Wednesday, November 08, 2017

November 2017 Writing Challenge - #7 - Text Messages and Technology


The entire play takes place "in" technology.
The humans on stage are affected and perhaps the source of communications, texts, virtual reality images, etc

Assume you can influence the audience in any way- sending them all texts simultaneously- allowing them to comment on the action on stage (write some choice ones!) 

Does the technology remove humanness? Or does it reveal it?
Does it have its own intelligence? 
Is there a beauty in its restrictions?
Do gender, race, age disappear or are they further accented?

Challenges when writing with technology:

WHAT IS THE THEATRICAL ACTION that physically removes us from stasis sets up a spatial imbalance on the stage? (not simply with text)

Similarly what is the DEFINING ACTION ON THE STAGE?

The key to theater vs literary works (or cinema with its closeups) is that the DEFINING ACTION should never be a change of mind- literally occurring behind a character’s eyes… occupying .00001% of the visual space an audience member sees… compared to 100% on a novel or like… 10-20% on a closeup camera shot.

So, the action needs to be physicalized in some way by an actual human on a stage.

Cheesy example: 
I get a text linking me to an article. I read it. I now understand that my past actions were prejudiced and resolve to do better (literary can stop here) so I… take off my coat and give it to someone who needs it and smile while hugging myself in a shiver all the way home (physicalized).

*********

Still working on the Spellbound play.  Another scene -

Morning after the sleepover, a continuation.  Auggie and Micah are working on that song.

*********

AUGGIE hands the guitar over to MICAH.

                          AUGGIE
OK, you're going to take over the driver's seat now.

                          MICAH
What?  You're still working on it.

                          AUGGIE
I know but I've got the chords down now, and I want you to be able to play it on your own, you know, in case I'm not around at some point.

                          MICAH
In case you're not around?  You're always around.

                          AUGGIE
Micah.

                          MICAH
Right.  I've really screwed things up this time, haven't I?

                          AUGGIE
Hey.  None of that.

                          MICAH
But after the antidote, then what?

                          AUGGIE
Let's just stay in the moment for now.  Whattaya say?

                          MICAH
OK.

                          AUGGIE
I want to be able to give this to you.

                          MICAH
And we're on a clock that's ticking down, and we don't know how long we've got.

                          AUGGIE
So since you're not gonna let me jump your bones -

                          MICAH
First chord?

                          AUGGIE
C major.

                          MICAH strums the chord.

                          AUGGIE (cont'd)
A minor.

                          MICAH strums the chord.

                          AUGGIE (cont'd)
F major 7th.

                          MICAH gives AUGGIE a look.

                          AUGGIE (cont'd)
Not in your repertoire?

                          MICAH
Not yet.

                          AUGGIE
Not a bar chord guy yet?

                          MICAH
Not yet.

                          AUGGIE
OK.  Try this.  Set up and A minor.

MICAH strums it just to be sure.

                          AUGGIE (cont'd)
Now move your second finger to the third string, and your third finger to the fourth string.

MICAH does, slowly.

                          MICAH
I always have to remind myself that the strings go from bottom to top.

                          AUGGIE
Because your teacher taught you to name the strings going the other way.

MICAH picks from the top string down to the bottom string, from low note to high note, from 6 to 1, calling out the names as he goes.

                          MICAH
E-A-D-G-B-E

MICAH picks it again, calling out the mnemonic device his teacher used.

                          MICAH (cont'd)
Eddie Ate Dynamite.  Good Bye, Eddie.

MICAH and AUGGIE share a laugh.

                          MICAH (cont'd)
Also, the numbers go from high note to low note, not low to high.  You work your way up a scale, it feels like the numbers of the strings should do the same thing.

                          AUGGIE
But they don't.

                          MICAH
But they don't.
Music is already a foreign language to me, and then it's constructed on things my brain thinks are backward, so it takes me a minute.

                          AUGGIE
So A minor.

                          MICAH strums the chord.

                          AUGGIE (cont'd)
To F major 7th.

MICAH talks himself through it as AUGGIE watches.

                          MICAH
First finger stays the same, the other fingers move.  And -


                          MICAH strums the chord.

                          AUGGIE
That's my guy!  Well done.

They look at each other.
Sharing this moment.
It's almost unbearable.

                          AUGGIE (cont'd)
So, from the top -
Here.  I wrote it down.

                          AUGGIE sets out a sheet of paper.

                          MICAH
Thank God.

AUGGIE walks him through it.
MICAH strums as he calls them out.

                          AUGGIE
C major, A minor, F major 7th, G major.

                          MICAH
That one I know.

                          AUGGIE
Ha ha.  Then it repeats.

MICAH goes over the first four chords again.

                          AUGGIE (cont'd)
Then it's F major 7th, G major, E minor -

                          MICAH
Ooo, another one I know.

                          AUGGIE pushes on.

                          AUGGIE
And A minor.  Then you repeat those four.

                          MICAH does.

                          AUGGIE (cont'd)
OK, that's the verse.  Now the chorus.
D minor.

MICAH struggles a little with this one but gets it.

                          MICAH
Argh.  Stretching the fingers.

                          AUGGIE
You need to keep doing your scales.

                          MICAH
How'd you know that's what my guitar teacher always says?

                          AUGGIE
Because that's what every guitar teacher says.  Do your scales, limber up the fingers.

                          MICAH
My scales are embarrassing.

                          AUGGIE
You only get better with practice.  D minor.

                          MICAH strums the chord.
Then the other chords as AUGGIE calls them out.

                          AUGGIE (cont'd)
G major.
C major.
C major.
And repeat.

                          MICAH does.

                          AUGGIE (cont'd)
OK, now D minor.

MICAH plays this and then the other chords as AUGGIE calls them out.

                          AUGGIE (cont'd)
A minor.
E minor.
A minor.
And the big finish - this'll sound familiar -
D minor.
G major.
C major.
C major.
And - done.  You got it.  That's the sequence.
You want to try it again with a little rhythm pattern or something?

                          MICAH
Let's just see if I can stumble through all the chords in the right order first.

                          AUGGIE
OK, let's just go over it again.  I'll cue you.
And I want to try out the melody and the lyrics over top of the chords while you play.
Ready?

MICAH is both excited and a little terrified.  He wants to get this right.

                          MICAH
I think so.

                          AUGGIE
Don't worry.  It's just like falling off a bike.  Easiest thing in the world.  We got this.

                          MICAH
Is it always like this?

                          AUGGIE
Pretty much.
It's not always this easy.
But I'm feeling inspired this morning.
So we should run with it.

                          MICAH
I think it get it now.

                          AUGGIE
What?

                          MICAH
Why you never had a doubt about what you wanted to do with your life.

                          AUGGIE
Just walk through the chords with me.

AUGGIE sings, prompting MICAH's chord changes with a nod and a smile, or a pointing finger, as they stumble their way through a rendition of the first verse and chorus.

                          AUGGIE (cont'd)
     (sings)
I blame
you for
the blush in
my cheek.
Don't tell me
the heart's
just a mus-cle.
To touch
your face,
your hair,
your hand;
I hold
you and
I un-der-stand

There was a
hole at the
center of my
life,
Hole at the
center of my
life,
There was a
hole at the
center of my
center of my
life,
But life's
a whole
lot better
now with you.

                          They made it.

                          MICAH
Wow.

                          AUGGIE
First draft.  It's a little rough but -

                          MICAH
I love it.

                          AUGGIE
I love you.

MICAH just looks at AUGGIE, too stunned to speak.

                          AUGGIE (cont'd)
Sorry.

                          MICAH
Don't be.

                          AUGGIE
Second verse?

                          MICAH
I love you, too.

                          AUGGIE
Second verse.

                          MICAH
Second verse.

                                                               They continue.


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