Still focused on death

My subconscious is still focused on death and I don't know why! I thought I got over this by first writing GARDEN OF DREAMS and ROOM 812, and the newest short play I finished last night BLANK CANVAS circles around death once again. I've discovered that my writing style is to just write, much like PGK, after trying the outline view. However, I DO have in the back of my mind a structure, I still free flow and have the characters speak through my pen... and I keep coming back to someone crying because of someones death. I need therapy. It's been two years since the passing of my dad and one of my best friends and this still keeps coming back, like some really deeply rooted theme that needs to come out, which it does in my writings.

OKAY. Now that I've gotten this out of my way, hopefully, I'll consciously move on to something more lighthearted. Meaning that I have to read some Durang to get me in that mode of thinking!

more ideas

2) The Greeter... about a person who's job is it to greet hundreds of people everyday, but sinks more and more into a hole of depression from lonliness.
3) Rent-a-wife: a story about a person who posts an ad about being a part-time-wife/escort/made. based on a real posting i found on craigslist.

10x10 Exercise

Here's the exercise: on a piece of paper grid out 10 boxes by 10 boxes. by doing so, you'll have 100 little squares just big enough to put 1 word in each. using the following instructions, put a word randomly into any of the 100 boxes. At the end, you'll come up with some really funky 100-word prose/spoken word/word art that might or might not make any sense, but it's cool creative prompt to get ya goin'!

1) someone you love
2) place where you grew up
3) name of a body of water
4) a body part you don't like
5) 5 verbs
6) 5 adverbs
7) 5 nouns

This is what I came up with today :)

Chair underneath the immovable earth hurridly spinning while dizziness runs numbing wildly brown hat from where Marina meets the blue ocean. I laugh in peace even though life's lamp is tossed in the pacific bay where cooking and cleaning inhabits the Raine of my mind's resting place. I journey into the center of my soul gracefully stepping around my quietly everchanging mind - shoot the scene. I walk down the block of blood fearlessly spitting in the eye of a speeding car careening into undeniable murder by running over tummy after eyes over hearts where my life's book ends.

===

wtf was that? there were some incredible examples read during the workshop, but i learned that this really didn't make sense mostly because my mind was really random today. *sigh*

Things I LOVE in stories

I was flipping through the channels this morning and saw david duchovny in a movie. i was admiring how natural, in his "look at me. i don't look like i'm acting, doesn't it?" kinda way. and wished that's what i like to see, the acting part - very human that doesn't look like they even care to be in a movie/stage cuz they're just THERE. i guess that's why i love watching one of my best friends on stage acting. i first noticed it when he auditioned for a role with a theater company in sacramento, and when he read, this was cold reading, it just came out naturally for him. like a character, who's a real person, stumbled onto that stage and became, not became, but is that person/character. i'm doing such a lousy job of explaining this... but that's what i look for in actors, can this actor transcend the stage into being a person i can relate to. and i think that this can only be seen in the minute details, especially on screen. the details of an actors action is what makes a character human. and that's what i look for in a writing a good character which in turn translates to a story i'd love to watch, and write, and hopefully an audience will love as well.

so after this long introduction on david duchovny's acting style, this is my list of things I love in Drama (and that's the general term for anything that's on stage or screen since i've stopped discrimating against that medium - i've grown.) this is an ongoing list, but hopefully when i'm stuck on saying, "this scene just doesn't float my boat," I can refer to this list and say, cool. this is what i love to see and this is the stories I want to write. WRITE!

- i LOVE characters that are 3-dimensional, in other words, human. if they are evil, what about them not only makes them evil, but about them reveals that there is some humanity left? compassion... or humor... but of course they are evil because of the dramatic action that drives them to their evil doing ways. and of course, this includes "good" characters too. if they were too cutesy-tootsey then they would make me throw up. their flaws greatly interest me, and maybe these said flaws would best be done with action instead of words!

- family and home. i love stories having to do with families. maybe it's because, not in spite of, i'm filipino. and i'm speaking of the family in the, i wouldn't say in the broad sense, but in the close sense of what a family is. in my case, i have a really small family - me, mom, and sister. but in a bigger role, i TRULY consider my best friends my brothers and sisters - not by birth, but meaning, i would do ANYTHING for any of them. it's that sense of belonging. that "i'm not alone, nor will i ever be again" family feeling that i want to bring out in my plays.

- sharp and quick hitting humorous wit. durang and sorkin are currently my favorites. a nod would go to simon, but i'd need to read more recent stuff of his work. but with durang, i'm absolutely ROFL! another great comedian that comes to mind is Craig Furgeson. Recently on a blog by BAMBOO NATION, Prince wrote a post about this guy, and there's a clip on it as well. i remember hearing about it on ET when Britney shaved her head and all the hosts of late night tv were bagging on her, but Craig said he wouldn't do that. i can't put into words, as well as Prince does, but this monologue had me uncontrollably cracking up one second and at the next beat, made me care about this person. i admire him for not this monologue... but for this wonderful work of art in weaving his personal demons, suicide attempt, urine (not sure if it's indeed his), and Britney Spears. genius for the construction of this piece, and also human because of the content.

The Good Old Days

This story is about two elderly Pilipinos working as security guards at the Asian American museum at the opening night at the Great Filipino Artists exhibition. As they reminisce about life back home, a woman in one of the paintings brings these memories to life.

Trust Me...

Based on my SHORT play, "Burgundy, Cerise, and an Apple" which was posted on this blog last year.

Writer's Block

I'm standing on the corner of lazy and another episode of Heroes which intersects with Dancing with the Stars and I'm wondering why can't I write!? Sucks to be feeling like I'm in a catatonic state of mind on the Writer's Block. Just means that's it's time for me to head out to my special place where it's crowded, yet not within a 4 foot distance - the Marketplace in Emeryville. It's a "food court" if you will, without the mall. It's attached to a HUGE Borders Books, but there are hecka tables, and the last time I was there I think I re-wrote part of GARDEN OF DREAMS. Nonetheless, it was productive. But yeah, it hecka sucks to be stranded out here!

Luckily another cure for this incipid writing disease I have is called a DEADLINE. Either the 20th or November 3rd is it. After I have my outline done today, I'll make a decision on when it'll be done. Okey-dokes, off to my day job!

Raiders of the Lost Anting-Anting

This story is about... a gambler/alcoholic tour guide of the Bayou who is hired by a wealthy business person with corrupt morals to find a faith healer in the Louisiana swamplands who holds the key to immortality.

This is one of the stories I'm thinking about for Stories High. I really see this as again an exercise for what is part of the backdrop for my next full-length on Fermin Tobera. We'll see where this leads.

This story is about...

So, i'm starting a string of posts for ideas that I have for plays, short and full-length, because I don't want these nuggets to go to waste and forgotten. To make sure that these plays will get written, I'll start each post with "This story is about..." This is a lesson I learned from Philip Kan Gotanda. When he'd grill us in the class/workshop, he'd ask us this. These four words brought initial fear in all of us because it truly is a struggle to concisely break down a whole concept for a play into one sentence. However, this statement lays the foundation of the play. This short sentence begins the elevator pitch!

(elevator ding. an artistic director for a theater company gets into the elevator with you.)

ME
Hi. I'm Conrad Panganiban and I've written a play I know you'd want to produce.

AD
Really... what it's about? You have 3 floors.

ME
The story is about...

Pamilyas

This story is about... how a struggling community is brought together after a woman refuses to sell her family's restaurant to a vindictive businessman who happens to be her ex-fiance.

I've actually finished the outline with character names, for this musical, but I got stuck on a scene... and a few months, about 6, i still haven't returned to it. When I dig it out, I'll edit this post to at least have it down with hopes of sparking new ideas.

Congratulations! You Killed Your Son!

This story is about... a game show with parents competing against other parents to see who can make their child feel the most guilty. The winner is determined by who's child commits suicide first.

Of course this is a satire, but it's based on my truth. Dark, di ba? I've held off on writing this because of the content, but it's been biting at me for so long, BEGGING to be written. If anything, the script will be posted on here!

King Lear - Script Review

Going back to the classics, I decided to read KING LEAR by William Shakespeare. I initially decided to read this because this play was mentioned in another book I'm reading called Reverse & Forwards...or is it the other way around? At any rate, the book was an analysis of how to break down a script. Even though the main focus of the book was on Hamlet, I've already read that and this play was mentioned just as much as Hamlet. Oh... I also use the No Fear Shakespeare Editions of his plays because I want to focus on the plot, characters and structure instead of taking the time to translate the language, albeit beautiful, of their times.

SYNOPSIS
Lear is an aging King who wants to retire by abdicating to his three daughters. However, in an act of petty ego stroking, he asks them who among them loves him most. While two daughters eagerly toady to him, his one loving daughter, Cordelia, refuses play along with this foolish charade. In a rage, Lear exiles her along with his one loyal aide who dares to stick up for her. This foolish move works to Lear's sorrow as his two remaining daughters cruelly and gradually strip him of his status and possessions until he is rendered an insane hermit attended only by his fool. All the while, the illegitimate son of another lord is plotting his own ambitions while contributing to this tragic tale of ego and familial cruelty. {kchishol@home.com} Written by Kenneth Chisholm for the tv version of the play for imdb.com.

WHAT I'LL STEAL LEARN TO USE
- I LOVE how he sets up the wickedness/virtues of each of his characters. Very "classical". Without any BS, I know who the bad people are and who the good people are.
- He doesn't dumb down too much, meaning that if someone dies, and like everyone dies in this play, he'll allude to it. For instance, Edmund gives a note to a soldier who leads Cordelia and King Lear to a prison with a note. But being that Edmund is such a dirty scoundrel, you know that it's not good news for either the King or his daughter. We don't know of their fate until Edmund is about to die and is heightened when the King carries his daughter's body into the next scene.
- There has to be a way for me to incorporate soliloquies in my plays to further have a voice for the antagonists dirty thoughts leading into deeds.
- What I like about Shakespeare is that he uses really CLASSICAL themes. Good vs. Evil. Justice. Being blind to what is good and wanting flattery and glitz instead. He really tapped into Human Nature, both good and evil.

The Odd Couple - Script Review

Another script finished. The ODD COUPLE by Neil Simon. This was originally produced on stage in 1965, but the story is still applicable to today's culture.

SYNOPSIS
A divorced slob invites a group of the boys over for cards, one of the guests, who happens to be very meticulous and tense, has just been separated from his wife. The slob and the neat-freak decide to share one apartment; but patterns of their own disastrous marriages begin to reappear with hilarious results.Credit to the description page of the play at - stageagent.com.

WHAT I'LL STEAL LEARN TO USE
- Neil Simon's timing is incredible and I guess that's what makes great comedy.
- There's a lot of play on words in this play that makes things funny. Grrr.. If I had the script (i had to return it to the library) I'd quote some great lines.
- Unlike the other plays I've read so far, this was very... down to earth. The dialogue just flowed as if it was made for TV. Very natural and at first I thought I was watching the TV Show, but towards the end, it had a deep message and understanding.

Unfortunately, I didn't see too much of an arc with Felix's character. Plus, at the beginning of the play, they kept mentioning Murray's a Cop, but nothing really followed up with him being a cop. Like, because they played it up so much, there should've been something more significant, like a murder or a theft, that used this follow of him being a cop. The other characters seemed a little thin as well.