NWC #29- "No Fourth
Wall" Nov 30th at 8am
Shakespeare didn't have a
fourth wall. Moliere didn't either. The times when theater was the most
popular, this concept didn't exist. Why deny your audience direct connection
with the performers?
Why limit the actions you
can have on stage to self-contained, justified, laborious interactions between
full rounded characters? Afraid it will be
bad? You don't like this kind of theater? Maybe that's just because people like
you don't write in this genre enough!
*CHALLENGE*- Agit Prop
this sumbitch.
1. political (originally
communist) propaganda, especially in art or literature. ("agitprop painters")
Take a well-known tale and
use it for your own means. Goldilocks and the three candidates? Little Red
Scare? The Wonderful World of School Board Meetings? Who is John from
Accounting?
*Bonus*- Write in as many
dialects and races and socio-economic backgrounds as you can. These characters
are SUPPOSED to be flat comments on large groups of people.
*Bonus*- Interact with the
audience PHYSICALLY not just verbally. Make them hold something or reveal
something, or find something under their seats.
(Time for agitprop later,
gotta get that next bus play done, or at least continued...
Point in the bus play's
favor, there will be no stage, no fourth wall.
The plays will take place with other passengers all around)
BUS PLAY #4, part 2
A
woman in her late 90s.
A
girl of seven years old.
Sitting
together, on a bus, on the ice in the middle of a lake.
(Last time...)
GIRL
You would be my great-grandmother.
WOMAN
Yes, I guess I would. I never had any great-grandchildren. That I met.
GIRL
The first time I play Scrabble with him, he's going
to talk about you a lot.
WOMAN
Don't let him win.
GIRL
I won't.
WOMAN
I never did.
GIRL
You
don't want to get stuck with the Q.
WOMAN
Or
the J.
GIRL
Or
the X.
WOMAN
Or
the K.
GIRL
You
hoard the blank tiles and at least one U.
WOMAN
You
memorize the handful of words that don't need a U to go with a Q.
GIRL
You
keep the scrabble dictionary nearby.
WOMAN
You
do a lot of crossword puzzles.
GIRL
It's
how you keep your mind sharp.
WOMAN
So
many words.
GIRL
You
go for the big words and the big scoring tiles.
WOMAN
Be
careful, though. You don't want to just
come close and end up setting the other person up for a big score.
GIRL
But
you have to risk it.
WOMAN
No,
you play it safe. Avoid the edges. Make small words if you have to. Deny the other person a foothold they can
build on.
GIRL
But
if you don't open up the board, the game gets too constricted, no one can play.
WOMAN
There's
always a play.
Or
you can skip a turn.
Don't
make it easy for the other person to beat you.
GIRL
Doesn't
the game stop being fun then?
WOMAN
Board
games is one of the few places in life where you're allowed to be vicious. It's encouraged. Use your brain. Show no mercy.
GIRL
What
about cribbage?
WOMAN
Also
fun. More chance, though. More rules.
I like Scrabble just a bit better.
Words and letters. An orderly
board. Cribbage can be very random.
GIRL
He
said you were good with a deck of cards.
WOMAN
Big
family. Lot of game playing over the
years.
GIRL
Your
hands seem bony.
WOMAN
Never
did have much meat on me. And when
you're older, the skin sags. You hollow
out. Blessed with good joints
though. My hands never fell victim to
arthritis.
GIRL
You
skin seems translucent, more blue than pink.
WOMAN
Everything
gets a little grayer when you're older.
The blood retreats from the extremities.
GIRL
Are
you fragile?
WOMAN
Are
you?
GIRL
I'm
small.
WOMAN
I'm
light, but I'm strong. There's a
difference. You don't live to be one
hundred years, one month and one day if you're prone to fall apart when life
bats you around.
(to
be continued)
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