Of the near 50 pages written so far, there are 15 pages of scene drafts and 35 pages of notes. The scenes are more like experiments in actualizing the world of the notes. What are the notes? An amalgam of character analysis, plot points, metaphors, setting ideas, modes of conveyance, hot objects...
The opening sequence is critical, reduced again to outline (dialogue is relentlessly cannibalized) it reflects the structure of the whole play - there are three full-cast scenes planned and this is one of them. There are these 9 terrific actors, and they should all be onstage as much as the story will carry that.
The basic movement of the opening scene is: She's editing a documentary, with the aid of software agents, for presentation to the network for whom the program was commissioned. During the course of the editing, parts of scenes are repeated and augmented; there are no rules of objectivity in 2129 journalism... in fact, a show is a success when its opinions most closely match the prevailing course of opinion - that's 'objective fact' for the time (unlike today's journalism - so dispassionately objective ;-)) Simultaneously she's presenting the final edit to her mentor, who notes what's missing - the very thing that will make the show a coup, an interview with Kate Anthony, head of the RU. A building explodes nearby. A body's carried in...
Sure it sounds like a plot machine... the towering freaking inferno... but just wait...
to be continued...
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Conventions - arriving at them and using them
Can't think of theatre as a limited form. It's got the same possibilities and presence of limitation as any other medium. Comparing theatre to film has resulted in some makers of theatre thinking that theatre can't achieve what film can - can't match its scope, can't be as visual, can't depict the fantastic as well.
The problem to solve is how to create a depiction of the ideas for the future, real in a way, without any of the CGI/SE palette that film has... and without having to EXPLAIN them... those are the limitations, and so within those strictures, i've come up with a whole bunch of strategies, some borrowed from avant/garde, some invented.
In truth, it's film that's limited. The great CGI effect that looks so cool today will be passe in 5 years. Whereas the theatre's use of special effects, lo-tech and relying on the human imagination... why, those will remain cool, possibly forever.
So achieving, for example, a play with scientfic imagery that takes on an almost mystical set of properties can actually be done better in the theatre - where the special effects that lie in the mind can never go out of date.
So for example, rolled up pieces of paper appear in her mouth with messages to her written on them - her genes were reprogrammed to create the paper, ink and actually write the messages (deposit the ink in a predetermined pattern on the paper). Objects and tools are imbued with intelligence, have ideas, opinons and strong feelings about how well we use them.
The problem to solve is how to create a depiction of the ideas for the future, real in a way, without any of the CGI/SE palette that film has... and without having to EXPLAIN them... those are the limitations, and so within those strictures, i've come up with a whole bunch of strategies, some borrowed from avant/garde, some invented.
In truth, it's film that's limited. The great CGI effect that looks so cool today will be passe in 5 years. Whereas the theatre's use of special effects, lo-tech and relying on the human imagination... why, those will remain cool, possibly forever.
So achieving, for example, a play with scientfic imagery that takes on an almost mystical set of properties can actually be done better in the theatre - where the special effects that lie in the mind can never go out of date.
So for example, rolled up pieces of paper appear in her mouth with messages to her written on them - her genes were reprogrammed to create the paper, ink and actually write the messages (deposit the ink in a predetermined pattern on the paper). Objects and tools are imbued with intelligence, have ideas, opinons and strong feelings about how well we use them.
Friday, January 09, 2004
The story trinity
There are three stories woven into this play.
The story of the documentary she is making - the answers to the core questions she's been asking all her life - or perhaps sometimes better questions. Though it's created in multiple installments, it's the core of her being that's explored and revealed; the play's world reflects these values. Specifically the questions are about the nature of the world they occupy, and how they've deluded themselves; she's the artist, a needed tonic for her day. She's not always right - in fact, she's mostly wrong and the truth has to give her a good nip before she can see it. The beliefs she holds at the opening are surely the result of having given up on achieving any of her lifelong goals. But this makes her feel alive; alive for the first time in ages, because she's going to die. Each actor in the company has to have a part in the documentary at the opening; a 5 or 6-stage journey.
The poisoning plot, which is the cover story for her journey through seven checkpoints - there are seven characters besides Vera and Internet (he's with her almost in every scene until he can't be there any longer).
What's really going on; what grab for power is this and what she's going to do to bring them to justice and not let them win out.
The story of the documentary she is making - the answers to the core questions she's been asking all her life - or perhaps sometimes better questions. Though it's created in multiple installments, it's the core of her being that's explored and revealed; the play's world reflects these values. Specifically the questions are about the nature of the world they occupy, and how they've deluded themselves; she's the artist, a needed tonic for her day. She's not always right - in fact, she's mostly wrong and the truth has to give her a good nip before she can see it. The beliefs she holds at the opening are surely the result of having given up on achieving any of her lifelong goals. But this makes her feel alive; alive for the first time in ages, because she's going to die. Each actor in the company has to have a part in the documentary at the opening; a 5 or 6-stage journey.
The poisoning plot, which is the cover story for her journey through seven checkpoints - there are seven characters besides Vera and Internet (he's with her almost in every scene until he can't be there any longer).
What's really going on; what grab for power is this and what she's going to do to bring them to justice and not let them win out.
Friday, January 02, 2004
1. structure 2. write
Near as soon as the first scenes start coming out, the structure starts to change; this is pretty typical of how it goes for me. Got a skeleton of ~ 24 basic scene actions (each scene actions usually translates to a single scene. The exception would be in a multi-threaded or "epic" story, where a scene will always have more than one scene action - typically a threaded character gets an objective on their journey as well as the protagonist). By the way, this is shaping up to be an Epic style play. For a good definition of what's meant by Epic, see The Power of the Playwright's Vision by Gordon Farrell
Now, as secondary characters become more complete, they start arguing with me that they want to do more, and that means changes to the structure to respond to their lobbying.
NAMES are really important to characters for me... i tend toward a modernized Restoration Comedy naming convention, where a character's name correlates closely to their character. So the lead character's working name for now is Vera, with all those connotations (it will probably change, it's a bit heavy-handed, that the seeker after truth would be named Vera). But there are all these rich tangents; Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn? The secondary characters tend to have less well-defined names at this point; i'm naming them obvious things like caliban, dulcinea and pericles, names too absurd to coexist in a script with a concrete structure. Using ridiculous but evocative names keeps alive both (1) the basic spine of the character (2) the fact that it HAS to be changed before the draft goes to anyone; again, typical of how I work.
DETAILS On a related note, I tend to not work out the detailed things whilst writing initial drafts... I leave spaces in the script-in-progress that says things like, "insert haiku about laundry here" because my head doesn't interrupt well; if it's on a streak of writing plot points it's not going to be too good at writing lyrics or crafting an acerbic comeback. This is a painful thing, I have this creative ADD thing going on, so if I get distracted, I've lost the context - all the little intricate threads I thought I was weaving into permanence become fumetti (little puffs of smoke). Are you like that... is it hard to re-focus on the context once the stack gets popped, (software term) after an interruption?
Now, as secondary characters become more complete, they start arguing with me that they want to do more, and that means changes to the structure to respond to their lobbying.
NAMES are really important to characters for me... i tend toward a modernized Restoration Comedy naming convention, where a character's name correlates closely to their character. So the lead character's working name for now is Vera, with all those connotations (it will probably change, it's a bit heavy-handed, that the seeker after truth would be named Vera). But there are all these rich tangents; Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn? The secondary characters tend to have less well-defined names at this point; i'm naming them obvious things like caliban, dulcinea and pericles, names too absurd to coexist in a script with a concrete structure. Using ridiculous but evocative names keeps alive both (1) the basic spine of the character (2) the fact that it HAS to be changed before the draft goes to anyone; again, typical of how I work.
DETAILS On a related note, I tend to not work out the detailed things whilst writing initial drafts... I leave spaces in the script-in-progress that says things like, "insert haiku about laundry here" because my head doesn't interrupt well; if it's on a streak of writing plot points it's not going to be too good at writing lyrics or crafting an acerbic comeback. This is a painful thing, I have this creative ADD thing going on, so if I get distracted, I've lost the context - all the little intricate threads I thought I was weaving into permanence become fumetti (little puffs of smoke). Are you like that... is it hard to re-focus on the context once the stack gets popped, (software term) after an interruption?
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