choose.
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Topper
Celebrity Joined: 1/27/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 543 |
Posted: 8/27/06 at 1:10pm |
Favorite pen names: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) Ellery Queen (Frederick Dannay & Manfred B. Lee) William Shakespeare (Edward De Vere)
(Okay, so maybe that last one has never been proven, but I just thought I'd toss it in to the mix.) BTW the author of "Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage" is credited as being Jane Martin. However, nobody has ever seen her, met her or interviewd her. It's obviously a pseudonym that has been keep secret. |
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"None of us really grow up. All we ever do is learn how to behave in public." -- Keith Johnstone
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castMe
Celebrity Joined: 11/02/05 Online Status: Offline Posts: 206 |
Posted: 8/27/06 at 1:17pm |
Yes, Topper, I meant to mention Jane Martin since the others I named
are authors and Martin has written a number of plays. It is a
well-known fact "Jane Martin" is a pen name, but only a few people
associated with the Actors Theatre of Louisville actually know who he/
she is. And they're not talking. The oft-repeated rumor (I
learned from a director who worked there) is that Jane Martin is two
people (ala Ellery Queen).
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tristanrobin
Celebrity Joined: 4/25/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 704 |
Posted: 8/27/06 at 3:18pm |
I've heard that Jane Martin is actually several different authors.
Particularly interesting, as when you read through a collection of her plays, they don't read as if written by different people! I love a good mystery! LOL I traveled for a year playing the man in her "Travelin' Show" - and kept trying to get information on her - and I didn't get a damn thing LOL. |
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castMe
Celebrity Joined: 11/02/05 Online Status: Offline Posts: 206 |
Posted: 8/27/06 at 3:36pm |
Tristan...that's wonderful. I hadn't heard the numerous author
theory, but it makes sense when you concider the multiple monologues
she's(?) produced. I've directed Talking With once and would do
it again in a heart beat.
Maybe we could get Don Foster on the case. He is a forensic literary expert who unmasked Joe Klein as the author of "Primary Colors". Foster claims that, like fingerprints and DNA, we each have one thing that distinguishes us from everyone else. Although we may disguise our handwritting or type rather than write or print, we have only one vocabulary and given a large enough body of work with which to compare, he may be able to discern who an anonymus author might be. Check out Foster's "Author Unknown" I found it fascinating. |
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Investigate. Imagine. Choose.
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slicksister
Celebrity Joined: 3/20/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 105 |
Posted: 8/28/06 at 1:16am |
This is a cool thread. A subject of which I have no knowledge but interesting none the less!
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The Main Thing is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
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Gaafa
Celebrity Joined: 3/21/04 Location: Australia Online Status: Offline Posts: 1181 |
Posted: 8/28/06 at 9:48am |
Actually your probably not that far wrong Topper! |
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Joe
Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
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Shatcher
Celebrity Joined: 2/21/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 251 |
Posted: 8/28/06 at 10:11am |
When ever I am asked (forced) to act in a show I always use a different name. Don't want people to think I've crossed over to the light side!!
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