Prudence and Pepper: Act One

Julia Jarcho and Brian Thorstenson's class STRANGE DAYS, STRANGE PLAYS will be held six Saturdays starting October 16th. To kickstart the creative juices, they have co-written a Blog Drama in Two Acts. Act One appears here - stay tuned for Act Two later this week!

A Play in Two Acts

By Brian Thorstenson and Julia Jarcho

Act One.

The curtain rises on a sinister grotto. Lithe, shadowy FIGURES scurry around. Are they waiters? Probably.

PEPPER THØRRSSTEINSSØN sits at a table, heads in his hands. An enormous, inedible SCONE on a plate before him. From time to time he raises his head and eyes the scone, then drops back into his original posture.

After this has been going on for a while, PRUDENCE CONSTANCE SORROWFUL enters hurriedly, hat and coat askew. She drops into the chair opposite PEPPER.

PRUDENCE: Well?

(Without looking up, PEPPER nudges the scone towards her. She picks it up, examines it, and replaces it on the plate.)

I've told you, I don't engage with pastry. Pepper, for God's sake look at me. It wasn't easy to get away, I can tell you.  What's the [she pronounes it, badly, in French:] catastrophe?

PEPPER (raising his head and looking at Prudence for the first time): Why the hat? Another new hairdo gone awry?

PRUDENCE: Tick tick tick. I don't have time for your obfuscation.

PEPPER: More like we don't have time.

(He carefully looks around. No one. Then he takes the napkin from his lap, carefully unfolds it, and covers the scone.)

Put on your sunglasses.

(PRUDENCE does. PEPPER pulls an envelope out of his pocket and hands it to PRUDENCE)

I've already unsealed it.

(PRUDENCE pauses, holds the letter aloft.)

PRUDENCE: So you still don't...

PEPPER: No.

PRUDENCE: And I'm some sort of...

PEPPER: Pandora.

PRUDENCE: --Cassandra, Angora... --Hare?

PEPPER (losing patience): Tortoise.

PRUDENCE (voluptuously, toying with the letter): Hmmmmmm. What's in it...

(Pause.)

... For me?

(PEPPER strikes the table with his fist. The scurrying FIGURES stop dead in their tracks and conspire in a foreign tongue.)

Don't cause a commotion!

(In a raised voice:)

I was ooonly kidding.

(Things go back to normal. PRUDENCE takes the letter from the envelope. PRUDENCE reads:)

Dear Pru. Hmm. Familiar

(The enormous scone starts vibrating)

PEPPER: Oh no.

(From the scone a barrage of news stories start being broadcast)

PRUDENCE: Server? Server, we're finished with this.

(No response from THEM, whoever they are. To PEPPER:)

Ten years in fine dining and you can't bus a table? 

PEPPER: Seven tours in the shotput nationals and YOU can't--

(PRUDENCE hurls the scone offstage. It continues to broadcast faintly from afar.

PRUDENCE crumples the letter and hurls it after the scone. She rises to go.) 

Wait.

PRUDENCE: Make it good.

PEPPER: It's ... it's ... it's been a strange day and ... I ...

PRUDENCE: Now, now, now, now.

PEPPER: I think there's been an attempt.

(PRUDENCE freezes in an attitude of horror. PEPPER looks beseechingly skywards. The OTHERS imitate them and giggle. Curtain falls: End of Act One.)

To read more about Brian & Julia's class, visit: http://www.playwrightsfoundation.org/index.php?p=224

 

Inspiration, Deadlines & Candy Corn: Musings by Erin Bregman

After a weekend up in the California foothills, PF asked one of our Resident Playwrights, Erin Bregman, to write some thoughts about her writer's retreat. This is a sweet response, pun intended. 
**********************************************************************
When asked the dreaded question what inspires you to write?’, I immediately
pull out my ready-made, slightly scrappy retort: Deadlines. But if the
latest (and first!) Resident Playwrights Retreat reminded me of anything,
it’s that my oldest writing companion is not plain old last minute panic. It
is last minute panic infused with a faithful yet unpredictable
companion--Sugar.

My relationship with writing on Sugar began in college, when my
writing-on-a-deadline routine started with a quick trip to the corner store
where I would purchase a small bag of jelly bellies. Thus armed, I would
return to my room and write, popping a jelly belly every time I got stuck. I
got stuck often. The test was, could I finish the assignment before the bag
was empty, or would I be left feeling sick on Sugar without having produced
anything worthwhile?

As my Productivity to Sugar-sick ratio dropped, I all but abandoned the
routine, replacing the jelly bellies with popcorn, then cereal, then tea. On
the occasions when we did tackle a project again together, Sugar and I were
always either one of two things: wildly successful, or absolute failures.

So it was that I sat myself down in front of a large bowl of candy corn at
the latest (and first!) Resident Playwrights Retreat with more than a little
trepidation. Now, I know candy corn is perceived as an untouchable to many
food-consuming people out there, but for some reason I find it irresistible.
I opened my notebook, and popped a candy corn. Sugar and I were back.

The thing about writing on Sugar is that it facilitates, at its best,
writing quickly and without over-thinking. Such a strategy can either write
your play for you in record time, or write you straight off a cliff. Sixty
minutes into my candy corn frenzy, I saw the cliff. From about 10,000 feet
below. It was abundantly clear I had gone in the wrong direction with this
draft, and would have to start over. That seemed like a lot of work for the
moment, so instead I grabbed another candy corn, stood up, and went to ask
the wise Jonathan Spector for advice.

My candy corn experience at the latest (and first!) Resident Playwrights
Retreat may have felt like a complete failure in the moment, but looking
back I would have to call it a huge success. In a mere sixty minutes I
scrapped an entire draft, and made the not so easy decision to go back to
the beginning and start over. The result? I now have a vastly improved,
completely re-worked play that is one giant step closer to being finished.
Thanks, Sugar. I owe you one.

***************************************************************
Erin Bregman's play TVA KAMILA premiered at the 2010 Bay Area Playwrights Festival this past summer. To read more about Erin, and about our Resident Playwrights, visit: http://www.playwrightsfoundation.org/index.php?p=72
 

LAUNCH PAD BAPF 33!

Two Weekends. Eight Plays. Limitless Imagination!

Welcome to the Bay Area Playwrights Festival – a full throttle jettison into the new play universe.  

Every summer – counting 33 this year - 70+ artists gather to breathe stardust and substance into eight stellar new plays, offering their insights and talents to extraordinary playwrights who go on to illuminate the future of American theater.

We believe in the power of a living theater to stir hearts, awaken minds and unfurl the majestic beauty of hope – springing alive when we least expect it. A story has no bounds, the world can be changed, if only we can imagine it. Perhaps this is why we come together this weekend, to listen to our own stories in our own time and reflect on what lies before us.

Experience all the Festival has to offer: eight new plays, Playwrights’ TalkBack, Theater in One World Symposium & Playwriting Workshop with Marcus Gardley, crosstalk in the lobby or at the Festival bar!

Consider taking a playwright to lunch, and if you are so moved, support our festival and make a donation to Playwrights Foundation.  Enjoy!

----  Amy Mueller, Artistic Director 

Meet your 2010 Festival Playwrights, Week 6: Introducing Yussef El Guindi!

Each week we will be posting an interview with one of the playwrights featured in this year's 2010 Bay Area Playwrights Festival.  We are thrilled to be working with Yussef El Guindi to develop his new play Three Wolves and a Lamb.  " Funny, sexy, and irreverent ", this exciting production explores the love and the tension between a Palestinian and Jewish married couple as they face a series of personal revelations while planning a children's peace camp.  Come see it at Thick House at 8 pm on Saturday, July 24 and Saturday, July 31 at 4pm.  


1.   How long have you been writing for the theatre?  What was the creative spark that led you to become a playwright?

My failure as an actor was my main push into becoming a playwright. None of the graduate schools for acting accepted me. I’d applied to one graduating playwriting program (Carnegie Mellon University) as a back up plan since I also dabbled in writing (being an English Lit major). When CMU accepted me into their program, my first thought was, “oh crap, now what do I do?”

I never really thought of myself as a playwright until I stopped all thoughts of acting some time in the latter part of the nineties.

 2.   What inspired the creation of your play Three Wolves and a Lamb?  Tell us a little about the process of writing this piece.

The inspiration, truthfully, stemmed from a back ache. I had lain down to meditate, hoping a little deep breathing and relaxation would help with the pain. Within a few minutes of relaxation, the first line of the play came: “God damn. There are so many pork products in this fridge, you'd think there were a couple of Christians living here.” I jumped up (in pain) and started writing the play.

This play came in a rush. A rush for me is two months. Most plays for me take nine months to a year to complete (I’m that slow)....I had for a while been wanting to write an all out politically inflected comedy. My other pieces of late had been somewhat dour, so I was looking to have fun. I’m not sure why I thought wading into the Palestinian/ Israeli imbroglio might be fun, but some little imp in my imagination must have thought so.

Early on I worried that I would have to go into, and itemize, the history and grievances of this conflict. I didn’t want to do that and start splitting the audiences into “for” and “against”. Thankfully, I think I found a way to address what needed to be addressed without wading in into specifics. That can wait for another play. (Though I do glance by some issues.)


 3.   What do you hope to discover, improve, or change in your play during the festival process?

The main discovery to be had in a festival process is of course, does the play work? And with a comedy, that will become apparent pretty early on. I’m sure I will be making many adjustments, changes, as I hear the play in front of an audience. I will hear what lands, what needs cutting, what I can expand on, etc. Where do I lose the audience? How can I fix those moments, etc.


4.   After the 2010 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, what’s next for you?

Immediately after the festival, in mid-August, I am workshopping another play called Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World with ACT theater and the Icicle Theater Festival. Hopefully it will be a nice hot summer of creativity and rewriting.


 5.   Desert Island Top Five Plays, go!

Well, lets see...off the top of my head:

Edward Albee: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  
Eugene O'Neill: Long Day's Journey into Night
Eugene O'Neill: Mourning Becomes Electra
Tennessee Williams: Suddenly, Last Summer / Clifford Odets: Waiting for Lefty (two one-acts count as one play, yes?)
Shelagh Delaney: A Taste of Honey


For more information on Yussef El Guindi and the play, and to see a Festival Calendar of Events, please visit our website: http://www.playwrightsfoundation.org/
The 2010 Bay Area Playwrights Festival takes place JULY 23 - AUGUST 1, 2010 at the Thick House in Potrero Hill, SF.

Meet your 2010 Festival Playwrights, week five! Meet local playwright Elizabeth Gjelten!

Each week we will be sharing an interview with a playwright featured in this year's 2010 Bay Area Playwrights Festival. PF sat down with SF-based playwright Elizabeth Gjelten, who will be developing her play Hunter’s Point in the Festival on Saturday, July 24 and Saturday, July 31.

1.   How long have you been writing for the theatre?  What was the creative spark that led you to become a playwright?

I started as a solo writer and performer about 20 years ago. After years of writing poetry in my room, it was the love of being on stage that got me going -- until I didn't need that impetus anymore, and found myself wanting to sit back and watch actors make discoveries in the words that came through me.

2.   What inspired the creation of your play, Hunter's Point?  Tell us a little about the process of writing this piece.

First it was a voice that came to me in some freewriting. I knew who she was as soon as she appeared, but it took several tries and dead-ends before I found the form for her story. The play also came from my feelings of helplessness and guilt in the face of a loved one who lived on the streets for many years, as well as my own struggles with my unruly mind.

3.   What do you hope to discover, improve, or change in your play during the festival process?
I'm mostly hoping to work with some structural questions I have about the play -- I want to simplify and pare it down.

4.   After the 2010 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, what’s next for you?

See this puppy into production next spring. And work on two other plays that have been germinating and growing.

5.   Desert Island Top Five Plays, go!

Gertrude Stein, Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights
Brecht, Mother Courage
Suzan Lori-Parks, Death of the Last Black Man...
Caryl Churchill, Far Away
Tony Kushner, Angels In America
 
For more information on Elizabeth Gjelten and Hunter’s Point, and to see a Festival Calendar of Events, please visit our website: http://www.playwrightsfoundation.org/

The 2010 Bay Area Playwrights Festival takes place JULY 23 - AUGUST 1, 2010 at the Thick House in Potrero Hill, SF.