Let's start simple.
Write from a voice as far from your own in every way-
character, age, race, education, and wealth... and then write yourself as the
villain. You are the reason they are suffering or dying. Worse? You like it.
What's your greatest strength? That's their greatest
weakness. Use it against them.
Their suffering or death is the physical manifestation of
your greatest strength. Use theatrical metaphor to stage it.
Are you wealthy? What can you do with money? Buy their
house and evict them.
Are you smart? Require a test to stop a bomb from
exploding.
Are you strong? Place stones atop them until they can no
longer breath.
How "realism" is this? I don't know, but use
YOUR voice as the villain and a different voice as the victim.
At the end of the play you win and declare your
superiority. Don’t cheat and lose to make yourself feel better.
Summary:
The audience will hate you... because that's not how
theater works.
Theater is a structurally socialist medium where
individualism INHERENTLY gives way to a social collectivism in the form of
mob/audience.
At home alone with a SCREEN you may enjoy privately
watching domination. You may (as self) like to see people with superior powers
exert their will on those who are weaker (and probably also morally corrupt ex:
Superman, NCIS)
Screens encourage fascistic tolerances.
Theater encourages empathy.
More on that later. For now, write yourself as a villain,
simply by being stronger and winning.
********
This isn't exactly not dealing with the whole idea of self as villain, now that I think about it...
I'm revisiting a story idea I started in last year's
challenge but have struggled with since.
I even managed to write a song associated with the play and performed it
in public but still haven't managed to wrest the play itself into being. I've had some new ideas recently and figured
I'd use the framework of the November challenge to push myself to dig in and
try to bring a full first draft into the world at last that I can hack into the
shape of a real play. So...
Micah is presented with a love potion by his friend Jeffrey who is dabbling in magic. (Jeffrey has a
not so secret crush on Micah, but doesn't have the nerve to use the love potion
on Micah himself.) Micah slips the love
potion to his friend Auggie. And it
works. Which would be great except that
Auggie is straight. And married. And his wife Sarah is (unbeknownst to Micah
until after the love potion takes effect and Auggie feels he should share
everything) pregnant. Jeffrey wasn't
expecting the potion to actually work, so now he needs to start working on an
antidote. If Micah sends Auggie home to
Sarah, Auggie's just going to ask her for a divorce, so, at least for tonight,
he's going to have to sleep over.
Flashback to a showcase where Micah, later in life guitar student, is playing. Auggie, a professional
musician, and Sarah, and Jeffrey are all there to cheer him on. Sarah brings up the subject that Auggie's tactile relationship with Micah might be making the poor guy uncomfortable,since he's clearly got a crush on Auggie. While Auggie and Micah talk music,
Sarah and Jeffrey discuss his newfound magic hobby.
The morning after the first scene, post (fully clothed)
sleepover with Auggie and Micah.
Auggie's still besotted, Micah's still conflicted. (In rewrites, the kiss is no probably longer
happening.)
Over breakfast time, Auggie restrings Micah's guitar andplots to write a song to help woo him.
Jeffrey checks in to say the antidote may take a couple of days (just
like the original potion), and oh, he may have skipped the whole chapter on ethics in the magic book that could have helped them avoid this. After the call, in the original November
challenge version Auggie and Micah start getting really friendly (again, that's
probably no longer happening - and the post-presidential election inspired sex scene is definitely not happening :)
And then there was also some noodling about Sarah and Jeffrey working on the antidote together, and discussing the roots of Jeffrey's
newfound paganism. (Which I still need to research more fully)
So...
Now...
In order to avoid questionably consensual sex, what do the
characters do instead? Let's try this,
picking up in one of the places we might have left off...
MICAH
And for
these many and various reasons, they happily offer up an antidote to get you
out of any ethical quagmire in which you might have landed yourself.
JEFFREY
Yes. And I was right. Gathering all the ingredients is gonna take
just a bit.
MICAH
A bit
being - ?
JEFFREY
Like I
said before, days.
AUGGIE
That's
OK, Jeffrey. We're cool with that.
MICAH
Fewer
days is better.
JEFFREY
But an
antidote that works just as well as the original potion - ?
MICAH
Is the
primary objective, yes.
AUGGIE
Take your
time.
JEFFREY
One other
thing.
MICAH
Oh boy.
JEFFREY
No, not
'oh boy' - just a piece of advice from the book.
MICAH
Yeah?
JEFFREY
The
antidote may remove the feelings, but it doesn't erase the memory of anything
you may have done while under the influence.
MICAH
So you're
saying - ?
JEFFREY
Anything
you guys might - do, here, in the interim - you'll both be stuck with those
memories. Neither of you gets a free
pass on this one.
MICAH
OK then.
JEFFREY
I'll do
my best to make that interim as brief as possible for ya'.
AUGGIE
Thanks,
Jeffrey.
MICAH
Yeah,
thanks.
JEFFREY
More when
I know more.
JEFFREY hangs up,
walks away.
MICAH and
AUGGIE are alone, again.
AUGGIE
So, what
kind of memories can I talk you into making?
MICAH
August -
AUGGIE
You're
not gonna shut me up this time.
******
MICAH
I have a fantastic idea.
AUGGIE
What?
MICAH
You are going to tell me a story
about something you really love about your wife.
AUGGIE
You want me to talk about my wife?
MICAH
Your very pregnant, if still not
showing, wife, Sarah, yes.
AUGGIE
That will make you happy.
MICAH
You have no idea.
AUGGIE
OK, but then I also get to tell a
story about something I love about you.
MICAH
Auggie -
AUGGIE
Story for story, it's only fair.
MICAH
If it means you'll keep talking
about Sarah, OK.
AUGGIE
I might even start composing that
song for you.
MICAH
I'm trying to be a good boy here,
Auggie. Help me out.
AUGGIE
What if I don't want you to be a
good boy?
MICAH
A thing you love about Sarah is -
AUGGIE
I love watching her read.
She'll be sitting right next to me
while I'm working on something else and she's so intent. So involved in the story she's reading.
And then maybe something will make
her laugh.
And she's so beautiful in that
moment.
And she looks up and sees me
smiling.
And then proceeds to share the funny
bit of whatever she's reading with me.
And even if I don't entirely get it
without the full context of the article or the book, I laugh with her.
Just to see her laugh again.
And then she goes back to reading.
And it's all I can do not to stare
at her, watch her, and forget what I'm doing entirely.
And wait for the next time she'll
laugh.
(pause,
then shifts back to Micah)
That the kind of thing you mean?
MICAH
(not
entirely sure what to say)
Yeah.
AUGGIE
I can look at you like that.
I can watch you like that.
MICAH
No, I don't think you can.
AUGGIE
How do you know I haven't already
and you just missed it?
MICAH is
silent. Fair point.
AUGGIE
strums a chord.
Hums.
Then
begins to sing a line.
AUGGIE
I blame
you for
the blush in my cheek...
MICAH
You are not gonna make this easy are
you?
AUGGIE
Nope.
(to be continued)
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