This Week's Notes

Thoughts from Omar:
-Perfectionism is a frozen form of idealism.
-First draft downdraft; second draft updraft.
-Writing is not rapturous. The only way I can write well is to write really, really crappy first drafts.
-You’ve gotta have a problem in your play. To take people to a dark place, you have to have a bad problem.
-Theatre is about people learning how to suffer.
-Make your characters flawed.
-Write a monologue. What would your character say to convince. Expose who they are.
-Dialectic: argument.
-Write about your greatest fears.

Secret closet/Secret vacuum should be the custodial prompt. IMPORTANT QUESTION: Should I combine Secret Vacuum with Regina Vs. Milton as a full-length play? I could definitely fit the “vacuuming with a soul” idea into this. The secret closet is full of cleaning devices containing people’s souls. Is there a guardian of the closet/souls? If the guard of the souls fails, his soul is added, and the next person to open the closet has the lot fall to them. Play could end with the next person opening the door. Portal, alternate universe? Household objects, each holds the soul of a deceased person--the objects have personality. Maybe they don't find out--everyone knows about it but one person? Really common, stupid item that they treat as the holy grail. Being passionate about little things. These are just a few ideas.

“I feel that formality in the workplace engenders professionalism.”

Monologue. You can always tell men from women by what they do at a stop sign. Women are cautious. I’m not generalizing here, just telling you what I’ve observed. You can always place a man by what he does at a four-way stop.

Monologue. 1 TB of memory on a hard drive monologue. I don’t enough in me to fill that up. But maybe I’ll come up with something. Mom or Dad memory; character feels that have little in them because of an early comment that built a perception of smallness.

A Dialogue:
You are trying to get me to confess according to my obligations.
You are only obligated to tell things that you know to be true.
But you do not care about truth right now. You just want to hear all is well.
It would be good if all was well.
(pause) All is well.
But all is not.
You were trying to get me to confess according to my obligation.
You were not obligated, as it was not true, so your confession does not count.

I need to illuminate the need of each of Well Ends' characters. Also, Sonja is a perfect name, but maybe I need to discuss her difference as a daughter more.

Dig up “Cowboys & Indians”.

Dentist in the window.

I have an old idea for two hitchhikers on a road. Here goes nothing:
This is the story of Dennis, who hitchhikes in escape from prison, and after someone recognizes him, Dennis buys him breakfast.

This is the story of Dennis, who is escaping from prison, and after he meets his attractive female prosecutor on the road, they fall in love.

Hatch play. “Will you stop bringing him up? He dumped me, yeah, but I’m married now.” “What’s wrong with you? That guy is a tool. He’s asking to be ridiculed.” “Will you just have some respect and let it go?” “’Have some respect’? Respect for wha—“ “Respect for me!” “You? Why would I ever respect you? Look at you. You don’t deserve respect….” Lead woman’s marital relationship is ambivalent; a both-sides potentiality that mirrors what the “dumper” fiancé wanted to avoid; it looks like it’s happening anyway.

This is the story of Maddie, who seeks to avenge her father’s death, and after her circumstances and the opinions of others tell her its impossible, she does it.

This is the story of Megamind, who wants to make his life meaningful, and after trying to make it meaningful by being bad, he finds happiness in becoming good.

Structure Formula Activity

Below are play ideas written in Omar's formula*, along with their resultant variants/deviants. Its fun to see how ideas evolve. I like this exercise because my ideas have been refined to a more serviceable (though often a completely different) form. Essentially this gives me at least 2 good ideas for the price of one; from my initial guy-escaping-from-prison idea, I get the guy-facing-the-warden idea. In the future, when I have moved past my emphasis on ten-minute-plays, these "additional ideas" will more likely be known as "other parts of the plot". For now, I'm trying to come up with simple, manageable vignettes, and many of these will work well. The ones I like the best are in bold type.

*THIS IS THE STORY OF 1.__________ WHO 2._________ AND AFTER 3._________, 4.__________.

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This is the story of Tyrell, who discovers a secret closet holding the souls of dead folks in household items, and after he loses one of the souls, he puts himself into the household object.

This is the story of Tyrell, who is tasked with guarding the souls living in a secret closet, and after he loses one of the souls, his little brother volunteers, in good humor, to have his soul put in there.

This is the story of Tyrell, who discovers a secret closet holding the souls of dead folks in household items, and after discovering his little brother is trapped in a hand vacuum, Tyrell returns his brother to a human body.

This is the story of Tyrell, who is tasked with cleaning a room with a possessed vacuum, and after trying to clean the room, sets the vacuum's soul free.

SECRET CLOSET PLAY: IDEA FOR STRUCTURE

ACT ONE: This is the story of Tyrell, who is tasked with cleaning a room with a possessed vacuum, and after trying to clean the room with it, sets the vacuum's soul free.

ACT TWO: Linearly before ACT ONE. This is the story of Tyrell, who learns that a secret closet holds the vacuum he needs, and after trying to gain entrance to the secret vacuum, has to clock out and go home for the night.

ACT THREE: Linearly before ACT TWO. This is the story of Tyrell’s brother, who learns that a secret closet holds the vacuum he needs, and after trying to gain entrance to the secret closet, his soul becomes trapped in a vacuum.

This is the story of Dennis, who, while hitchhiking, bumps into the man whose testimony landed him in prison, and after they argue about whether he was guilty, Dennis takes the man’s hat.

This is the story of Dennis, who is escaping from the police, and after Dennis bumps into the man whose testimony landed him in prison, he escapes.

This is the story of Dennis, who has escaped from prison to return to his wife, and after bumping into the man whose testimony landed him in prison, Dennis bargains his freedom.

This is the story of Dennis, who wants to return to his wife, and after negotiating with the warden of his prison, Dennis bargains his freedom.

This is the story of Wanda, who digs outside of an outhouse for buried treasure, and after trying to avoid detection, is arrested. Maybe Wanda is Dennis's wife? She wants money to break him out of prison rather than paying bail. Sort-of storyline.

This is the story of Wanda, who wants to be a good mother and a loyal wife, and after her husband tries to escape from the prison she is warden over, she lets him go. OR she refuses to let him go. I like the second one better.

This is the story of Waldo and Figaro, who each want to listen to a different song on their dying ipod, and after reneging on their agreement to bury it, wrestle themselves into dehydrated exhaustion. Man’s Search for Meaning sentiments?

This is the story of Jacob and Liz, who disagree on home decor, and after having their imaginary butler Horace mediate for them, they burn the house down.

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In the future, try to be more specific with #3. Look at Raising Arizona as an example:

THIS IS THE STORY OF that one married pair, WHO kidnap the baby Arizona so that they can raise a child of their own, AND AFTER a bounty hunter hired by Arizona's parents tries to retrieve her, the married couple returns Arizona to her parents.

#3 is incredibly specific and is used to its utmost potential. It is an unexpected choice, but a specific one. We could phrase #3 "Arizona's parents try to get her back" and leave out the "by sending a bounty hunter to hunt the kidnappers down" part. So even if I do have something general, it can work; I can pick something bizarre and fun to carry it out.

Class Notes So Far

For the past two weeks of class I have kept notes in a stream-of-consciousness mode with little or no context; I'm hoping beyond hope to remember what ambiguous things like "I was an honorable murderer--THERE'S NO SUCH THING!" mean. Much of these scribblings are Omar quotes that struck me importantly, and others are ideas for plays. I'm pasting everything I have thus far below, and additionally garnishing it with this important reminder: with your ideas, also come up with an ending! Have a direction to go! Omar's formula for this will be invaluable:

THIS IS THE STORY OF 1._______________ WHO 2._______________ AND AFTER 3._______________ 4._________________.

Think about Hamlet. It's a dense, wonderful play, but it boils down to Omar's formula this way:

THIS IS THE STORY OF Hamlet, WHO is charged by his father's ghost to kill king Claudius, AND AFTER Hamlet deliberates back and forth about what he should do, he kills Claudius.

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French kiss. Not a part of something anymore. Husband either has affairs or has lost interest in some ways. Woman begins to fill her home with nature, beginning with a beehive. “Of the same mind.”

“Nnnnnnnneeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu… aaaaaaaaaannnncccccccccccccccce.” (serenely resumes eating)

“If people didn’t care about your character, it’s because you didn’t illuminate the need.”

Don’t use theatrical convention as a crutch.

Secret closet. It’s a garden? It’s a “room of requirement”? Anyway, it’s a trio of partners and only one doesn’t know about the secret closet. Other people come and go who know about it. The one partner: “HE knows about the secret closet?” (“Well sure; I’m mean it’s not like an actual secret or anything.”) “I don’t understand why everybody knows about this but me. Do people think I’m not relevant to the company? I BUILT this company! Why shouldn’t I know what’s going on in my OWN company?! You’re fired.”

The old “British”? guy in the current Secret Closet. He should be either in his own play or be the main protagonist in Secret Closet. The scene I wrote is his nephew, he’s pushing people away at the beginning. Has this experience and then tries to connect to nephew.

Could I combine “Cowboys and Indians” with “Secret Closet”? Is it Brit Guy as a boy?
Maybe it should be about the janitor, with the Brit guy being also very prominent, and the fact that he’s on the same level of the janitor adding to the frustration.

“Raise the stakes.” Don’t think in film or television fashion.

The attempt to create is always good.

Don’t get too obsessed with one piece; if it’s not working, move on and work on something else; come back later.

MOMENTS TO REMEMBER AND REACH FOR
HP5; the three laughing together.
Pride and Prejudice; Darcy comes and awkwardly stands. More.

Ed and Dolores post-salesman in "The Man Who Wasn't There".
“Mama” in 1776. Learn it play it. The delivery boy’s story is told late in first act; knowing his story helps what happens later. So; could I combine “Cowboys and Indians” with “Secret Closet”? Is it Brit Guy as a boy?
African beat to a song about selling slaves; human or commodity. The scene makes you wonder: would you allow slavery to create a union? In three minutes, he creates a picture of both sides. Simple is always better; if you lose the thought of the complexity of it, it becomes empty.

My yearning came up with the sun, and my energies have been reaching to it all day.

“The Dumb Waiter,” by Pinter

Well Play, daughter leaves before both get to well, when she returns she has to choose which her father is.

My wife, my grandfather, my dog, my horse, what is going on, Lindsay! How do you know my daughter’s name?

Wife comes out. “What are you doing here?” Boy comes out. “Where’s your mother?” Daughter comes back.

Make theatrical choices.

Make your story something people need to hear.

“You can’t make a living in the theatre, but you can make a killing.”

Never underestimate the use of a minor character in the use of emphasizing a thematic idea.

Omar disagrees with The Playwriter’s Guidebook, that narrators are not useful.

A man comes to a well, meets himself, and kills himself.

I might need to do an entirely different play.

two characters, two extremes: 1 rarely keeps an opinion, changes based on the person; Another never changes opinion and alienates people because of it.

I think the play as it is DOES make way for understanding after some thought. Even if it's unclear now, I think the themes make something bigger later on.

Did he know what/who he was going to meet at the well? Did he come here to do this?

"You take Lindsey." Welcome chooses to die. Why? What will the Man provide for her that Welcome believes he himself cannot.

Action needs to fit the need: "my need is to kill you I am so angry with you" or "I am not angry with you but you are this and I need this out of my life."

Replace Lindsey's name. Sonya?
An outhouse. Two characters come to dig for gold at the outhouse. People come out to use it? The two hide. Yadda.

How do I get the play from here to here without it looking clumsy?

Find a structure you like and imitate it. In getting to the end, what do they lose? What are the complications?

If you want to be a writer, YOU CAN GET PUBLISHED.

If it's important, it's worth waiting. Something will happen to make it worthwhile.

What is the overarching thing you want people wondering when they leave the play? The theme is question, not an answer.

How should we respond to bigotry?

What is the sum total of a man?

This is a play about… faith?

How do we keep or make a covenant? What does it mean.

There should be some kind of discussion about why WELCOME feels MAN is who he needs to be. DOWNPLAY the killing---it is the death, the sacrifice, that matters. The daughter matters because she's all WELCOME has to perpetuate the covenant. Do I become a father by passing fatherhood on???!!!

I was an honorable murderer. THERE'S NO SUCH THING.

You can't have superfluous characters.