NWC #8- "Counting
Votes with Phillip Glass " DUE Nov 9th at 8am
CHALLENGE
Combine this mess of
graphics and chaos news
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9C805T-kgc
and this
Philip Glass
https://youtu.be/jeEobpQMgD4?t=1m4s
And write some number
counting artsy fartsy play
Progression into the
impossible is inherently theatrical.
So start with something
and have it progress toward a finite ending due to the law of physics.
Example Blow up a balloon
onstage and continue blowing until...
OR DO WHATEVER END OF
TIMES THING YOU WANT- THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT MIGHT BE OVER!
Perhaps a lone figure
wanders through this technological wasteland wondering what it's all about
while eating a bologna sandwich.
(I couldn't write. I couldn't keep watching the results with
nothing to do. So I wrote anyway. Something...)
BUS PLAY #4
(or, what does it look
like to write a stream of consciousness scene while the entire political system
has a nervous breakdown...)
ONE
How
do you right a play when -
TWO
Did
you just type "right" a play?
ONE
Why
yes I did.
TWO
You
meant "write."
ONE
Freudian
slip, clearly.
TWO
Even
the commentators on the TV are depressed.
And it's not over yet.
ONE
They
fear the worst.
TWO
I'm
sure they're just giddy over at Fox News.
ONE
Oh
delightful. They're interviewing that
unkillable gremlin Rudy Guliani.
TWO
Looks
like Fox News was invited to the party after all.
ONE
I'd
try to go to bed, but I couldn't sleep anyway.
TWO
But
if the unthinkable happens -
ONE
Yup,
won't be able to sleep then either.
TWO
Do
you suppose this is how people who didn't want Obama to be President felt for eight
years?
ONE
That
they wanted to kill themselves.
TWO
Oh,
come on, you don't want to kill yourself.
ONE
No. But, Jesus.
To live with a creeping sense of dread for four whole years?
TWO
Maybe
that was what the other half of the country felt like.
ONE
Stock
market's plummeting and it hasn't even opened yet.
TWO
Well,
the rest of the world's awake.
ONE
And
horrified.
TWO
Welcome
to the club.
ONE
The
man doesn't have the first idea how to be President.
TWO
Poor
Obama. All that progress, completely
undone.
ONE
Kiss
the planet goodbye.
TWO
Kiss
civility goodbye.
ONE
I'm
not going to be able to go to work tomorrow.
I'm just going to be too depressed.
TWO
We're
all in this together now. Someone just
said that.
ONE
He
isn't interested in being my President.
I didn't vote for him, so he hates me.
I don't matter, I'm a loser, I lost.
TWO
And
the Vice President, if God forbid -
ONE
Right. We got a twofer.
TWO
Forget
about a woman's right to choose.
ONE
Forget
about marriage equality, or other basic civil rights for gay people.
TWO
Forget
about progressive change.
ONE
Have
we really been so dismissive of anyone who didn't "play along" that -
?
TWO
Someone
just mentioned the Supreme Court.
ONE
Jesus.
TWO
We
are all so deeply screwed.
ONE
Well,
not all of us.
TWO
Cozy
up to all the straight white Christian men you know, I guess.
ONE
My
mother worked so hard to see a woman elected.
TWO
It's
not over yet.
ONE
Yeah,
but... man...
TWO
One
of the reporters has been joking about being deported.
ONE
I
don't think they're joking.
TWO
Yeah,
free press. Screw that. State television's all you need.
ONE
Our
glorious leader.
TWO
We
have troops in the field.
ONE
Oh
man, he's going to have the nuclear football.
TWO
This
is just like Jesse Ventura in Minnesota.
ONE
Or
Michelle Bachmann.
TWO
Poor
Brian Williams. He's probably thinking,
"This serial liar is 26 electoral votes away from being the leader of the
free world. I tell one whopper about
being "under fire" in a war zone and boom, media Siberia."
ONE
Really
Siberia now. There will be no liberal
media bias anymore. They'll fix that.
TWO
At
least writing this play is keeping me awake.
ONE
Before
we plan the inauguration, says one of the panel, they go to look at
Pennsylvania - and it's slowly slipping away... oh man...
TWO
I'd
say shoot me now, but they have all the guns, so they probably would.
ONE
Black
Lives Matter - oh man, those activists - we thought they had it hard before.
TWO
You
can't blame the third party candidates.
ONE
Can't
you?
TWO
If
the other side -
ONE
The
sane side?
TWO
Had
made a better case -
ONE
Suddenly
being in a bus on the ice in the middle of a lake in the dead of winter in the
middle of the country is a really depressing metaphor.
TWO
Even
typing this play is now depressing.
ONE
My
poor mom. Is she going to live to ever
see a woman president?
TWO
My
goddaughter until now has only lived in a world where a black man was
President. I really wanted her to see a
woman as her second president. So that
anything was possible in her mind.
ONE
One
white dude doesn't change that.
TWO
We
will not only endure, we will prevail - someone just quoted Faulkner.
ONE
I
was so hopeful, even emotional, in a good way, this morning.
TWO
Well,
it's always tomorrow morning now.
ONE
A
Johnny Walker liquor commercial just featured all people of color and quoted
Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" - in both English and
Spanish.
TWO
That
commercial was more hopeful and reassuring than the previous three hours of
election coverage.
ONE
Well,
get used to only seeing things like that in the middle of the night.
TWO
The
Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul.
ONE
Oh,
how I miss Douglas Adams right now.
TWO
He
was an atheist.
ONE
I'm
starting to understand why.
TWO
Maybe
being this apocalyptic is counterproductive.
ONE
Schadenfreude
doesn't really do much good. If the
President fails, we're all screwed.
TWO
The
world is screwed.
ONE
See,
people who keep clamoring about the end times?
I didn't understand how they could be so -
TWO
Yeah.
ONE
They
just brought on a Presidential historian.
TWO
Poor
fucker.
ONE
History? Books to read? Screw you, nerd! Start tweeting. No one has the patience for facts and
tradition anymore.
TWO
Well,
I guess smart people had a good run.
ONE
Back
to leaders with shitty vocabulary who can't string together a complex sentence.
TWO
Say
goodbye to health care, immigration reform, the White House vegetable garden.
ONE
The
new first family.
TWO
Bets
on how long it takes to get their own reality show?
ONE
We're
all watching it now.
TWO
Oh,
and the stock market has tanked so much already, before the election's even been
called, that they halted all trading til market open tomorrow.
ONE
And
the immigration website for Canada just crashed.
TWO
Which
sounds like a joke, but sadly is true.
ONE
Oh
good, another commercial break. Perhaps
something uplifting.
TWO
Ah,
the trailer for the movie about "Loving vs. Virginia" case.
ONE
Love
wins.
TWO
And
it's a period piece.
ONE
Well,
we're white. We can keep our heads down
and maybe get through.
TWO
Anyone
we care about who's a person a color -
ONE
How
do we - ?
TWO
"What
then must we do?"
ONE
Yup.
TWO
"This
land was made for you and me..."
ONE
We've
survived worse.
TWO
Have
we?
ONE
The
Great Depression, World War Two - ?
TWO
Oh,
good. We haven't hit bottom yet.
ONE
The
poor depressed people waiting at the Clinton HQ.
TWO
Another
ad break. The trailer for the online
series about women fighting for writing recognition at Newsweek.
ONE
Female
empowerment. Also, apparently, a period
piece.
TWO
All
those people who've been gently mentioning that I might want to consider
writing stories without any gay people in them will probably stop being gentle
about it now.
ONE
I
guess the late night comedians will be assured of a wealth of material.
TWO
They
might end up like poor Tom Lehrer, though.
He stopped writing his satirical songs suddenly because he said he woke
up one day and just didn't see anything funny in the newspaper anymore.
ONE
Oh
dear, the venue has a glass ceiling.
TWO
Well,
the glass ceiling remains intact after all.
ONE
A
metaphor saved, at least.
TWO
We
survived Bush 43.
ONE
Who
now looks like a seasoned statesman by comparison.
TWO
It
matters who you vote for, not just how you feel - someone just said.
ONE
Yup.
TWO
Oh,
another presidential historian. Bet
she's looking forward to writing this chapter.
ONE
Who
doesn't like satire?
TWO
We
would just like to apologize, in advance, to the rest of the world
community. We seem to have really cocked
this up - again.
ONE
Sigh.
TWO
I
am now too sad to masturbate. Can't even
cheer myself up that way.
ONE
We
can't go backward, says the historian.
TWO
One
would hope. Looks like we're about to
test that.
ONE
We
leadership now, more than ever, they added.
TWO
Amen.
ONE
And
we are now in tomorrow.
TWO
Awake
when the polls close in friggin' Alaska.
ONE
Our
new day.
TWO
Whee!
ONE
I
suppose they'll finally have to do something about his hair and ill-fitting
suits.
TWO
Someone
just said, Steve Banan was right.
ONE
All
hail Breitbart. All hail the Alt Right.
TWO
I
feel like I need to apologize to someone.
ONE
Should
I be worried about my safety now? Will
people feel like they have permission to just express things that up until now
civility and -
TWO
When
you say "express" - do you mean defacing the Obama stickers on your
car, or beating the crap out of you?
ONE
Take
your pick.
TWO
Someone
wants to tar and feather some pollsters.
Someone else countered that "there will be no tarring and
feathering."
ONE
Keep
hope alive.
TWO
And
a crowd gathers outside the White House.
ONE
What
could possibly go wrong?
TWO
America's
Presidential Election - what could possibly go wrong?
ONE
Talk
of post-mortems already - what went wrong?
Someone actually said, "Well, it won't change anything, but it'll
be fun" to describe those think pieces.
TWO
Cold
comfort.
ONE
Oh
goody, the fucking baseball caps are out.
TWO
Isn't
it great how they hate the press but really wanna be on TV?
ONE
My
poor mom. I finally got her to go to
bed. Clinton isn't going to make a big
concession speech tonight, it's after 2am where she is, Alaska just fell
Trump's way but the other six states in limbo don't look like they're falling
yet.
CODA
(they fall asleep)
(wake up)
(check the headlines)
TWO
Trump's
President.
ONE
Here
we go.
TWO
Well,
at least the first new commercial I saw was "Let's Talk About Mental
Health" - with a young woman wailing their theme song in the background
"Don't Give Up!"
ONE
I
don't think I own enough black to get me through four years.
TWO
Here. We.
Go.
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