Thursday, November 30, 2017

November 2017 Writing Challenge - #29 - A Gift, or Why Are We Doing This?


Hey there!

So, what's the point of theater?

Why create theatrical energies with live humans to live humans that exist in oh-so-precious time... time that will disappear as soon as it's done and we'll only be left with... WILL THEY EVEN REMEMBER?

What can you give them?

Now, this question us usually a HUGE WRITING BLOCK for me. Like... if I think about "what's it all mean? why am i doing this?" the words just do NOT flow.  So don't go there with it. 

Instead, go with -
what's wrong with me that I've overcome or come to terms with?
What's unique about me that I don't see anywhere else?
Dive into yourself and put the thing at the heart of you on stage... as a gift.

The thing about gifts, they don't have to be "justified" in the same way. 
Deus ex machina is fine. 

People don't need or want you to plausibly solve the world's problems.
They do want you to be able to talk about them.
Or to show them things they don't normally get to see, like courage or selflessness.

In Little Red Cyrano,  (opening this Friday!) my gifts are pretty coded in ways. I mean, the Christian character is a total comparison/mockery of my own attempts to be part of Deaf Culture. Cyrano is the flip side of that failure in many ways. The chorus and other elements contain little Easter Eggs that matter a lot to me, but ultimately are an elaborate Deus ex machina

And like who knows how the play is going to go, but certainly it's not trapped in a self-indulgent, formulaic, realism for no reason, mentality.

So go for it.

Ideas?
Finish sentences like this:

Most people think I'm X but really I'm...

If X happened, it would truly mean my complete downfall

If I didn't keep X about myself under control, X would happen.

Don't get fancy with your structure. Not today anyway
Just string the package together enough to put a gift in there.

And give it! To your audience and yourself.

*******

Well, I finally ran out of random ideas for the next scene I might need for Spellbound, so I might be done pulling together the material for a first draft.  Now I need to actually figure out how it all pieces together.  In the meantime, guess I should do an actual writing challenge of the day.  Which day?  Hmmmm...

********

Two guys.

Alone on a stage.

                          TODD
So -

                          DAVID
Yeah.

                          TODD
Guess we better get ready for the lights to go down.

                          DAVID
Why?

                          TODD
Well, we're kissing.

                          DAVID
And - ?

                          TODD
No one wants to see anybody kissing.

                          DAVID
Not even vicariously.

                          TODD
Certainly everyone wants to *be* kissing.

                          DAVID
Kissing is fun.

                          TODD
It is quite enjoyable.

                          DAVID
I quite enjoy kissing you, for instance.

                          TODD
And I, you.

                          DAVID
You're a very good kisser.

                          TODD
Why thank you.

                          DAVID
You take your time.

                          TODD
Well, why rush things when you're enjoying yourself.

                          DAVID
You're also very attentive to the other person.

                          TODD
I try to be.

                          DAVID
You're not just trying to devour my face.

                          TODD
It is a face worth devouring, but I like to concentrate on particular areas.  Yours is a face worth savoring.  One can spend an awful lot of time just on the lips.

                          DAVID
The lights still appear to be up.

                          TODD
Yes.

                          DAVID
No one has pulled us offstage or dropped in the setting for a different scene.

                          TODD
No.

                          DAVID
I don't even see or hear any other actors nearby.

                          TODD
It doesn't seem like they're planning to interrupt us.

                          DAVID
We could have been kissing this entire time.

                          TODD
It does appear that we're wasting an opportunity.

                          They kiss.

                          Slowly.

                          DAVID
Well.  The play doesn't appear to be over.

                          TODD
A kiss is rarely the end of things.

                          They kiss again.

                          No hurry here.

                          DAVID
I also appreciate the judicious use of tongue.

                          TODD
Not just shoving it in there.

                          DAVID
You wait to be invited.

                          TODD
Well, it's not a competition.  We're in this together.

                          DAVID
Everybody wins.

                          They kiss again.

                          TODD
This is going remarkably well.

                          DAVID
Do you suppose he'll get a play out of this?

                          TODD
I hope so.

                          DAVID
Right now, we're just introducing ourselves.

                          TODD
Shall we get back to that?

                          DAVID
Absolutely.

                          They kiss again.

                          TODD
Do you think we're making anyone uncomfortable?

                          DAVID
Well, we still have all our clothes on.

                          TODD
Some people might prefer a little skin.

                          DAVID
We're hardly grinding against one another.

                          TODD
There are hands involved at this point.

                          DAVID
Yes, but I'm not shoving them down your pants.

                          TODD
True.  I like your hands in my hair.

                          DAVID
It's quite nice hair.

                          TODD
You're quite gentle.

                          DAVID
Well, your brain is in there, and I'm quite fond of your brain.  I don't want to jostle it too much.

                          TODD
I often wonder if I'm more or less alert when I'm kissing.

                          DAVID
I think you're less distracted, more focused on the task at hand.

                          TODD
If we're doing it right.

                          DAVID
Yes.

                          They kiss again.

                          TODD
Everything else I've been doing today, or need to do, goes quite out of my head.

                          DAVID
That's not a bad thing.  In fact, I'm quite flattered.

                          TODD
You should be.

                          DAVID
We can just keep doing this and let everyone else go home.

                          TODD
That sounds like a very good idea.

                          They kiss again.

They don't show any signs of stopping.

The audience is free to go.

Or watch.



(to be continued)



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