THE TWENTY-FIFTH
CHALLENGE
Write An Immersive
Modern Morality Tale
The third ancient
form of theater that arrived after campfire stories and rain dances, were
morality tales. Rather than speak from a place of camaraderie in communion with
the audience as in campfire and rain dances, the church elevated themselves and
spoke from a place of authority.
Traveling pageant
performances were (kinda?) the first immersive theater!
With the decline of
the Right in America from Pat Robertson cultural dominance to fringe, at least
in Chicago- the theater has changed from a place where sinners can revel in
excess and immorality or counter-morals. No longer is the stage a place to
display the complex worst in humanity without a moralistic bow.
Now, and for many,
the stage is the place for extreme morality, challenging the old, bovine
audiences with how vastly superior our world-view is over theirs. The
“dangerous questions” are less “how will you handle knowing we are all
sinners?” and more “how dare you label me with your bigoted microaggressions?”
Enraged? Look, I’m
trying to provoke you. Is that irresponsible of me? Well, write a response play
that puts me in my place. Or put someone else in their place. The point is, use
your moral superiority to make a beacon for others to follow you into a more
acceptable place.
MORALITY TALE TIPS
Cover a truly
difficult issue or… perhaps attack “your own” with something like veganism or
vaccines
Use an Everyman that
represents the audience. Heck, perhaps pull someone literally from the
audience.
Use Ideals as
character names, like Justice, Truth, Hope… Crystal
Either the play moves
around the audience like a parade, or the audience parades from room to room
through the play.
Use elaborate and
fantastical costumes
Invoke horror
Play with scale- so
that in one room we’re micro-organisms perhaps and another we’re the size of
Godzilla
(Now that I’m at a pivot
point, another act of a different play tucked away, I’m cycling back through at
the challenges and picking some at random to play around with. Today, I’m reaching back to the 11th
for the big issue/sex scene challenge, repeated below:
THE ELEVENTH CHALLENGE
(revisited):
Race, Gender, income inequality,
pollution, healthcare, immigration. Pick an issue that was a big deal to you in
the last election.
Now, write a sex scene that
challenges you.
Sex, like nudity, only is
effective on stage when it’s amplifying something else. It makes it more raw,
vulnerable, grotesque, powerful.
Sex also can reverse the normal
moral codes- aka perversion.
Some aspect needs to be
pornographic meaning arousing to the audience.
Some aspect needs to be
absolutely wrenching
Figure out your own climax, but
it should NOT be a physical sexual climax.
Play with power inequities. Play
with consent. Have fun. Enjoy your naughty self.)
(This is deeply wrong on a whole
lot of levels but what the hell.
Politics and porn. November comes
but once a year.)
STUART
and TUCKER are in bed, in the midst of having sex.
TUCKER
is on his back with his legs in the air.
STUART
is between TUCKER’s legs, hanging on for positioning purposes as needed, with
his penis currently buried deep inside TUCKER’s anus.
Despite
STUART’s best efforts, TUCKER still has the presence of mind to carry on a
conversation.
STUART
You
honestly want to discuss voter suppression?
Right now?
TUCKER
It’s
been bothering me.
STUART
And
I am trying with all my might to get your mind off it.
TUCKER
And
you are doing a stellar job down there, I am not complaining.
STUART
I’m
starting to take this as a bit of an insult.
TUCKER
But
you’re not stopping.
STUART
I
am not stopping.
TUCKER
The
position of Secretary of State, at the state level, not the federal level,
that’s the key.
STUART
Jesus.
TUCKER
Was
that a Jesus for - ?
STUART
Part
of that was “Damn, it feels good to be this deep inside you.” Part of that was “Damn, can this discussion
please, please, please wait until tomorrow morning after breakfast.”
TUCKER
Because
before breakfast –
STUART
We
will still be doing this, yes.
TUCKER
You
are an amazing early morning fuck.
STUART
As
are you, my love. As are you.
TUCKER
Secretary
of State runs the elections, enforces or fails to enforce the laws, creates or
removes hurdles to voting.
STUART
Jesus.
TUCKER
Same
breakdown.
STUART
More
physical than political, but yeah.
TUCKER
I
love you.
STUART
And
I love your resisting ass, figuratively as well as literally, but seriously,
for a couple of hours can you just go with it and unclench a little?
TUCKER
Oh,
so you want me to relax down there?
STUART
No,
no. Not down there. Keep it nice and tight down there.
TUCKER
Thought
so.
STUART
You
are ever so slightly evil.
TUCKER
And
you love me.
STUART
And
I love you.
TUCKER
We
should want a fair and equitable system that treats everyone the same.
STUART
If
I turned you over for this, would that stop you continuing this line of
discussion.
TUCKER
Well,
my face would be in the pillows or the mattress, but I’d keep talking. You just wouldn’t be able to make out what I
was saying, it’d just be noises.
STUART
I
might be OK with that.
TUCKER
But
then you wouldn’t see my pretty face.
STUART
I
would miss your pretty face, that’s true.
TUCKER
You
like watching the looks that cross my face when you’re doing what you do to me.
STUART
I
do.
TUCKER
And
it’d be harder to kiss my pretty face if you turn me over.
STUART
We’ve
done more challenging contortions before, but you’re right, it would be harder.
TUCKER
Some
things we like harder.
STUART
Some
things we do.
TUCKER
Oh
God.
STUART
That’s
my boy.
TUCKER
You
wouldn’t be sure of the sounds I make if you turned me over.
STUART
I’m
not turning you over.
STUART thrusts harder and deeper with each new
word.
STUART (cont’d)
That
thought. Has. Passed.
TUCKER
God,
you’re good.
STUART
God. Damn.
Right. I. Am.
TUCKER
Stuart!
STUART leans down and kisses TUCKER.
STUART
Thank
God I married a talker.
TUCKER
Thank
God I married a talker.
STUART
The
only way this shit works.
TUCKER
Even
if I am talking about voting rights.
STUART continues kissing and fucking TUCKER has he
states his case.
STUART
If
I kiss you, like this, repeatedly, while I rock, back and forth, inside you, is
that, gonna be, enough, to shut, you up?
TUCKER
Keep
trying and let’s see.
The kissing and fucking continues.
STUART
No
one, is stopping us, from voting.
TUCKER is in Stuart’s thrall but still on message.
TUCKER
Currently.
Another thrust.
TUCKER (cont’d)
Sweet
mother of Jesus, you’re good.
STUART
As
long as we, can vote, isn’t that, enough?
TUCKER takes STUART’s face in his hands, wraps his
legs around Stuart’s back, and stills their motion for a second.
TUCKER
We
need a broad coalition of as many like-minded, progressive voters as humanly
possible. The reason nobody’s stopping
us from voting is they can’t see what we’re doing right now.
STUART
What
we’re doing right now?
TUCKER
What
we’re doing right now. Fuck me,
Stuart. Fuck me hard.
STUART
This. You and me.
What we do.
TUCKER
We’re
not easily identifiable as a group – harder –
STUART is using this litany like a mantra and he is
going to town on Tucker.
STUART
Like
students,
or
seniors,
or
the poor,
or
people
of
color.
TUCKER
God,
I love you.
STUART
I
love you, too.
TUCKER
We
have to protect this, Tucker.
STUART
God
Damn
Right
We
Do.
TUCKER
Holy
shit!
STUART
And
the only way to protect you.
Protect
us.
Protect
What’s
Ours.
TUCKER
Dammit!
STUART
Is
make
Sure
Every-
One
Every-where
Can
Vote
TUCKER
God,
I love you! Kiss me.
STUART bends down to kiss TUCKER.
In between kisses, Tucker asks –
TUCKER (cont’d)
What
do we have to do, baby?
Tell
me what we have to do.
STUART
We
have to make sure our leaders know we want the barriers to voting removed.
TUCKER
Barriers
like what?
STUART’s back up and punishing TUCKER’s ass.
STUART
Voter
I.
D.
TUCKER
Yes!
STUART
Moving
or
Eliminating
Polling
Places
TUCKER
Yes!
STUART
Voter
Registration
Or
Absentee
Ballots
Put
On
Hold
Or
Conveniently
Lost
TUCKER
God,
Stuart!
STUART
Tell
me
who
we’re
fighting
for
TUCKER
The
people they consider other,
STUART
less
than
human,
TUCKER
those
are the people they aren’t interested in serving,
don’t
want to be held accountable to, and
don’t
want exercising the levers of power.
STUART
Voting
is
power.
TUCKER grabs STUART’s face again, looks him
straight in the eye, wraps himself around Stuart again to pause the very
welcome assault on his rectum.
TUCKER
If
they knew I spent every night flat on my back with my legs in
the
air and you plowing away at me for all you’re worth, because we’re two men, in
love with each other, they would find a way to take our vote away, too.
Even in this position, STUART finds a way to thrust
for emphasis and drive TUCKER crazy.
STUART
So
we need to
put
people
in
positions
of
authority
who want to make it
easier,
not
harder
to
vote.
TUCKER
God,
yes!
STUART gets upright again to start thrusting. But first he gyrates his lower body, moving
himself around deep inside TUCKER, as he talks dirty politics.
STUART
Voting
is a state thing. So we need to vote for
Rotation.
STUART (cont’d)
state
legislators
TUCKER
Oh
god.
Rotation.
STUART
and
governors
TUCKER
Holy
shit.
Rotation.
STUART
and
secretaries of
state
TUCKER
Fu-uu-uuck,
Stuart!
STUART pulls slowly almost all the way out, then
thrusts just as slowly all the way back in as he moves through the next phrases,
probably more than once. He can take his
time saying the words to draw out the experience for them both.
STUART
Leaders
who want to broaden the voting popluace,
bring
everyone possible into the franchise.
So
we all
have
a say.
TUCKER
Oh.
My.
God!
STUART runs a hand over TUCKER’s body.
TUCKER reaches up to run a hand over STUART’s body.
STUART
Talk
to me, Tucker.
TUCKER
Politicians
shouldn’t be able to choose their own voters.
STUART thrusts.
STUART
No.
TUCKER
We
are, all of us, their constituents.
STUART thrusts.
STUART
Yes.
TUCKER
They
work for us.
STUART thrusts.
STUART
Fuck
yes.
TUCKER
They
need to be answerable to us.
STUART thrusts, repeatedly.
STUART
Fuck!
Yes.
Fuck!
Yes.
And
how do we do that, baby?
How
do we let them know who’s in charge?
TUCKER
We
vote.
STUART thrusts.
STUART
Yes!
TUCKER
We
demand the vote.
STUART thrusts, repeatedly.
STUART
Our
Right
To
Vote
TUCKER
That’s
why bad politicians fear voters.
STUART
You
know it.
TUCKER
That’s
why they want to take our power away so it’s easier to keep it for themselves.
STUART
God,
I love you.
TUCKER
Lay
down on top of me, baby. Take a
breather.
STUART
I’m
not pulling out of you.
TUCKER
I
don’t want you to pull out of me.
STUART
I
am still so fucking hard right now.
TUCKER
You
could fuck me all night.
STUART
I
could fuck you all night.
TUCKER
Just
like this.
STUART
Just
like this.
TUCKER
I
love the weight of you on top of me.
STUART
I
love the warmth of you. The beat of your
heart against my chest.
TUCKER
Politics
tomorrow.
STUART
Ab-so-fuckin’-lutely.
TUCKER
But
tonight
STUART
Just
us
TUCKER
Till
daybreak.
STUART
Then
maybe a little sleep.
TUCKER
Maybe.
STUART
You’re
the best.
TUCKER
Damn
right I am.
STUART
God
bless America.
TUCKER
God
bless America.
They rest in each other’s arms, breathing together.
END OF SCENE
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