 All right, here we go. Yay. Hey, beautiful people. It's 501. And I'm so Pete and this is watch me work where every time we get together, we work together and then we have conversations about your work and your writing process. We've been doing it for over 14 years, maybe 15 years now. We started in the lobby of the public theater and then we moved to the mezzanine level of the public theater. And when COVID came and locked on came we moved online to zoom. And we've been supported all this time by the public theater and howl round. And now the Newark development department at the public theater and Zoe Kim is part of the Newark development department you want to say hi. And so we're going to work for 20 minutes and then you're going to get in touch with me about your creative process. So he tells us how to do it please thank you. Yeah, hi everyone welcome on this beautiful Monday. My name is Zoe Kim my pronouns are she her, and I'm part of the Newark development team at the public is such a joy to have you all here on the zoom so as SLP said we will have a work session for 20 for 20 minutes. And then afterwards when we open up for questions. Please do use your raise your hand function on zoom. And then I will ask you to please unmute yourself, where you can ask your question, and then we'll kind of queue up the questions with the raise your hand function. So on that note, it's all yours and selfie. Okay, great I got my timer. I'm going to start it. We're going to work for 20 minutes. Here we go. We're back from our work time. And we will take questions for the rest of the hour. Yes, if you have a question please use the raise your hand function in your reactions button at the bottom of your screen. And I'll call on your name, and then and then ask you to unmute on Nina. Thank you and please feel free to unmute yourself. I really appreciate your time. I'm working on a new play, and I'm feeling really stuck. I felt stuck about it and conflicted for quite some time. The working title of it is Brad pits my bitch. And it's about his work in post Katrina. 9th work and how all these houses he had built ultimately led to the destruction financially and medically of a lot of individuals. And so the idea is that these five individuals kidnapped Brad Pitt when he's officially acquitted. And they're holding him hostage over one night. And they realize that their desire for revenge is eclipsed by their own personal guilt and culpability. What I'm struggling with a lot is the idea that those who have read it so far have concerns about shades of gray and culpability. Talking about how victims can play a role in their victimization and how the victimizer can bear some innocence and unawareness and I realize the delicacy of that issue. And I just wanted to get your advice. This is the first time I've played outside of my sandbox with something that could be divisive and I'm really struggling with feedback on getting and then my own fear that I will, I will be disliked. Oh, that's a great. That's a great question sounds like a really cool play so you said this is the first time you've been playing outside of your sandbox but what's your main sandbox. Well, I'm a good Asian girl so I follow all the rules and I write things that are funny and sweet but that don't offend anyone. And maybe they make you squirm every now and again, but not things that make people gasp and upset the balance and this is something having worked in international aid for nine years. And seeing donor driven versus beneficiary driven projects, seeing it from all ends like what people could do differently to achieve optimal success and realizing there's no one that's entirely free of blame, even those who are in the field and who are struggling to make a living so that's, that's a little bit of my background. So, so the feedback you've been getting are, are they saying that that I mean, everyone bears a responsibility. Is that what, what the general feedback is. I think the idea is that how can you hold victims. I mean, this really did happen with nine word victims and if this play ever saw the light of day I would change the references to Katrina the ninth word obviously I can't use bread pit. But the idea that victims can be held culpable for anything it's kind of blaming the victim so to speak and that's the feedback I've gotten. And I just want to show that these five individuals over the course of the night have a reckoning of could they have avoided this. You know, did they kind of turn a blind eye because of their adoration of this celebrity. Did they not see the warning signs. And ultimately, you know, in the case of one who is a lumber supplier for the houses that ultimately had asbestos that led to the death of several folks true story. They had asbestos, but he was torn between a rock and a hard place and there were people far above him that knew that they had asbestos and they kept pushing him to supply it so he feels exonerated until he faces bread pit. So I think a lot of these things are raising issues with people who are reading my agent included that are kind of pushing back and be like, you know, let's, you know, let's tame this and I kind of don't want to. Right. Who's it for the play. I think it's mostly for me. I think it's something that I've been wanting to write for a while and ideally it would be workshopped and be something that is seen in whatever form it takes but I think it was something really honestly for me because I do feel sometimes that I play by the rules and I wanted to force myself to just say what I want to say without censoring myself. You say you're stuck where you stuck. I think I'm stuck on. Is this conceit compelling enough or is it just for lack of a better word sexy, and is it more alienating than it is thought provoking. And yours. You've talked I'm sort of trying to wrap my head around the problem you're having with it the problem you're having with it is because people are asking you questions about it and you have a hard time writing things that are make Yeah, I think part of it has been the wanting to change the conceit really so you know my reps colleagues who have expressed any concern for those who do many have not have said you'll have a greater chance of this seeing the light of today if you change the conceit which is is it black and white in terms of being guilty and innocent or are there shades of gray of culpability and instead really focusing on is you know is revenge the best way to overcome grief. And that's not the question I want to raise, but that's several people, much further along in their careers and much more familiar with this industry have suggested that. But I'm feeling stuck because I don't want to do another draft with the conceit I currently have. But when I try to work on something that might be more palatable. It just, it doesn't feel like that's the story I want to tell. Yeah, then don't. I mean, I don't, you know, I mean, it sounds like what you've written, if ever sees the light of day you're going to have to change the names of the characters and you're going to have to do all that. Why don't you do a draft for you do that. Because you wanted to see the light of day, and if it sees the light of day you're going to have to change all the names and all the care, you know, then go ahead and do that. That's so brilliant I can't believe I didn't think about that's. I'm here to think of the things you haven't thought I appreciate that. So that so then you'll be doing a draft, you know you'll be doing a new draft and you'll have time to you'll have an opportunity to go through and tweak other things and, and maybe I mean, it sounds like both ways into the story are equally interesting, you know, is revenge, the best way to grieve and or what you that's not what you're writing or culpability shades of black and white shades of gray or black and white and that's what you're writing both ways into that situation are interesting. I think maybe you just have to make your, your story stronger. Be to. If the AFI it's that you know I mean it's the language around it when you're talking it was kind of hard to follow. Okay. So, so you might just want to focus. I mean the specialist guy that sounds. You definitely change the names and the location and all that you got to do something else because that would be leading into legal stuff for you. If already you're worried about it so just be mindful of that for your own self. And, but other than that I think I think that you're way into the story sounds great. Don't I mean the play that you don't want to write. You know, you know, it sounds like a cool play. Thank you so much. Thank you. Oh, thank you Graham will you please a meet yourself and ask your question. I recently completed my first play ever. And so, thank you. And the transition from an internally driven process of creation and creativity to the soliciting of feedback query letters like all that stuff that I wasn't even thinking about when I was writing the play. I'm not loving that process and I'm just kind of curious, does that get easier is it a skill that you can learn or is this a sign that I'm not a playwright. That's, that's great question Graham congratulations on finishing your play congratulations on finishing your first play ever. It's totally a skill that can be learned of course it's a skill that can be learned it's something that you can, you know it's like, you know, dating or whatever maybe it's you know it's awkward. But you get you get used to it you know if you want to go out on dates or whatever it's like anything like riding a bicycle the first time. But then you're going to get used to it. So, I would just say keep doing it. And if you don't. You're not enjoying it. You know do it for a little do it for a small period of time during the day and then reward yourself, you know go out for a walk meet some friends go to a movie. Go to a bookstore, you know do something to reward yourself for a difficult job well done. You know, and just be like hey this is part of it it's part of it. It's part of it like. Like getting notes is part of it, like I mean we can think of all the fun things about writing and then all the things that make it difficult and it's all part of it. You're going to enjoy more than others. And you'll get you'll get it'll get easier I think the more you the more you do it. You can also think about like wow I, I'd really like to have my plays at this theater or whatever and make it fun to make it fun as as enjoyable as you can. You know, I love that idea of doing it in small pieces thank you and give yourself some treats for finishing. Thank you. Thank you, Graham. I'm Jay lists. Funny way this may be a little related to the question that was just asked. So I'm wondering if you can share some secrets of what to do with you have like writer's block. And I'm really behind on some things I should be doing, and it doesn't feel good but I haven't been able to get out of that. And so I'm just wondering, you know, it didn't occur to me as I was listening that maybe you have some other people have some suggestions of what I can do to get myself moving and back on the project. That's a great question Jay. Here's a question I have what are you doing during the day. Are you reading the newspaper online reading the news are you well how do you spend your writing time you go to your desk and sit there and just kind of look at the wall. Sometimes I do that. I'm not getting much sleep. There's just a lot going on physically and with the family just, it's just a whole lot. And I know that it has something to do with, you know, a type of depression, but at the same time I run a film festival. And I need to be on that case getting up and running. But it's just been very difficult so what I found myself doing is it's taking me longer to get simple things done, such as writing the publicity or approving poster or making the poster. And I know that there's a better way and this hasn't happened in the past. And it's something I love doing. Really just not as efficient right now as I should be. And so at least I know that I need to get some help and yes I need to talk to somebody about it, but I also thought I would just ask and see if you have some or other people have some suggestions of what to do. When you just are in that space where you're not. We can open it up. We can open up. Oh, I'm sorry. I mean, we can open up and have people add their suggestions. One thing you could try is to work with the timer so instead of saying, Oh my gosh, I have to write. I have to write 10 pages. You can say, how about I'm going to write for 10 minutes. So you're not talking about writing you're talking about, you know, organizing some some posters or things like that. You can say I'm going to work for 10 minutes not I have to finish this entire project today. Instead, small of the task. Just say I'm going to work for 10 minutes today. Just just work for very small chunks. What they call you bite size bite size, you know, small chunks like that and imagine that you're crossing a river and you have a stone, and then another stone, and then another stone. Do you work collaboratively with other people who are organizing the festival. Actually, I'm the executive director and it's 18 years old. So this is a bit of a shock. And it's all volunteer we don't charge I'll send you the information to sign up to watch it. But it's just one of those things so there are a couple of other people who are really working very hard in addition to just friends, one of them in on this session today. That you know really helped out, but the both of it since I'm the executive director that's on me. Does that answer your question. Yeah, yeah, also, you can be, you know, practice kindness it's a it's the holiday season and a lot of people go yeah, the holidays are so much fun the holidays are hard people the holidays are really hard. Family stuff and families great yeah and families hard families work families a lot of work yes family gives us joy and love and all those good things and family also gives us sometimes unnecessary drama, or just you know the media what's going on in the news. I don't get me started. There's a lot of heavy stuff going on in the world right now. And with all our responsibilities that like Jay might have never had a problem getting stuff done. You know, a lot of people I hear are having their early birds but they have trouble now getting up early in the morning or their night owls and to get their work done at night and they have you know, staying up late at night or think they just have trouble focusing a lot of people do. So, you can give yourself some loving kindness and know that the work will get done. I'm just going to do a little bit at a time. You can also listen to yourself talk and really emphasize your positive self talk. The way we talk I talk about hypnotizing yourself, the words go out of your mouth and into your ears. Oh my gosh, you know, so you can say things like okay. I'm working. I'm working a little bit every day and the work will get done by the time it needs to get done. The work will get done by the time it needs to get done. Okay, you can start those mantras. You can just be gentle with yourself. Well, I have to say, I'm shaking my head and scribbling as you're seeing all these things I totally agree with them. Okay, I do try to give myself rates and say it's going to happen and then things. You know, so I do tell myself that but it's just right now it's just very hard I had to change the start update for the festival because it was so difficult but it's going to happen. One of the big problems is that I'm a community person so 18 years I've never charged for this festival. And it's online for a month. So, you know, that's just a lot of his ability and I am not rich. You know, it's just trying to put things together to make it happen. I hear you. I hear you. I appreciate what you're saying. I said I'm sitting shaking my head as I'm listening to what you said. Yeah, just be as positive in your head as you can be. Go for walks outside if you if you like to do that sort of thing. Or just stand and like, you know, just because I find myself just sitting at the desk and getting really stood. Yeah. Just around like this. Okay. And we're not talking about any big, you know, calisthenics, but just gently just do leg lifts, you know, stand and just like march in place. Turn on some of your favorite music. Dance around. That's what I like to do. You know, maybe work for five minutes. And then take a dance break to your favorite song. Then work for five more minutes and you're using the timer this time. And again, it's not the timer on your phone. Right. Or you're on your watch timer, a pretty basic timer for five minutes, then, you know, do some stretches. You know, then work for five minutes and call a friend and talk for an hour or however long you want to talk work for five minutes and, and I don't know, watch a little bit of your favorite movie. You know, just do like a little five minute increments. That's good. Okay. Other people if you have suggestions just throw them in that you can throw them in the chat. So we can. So we don't miss people's questions or if nobody has questions and you have a suggestion for Jay. Either way, the rain, did you have something to say or did you have the next question. I have the next question but I didn't want to cut it off. No, go ahead. In the chat, that would be great because we don't want to miss anybody. I am working on my thesis right now it's my last semester of college. Thank you. And I am a playwriting major but so my question I was working on my play for the 20 minutes and I'm curious how slash what decisions you all make for yourselves within like what the goals for an iteration are. Like, when, when, like, obviously in every single not obviously but like you can't get to everything in every production ever every iteration of the stage reading but like, um, what do you decide is your cut off, I guess. You mean what are my goals for a draft. Like, when in an iteration of a draft going into like a reading or development or anything like that, like, when do you decide to stop going through writing and let it like freeze I guess. Well, when's your deadline. Well, that's the issue and kind of of just like the space has been said of like keep writing until it goes up keep writing but it's getting to a point where it feels like I really shouldn't be because everyone's getting overwhelmed in the room. You know, so I'm trying to decide like, where to put the line between my personal goals for the script and the like developmental room lives. When do you, when do you have your public November 30. Oh, November 30. So how many days is that. Thank you. I'm not paying attention. I'm just watching you rain. Great. Charlie, thank you. Could you stop writing by the end of day tomorrow. Yeah. That feel all right. Good. Good. I'll see you by the end of the day tomorrow. Okay. And that's just, yeah, your collaborators will be happy. And you'll have made a decision. And you'll get as much rewriting and stuff done as you possibly can. And that's cool. And you just know that your stuff that you say for the next time. Yeah, there's stuff right now that you're saving for your next life. Yeah. Yeah, there's stuff like next life. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to be an astronaut. Yeah. Detective. Detective. See, right, right. Okay. So are you worried right now that you're not a detective? No, no, and I'm not worried that I'm not on Mars right now. I'm not worried about it. It's cool. I say, Hey, I'll do that. You know what I mean? See, it's fine. You're going to finish. Yeah. The next draft, you'll do the next thing. Yeah. Yeah. And then the next thing and then you'll keep working on it until it's done, done, done. And then you'll go on to the next play or the next thing you're writing. And then you return to it 10 years later and you're like, I don't, but. I don't have time to go back and read stuff and like, Oh, now I got to rewrite it. No, I don't have that kind of time. No, no, no, no, no, no. It'll be like as good as it got. You know, yeah. You know, right. I mean, unless there's some glaring error, like. You know, pigeon was misspelled. I don't know. I misspelled spheres the other day. So. Spheres. Oh, yeah. That would be a word that I misspelled too. But you, but we have spell check now. So. Yeah. There's nothing to correct. Is there. But so it's, you're going to, you're going to be done writing end of day tomorrow. What's end of day tomorrow for you? What time is that? Um, Flight back to Texas. Flight back to Texas. Okay. Nine. Nine p. Nine p. Great. Okay. There you go. So you're going to be done writing at nine p.m. Fingers. Hands up nine p.m. Hands off the keyboard. Well, I guess now I have to. Well, sure. Why not? You wanted to. Yeah. And if you don't want to then extend it. You said your collaborators are getting upset though. Yeah. Not upset, just overwhelmed. Yeah, it's good. At your collaborators. Like actors, directors. Are you talking about? Yeah. All of the above. Yeah. It's, it's, it's because of the, the field of theater. We need to be attentive to the needs of the people who are going to be doing our work. Yeah. If they're expressing concern and unrest. And it's, they got 10 day, you're giving them. You know, 10 day. Do they have to be off book? Do they have to learn? Yeah. Still they, well, they just, they, they have a need to sort of just be okay. And you can give that to them. Make lots of notes. Okay. Yeah. I appreciate it. And know that you're going to have another chance at it. Yeah. And you'll be a detective also. Very true. That's so great. So great. Great question. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Charlie. Please go ahead and unmute and ask your question. And then we'll go to Crystal. I can keep this quick. Hey, I was hoping nice to see everybody. Recently with my co-writer, we finished with a couple of questions. We have a table reading coming up in a week and a half. There was a nice talk about table reads. Last session. But. I feel like I've been like, you know. Had this thing in my face for several weeks now. Many weeks now. Just curious if you have any thoughts, ideas about. How to get the most out of this reading. How to get the most out of this reading. How to hear it fresh. How to find the potholes and those speed bumps and. You know, how to, how to hear all that. That's a great question. What a wonderful thing. You're going to have a table read. I would say, and you, it's been like this. So I would suggest, you know, give it some space. It's like, um, Like when I record something, in a recording studio or most, more often my husband, record stuff. And then they have to go in and they have to listen to the mixes and they have to make determinations about it. Right. The best thing they do is they don't listen to it. Until they, they record it on one day. Then maybe a week later, they go back in and listen to it and make determinations. They don't listen to it over and over and over. So I would say. Rest. You know, yep. Just be ready, make sure that the, the script, the pages are in order and all that kind of paginations, good and all those kinds of things, but don't worry about the content. And oh, be open, be ready to listen. Have a good notebook style thing of your choosing. Preferably something you can actually record. So you can take notes. Wild. Any thoughts about. Reading the script whilst being read versus just. You know, separate notebook. Away from the words. Oh, you mean like you're sitting with the, you're sitting with the script here and then you have a notebook here, like you're looking. Oh, sure. You can, you can look on. You know. Sure. Sure. I go back and forth about that just because, you know, I don't know, part of me doesn't want to be reading what I read. Let's just let it just listen. Hey, there you go. See, because again, it's about you and what you want. Not about me and what I would do because there's no, what I do is, you know, you know, I like to read. I like to read. I like to read. You know, what you want. Not about me and what I would do because there's no, what I do is, you know, you know, I like looking at the word, but I do this a lot so I can look at the words and write and talk to my mom on the phone and, you know, chastise my son for playing basketball too loud. You know, in the hallway, you know, but, but they I'll be able to do all that in my next life. So thank you. There you go. But really, I just want to get ready and listen and take plenty of notes, even the things that you say, I don't need to have note that, write it down anyway. And maybe tell the actors beforehand, I'm going to be writing a lot of notes. They're more for me. You know, they're not. Yep. Your performance. So when I write things down, just know that it's me thinking about the play. You know, tell them that's a good thing. Yes. I'm nervous. Oh no, we wrote something now and I said my line. Oh no. Okay. Great. Thanks. You're welcome. Thank you. Let's go to Crystal and then Jonathan. Hi. How are you? Good. It's getting good. Yeah. I'm up in like 15 pounds. So I'm good. All right. All right. I had a question. It's a little loaded. I hope it doesn't take too much time. Okay. I've been working on, um, I'm, you know, uh, the play with the, the nurse and the 80 something year old nurse and all of that. That's coming and it's, it's not coming like I want it to, but it's slowly. You know, revealing itself. Um, I have a, um, A want for him. Um, I don't really have a want for the other characters, which is kind of not happening, not coming together. But I say all that to say, I had a conversation with a friend of mine and one of the things that was coming up in the play that's coming up in this play that I kind of was like, how do I get away from this? And maybe this may be irresponsible of me as a writer or as a writer of color was that I wanted to write like a story that didn't have anything to do with like race or racism. Um, but I feel like eventually it's going to go there. Um, and I'm like, do I fight that? Do I, do I take on the, you know, the, the, not burden, but the responsibility of trying to teach something in here? Um, uh, it's, it's, I don't know. I feel like I've had this kind of thing, like, you know, Zephan Violet and, um, some of my other plays, a lot of my other plays deal with race or they've dealt with like personal, have been inspired by personal, like racial things that have happened to me or my family. And this is kind of, um, it's not related to anything that's happened to me personally, but I think about like, you know, one of the characters is a black woman in the hospital. And I think about the women, the number of black women who have been ignored in hospitals and have, you know, died or almost died because of, you know, of it. And I'm like, is this, is this going to change the, um, the goal? Well, the goal is to finish it really. If I could get halfway through that would be great. But the goal is to have something complete. Um, but I just, I feel like I, it's, um, I have this, like, just this internal, like, crisis, like, that's just like, what, as a writer, can I just write? Or as, as a writer of color, I have to write about the experiences of this woman as a writer. Am I responsible enough? Am I avoiding? I don't know. That's a great question, Crystal. So just we're going to talk fast. Let's see. So what is, what is your nurse character? A 80 year old nurse? What is, what is, what do they want? Uh, they want to be taken seriously. Okay. What does your, your, you said one of the patients is a a black woman, what does she want? She wants to get out of the hospital. Great, what's her problem? What does she, does she have some kind of illness? Yeah, they've discovered that there are issues with like, with her feet, but like that might lead to something more serious. Right, right. So don't have to be about race. Have to be about her feet. Just have to be about her feet. She got problems with her feet. You know what I mean? Just write like that, something, if something comes up, then it's authentically part of the story. Go in there, go in. Okay, I'm talking about black people in the hospital and how they face racism. And there you go. That's what you want to write about. Again, like we talked to the first person today, don't write the play, you don't like, right? Naya, Naya, is that how you pronounce? I'm sorry, I'm misprouncing your name, but don't write the play, you don't want to write, right? Don't write the play, you don't want to write. So you're going to just write about her feet and how her feet, I don't know, was she a dancer? Did she used to dance? No. How do you know? I don't. Did you ask her? I said that. She could, you know, she could, it was more of a like, then I was like, oh man, like, is this going to go into diabetes and is that going to go into a stereotype? And then it's that, like, I just kind of... Stop thinking, stop thinking, you're thinking too much. I'm sorry. I know you're, I'm talking to Crystal like this because we've been together in Wash We Work for many, many years. So a stereotype, I don't know, a stereotype, when is it, when is it like something that really happens? And when is it a stereotype? And is it bad to show a black woman in the hospital with diabetes who used to be a really great tap dancer and now shit her feet are fucked up and that's awful and she can't dance anymore. And she just wants to get out of the hospital, but, you know, she's just a, she's a person first. Right about her as a person, we're all people first and then the issue that gets tacked on to our story, in order to make us interesting is, you know, okay? So just get to know her. It's like, you walk by the bed too fast. You saw, oh, a black person. Okay, so, you know, whoa, that's going to be about, oh, that might be, whoa, you didn't even get to know her. You don't even know if she likes to dance or not. You know what I mean? So get to know, turn to her, look at her. Who is she? You do know what I mean? Does that make sense? Totally. Okay, and each one of your, each one of your, the people in the hospital, turn to them, look at them. Who are they? Talking, they have things to say. You're not paying attention to them. You just want to get done. Well, they want you to listen to them. You're saying the problem with the sad thing about black people in the hospital, black women in the hospitals, no one listens to them. You're not listening to her. Okay. Okay, Jonathan, we got like two minutes. Oh no, because I got to go. I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for your advice from last time about figuring out who that is at the door, because actually what it, yes, because actually what it did is it forced, it's forced the, it's basically my place, Malcolm X and Red Fox, they used to work in a kitchen in Harlem. Who knew? And it's forced them to actually deal with the stuff that they haven't dealt with previously in the play, so it's been really great. And then also I was curious, I know like a week ago or the week before, there's kind of like a round table with the public about playwrights regarding collective organizing and compensation. And I was wondering if that's going to be, if that was recorded or might be shared? I don't know, we got to look online at the public theater. I know many things, but not everything. Yeah, all right. Thanks, Jonathan. I'm so glad it's. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. Oh, hey, okay. Watch me work tip of the week, a suggestion for your digestion. It's Thanksgiving week. So, you know, obviously it's going to be the attitude of gratitude this week. A lot of times the most powerful prayer, if you're in the habit of praying to help yourself manifest your work, the most, one of the most powerful prayers is to say thank you for helping me right. Just acknowledging the power of the hand of, you know, the spirit in your life. It doesn't have to be God or Jesus or anybody, whatever. You know, we're not talking about that. We're talking about the power of the spirit. And if you've ever felt the spirit, when you are doing creative work, you know what I'm talking about. And if you haven't, something to look forward to, because it's a real thing, it actually is there. So, attitude of gratitude, that's our watch me work suggestion for your digestion this week. And we're going to have a happy Thanksgiving. Zoe, are we going to be back the following Monday? Yes, we will. See you all on Monday. Okay, see you all on Monday. Happy Thanksgiving. Hey, Carol, it's good to see you. Thank you so much, everyone. See you soon. Hey, thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you.