Process LXV

and you and you and you ... and you were there! 

Monday was the second first reading (first second reading?) of my new script. This time the entire class read the piece via Zoom, and the response was again very positive. More significantly, through their feedback I am now able to articulate what the piece is really about.

It is a mystery, but it is not confusing. There are a couple fakes in there, and some chills. It’s all about the second act; the first is a deep dive into the subconscious, the second carries the weight of having actual significance in the real world.

There was again the comparison to Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, but I was again reminded of the influence of Cloud 9, in regards to the significance of double casting. The Wizard of Oz was also mentioned, and how the farmhands Hickory, Hunk and Zeke come to represent Dorothy’s friends.

The white, male protagonist has a secret, which is common to us, that we harbor fears of dominance and abuse and that we have the potential to become, or that we have already become, that thing we fear the most. How we deal with that struggle is the central conflict in the play.

The question is one of resolution, and there were many helpful suggestions as to how I might alter the action but there wasn’t one of them I hadn’t already considered and found wanting. Churchill includes callbacks in Cloud 9, where characters from the first act intrude late into the second, as if to remind us of things we haven’t actually forgotten yet.

The dream is the dream, and readers believe it is a realistic dream. Reality is reality, and must remain reality. I don’t want anyone to leave asking about the bunny.

Also this week, I have been editing the Falling monologue for the class on illness narratives, and recording myself reading them in various locations, to suggest the passage of time. I may need to revise the text further before submitting the written piece, but just reading them aloud has provided guidance to judicious cutting.

End of Play (Week Four)

Yeah, so. #EndOfPlay. I charged into this month fired up to get a lot of writing done. And I did it. The past week I have really wound down, relaxing, taking care of other business. Also, we have residency auditions coming soon. Also, the semester is almost over. Also, this. Also, that.

Scenes From a Night’s Dream: Following the first reading I took the opportunity to expand several moments in the second act. More clarity, more context, more history. Language and slang.

Next Monday this will be read, this slightly revised first draft. I am excited for that!

Falling: Tuesday night we were sent to breakout rooms to workshop our illness narrative, and I received helpful observations from two classmates, one who I only recently met and another who is familiar with my work because he is another playwright.

It was suggested I employ a central metaphor. But there is a central metaphor - the title, falling - but I never included it. That, and many other suggestions will be employed this weekend. Then I will record the entire thing to video.

The Wytches: Work on this script has been interrupted, until I can engage a few more of the participants of last month’s workshop. I believe I will be able to resume in May.

And that’s all she wrote! Pens down.

End of Play (Week Three)

Apparently the best thing for a writer is to have a serious cold. The second week of #EndOfPlay I got hella writing completed. Then I got well, went to Athens for a visit with our eldest, have been suffering headaches and insomnia and generally feeling uninspired and unhappy.

I want the weather to turn. I want to set up the porch and the deck and move my writing outdoors. I want to run.

And yet, work was completed. Here’s the rundown.

Falling (a monologue): Completed edits, turned in my assignment which was due Tuesday. Next week the piece will get workshopped in class. Once I create a final draft, I will begin recording videos of myself reading the text to accompany the assignment.

The Wytches: Not a lot of work on this this past week. I need to write two ghost scenes which talk to each other and reflect the present. They must reflect the present.

Scenes From a Night’s Dream: This was the big accomplishment this week, and it came not without a certain number of tears. My schoolmate (who has not yet read the ending) said the other day that she thinks it’s the best thing I’ve yet written for workshop. She might be right. I have avoided writing about myself in class, it’s the same old: who cares about my issues?

I have scheduled a reading with friends for this weekend. I have successfully held a pre-workshop reading every semester I’ve had a new play. It helps me attend the workshop itself with confidence. I have great friends.

End of Play.® is an annual initiative, created by the Dramatists Guild, to incentivize the completion of new plays, scores, or songs over the period of one month.

Process LXI

Last Saturday I wrote a lot. I had a big, empty day and filled it with work. Occasionally I took time off to interact with social media, maybe do a little housework. I’m not good at spending long hours just writing, but here’s the trick: I wasn’t writing only one thing.

I was editing The Wytches – yes, I’m going with that title for the rewrite – I was editing my notebooks about mom’s illness, I was ruminating on Phil Collins, I was imagining the second act of Scenes From a Night’s Dream (the working title and not by coincidence also a song by Genesis) and finally writing the response to a poetry reading I had attended a month ago.

Moving from project to project, I was able to accomplish a little with each of them. If I had concentrated on just one, I don’t believe I would have made much headway at all. What does that make me? An amateur diagnosis would attempt to ascribe any number of neurological variances, at my age I am not interested in knowing about any of them. I am happy to have figured out what works for me.

So, what will this weekend bring? I have a book to read and to write a response for, but I also have a goal of creating at least 20 new pages for my workshop. I think I can get that done before Monday night. Right? If only I didn’t have this freaking headache.

End of Play (Week One)

Because I have to be so completely extra, I am not working on a script for #EndOfPlay but three scripts.

End of Play.® is an annual initiative, created by the Dramatists Guild, to incentivize the completion of new plays, scores, or songs over the period of one month.

Every day I am producing several pages. It’s crazy! I am currently crazed!

The Wytches: I am not only editing the piece, I am retyping the entire thing. As I type, I can hear the voices of the actors who performed the workshop last month, and am able to incorporate their subtle (and not so subtle) changes in syntax. Also, I have plentiful notes to work from. Having written the original script piecemeal, redrafting in order from start to finish allows me to be more aware of repetition inherent in the original draft.

Scenes From a Night’s Dream: The first act just rolled out, no outline, just a stream of consciousness thing which coalesced rather neatly. The second act stopped me short for over a week, but Ikept writing ideas if not dialogue. This weekend I was able to situate the second act in place, define the characters, imagine something like an outline, and scene work started arriving yesterday. Huzzah!

The Notebook (working title): No, I’m not calling it The Notebook, nor am I calling it Mother. Transcribing and editing these notebooks from late 2019 and early 2020 is of course very affecting for me. When I drop the next big section for my classmates to workshop (due in two weeks) I have to make clear what I would like them to look for.

Are you a member of the Dramatists Guild? Maybe you should be.