THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CHALLENGE
Write A Play That Heals The
Audience
Let’s calm this shit down. :)
In my undergrad I took a class on
post-Yugoslavia drama. The class was taught by a Serbian dramaturg and in the
class was a Bosnian refugee who’d had family members killed by the civil
war/genocide that’d happened there. The Serbian dramaturg had left long before
the war, and was very very soft and nice and tiny and gay. Picture the opposite
of whatever energy is needed to kill someone else through violence. Still, they
had flair-ups. It’s understandable.
America is so far
from post-Yugoslavia. If you say “war” here it means something somewhere else.
It doesn’t mean the thing that killed my uncle and is why dad has a limp.
There were two types of drama
that stuck out at me from this class which seemed uniquely “war-torn”. One was
a dark sensibility where death became a pragmatic solution to the problem of
life. Life (especially one’s own) had little value. Sell your body for sex to
get a small discount on groceries. Kill your neighbor’s cat because you’re allergic.
Blame others for the subjugation they find themselves in. Die needlessly for a
cause that you don’t believe in.
That sucks.
Then there was another kind. It
was calm and soothing. It HAD theatrical energy- things still surprised and
united the audience- but it did so in a way that was unbelievably light and
beautiful and uncontroversial. Think of the Blue Man Group, but with the energy
and tenderness of a mother putting her child to bed. Now, this was still about
something. There was a central issue or crime that had happened- that was
safely in the past, but still present. Like workers cleaning the blood from the
wall where a mass execution had happened, or gardeners planting flowers around
a fresh grave. Or a family preparing a meal without the deceased mother.
CHALLENGE: WRITE A PLAY THAT
HEALS THE AUDIENCE
Use: a simple plot with a
physical objective that has an obvious resolution- cleaning, cooking, etc
Involve: some real pain from the
past
Use: magic- remember the
flashbacks? Do that again, but don’t flashback. Let the magic LIVE in the
moment- perhaps unseen by the characters.
Use: Your own life. Don’t try to
heal something you don’t understand.
Caution: It’s valuable therapy
but hard to do this on an issue you haven’t yet healed from yourself.
Side story: One of Red Theater’s
early plays involved “nap time” as it was for students during “hell week”
before finals and we turned down the lights, lit a slow disco ball, and played
soft music. The actors all laid down on the stage and wished each other “good
night.” It was beautiful, unexpected, and accidentally very powerful for these
lonely strung-out students. If I was writing it now, I’d add some gentle voice
assuring the students that they have what it takes. They will get it all done.
It’ll be okay. While featuring on stage a desk with papers and books and a
phone “blowing up” with notifications… then calming.
************
(Reaching back to fiddle with the
day 16 challenge instead)
THE SIXTEENTH
CHALLENGE
Be you, but be
outside your comfort zone
It’s really fun to
see the world’s that you’re all creating. Such talent!
But….
A lot of these are
just like the start of barely one thing happening and then it resolves. Try to
see if you can write into the NEXT thing that happens. Just one more escalation
and complication. You can do it! You’ll be glad you did.
And….
Some (not all) of the
dialogue I’m seeing is, um, stream of conscious stuff that seems like one mind
talking to itself.
“No it isn’t!”
“Darlin’, it so is
you don’t even kinda know”
Today, let’s break
that. I want to urge you to break that.
CHALLENGE: Be you, but be outside your social comfort zone.
You’ve
been commissioned to write for a company that is amaaazing. You’re their first
commission. They picked you because of the unique way you write and the unique
things they know about.
This
company is ensemble focused, entirely People of Color (variations that are
OUTSIDE of you) and fall everywhere on the gender and sexual spectrums. A few
have English as a second language. While they want you to write ABOUT something
you know really really well, they also want you to write for them as
performers/humans/artists.
You’ve
spent a month with them on their current project, getting to know them. Getting
a feel for each individual’s unique voice. They’re truly the most amazing
artists you know, an idyllic mesh of culture and perspective and sex and
respect and discipline and frenzy. How do they do it? Who cares! They want you
to be part of it.
You
almost slept with one of them last night. Thank goodness you didn’t.
Now
write the play. For them. With you. For everyone.
If
it’s about gardening in Maine because that’s what you know, then that’s what
it’s about--- but it’s about THEM gardening in Maine with YOU.
Avoid:
White savior plays. Period.
Avoid:
Writing characters all the same because all humans are really the same and any
differences are just a function of the male patriarchy but really it’s just
your excuse not to keep writing like the sexually repressed bland-ass coward
you really are. (oh my! does he mean it? He’s been so complimentary in the
past!)
Avoid:
Letting your brain shut off from fear of writing in a dialect that isn’t yours.
Avoid:
Letting that one asshole on Twitter limit you from expression that is
inclusive.
Do:
become a vessel that has noises in it that aren’t yours and let them flow
through your fingers. The editor can come later, but the spirits need openness
to arrive.
*****************
(I am enormously uncomfortable
with this one, but it’s been a hell of a day and this is all I’ve got in me
right now, so I’m posting it.)
From
offstage, a puppet skids onstage across the floor, as if someone tossed
it. And here they come. ROBERT and ALYSSA, both African-American.
ROBERT
Have
a little respect. Someone spent a lot of
time crafting this little fella.
ALYSSA
You’re
hiding behind a piece of felt right now.
ROBERT
Nobody’s
hiding. I’m right out here in the open
where everyone can see me. You can see
me, right?
ALYSSA
You’re
not talking about what’s really bothering you.
ROBERT
Oh! You mean I’m hiding metaphorically.
ALYSSA
Don’t
pick up the puppet.
ROBERT
What
puppet? Oh, you mean this puppet?
ROBERT slips the puppet on his hand.
ALYSSA
Robert.
ROBERT
(as puppet voice)
Robert’s
not here right now. Talk to the hand.
ALYSSA
I’m
worried about you.
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
Hands
up. Don’t shoot.
ALYSSA
That’s
not funny.
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
No,
it’s not funny. It’s hi-LAR-ious.
ALYSSA
I’m
leaving.
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
Pretty
lady not wanna talk to the little man?
ALYSSA
You’re
not talking right now.
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
Because
nobody listens to a black man anyway, so what’s the point.
ALYSSA
How
is this helping?
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
Oh,
you mean like protesting in the streets?
Like doing thoughtful interviews with well-meaning news reporters on television? Like writing and physically visiting the
offices of ALL my elected representatives, who I voted for and encouraged other
people to vote for, because I thought they might actually DO something? What would be more useful than putting a
puppet on my hand and saying FUCK IT right now?
ALYSSA
I
need to talk to someone I know is hurting just as much as I am.
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
Puppets
have no tears and neither do I.
ALYSSA
I
don’t need to you to cry, I just need you to hear me. To talk honestly with me.
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
Puppets
ears don’t hear and neither do I.
ALYSSA
It’s
not a waste of time.
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
What
does it change?
ALYSSA
It
reminds us we’re human.
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
Are
we?
ALYSSA
Of
course we are. We can’t let them win.
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
You’re
assuming that they’re allowing us to play in the first place. You’re assuming that they even see us as
human in the first place. You’re assuming
that there will ever be consequences.
You’re assuming that we will someday, after years of dead ends and
grueling uphill effort, we will at last happen upon the right set of strategies
and enough sympathetic people with actual power that finally CHANGES
things. What story have you been watching?
ALYSSA
So
that’s it? You’re giving up?
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
Again,
you’re assuming there’s something to give up.
ALYSSA
I
know how to stop this.
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
Really? Do tell.
ALYSSA
Not
society “this.”
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
Realism
at last.
ALYSSA gestures at ROBERT at the puppet.
ALYSSA
This.
ROBERT
(puppet voice)
And
just how do you propose that - ?
ALYSSA walks up to ROBERT and kisses him.
The puppet goes silent.
ALYSSA continues kissing ROBERT.
The puppet arm goes limp at his side.
ALYSSA continues kissing ROBERT.
Maybe she’s also crying. Maybe he is.
The puppet hand relaxes and the the puppet falls
off ROBERT’s hand onto the floor.
ALYSSA
Just
be with me. For a while. Tonight. Let’s just be human. Or animals.
I don’t care. Let’s just be. For now.
OK?
ROBERT
OK.
ALYSSA leads ROBERT offstage, leaving the puppet
behind.
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