"The 15th Line": The Ups & Downs of Twitter as a Dramatic Medium

Jeremy Gable's on-Twitter-only play The 15th Line that I wrote about last month is now into Act III, and while it's held my interest since the beginning, it's also gotten abundantly clear that Twitter is a challenging medium for any playwright.

A few of the lines in The 15th Line seem utterly appropriate--just the kinds of things that people tweet about, telling us "I'm doing this right now," or that people representing companies tweet about, broadcasting their requests for information or pitching their wares.

But most of The 15th Line is actually comprised of highly personal messages--more like what people text to each other privately than what they would be comfortable tweeting publicly.

So, while this play uses Twitter as its medium, the less you remain consciously aware of it consisting of tweets, the more you're likely to enjoy The 15th Line.

In a sense, that means its value has more to do with plot, character and craft (like most plays) than anything inherent in Twitter.