 Happy March. Happy March. This is Watchmen work. We're going to work for 20 minutes and then we're going to spend the time remaining talking with you about your work and your creative process. We have, we are grateful to the public theater and howl around for making this virtual space possible for us. We're here most every Monday from five to six via Zoom. We've been doing this for many, many, many years, like 10, 11, 12 years from the lobby of the public theater. Sorry, there's some noise in the background. And if you want to get in touch with us after the 20 minute work session, Audrey can tell you how to do it. Let's hear it, Audrey. Hi friends. Thank you for having on the Zoom today. If you would like to ask a question, and you're inside of the Zoom, all you need to do is click on the raise your hand button in the reactions tab, which is likely on the bottom of your screen if you are on a laptop or the top of your screen on a tablet. And if you're watching our live stream, you can actually ask us questions on Twitter with at what we work SLP with the hashtag howl around. H O W L R O U N D, or you can tweet at the public theater, or write to our Instagram and we'll get questions that way. And that's it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. So shall we begin. Let us begin. Here we go. Now we're here for the Q&A. We got a queue. I'll find an A. Hey, Ryan. Hey, Ryan. Hey, hello. How are you doing, man? I'm good. I'm getting back. I just I'm not as zoom friendly as I once was. It's good to be here. Yeah, good to see you. I guess my question. So it's more I'm in the editing world now. Okay, what do you mean the editing world. Yeah, I think I'm trying to think of back to like, So I have like a body of work. Right. And, and so I was trying to approach some other editing ways I had before. Okay. Where I printed out so like I had written it and then I typed it up and I printed out a body of work. I had like half of it and then I just like put it down and walked away for some time. And that's a habit I know. And I know that in order to do. In order to create work, you need to show up. So I think I have a tendency to, to maybe get to the top of this mountain and then. And then, and then start looking out in other directions. So, but now I'm at the point. So it's, at first it was like a one person narrative, but then I was like, I think there's these five voices in this piece. So I'm trying to create a choir. And I've gotten into the jive of like, Oh, this is exciting that like this, this voice says this and this voice says this and then, and that's always, and that's exciting because that will feel good. And that's like, so then obviously that makes us want to show up more. You're like, Oh, this feels good. That hitting a lot of repetitive. And that's where I sort of, I think that sort of derails me because I, I'm, I'm like questioning if it's like in this repetition, like what works or what doesn't work. I think I'm being very precious as opposed to just like trying to use the image of like a, I think you've used before I produced like a sort of like enjoying the editing process of cutting things. Right. Like, um, in some of this repetition, I'm getting just a little lost in like what I'm trying to hang on to or like, I'm like, maybe that will eventually serve me, but it doesn't. But I think, um, so yeah, I guess in the editing, in terms of like repetition and what you, what feels worth, it's hard. Yeah. I guess it's like, I feel like I'm so in it. I can't really gauge what is how to cut some of this repetition. If it's catering to, uh, sort of the momentum of the story or not. Okay. Okay. So let me try to paraphrase. So you have a, you have a piece and you've written from the beginning to the end. So you have a, right? Is that correct? Yeah. Great. Okay. So that's great. So you've crossed the finish line and now you're going back and you're, you're working on the editing of it. And you find that in the editing, you're discovering that you have a lot of repetition. Right. Yeah. Correct. And you're wondering if that repetition, if we should cut it or we should keep it. Right. Yeah, I'm getting, yeah, I'm just getting, because I feel like some of it is helpful. I guess I'm just getting, and then, uh, and then I, yeah, I just sort of get them. I think I'm getting a little lost in, if it's just a little soap boxy repetition. I hear you. I hear you. So I mean, if you feel like some of it is helpful, then I would keep the parts of it that feel helpful. And the parts that feel like, I've heard that five times and I'm not really, um, I'm not going anywhere new with it. You know, or it's not really helping the piece in any way. You don't always have to go somewhere new with it. That's just one way of deciding. But if it's really not helping the piece, if it's not being additive, if it's not taking your piece to the next level, then, um, you can take it out for the moment and put it off to the side, you know, and you can always put it back. You know what I mean? You're not cutting it and burning it and forgetting about it. You know, you're just cutting it for the moment. And you're going to try it without it. You know, just, just go ahead, go ahead and enjoy pruning. And it's going to, I think maybe some new things will come to mind after you've cut some of the repetition, maybe think, but I need something there, but I don't need a repetition. I don't need something that's just repeating. I need something new there. Maybe, you know, you cut, maybe the speech that, you know, that you're thinking about is cutting is this long, right? So you cut those seven lines out and you just leave the space and go, what, what new can happen here? Just write that, you know, in the space by hand or write it in big letters like need something new here. You know, where else can, what else can the speaker say on this point? You know, where else can, what else can we talk about? What else might be fun to see right here? You know, or fun to hear right here. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I think I'm just, it's interesting to, I'm finding myself in this precious energy space. I'm not even, I, I just, I was editing out of a hard sort of copy by hand, but then I went, I was like, I think I'm going to try editing within the matrix computer route. And I'm even noticing instead of cutting, I'll just like italicize them. I'm like, maybe I should cut this, but I'm like, girl, why don't you just cut it? Well, why did you move from the hard copy to the computer? I think when I, I think I sort of, I fall into the category of, of actors to create one person performances. But then I, I think with this piece, I was like, I was like, you could have these five different voices of this one. They're coming, I guess in this moment, they're coming from the same space. So in going back to the computer, I've been, I've, that's where I found the excitement in being like labeling the voices. And like that editing process has like, the moment and that has been exciting, but then I'll still just italicize things. And I'm like, well, you couldn't just came on to it, even though I'm like working on like a duplicate copy. Right. Okay. Okay. So we got to simplify, we got to simplify. So. Assigning parts to different voices is not rewriting. That's writing. That's why it feels confusing. So what you do is take the, take a copy that's on your computer, assign the voices. Don't cut anything. Assign the voices and then print it out. With the voices assigned, right. And then cut by hand, circle, cross out, cross out and say repetitious, what new can I have here? Or what else can the care, this character say this character said this five times already, I'm tired of hearing it, you know, what else is new? Like that. Okay. So, yeah, cause you're writing and rewriting at the same time. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. So assign the voices, get all that, get all that done to the best of your ability in this draft. And then print it out again. And then read it through and start circling and drawing lines through things that you'd like to cut. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. More fun. Yeah, I mean, yeah, we talked about before, you know, doing one thing at a time, writing and then rewriting is, is better than trying to do them both at the same time. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. It's great to hear you writing though, man. It's great to hear you. Yeah. All right. Nate, you had your hand up. I know. And it's like, no, I don't have a question. I think it was the wrong type of emoji. I'm sorry. I know it's weird. There you go. There you go. Hey, bro. All right. So I will ask, I was, I was heaven and haunt. So, um, in the grand scope of like playwriting, I'm, I'm new. My, my training is in acting and I took my first playwriting class, um, one year ago this February. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. In that time, I've completed two full length plays. Look at you. And both of them have been finalists in competitions, one at the South and one somewhere else. But here's, here's the question I have. I'm still, you know, in that rewrite place listening to readings, very private readings where I'm making changes. And, um, I actually have a Tony and Grammy nominated star who's attaching herself to one of my plays. My question is I'm really, really new to this world. What do I do? Do I just keep submitting to the various contests and workshops and hope to workshop it, or do I. That's that. Yeah, that, that's a great idea. I mean, if, if, if that's, I mean, it seems like you're having good luck with, with, with submitting it your place to various contests and things. Sounds like you've got a great actor, actress, a person, um, who's, who's attaching themselves to your work, which is all good things. I would just, I would keep doing what you're doing. Um, I think what's cool is that the actor that was attaching themselves to your work might have ideas also. You know, um, hey, let's send it here. Hey, I, I know some people over here who can, who would love to do a reading like that. So that could help sort of bring your work to the eyes and ears of, of some people and instead, in addition to the submitting it for, you know, a contest route. You know, I think that's the best part to make. Yeah. So I'm trying to build its resume. Yeah. Keep trying. Well, well said. There you go. Keep trying to build its resume and keep writing more stuff. You know, that's good too. Thank you. You're welcome. Congratulations on all your hard work, man. I'm glad it's coming together trying to change my life with my brain. There you go. Perfect. Great. Crystal, go for it. Hi, how are you doing? I'm good, I'm good. Good to see you. Good to see you too. So we're back at the same place we were like last week. Uh-huh. Where I'm working on this, you know, the play about the sermons. I changed it to the absent sermon. And so right now it's one character. And I think four or five different sermons. Okay. And an event happens right outside the church. And it's basically. Him missing the mark because he's preaching on one thing. Something's happening and he's not addressing what's happening until later. Um, but I don't, I don't think it's a one. It's, it's not, I know it's not a one man. Um, play. But I've had a really hard time trying to find. Trying to imagine. More people. Um, because I think there. There's common. There's a lot of commentary on my end. For the process, not the process for what he. Has to say or what he has to go through. And hopefully grow from. But I, I feel like there should be other people. There too. I don't know. I feel like there should be a world. And I don't have that world. I just have this event. And this one man speaking, but I feel like there's more to it. And I don't know how to. How to. Get more of an. I don't know how to create that world. Usually the world kind of comes. Um, but I kind of just process has been a little bit. Um, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And I told you, like, just different. Um, because it's just coming from my opinion. And so I feel like I. Maybe I. I should have. Done things. The normal way, whatever way that is. Yeah. I don't know what that way that is. The normal way is whatever way, whatever it is that you're doing. Right. So have you ever seen the matrix? Oh yeah. Great. You know, Neo. We've been playing on one. Zero. Looks like they're looking at zeros on that green thing. Great. Okay. So you're looking at a screen, right? So you're Neo right now. Just look. Look at the screen. See all the zeros and ones. See those green lines. Okay. Right. Tell me who's in the play? Who else do we need to hear from who else do you need to see? Just tell me. Who else do you see? Who do you see? Hey, something. Black man. Black man doing what? Quick. Are you in? Are you in with him? Angry. Great. A woman? Yeah, great. What's she doing? What's she look like? What? She's trying to defend. And trying to defend the preacher. Oh, okay. Great. Okay. Who's she talking to? She's talking to the black man. Great. Okay. Great. Who else do you see? Who else? Quick. Screen is zeros and ones. That's all there is. You're reading the code. What is it? What do you see? I'm a pastor. Good. Okay. Who else? Even if it's wrong. How old? Seven. Great. Does it matter? Does the gender sex or whatever the appropriate phrases? I don't know. I don't know. Great. Okay. What ethnic group? Anything? Can you see anything else? A white boy. White boy. Seven years old. Great. Who else? Who else? Zeroes and ones. Who else do you see? Come on. What's he see? Black woman. Black woman. Yep. A different one than before. Puerto Rican. Man. Man. What's he doing? What's his deal? He's angry too. He's angry. What's he angry at? He's angry at. At. The lack of response. Great. Oh, but there, look, I see there are people who are happy. Someone's happy. Someone's glad. Happy. Right. Don't you think? Okay. Zeroes and ones. What else is there? There's depth of field. They're not on the same page. Okay. Come on, Nia. Read the code. What do you see? Say something wrong. An Asian woman. Say something wrong. Go ahead. Keep going. Go ahead. An Asian woman doing what? Where does she just come from? An Asian woman. Complicit. Okay. Is she old? Young? She's middle age. Great. Does she have a family? Yes. How many? Three kids. And a husband and wife. What? Has been. Great. Okay. What does she do for a living? She's a nurse. Okay. Good. There's some people. Some, you know, right? I mean, yeah. Yeah. Well done. You see, it's all, it's there. You just have to like. You know, read it. That's good. Those are some people. Okay. Now you can make scenes out of those. They can talk to the audience. You know, they can all go to the church that she, that he preaches at the pastor preaches at, you know, right? You can put them anywhere you want. They can be on the street. They can, you know, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. And just, I guess what, Crystal, that was the normal way of doing it. Okay. Well, yeah. So see how that works. Yeah. Yeah. What that feels like, right? For those people. You know, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. That was fun. That was fun. That was fun. Right. Okay. Oh, amazing. All right. Lynn, you're up next. I'll meet yourself. You got it. There you go. There you go. So endings. Endings. Yeah. When you talk about, you know, just writing crap, just write crap. Is that the same for endings? Okay. Just write crap. End it like, you know, Building falls on, you know, Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Piano falls from the sky crushing the character blackout. Yeah, that'll work. Yeah. Yeah. That'll work. You know, you write that and then you, I'm reading the whole play and I'm like, I don't know. Maybe. I mean, but maybe that'll work. Maybe if there, you know, maybe that. Yeah. You know, I, the play is about, I, and the play takes place in a bed. Okay. Because I think life takes place in a bed. A lot of life takes place in bed. Okay. And, and people come and go in the bed. You know, it's a mother and father. There are lovers there. There are, you know, people, I mean, it just seemed like this absurdist vision. I seem to get ideas in pictures rather than words to begin with. Okay. And that gets bigger and smaller as, as my goes on, you know. Okay. And then the piano falls on the bed and that's the end of the story. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, okay. I mean, you gotta say like, what's the story? You know, what's the story? We'll tell you what the end, but end you need to have, right? Oh, you want to, you know, you, you want to like, like wrap it up. I mean, also what kind of bed is it? It's a, when you say what kind of bed is it? What do you mean? It's getting past your peak to be a dicker. However you want to answer the question. The bed is, is just a bed, you know, raked a little, so people are, it's a bed and it gets bigger and smaller and smaller. Okay. You know, there's so many different kinds. I mean, there's the futon kind of bed. There's this triangle. But I mean, it's like, it's like, what kind of person is it? It's just a human. I mean, why are you asking me? I'm saying there's a human in my play. I'm like, you see what I put crystal through? Like, how old is she? How many children? You know, I mean, it's if you're playing, you know, what kind of bed you might want to ask yourself that question. I'm asking you. Thank you. Is it a Murphy bed? No. Okay. Is it a water bed? No. Does it change at all during the course of the play? It gets bigger and smaller and bigger and smaller, but it's so it's the same ass. Like your basic hotel bed. That all it goes and how, why does it grow? What it's, is there mold on it? How does it grow? It was growing. Just as a twin. More people come, more people are in the bed at certain times. But why does that mean the bed has to be bigger? That's a good question. Thank you. I took, I'm just asking you because I'm trying to get you. You're asking, what's the story? The story of your. Of your play is the story of the bed, right? It gets bigger and smaller. And then what does it do? Like. You know, I don't know. Everybody goes to sleep or everybody takes a nap or people do the, does anybody hide under the covers? No, but it's, the story is the story of someone's life. Right. Does anybody hide under the covers? Does anybody hide under the bed? Oh, this is so great. So much. I mean, it's like, it's like, it's like, you know, I've never taken acid, but taking the class with you. I imagine it's like taking acid because good reason. You go like this to all of us. You know, I remember when I was in second city, the piano player always took acid and, and it was sometimes very exciting. I mean, I know he was, he was a very nice person, but he dropped acid a lot. And, and that's interesting. You know, and I would say, could I just have a bell tone if I have to sing? Cause I don't have perfect pitch. You know, and he said, oh man, I'm sending it to you. I'm sending it to you. And you keep on sending me the bell tone. There you go. That's part of my job. I know that's part of my job. Your background, the background, your wallpaper, whatever it's called, looks like a trip. A 91 year old woman, an artist sent it to me. Last week you said you were going to put her name in the chat. I did. I started typing and it was over her name is, her name is not a client spelled C L Y and E. Oh, okay. Not a client. He's 91 or 92. And I just love. Oh, there you go. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Audrey. Awesome. Okay. So, so just think about your bed. And then, you know, you know, Also the bed is a character. There you go. Does it talk. Just try to talk with bed. Yeah. There's a bed ever sleepy. There's a bed ever go like, get off me. Yeah. Live your life and get out of the fucking bed and who, I mean, does somebody tuck them in? That's the best part. He tucked them in. They roll off of it occasionally. Oh, okay. They roll off occasionally. Okay. So when they get finished talking about whatever there is you're talking about, then it's over. Right. So you're talking about the end of the day. You're talking about the end of the day. You're talking about the end of the day. Unless it ends before they're done. And then there's the end there. Okay. You know, Yeah, just right. Just right until you can't think of anything else and then write some more. And then go, what's the end and then think of 10 silly things. 10 silly ways that you could end it and pick one of those. Okay. The piano, we already tried that. So you have to pick. I kind of like it. Yeah. Or they could all just be under the covers with the flashlight. Yeah. Yeah. Like your son. Yeah. Yeah. Now he has an iPad. I know. He was tall. Yes. He's, he's almost as tall as I know. I know. I'm not, I mean, I'm not tall, but I'm not short either. I know. Five. Five something. Five three or something. I know he's big. It's a large one. He's a large one. Thank you, Lynn. We've got about 11 minutes left and we're going to go to Laura. Hey, Laura. How did we just have you got it. Okay. How are you doing? Crystal, thank you for putting an Asian in your play. But I just want to say that, you know, I've been writing for comedy. I haven't been able to find the humor in this whole thing. I just want you to know that thank you for doing this community. Cause when I listened to everybody, it gives me the motivation of pushing to, to just get to write, you know, so thank you. And that's it. I, I sent something to Audrey and it was when David Henry, Henry Wong was here, it made me think of this whole thing. And it was about Yuri Coach Yama and Malcolm X. So if you're interested, I know that there's a movie thing. Thinking, you know, Lisa Ling is working on that. And it's just on the site. So if you want to just get in touch with me, I'll tell you whatever. But thank you for doing this always. It's just helping me move forward. How's your writing going, Laura? How's your writing going? The humor, I decided maybe I just take comedy classes therapy and not actually get out there and do stuff, you know, but I, we just moved back in the city and my neighbor, Upper West has all these comedy clubs. I need to get out and do it, you know, but I've been just so, my head is, I'm worried because of all the Asian hate crime stuff out there. And my son said, don't worry, mom, you don't even look Asian. Just don't open your math. You sound like a Jew because my kids are Chinese and Jewish. You know, so I'm like, oh my God. But I have to get out there and do the clubs. You just told a joke. That was a joke. I was, we were laughing. I don't know. I'm not the only one. We were laughing. I mean, that is a joke. You could get on stage and talk about Asian hate and how you're dealing with Asian hate and, you know, how your son says, hey, don't worry about it, mom. You know, you sound like a Jew. I don't know. That's, that's fun. That, that to me is funny. I don't, and I don't think it's like offensive. I mean, I don't know, but yeah, you did. Like you said, I think, yeah, just get out there, get out there because I think what's funny has changed also. What's funny has changed. I think we can go deeper and we can, we can speak more truth and say things. Maybe that maybe we couldn't say a couple of years ago. Maybe. Hopefully. Thank you. Thanks, Laura. All right. So we've got our eight minutes. We have a question. We can all look at our phones. We could. Or look at the code, the zeros and ones. Zero and one is a code. Second question. Oh, I pressed the wrong button. I think, oh, I've lost him. Oh, there you go. But he, he's on mute. There he is. Hi. So here's my question. I'm doing a rewrite and in it, I've decided to cut two characters, so I'm just making my play a three-hander. Okay. Now, when you go through in the rewrite and you do the cuts, because of everything I have to add. Do I, is it best to treat that like I'm in a revision? Or is it best to treat it like I'm back to stage one. Writing stage and just not be afraid to do like a fertilizer draft. I'm not familiar with the term fertilizer draft. Write all the shit and then out of the shit grows the flowers. Okay. Every draft. Yeah, yeah, fertilizer. So, yeah. I think you should always write like that. I'm always right like that. So treat the rewrite like it's like you're starting from scratch. Well, like you keep what you think is working. And you cut what you feel is not, you know what I mean? So don't, I mean, it's not like a rule. Like the fertilizer draft. I mean, it's like, uh, we're not going to just cut stuff just because we're writing a fertilizer draft. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. We're just, we're just going to, again, but that's every single rewrite you're going to cut what doesn't work and keep what does. Always. Is that. Well, I think, because I'd written the play cohesively, um, you know, but now that I'm removing the characters, there's big, there's big gaps that they used to fill. So what I think I was wondering is, do I go into those sections and write them as if it was first draft, or do I go in there with the editing mind knowing what exists in the rest of the play, you know? Yeah. Well, it depends if the scene works without them. Like sometimes, sometimes if they're necessary, for example, you move into an, you buy an apartment, right? You go, I want to remodel the kitchen. Can I cut, can I eliminate that pillar? And they go, no, that's a bearing wall, bro. So you have to use, you know what I mean? So that's holding up the whole structure. Now, if you're cutting some of the holes up the whole structure, you're going to need to fix, you're going to need to add something that's going to keep it up. If it's not a bearing wall, then, and you cut it. And it's like, oh, I don't even need that moment. You know, then you don't need to fill anything in there. You see. So it's really depends on what it's doing. If you go scene by scene by scene. Um, take out the character. Great. Take out the character. See if the scene works without them. Sometimes you can just assign a line here and a line there to the characters that are still remaining. Sometimes it's that simple. That's awesome advice. Thank you. Thank you. Look at that. What a beautiful day. I think it is. Thanks for the question. I know. Oh. Crystal's got a question. Yeah. It's, it's actually unrelated to what I've been writing. It's more of like the writing experience, the writer's experience. And like, you know, um, The, the rejection process. Um, and like, how do you. How do you bounce back after several rejections? Um, and like, when do you know. I don't know if the word is like give up on a play or like. Put it down or let it go or like, you know, how many. Is there like a formula for a number of rejections or. Yeah, that's a really brave. That's a really brave question. How do you deal with like, you know, people not. Not being as into your stuff as you'd like them to be or. You know, like, you know, I don't think there's a formula. I think it's a personal thing. Like, you know, if you get like some people. You know, if it gets rejected on the first try, then they're like, I'm done. You know, um, I think overall, I think continuing to create work is the best. Uh, antidote. You know, um, so, you know, the phrase ain't nobody. Ain't going to let nobody turn me around. You know, that song you do. Ain't going to let nobody turn me around. You know, it's a song from the civil rights movement. You know, maybe you've, you know, you've heard it. Um, that's what kind of, you know, they weren't talking about their writing process, but they were talking about the need to keep going and not letting anybody turn them around. You know, so you just, you just keep at it and you just keep sending them out. Um, there's no, you know, maybe you get tired of sending out play number seven. So you put that aside for a minute. You send out play number eight. You know, you get, you know, play number eight isn't getting traction. You send out play number 10. What usually happens is once people go, Oh wow, her work is great. Then they go, gee, you must have just, you must, you're an overnight success. You know, and you go, yeah, right. You know, but that, but that doesn't matter. The thing is, is that you have the opportunity to continue to hone your skill in the absence of, um, hype. You know, so maybe you reframe it. Maybe take it as this is a blessing. I get to write another play without too many people talking in my face. You know, I get to write, I get to write whatever I want. You know, so maybe some reframing has to go on, but there's no real formula as to, you know, send it out three times. If it doesn't get accepted by the third time, then burn it. You know, I don't know. Yeah. No, no, no, just keep, just keep coming back. Keep writing. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. It's always great to have you in class crystal. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I felt it is five fifty nine. It is five fifty nine. All right. We'll be here next week. We'll be here next week. Okay. Thank you guys so much. Great questions. Great questions. Fun working with you today. Thanks, Audrey. You're the best. You're the best. Okay. Okay. Bye bye.