On Writing : Dialogue - A holy cow? by Allan Spijkers

As playwrites, how sacrosanct do you consider the words (dialogue) that you have written whether it be for stage or film? As an actor I have previously considered the dialogue "sacred" as it formed part of someone else's work that you as actor are bringing to life. It is something that you dare not change. I have developed a short story initially written by a friend and developed it so that it could be performed on stage, I have adapted an existing full play to put it into a more current and local context, and recently completed my first One Act play. This play I then directed for a local arts festival. During the rehearsal process I descovered, through working with the actors, that certain dialogue needed to be discared, dialogue added and certain blocking needed to be revised. As director I had to make immediate decisions about the script I had written. This essentially meant standing outside and deciding whether the script was the be all and end all or was it fluid / organic. This poses the question, how sacred is the script.