The Performer as Writer.

Most performer-writers accept the writing process simply as a means to an end: the shared performance event with a live audience. While writer-performers regard a script as more important than the performance, a solo performance is, however, a showcase of the artist's talent, and creating one's own text offers the performer artistic control. Some performers, such as Hal Holbrook and Emlyn Williams, adapt and reconstruct works by other writers into a new text. Lily Tomlin's collaboration with Jane Wagner recently produced the highly successful "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe." Monologist Ruth Draper performed purely oral performance texts for years (condensing, extending, or altering them according to the needs of a particular audience) before she finally wrote them down late in her lifetime. In such places as Colonial Williamsburg or Disneyland, the employees assume the role of fictional or historical characters, which is another way of combining writing with performing. Although considerable research is conducted for each character, the performers create their own dialogue through improvised interaction with each other and visiting tourists. The dual role of the performer-writer, which sometimes can result in internal conflict, is nonetheless challenging and rewarding. (Notes are attached.) (NKA)