Session 26: Altenir Silva's "Death of a Shoemaker"

Alternir Silva's play, "Death of a Shoemaker," not only shines the spotlight on the morality of killing in (and out of) war, it leaves the ultimate outcome to the audience in a way which allows their own morality to determine how they answer the questions Silva so poignantly poses in the story.

Silva writes for television and movies in his home country of Brazil, and has joined in other TMPW sessions. Ashante Pickett and I read and workshopped the script, and then truly took a deep dive into the relationship of the characters, and the potential endings that Silva leaves to the audience. The workshop then focused on the title, offering ideas about leaving even more uncertainty (and opportunities for imagination) for the audience to unravel, if a less specific title was used.

What fun it was to read and workshop a script which is written to leave more questions than answers - truly a wonderful play!

You can listen to the audio recording of the session.