Okay, this was sorta fun and helpful with 14/48 last month. Let’s see if it works as well with the ScriptWorks Fling. (not quite as much drama since it’s just one play in 48 hours; ho hum…)
Here we go…
4:30pm
- Anticipation mounts
- To relieve stress before the meetup at 6pm I’m going to the store to buy items for breakfast
- And some guacamole
- And ketchup and broccoli and beer
- Maybe some other sundries
- A pack of gum perhaps?
- And some guacamole
6pm
- Late to Opa!
6:15pm
- Glass of wine
- Cake for kids
- Waiting…
7pm
- Rules released:
1) All props and scenery must be able to fit into, and include, a carry-on suitcase
2) A character in the play must write a note for another character which the audience never gets to hear
3) The sound of the land
- Hmm, discussion, consultation, pondering…
9:50
- Analysis:
- If a carry-on suitcase is there, it’s likely a modern piece and there’s possibly travel involved
- A note that the audience never hears could potentially be seen
- Land makes sounds like:
- Cracking of glacier ice
- Volcanoes erupting
- Earthquake noises
- Land could also potentially include land-ing, as in a plane landing; maybe?
- Mull it…
10:30pm
- Okay, I’m fried
- Going to bed with legal pad
- Leaning toward a play on a plane
- 2-3 people waiting in line for the bathroom
- Someone passes a note
- There’s a reaction
- There’s chaos
- Something happens down on the land that’s surprising
- Meteor landing?
- Volcano?
- People on plane realize they’re safer than on the ground
- I like that this goes against my own instincts
- But gotta make it funny
- Really funny
- And not too dire
- Is this unique enough?
- Take notes
- See you on Saturday
********************
7:30am (Saturday)
- Woke up imagining a wordless play
- Takes place over time
- Two people, one pining for the other
- Connection never really made until the end
- Includes sounds of different environments
- Schoolyard
- Airport
- What else???
- From youth to old age?
3:30pm (Saturday)
- Trying to get the collection of time-lapsed scenes together
- Maybe 5 scenes, each one ten years apart?
- Starts at school, then airport, then rock concert, then some kind of natural disaster, and then…. something…
9:30pm (Saturday)
- I’ve got 3-and-a-half pages of description
- Thinking I just need to get to 5 or 6
- Four short scenes so far, each spanning 10 years, including:
- Elementary school yard
- Airport security line
- Night club rock show
- Horrible storm in the middle of nowhere
- What’s next, what’s next…
11:53pm (Saturday)
- 5-and-a-half pages and I think I’ve got a draft
- After the storm scene there’s a lonely restaurant scene, a beach scene with crashing waves, then a hospital scene where one character is starting to die
- Very uplifting
- Very tired
- Hoping it looks okay in the morning and that I just need to tweak a bit
********************
8:20am (Sunday)
- Draft looks okay on my computer
- It feels like it could work well, but could also fall flat
- Gonna read it to the kids and see what they think
- Then print it out, stare at it for a while and decide what to do…
10:50am (Sunday)
- All right, I think I might be done!
- Read it to the boys, they dug it
- Made a couple little tweaks and it feels right
- Will go for a run, print it out again, one last read, and then… submit
- Current title: A Hundred Little Pieces
- About a couple of women over the course of 60 years who can never quite connect until they’re 70, when it’s almost too late; bittersweet
