Monday, November 13, 2017

November 2017 Writing Challenge - #12 - Cinema Becomes Theater


A large part of my background was studying the essences and differences between screen and in-person dramatic experiences.


I want to focus on types of theatrical energy. I think this list is conclusive... let me know if you think of a new one!

Types of potential theatrical energy:
Physical: unsustainable action (blowing air into a baloon, holding one’s breath); a break in repetition (ba-dum, ching!); acrobatic (dance, contortion, abnormalities); violence; illogical; or the breaking from these things.
Social: bigotry; base acts (nudity, body functions); insubordinance (familial, spiritual, or political); or breaking from these things.
Moral: cruelty; perversion; pornography; and blasphemy; or breaking from these things.

Challenge #12: Cinema becomes Theater.  Due 11/13/17 at 8am

Imagine a scenario where a screen showing a dramatic narrative to ONE person... misbehaves... has mechanical failure... is bait for a larger theatrical force... something
so we have this screen
and an inciting theatrical action that knocks us physically/socially/or morally out of balance
and more people enter (forming an audience)
and the unexpected happens (forming a theatrical experience)
and then a human- attempting a performative action like a politician giving a speech or a musician playing a song- that human does something unexpected to the collective audience... and a moment of THEATER occurs.

Or if you don't like that... 
Write a play where the audience sits on stage.

********

I'm at the point in this new script where the research is getting in the way of doing the writing, while doing the writing is getting in the way of research (which of course you need a certain amount of to do the writing with any sort of useful specifity) - sigh - so, a concept that's not quite a scene yet but is at least trying to meld a bit of the two -

*******

                          DUNCAN
"An it harm none, do what ye will."

                          JEFFREY
What's with the ye olde Englishe all of a sudden?

                          DUNCAN
OK - And if it harms none, do what you will.

                          JEFFREY
I understood you the first time, I just -

                          DUNCAN
If you're ever wondering what you should do, as a Wiccan, hopefully you ask yourself the question, "How can I cause the least harm?"

                          JEFFREY
And - ?

                          DUNCAN
Did you ask yourself any questions at all?  Did you consider the harm you might be doing?

                          JEFFREY
But I didn't do anything.

                          DUNCAN
Not directly, no.  Actually what you did was worse.  You handed off a love potion when you weren't entirely sure what it was going to do, to a person who knew even less about what he was doing than you did.

                          JEFFREY
Are you actually angry with me right now?

                          DUNCAN
Yes.  Because I want to think you're better than that.  I want to think I'm attracted to people who are better than that.  But it seems like every pretty surface just has a moron underneath it.

                          JEFFREY
I am battling right now between being mad that you called me a moron, and thrilled that you called me pretty.

                          DUNCAN
You have irreparably damaged their friendship.  Your friend and his best friend.  There's no going back after this.  The trust has been violated in a way I'm not sure they can ever get past.  Not to mention his pregnant wife.

                          JEFFREY
Yeah, that's bad.  I get that.

                          DUNCAN
Did you get it before you gave him the love potion in the first place?

                          JEFFREY
What?

                          DUNCAN
Did you actually think - this either isn't going to work, or if it does, it's going to end up driving a wedge between them and then maybe Micah will see me as the only alternative he has left.

                          JEFFREY
Wow.  You are way overthinking this.

                          DUNCAN
Which means you're underthinking it.

                          JEFFREY
I just wanted him to be happy.

                          DUNCAN
No, you're careless.  You didn't think it through.

                          JEFFREY
It sounds like if I thought it through and did it anyway, you'd have thought I was an even worse person.

                          DUNCAN
Maybe, but at least then I'd think you were a person who took the time to consider the consequences of his actions before taking them.

                          JEFFREY
I had several days when I was making the love potion to think about this.  And then a few days before that when I was considering whether to make it or not, and get the ingredients -

                          DUNCAN
And the whole time - ?

                          JEFFREY
I was wondering if I could work up the nerve to actually use it on Micah myself.

                          DUNCAN
But you didn't.

                          JEFFREY
I mean, if I did it without telling him, that'd be wrong, right?  But I'd still know.  Even if he said he loved me, I could never really believe it because I'd altered his consciousness to suit myself.

                          DUNCAN
So, instead of doing that, you just set him up to do the same thing to somebody else.

                          JEFFREY
Man.  I suck.

(to be continued)




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