1. Information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. -- Arthur C. Clarke
2. Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? T.S. Eliot
Scene 1 drafted, Scene 2 underway: Am doing at least 2 versions of every scene, playing with various stakes. In one version, her chances at getting the license for a child are good and she approaches the counselor with some contempt; in another her chances are at risk and she's more oily. We aren't going to like her right off, important for education plot.
The outline is a stern taskmaster. A lot more scenes to write. But it's better to have an idea of what they'll be than staring at the blank mind of nothing.
Warren Zevon's cover of Knocking on Heaven's Door a real source of inspiration, if not just a dark, sad, brittle flash of brilliance.
Creating a language for these people; it's modern English (not Nadsat or anything) but there should be a slight linguistic drift. Think of the difference between the way we spoke in 1875 and now, to get an idea the degree of drift.
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Thursday, November 20, 2003
Immortality at issue
What if the thing at issue, at least in the background of the thriller, were immortality? (Kirstin’s world idea follows along similar lines too… but there are also elements of Gary’s and others’ ideas in the mix here with mine as well).
Imagine the ruling culture has mastered life and death; the human lifespan has been increased to where you can nearly be immortal. Did some reading up. A few weeks back researchers from UCSF published a paper that says disabling the capability of worms to reproduce was the key to increasing their lifespan in the lab. Hmmm…
World - general. So people can live practically forever, just not if they keep their sex drives... if they have sex or keep their sex drive they have a limited lifespan. In our fictional future history, we live forever. Of course we can be killed by accident or malice, but if they get to us in time, EMTs (e.g., paramedics not aliens) can put our minds in black boxes and take us to a corporate hospital where we're grown a new clone of ourselves to hold it. But sexual activity is forbidden... in fact illegal because to have sex is to eventually bring about your death; attemped suicide. People are not sterilized, every morning everyone takes a pill that safely neutralizes their sex hormones and renders them infertile. It can wear off if the drug is not taken every day.
To make more people, which doesn't have to happen anywhere near as much because the world will fill up quickly after forty years of people not dying. But in case more people are needed, companies that handle mixing the genetic material to create new human cocktails. Children when created this way are practically flawless. To make sure nobody breaks the law, everyone has to be tested regularly for sex hormones. If they any are detected, they are arrested and tried - for attempted suicide. There are a few convictions a year. As a replacement for sex, couples take new, physically harmless drugs and sit together. Gradually over the centuries you start to dry out a bit... your mind flattens out, you lose your ability to feel things. Now, there's a growing underground of people that have found a way to keep their sexuality and who have also learned how to get around the test… perhaps through some sort of payoff scheme, or they can fake it.
This has a potentially interesting world for a play. Talking black boxes. A character can die and then walk in again a scene or two later. A sex scene that gives a possible If people couldn’t have children, perhaps - possibly - they wouldn't worry about gender as much - wouldn't the stigma against homosexuality be irrelevant? Would there still be marriage - between homosexual or hetero-sexual couples indiscriminately (you just find the mind you love, and don't worry about their sex)? Would people still have affairs? Would having affairs be an institution (think the French). What about prostitutes? (No, I am *not* obsessed, but I had a few years driving them, never wrote about them yet, and I recall a really interesting assortment of characters!).
World - personal. OK, so what if the heroine were a famous news/human interest reporter, very successful (or a similar career that communicates a certain bland vacuity, while simultaneously placing her at the center of the popular culture). Now, in the past, she wasn’t so superficial… she was a great investigative reporter in her youth… but that was 70-80 years ago. She long ago realized that if she is ever going to get anywhere, she must ruffle fewer feathers, and so now HI is her specialty. At this point, her career has grown to the point where she is about to make the big deal that will make her a household name and wealthy beyond dreams of avarice. The deal involves some kind of sellout.
She's married to another successful man, (maybe a politician - she makes the money). And there’s something interesting and twisty about her – maybe she’s having an affair with a woman (the husband knows and puts up with it as long as the relationship between he and she is still good). To really add extra twists to the story, at two chokepoints both the husband and the lower must become suspects and/or victims later.
Four years ago, she and her husband had a factory-made daughter who was killed by someone in the reproductive underground, and neither she nor her husband could get to her in time to save her mind for reproduction. Or perhaps even more pointedly, she herself made a serious error and caused the daughter's genetic material to be lost, so it was her fault? The couple has, after four years of paperwork, applied for and gotten permits to have a child made to replace their child. But this would require them to go back and do the whole painful process again; since losing her last daughter, she’s been torn and distracted from doing it. The service calls her regularly and nags her to come in and pick out her new child’s characteristics.
Change of fortune. She attends a convention where the political power brokers of the press regularly attend; something of a big bash. It’s here she’s planning to cut the final deals that will make her career dreams finally come to full fruition. She’s sworn to herself that after this she will slow down and order that kid and spend more time with her designated family.
During this party, she is slipped a mickey - a hormonal cocktail designed to reinitiate her reproductive system. She never sees who does it to her. Meanwhile, the deal goes down. She is going to get it all… her dreams are going to come true. She goes to bed and wakes up feeling a bit weird. She ascribes the feeling to the heavy partying the night before, and gets ready for work. We see inklings – subtle ones – of what’s happened to her, but she doesn’t suspect a thing.
Crisis. When she goes into work, her newly activated reproductive system sets off the alarms. She’s sent home and told to go to the doctor. They run tests. She gets the bad news… she’s been found to be a reproductive criminal. What’s more, the way her system was reactivated requires her to find the exact set of hormonal compounds that were used… the compounds have passed out of her body now, and can’t be detected. Whoever did this had access to the best biochemists money could buy. She calls in some favors to powerful and influential people keep the news out of the press. But they can’t do it forever. Within forty-eight hours, the story will break and her career will be over. What’s more, at that point her condition will be irreversible. She’s got no choice. She must find whomever did this to her, and fast.
I am still working on a lot of the details of the interim journey, and perhaps you are also getting ideas on the steps she can take to uncover each of the clues. Suffice it to say that her old talents as an investigative reporter are being revived even as the effects of the dosage she swallowed starts to compromise her. Yes, this is an aspect from a previous idea… that whatever has happened to her is starting to erode her effectiveness at the very sleuthing that made her such a great reporter all those years ago. She’s losing it even as she needs it.
Her journey needs to take her to lots of weird and cool places, these are places in our future, some of which we can only dream today. She needs to meet a really bizarre group of characters… these are people of our future world, with disturbing and/or fascinating similarities to people in today’s world. At some point, she will discover who it is that’s done this to her… members of the reproductive underground. And after spending time with them, she starts to be swayed to join them… and to rebel against the comfortable life she’s built all these years. She changes sides. And then things start to get really interesting…
To be continued…
Imagine the ruling culture has mastered life and death; the human lifespan has been increased to where you can nearly be immortal. Did some reading up. A few weeks back researchers from UCSF published a paper that says disabling the capability of worms to reproduce was the key to increasing their lifespan in the lab. Hmmm…
World - general. So people can live practically forever, just not if they keep their sex drives... if they have sex or keep their sex drive they have a limited lifespan. In our fictional future history, we live forever. Of course we can be killed by accident or malice, but if they get to us in time, EMTs (e.g., paramedics not aliens) can put our minds in black boxes and take us to a corporate hospital where we're grown a new clone of ourselves to hold it. But sexual activity is forbidden... in fact illegal because to have sex is to eventually bring about your death; attemped suicide. People are not sterilized, every morning everyone takes a pill that safely neutralizes their sex hormones and renders them infertile. It can wear off if the drug is not taken every day.
To make more people, which doesn't have to happen anywhere near as much because the world will fill up quickly after forty years of people not dying. But in case more people are needed, companies that handle mixing the genetic material to create new human cocktails. Children when created this way are practically flawless. To make sure nobody breaks the law, everyone has to be tested regularly for sex hormones. If they any are detected, they are arrested and tried - for attempted suicide. There are a few convictions a year. As a replacement for sex, couples take new, physically harmless drugs and sit together. Gradually over the centuries you start to dry out a bit... your mind flattens out, you lose your ability to feel things. Now, there's a growing underground of people that have found a way to keep their sexuality and who have also learned how to get around the test… perhaps through some sort of payoff scheme, or they can fake it.
This has a potentially interesting world for a play. Talking black boxes. A character can die and then walk in again a scene or two later. A sex scene that gives a possible If people couldn’t have children, perhaps - possibly - they wouldn't worry about gender as much - wouldn't the stigma against homosexuality be irrelevant? Would there still be marriage - between homosexual or hetero-sexual couples indiscriminately (you just find the mind you love, and don't worry about their sex)? Would people still have affairs? Would having affairs be an institution (think the French). What about prostitutes? (No, I am *not* obsessed, but I had a few years driving them, never wrote about them yet, and I recall a really interesting assortment of characters!).
World - personal. OK, so what if the heroine were a famous news/human interest reporter, very successful (or a similar career that communicates a certain bland vacuity, while simultaneously placing her at the center of the popular culture). Now, in the past, she wasn’t so superficial… she was a great investigative reporter in her youth… but that was 70-80 years ago. She long ago realized that if she is ever going to get anywhere, she must ruffle fewer feathers, and so now HI is her specialty. At this point, her career has grown to the point where she is about to make the big deal that will make her a household name and wealthy beyond dreams of avarice. The deal involves some kind of sellout.
She's married to another successful man, (maybe a politician - she makes the money). And there’s something interesting and twisty about her – maybe she’s having an affair with a woman (the husband knows and puts up with it as long as the relationship between he and she is still good). To really add extra twists to the story, at two chokepoints both the husband and the lower must become suspects and/or victims later.
Four years ago, she and her husband had a factory-made daughter who was killed by someone in the reproductive underground, and neither she nor her husband could get to her in time to save her mind for reproduction. Or perhaps even more pointedly, she herself made a serious error and caused the daughter's genetic material to be lost, so it was her fault? The couple has, after four years of paperwork, applied for and gotten permits to have a child made to replace their child. But this would require them to go back and do the whole painful process again; since losing her last daughter, she’s been torn and distracted from doing it. The service calls her regularly and nags her to come in and pick out her new child’s characteristics.
Change of fortune. She attends a convention where the political power brokers of the press regularly attend; something of a big bash. It’s here she’s planning to cut the final deals that will make her career dreams finally come to full fruition. She’s sworn to herself that after this she will slow down and order that kid and spend more time with her designated family.
During this party, she is slipped a mickey - a hormonal cocktail designed to reinitiate her reproductive system. She never sees who does it to her. Meanwhile, the deal goes down. She is going to get it all… her dreams are going to come true. She goes to bed and wakes up feeling a bit weird. She ascribes the feeling to the heavy partying the night before, and gets ready for work. We see inklings – subtle ones – of what’s happened to her, but she doesn’t suspect a thing.
Crisis. When she goes into work, her newly activated reproductive system sets off the alarms. She’s sent home and told to go to the doctor. They run tests. She gets the bad news… she’s been found to be a reproductive criminal. What’s more, the way her system was reactivated requires her to find the exact set of hormonal compounds that were used… the compounds have passed out of her body now, and can’t be detected. Whoever did this had access to the best biochemists money could buy. She calls in some favors to powerful and influential people keep the news out of the press. But they can’t do it forever. Within forty-eight hours, the story will break and her career will be over. What’s more, at that point her condition will be irreversible. She’s got no choice. She must find whomever did this to her, and fast.
I am still working on a lot of the details of the interim journey, and perhaps you are also getting ideas on the steps she can take to uncover each of the clues. Suffice it to say that her old talents as an investigative reporter are being revived even as the effects of the dosage she swallowed starts to compromise her. Yes, this is an aspect from a previous idea… that whatever has happened to her is starting to erode her effectiveness at the very sleuthing that made her such a great reporter all those years ago. She’s losing it even as she needs it.
Her journey needs to take her to lots of weird and cool places, these are places in our future, some of which we can only dream today. She needs to meet a really bizarre group of characters… these are people of our future world, with disturbing and/or fascinating similarities to people in today’s world. At some point, she will discover who it is that’s done this to her… members of the reproductive underground. And after spending time with them, she starts to be swayed to join them… and to rebel against the comfortable life she’s built all these years. She changes sides. And then things start to get really interesting…
To be continued…
Saturday, November 15, 2003
Just for Fun
Female Driven Thriller - Meeting notes 11/13
written up by Bob Jude Ferrante (playwright on this thing)
We met to really just be together; it's apparent we've made a huge amount of progress in the past few weeks, despite the brief moments of contention... which are probably a normal part of any process where you throw 10 strangers in a room together and tell them to make something happen together.
Larry Rothman, enormously talented actor, improv teacher for the Times Square Group, and all-around great guy, did a 2-hour improv class. We thought (crazy us) that we could get them on their feet, thinking on their feet, and thence make their creative juices flow.
It's my belief - and I can be disabused of that belief given enough sufficiently cruel real-life experience, mind you - that trying to create a peak experience for people can sometimes actually result in people having a peak experience.
Many years back I volunteered as a facilitator for a group called Actualizations in San Francisco. They seemed to have a corner on peak experiences... it seemed that everyone who I saw do their workshop had a peak experience. With very few exceptions. Everyone had to pay full price anyway, whether they wanted to have a peak experience or not. I guess that's critical... given that situation, I'd bet most people would just say, screw it, might as well have the peak experience.
It's my hope that the two hours of playing we did at Kirsten Mitchell's apartment resulted in some fun. It's amazing how much work you are doing while you are having fun.
written up by Bob Jude Ferrante (playwright on this thing)
We met to really just be together; it's apparent we've made a huge amount of progress in the past few weeks, despite the brief moments of contention... which are probably a normal part of any process where you throw 10 strangers in a room together and tell them to make something happen together.
Larry Rothman, enormously talented actor, improv teacher for the Times Square Group, and all-around great guy, did a 2-hour improv class. We thought (crazy us) that we could get them on their feet, thinking on their feet, and thence make their creative juices flow.
It's my belief - and I can be disabused of that belief given enough sufficiently cruel real-life experience, mind you - that trying to create a peak experience for people can sometimes actually result in people having a peak experience.
Many years back I volunteered as a facilitator for a group called Actualizations in San Francisco. They seemed to have a corner on peak experiences... it seemed that everyone who I saw do their workshop had a peak experience. With very few exceptions. Everyone had to pay full price anyway, whether they wanted to have a peak experience or not. I guess that's critical... given that situation, I'd bet most people would just say, screw it, might as well have the peak experience.
It's my hope that the two hours of playing we did at Kirsten Mitchell's apartment resulted in some fun. It's amazing how much work you are doing while you are having fun.
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Minutes for Female Driven Thriller - 10/30 meeting
written by Kirsten Mitchell, actor (and producer at Praxis)
Today, Journey, the world moves or a person moves.
Are Heists thrillers? Some of the group said yes, some no.
Can thrillers be comedic? ex. Scream, Conspiracy Theory (references to Catcher in the Rye clue us into the type of conspiracy).
What if someone is a freako? What if the leader of a government is crazy or something isn't what it seems, the world is innocent untill... Discovery is made.
Movie 2001, computer Hal isn't what he seems, becomes a thriller half way through.
Movie The Exorcist, little girl is innocent, possessed by devil.
What should Female Driven Thriller be?
Role reversal, women in power over men. The idea of Nuturing in a sinister way. Movie Alien, woman is thrust into the main role without pointing to the fact that she is a woman, at first you thnik its going to be Tom Skerrit, it becomes a female driven thriller because of circumstance, alien kills Tom first.
Character Driven: relationships are more important; woman to woman relationship. Wacky idea: she is hunting down some sort of conspiracy, everyone she goes to is a part of it, she ends up being central to the conpiracy's inception. The characters are part of a call girl ring. Because call girls are outsiders, skilled in manipulation.
Outside group of women in society: Nannies; they could manipulate through nuturing. Perhaps the nannies are raising children to be brainwashed into doing something for them someday. Maybe they are baby switching. Nannies form secret ring in order to manipulate the wealthy.
Nannies example of subculture, denegrated, an underclass that is both inside and outside, as outsiders they are given alot of trust.
A perfect society, innocent. What if its not a black and white story but gray everyone is culpable.
Being put into the outside w/out trying, shunned, but then shunning doesn't work.
For next time, look over all the homework handouts, what people submitted. Group decided they were ready to go from the page to the stage, so to speak. Read and reflect on what you liked that people brought to the homeworks. Come to the next meeting prepared to discuss what you think is good that we have come up with so far, opptional bring in an article that you feel expresses what we've been talking about.
written by Kirsten Mitchell, actor (and producer at Praxis)
Today, Journey, the world moves or a person moves.
Are Heists thrillers? Some of the group said yes, some no.
Can thrillers be comedic? ex. Scream, Conspiracy Theory (references to Catcher in the Rye clue us into the type of conspiracy).
What if someone is a freako? What if the leader of a government is crazy or something isn't what it seems, the world is innocent untill... Discovery is made.
Movie 2001, computer Hal isn't what he seems, becomes a thriller half way through.
Movie The Exorcist, little girl is innocent, possessed by devil.
What should Female Driven Thriller be?
Role reversal, women in power over men. The idea of Nuturing in a sinister way. Movie Alien, woman is thrust into the main role without pointing to the fact that she is a woman, at first you thnik its going to be Tom Skerrit, it becomes a female driven thriller because of circumstance, alien kills Tom first.
Character Driven: relationships are more important; woman to woman relationship. Wacky idea: she is hunting down some sort of conspiracy, everyone she goes to is a part of it, she ends up being central to the conpiracy's inception. The characters are part of a call girl ring. Because call girls are outsiders, skilled in manipulation.
Outside group of women in society: Nannies; they could manipulate through nuturing. Perhaps the nannies are raising children to be brainwashed into doing something for them someday. Maybe they are baby switching. Nannies form secret ring in order to manipulate the wealthy.
Nannies example of subculture, denegrated, an underclass that is both inside and outside, as outsiders they are given alot of trust.
A perfect society, innocent. What if its not a black and white story but gray everyone is culpable.
Being put into the outside w/out trying, shunned, but then shunning doesn't work.
For next time, look over all the homework handouts, what people submitted. Group decided they were ready to go from the page to the stage, so to speak. Read and reflect on what you liked that people brought to the homeworks. Come to the next meeting prepared to discuss what you think is good that we have come up with so far, opptional bring in an article that you feel expresses what we've been talking about.
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Minutes for Female Driven Thriller - 10/23 meeting
written by Kirsten Mitchell, actor (and producer at Praxis)
Hey all,
Here are the meeting notes from last week:
Characters homework was a way for Bob to learn more about us and for us to stay connected to the project outside of meetings.
Today: Start imposing challenges; questions still unanswered: What is the world of the play? What is the crime?
Types of thrillers: Personal crime(classic), and Political crime(social/topical)
Example of a personal crime thriller, DOA, characters have base motives, the victim solves his own murder and finds out the reason for his death is trivial. Example of a political thriller: The Manchurian Candidate.
Bob's aims: Selfish, to bring the group to the play. Selfless, find out what's going on in people's minds today.
Focus on the future, predict from a pattern. What will life be like 40 years from now? What about the difficulty of being identified, what tactics will be used to be recognized?
Perhaps there will be some sort of international id. Karin brought up her difficulty to open a bank account as a foreigner. Today's ids are becoming inadequate. People are becoming the victims of fraud. What about drug testing and credit checks, results could be manipulated. We're being watched, analyzed and filed. What if a homeless person is actually the victim of descending status brought about by someone else.
What if the solving of the mystery had a time limit like 90min.
World cards:
1) Recreational drugs of the future shut off some of your senses
2) Reflection: a brain mapping lie detector
3) Wrapping: gives you skills instantaneously, mental plastic surgery
4) Closing your halo, hiding your thoughts
5) Halo: software containing everyone's personal info data
6) Bitmass: radio frequency transmitters, sensors
7) The leith pill: used to forget bad memories
8) Virus inhibits one's ability to use systems
9) Information replaces currency
10) Everything must be bought
11) Dating: quick background sessions
Homework: In roughly 200 hundred words construct a world in the future, make it multidimensional, 3-4 dimensions or aspects.
written by Kirsten Mitchell, actor (and producer at Praxis)
Hey all,
Here are the meeting notes from last week:
Characters homework was a way for Bob to learn more about us and for us to stay connected to the project outside of meetings.
Today: Start imposing challenges; questions still unanswered: What is the world of the play? What is the crime?
Types of thrillers: Personal crime(classic), and Political crime(social/topical)
Example of a personal crime thriller, DOA, characters have base motives, the victim solves his own murder and finds out the reason for his death is trivial. Example of a political thriller: The Manchurian Candidate.
Bob's aims: Selfish, to bring the group to the play. Selfless, find out what's going on in people's minds today.
Focus on the future, predict from a pattern. What will life be like 40 years from now? What about the difficulty of being identified, what tactics will be used to be recognized?
Perhaps there will be some sort of international id. Karin brought up her difficulty to open a bank account as a foreigner. Today's ids are becoming inadequate. People are becoming the victims of fraud. What about drug testing and credit checks, results could be manipulated. We're being watched, analyzed and filed. What if a homeless person is actually the victim of descending status brought about by someone else.
What if the solving of the mystery had a time limit like 90min.
World cards:
1) Recreational drugs of the future shut off some of your senses
2) Reflection: a brain mapping lie detector
3) Wrapping: gives you skills instantaneously, mental plastic surgery
4) Closing your halo, hiding your thoughts
5) Halo: software containing everyone's personal info data
6) Bitmass: radio frequency transmitters, sensors
7) The leith pill: used to forget bad memories
8) Virus inhibits one's ability to use systems
9) Information replaces currency
10) Everything must be bought
11) Dating: quick background sessions
Homework: In roughly 200 hundred words construct a world in the future, make it multidimensional, 3-4 dimensions or aspects.
Sunday, October 19, 2003
Minutes for Female Driven Thriller 10/16 meeting
written by Chris LoDuca, actor (writer as well)
OK, here are the minutes to last weeks meeting, Thursday, October 16,
2003
THRILLER: Threat to losing something of value.
-Mystery
-Ticking clock threat
-Stakes
BOB's THOUGHT:
In life we participate in a various number of games.
Theatre is one of those games. Could we use games for development?
Card games could inspire a moment when we find ourselves stuck.
Example of a card game:
Find a place where a the presence of a video camera could present a
problem.
-We decided that a bathroom would be a place and we played out a
little improv to prove that point.
SURVEILLANCE VIDEOS:
-Don't tell the whole story
-Editing can Juxtapose a reality
-Truth and Lies are blurred
-Everything seems to be covered by Video
-Skews memory of events
STALKERS:
-Would be interesting if there were a stalking character that always
appeared on someone's surveillance tapes or pictures.
Who would be the villain? It could be the person owning the camera
equipment.
SOCIAL RULES:
Makes us feel uncomfortable if we don't participate
-ie: Standing for the National Anthem – it makes a person feel
uncomfortable if they don't do it. The collective conscience expects
you to stand.
Someone mentioned the movie 'Wave' made during Hitler's reign. I think
it was Bob.
EDWARD R MURROW:
-Used video to undo a person (Senator Joe McCarthy) by allowing his
true self to emerge on camera. (I kept calling him Eugene McCarthy,
but I meant Joe McCarthy - sorry).
We all agree that Negating in an improve is BAD.
STAKES:
Bob: Researches and uses random facts to write a play. Thus the
homework.
He feels that doing homework makes the process seem like "ours"
HOMEWORK:
Craft more than 1 character (2 minimum)
Show 4 facts about that person
Show pivotal moment in time that formed that Characters beliefs,
personality tics, etc.
Choose from the following:
Hero
Villain
Victim
Suspect
Give Bob feedback about how you think the meetings are going.
written by Chris LoDuca, actor (writer as well)
OK, here are the minutes to last weeks meeting, Thursday, October 16,
2003
THRILLER: Threat to losing something of value.
-Mystery
-Ticking clock threat
-Stakes
BOB's THOUGHT:
In life we participate in a various number of games.
Theatre is one of those games. Could we use games for development?
Card games could inspire a moment when we find ourselves stuck.
Example of a card game:
Find a place where a the presence of a video camera could present a
problem.
-We decided that a bathroom would be a place and we played out a
little improv to prove that point.
SURVEILLANCE VIDEOS:
-Don't tell the whole story
-Editing can Juxtapose a reality
-Truth and Lies are blurred
-Everything seems to be covered by Video
-Skews memory of events
STALKERS:
-Would be interesting if there were a stalking character that always
appeared on someone's surveillance tapes or pictures.
Who would be the villain? It could be the person owning the camera
equipment.
SOCIAL RULES:
Makes us feel uncomfortable if we don't participate
-ie: Standing for the National Anthem – it makes a person feel
uncomfortable if they don't do it. The collective conscience expects
you to stand.
Someone mentioned the movie 'Wave' made during Hitler's reign. I think
it was Bob.
EDWARD R MURROW:
-Used video to undo a person (Senator Joe McCarthy) by allowing his
true self to emerge on camera. (I kept calling him Eugene McCarthy,
but I meant Joe McCarthy - sorry).
We all agree that Negating in an improve is BAD.
STAKES:
Bob: Researches and uses random facts to write a play. Thus the
homework.
He feels that doing homework makes the process seem like "ours"
HOMEWORK:
Craft more than 1 character (2 minimum)
Show 4 facts about that person
Show pivotal moment in time that formed that Characters beliefs,
personality tics, etc.
Choose from the following:
Hero
Villain
Victim
Suspect
Give Bob feedback about how you think the meetings are going.
Friday, October 17, 2003
October 16 2003: Pictures don’t lie
Session notes - Female Driven Thriller - Thursday, Oct 16 2003
Kirsten and Larry joined Joe, Karin, Gary, Colleen, Kimberly, Chris, Gabriella & Bob. Now the entire group is together. We redid intros to greet the new people; this took up some time from the session, but was needed to get the new people and the group from last time on the same footing.
Bob summarized the introductory meeting. Besides getting to know each other, the group had defined what a thriller is for their purposes: A mystery where someone or something utterly dear to the crime-solving hero is put under direct threat; to solving the and the hero must solve the crime to save that thing they hold most precious or lose it forever. Thrillers nearly always have deadlines (ticking clocks) at their heart. A mystery is a story where one or more false stories cover a true story, which must be discovered as part of the narrative.
He also explained that he thought we could use games to develop the show, but not to get too disturbed about the word “games;” games are the basis of all human existence, games are based on our ability to represent one thing by another and to create . He then introduced Card Game as first game we have available to us;
We did first Card Game and Larry drew card #10, video cameras watching us. Larry also read the card to the group.
Video cameras watch you shop, drive, enter or leave an office building, train or bus station, or airport. Describe one location where a camera can be present, then enact a problem caused by it.
Following game rules as stated on the card, we suggested possible situations; came up with cameras in corporate offices and then more specifically in toilets in corporate offices.
Bob suggested an improv on the bathroom idea. Gary volunteered, began the improv, pretended that his chair was a ‘toilet’ and, parked there, read a magazine. Gabriella joined the improv and became a voice on a speaker in the bathroom, telling Gary it was forbidden to read a magazine on company time. Gary then started playing with his game watch; Gabriella told Gary that, too was illegal. Gary then covered his face. Gabriella stated that, too, was verboten; and that the company had now detected he was angry and required counseling. Chris joined and became a security guard who banged on the bathroom door, barged in, and told Gary he to clean out his desk, he was fired.
We launched into a lengthy conversation about the improv. Bob mentioned that the cameras were not only being used by corporations; for example, a traffic program on cable TV typically showed video from a menu of literally a hundred traffic sites around New York City; these cameras were on 24/7.
Chris told a true story of a drug dealer who approached him in Kinko’s; he was offered marijuana, asked to see it, smelled it, it was oregano, told the dealer, dealer denied, then admitted, Chris commented that if a corporate camera a Kinko’s had seen him, that a video of him smelling the contents of the bag of suspected contraband shown in a court of law would have had him convicted and imprisoned for buying drugs with no basis in truth.
A lively conversation ensued, where we concluded:
Kirsten and Larry joined Joe, Karin, Gary, Colleen, Kimberly, Chris, Gabriella & Bob. Now the entire group is together. We redid intros to greet the new people; this took up some time from the session, but was needed to get the new people and the group from last time on the same footing.
Bob summarized the introductory meeting. Besides getting to know each other, the group had defined what a thriller is for their purposes: A mystery where someone or something utterly dear to the crime-solving hero is put under direct threat; to solving the and the hero must solve the crime to save that thing they hold most precious or lose it forever. Thrillers nearly always have deadlines (ticking clocks) at their heart. A mystery is a story where one or more false stories cover a true story, which must be discovered as part of the narrative.
He also explained that he thought we could use games to develop the show, but not to get too disturbed about the word “games;” games are the basis of all human existence, games are based on our ability to represent one thing by another and to create . He then introduced Card Game as first game we have available to us;
We did first Card Game and Larry drew card #10, video cameras watching us. Larry also read the card to the group.
Video cameras watch you shop, drive, enter or leave an office building, train or bus station, or airport. Describe one location where a camera can be present, then enact a problem caused by it.
Following game rules as stated on the card, we suggested possible situations; came up with cameras in corporate offices and then more specifically in toilets in corporate offices.
Bob suggested an improv on the bathroom idea. Gary volunteered, began the improv, pretended that his chair was a ‘toilet’ and, parked there, read a magazine. Gabriella joined the improv and became a voice on a speaker in the bathroom, telling Gary it was forbidden to read a magazine on company time. Gary then started playing with his game watch; Gabriella told Gary that, too was illegal. Gary then covered his face. Gabriella stated that, too, was verboten; and that the company had now detected he was angry and required counseling. Chris joined and became a security guard who banged on the bathroom door, barged in, and told Gary he to clean out his desk, he was fired.
We launched into a lengthy conversation about the improv. Bob mentioned that the cameras were not only being used by corporations; for example, a traffic program on cable TV typically showed video from a menu of literally a hundred traffic sites around New York City; these cameras were on 24/7.
Chris told a true story of a drug dealer who approached him in Kinko’s; he was offered marijuana, asked to see it, smelled it, it was oregano, told the dealer, dealer denied, then admitted, Chris commented that if a corporate camera a Kinko’s had seen him, that a video of him smelling the contents of the bag of suspected contraband shown in a court of law would have had him convicted and imprisoned for buying drugs with no basis in truth.
A lively conversation ensued, where we concluded:
- People implicitly trust pictures (seeing is believing) and routinely use them as proof of something.
- Kirsten described a recent fight she’s seen at the playoffs on TV, and how the motions of one player during the fight were actually to pacify an angry player, but which taken out of context (the player apparently pushed the other player’s head toward the ground) appear to be cruel and violent. Colleen dissented; she was at the game and in person it really did look as if it was in fact a violent act.
- It was commented that a picture shows only part of what is true and often shows something with no context.
- The news and entertainment have merged. Bob suggested that Hearst had started that process; but it was pointed out that it’s dated back to at least the 19th Century; papers in the 1860s sensationalized news. Chris suggested that Edward R. Murrow and other Great Generation reporters had reformed the news beginning in the 40’s, but that it was starting to revert back to its big bad days.
- Karin mentioned photos of her that people had seen and mistakenly turned into racy little stories; taken out of context some of the pictures appeared to be sexually suggestive or violent but those interpretations were always the result of misinterpretation (because Karin was there and knew the context was different than the more dramatic one people assumed).
- Cameras really are everywhere. Bob said the cameras are cheap and are made in such quantity and it is human nature to use them once they are available, they are too useful not to be. As a result, the world is now one step closer to Orwell’s vision in 1984.
Joe left; Gary moved into Joe’s seat, someone commented that Gary could finally get off the ‘toilet.’
Chris mentioned he sings; We should use all the talents of each cast member, and design the characters to use these specifically.
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Game 1: The Card Game
I've now formalized the growing deck of idea cards with an easy to follow set of guidelines:
- At a lull, select a card.
- Group reads card aloud and has one minute to decide if we can work with it.
- If not, card goes back to the deck & we select another card.
- Group spend ten minutes working with the card.
- We decide if it should go back into the deck.
- Topics are not to be suggested at meetings but anyone from the group can email Bob with card topics
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Milestone 1
Just got back from a vacation on Virginia Beach; a fertile but non-productive period, where I did a lot of planning for the impending start of the Genesis process. Have now arrived at a process point where I think I can actually be of use to the actors as we work.
The major effort I am making is to be a source of support, process and information but not an arbiter or judge of the material. As in a perfect brainstorming or improvisational process, I'm seeking a meritocracy of ideas. So my own ideas must take a backseat to those the group as whole can generate. And that's going to be one of the first things I shall announce once Matt turns the group over to me for the startup phase of our work together.
On the other hand, I have done a large amount of research for this play, and want that research to be of benefit to the play development process. The cards mentioned in the previous entry are a part of this. A guided improv process will be a second tool for generating scenes. A physically oriented brainstorming process will support the generation of themes. All in all, I'm really looking forward to this!
The major effort I am making is to be a source of support, process and information but not an arbiter or judge of the material. As in a perfect brainstorming or improvisational process, I'm seeking a meritocracy of ideas. So my own ideas must take a backseat to those the group as whole can generate. And that's going to be one of the first things I shall announce once Matt turns the group over to me for the startup phase of our work together.
On the other hand, I have done a large amount of research for this play, and want that research to be of benefit to the play development process. The cards mentioned in the previous entry are a part of this. A guided improv process will be a second tool for generating scenes. A physically oriented brainstorming process will support the generation of themes. All in all, I'm really looking forward to this!
Monday, September 01, 2003
Talked to Matt Bray, AD of Praxis... he's amped about this blog; so it's all set... I'll report on the output of the process, sometimes in a rather raw state, other times more associatively.
I plan to bring in a set of big index cards to all the meetings, possibly starting with the first if the time is right; each card has no more than 25 or so words about the ideas that have come out of the research. A picture already on the background of each card represents Shared Idea. If things ever get static and need livening up, I'll pull out a card at random and if I've done a decent job on the first set, it should do some good. If there's a flop, we have to agree to put it BACK into the pile to be drawn later. So we only dispose of an idea card once we are done.
I plan to open the process of generating these cards to the whole group as soon as possible. People can email me ideas and I will put them on cards, the same as the first ones I generated, and we will draw them at random when we need.
Maybe also take a quick vote (we have to get good at quick votes) to determine when a card should be considered completed. But I think perhaps these cards will never be completed; if we get a card again, it's time to see what that card has to say to us again. If that idea doesn't pan out, we'll abandon it.
The cards:
• If someone were to say “MacBeth,” what would be kept from that, and what taken out?
• Do Banquo & Lady MacBeth represent the two sides of evil’s intimacy?
• True or False: A story published Sept 8, 2001 (NY Times website) with a CIA warning to overseas US interests did not mention the domestic US. The story is removed from the Times website on 9/12.
• True or false: The famous flag raising on Iwo Jima photo was staged.
• True or False: Video cameras watch you shop, drive, enter or leave an office building, train or bus station, or airport.
• Every word you say over any electronically transmissible medium is recorded & analyzed for key words like: terrorist. bomb. shoot. protest. congress. president.
• What if SS/Stasi/KGB/MI6/OSS/CIA operatives were really the Oracle of Delphi?
• A CIA operative’s life is 99% banal routine
• The Elizabethan worldview… through new eyes, but still influenced by the Middle Ages' spiritual aspiration and physical corruption.
• The Body Politick – the human body as the state and vice versa
• Ann Coulter/Camille Paglia; the sexually and politically active woman, liberal or - even more interesting - conservative.
• Eventually there will be an incident that will compel us to vote the Constitution out.
• The gradual erosion of meaning destroys our ability to care, and thus to oppose.
• Elements of what Greil Marcus calls “The Old, Weird America”
• Aerial slides of military sites, taken from satellite photos.
• The Quality in Education Act disembowels public school budgets. The Clean Air Act allows increased air pollution. The Patriot Act removes our freedom. Name two other possible Acts.
I plan to bring in a set of big index cards to all the meetings, possibly starting with the first if the time is right; each card has no more than 25 or so words about the ideas that have come out of the research. A picture already on the background of each card represents Shared Idea. If things ever get static and need livening up, I'll pull out a card at random and if I've done a decent job on the first set, it should do some good. If there's a flop, we have to agree to put it BACK into the pile to be drawn later. So we only dispose of an idea card once we are done.
I plan to open the process of generating these cards to the whole group as soon as possible. People can email me ideas and I will put them on cards, the same as the first ones I generated, and we will draw them at random when we need.
Maybe also take a quick vote (we have to get good at quick votes) to determine when a card should be considered completed. But I think perhaps these cards will never be completed; if we get a card again, it's time to see what that card has to say to us again. If that idea doesn't pan out, we'll abandon it.
The cards:
• If someone were to say “MacBeth,” what would be kept from that, and what taken out?
• Do Banquo & Lady MacBeth represent the two sides of evil’s intimacy?
• True or False: A story published Sept 8, 2001 (NY Times website) with a CIA warning to overseas US interests did not mention the domestic US. The story is removed from the Times website on 9/12.
• True or false: The famous flag raising on Iwo Jima photo was staged.
• True or False: Video cameras watch you shop, drive, enter or leave an office building, train or bus station, or airport.
• Every word you say over any electronically transmissible medium is recorded & analyzed for key words like: terrorist. bomb. shoot. protest. congress. president.
• What if SS/Stasi/KGB/MI6/OSS/CIA operatives were really the Oracle of Delphi?
• A CIA operative’s life is 99% banal routine
• The Elizabethan worldview… through new eyes, but still influenced by the Middle Ages' spiritual aspiration and physical corruption.
• The Body Politick – the human body as the state and vice versa
• Ann Coulter/Camille Paglia; the sexually and politically active woman, liberal or - even more interesting - conservative.
• Eventually there will be an incident that will compel us to vote the Constitution out.
• The gradual erosion of meaning destroys our ability to care, and thus to oppose.
• Elements of what Greil Marcus calls “The Old, Weird America”
• Aerial slides of military sites, taken from satellite photos.
• The Quality in Education Act disembowels public school budgets. The Clean Air Act allows increased air pollution. The Patriot Act removes our freedom. Name two other possible Acts.
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
This process will involve more than an orientation to use non-logic and dreams in the construction of plays; there is also the deliberate use of coincidence outside the actual structure of a play, in fact in the making of a play. Case in point...
I'd done about 8 pages of notes for the Praxis play so far... all exploratory (no dialogue yet because the characters are still taking shape and are not ready to speak). I'll be transcribing some of the notes shortly. I have made a tentative decision that it's possible the model of the play is based on Shakespeare's MacBeth, and besides re-reading MacBeth the 12th time, I decided to look at some older criticism on the play.
That same day, I took my son to the park. Someone was just closing up a yard sale in front of their house on Prospect Park West, and put a box of books out for free (guess nobody was buying books that day). Amongst the books was a copy of Jan Kott's Shakespeare Our Contemporary.
It's an older book, but reading the section on MacBeth and on Hamlet in that book is starting to give some ideas on how to apply the storylines to a political context... and this is definitely a political play... and now my notes:
1. One character - Ann Coulter/Camille Paglia; the sexually and politically active woman, whether liberal or - even more interesting - conservative.
2. There should be elements of what Greil Marcus calls "The Old, Weird America"
3. Play pre-show: Aerial slides of military sites, taken from satellite photos.
4. Banquo & Lady MacBeth should be merged in this play... they represent the two sides of intimacy...
5. The witch: an old OSS/CIA operative who's trying to get in touch with her.
6. Everywhere the sense that everyone is being watched, recorded, monitored, measured, judged. Their acts transcribed directly into the Book of Justice, or St. Peter's Book of Virtue and Sin.
7. The Elizabethan worldview should have some influence on this play... they viewed the world through new eyes, but eyes still under the influence of the Middle Ages' cruel spirituality.
I'd done about 8 pages of notes for the Praxis play so far... all exploratory (no dialogue yet because the characters are still taking shape and are not ready to speak). I'll be transcribing some of the notes shortly. I have made a tentative decision that it's possible the model of the play is based on Shakespeare's MacBeth, and besides re-reading MacBeth the 12th time, I decided to look at some older criticism on the play.
That same day, I took my son to the park. Someone was just closing up a yard sale in front of their house on Prospect Park West, and put a box of books out for free (guess nobody was buying books that day). Amongst the books was a copy of Jan Kott's Shakespeare Our Contemporary.
It's an older book, but reading the section on MacBeth and on Hamlet in that book is starting to give some ideas on how to apply the storylines to a political context... and this is definitely a political play... and now my notes:
1. One character - Ann Coulter/Camille Paglia; the sexually and politically active woman, whether liberal or - even more interesting - conservative.
2. There should be elements of what Greil Marcus calls "The Old, Weird America"
3. Play pre-show: Aerial slides of military sites, taken from satellite photos.
4. Banquo & Lady MacBeth should be merged in this play... they represent the two sides of intimacy...
5. The witch: an old OSS/CIA operative who's trying to get in touch with her.
6. Everywhere the sense that everyone is being watched, recorded, monitored, measured, judged. Their acts transcribed directly into the Book of Justice, or St. Peter's Book of Virtue and Sin.
7. The Elizabethan worldview should have some influence on this play... they viewed the world through new eyes, but eyes still under the influence of the Middle Ages' cruel spirituality.
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Reading Playwriting Master Class by Michael Wright... interesting to study the processes of other playwrights... although at the same time, valueless. Every writer has their own unique process... though Wright's premise of dividing writers up into three categories of process (dreams... journeys... cut from whole cloth) does bear some scrutiny if for no other reason than a chance for each writer to query the specifics of their own process. Possibly there is a fourth, perhaps even a fifth and sixth.
Research proceeding apace on Bridge/Berkeley's monologue... found a huge trove of research on Berkeley's life, including some accidental parallels between certain relationships with women in his life and relationships of my protagonist and women in his life. I couldn't have known this beforehand, yet somehow it seems to gel so perfectly.
And of course the job is knocking me flat so I'm grateful to even write this blog, nevermind a script. The day I leave the job, aye, indeed thah will be a blessed one.
Research proceeding apace on Bridge/Berkeley's monologue... found a huge trove of research on Berkeley's life, including some accidental parallels between certain relationships with women in his life and relationships of my protagonist and women in his life. I couldn't have known this beforehand, yet somehow it seems to gel so perfectly.
And of course the job is knocking me flat so I'm grateful to even write this blog, nevermind a script. The day I leave the job, aye, indeed thah will be a blessed one.
Monday, July 28, 2003
Wow... four months since my last post... guess i suck at this blog thing. sorry everyone...
good news is that Praxis Theatre Project - a terrific NYC company that had a hit this Spring with How His Bride Came to Abraham - has designated me their Genesis playwright in residence for 2003-2004... they've got a real cool process for developing plays that's sort of up the alley of any active hands-on type of playwright.
Their process in a nutshell... their Artistic Director, Matt Bray, meets with the playwright over the course of the summer to coalesce some thematic material. it's a suggestion-built-on-suggestion process that's very interactive and leaves a lot of the gathering to the playwright... and Matt's a fascinating and charismatic personality and a great talker on his own.
You enter the Fall development period with a two things decided (1) the skeletal themes of the play to be (2) a basic rundown of the actors who will participate.
That's it. The rest is up to the process.
Actors meet weekly with the playwright as moderator to read script in the works, discuss themes and ideas, argue, whatever works. The playwright is unleashed with the actors, without a further need for artistic moderation on the part of the company... the degree of trust implied by the process is very impressive.
And since I have this blog thing... perhaps I will record a portion of the experience and insights that come with the process here for all of you... perhaps it will even capture some of it for you.
good news is that Praxis Theatre Project - a terrific NYC company that had a hit this Spring with How His Bride Came to Abraham - has designated me their Genesis playwright in residence for 2003-2004... they've got a real cool process for developing plays that's sort of up the alley of any active hands-on type of playwright.
Their process in a nutshell... their Artistic Director, Matt Bray, meets with the playwright over the course of the summer to coalesce some thematic material. it's a suggestion-built-on-suggestion process that's very interactive and leaves a lot of the gathering to the playwright... and Matt's a fascinating and charismatic personality and a great talker on his own.
You enter the Fall development period with a two things decided (1) the skeletal themes of the play to be (2) a basic rundown of the actors who will participate.
That's it. The rest is up to the process.
Actors meet weekly with the playwright as moderator to read script in the works, discuss themes and ideas, argue, whatever works. The playwright is unleashed with the actors, without a further need for artistic moderation on the part of the company... the degree of trust implied by the process is very impressive.
And since I have this blog thing... perhaps I will record a portion of the experience and insights that come with the process here for all of you... perhaps it will even capture some of it for you.
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