Sorry again for
delays. I DO try to keep ahead, but ultimately this is supposed to be a write
every day challenge (Thanksgiving you'll get to get ahead I promise).
If you're in a bind
and I'm behind, feel free to just email me with something written (that counts
as a theatrical event--- lights up lights down minumum- low bar!) and it's all
good.
Andrew Jackson is on
the $20 bill.
$20 is a common
low-end ticket price here in Chicago.
THE TWENTIETH CHALLENGE
Write a play that has
a total budget of $20 and lasts 20 minutes.
Rules:
1.
It must utilize all
common theatrical design elements in a purposeful and theatrical manner.
· LIGHTS
· SOUND
· COSTUME
· SCENIC
· PROPS
2.
It must incorporate
each of the FOUR NATURAL ELEMENTS- water, wind, earth fire.
3.
It must last EXACTLY
twenty minutes.
4.
It should probably be
about Andrew Jackson, either directly or indirectly.
5.
6. The entire
production can cost no more than $20
Tips:
Assume the actor has
their own cell phone, which contains a flashlight function, camera, and working
speakers.
Fire from a lighter
is a good cheap trick.
You can set the play
anywhere.
You do NOT have to
operate within the law or acceptable audience-performer norms.
Intimate symbolism is
gonna be key here.
A pack of cotton
balls or toothpicks for 99 cents (or things like that) will be helpful.
Magic and sleight of
hand are always fun. (Who knew you spelled it sleight? Wow!)
**********************
(I like a good 20/20
challenge but for today I’m going to push through on the next scene in the
Spellbound play about the love potion, see if I can get myself unwittingly to
the end of a new act two and new conclusion of the play. Everyone’s relationships are already newly
scrambled so I’m headed somewhere new. Just
don’t see the final destination yet.
Here’s another step on the journey.
Thankfully, less traumatic that yesterday’s post.)
JEFFREY and DUNCAN are revealed back at the metaphysical supply
store.
They are cleaning up the workspace - boxing, bagging and bottling
up the leftover ingredients from the making of the antidote, and then returning
them to their various assigned places in the shop throughout the following
discussion.
JEFFREY
Think it’s gonna work?
DUNCAN
Judging by Sarah’s general
demeanor, you better hope so.
JEFFREY looks at DUNCAN, as if asking the question again without
speaking.
DUNCAN (cont’d)
Yeah, I think it’ll
work.
JEFFREY
Will the antidote take
hold as fast as the original spell did?
DUNCAN
Should, yeah. But it’s kind of like waking up from a very vivid
dream, so it’s a little disorienting.
JEFFREY
And he wasn’t dreaming.
DUNCAN
No. He wasn’t.
JEFFREY
Sorry we cluttered the
place up a bit.
DUNCAN
Had to whip up a potion
in a hurry. It happens.
JEFFREY
Those customers seemed
really intrigued though, eh?
DUNCAN
Yes, they did.
JEFFREY
“Don’t try this at home,
kids.”
DUNCAN
Were you trying to ruin
their friendship?
JEFFREY
Is that why you’re angry
with me?
DUNCAN
No. I’m angry with you because you made a love
potion, regardless of how it ended up being used, because potions like that can
be dangerous. Any potion can be
dangerous if it’s put to the wrong use. I
just want to try and understand why you did it.
JEFFREY
Their friendship isn’t
ruined.
DUNCAN
We don’t know that yet.
JEFFREY
No. We don’t.
And I wasn’t trying to –
DUNCAN
You just thought it
would be funny.
JEFFREY
Well, yeah. And if Auggie’s horizons get a little
broadened in the process, that’s not exactly a bad thing.
DUNCAN
Are you kidding me?
JEFFREY
Why is everybody so uptight? It’s just sex.
DUNCAN
You wanted them to have
sex?
JEFFREY
Maybe then Micah would
shut up about Auggie finally.
Nah, come to think of
it, it’d probably make it worse.
DUNCAN
So if someone had dosed
you, in order to get you to have sex with a woman, that’d be OK, too?
JEFFREY
What? No.
DUNCAN
But wouldn’t that be equally
hilarious?
JEFFREY
I’ve had sex with
women. In my distant, checkered past. Nothing wrong with it. Just not my thing.
DUNCAN
So you’re not
uptight. It’s just the heteros who need
a walk on the wild side.
JEFFREY
I’m not the bad guy
here.
DUNCAN
This is the kind of
thing they accuse us of doing, you know.
JEFFREY
Who’s they and who’s we?
DUNCAN
The actually uptight
puritan types who are convinced gay people are sex-crazed predators looking to
convert straight guys at every opportunity.
JEFFREY
Oh, so now my little
alchemical experiment is setting the gay rights movement back?
DUNCAN
About fifty years, yeah.
JEFFREY
Just how many people do
you think are going to find out about this?
DUNCAN
Things like this have
ripple effects, Jeffrey. Yes, the people
most immediately effected are going to feel the aftershocks the strongest. But every single person is part of a larger
network of people, whether they want to be or not. We impact people all the time without even
knowing it.
JEFFREY
But I did this deliberately,
to just a couple of people.
DUNCAN
And Micah and Auggie are
never going to be able to look at one another the same way again.
JEFFREY
You say that like it’s a
bad thing.
DUNCAN
You say that like
screwing with the delicate balance of their friendship, developed over years of
shared personal history, is a good thing.
JEFFREY
They’re hardly delicate
little flowers, either of them.
DUNCAN
And if they were, how
would you know?
JEFFREY
They’ll be fine.
DUNCAN
You better hope so.
JEFFREY
Well, once Sarah
delivers the antidote, either she or Micah will text me and we’ll know if we
have to get everything back off the shelf and try for another batch.
DUNCAN
Speaking of getting
things off the shelf, I’m going to go back over your entire original order, and
if I see anything funny, I’m gonna have you bring it back. We’ll refund you.
JEFFREY
You’re trying to shut me
down?
DUNCAN
I’m trying to make sure
you don’t screw with anyone else’s free will for any reason, yeah.
JEFFREY
What if I just go to another
store?
DUNCAN
You’re forgetting my network. I know everyone in the greater metro area.
JEFFREY
You’d blacklist me?
DUNCAN
In a heartbeat.
JEFFREY
You don’t know everyone
on the internet.
DUNCAN
It’s a small world, Jeffrey. There are message boards. Word gets around.
JEFFREY
Not a very welcoming
attitude to new practitioners.
DUNCAN
If you want to be part
of a larger community, whether it’s gay or wiccan or pagan, it helps not to
have questionable intent that ends up making the rest of us look bad.
JEFFREY
So this probably means
you’re not using my number for non-business related calls.
DUNCAN
Probably not. No.
JEFFREY
OK. Well, I guess we just wait for the “all clear”
text, then I’ll get out of your hair.
DUNCAN
If you want to link up
with groups who can help you learn, help you connect with the community, use
magic the right way, I can help you there.
JEFFREY
I’ll think about it.
DUNCAN
I hope you do. You’ve got strong magic in your family
history, Jeffrey. Channel it the right
way and there’s no telling the good you can do, for yourself and others.
JEFFREY
So I’m not irredeemable?
DUNCAN
I try not to give up on
anybody too soon. My mom would say it’s
just as much a fault as a virtue of mine.
JEFFREY
Fault or virtue, I’m
glad you’ve got it.
They wait.
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