Developments in New Avenues

After many years of thinking it, it has finally come to fruition. I am co-writing a play!

I've wanted to write a play for a while now, but I have no training and no eye to write one. However, I've tried to get various people involved in playwriting over the years. Each attempt has failed, and I'm to blame as much as the other people.

But a friend and I recently discussed writing together, and today we met and talked for 3 hours. The first hour was just an idea frenzy, talking just to get a feel for how we each think and what we like. Then the play started forming around us. It was amazing how quickly it came about, and how many ideas we tossed off each other. One idea led to another, and since it was just a brainstorming session, we wrote everything down for future use.

It's an absurdist play. I have no experience with them, but my partner does. It's one act, separated into several stages. The basic plot is this: the main character, currently named John, meets a girl, currently named Rebecca, at a birthday party in NYC. After some usual chit chat, Rebecca chokes and dies. But John was not expecting it to happen. The actress herself does not die, but her character does. And it is at this point that we realize that John knows he's in a play. So he starts to frantically worry about the play, the audience, what should he do, he takes out his script to study it. Rebecca was not supposed to die in the original script, so he's confused and has a bit of an existential breakdown. They call the police to report the death, and then line up people at the party to get a new Rebecca to finish the play. We find out that John really wants to finish the play because there's a kiss at the end, and he is lonely and is desperate for a kiss. As they search for a new Rebecca, the characters and setting change until the end result is different from the beginning. There'll be an "intermission" when critics come on stage to critique it.

There's more to it, but that's the gist. I like it because it pushes the boundaries a bit about what can happen in a play, I think. We'll try to get the audience involved. It's not just a play you watch passively with a cohesive story, it's more. It won't be the typical theater. I think there's great potential and I'm very excited to work it through.