THE TWENTY-NINTH
CHALLENGE
Lies and Asides
Write a play where
one or more character speaks to the audience in asides.
Asides are always
truthful, so write lots of lies in the dialogue
Use dramatic irony-
if both characters would only open up and be honest with each other, the
impending tragedy would not be about to happen!
Asides are really
only in morality tales- sadly I believe. Prove me wrong!
Use life and death
stakes
Bonus: Make yourself
one of the characters- and the asides your most vulnerable thoughts. Change the
names to protect the innocent
(Hilarious. I kind of did this one already three days ago
as a gimmick in the parental time fluid prompt I posted. I’m reaching back into the 20/20 challenge
instead)
****************************
THE TWENTIETH
CHALLENGE
Write a play that has
a total budget of $20 and lasts 20 minutes
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!)
**********************
Two
actors come out on stage dressed in T-shirts from the playwrights’ voluminous
T-shirt collection. One is in a
BASSACKWARDS USA T-shirt with the outline of America printed in reverse (as you’re
looking at it, California coast on the right, Maine on the left). One is in a T-shirt with the CAPTAIN AMERICA shield
on the front.
CAP
Dude,
get the lights.
BASSACKWARDS
Oh,
right.
BASSACKWARDS scurries over to the light switch on
the wall and turns the regular lights in the room off.
CAP and BASSACKWARDS then whip out their cell phones
and turn on the flashlight app to pierce the dark.
They each train the light onto their chests for a
moment to highlight their insignia.
CAP
It’s
the twenty dollar, twenty minute show.
BASSACKWARDS
Which
I guess means we’re not paying the actors.
CAP
I
don’t think the playwright’s getting paid either.
BASSACKWARDS
And
we certainly don’t have money for a director.
CAP
And
we only have twenty minutes, and a lot of ground to cover.
BASSACKWARDS
No
pun intended.
CAP
Oh
yeah, we’re supposed to cover the four elements, earth, air, fire and water.
Then CAP and BASSACKWARDS quickly pull out five
identical folding chairs from the playwright’s home (the sort that fold out
into fairly realistic looking straight back chairs, with the back upright
rather than tilted back, so they naturally look like a lower case letter “h”)
They arrange two of them on their side on the floor
in a configuration to look like the capital letter “F”
BASSACKWARDS
See,
if you will, the letter F, for fire.
CAP gets out a matchbook and lights a single match
dramatically.
BASSACKWARDS (cont’d)
Put
that out.
CAP does.
BASSACKWARDS (cont’d)
We
can’t afford to light anything on fire. Nor
can we afford a fire extinguisher to help put anything out.
CAP
We
have water.
BASSACKWARDS gets out a spray bottle full of water,
and sprays on the match, just for good measure.
Then sprays CAP in the face.
Then spritzes himself, as if with a fine cologne.
BASSACKWARDS
The
water’s for later and I’m not taking any chances.
CAP carefully sets the doused match aside, either
on the floor or in his pocket.
CAP
Backup
fire?
BASSACKWARDS
Backup
fire.
CAP
That
matchbook was from a set of 50 in a box that only costs $1.79, in case anyone
was keeping track.
BASSACKWARDS
Blew
nearly a tenth of the budget right there.
CAP
Well,
your spray bottle’s $1.98, so there’s another tenth of the budget.
BASSACKWARDS
Water’s
free.
For
now.
CAP
Most
of these clothes are ours. The T-shirts and
the chairs are the playwrights. This phone’s
mine, the other phone is the playwright’s – for upcoming sound cues, some of
which he owns, some of which we downloaded special.
BASSACKWARDS
And
we have my as yet still unpocketed phone for more magic.
CAP
Kinda
cheating, but don’t all shoestring theater productions.
BASSACKWARDS
Shoestrings
are ours, too.
CAP sets his phone down on one of the F chairs,
light pointing up.
BASSACKWARDS gets an orange sheet of tissue paper
out with a flourish.
CAP
Set
of multicolored tissue paper - $1.29
BASSACKWARDS gets a little plastic Scotch tape
dispenser out of a pocket with a flourish.
BASSACKWARDS
The
playwright already had some clear Scotch tape but a little dispenser full like
this only costs $2.19.
CAP
Yikes.
BASSACKWARDS and CAP work together to tape the
tissue paper in a cone shape over the phone to create some colored light.
BASSACKWARDS
Like
the campfires of old.
CAP
For
storytelling.
BASSACKWARDS
And
because it’s a $20 bill we have for a budget, we are also supposed to give a nod
to Andrew Jackson, the face on the $20 bill, and one of our most racist
presidents.
CAP
But
not one of our worst presidents.
BASSACKWARDS
Which,
honestly, doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
CAP
But
we’ll get to that.
We
have four elements and only twenty minutes, roughly 5 minutes per element, so
we’re already cutting into somebody’s time.
BASSACKWARDS
In
honor of both of our themes, and we’re not cheating, I swear, let’s kick off
the sound cues with something that would really piss off Andrew Jackson – a group
of rich, award-winning black men singing.
That would be the group Earth, Wind & Fire, whose hit “September” we
just downloaded for $1.29.
CAP
Fifteen
second dance break!
BASSACKWARDS plays the song and the two of them
(and the audience if they like) dance during the intro. After the song proper gets going, the actors
return to the script.
BASSACKWARDS
Andrew
Jackson, slave owner.
CAP
Andrew
Jackson, the seventh President of the United States of America.
BASSACKWARDS
And
according to historians, considered on the second most racist president we’ve
ever had.
CAP
That
honor would go to Andrew Johnson, who became our 17th president after
Lincoln was assassinated.
BASSACKWARDS
His
Reconstruction proclamations gave amnesty, property and voting rights to all but
the highest Confederate officials after the Civil War, the return of property pretty
much nullifying the whole “forty acres and a mule” promise to former slaves.
CAP
Dance
break!
Actors and audience dance to the first chorus of “September”
– when the next verse kicks in, the actors continue:
BASSACKWARDS
Andrew
Johnson, also not a fan of the 14th or 15th amendments to
the constitution giving citizenship and voting rights to freed slaves.
CAP
Male
former slaves only though.
BASSACKWARDS
Yes,
still four amendments away from the 19th for the ladies.
CAP
Didn’t
oppose the 13th amendment abolishing slavery, though.
BASSACKWARDS
Yes,
let’s give Johnson his due. He just
pulled all black troops out of the South so the former Confederate states could
terrorize and kill African Americans back into submission – or off to the
North.
CAP
Dance
Break!
Actors and audience dance to the second chorus of “September”
But hang on, because it’s a -
CAP (cont’d)
Double
chorus!
Actors and audience continue dancing. When the next, very short verse, kicks in,
the actors continue:
CAP
He
vetoed both the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill and the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
BASSACKWARDS
Which
Congress passed anyway by overriding his vetoes.
CAP
Let’s
all pause to remember a time when Congress had courage.
BASSACKWARDS
With
a Dance Break!
Actors and audience dance to the third and final
chorus of “September”
But hang on, because it’s a -
CAP
Double
chorus!
Actors and audience continue dancing.
But hang on, because now we’re at the –
CAP (cont’d) and
BASSACKWARDS
Outro!
Actors and audience dance the song into fade out.
(total run time for the song 3:35, if anyone’s counting)
BASSACKWARDS (cont’d)
Andrew
Johnson was also the very first president to be impeached by the House of
Representatives.
CAP
But
he remained in office because he was acquitted in the Senate.
BASSACKWARDS
By
one vote.
CAP
In
addition to being considered our most racist president, is also considered to
be one of the ten worst.
BASSACKWARDS
Not
so, Andrew Jackson.
CAP
Only
our second most racist president.
BASSACKWARDS
And
regularly included in the top 20 of our best presidents.
CAP
Now
remember, we’ve only had 45, so –
BASSACKWARDS
Still,
he’s more often found in the top 10.
Second
most racist, still considered a lot of the time to be one of the 10 best.
CAP
The
most racist presidents, though, a pretty eclectic group.
Ronald
Reagan.
BASSACKWARDS
Welfare
queens, war on drugs, mass incarceration.
CAP
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt.
BASSACKWARDS
Japanese
internment camps, New Deal tilted to favor whites over blacks.
CAP
Thomas
Jefferson.
BASSACKWARDS
Slave
owner, breeder, rapist. Don’t get me
started on Sally Hemings. Great guy.
CAP
James
Monroe.
BASSACKWARDS
The
Monroe Doctrine – allowing for intervention and colonization in foreign, aka
inferior, countries. Classy.
CAP
And
that’s just the top six.
BASSACKWARDS
But
let’s not gloss over President Andrew Jackson, and what he did to the Indians,
aka Native Americans, aka the people who were here already when the white European
settlers started stomping all over the place.
So. Much.
Stolen. Land.
CAP has place another chair on the floor to turn
the F into an E.
CAP
Earth.
CAP then has to hurry and reconfigure the chairs,
possibly adding a fourth, to make a proper W, as BASSACKWARDS continues.
BASSACKWARDS
The
Indian Removal Act of 1830.
The
forced relocation of the tribes of the South to reservations in the west.
The
Trail of Tears.
CAP
Water.
CAP
takes the spray bottle of water and reverently sprays all around the space and
the W as BASSACKWARDS continues.
BASSACKWARDS
And,
again, slave owner.
BASSACKWARDS puts up big air quotes for the next
one
BASSACKWARDS
“Owned”
perhaps up to 600 HUMAN BEINGS over the course of his lifetime.
(and
I ran out of time, so much more material)
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