Transcript to Stage
A look into our process of building the Willmar Project script
We Transcribe
After conducting interviews in Willmar, our team transcribed all of the audio recordings into the raw verbatim text of our conversations. This process took about a year and enabled us to revisit the content of the interviews before diving into script creation.
Click the image above to see an excerpt of an original transcript of an interview conducted in July of 2017.
We Build
We then sifted through each interview, categorizing and recognizing shared themes. This continued as we worked to build a script. As we create material, we play with how interviews interact with one another and how they can be formatted into scenes and monologues. We brought more collaborators into the script creation process - writers and dramaturgs who brought their unique lived experiences, skills, and perspectives to the conversation as we honed in on a central question to explore.
Click the image above to see a scene created from the transcript to the left.
We Share
Throughout this process, we have workshopped various scenes, such as the example shared here. Our workshops are an integral part of our process — sharing our work during it’s development stage allows us to once again hear the words we’ve been working with on the page, and get feedback from our collaborators and audience on what resonates and feels vibrant for them. We then take what we learn through this process back to the script room. The Willmar Project script has changed significantly as we have heard and incorporated invaluable feedback from collaborators, audiences, and TWP participants at various stages of development.
Click the image above to watch the scene - shared at Playwrights Horizons in May 2019.