And that's a wrap!

Well, my play, The Gift, directed by Nicole Maxali and starring, Aaron Niles, Jocelyne Ampon, and Sarita Orcon closed last night. THANK YOU for breathing life into the characters that came to me at 3am on the morning of June 16, 2008! Special thanks to Ed Mabasa for the coolest tech effect to bring a blast to the ending!

Here's some notes from my observations about Stories High 10 from this playwright's POV:

- Of course, I learned this after the fact but don't use one-liners for effect. I tried to come up with a couple of one-hit one liners that seemed so disjointed from the flow of the script. boo. i have to do better than that.

- Create the "Awwweee" character. From John Raposas's character in his play, One Year, he's crafted a character that made the audience pull for him. Make the audience say "Aweee" by playing the sympathy card. A lesson John taught me from a critique session we had. From the time of the first Awe, that's when you HOOK the audience.

- Create the lyrical play. My personal FAVORITE play is Last Verse written by Ed Mabasa. Honestly, it took me a couple of times to watch it to really understand it and to realize just how beautiful it is. I know a lot of people still wonder what it's about, as did I, but what I took from it was a love story that had the protagonist, played by the awesome Dennis Rodis, ask how do people fall so in love? what causes this? True this is written from an 18th century vampire dark standpoint, but that's what made it appealing to me. I also said lyrical because some of the lines are truly poetic.

- Comedy. My next couple of scripts are going to be comedies. Comedy and laughter is what sells the audience! Honestly, that's what roped me initially into being a playwright - hearing the laughter of the audience. Holy shit?! I wrote something that made strangers laugh? In my growth, my focus has been taken away from that, but after getting that infectious feeling of happiness from Ava Tong's Non Quite Unrequited, One Year, and Non-Sequiturs by Cathlin Goulding, I can't wait to create that joy again.

- The Love Story. One Year and Josef Anolin's Choices explored the relationship genre. I've kinda taken that out of my repertoire after writing Garden of Dreams, but I totally plan to go back to it to explore Love and the complications thereof soon. Unfortunately, I really haven't been in that mood to do so. Kind of when trying to write a Christmas play in June. Not the same feeling. Gets? But it was nice to see.

- The political play. Out of all the plays, Nomi's Brothers and Sisters took me the most to get used to. Honestly, it took me a while to warm up to it mostly because I felt that the message beat me over the head with what it wanted to say. But that's talking from the (ick) analytical pov of the structure of playwriting. HOWEVER, it's a very very worthwhile play to create and is needed! There are bad things happening in the Philippines regarding US/Philippine relations, political and economic, that needs to be addressed and it's great to see it done so. Much props to Nomi for writing this.

BOA in SF

I know. I know. It's been a while. Tonight I went into the city to watch a friend's play as it is featured in Bay One Acts Festival by Three Monkeys at the Eureka Theater. Not saying this because he's my friend, but his was the best play. It's called "Toss of the Hat" by Mike Ricca. It's kinda funny watching it because it totally sounds like him! And what's funnier is that when people hear my stuff, they say that they could totally hear me. I just never thought of it that way, I guess. But his play is about a guy who throws caution to the wind and steps up and asks a girl that he likes, and whom he know she likes him, to be together... despite the fact that she already has a boyfriend of two years. He used the device of breaking the fourth wall, something I love, and can't wait to be able to write that into a play ala Zoot Suit.

Luckily they were selling the play as compiled in a book in the lobby. It must be a sign when all the crumpled bills that emerged from my left front pocket was exactly the amount of the book. Hopefully I'll get him to sign it when I see him at the next random meeting.

Anyways, his play closed program two of the festival. the programs consisted of short 30 - 40 minute plays. on this night, there were 4 plays. The first rocked cuz it involved cutting off a person's finger and tongue... which eventually led to his death on stage. Creepy and disturbing... right up my alley! The third play was amazing because of the heart that the playwright displayed. I was about 20 minutes long and I wished it was longer because I loved the characters.

The one that I surprisingly didn't like was the second play. It was about a man and a woman who are at a theater in NYC to watch an Edward Albee play, but they get there 24 minutes early, so they just sit there talking about there relationship which try to answer the question of why don't they have a baby yet. I didn't like them and I was always trying to figure out where were they going with this. I understood why the playwright was trying to paint their differences, but in the end, I just didn't like and care for either of them. The only really going for it was the very witty banter between them. Snappy. Back and forth. Like a tennis match of heavy hitters - fast. And I realized that at one point, I really really liked this style of conversation. Smart. Quick. But, for some reason, that style started to feel that the lines were just there to make the characters seem witty and smart... instead of just being real. I wrote a whole paragraph on this play because I really learned a lot from it... and about what I like and don't like. Something I hope I can use and know what not to use in my plays.

Six Degrees of Separation - Play Review

So I watched SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION tonight at the SF Playhouse and I really liked it. It's so weird now to watch a show from the playwright's POV. Being from the "actors" world before in another life, I would always watch the performances and analyze how they do what - but now, I'm so focused on ALL the elements that I've studied so far and see how this play, or any play I watch, adhere or break from those rules. SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION blew me away, except that I could've done without the naked guy with his thingy flopping around...

SYNOPSIS
Inspired by a true story, the play follows the trail of a young black con man, Paul, who insinuates himself into the lives of a wealthy New York couple, Ouisa and Flan Kittredge, claiming he knows their son at college. Paul tells them he is the son of actor Sidney Poitier, and that he has just been mugged and all his money is gone. Captivated by Paul's intelligence and his fascinating conversation (and the possibility of appearing in a new Sidney Poitier movie), the Kittredges invite him to stay overnight. But in the morning they discover him in bed with a young male hustler from the streets, and the picture begins to change. After kicking him out, Ouisa and Flan discover that friends of theirs have had a similar run-in with the brash con artist. Intrigued, they turn detective and piece together the connections that gave Paul access to their lives. Meanwhile, Paul's cons unexpectedly lead him into darker territory and his lies begin to catch up with him. As the final events of the play unfold Ouisa suddenly finds herself caring for Paul, feeling that he gave them far more than he took and that her once idyllic life was not what it seemed to be.Credit to the description page of the play at - Dramatists Play Service.

WHAT I'LL STEAL LEARN TO USE
There's just SO MUCH that I'm STILL trying to absorb from this play! But there are something things that I'll take from this experience:
- The characters would break the 4th wall and Narrate the scene as if they were telling the story to someone. e.g. After we got done with dinner, I cleaned up the plates, but Paul took them away from me and walked into the kitchen.
- Paul's monologue about IMAGINATION with allusions to THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is AMAZING!
- The beginning of the play began with the moment RIGHT AFTER the major event where Ouisa and Flan are shocked about what they just saw. They start telling the audience of how the evening started that led up to that point and then went back to that point. ie. say the play was from 1 to 10. 1 being the beginning and 10 being the end. The structure went from 4 to 1 to 4 then up linear to 10. I likes!
- Monologues are used very strongly in this play.
- Phone calls are handled by the person on one end of the phone facing the audience and the person on the other end of the phone behind a scrim that is lit up as they are talking. IMPORTANT: neither one of them are pantomiming that they are on a phone, but the fact that it's in the text (e.g. I got Paul on the phone) works and pushes the action through the dialogue instead of being literal.
- A true mystery play! I was on the edge of my seat wondering who was he going to con next and what would eventually happen to him.
- I recognized who the protagonist was at the end of the play, where I was seeking which of the characters had their own arc - it was Ouisa. The only thing missing was that I couldn't really see when Ouisa had that instance of connection with Paul as he was on the phone.
- The use of subtext is what's truly blowing my mind away. Sure there is the con plot that's above the play, but I was intently listening and trying to comprehend, WHY? why does this person who fools others into giving him money and a place to live do such things. At the core, Paul, the con, is lonely. He makes up this world to always have someone with him. And he is SO INTELLIGENT, yet so troubled that my heart bled for this cat all alone in the world. And it's in this dramatic action of him doing anything to have a place to call home, or for company, that I try to find any of the text that supports his drive, and it doesn't even have to be in his text, but overarching with other characters. It just opens up more questions about Kandinsky, JD Salinger, and South Africa. How do these appearing random subjects support this theme.

Hysteria - Play Review

On Sunday afternoon (aka the Blue-Haired Show), I went to see a play called HYSTERIA at the Aurora Theater, which is right next to Berkeley Rep. It was hilarious!

SYNOPSIS
Set in 1938, in the study of the aged and dying Sigmund Freud, in his Hampstead home in London, the peace of a wintry night is disturbed by an unexpected visitor. This is Jessica, a young woman who has a complex emotional problem to resolve. Upon further exploration it soon becomes apparent that Jessica is the daughter of a former patient of Freud’s. Freud is reluctant to engage in discussion with Jessica but she is persistent. As the action progresses, the suburban calm is further ruffled as a further two visitors appear. First is Abraham Yahuda, close but critical colleague and friend of Freud, and then the Spanish maestro of surrealism, Dali himself. In an attempt to take control of the situation and manage the meeting of the three very different visitors Freud becomes embroiled in the most ridiculous farce.

From then on nothing is what it seems. The clock on the wall seems to melt, the telephone turns into a lobster, files and manuscripts mysteriously change places, and Dalí begins to pursue the young Jessica with blatant advances. As the play unfolds, the audience is subjected to dark and disturbing stories, juxtaposed with hysterically funny mishaps and revelations that beg the questions ‘is this real, or the product of Freud’s unconscious mind?’ ‘Is Freud, dead or alive?’

WHAT I'LL STEAL LEARN TO USE
- this play used a bookend structure - it begins and ends with the same scene. Using this device made me question whether if Sigmund Freud was already dead or just about to die in his search to uncover the mystery of Jessica's Mother's death.
- In his final moments of life he continues to "cure" himself of his fears and questions his prior work if they indeed meant something.
- There was a clock UR on a back wall. Between Acts I and II, the lights faded on stage except a special on the clock, which forced the audience to see the clock's hands fast forward.
- Jessica starts to read from her mother's journal entry about her mother's session with Dr. Freud. She has committed it to memory whilst Dali read's Dr. Freud's part. While reciting, she becomes her mother in that moment as she describes horrendous acts by her father.
- In reciting this story, she uses ACTIONS of 1) constantly wiping her right shoulder while keeping her 3 middle fingers togther and 2) constantly gagging because of the saltiness she tasted in her mouth used in the beginning of the play. Also, these two ACTIONS were used to describe 2 different stories, first as a guise, second as the truth.
- Farce was used amazingly. I haven't seen a good farce since NOISES OFF at CSUS. a lot of switched identities, slamming doors, and absurd images abound!
- I guess that there's no limits to special effects: 1) the walls melted 2) clock melted 3) lobster phone 4) train smoke and lights at the door 5) rubbery door knobs...

Hip-Hop Theater Festival

Just got home to wind down and check in with you about two plays that i've just seen. last night was watching the Suicide Kings Trio's "In Spite of Everything" and tonite's "Representa" which played at La Pena in Berkeley.

"In Spite of Everything"
It's a theater piece that combines spoken word and interweaving personal stories of a school shooting and the questioning of 3 poets who last talked the shooter. INCREDIBLE! i was mezmorized watching the poets bare their souls and experiences in their poetry and stories. i was also impressed how they infused their delivery with a story of the police interviewing questioning them as it was their fault for giving this kid who killed 29 other kids in his classroom the idea to do this. they weaved personal stories with stories of other people who could be involved as to insights on why this happened. and that's really the goal of this play - what could have made this person do this? this play that ran about 100 minutes with a 12-minute intermission blew me away. my favorite parts were the way one of the cops forensically told another detective exactly what happened in that classroom. "he fired two shots at that girl. (looking at a sheet) miss davis, one missed as you can see on the far wall another stuck in her abdomen. by this trail, she crawled to this spot before said shooter fired point blank into her temple..." and he continued to detail this slaughter WITHOUT feeling for the victims. matter of fact. by the book. were these all these kids were? matter of fact? then they'd mimic a news reporter who was only there for the story. then the dad of the shooter. powerful. and finally, they profiled the shooters from Columbine and that eventful day - in reverse! from the point where they committed suicide in library at 11:23 am and worked backwards: "the fire inhaled the smoke and bullet into the chamber of a 9mm with the eric kleebold's hand moving back down" just incredible use of telling a story in reverse. at the end, using the fact that they travel the country facilitating poetry workshops, they encounter a kid who is quiet and ask him to share his feelings, not with guns, but with poetry. for more info on them, check out their myspace page: www.myspace.com/thesuicidekingstrio and their page: suicidekingsspokenword.com


"Representa!"
Taken from La Pena's site: REPRESENTA! A hilariously, entertaining & provocative bilingual play combining spoken-word and poetry. Despite an atmosphere laden with stereotypes and anxieties between North Americans and Cubans, Chicano spoken word poet Paul Flores & Cuban rapper Julio Cardenas struck up a friendship when they met at the Havana Hip-Hop Festival. A fiercely incisive commentary on terrorism, immigration, Cuba, U.S. foreign policy, Bay Area lefty culture, New York after 9/11 and pan-Latino identity. A bilingual theatre, which combines spoken-word poetry with character portrayals, that is hilariously, entertaining & provocative. Directed by Danny Hoch. Presented in conjunction with Hip-Hop Theater Fest, SFIAF, & Mission Cultural Center. Saturday at 4pm a post performance talk with artists.

Again, INCREDIBLE! the story telling is incredible as they weave a number of different characters from their personal lives that interact with each other. it's hard to describe, but one that i definitely want to experiment with.

All in all - INSPIRED. not only do I want to Write, i want to perform.

a review

why not...

from The Wily Filipino (http://www.thewilyfilipino.com/blog/archives/000768.html) blog:

Play number 3 -- the tense and well-acted "Borders," written by Conrad Panganiban -- nicely pulls the carpet from underneath the audience; the real trick here is not the dialogue, but the way the subdued emotional content of the acting suddenly makes a sharp, effective pivot into creepy territory.

hehe. thanks!