Scenes From a Night's Dream: First Reading

dissociation n. the disconnection or separation of something from something else or the state of being disconnected. In psychiatry: separation of normally related mental processes, resulting in one group functioning independently from the rest, leading in extreme cases to disorders such as multiple personality.

No matter the project, be it for a writers group, as a commission, or the final project for one of MFA classes, I will hold a pre-reading reading with a cadre of close friends and colleagues to hear it in a safe space. Last fall that was in my living room, a year before that via Zoom. But it always happens.

Sunday night a delightful crew of friends (not an unsurprising amount either present or former actor-teachers) gathered on our patio, in perfect weather, to read Scenes From a Night’s Dream.

Random thoughts: Given all the messed up things that happen, some people were most upset by the dead goldfish. “The party downstairs” also set some on edge. The second act is too short (my opinion) which affords the opportunity to address some confusion as to what the company - "Morpheus" - actually does.

New rules: When holding a post-reading discussion (or in fact, the talkback following the workshop of a new work) the playwright must not answer any questions. You’ll never learn anything about how your play works if you do.

We started and I immediately got one question directed to me and I said, Oh. I’m not answering any questions. What followed was something like forty-five minutes of the assembled going over everything that had just happened.

The disconnect, the dissociation, the dream.

Last fall I mentioned how Mark Ravenhill was sharing 101 tips on playwriting over Twitter. That has developed into the 37 Plays podcast sponsored by the Royal Shakespeare Company where he interviews other playwrights and they discuss their own tips on writing. 

This week, writer and director Chinonyerem Odimba brought up Ravenhill’s Tip #12: There’s something cruel about constructing a play, putting characters in situations that are everything from awkward to very painful. Don’t shy from this cruelty but use it responsibly, explore all its ramifications and don’t use it cynically or for effect. 

This is a thing. I don’t normally indulge in cruelty in my plays. Or not since The Vampyres, anyway. And yet, I failed to provide any kind of content warning as we began reading. I immediately regretted that as we started reading. Sometimes people make light of or in fact scorn or ridicule such advance warning, but those people are children.

Now, I have a page of notes and an entire week to tweak the script before we read it in class. So glad!

UPDATE: A workshop of "Scenes From a Night's Dream" will be presented as part of the 2023 NEOMFA Playwrights Festival at Convergence-Continuum, February 16, 17 & 18, 2023.

Play a Day: Bender and Brian

Trish Harnetiaux

For Wednesday, I read Bender and Brian by Trish Harnetiaux and posted at New Play Exchange.

Earlier this month, when everyone was posting their high school senior year photos (in solidarity with the Class of 2020, I guess?) I posted the "Man of the Year" picture of the character Carl Reed, a photo which is seen very briefly at the beginning of The Breakfast Club.

It's one of those you-get-it-the-second-time joke, if you are even paying attention, because that's Carl the Janitor, played by John Kapelos (he who also played the "oily bohunk" in Sixteen Candles) who exists both as a cautionary tale to the priviledged young detentionees, and also as a sounding board for Vice Principal Vernon.

Vernon: Now this is the thought that wakes me up in the middle of the night. That when I get older, these kids are going to take care of me.
Carl: I wouldn't count on it.

Carl Reed
Shermer High School
Class of 1969

Did you know ..? Rick Moranis was originally cast as Carl the Janitor. That's right! He would have had the biggest name in the credits. Only Moranis wanted to play him with a Russian accent and have a gold tooth, like a total character. He insisted upon it.

I mean, that would been have awful right? Thrown off the balance of the entire film (so would have the shower scene, but that's another story.) And they got Kapelos, and the rest is history.

And then John Kapelos tagged himself on my Facebook photo and now we're Facebook friends, and life is totally random in that way.

Harnetiaux's Bender and Brian is a Gen X relationship fever dream, inspired by the (fictional) recasting of the actors who were originally to play those characters. We follow them over the course of over forty years as Brian and Bender (their actual names) develop and maintain a deep, life-long friendship.

The playwright's dialogue is incredible, I kept laughing out loud. Like a modern Godot, these two just keep bouncing off each other, they would be lost without each other's company. It is a loving and hilarious rumination on the nature of relationships, and at the same time exploring regret for the road not taken, a hallmark of our generation.

Tomorrow is the last day of April. Who should I read?



Source: Why Rick Moranis Was Fired From The Breakfast Club, Cinema Blend (3/15/2015)