Work: was thankfully quiet today, mostly spent the day digging out of the pile from yesterday. My phone training got postponed for another week HUZZAH. I hoped it would be canceled while I was "out" and it was! Don't even know why, but YAY!

We did have a meeting with InterimBigBoss today, in which she said the following: * Six career positions will actually get people hired for them, but who knows which those will be. "We have some deep pain right this second in each of the departments and I immediately want to send some help." Regarding our printers, which are about to die: "The equipment is 50 years old. It needs to be replaced." "There's nothing I can do to get rid of the workload. I don't have that in my tool chest." She said that obviously the service people will have to at least do hybrid, though "how much appetite" will the clientele have to haul ass across the giant org when they haven't had to for a year, we shall see. "This is how we're going to start and then we'll see how it really works." "This job is harder than it looks from the outside." She sounds like a sensible lass.

Though I will note that the "doorbell" went off EVERY TIME SOMEONE ENTERED THE MEETING and someone pointed out that the host could turn that off, but she didn't. Also at some point you could hear someone flushing behind her. Har.

I left twice during my workday for the WTFCON festival to see Lauren Gunderson!

Writing the One Person Play, by Lauren Gunderson Natural Shocks and The Catastrophist It's really hard for an actor to do--natural athleticism and endurance. "Most great actors will want the challenge at some point in their career." Not a show where one person plays multiple characters or talks to themselves. Talking about plays in which one actor goes on a complex, emotional, human journey with stakes, surprise and revelation all on their own. "What I'm really interested in is stories that we take on by ourselves." It's just a play with one person onstage. You still need urgency, desire, flaw, change, diversity, chemistry. You still need structure that delivers, exposition, catalyst, midpoint, climax--but they must all fit inside one character. Very hard to write/perform, but people like them, especially theaters because they can go so many places, less expensive. Create internal/external drivers, consequence, motivation.

Internal: why is your character speaking? What do they want/need? What is their hope/fear? What does success look like? What does the end look like? Does the character want it or fear it? What are they defying to tell you this story? We see distinction between wants and needs at the end of the play. What is their GREATEST hope? big stakes. Biggest fear. What does success look like for them/in the world of this play? What do they hope happens in the end? What does the end of their life look like? Do they want that ending? ("Usually most characters don't unless you are in a nice rom-com.") "Nathan is fighting the play that he finds himself in." He denies the final scene. "What are they defying to tell this story right now? It should not be easy for them to tell you this story." Catastrophist and Natural Shocks have a lot of denial in them (about what they are telling themselves). What do they know about themselves they never say out loud. "We're all in our own one person play." "What we want and what we don't are the same, what does that mean? One person vs. themselves."

External drivers: What is going on outside, around them? Where are they and how does that limit, encourage, inspire them? Who are they talking to? (Hardest part. Who cares, they're talking to you!) What are the rules of the space? How can the space push back or be an obstacle? What design elements can you use to push your character? Sound, light, costume, prop, set. Catastrophist thinks he's talking to the director/playwright/whoever's in charge. Natural Shocks--she's livestreaming in the basement to strangers. The reason they're talking is more important than the audience--intense feeling of empowerment and agency. "Everything is an opportunity to catalyze your character."

Plot= change, in the present, urgent. Your character is forced to make decisions and take actions. You are in service of the audience and the audience has to be taken care of. Be interesting. Urgency is always more interesting. You cannot bore me. Boredom is not the audience's fault. Why now? Memories need an active purpose Choices, decisions, actions must be made in the moment Lean forward, not back Surprise, suspense-something you can hint at but not give away. The end cannot be decided until we get there. Lying: people do not always tell themselves the truth, much less other people.
Finding one surprise in every play is really helpful, audiences love it. Character cannot know/accept the end until they get there. Can't play the reveal the whole time--then watching a slow car wreck. Want to be on the ride with them.

Dramatic Structure: Beginning: who is person, what do they want, what are they up against? Why is it so hard, why can't they just go get it? What kind of love? Midpoint: what revelation/discovery/confession/change in condition upturns their goal so much that they can't go back? Ending: All leading up to a character-defining choice and action. We are defined by what we do and what we say.

Secret Dramatic Structure: What is their secret? Secret desire, fear, love, truth, self. What does the holding or revealing cost them? Why is their secret secret? Who else knows? How and why would they tell their truth? What pushes them? Is it their choice?

Verbs: very helpful in a one person play "So make some shit happen." How can design fuel story? How can theatricality fuel story? What rules can you break to find your ending? Endings of plays are the most false thing about a play because lives go on. Benediction: how will your audience go out into the world after your show. ("I need to go be by myself and think about my life choices" level of ending, for example.) Changes our actions IRL after we've just seen a play. "Sweat" encourages people to donate money, for example.

one person plays she likes: Grounded: George Brandt Proof of Love: China Hutchinson I Am My Own Wife-Doug Wright Self-Buy-Date: Sarah Jones Seawall: Simon Stephens Krapp's Last Tape-Samuel Beckett 2.5 Minute Ride-Lisa Kron

Q&A: if you don't have any friends who don't live that experience, you are probably not the person to write that story. Be responsible for learning the stuff. A lot of her plays are set in history. "I think there's been a thousand one person Abraham Lincoln shows." She loves history plays. "Sometimes you have to be brave and have a character say, it's 1852." "What I wanted was adjacent to that." Whole plays are made out of do I want this. All great storytelling art is political. "It is the responsibility of changing hearts and minds" of a storyteller. 5 women on a stage at once is very political Playwrights should have a variety of 1-2 person plays and bigger plays. Publishing happens after one or several productions. You don't know if it works until after 2 productions, in her experience. Be very involved in your first production--casting, design, etc. The playwriting begins on your first reading/rehearsal. You will learn so much and changes will be made during rehearsal. "I'm rewriting up until opening." Know who does plays like you write, what actors like them, what directors do them. Who runs the companies. Who are the gatekeepers? The personal is universal. We all have exact experiences. Generalization is the death knell of theater.

Keynote speaking Lauren later: "You can cuss me out in ONE SECOND." -moderator, forced to leave her mic on while kids are coming in. "I am currently having a career defining moment, so if you could play amongst yourselves, that would be great." LOL. "I do now have a story of the why me, why now." "Life is weird and funny and you're probably going through some crap and I am too." "I like making plays so I make a lot of them." she talked about a director friend who would say something like, "we were going to run the play, but instead we're going to have an ice cream party. Sometimes that's the best thing you can do for this day." Agents will find you after 2-3 productions, you don't have to contact them. "If they're any good, they already know." The career happens first. If you don't want the play as written, then don't do the play and write your own? Don't ignore the stage directions. "We are world builders. We are the wielders of time and space as writers. There's intentionality behind it. There's a reason." "I will set fire to those institutions" who cross out stage directions. "Too much cat is unhelpful." "Every Shakespeare needs a power ballad as far as I'm concerned." -on making Falstaff sing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" "I can go on for a long time about stage directions." When doing musicals: she will come up with some kind of train of thought for a character and then the songwriters will pick out dialogue to use. "I'm writing a Time Traveler's Wife musical right now for the UK." "I don't know, I just want all the things!" "There are very few rules, and any things we think are rules...." "The more theater the better, you know?" You don't HAVE to be in NYC to have a career, most of her shows aren't done there. Beware of the notes you are getting--do you trust the person giving the note? You don't have to take that note. If it helps you figure something out, great. "The note behind the note."-I'm confused by her actions. That's super helpful for a writer. People will want different things. Where is that note coming from? You know your plays. "Never give your power away from your play." "I'm going to write a play called Unlikeable."

Camelot rehearsal:

I had no idea what was going on, y'all. Like I thought it was a dance rehearsal, but it was a group singing rehearsal. The leads weren't there, which I guess was an issue with Guenivere not around for "Lusty Month of May," but people more or less went along. I met Andi (who was in DMTC's Sound of Music) and she was VERY nice and helpful on making sure that Brian (other new guy, nice, nervous on dance stuff) and I got to record what the alto and bass bits sounded like. The musical director for this one wasn't there and they had another guy who had never heard the show before playing--have to say, it sounds like he figured it out pretty well.

The cast that I met were very nice! Dannette and Molly from Shrek are in that one and some other nice ladies. Didn't really talk to the guys other than Brian though. (Nope, not gonna be a romantic anything there.) I asked how they were doing after not having done this for a year and one of them was all "it's coming back!" Andi said she was weird right off the bat and I was all "Me too!"

I continue to be all "people sing parts?! What are parts?!" in my brain, and a whole lot of "Am I out of my mind to be trying to do this singing parts thing?!" I could follow along with everyone fine, more or less, and if I have the general idea of how it's supposed to sound, all is well. But I was all deer in the headlights on what I sing and what's my range, other than "pretty sure I ain't soprano." They rolled with it.

(I debated wearing a mask to this, didn't, nobody else did either. Probably better for the singing. Also everyone in this is supposed to be vaxxed. I have no idea how they are going to handle audiences in a month though....or if the show still goes on in a month if delta gets worse....I GUESS WE'LL SEE, y'all.)

Anyway: there will be TWO weeks of rehearsal for this--the 9-12th is actual show rehearsal and then the NEXT week is tech week and then it's the weekends after that. Thank goodness, I thought they were nuts doing just one week/combining with tech. Two is doable.

I did text Jean's recommended hairdresser but didn't hear back, and asked Jean about it. "She's slow" and going camping this weekend. Okay, I'll wait. They wanted me to sign another "don't do your hair" contract and I said "I'm getting all this pink cut off" and they were all "don't get it cut too short, want longer and curly" and I was all "shooting for shoulder length-ish" and so far I think everyone's fine with the plan. Hopefully.

previous entry - next entry
archives - current entry