We are back in the creating zone this week!
Jessica and I are working on Draft #2 of Nowhere Near with dramaturgical assitance from the Canada famous Don Kugler. He is a lot nicer than I expected. Bonus.
Jess couldn't make it up for this session, so we are gathering online to do some serious typing. The play has shifted quite considerably in focus from what was presented last summer. We want to focus more on the characters and less on the survival.
For me, the people are what is interesting in a play. The situation is just there to reveal something about the people. It is with this notion that we are moving forward. There is still a bus crash, but maybe the whole play takes place during that crash. Maybe we enter limbo and get to examine the people in the crash. Maybe they are connected not a in a literal sense but internally: their drives and motivations. Who know? Right now we are just typing away and seeing what might happen. What connections occur.
I really want to return to this idea of 'openness' in our process. We've been struggling to find funding this year and our public "outreach" has suffered. I haven't been posting because there was nothign to post about. Well thats not true; I just didn't have the motivation to post. So, in the spirit of openness, here is something I just wrote for a character in Nowhere Near. It may or may not be used, but I thought it would be nice to share anyways:
GEN
Buy 4 cans of deodorant and a model rocket kit. You can find them in hobby shops. The rocket kit; the deodorant you can find anywhere. The only thing you need in the rocket kit is the gunpowder case and sparker. Throw the rest away, unless you want to make a rocket someday. So you’re going to take all the tops off the deodorant and duct tape them together. Oh, you need to buy a fuse and a rag. Or just use an old shirt. Tie the fuse to the rag and then put the fuse, gunpowder case and sparker together. You really want to get it in there. With a screwdriver, or something, stab a hole into one of the deodorants and then stuff the rag in there.
SARAH
So it’s aerosol deodorant, not the stick?
GEN
Aerosol? Not the stick no.
Now all you have to do is ignite the gunpowder to start the fuse to. That will blow up the dynamite. The deodorant. Peeewwwwwwwwww Kaboom.