Gosh, I know NOTHING about being pregnant. I actually had to look up the week-by-week schedule of what happens on the Internet. Embarrassing. However, I know a lot of women who have been pregnant, so I guess I can go to them for help. I needed to know how soon a woman would feel a kick and if someone could feel the baby moving in the early stages of pregnancy. I'm pretty clueless about the whole thing, obviously. I also don't know how long a transatlantic trip would take in the 1920s. I didn't find anything online about that. I facebooked a friend who worked on cruise ships to see if she had any idea. She didn't know but guessed a month. That sounds about right.
Okay, so cluelessness aside, I did get a lot of work done yesterday. Ended up writing *two* pages. Haven't had much luck today, though. I'm thinking of having her sing to him...so I need to write a song now. Or maybe I can find one online. What would we do without the Internet?
*I think I only need about two pages more. That would make the scene five pages, which is about average.*
I think the penultimate scene will be between Ismene and Oedipus. That's Oedipus at Colonus. In the original trilogy, she is the only one who survives. So...Not to give too much away, but I think the other three will succumb to their fate. One of the questions of the play, as laid out already, is whether our lives are laid out by fate or if we can choose our own destiny.
If you could sum up the idea behind Checking Out, it would be that we all have a right to love and be loved. Marriage dealt with the changing nature of love. Like Drag, Monsters does not deal as directly with love, but the theme is still there. In some ways it can contribute to the monstrosity, in other ways it holds the possibility for light. Antigone and Polynices' unconventional love may be very hard to take for some, especially people who have had experiences with incest. I've tried to make it about desire rather than something sinister. They talk about how being related seems to add to their love rather than turn it into something monstrous. I've been involved with victims of incest more than once and I know this would strike a nerve. But I'm trying to write it as a love story and avoid the grotesque. It's consensual and very different from the forced relationship depicted by Creon and Ismene.
So, I'm getting into writing about themes and details today. I still don't know the next line all the time, but keeping this stuff clear in my head will help me build, I think. Just gotta keep chugging away. I'm now going to get my head in rehearsals by going to get some of the makeup our costume/makeup designer wants us to have for the show. Til tomorrow, then.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
I'm on a boat!
I've set myself a goal of having the first act written by the end of September. There are 7 scenes total in the act; I have written 3 of them. The act ends with the entrance of Oedipus. The next scene I was going to write was to take place at Tiresias' house where Ismene, Eteocles, and Haemon question the Housekeeper, but the scene with Tig and Poly in their cabin overruled this decision.
That was because I got a good image: the two of them in bed in the aftermath of making love. When Marriage was staged, my artistic director got very frustrated because there was a bed in the first scene only and he thought it was cumbersome. Now I realize a bed can just be a platform with a sheet over it. I want the set pieces to be minimal--chairs and a table for the first two scenes, a platform for Eteocles in the tomb scene, and the same platform in the cabin scene. I like using lights to create spaces, and I envision this happening a lot. The production team can work out the logistics of all this. It doesn't have to be a problem.
Now I'm having a hard time stretching that scene. They start out talking about the baby and what it's like to not be able to see. I want them to talk about Oedipus and what Greece will be like. I wrote a half a page yesterday and I'd like to write another page today. The play is 17 pages so far. It's very condensed--a lot takes place in that time. I'm assuming a page per minute so that's about 20 minutes. I want each act to be about 45 minutes, with a total run time of 105 minutes (1 and 3/4 hr). So, short but sweet. It's just hard for me to see it running any longer. Maybe it will bump up once I know where it's going a little bit more.
Revisiting the original story will help. This whole thing started with the conflict between the two brothers in the original. Eteocles is buried in state while Polynices is left for the daws to peck at. Antigone intervenes with disastrous results. I believe she hangs herself at the end. So...! be prepared for some tears.
I think I may read the whole trilogy: Oedipus, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus.
Some thoughts on the Housekeeper:
Originally I wanted her to speak a kind of broken English like Sara does in CO, but I don't think that would work now. None of the other adults speak that way. It might be too cliche' to have the "woman from the old country" be more foreign than the others who came from the same place.
She's played by the same actress who plays Cora, so the actress can have some fun differentiating the two characters. The Housekeeper will start out wary of the three young people, but she will open up once she realizes who they are. She will tell them what happened to Tiresias and help them get their money. Can't see this scene taking too long...
And what about Tiresias? I have to figure out where he's gone and how much the Housekeeper will tell the kids. I'm quite happy to keep him in limbo, delivering monologues in a spot. He's not the narrator, more like a commentator.
I was worried about the spare dialogue in scene 3, that it was too different from the dialogue in the first two scenes. I'm not too worried about it now. It's started to settle into a comfortable rhythm, my voice coming out rather than Beckett's or something. It's spare because the characters are talking to each other as people who have known each other for a long time. The dialogue in scene 4 is more full. More like the beginning.
I'm sitting here with my coffee, having put off going to my exercise class and deciding to go for a run instead. I think that helps free things up. It's a great day for a run--sunny and not stifling. What a wonderful time to hatch a play...when the earth is changing and the air has a bite to it. And rehearsals are going so well. The guys really found some good moments last night. James knows how to pull their best work out of them.
I need to get on with my day. I'd love to just sit and write all day, but there's other things that need doing. Hopefully this won't take care of my life. I once wrote a monologue on a piece of register tape when I was working at Express in SF. Can't do that anymore...or can I? ;)
Attagirl...
That was because I got a good image: the two of them in bed in the aftermath of making love. When Marriage was staged, my artistic director got very frustrated because there was a bed in the first scene only and he thought it was cumbersome. Now I realize a bed can just be a platform with a sheet over it. I want the set pieces to be minimal--chairs and a table for the first two scenes, a platform for Eteocles in the tomb scene, and the same platform in the cabin scene. I like using lights to create spaces, and I envision this happening a lot. The production team can work out the logistics of all this. It doesn't have to be a problem.
Now I'm having a hard time stretching that scene. They start out talking about the baby and what it's like to not be able to see. I want them to talk about Oedipus and what Greece will be like. I wrote a half a page yesterday and I'd like to write another page today. The play is 17 pages so far. It's very condensed--a lot takes place in that time. I'm assuming a page per minute so that's about 20 minutes. I want each act to be about 45 minutes, with a total run time of 105 minutes (1 and 3/4 hr). So, short but sweet. It's just hard for me to see it running any longer. Maybe it will bump up once I know where it's going a little bit more.
Revisiting the original story will help. This whole thing started with the conflict between the two brothers in the original. Eteocles is buried in state while Polynices is left for the daws to peck at. Antigone intervenes with disastrous results. I believe she hangs herself at the end. So...! be prepared for some tears.
I think I may read the whole trilogy: Oedipus, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus.
Some thoughts on the Housekeeper:
Originally I wanted her to speak a kind of broken English like Sara does in CO, but I don't think that would work now. None of the other adults speak that way. It might be too cliche' to have the "woman from the old country" be more foreign than the others who came from the same place.
She's played by the same actress who plays Cora, so the actress can have some fun differentiating the two characters. The Housekeeper will start out wary of the three young people, but she will open up once she realizes who they are. She will tell them what happened to Tiresias and help them get their money. Can't see this scene taking too long...
And what about Tiresias? I have to figure out where he's gone and how much the Housekeeper will tell the kids. I'm quite happy to keep him in limbo, delivering monologues in a spot. He's not the narrator, more like a commentator.
I was worried about the spare dialogue in scene 3, that it was too different from the dialogue in the first two scenes. I'm not too worried about it now. It's started to settle into a comfortable rhythm, my voice coming out rather than Beckett's or something. It's spare because the characters are talking to each other as people who have known each other for a long time. The dialogue in scene 4 is more full. More like the beginning.
I'm sitting here with my coffee, having put off going to my exercise class and deciding to go for a run instead. I think that helps free things up. It's a great day for a run--sunny and not stifling. What a wonderful time to hatch a play...when the earth is changing and the air has a bite to it. And rehearsals are going so well. The guys really found some good moments last night. James knows how to pull their best work out of them.
I need to get on with my day. I'd love to just sit and write all day, but there's other things that need doing. Hopefully this won't take care of my life. I once wrote a monologue on a piece of register tape when I was working at Express in SF. Can't do that anymore...or can I? ;)
Attagirl...
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Okay is okay!
Progress report:
I have a habit of not doing enough research for a play. This time I want to explore a little more in that regard. I use the word "okay" several times and wanted to know if that word was used in the 20s. I did a little Internet digging and found that it was first used in 1838. It was also used in WW I to mean "0 killed." So that's really exciting since I refer to WW I several times.
I also found some other good words I'm going to use: attagirl (meaning go girl), all wet (meaning all wrong--but I'm giving it a double meaning at one point), corked (drunk), What's eating you? (also used to mean two things in the play), and okay.
Something cool to impress your friends: The word "upchuck" goes all the way back to the 20s! I did not know that!
So there's 12 characters in the play, but only 9 actors. How did I manage that? Through the magic of double casting! Here's how it works:
Antigone
Polynices
Eteocles
Ismene
Haemon
Tiresias
Creon/Oedipus
Eurydice/Nurse
Cora/Housekeeper
I don't think nine actors is too much. Less than Checking Out! A good number for a community theater or a professional theater. I may find it doesn't work for a lot of playwrighting contests, but it may be "okay" for some. :)
I made some discoveries last night. I want to keep some as surprises. One I will disclose is that the last scene goes allllll the way back to when Oedipus is saying goodbye to his children.
The scenes are short, episodic in nature. I have a hard time writing long scenes--CO has the longest scenes of any play I've written. Lots of good writers (coughShakespearecough) write short scenes (I don't mean to compare myself to him in any way, don't worry!).
The hardest part is staring at that blinking cursor. I went for a run last night to clear my head, and I think that freed something up. Then I sat in the bath with one of my 10 cent bath cubes I got at the LCP rummage sale and made notes. Some very sad things are going to happen in this play. Sorry. It is a Greek tragedy, after all!
Back to the grind...attagirl...
I have a habit of not doing enough research for a play. This time I want to explore a little more in that regard. I use the word "okay" several times and wanted to know if that word was used in the 20s. I did a little Internet digging and found that it was first used in 1838. It was also used in WW I to mean "0 killed." So that's really exciting since I refer to WW I several times.
I also found some other good words I'm going to use: attagirl (meaning go girl), all wet (meaning all wrong--but I'm giving it a double meaning at one point), corked (drunk), What's eating you? (also used to mean two things in the play), and okay.
Something cool to impress your friends: The word "upchuck" goes all the way back to the 20s! I did not know that!
So there's 12 characters in the play, but only 9 actors. How did I manage that? Through the magic of double casting! Here's how it works:
Antigone
Polynices
Eteocles
Ismene
Haemon
Tiresias
Creon/Oedipus
Eurydice/Nurse
Cora/Housekeeper
I don't think nine actors is too much. Less than Checking Out! A good number for a community theater or a professional theater. I may find it doesn't work for a lot of playwrighting contests, but it may be "okay" for some. :)
I made some discoveries last night. I want to keep some as surprises. One I will disclose is that the last scene goes allllll the way back to when Oedipus is saying goodbye to his children.
The scenes are short, episodic in nature. I have a hard time writing long scenes--CO has the longest scenes of any play I've written. Lots of good writers (coughShakespearecough) write short scenes (I don't mean to compare myself to him in any way, don't worry!).
The hardest part is staring at that blinking cursor. I went for a run last night to clear my head, and I think that freed something up. Then I sat in the bath with one of my 10 cent bath cubes I got at the LCP rummage sale and made notes. Some very sad things are going to happen in this play. Sorry. It is a Greek tragedy, after all!
Back to the grind...attagirl...
Saturday, August 27, 2011
And we're back.
I had abandoned this blog because I was tired of just cataloguing events in my life. I know blogs can be about anything but I wanted to do something...more. And I think I've found out what that is.
Checking Out has been selected to be part of LCP's 2011-2012 season. It's going up in Spring 2012. We've got a great director and a new auditorium. Everyone has been hoping LCP will "rise from the ashes" and I think we've got a good chance of doing that. For both selfish and selfless reasons, I want LCP to survive.
So now, I'm working on a new play, and this brings me to the new purpose of this blog. This one is called Monsters; it's a reenvisioning of the Antigone story. It's set very loosely in the 20s--a favorite era of mine--and leaps from one location to another, suggested by very minimal set and lighting that creates different spaces. In this version, Antigone and Polynices are lovers and Creon has been sexually abusing Ismene. Haemon is a drunk and Tiresias is ignored by the rest of the family as he tries to warn them of their monstrous fate. The first scene is a party at Creon's estate in America that gets out of hand and ends with Polynices shooting Eteocles and Eteocles blinding Polynices. Eteocles is taken to the hospital and Antigone takes Polynices to Tiresias' house, where they are helped by his housekeeper to get to Greece.
The second scene takes place four hours earlier, setting things in motion retrospectively (I was in my Caryl Churchill phase when I first began this play in San Francisco). We learn at the end that Antigone is pregnant with Polynices' child.
I thought that would be a great ending to this short play that was one of a cycle of Greek tragedies I wrote long ago and far away. But Mom recently reminded me that a writer doesn't rest on her laurels and so I dusted it off. It's always fascinated me and I want to see how far I can go with it.
The third scene, moving chronologically again now, takes place in the tomb where the family has placed Eteocles. We hear him screaming in the dark as he realizes that he's not crazy or dead, but has been left for dead. Ismene enters and calms him, telling him his heart had stopped and the family thought he was dead.
*I want to leave certain mysteries alone; I don't want to get into explaining what happened to Teo or the mechanics of death or supposed death. I find leaving it alone makes things more interesting for the actor, the director, and the audience.*
Haemon, who has stopped drinking, enters and is astounded to see Eteocles. Ismene gets them to focus and shows them a passageway out. They spend the next part of the scene talking and walking, possibly through the audience.
Ismene is changed. She starts out shy and kind of whiny, but she starts to come into her own in this scene. She is level-headed and is adopting some measure of smarts and strength.
The scene splits between the three young people going through the tunnel and Antigone and Polynices on a boat headed for Greece. The chemistry between them that must be there from the get-go is even stronger. They talk about their act as newlyweds and what their wedding would be like.
Ismene, Haemon and Eteocles decide that the best thing for them to do would be to head West and start a new life. They begin planning how they will get to their savings and make their way out there by train. So now we have two voyages: the trip to Greece by boat and the trip West by train.
The scene ends with a monologue by Tiresias where he talks about how everything is written in stone, that no one can alter the future by their actions. He doesn't say the siblings and Haemon will fail as such, however.
Some thoughts:
Like Checking Out, this show has lots of characters. Antigone, Polynices, Eteocles, Ismene, Haemon, Creon, Eurydice, Cora (a family friend--she is a malaprop and her name is a play on Chorus), and Tiresias.
Producers look for plays with small casts; you don't have to pay as many people. Musicals can have more characters because musicals have bigger budgets. Little community theaters love plays like Checking Out BECAUSE there are so many parts; the more the merrier. I find it really hard to write shows with small casts. I have written a one act, two character, unit set show. It was a beast to write. I like to set people up and let them talk--and the more people they have to talk to, the more interesting I think it is. So how can I reconcile this with what I know is a sticking point for professional theater? It wasn't always like this. We've had plays like The Crucible and Our Town and Streetcar. Those were, and are, successful plays even with their large casts. Maybe things will change, or maybe I'll get popular enough that professional theaters will take a chance on me.
But the bigger question is: What do I do now?
I have NO IDEA where to go with this. With CO, I had dreamed the whole play and sketched it out in longhand on paper that first early morning. Marriage began and ended with an image; all I needed to do was connect the dots. Drag was looser. It was more political and had a drive that moved it forward.
So this blog now exists to jog my brain into figuring out the shape of the play. I don't know where it's going, but when it gets there I'll be glad.
I know a few things: Antigone and Polynices will arrive in Greece while Ismene, Haemon, and Eteocles travel West. I kind of wanted Ismene to visit Oedipus (Oedipus at Colonus) but I don't think that's practical. So I may have to cut some lines about that in the tomb scene. It's Antigone and Polynices who have to go to Greece.
Is Oedipus going to be part of the play? I haven't decided that yet. Maybe he could be double-cast with Creon? I kind of like that idea.
I know it seems like I don't know what I'm doing, and maybe I don't. That's what this blog is now for--to help me find my way through the tunnel. Look for the light...
Checking Out has been selected to be part of LCP's 2011-2012 season. It's going up in Spring 2012. We've got a great director and a new auditorium. Everyone has been hoping LCP will "rise from the ashes" and I think we've got a good chance of doing that. For both selfish and selfless reasons, I want LCP to survive.
So now, I'm working on a new play, and this brings me to the new purpose of this blog. This one is called Monsters; it's a reenvisioning of the Antigone story. It's set very loosely in the 20s--a favorite era of mine--and leaps from one location to another, suggested by very minimal set and lighting that creates different spaces. In this version, Antigone and Polynices are lovers and Creon has been sexually abusing Ismene. Haemon is a drunk and Tiresias is ignored by the rest of the family as he tries to warn them of their monstrous fate. The first scene is a party at Creon's estate in America that gets out of hand and ends with Polynices shooting Eteocles and Eteocles blinding Polynices. Eteocles is taken to the hospital and Antigone takes Polynices to Tiresias' house, where they are helped by his housekeeper to get to Greece.
The second scene takes place four hours earlier, setting things in motion retrospectively (I was in my Caryl Churchill phase when I first began this play in San Francisco). We learn at the end that Antigone is pregnant with Polynices' child.
I thought that would be a great ending to this short play that was one of a cycle of Greek tragedies I wrote long ago and far away. But Mom recently reminded me that a writer doesn't rest on her laurels and so I dusted it off. It's always fascinated me and I want to see how far I can go with it.
The third scene, moving chronologically again now, takes place in the tomb where the family has placed Eteocles. We hear him screaming in the dark as he realizes that he's not crazy or dead, but has been left for dead. Ismene enters and calms him, telling him his heart had stopped and the family thought he was dead.
*I want to leave certain mysteries alone; I don't want to get into explaining what happened to Teo or the mechanics of death or supposed death. I find leaving it alone makes things more interesting for the actor, the director, and the audience.*
Haemon, who has stopped drinking, enters and is astounded to see Eteocles. Ismene gets them to focus and shows them a passageway out. They spend the next part of the scene talking and walking, possibly through the audience.
Ismene is changed. She starts out shy and kind of whiny, but she starts to come into her own in this scene. She is level-headed and is adopting some measure of smarts and strength.
The scene splits between the three young people going through the tunnel and Antigone and Polynices on a boat headed for Greece. The chemistry between them that must be there from the get-go is even stronger. They talk about their act as newlyweds and what their wedding would be like.
Ismene, Haemon and Eteocles decide that the best thing for them to do would be to head West and start a new life. They begin planning how they will get to their savings and make their way out there by train. So now we have two voyages: the trip to Greece by boat and the trip West by train.
The scene ends with a monologue by Tiresias where he talks about how everything is written in stone, that no one can alter the future by their actions. He doesn't say the siblings and Haemon will fail as such, however.
Some thoughts:
Like Checking Out, this show has lots of characters. Antigone, Polynices, Eteocles, Ismene, Haemon, Creon, Eurydice, Cora (a family friend--she is a malaprop and her name is a play on Chorus), and Tiresias.
Producers look for plays with small casts; you don't have to pay as many people. Musicals can have more characters because musicals have bigger budgets. Little community theaters love plays like Checking Out BECAUSE there are so many parts; the more the merrier. I find it really hard to write shows with small casts. I have written a one act, two character, unit set show. It was a beast to write. I like to set people up and let them talk--and the more people they have to talk to, the more interesting I think it is. So how can I reconcile this with what I know is a sticking point for professional theater? It wasn't always like this. We've had plays like The Crucible and Our Town and Streetcar. Those were, and are, successful plays even with their large casts. Maybe things will change, or maybe I'll get popular enough that professional theaters will take a chance on me.
But the bigger question is: What do I do now?
I have NO IDEA where to go with this. With CO, I had dreamed the whole play and sketched it out in longhand on paper that first early morning. Marriage began and ended with an image; all I needed to do was connect the dots. Drag was looser. It was more political and had a drive that moved it forward.
So this blog now exists to jog my brain into figuring out the shape of the play. I don't know where it's going, but when it gets there I'll be glad.
I know a few things: Antigone and Polynices will arrive in Greece while Ismene, Haemon, and Eteocles travel West. I kind of wanted Ismene to visit Oedipus (Oedipus at Colonus) but I don't think that's practical. So I may have to cut some lines about that in the tomb scene. It's Antigone and Polynices who have to go to Greece.
Is Oedipus going to be part of the play? I haven't decided that yet. Maybe he could be double-cast with Creon? I kind of like that idea.
I know it seems like I don't know what I'm doing, and maybe I don't. That's what this blog is now for--to help me find my way through the tunnel. Look for the light...
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