 I hope you all enjoyed it. This is Watch Me Work, I'm SLP. We are here to work with you. Watch Me Work is all about you. We've been doing this show since like 2010 or something when we used to do it live in the lobby of the public theater and thank you to the public theater and thank you to Howell Round for sponsoring us, guiding us, allowing us to keep it going all these many years. So what do we do? We work together for 20 minutes and then we talk, we spend the remaining hour talking with you about your work and your creative process. I probably left out a huge number of things but Audrey will tell, as I go to get my timer, Audrey will tell us how to get in touch if you have a question during the question's time. Well, thanks for something. Oh, oh, hi. I'm gonna stretch and get my timer there. There it is. It's like a cat dies. That did happen here, but not recently. Not recently, I think so. So if you have a question and you would like to get in touch, if you are inside of the Zoom, what you need to do is click on the raise your hand icon which is inside of the reactions button, likely on the bottom of your screen on the laptop or the top if you're on an iPad or a tablet. If you are not on the Zoom but you're watching remotely, you can ask us a question by tweeting it at, watch me work, SLP, dash tag howlround, H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D or you can tweet at the public theater, you can message the public theater on Instagram or you can write to our Facebook. And we'll get the question. We sort of answer questions in a willy-nilly fashion here. So we might not get to everybody, but thank you, thank you. That's sort of it. Willy-nilly, I love it. Yeah, willy-nilly. I love it. Okay, so we're gonna start by working together for 20 minutes and then we'll talk for the remaining time. Here we go. Blink, blink, blink, blink, all right, all right. Okay, cool. All right, so here's moment in the show. We take questions or, you know, sit inside. Crystal, are you putting your hand up in a traditional manner? You, here you go. Hey, Crystal, how are you doing? Did you forget where the raise your hand button was? I know. You know, when my script took over Zoom, so I couldn't find any buttons. So understood. Great, well, yeah, it always, this always works. Thanks for taking my hand. So I'm pretty much finished the Barbie. All right, yay, that's great. I'm gonna be, yeah, I'm really excited about it, really excited. It's great. Look at you, look at you. It's still out there. Look at you smiling. So I'm on to another piece that I think I'm gonna try to submit to another festival. Okay. And it's kind of hard because I feel like I've already started on it and it's called the Untitled Sermon. And it deals with race relations and how the church has ignored some churches. I'm not saying all. Some churches have just plain ignored great issues that have happened in the last few years. And I'm kind of having a hard time. I think I'm writing, I'm trying to write story first and like just see who wants to be a part of this story. Like I don't have a, this is just a different way I'm approaching writing this play. And so I'm approaching it more story-driven than character-driven if that makes sense because I know what I want to happen but I don't know who I want to be in it. I just kind of been like, all right, let's throw this name in here and see what they had to offer. And I think it's a play that I've wanted to write for a long time since George Floyd and since watching the inactivity of some places some places and I go to church. And so I feel like I can kind of say what I feel because what I witnessed and what I haven't witnessed and just looking around and searching in but at the same time, I feel like a little bit of a fear to dissect and to go in like that because it feels like, oh man, like this very hardcore sacred place but at the same, it's very conflicting I should say. And I think like I'm having trouble like sifting through that and getting to like the meat of what needs to be said because I'm already like, oh man, am I gonna be like tarred and feathered after this? But I feel like it needs to be done. It's just one of those plays that because this festival was like, oh, give us 10 pages. And I'm like, okay, I can do 10 pages. I think I can do 10 pages. I just feel very, this one's a tough one. This one's a tough one because they want to expand on it. If they choose it, they'll want to expand on it. And it's just, I think, I'm wearing both the church hat and the writer hat and they feel like they're in conflict with one another. Well, yeah, it's often hard to write about things that make us feel like, gee, if I write this, I'm gonna get hated on, and I hear what you're saying. So you're writing specifically about a specific church or when you say the church, that's kind of a broad brush there. Yeah, it's broad, I'm speaking to a group of churches that have not responded like at all to the things that have happened in our country in the last very, very visceral few years. Right, is it just to dig into a little bit, is it a church that you attend or is it a church other than you attend? It's like, I feel like my church was delayed. They did respond, but they were delayed in responding. And then I remember watching this program with like Kurt Franklin and he like flat out said with other white pastors. And he flat out said, I was disappointed that you didn't say anything. And I felt like you left us hanging. And when he said that, it was like, that was like, whoa, I wonder how far, because I mean, I was affected by all of this and my children were affected and my husband, we couldn't help but feel in all of this change and all of the things that are happening even now. Like it's like, so when he said that, it was like, whoa, you like took very strong words out of my mouth and poke them for me. And I kind of feel like this slight need to do the same in play form. I just kind of don't really know what I'm doing. I just know what the message, the point I want to make. But I don't have clear characters except like a pastor, but I don't have clear, I have more story than I have people. Right, right. Well, I mean, the simple answer is just start writing. I mean, again, it's like, we could talk about Mount Fuji or Mount Everest for the next 29 million hours, or we could just start walking. We could just start climbing, you know what I'm saying? We could just start one foot in front of the other. It's the same as anything you're writing, play, novel, movie, anything, you know? You're just going to have to put one foot in front of the other and just be specific. You're writing about, I mean, you know, I mean, I know you know a couple of things, just say it to people in general who might not know. There's a saying that the most segregated time in America is Sunday morning, you know? It's the most segregated moment in America every week, Sunday morning, because that's when folks go to church and folks usually don't go to the same, you know, the black folks are usually in this church over here and the white folks in this church and Asian folks over there and, you know, what have you. So that's something that we know, you know? The other thing that we know is that historically African-American churches have been very vocal and very involved in the civil rights movement. So that's something that you need to put in there. You know, you need to put in that it's a known thing that churches are often segregated, you know? And if yours isn't, then that's a something, you know? That's a something you're allowed to say that. And what, what are the worst case scenario, Crystal? What are they going to do? Tell you, you're not welcome here anymore? Then guess what? I'm sorry, but fine. Right. If you don't want to be, you don't want to be around, you don't want to be going to church every Sunday with people who aren't going to stick up for you. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, apply it to anything. I mean, you know, you want, you want people to go, gee, that's that behavior demonstrated by those policemen in Minneapolis is unethical. Just, you know, it's un-Christian. I mean, you know, I'm guessing, I mean, we say church, I'm guessing you're talking about Christian. It's un-Christian. Can't we say something about that? You know, and if they can't, then you don't need to be, I'm just suggesting that perhaps there are better churches to serve you and your family. But anyway, aside from that, the play, you just need to get specific, you know? Think of your characters, you know? Because if you don't think of your characters, then it's only, it might as well be an op-ed piece. You're not writing a play. Right. You're just on a soapbox, which is great, but you're not writing a play. Like Ernest Hemingway said, the writer, you know, if you want to send a message, go to Western Union, I agree. It's like, yeah, you know, if you want to just, if you want to write an essay, go ahead. But if you want to write a play, you need to think about who your characters are, you know? And maybe, you know, what moved your church or the church in question to finally speak and say something, even though it was delayed, you know? Think of characters, though. Plays have characters. Yeah, I mean, I have one, but... Okay, well, maybe all you need is one, but if you can only think of your message, drill down a little bit deeper. Drill down deeper? Yeah, and get some characters or flesh out the character. Otherwise, you don't want to be just a, you know, telling us what we already know, you know? Yeah. And maybe you're not thinking of characters because you're scared if you don't think of characters and you're not going to write it, but, you know? I know you. I mean, you've been coming here for a while yet, you know, so. You do know? Yeah, so write, you know, again, right? How many pages is a page? You know, write like a page and a half a day and see where you are next week. You should have 10 pages. And write them even if they're bad. So what? And if you are afraid of getting tart and feathered, don't show it to anybody. Okay. I'm not going to do that, but I'm going to show somebody. I'll show somebody. Okay. Okay. Cool. Thank you. Thanks, son. Thank you. All right, Matthew, you are up next. Hey, Matthew. Hey, how are you, SLP? Thanks. Hey, how are you? Good to see you too. And thanks so much for your advice a few weeks ago about reading out the poems, which has been very helpful. Lots of changes moving down the process, getting closer. And I'm actually going to start where Crystal finished, which is specifically about showing it to people. I had a friend of mine suggest that when I'm at the point where I feel ready, it's a good idea to let some people read it. I'm still new to this part of the process. So just curious, when I'm trying to put together this next part, how many people should I consider sending it out to? What are the kind of things that I would be hoping would come out of that? Those are great questions. Now, so there are poems that I remember, did you say you were going to do something video related or something like that? Correct. Have some of that. Right, ultimately music and video and the like, yeah. Would it be interesting to you to have them read aloud by people or what? Yeah, well, that's an interesting idea. I hadn't thought of that. Yeah, that is possibly a way to go. There are about 150 of these. So it's not a small lift to try and get many, but I suppose I don't need to get every single one in front of people. No, but you could have like, I mean, it depends where you're at with, and where we're at with COVID and all that. Inviting five folks over to your house and reading and giving them maybe, giving them 10 things. I mean, sometimes you invite people over, you give them a little bit of it to read and you have kind of a potluck thing. That's kind of fun. That's fun. It's social. You don't try to do it all at once, I wouldn't say if there, it sounds like a big project. So do it in sections. You could do it on Zoom if you have, even three friends or three people who are into reading it who care again, who care more about you than they do about seeing their ideas in your work. We've talked a couple of weeks about somebody had a similar question about maybe trading off. Like if you have a group of people who you read stuff with, maybe someone else is gonna show some of their work so it's kind of reciprocal. And you get some people to read it out loud, which could be fun. Yeah, I love that. Just to hear it. Sure, that makes sense. My brother has written some plays and at the end of his readings, he would sometimes ask, I don't know, it seemed pretty impromptu and informal. Is there any conventional process about asking people for feedback, any specific things to ask? I think you can just say, any thoughts, any questions, any places where it was like fun, any places where it was confusing, any suggestions and you can be open and you can have your notebook open and whether they're in front of you in your home or whether they're on Zoom, which is great. And they can just talk about your work and give you some honest feedback. Hopefully again, and it's important to get people who really appreciate you and know you, and they're gonna give you encouraging feedback. I would suggest soliciting encouraging feedback. That's very important. Like, we're learning. You're learning and every time you write something new, it's like you're learning how to ride a bike all over again, a bicycle. And I don't know how many people were successful. If their parent were running alongside them, yelling at them, it's awful, it's awful. You want someone going, yeah, yeah, good job. You know, even if you're wobbly on it, you want someone to cheer you on. So to follow up, is it important to have every one of these works read and digested by others before I would try and say self-publish or send the whole collection out? No, no, no, but it's a way to kind of help you rewrite it if you want to do some rewrites, you do sections of them, say they're like 200 of them. So you do. Yeah, 150. So you do section, you know, you can do, you know, whatever, three sections, three visitings, you know, three meetings, if you will. And just hear them out loud and, you know, rewrite in between. I love this. This is great. I'm very inspired by that. I look forward to it. Thank you. Sounds like a great project, man. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, Sarah. Hey, Sarah. Hey, SOP. Hi, SOP. Hi. Hi, everybody. So I'm hoping that asking this question, like nearly asking it will open up my brain a little bit, but we'll see. I have been trying to write shorter pieces, like the 10 page plays that, you know, Crystal seems to be working on also, but it's really hard. I get really in the weeds because I always want to write people who are very involved or have a lot of growing to do and 10 pages feels like a very short amount of time to spend with characters. And I was sort of wondering if you had any advice or knew how to approach something like a limit, like a page limit, so short. Sure. Have you ever watched television? Oh, she's muted. Oh, let me help you. Oh, she, I know. Oh, well, I'm sorry, there you go. Yes. Episodes? Yeah, they do tend to be shorter with the same people every time. Okay. Right? Right, so, right. So if you have a, I mean, if you write a play about people who have a lot of growing to do and you just cut it off at an interesting place, I mean, everything ever written, is a lot longer than it is on the page. The Odyssey. Okay, he gets home, he fights the suitors, they get together. The end, really? And then they did 100 million other things, right? We just call it the end because that's where we're ending it. You see what I'm saying? So the end is an artificial, you know, happily ever after, and then the dishes, you know, and then they do, and then they have to get up the next morning and wash the dishes. You know, we don't hear about that, right? But the end is just where the writer or the storyteller, she's decided to say, say the end. Does that make sense? Yeah, a little bit. So a little, yeah, I know, I know. I'm gonna make less sense now, I'm gonna go. So don't sweat it if you have long involved characters, just when you get to your page limit, as you approach, what do you call it? 10 page play, you're thinking like a 10%? Great, as you round the corner, have you ever run track and field? No. Definitely not. I've seen it. Okay, great. So they're up on the corner. It's, they're 220 meters from the finish line. They're rounding the corner, you know, the final turn, you know what I mean? They're running around the corner. As you are on page eight and you hit page eight and you're cresting your round in the corner to page 10, start wrapping it up, pretend it's a TV show, like a pilot, like a pilot for a TV show, you know? It's just, it's just the end for now. You can come back to them. It's not, again, again, think of, think of any novel, anything, any work. The end is not summing up of everything. It's just where we stop. Just wrap it up in some fashion. No, that sounds good to me. That helps a lot. Thank you. Yeah, okay. We'll see. Thank you, Sarah. All right, Richard. Yeah. Hey, Richard. Hi. Oh, great to see you. Oh, it's so connected to what my problem is, which you just said was about the end. It's like, I've been so much rewriting, adding pages to what comes before the end. In the end, which was actually the first thing I knew about what I was writing, now just doesn't sit with me. And I guess I had this like constant thing about, because when someone said this thing about, oh, you've written a play, it's not a screen, it's how can you call this a screen play? And I kind of feel like a lot of what the end is is about the connection to the people that's not about words. Okay. So I want to be more focused. I guess I'm always thinking about that so-called contradiction between the play versus the script, the screen play, or maybe you answered the question, I read it like, how do you know if it works? How do you know if this is the end? I mean, it's weird after two months, it's like actually after a year to finally come to the end and say, hmm, something's not working. No, I hear what you're saying. I guess I just need someone to listen to me. Well, actually that's one of the reasons why we're here for each other, because we need someone to listen to us. We need someone to see us. We need someone to say, hey, you're a writer, you're an artist person, you're doing something beautiful. All right, just that and more and so much more. But I hear you when you say that, Richard. I mean, how do you know it's the end? I mean, I heard in there though that someone said something to you that sounded kind of snarky to me. I mean, you haven't written a screen play, you've written a play or whatever that comment was. I mean, that's kind of. Well, and there was something about it. I didn't even know what they said, where's your D point? Where's your D, whatever? Wow, whatever that is, your D, what? B, I guess that there's no- A B story? Yeah, if it's no B story, then it's not a screen play, it's just a play. Yeah, yeah, that's, you know, there are a lot of people out there who give advice and whether they're right or wrong, I don't know if they're right or wrong or whatever, but I do know when some people tell people something that pushes the person back, you know what I mean? And we've got a lot of that going on in our entertainment industry. We've got a lot of that going on in the world. Russia thinks they own the Ukraine. It's happening all over. It is kind of like there are ways to give notes when you're reading someone's work and there are ways to help them move forward in their desire to write something. And that's, those are the kinds of people, Richard, that you need to continue to surround yourself with more of those people who are encouraging and inclusive rather than people who are discouraging and make you feel like, you know, what's it all about? You know, what's it all worth? Okay, so just keep a list and keep away from the assholes. Well, keep a, yeah, keep away from the assholes. Everybody is full of shit. Some people are only assholes, distinguish and stay clear of those assholes, bro. Okay? I don't know, you know, for every time people say it's not a screenplay, if it doesn't have, I mean, there's so many cool screenplays out there. There's so many cool movies. There's a whole tradition of the avant-garde. There's so many things going on in the world that, you know, it's not the 1930s anymore. There are lots of ways to tell a story and there are lots of people who are seen as leading characters, blah, blah, blah. I'll get off my soapbox. If you're concerned about your end, Richard, you can write what I do a lot. Is I write a list of 10 stupid endings? Oh, okay. Here, the stupidest endings I can possibly think of. She buys a dog, you know? She, you know, just think of crazy, wacky endings that couldn't possibly be any good. Write down 10 of them and they all have to be kind of silly. Stupid, not very good. And then you'll look at them and I think one is gonna appeal to you, you know? One is gonna appeal to you, you go, hey, that might be fun. And go to one of those endings. And please keep coming back to watch me work because we really endeavor to be supportive and critical, you know? I'll put the fire under your behind, you know what I'm saying? But, okay. So clearly, just, you know, the criteria is not well to fix a problem. The criteria script versus screenplay is not about how many words in one form versus the other. And in my experience, it's not about word count. You know, think of, think of, I mean, think of Wally Sean's My Dinner with Andre. I'm just making, you know, out of my head, right? Wally Sean's My Dinner, who knows? I could have been a play. You know, Wally Sean's a great playwright and a fine screenwriter. You know, it could have been a play, but it was a movie. It was about two guys sitting talking. I don't know, it could have been a play, could have been a movie, it was a movie. You know what I'm saying? So I think it's the intent of the writer and what the writer imagines or what a filmmaker imagines they'd like to see. Some movies are just pictures. Some plays are just images and movement. Some beautiful composition, musical compositions don't have any notes like John Cage. I mean, hello, it's 2022. We're free. It's still Black History Months, please. Please, you know what I'm saying? So word count is not the definition of a screen player. There's so many long ass speeches and plenty of movies have long speeches. Plenty of plays have little blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, mammoth, Buddha, Buddha, short lines in his plays and his movies. So I think there's more to, I think that person doesn't give the best feedback as what I think. And you need to surround yourself with people who give you better feedback. It's not just that person. I think, I guess, I hear it a lot, but just because that person does stuff with blah, blah. No, no, it's not about what you said was great. Just, you know, I love, you don't know, like I guess the question was also, you don't, unless you see, you film it, you see what's happening between the two people, you won't know really if it's ever gonna work. Well, I mean- In a way. There were blockbusters written by seasoned pros that tank. There are things written on a shoestring budget that's sore by newcomers. You know. Thank you. You're welcome. It's hard to say goodbye, but thank you. Come back next week. No, I'm in today, I'll be staying. Thanks. All right, we've got about seven minutes left. We're gonna go down the road. Hey, Ryan. Hey, bro. Oh, sorry, I said, Lynn, I'm so sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm saying hi to Ryan. I don't see Lynn. Where is Lynn? Oh, there's Lynn. You have an amazing background today. Isn't that a beautiful background? I know this elderly lady and she started painting. She's 93. Wow. And isn't that wow? That is wow. And she started writing poetry and I just think it's so beautiful that I put it on the background because I put it on the background. What is her name, please? Sure, could you put her name in the chat? Nada. Yes, I did. Yes, and I'll give you her last name as well. Thank you. I have two questions. One, it has to do with Richard and it has to do with what you said the last time, which is be kind. And I have a younger friend and she started, I encouraged her to write. I really encouraged her to write and she wrote something. And she's an actress and she's a wonderful actress and she's a mutual friend of mine and Amelia's and she performed it. And I, as she read it to me, I thought there's, I said to her, there's something here that it's really wonderful that you're writing. You know, I mean, it wasn't that, I just wanted to encourage her more. And she left a message she wanted to know how she thought she did when she performed what she wrote. And I want to be kind because I want her to make it better. Because it's important to, and I'm so touched that just my encouragement made her sit down and write. It's basically your encouragement to me to write. So I just giving it forward. And, but how do you do that when you see there's a problem, problems which are difficult to, difficult to explain to them? That's a great question. And just talk, just talk to her, just talk to her about what you love. Okay, great. I guarantee you, if she continues forward, she will figure out what she needs to fix, work on, correct. Yeah. It's really, it's like walking. It's like learning to walk. I mean, I don't know. You know, Durham, you should see how tall he is. Come here, come here. Show Lynn how tall you are. We still have the panda you gave to him. Can you? Oh my goodness. How big he is. Okay. You remember when he was learning to walk? Yes, I remember. Really, you just wait a smile. Okay, goodbye. Goodbye, go away now. But you remember, you know, so we encouraged them. You know what I mean? You encourage. Yes. She figured out how to get it right. Now, as it goes forward, sure, we're gonna have to take him to task for everything under the sun, but I think you start, especially with someone who's new or someone who is just right, start with encouraging. Okay. You start with encouraging. And as you, the relationship between your right herself and her right herself as a deep end, you can become more specific and that conversation about how to talk about the things that don't work so much, you know? Or you can ask her. Are the things about it that don't work so much? Okay. I'd have a lot of ideas. She's a fine actress. She's used to, you know, having that feedback loop going. Yes, yes. So you can, you know, but just be kind and. I just said, I was so encouraged. I was so touched that she did it, you know, better than me because, you know, finishing is a big deal anyway. I love you. And Richard, I just want to say what, just reiterate what SLP said before, get people who are kind to you, you know, who are positive, you know, not somebody who's going to sock you, you know, okay. I have just a little question because you have one minute, focus. Could you talk a little bit about focus? What do you need to know? What do I need to know? I sit and write and I have my timer and I'm writing for an hour, you know, and, you know, a lot of times it's just babble, sort of like you're warming up to do something rather than to do the dance. I was reading something recently. Make the time shorter. Really? Yeah, do three minute, two minute bursts. It could be the equivalent of high intensity training hit, you guys, high intensity interval training, you know, and just write short bits, write for short amounts of time, you know. The idea is to put the time in, but maybe you just write, you know, or write two minutes, you know, five times a day. Okay, thank you. No, that's great. Thanks. See you next week. Likewise, sis. We have a second for Ryan. I know, do we have a second for Ryan? Ryan, is your question quick? It's so good to see you. Yeah, yeah, it's good to be back in the space. I feel a little long-winded today, but everyone's questions were so helpful and they all like informed sort of what I was trying to get out myself. But, yeah, I was really, yeah, what Matthew and Richard and what Crystal spoke about at the top, I was like, yeah, it was all very helpful. So I'll come in next week. Hi. Okay, bro, it's great to see you. It's good to see you. It's great to see everybody. Yeah, yeah, really. Okay. Okay. All right, so it is six o'clock and we'll, SLP will touch base and we'll be back. We'll be back, yeah, next, we're into March. We'll be back next week. I'm sorry, Audra didn't respond to your email. It's okay. Yes, Mark. Yes, see you next week then. Okay. It's confirmed. Yay, yay. Yay, bye everybody. Bye.