In need of DISCIPLINE

"Trying to work on a script and developing an artsy-fartsy attitude telling meself that "it feels too early to slip into that writing mood." Not cool to feel that it's "right" to create in that 2-3am world. Need more discipline to be able to write at any time."

The above was a facebook status post. I'm thinking that it's just the atmosphere that I'm writing in: American Idol in one ear and being distracted by it and feels like there's just too much light. In short, I'm not in that zone. I don't think it's a matter of being focused, but more so that I don't have the discipline yet to be able to slip into that zone. Zone: that place (kind of like where I am now) where I have that skill to block out everything around and actually get lost in the world that I'm creating.

Discipline also means that I should block out WRITING TIME every day so that when I do slip into these distracted moments, I know that I can automatically slip into that Zone. Well, I'll have to work on that as well. Being a writer shouldn't be easy at every second when you want it to be. Let's go!

Taking Your Play for a Test Spin: The Un/Staged Reading

Stories High 12 Reading Cast of Thicker Than Wine (l:r-Patrick Silvestre, Rob Trinidad, Alan Quismorio, Aaron Niles, Gemma Calderon, and Aura San Miguel)

Ooooos Ahssss And Hahahas are what hooked me into the Theater game in the first place, but those audience reactions were always a by-product of seeing a story brought to life on stage. One of my favorite audience moments was during the reversal scene from my play, BORDERS. In it, a woman discovers that a flirtatious guy sitting at the next table in a cafè isn't whom she (or the audience) thinks he is. "Oh my God," was caught from an audible whisper of the person next to me as I watch the scene unfold from my back row seat at the old (current Boxcar) Bindlestiff Studio Blackbox Theater.

Sometimes I get so caught up in being solo in writing a story that I tend to over intellectualize it. From dissecting the level of conflict, flow of dialogue, to character names, especially in during the incubation of a play can be a very personal and sometimes lonely journey. But the light at the end of the tunnel appears when I finally get that story in front of a real AUDIENCE during an un/staged reading. I'll define audience as consisting of a sample size of more than 10 strangers "off the street" type.

What I love about writing for the stage is, duh, the ALIVE audience! If they're asleep, you fail. Bored, looking around, reading the program, talking on a mobile - all the same. Fail. That's why the value of these pre-produced readings is Gold!

I recently had one of these readings produced by Bindlestiff Studios for my newest play, THICKER THAN WINE. I've already heard my play hundreds of times in my head, so I know it's good, but that judgment isn't worth spit if the people I'm writing for aren't engaged in the story I created.

There is a caveat to this though: don't let the audience change the core of the story. Their reaction can cause you to re-write the entire play, but the core/theme/message chose you to write. I've been down that road with THE GIFT. After a reading, I re-wrote the whole script with new characters and setting! Lesson learned: Don't do that again. But I did learn from that audience reaction from this staged reading.

Look for these opportunities to get your play seen in these types of readings cuz you'll def learn so much from them. I did!

Launching a career as a Playwright

One of the things I learned from the Anthem Salgado's workshop on Blogging was to have a "search-friendly" Blog Post title. Hopefully this will be the first of many posts that will bring more insight on what's the goings on as I really do launch into this career that I've always felt was my calling and have honestly took for granted.

I've been writing plays since 1995 and I believe the exact moment that set me on this path was hearing an audience laugh at a line during the PCN (Pilipino Culture Night) Play I wrote for Samamhang Pilipino at CSU, Sacramento in 1995. I remember when everyone was off to the Union at the reception after the final bows, I was left cleaning up the Music Recital Hall where the production was performed. I sat down in one of the seats of the auditorium, and soaked in every moment of that night. People actually cared about the story I remember handwriting in the bed of my old pickup after having the different characters' stories intertwine during the life of a marketplace (palengke) in the Philippines. Back then, I didn't know what drama, conflict, structure, or a dénouement was. I just had a story that needed to be told. And by golly, I did it and an audience reacted to it. It also taught me how much working in a production can't be done on it's own. I "directed" it, but I knew how much each individual person would bring to the role. I felt bad because I had to re-cast one of the roles, well, the actor missed A LOT of rehearsals without explanation, but other than that, I've been hooked on storytelling for a live audience ever since.

It's 16 years, and quite a few plays later, and I'm now ready to make that leap into trying to turn this into a career. A career? Like actually trying to make a living at this? I'd love to, but it's also a comfort to know that I have a really good day-job to fall back on as a Web Developer. But it's still nice to dream. BIG!

Trickier Than Wine

I finished the latest draft of Thicker Than Wine in October and I'm going to revisit it since there's finally another deadline of Dec. 14. I'm a little apprehensive about revising it again for fear of overediting. then again all playwrights have the right to edit their plays when they wish. just don't want to over think it. you know what it is? it just might be that I think that I had a pretty good last reading of it and I don't want to do anything else to wreck it! but it doesn't hurt to look at it from a fresh perspective.

onto the topic of adaptations. the lesson was GREAT! but at the same time very constricting in the fact that I'm afraid to share this in fear of getting a cease and desist order. I love what I've come up in spite of the play time duration. maybe I should just contact the author to get her blessing. I mean, I should have in the first place, but then again I didn't even know that it would work out so well, cuz I was hecka strugglin'! should ask Allan first.

I need to write.

Melissa's Monologue/Character Study

Written as a character study.

Character: Melissa Anne Crawley
Play: Standing Above Pajaro

MELISSA ANNE CRAWLEY is facing the audience behind a table where she’s being interviewed by the Watsonville Sheriff about the disappearance of her son, BOBBY JR.

MELISSA
Where do you want me to start? Okay. From the beginning. Okay. My name is Melissa Anne Crawley. I was born… truthfully, I don’t really know. My parents, well the ones that found me, think I’m 40. They picked my birthday on May 20th, 1890. Why are you looking at me like that? My eyes. Yes, they are really that blue. I know that everything else about me looks like I’m Mexican, but as far as I know I’m from here in Watsonville, not Mexico. The only time I left this city was when my late husband, Robert, returned from the war in the Philippines to the old Ord Barracks, down in Monterey. We stayed there until my parents passed, and that’s when we moved back to work in their store. The same one I run now with my son, Bobby Jr. Anyways, when Robert returned from war, he wasn’t the same person I married. He didn’t have such a bad temper before he left. I guess that’s what war does to a person. Let’s just say that I quickly learned how not to say anything back or question anything he said. Anyways, he passed on a few years back. Like father like son, Bobby got the same temper and quick-draw reflexes. We tried to make the best of it running the store. But Bobby was always out with his friends though. Teenagers. But that was good. I got to sing out loud. Something that I never got to do when Robert was alive, or when Bobby was around. They said I had a terrible voice and was tone-deaf. But in those moments alone, either singing to myself, or making up stories, I felt alive. I also got to read the old books that my parents had. I didn’t get to go to school so I could help out with the store, but they taught me how to read and write. They probably knew that I’d take over the store for them. But this was something I kept from my husband and son. That I knew how to read and write… well, I made them think that I just knew the basics. I needed to keep some things for me, I suppose. But I wasn’t stupid. No matter, how much they told me that. I wasn’t. I had a family and responsibilities. I didn’t have a need for fancy clothes or anything. And I would keep my hair in a bun, just like this. Robert thought that it was improper to let my hair down. Even when Robert had already passed, Bobby caught me with my hair down and he scolded me for it. He said that’s the way those girls at that Filipino Club down in Palm Beach had their hair when they danced with those Goo-goos, that’s what Bobby called them, those Filipino workers and they would drive them crazy. He said that it wasn’t enough that they were taking away the real American’s jobs, but they were taking their women too. I didn’t know what to believe, but he’s my son and I have to believe that he was right, right? I just wished that sometimes he would…. The night of the 30th? I was at home. Above the store. I heard a lot of commotion going on outside. I knew from the last couple of days that the whole town of Watsonville was after those Filipino field workers. Bobby would tell me some of the things they would do to them. I knew it was wrong, but… I just stayed home and let things play out. Can I ask you something? Is it true that a Filipino was killed at the Murphy Ranch? Oh. What was his name? Oh my. No. I didn’t know Fermin Tobera. Oh. Excuse me. I was just thinking about Bobby. No. No, I don’t know where he is. Do you think he had something to do with this killing? Of course. Still under investigation. Please let me know if you find my son. Can I go now?

Ostara's Rave

Here's a link to another script I wrote for Bindlestiff Studio's production of Good Friday: Carpool to Hell. It's called Ostara's Rave. Even though this didn't get produced, I'm really happy to have it staged in a workshop. Plus, I got pretty good reaction to it from the cast.

The biggest lesson I learned was the ability to form a story from doing research on the origins of Easter. I wrote this in total of about 3 hours. 2 hours of research and notes and another hour of writing. When I get time, hopefully I'll do a proper re-write.

Enjoy :)

http://www.uptil3.com/scripts/Ostara's Rave.pdf

Leaving My <3 In SF - Reading

So the reading of my short play, LEAVING MY <3 IN SF, went well last night. I was also very pleased with, not only the actors, but also the person who directed it. After it was read, he came up to me and as always, gave me some really good notes. And I whole-heartedly agreed with him. The version that was presented was a total 180 from the original script, but I felt was better just because in this version, and in the end that's what mattered.

The thing that I learned from the reading:

• don't let Cora get off the hook too easy. makes the ending just... end. the climax was just a blip instead of a Holy Shnikeys


• when there's a reading of multiple authors, I just can't help but feeling competitve. "Why wasn't my play as funny as theirs?"


• want to expand the Wife's character to establish her role

Getting back to the second point about being competitive, it was just inevitable. Being in that situation where you're piece of art is on display with other artists, you want to see how your piece compares to others. And you have the judge right there, the audience. And the biggest barometer is laughter. It's all about the sense of instant gratification. The upside of having experienced this instant gratification is that I don't really seek it that much. Of course there are those lines that were written down with the wonder of, "is anyone going to laugh during this line?" But what I'm trying to say is that I HAVE to be concentrated on my play and not worry about if the previous or next person's play garnered that instant gratification. In the end, it's my voice and subject that I'm trying to push forward.

All in all, I was pretty happy how everything went last night. Like everytime I see a live theater performance of any kind, it just inspires me to keep writing. And that's a very good thing!

The Power of Desire

With gleeful intent I've been watching and more importantly learning from various forms of fictional media specifically movies, a play, and reality tv. I haven't written anything that can be construed as new for a good couple of weeks, but this time away from the Script Template I got going in word, has given me a chance to get critical about the things I know makes a work of drama worth seeing. Rule number one: ask what is the character's ultimate desire/want/goal. Numero dos: write what it is that is stopping said character from achieve that goal/want/desire. My problem is that I've been focused on the delivery of the words that characters use rather than the definition of clearly defining these seemingly simple objectives. Without this desire of the characters, not even the cutest, read quick-witted, of lines will resonate with the audience after the first step outside the theater doors.

And, taking the much valued lesson of Tony Kushner's ANGELS IN AMERICA, the more desperate a characters want to grab his or her desire, the longer the cathartic reminiscence remains. I still think about the ramifications of Louis's decision to leave Prior. I guess what gets me is not only the fact that it goes against everything I believe was wrong in his decision, I still think about WHY he made his choice to leave the person he loves... who is dying. And for some unknown reason, I can't let morally incomprehensible, aka fucked up, decision go.

There's a lot of things I need to explore in this Pulitzer Award winning play, but I'm so glad to have experienced this. It hopefully makes me a better writer.

Tips from Kurt Vonnegut

Eight rules for writing fiction (http://www.troubling.info/vonnegut.html):

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

-- Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1999), 9-10.

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.

Garden Of Dreams

The cast of GARDEN OF DREAMS
Well it's over... for now. On Sunday, I had the first public reading of my play, GARDEN OF DREAMS. I was nervous as fuck, but i got through it okay.

LESSONS LEARNED
- LISTEN TO YOUR ACTORS - A concern was brought to attention by one of the actors. He was having some trouble getting out some of the lines because they read melodramatic. Unfortunately, being the writer with blinders on, I couldn't see it myself. He was absolutely RIGHT. What he calls 'melodramatic' I call 'barf dialogue'. You know when watch something campy, and we see someone saying something utterly romantic or over-the-top that it makes you want to throw up in your mouth. Well, that's what I had in my script by that character.
- OFFENSIVE ACCENT - An audience member came up to me telling me that 1) he liked the whistling device I used and 2) he found it offensive for someone to fake an Filipino accent. I told him that I appreciated his honesty. I'm not going to take that part out! but I will add on to Lisa's character as a reaction to the use of this accent. It's my hope that this is a powerful action by her as to how using this accent can be offensive to people. It was in the play for a reason, and I'm glad someone caught it, but lemme flip it on its ear to teach a lil sumn-sumn.
- DON'T BUTTER UP MY ACTORS - I did this. I'm not taking it back because whether they know it or not, they helped make one of my dreams come true. But moving forward, I'll try and refrain from doing this publicly, but to let them know of this in a more private manner will work just as effectively.

Luckily, I have the reading on videotape which I'll try to review tonight and come up with more notes to post here.

Yankee Dawg You Die - Script Review

I just finished reading YANKEE DAWG YOU DIE by one of my teachers, Philip Kan Gotanda. Again, I'm inspired by it. For some reason, I always thought the play was something that it obviously is not.

SYNOPSIS
Bradley Yamashita is one of the new breed of Asian-American actors. Highly political and outspoken, he will only take on acting roles that are dignified and unstereotypic. He has recently starred in a small independent film that is the darling of the art crowd, and he arrives in Hollywood full of himself and his politics. Vincent Chang is a survivor. He cut his teeth on the old "Chop Suey" circuit as a hoofer and went on to star in feature films, even garnering an Oscar nomination in the 1950s. Now, though still regal and debonair, Vincent is forced into taking often stereotypic and undignified roles. Through a series of quick-moving scenes, we follow the two men as they meet, form a tenuous friendship and together do battle amidst the often humorous and at times ruthless backdrop of the Hollywood film world. While maintaining the portrayal of integrity as all important, Bradley must face the reality of the same lack of work for Asian actors as Vincent faced in the early days of film. Vincent also teaches Bradley the dignity of survival as he learns to take on more of the cultural responsibility Bradley wishes him to accept.Credit to the description page of the play at - Dramatists Play Service.

MY TAKE
The play is about VINCENT and BRADLEY. 2 Asian American actors trying to make it in the movie industry. One is older, the other is younger. 2 very different views of what they see their roles are being an Asian American actor - yet the art of acting is what brings these two unlikely characters together. I saw these 2 begin at a party with the beginnings of animosity, to them working together, which bred true dislike for one another, and then eventual friendship and respect. Both of the characters had definite arcs and I was really happy to see their turns.

WHAT I'LL STEAL LEARN TO USE
- Philip uses Interludes, a monologue/short scene, to set up the next Scene. I've seen this done with COWBOY VS. SAMURAI by Michael Golamco. But I've never really seen this written on the page.
- Another thing I've yet to see in written form in a play is that Philip titles his scenes. I like this idea because it truly sets up the scene and structure wise, i saw the play as a series of individual scenes rather than all together. YET they still work perfectly all together.
- On these previous notes, he also ends each scene and interlude with "End of Scene" or "End of Interlude"
- Wraps things up nicely. Something I love to use and do with forwards. He'll mention something and will reintroduce it later on to make interject a point or use it in a different way to magnify the same or different subject. This technique of using the same lines and reintroducing them to mean something else happens a lot in this play. Effectively done so, without getting to the point of tiresome. Well maybe in some points, but because I'm usually slow at catching on that he's doing this for a purpose, as EVERY WORD in a script should be, I appreciate it more. The play begins and ends using this method as well!
- I love how the characters tell a story. One of the most challenging things for me to even wrap my head around are MONOLOGUES. How? Why? What? are mainly my questions, but seeing how Philip use them to tell stories and using sub-text between the lines to have meaning/lessons to these stories is a valuable lesson.

In summary, this play has affected me more than just reading it. I saw a lot of things I could use, and made me question how I see myself as an Asian American in this crazy world of succeeding and what, if any, personal sacrifices I allow myself to take. A definite goal of what I want to write.

How to write a 10-minute play

HOW TO WRITE A 10-MINUTE PLAY
copied and pasted from 10-Minute-Plays.com (http://www.10-minute-plays.com/index.html)

TWELVE RULES FOR THE ASPIRING PLAYWRIGHT

1) NO EXPOSITION! Just jump into your story. This presents a puzzle for the audience to unravel and allows them to play with you. Remember—we are fascinated by the unknown!

2) EVERY DETAIL MUST RELATE TO THE ACTION OF THE PLAY. You've got ten minutes—there's no time for anything extraneous. Nothing is random. (Although at first it may appear to be so!) If you are writing a play about dogs, the curtain goes up, and there on the stage is a bone.

3) KNOW WHAT YOUR PLAY IS ABOUT AND WRITE INTO THE METAPHOR. More than anything else, this will give your play a sense of unity.

4) A CHARACTER SPEAKS TO GET WHAT HE WANTS. All characters have DREAMS. These dreams are what make him unique. How are they fulfilled? How are they not fulfilled? How do they turn in on themselves?

5) A CHARACTER SHOULD BE OFF-BALANCE IN SOME WAY. Real characters are excessive in some areas. Deficient in others. If there is no disparity between what your characters are saying and what they are doing, you probably aren’t writing theatre.

6) DON’T WASTE TIME TALKING ABOUT ANYTHING YOU CAN SHOW. Images are more powerful than words!

7) EVERY GREAT PLAY HAS A POINT OF NO RETURN. The protagonist crosses the line. Now there is no turning back!

8) NEVER LET YOUR CHARACTERS OFF TOO EASY! If you do, what they’ve just been through won’t have meant anything. They may escape with their lives—but just barely!

9) EVERY PROTAGONIST MUST HAVE A JOURNEY. He should end up someplace radically different from where he began. BIG THINGS HAPPEN—not everyday life with endless pouring of coffee and lighting of cigarettes. LIFE-ALTERING EVENTS. If your protagonist ends up in the same place he started, he must go through Hell and back to get there.

10) FIND WHAT IS UNIVERSAL IN YOUR SCRIPT. These are windows that allow us to enter your world. Fuck Brecht! We want to relate!

11) REMEMBER THAT THE CLIMAX IS WHERE A PLAY WINS OR LOSES! The audience is rewarded for their attention. (The big pay-off!) The test of a great play is SELF DISCOVERY.

12) EVERY DETAIL COMES TOGETHER IN THE END. (See Rule #2) Somehow or another, we come back to that bone. Always pay off the bone!

Stories High Session 2 - Playwriting Notes

Here's some general notes that I took for me from the latest class.

- Beat:
  - building blocks of theater/play/script
  - each beat moves the story forward
  - can be seen when different tactics or strategies are used to develop the protagonist's Action (want)

- If you have a block, look at the play's Action, Conflict, and Event

- Event: the moment when a character either gets what he or she wants,
or definitively does not get it; there are normally many smaller
events in a play, but the main event is the result of action and
conflict; an event may take many different forms, but is always some
sort of change. (from Sam's notes)

- Reading/Listening tips:
  - write down beats
  - what sounded good
  - what doesn't make sense
  - what information is revealed by the dialogue/action

- Stakes:
  - goals should be high to make the protagonist NEED to get their want
  - explore what would happen if the character DOESN'T get what they want

- EACH character should have an action!

- All characters need a sense of history.

- Characters:
  - General Qualities: ie. how would you/others describe them
  - State of mind: ie. if they are lonely, how does this drive their action
  - Speech and Act: what do they say and do to define themselves and their drive towards their action.

Every Character needs to have an Action

Before I run out again, I just got back from the Stories Hight Playwriting workshop and , for me, the most important lesson I got was that EVERY character that appears in a scene needs to have an Action defined as having a defined want and goal at that particular space in time. I'll write down my notes in a new blog. bye!

Write Actions to Show Character

I'm still at home waiting for the electrician to get back from getting things for my stupid doorbell and address light fixture. But I'm flipping through the channels and stopped on THE INSIDER on HBO with Russell Crowe.

Anyways, in 2 short minutes, there's a scene with Russell Crowe and his daughter as she's having a asthma attack. He hooks up a machine and she's cured. In this scene we can tell that this isn't current because it's a machine not an inhaler. and also, really briefly, before the scene started it looked like there was conflict between Russell's character and his wife. after the daughter's asthma attack subsided, the wife is sitting next to the daughter, Russell is in front of the daughter with the machine, and we see the wife put her hand on Russell's hand. The conflict is resolved. True, with the use of camera, we can see that the spouses give each other the 'understanding' look, but still it communicated.

I've been having an internal conflict of whether or not to write stage directions in my scripts. You can see examples of that from my previous posts labeled 'script'. but with this brief action, a hand on top of another, that direction spoke volumes to me.

Briefly, another direction/action that comes to mind is when I watched a production of MACBETH. Macduff, when talking about his wife, kisses his wedding band. Not written, but again, spoke volumes.

There are times when I'll opt not to use stage directions, which I'll feel the director can aptly take care of, but when it comes to an IMPORTANT action to reveal a character and move the story forward, I will. Huge lesson learned.

On The Page - A Scriptwriting Podcast

So I'm racking my brain about the best way to "attack" writing my next play. My biggest hurdle seems to be Research. I have my subject, but I think that I'm taking way too much time figuring out how I'm going research this subject instead of actually writing the play. I was, still planning to, write to my previous instructors on how they research subjects for their plays, but then this topic came up on a podcast that i'm listening to called ON THE PAGE hosted by Pilar Alessandra.

In the most current episode of ON THE PAGE, it was kismet that the topic of Research came up. What her and her co-hosts/producer advised to do was WRITE THE SCRIPT. All the research stuff can come up after the story is done. Which makes perfect sense to me, since that seems to have pinned the nail on my problem of not even starting to write the play - I've been spending too much time worried about how to research it.

Other advice from them regarding research:
- Use the internet. Luckily, with this medium, I can research different locations and thoughts even.
- Ask someone with knowledge on the topic. Spend a couple of bucks on a coffee or Jamba Juice and the information you get back might be ten-fold that amount - which is $20 - $30... but you know what I mean.

Thanks ON THE PAGE for the advice!

Constant learning

So another thing that I'm doing aside from reading other scripts and writing is looking at other sites on the web to learn about the craft of playwriting. PLUS, I'm also compiling a list of blog sites of other playwrights. See if I could glean something from their experience. I'll post links on this site of the ones I really like and learn from.

Workshop

Well I just got back from the workshop with the playwright above - Philip Kan Gotanda. This was one of the best workshops I've had and this is without any writing! We got to basically pick his brain about how to write a play.

One homework assignment was to write a 30-page play and we'll break it down for our next meeting. Luckily, I had "A Dance..." with me, so I turned it in. And for the first time, i'm confident with it. I'm not saying that it's good, or that this particular play is something that is a masterpiece, but you know what? it's mine. it's the story that i wanted to write and it's done... for the most part. there's still more i need to work on, but it won't matter how much he tears it apart - i don't really care cuz the way i look at it, i did it. i wrote a play. and it's just the beginning!