THE EIGHTH CHALLENGE
Challenge: Sensual Sports
Put something
athletic on stage.
Don’t worry about
how, that’s the production’s job. You have an unlimited budget. This is going
to have a national tour, a movie series, and… just don’t worry about HOW.
Do worry about the
senses. Involve in the action the scents, touch, tastes, and physicality of the
sport.
Do focus on the
dichotomy and dance in sports between civil intellectual strategy and pure
animal power present.
Unless you have a
huge passion and individual ownership of a sport- something that gives you a
unique voice or ability to make its essence come to life- think about
nontraditional sports for the stage.
Horse-racing
Sailing
Weight-lifting
Curling
Make the audience
taste the sweat, smell the grass, or feel the leather.
Ultimately sports
narratives are RAIN DANCES - if you’re remembering my past declarations about
the nature of theater.
Structure:
There’s a sacrifice
and a summoning and an interaction with the GODS, then finally a judgement- and
with that comes glory or shame
Hollywood Bonus: Make
your hero a demi-god of sorts- but their power is the cause of their insecurity
and estrangement from the community
(not that I’m not a fan of
sensual sports, but I’m going to pocket that prompt for later and keep pushing
through on the Cymbeline riff)
ACTOR 2 switches out the LUCIUS puppet for the
BELARIUS puppet and speaks to the audience.
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
This
almost makes me sorry I kidnapped the boys when they were infants. None of them knew this at the time they met,
any more than they know one another's real names. But at just the moment she needed some new
loyal friends, the princess in exile met her two brothers - separated from her
since they all were babies. Or maybe she
wasn't born yet.
I'd
like to think I would have taken them all at once.
Of
course, I only have two arms. They also
might have been in separate nurseries.
ACTRESS 1 reanimates the QUEEN on her puppet arm to
offer commentary.
ACTRESS 1 (QUEEN,
puppet)
Maybe
you just didn't want to bother with a girl.
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
Yes,
that might also be true.
ACTRESS 1 (QUEEN,
puppet)
Men.
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
I
was going to be a single father in the wilderness.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
appears.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
You
weren't a single father, you were a kidnapper!
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
Well,
if you want to get technical about it.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
Well,
if we’re getting technical about it, you were hardly a single father
anyway. You took the boys’ nurse with
you when you left!
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
I
didn’t take her. She came willingly.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
Again,
not a man alone in the woods raising two children all by himself.
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
She
died.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
Eventually.
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
Unexpectedly.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
She
was used to living in a palace and you took her to live in a cave. I’m not sure how unexpected it was.
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
Don’t
speak ill of the dead. She was a very
good mother to the boys.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
I’m
not speaking ill of her, I’m speaking ill of you.
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
They
still miss their mother.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
She
wasn’t their mother! Their actual mother
is also dead.
ACTRESS 1 drops her puppet arm for a few lines to
become IMOGEN again.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
We
don’t know that.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
Women
don’t leave. They die.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
The
nurse left.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
Yes,
and then she died.
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
I’m
not sure how comfortable I am with you continuing to dance on the woman’s grave
like that.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
I’m
not dancing. Nobody’s dancing here. Do you even remember her name?
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
Euriphile.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
Her
name was “lover of Europe”?!
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
Yes.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
Are
you sure that wasn’t her code name for living incognito on the run in the
wilderness?
ACTRESS 1 reanimates the QUEEN puppet on her arm.
ACTRESS 1 (QUEEN,
puppet)
Hey,
at least she got a name.
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
I
didn't have bad intent.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
You
kidnapped them to punish me!
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
You,
I wanted to punish. You're right.
I
didn't have bad intent towards the children.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
They
could have grown up in a palace!
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
Look
at them! They grew up strong and kind
and in harmony with all creation. Could
you have raised them better?
ACTRESS 1 (QUEEN,
puppet)
No.
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
Thank
you.
ACTRESS 1 (QUEEN,
puppet)
They
might have been better dressed.
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
With
animal hides, you have to make due.
The QUEEN looks at the two young men, a bit
hungrily.
ACTRESS 1 (QUEEN,
puppet)
Apart
from the clothes, they certainly are - impressive.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
Queen!
ACTRESS 1 (QUEEN,
puppet)
Well,
they're not *my* sons, are they?
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
Wait,
so she's our sister?
ACTRESS 1 drops her puppet arm again to resume
being IMOGEN.
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
Don't
worry. Because you are related, you are
both strangely drawn to, but also repulsed by, her.
ACTRESS 2 (GUIDERIUS,
puppet)
Plus,
right now we think she's a boy.
ACTOR 1 (ARVIVAGUS)
I'm
actually more attracted to her because she's a boy.
Is
that weird?
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS,
puppet)
Yes. And no.
And yes.
ACTOR 1 (ARVIVAGUS)
That's
not a very helpful answer, father.
ACTRESS 3 (CYMBELINE)
He's
not your father! I am!
ACTRESS 2 (GUIDERIUS,
puppet)
We
don't know that yet.
ACTOR 1 (ARVIVAGUS)
There's
an awful lot we don't know, come to think of it.
ACTRESS 2 (GUIDERIUS,
puppet)
I
suppose it didn't matter.
ACTOR 1 (ARVIVAGUS)
Till
she came along.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
Sorry.
ACTOR 1 (ARVIVAGUS)
Don't
be. I just wish you weren't such a cute
boy - who's a girl - who I'm related to.
(to be continued)
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