Chapter One: Exercises
Item #1:
there were three stories in last night's newspaper that i thought might offer some possibilities for development as plays -- one for a farce, one for a tragedy, and one that might work for both in the same play.
the first item was concerning the now defunct tiger sanctuary in ste. genevieve. originally created by depaul university, the curators [after a change in university president] changed their mind. the acreage and five tigers were left high and dry in rural missouri. a local winery has now purchased the whole project, and will construct a bed and breakfast on the property. apparently one wall of each guest room will be made of bars, so the tigers may approach the guests up close. this might offer two comedic interactions. first, just the local hillbilly types reacting to the big city university crowd bringing tigers to their sleepy little town: chicago intellectual vs. local yokel. the second possiblity would be a farcial situation involving an overnight guest with an unanticipated feline roommate. could be possibilites.
the second item concerned an appeal of the sentence of the pharmacist in kansas city who was convicted last year of adulterating cancer patients' drugs in order to increase his profit margin. i think several story lines could be developed out of the tragic consequences of his actions. a possible hook would be to have someone dear to himself die as an unintended result of having gotten some of the weakened batch of drugs. following this line could have a very dramatic twist, although you would have to be careful not to step on 'all my sons' toes.
the third item was a story about a drunken driver who hit a power pole and without being aware of it, decapitated his passenger. he went home, passed out in bed without being aware of what had happened. some passing children noticed the headless body sitting in his truck parked at the curb, and some other people found the bodyless head on the ground by the power pole, a ways down the road. i think this might be worked into a very dark comedy; some things are so ridiculously horrible they can seem funny when given a good spin.
Item #3:
i have always been curious about my own ambivalent attitude toward capital punishment. as an intensely liberal person [i'd give about anything to be rid of bush and ashcroft] i seem at odds with my own beliefs and friends on this issue: i feel perfectly comfortable with the idea of executing certain criminals. i feel that in the commission of some heinous crimes, the perpetrators forfeit their status as human beings, and therefore are no longer eligible to the entitlement of life. executing such a person has no more significance to me than the recall and destruction of a defective appliance. as defective human beings their raw materials may as well be returned to the earth. of course, i'm speaking of truly horrible crimes, and convictions not based upon circumstantial evidence. a play dealing with this topic might be constructed as a death row conversation between inmates, or with an inmate and a vistitor, or both. it would be a quiet play; intense, intellectual, and without action in the usual sense.
Item #5:
i have always been fascinated by my grandfather's alcoholism, but his death when i was only 16 left me without a very mature understanding of it. he was what is called a 'high functioning' alcoholic. successful in business, a well-known local politician, he was respected and admired, yet there was the fact that he was addicted to liquour and frequently drank himself into insensibility. it would be interesting to probe into his background [he had been an unhappy child with an abhored stepmother], his marriage [he was rough and tough; his wife a diminuitive, intellectual school teacher], and his political and business affairs. since i would probably never know what this was all about, it would become a somewhat fictional piece constructed upon an armature of fact. there could be funny scenes of happy family life [there were many] or sad scenes: one time when i was a child we got a phone call that we should come get him: in his eighties, with a good business, ownership of several thousand acres, a member of the state general assembly; he was on the main street of our small city, sitting on the curb, feet in the gutter, holding his head in his hands, dead drunk. a theme to develop might be the way in which alcohol brings both the meek and the mighty to the same low estate.
Item #7:
the effect of wal-mart voracity on small towns is interesting. people will shop there, even knowing that every new wal-mart kills a half dozen small locally owned stores. apparently, to most poeple, the destruction of our historical downtowns seems a small price compared with saving a few bucks at a mass merchandiser. i was thinking about the circumstances of a third-generation small town hardware store, faced with a news report of a new wal-mart. the whole play could take place in the old hardware store, a really old-fashioned one, with bins along the wall and a rolling lader to access them. dialogue could be among members of the owners family, perhaps with customers coming in and out. the general atmosphere would be ominous...and a twist perhaps involving a grandson or cousin making a great deal of money selling the land for the new wal-mart, or being hired as its manager. the play would be generally a forum for discussion of traditional views of community and perhaps holding wilde's aphorism up to the light: "the problem with people nowadays is that they know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
more to come...keep tuned...
there were three stories in last night's newspaper that i thought might offer some possibilities for development as plays -- one for a farce, one for a tragedy, and one that might work for both in the same play.
the first item was concerning the now defunct tiger sanctuary in ste. genevieve. originally created by depaul university, the curators [after a change in university president] changed their mind. the acreage and five tigers were left high and dry in rural missouri. a local winery has now purchased the whole project, and will construct a bed and breakfast on the property. apparently one wall of each guest room will be made of bars, so the tigers may approach the guests up close. this might offer two comedic interactions. first, just the local hillbilly types reacting to the big city university crowd bringing tigers to their sleepy little town: chicago intellectual vs. local yokel. the second possiblity would be a farcial situation involving an overnight guest with an unanticipated feline roommate. could be possibilites.
the second item concerned an appeal of the sentence of the pharmacist in kansas city who was convicted last year of adulterating cancer patients' drugs in order to increase his profit margin. i think several story lines could be developed out of the tragic consequences of his actions. a possible hook would be to have someone dear to himself die as an unintended result of having gotten some of the weakened batch of drugs. following this line could have a very dramatic twist, although you would have to be careful not to step on 'all my sons' toes.
the third item was a story about a drunken driver who hit a power pole and without being aware of it, decapitated his passenger. he went home, passed out in bed without being aware of what had happened. some passing children noticed the headless body sitting in his truck parked at the curb, and some other people found the bodyless head on the ground by the power pole, a ways down the road. i think this might be worked into a very dark comedy; some things are so ridiculously horrible they can seem funny when given a good spin.
Item #3:
i have always been curious about my own ambivalent attitude toward capital punishment. as an intensely liberal person [i'd give about anything to be rid of bush and ashcroft] i seem at odds with my own beliefs and friends on this issue: i feel perfectly comfortable with the idea of executing certain criminals. i feel that in the commission of some heinous crimes, the perpetrators forfeit their status as human beings, and therefore are no longer eligible to the entitlement of life. executing such a person has no more significance to me than the recall and destruction of a defective appliance. as defective human beings their raw materials may as well be returned to the earth. of course, i'm speaking of truly horrible crimes, and convictions not based upon circumstantial evidence. a play dealing with this topic might be constructed as a death row conversation between inmates, or with an inmate and a vistitor, or both. it would be a quiet play; intense, intellectual, and without action in the usual sense.
Item #5:
i have always been fascinated by my grandfather's alcoholism, but his death when i was only 16 left me without a very mature understanding of it. he was what is called a 'high functioning' alcoholic. successful in business, a well-known local politician, he was respected and admired, yet there was the fact that he was addicted to liquour and frequently drank himself into insensibility. it would be interesting to probe into his background [he had been an unhappy child with an abhored stepmother], his marriage [he was rough and tough; his wife a diminuitive, intellectual school teacher], and his political and business affairs. since i would probably never know what this was all about, it would become a somewhat fictional piece constructed upon an armature of fact. there could be funny scenes of happy family life [there were many] or sad scenes: one time when i was a child we got a phone call that we should come get him: in his eighties, with a good business, ownership of several thousand acres, a member of the state general assembly; he was on the main street of our small city, sitting on the curb, feet in the gutter, holding his head in his hands, dead drunk. a theme to develop might be the way in which alcohol brings both the meek and the mighty to the same low estate.
Item #7:
the effect of wal-mart voracity on small towns is interesting. people will shop there, even knowing that every new wal-mart kills a half dozen small locally owned stores. apparently, to most poeple, the destruction of our historical downtowns seems a small price compared with saving a few bucks at a mass merchandiser. i was thinking about the circumstances of a third-generation small town hardware store, faced with a news report of a new wal-mart. the whole play could take place in the old hardware store, a really old-fashioned one, with bins along the wall and a rolling lader to access them. dialogue could be among members of the owners family, perhaps with customers coming in and out. the general atmosphere would be ominous...and a twist perhaps involving a grandson or cousin making a great deal of money selling the land for the new wal-mart, or being hired as its manager. the play would be generally a forum for discussion of traditional views of community and perhaps holding wilde's aphorism up to the light: "the problem with people nowadays is that they know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
more to come...keep tuned...
posted by taotianone at 7:25 AM
2 Comments:
I really enjoyed reading these -- the news stories you picked out (esp. the third one) seem ripe for dramatic treatment.
Delving into family history can reveal a gold mine of stories, but can be a painful process. I've played around with my own play about my alcoholic grandfather (who was also highly functioning -- a very successful Air Force officer) who had a long-term affair while stationed in Europe. His mistress killed herself after he broke up with her because my grandmother was pregnant with my youngest uncle.
Keep at it, B.H. -- looking forward to reading more of your writing.
yes. i certainly agree. in fact, i wonder if plays in the family history genre [the unhappy one] don't get written because of their carthartic value to the writer. for sure, it's not a subject for the thin-skinned to tackle, if for no other reason that the rest of the family may stop speaking to you.
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