 I love about this play or this class or, you know, this thing that we do. Oh, yeah, right. So here we are. So that was the action part, and now we're going to do the dialogue part. So this is where you ask me questions about your work and your creative process. Okay, so does anybody have a name? I hope people do. I don't know. Yeah, I can pry myself into the game when I have a group. Your name is something with someone? Hmm? Sorry. You can't remember either? I can't remember sometimes. Today I can. Dan. Dan, that's it. That's it. You told me I can project like a mofo. I never forgot it. What? No, no, no. Crystal, you're back. How are you doing? I'm family. What happened? I didn't notice what you're doing. What you're doing? I was holding pizza for my kids and I was on the phone and I didn't see what was in front of me and I was up and then I was down. And so I fell right on it. On the pizza? Actually the pizza was good. I saved the pizza. You're like the best mom ever. Oh my God. Ow. I was dropping that pizza. Whoops. And then my poor little child. You know. It's still you. Anybody have any questions? I have a couple so I'll try to do it. No, please, please. We're back to the play hi. I just can't let go of. I remember you gave me homework and said to write for a week. Right. 20 minutes every day. Right. And every time I wrote in there. Somehow the thoughts Susan made me do this came out. No, it was great. It was great because I started to realize that there's so many things going on in my head. Right. I just didn't know. No one I couldn't really figure out a thread to my story because I had other stories in my head. I had, you know, notes that I was taking here and things going on in life and there was just too much. There was no way I could have a kind of a crystal cut story because there was too much. The only thing I didn't get to do was write why I wanted to write the story because then I was kind of preoccupied with the play I'm working on now. But I started what did happen from that was that I realized that one character and I think I was just trying to stress making the female character the main character. But she had, I still can't really find her objective in the overall play. I feel like the male character is so heavy and set on what he wants and why he goes through the extreme of, you know, breaking and entering into her home and doing that. It just seems so clear and maybe I've just been resisting that the whole time. I just don't know what to do with her now because he's very clear. I don't know if it'll be a one-man show that just, you know. Would you want to be a one-man show? No, I don't. Okay. I mean, you know, if you think maybe what we know, if you don't want to be a one-man show, the chance of being a one-man show will be reduced. Good. Right? So, you know, you're kind of in the driver's seat, kind of. So, I have you, so when you were doing the 20 minutes a day of writing, you know, were you, were you, were you, were you writing? Susan already made me do this. What else were you writing? Um, I was, I was, it was, it was almost slightly journal and journaling. That's okay. Yeah. Journal's not a bad one. No, no, because I have one already. Like, now I have two. Reason not the need. It's familiar. I already just saw you last night. Great. So, again, I saw you through there in the park. John was present. And I looked back. Reason not the need. Anyway, yes. Yes. Did you say reason not the need? Reason, oh, reason not the need. And they're taking away resources in his nights and his what nots. He's like, hey, yo, don't sweat me. If I want to have a hunger, let me have a hunger. I am, I don't care, but he says it's so much more beautiful. He says reason not the need. Yeah. So, you can have two drinks. Well, yeah, that's what ended up happening. It just kind of became about what I want and the things I want to do as a writer and issues and random stuff that. But now if you, if you, so if you sit down in an issue to say, Susan Lawrence making me do this. Susan Lawrence making me talk to the, what's her name? The female character? Violet. Susan Lawrence making me talk to Violet. Violet, are you there? Tell me what you want. It's like cheating. It's okay. It's okay. You're allowed to talk to the characters. She's standing there. She's right there. And since you know it's not going to be a one main show, right? Yeah. She's there. She even has a name. So ask her, girl, talk to me what you want. I do the role all the time. Character is just hovering around. I'm sorry. You're here. You must want something. You know, they never come visit me unless they want something. And when it's school, that's what I do. I give them things. So she's visiting you and she's just sitting there. And you have all this static, you know, your radio. You've got all this other stuff going on. Your kids, your pizza, your meat. You're the kind of mom who falls. Saves the pizza. That's the kind of mom you are. Okay. So that's what you got going on. Right? Okay. So you've got to say, Violet, send her a specific message. Not just like, what do I want like this? Right? You're doing this. Violet, what do you want? Talk to me. She's like, I know. She just, she just did. Well, you're never going to get it right anyway. Okay. Why not? You know, you have kids and they don't want to talk to you. You know how they're coaxed it up. You know. So it's 20 minutes a day. It's not going to remain when you talk to them. If Susan Lord would make them do this. I always do that. I got on the phone. Grandma said, you've got to be a bit down. You know, and so Susan Lord said, I've got to talk to you. So it's not my fault. You know. Okay. Okay. 20 minutes a day. Anybody else? And it's always 20 minutes a day. Dan. Hi. Hi, Dan. Hi, Dan. Hi, Dan. How you doing? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. So I'm just starting on a new project. I booked a reading for August. So I need to write it like now. And I'm working with a really awesome dramaturge. And it's a play that starts in the 60s and it ends in the 90s. Although the historic, I'm not worried about the history and being loyal to it as much as I am about the essence of each particular era. But as I go through, there's sometimes that I reach points where I'm like, I need, I feel like I need to answer this question before I move on. And I don't know how to balance back and forth between just letting my characters converge with each other and addressing those needs. You should like what? And the historical issues you talk about here. What happened when you made the very sexual? I mean, okay. So there's a childhood wedding. It gets interrupted by war. The five-year-old kid gets called off to war. And then the three, the groom, the bride, and the wedding planner all do really awful things. And then they come back in the 90s and try to get married and pretend that nothing ever happened. You're a wedding planner. No, she's an informal wedding planner. It's like, this is a neighborhood wedding. She's like, come on guys, we're going to get married. Okay, great. The five-year-old gets called off to war. Yeah. It's not realistic. It's my version of realistic. It's in my playwriting role. So what do you have to do? So like right now I'm dealing with the 80s, I guess. I'm trying to find out how much research to give myself to inform the play without swamping myself in a necessary bullshit. So how much time a day have you spent writing? I just started writing. I was directing a reading last month, so I just kind of did it. How much time a day have you spent? I mean, I do care, of course. Well, today, today, you know, this is the day that I really start deciding how much I write a day. And how much time you have? Let's say, let's say an hour. You have an hour a day. Okay. So if you have a deadline, what's August 1st? August 14th. August 14th. So you're going to do the math. So you're going to look at your reading. Keep it right every day? Yeah. Okay, great. So I would say spend no more than like 10 minutes a day in your writing period doing research. You don't have a lot of time. You've got an hour again. Your deadline is August 14th of August, right? So you don't want to spend like a whole week doing research. Okay, you want to just do, just be, you know, a search copeout. Yeah. I have to figure out this and this. Quick, bold, rough stuff. 10 minutes is over. Now I'm going to spend the next 5-0-15 minutes writing. And then my hour is up. And I have to go and do the next thing I've got to do. Okay? Does that make sense? Yeah. You just, you just again, if you had 10 hours a day to write and it wasn't due to Christmas, then we'd say spend a couple of weeks, you know, with, with, with, okay? Good. Okay? With that help. Yeah. Right. Because really it's just finding what specific events for them to react to. Exactly. And that's easy. From there to there. Yeah. Cool. Good, good. Sounds nice. Thanks. Anybody else? Yeah. Just swiping the characters with us. When you're about to send your play, you're doing a list of characters so you know who to look for as actors. Right. How much do you put in, right, in each description? Do you get, yeah. Sure. She's talking about the DP page. The dramatic, for some of that, I don't know how to speak about it. What's it called? The DP page. Basically, you know, the dramatic piece. You could say it, right? The piece of the drama. And they're listed, you know, if you go and look at Shakespeare again. Right. Clear. Okay. You know. Pretty good. One of your stuff. I don't know what one of your stuff. You know what I mean? So that's one way to do it. Just real simple. Yes. That's one way to do it. Right. You could also get an elaborate, you know. She has, you know, she bites her nails and, you know, dies her hair every other day. What did we say? What? I'm over writing. Sure. Jenny moving 14-year-old artistic girl dresses colorfully from the freshman high school to the arts. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. You know what I mean? It's a personal thing. It's a personal thing. That sounds good. You know. I got a picture of her. I personally give. What? What? Yeah. Sure. You know. But that's my thing. That's my thing. Because I don't know if she's going to wear sneakers. Unless we're in sneakers, she's getting to wear two in the formation of the character. You know what I mean? Then I would put her in sneakers. Because the costume designer might go, I think she'll never go on the floor. I'm going to just go down there. I know. I'm not afraid of it. I wouldn't, but that's how you see it. Go ahead and… Yeah, sure. You're loving it. Yes. Yes. And these characters could be played by one actor. One actor could play the following five characters. Like boom, boom, boom, boom. That's okay. That's okay. You can have two journals and you can even write a journal. I was thinking that I would put a systemist on that that's got the stage director. Or, you know, whether it's a puppet or a stuffed animal, not likely you're going to have a live cat. We could. Yeah? I mean, I don't know. But you could have a live cat and video of a live cat. You know what I mean? You can have that. You know, we see on YouTube those animals go, you can have one of those. You know, you can have one of those. I just wrote, all I see is a dog. That's all it says. In the DP page, I don't think so. It says, it says, play by a robot. I just put the character's name. Okay. I'm not, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't put a lot. I try to. Okay. So I put the character's name. Well, never mind. If you want to hurt, if you see her in running shoes and skirts, put them down. All right. If you really, put them down to you. To me, I just put too much on the dress. I don't care. You know, but if it's, if she's always wearing high heels and tripping over things, you know, and I'm going to say, she's always wearing high heels. From your novel, right. So, should there be any listing that I send along with it of the board? A brief statement of what it's something or review? Sure. Sure. It's appropriate to send that along. I think so. It keeps everything, I would say keep everything short. Lawyer, you know, no more than that much. Right. List of rewards. That much. List of the best ones. The ones that you think, like, oh my God, no one ever wins this. That might be true. That's true. That's it. You know, don't just ever send them. Because people don't care. Because they want to see what you're doing, not what you did or never said. I care to be plastic. You know, they don't think what you're doing. They want to see what you're doing. The personal thing, I don't, I figure if they can read, you know, you can put a blur, two sentences, three sentences. You know, sometimes people like that, oh, what is this about? It's about three women, you know, in a bathtub or whatever. You know. Sure, you can say that. Thank you. Yeah, I know that. I have an empty Cappuccino case, so, really? Really? Yeah. Oh, I'll take that. You want an empty Cappuccino case? Oh, yeah, I can use that. Okay, you're welcome. Anyway, she said, she said, you can pause for a minute. Okay. That is the kind of attitude you want to have when you're creating something. To give away your empty Cappuccino case. To give away and to save with your other private personality. Thanks. I can use that. You want to have that kind of attitude. I can use that. It stops the warrants. Yeah. Did I see it right? Okay. Yes. I actually just wanted to tag on her comment. Yeah. On the BP page, there is a point where details are too minor. For instance, in my full-length play for a long time on the BP page, I had that this character is blonde because I absolutely saw this character as pale blonde pale skin until it was pointed out to me that he just can't because it doesn't matter the play and what if a brunette comes into audition and she blows it away? You can't do that. So, I mean it was like a simple plot that she's blonde because she's snow white or something, but she's not that good. That's what I'm going to do. Yeah. Good point. Yeah, that's a really good point. Like Lear says King Lear. King of Lear. Lear. Wherever it's right. Dynmark. Dynmark. Prince of Dynmark. You can read that any way you want. It's been played by every kind of person you can imagine. Do you sit last week? Sure. Sure, it's good. You played out loud. Yeah. You know, you said, you know, and I said yes. Yeah. Which I do, but not to the extent of the experience I've had. Wow. So a friend of mine, a direct friend of mine, had to hand in, they're doing the King and I, a revival of King and I at Lincoln Center. He works there. Yeah. The copy. Yeah. The original. Yeah. Oh, wow. I said sure. Right. You know? The King and I official impression. Right. What this great masterpiece is. Right. And so I read it. And it went inside of me, like the soul of her. I mean, I was reading. You know, I was so surprised because it helps you. How do you form your own writing? Your own writing. How do you form your own writing? Yes. So do you think that would you suggest, would you suggest to folks that a wonderful way to connect deeply with your own writing is to read it aloud? Absolutely. Even if it's not a play, it doesn't have to be a play for you to read it aloud. After you're writing other things. Right. Read it aloud. Even if you don't like the sound which is different from getting other people to read it for you. Shall we get right? The king and I run. No, I said run. Let's go on. Let's see if he's going on. Anybody, can we look at the question? Yeah. Okay, go. Okay. My play has, one of my plays has a lot of locations and so how do I pitch that so that people don't think it's not producible? Right. 100 locations? 100? No, like six or seven. With simplistic thinking as far as set. But is that even my job as the writer too? I think it sounds like a good one. Have you seen Carol Churchill, that recent play she had over at Monetta Lane and where it was? It had like 100 scenes and 100 new places. So theater, you know, has been a job since the one, you know, the long extra night I think with one set has been one. You can have lots of multiple. Do we revisit some of those concepts? Yeah. Just make sure, again, like those, you get that page you really need to be there. You're not just like cut the scene and have something else happen on the street kind of thing. Make sure we move it out from there. Each place you really want to own there. Don't just change scenes because you react to things you say in the same previous. Change scenes because the characters have to go to the store. Then they have to go back to where. You know, let's change the scene to move into the change. See you chance. Black power. Change. Black power. Change. Black power. Time change. Black power. Change. Black power. Thank you so much for coming over to see this. Thank you, parents. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, and have a great spring. Let's get moving. Take the screen. Go to the very end of the screen. Take the screen.