 Get a moment to think about it. No, it's just like if the website is down or something. That's called Vennette. He's called me too. He hasn't picked up. Yeah, I can do it. It's too bad. Yeah. We're just having an email. We'll call it a few times. We'll just start. We should just go and do it. Yeah? It's silly because when they put it on how around, it's going to be this week. Two men. They're falling down on their end. It doesn't matter. What can we do? Oh, can we do that? Yeah, you can just record it. So we can just record it. That would be good. Oh great. I know it's not on this end. I know it's something that I don't understand. And that... Oh no, no, no. We know you're on top of it. It's a nice camera. It's not a nice camera. It's big. It's a big camera. Even it's big. It's not the first time that a girl is going to be here. Yeah, just so for the end. Yeah. We're not going to be here because we're not... I mean, I don't think. I'm a couple... I think we're 20 minutes away. Okay, we'll keep it simple. We'll keep it simple. We're not live streaming today. We'll try. We never know. But miracles might happen. Yesterday. After all. Yes, we weren't wearing glasses last week. The last time. I was so excited when I remember things like this. So when I think, oh, we weren't wearing glasses. You look really smart with those glasses. Okay. I mean, you look smart before, but... Wow. Even more so, wow, amazing. I'm going to get some glasses. I'm going to get some glasses. You've always said we had glasses. I mean, you look smart. So this is watching work and we're not live streaming. But hopefully, maybe we will. We'll get a jet cycle. Are you doing that Scottish play? I am. So where do we start? So watch the work with those of you who know who it is. It's a play. And it's also a writing class. And what we're going to do is we're going to make the action together. And then we're going to make the dialogue together. And we're going to make the action together by working for 20 minutes today. We're going to work for 20 minutes together. And then we're going to do the dialogue, which is your questions about your creative process. What's going on with you? And as everybody knows this, I'm a support. If you make it about me, I'll make it about you. So are you guys going to watch the work? Because I just... I want to make sure I'm looking at you and you're like, don't look at me. We're trying to do something else. You're welcome to... If you want. Yeah, yeah, because Senko, he's a wonderful actor. And he saw off to other things. He's doing that. So, yeah. I said that because I just saw this person about an hour ago. I promise not to repeat anything that I said in class today. Because it was late in the morning. Four later in the morning. And gestures. And gestures. That were appropriate for the moment. Okay, so we're going to work for 20 minutes and then we're going to talk about your writing. So Molly's here to help us out today. Yay. And we're going to use our timers. Our crack pipes. I'm sorry, our phones. It's about your work, your creative process. How are they online? Is it... It may be working, it may not. Okay, well, maybe not. Maybe not. Somebody call me. If we get a tweet, then we'll know. Yeah, I know. Yeah, we'll get a tweet. Okay, so anybody have any questions or answers? Problems. Solutions. Notions. Potions. And I know I'm running out of rhymes. Oh yeah. I have something to read in my back pocket. I'll check it out. Not necessarily always see eye to eye. We're just thinking. How could one should one find oneself in a situation where you're collaborating that you're maybe sometimes kind of maybe sort of not getting along with. We're not seeing eye to eye. In this hypothetical could you work specifically? Like, are you the right... Would you be seeing yourself as the writer in this hypothetical? Or are you co-writing something? Yeah, it's sort of... Yeah, but it could be anything. It could be something that should you're both directing or acting in or any manner of things creative endeavors. But if you're a good collaboration in which we produce an awful lot of good material and I think that talking with each other makes this final product that we produce stronger. But it does involve an awful lot of doing that. There's only so much of that you can do before you want to see a divorce lawyer. Right. But that other thing I ask because if you're writing something with someone it's different than if you're acting in a play with someone because you're happy on a play you have your go-to person your director, for example. You can have a conversation outside the actual head buddy thing. But if you're writing something that's a little different because just you guys work together, you know. It's funny, I don't often write things with people but I would just suggest if it's a good collaboration and you want to stick with it and continue, then you have to find ways and if you're committed to finding ways to having it work out then ways will appear. You see, if you're thinking this is a lot you're not going to work with this person anymore then you should just cut the cord. But if you really think, no, no, this is a good collaboration, as you've said then just go into each meeting thinking this is a good collaboration and a lot of this stuff comes out of this relationship. Frame it in that way and you will see more good come out of it than head buddy. Oh no, here we go again, we're going to be head buddy. We don't mean that you're actually going to be head buddy a lot. So it's really how you frame it. Like most things, like most things, it's how you frame it that's going to the most part dictate what kind of experience you're going to have. It's a good question. It's a good answer. We can apply that to anything. Provide. Please, please, please. I'm an actress, but oftentimes I do things without a director being there, so a lot of divides teach. And one way that it happens, because we're writing along while doing this is just like, okay, we are at odds at this moment, but let's try it my way. Let's see how it kind of flows with the rest of the piece or if we have a goal. How does that contribute to the goal? Would that get us any closer? And then if one of those two sticks out or, okay, I really enjoyed this about what we did with your idea I really enjoyed this about what we did with my idea, kind of extracting those positives and then mowing something with that. I don't know if that helps. No, it's very helpful. That's why we ask the question to the group but don't whisper in my ear. No, it's great. Sure. And again, you're committed to the relationship working. So you're finding ways to have it be successful. I'm stuck on two things with the play that I'm currently writing. So it is about lynching and it started with a few articles that I read that happened in the late 1800s. And so dealing with the historical knowledge and the facts that I have about that versus the love that I have for the music that came out more towards the 1930s, the 1940s, the 1950s. And so I'm using a lot of that music and I'm interweaving it throughout this piece but now I got to the point where I'm beginning of trying to figure out which one am I going to stay more faithful to to the music or to these other things because it's not like those problems ever went away. It's not like lynching has stopped by the time a lot of strange fruit has come out and things like that. So it's really, I don't know, I don't know. I think I need some guiding questions on how to figure out which one to go with which one to be more faithful to. Guiding questions. Which ones do you want to be more faithful to? Oh, I don't know. I think you do. My theory is we all know our plays better than anybody else. So this is a space where I'm going to tell you that you know. So it sounds like you're creating either or which doesn't sound faithful to your original idea to use both. So your original idea says use both. Use this historical information that you've been reading about and this music that you love and why do you suddenly feel the need to use one or the other? I don't understand. The statistics. When I started writing the statistics were very much so from 1886 in Tennessee. So it was yeah, that's where it started from and the music evolved from there. So then music came. I don't understand why you ever had a point where you are saying to yourself you need to choose one or the other. Because the numbers don't match. So like 728 listings happened within this time period in 1886 versus if I were to use the music from 1940 because I'm also implementing radio so it would have to be kind of true to that. Then I would have to get these update statistics which is a little less dramatic as opposed to these 786 statistics. You mean I really don't understand. You would need someone saying on the radio that someone was lynched. I still don't understand. Yeah, that's kind of the way that it's set up. So through these radio excerpts it gives out information about factual things that have happened through the articles that I've read. Right. Okay. So I still don't see the problem. One, it's a play, right? So it's a work of it's a fiction. It's a story that you're telling that pulls from history. It's not an historical article. Correct? Correct. Okay, so you have your if somewhere in your bed you have your voting license. Right? So you're allowed to create. Right? Okay, great. So you're allowed, and plus do you think they actually reported the lynchings on the radio? How many lynchings were actually reported on the radio? Oh no, that's probably not. That's a bit of a lie. Right. So you decided to do this to have these lynchings reported on the radio an event that probably maybe never happened ever. Maybe let's just say let's just be extreme. Great. So you do whatever you want and see what happens. Have you written the whole thing to the end? No. Okay, great. So you're having one of those things that you get started. What's your name? Felicia. Felicia's having one of those things where she gets started and she writes how many pages? 15 pages and something in her head says oh come on girl you got it. Yeah. Yeah, right. Okay, so that is a variation of everything that everybody who's ever written anything probably has had in their head. Some people they hear the voice that says oh come on man what is your mother going to think? Or oh come on girl no one's going to produce that or I don't know that doesn't make any sense no one's going to understand it. It's a version of that. It's a version of doubt. It's a version of right. It's one of the many voices of doubt or fear or concern or worry. Just continue. Go forward, get to the end and see what you got. It's okay that if you're creating a thing where they're talking about lynching on the radio that's already outside of the realm of what really happened so you've already broken walls so just continue. I need to see what you have. I need to see if it actually plays and rolls together and that's the basic question. There's a whole together. Not as if historically accurate unless you're an historian who's writing something from history magazine or something. I don't know. History magazines are our ones. And all they know is history magazines. Sure. But the history channel isn't even. They don't show history anymore. It's all about A.L.A. It's all about A.L.A. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. You know so that's the thing that you always have in your head. And so the next thing you write it's gonna be something else. It's gonna say something. The next thing you write it's gonna do it's gonna do another voice and then do something else. It's a version of that. It says stop, don't do this. read more, see if you read more of all the facts, see if you, whatever, right? I never truly know when your play is done. Done and done, what do you mean, mom? Done and done. Well, so I've been writing a play for like two years now and I've done a version of it before. I mean, so you're kind of evolving it and having it change, but I find myself, every time I go back to it a few months later and throw a lot out, and then just kind of I, you know, it changed and I'm like, I did that and I changed it all over again. I love the play and I don't want to put a play out, but I find myself always changing it every few months and it's, they're ever going to be excited about it. Well, yes, that's really good. So Molly's written a play that she loves and every time she looks at it, she does a rewrite and throws stuff out and puts in Lisa, but you love the play, right? That's good, that's good. Is there something that you'd like to begin working on? Something else, because I'm- Yes, something else. That's what I don't know what finishing means. Right, finishing means letting it go. Yeah, there's a famous player and I won't mention his name, because he's probably all known or Lisa heard of him and he said just the other day in my presence, he goes in like at least like four or five versions of things like out there and publish. Every time I say, I just changed it, I changed it and I changed it, I'm like, oh, I don't have any problems. I just, I, because there's something else I want to work on. Instead of reworking that thing over and over again, I could think of, luckily, when I'm a better writer now than I was 20 years ago, but to go back and rework, I mean, I'd never get the next thing done. So it's a choice that you make. So my feeling is if you're asking if you're done, just, you probably are and you're trying to go and make it perfect. Perfect as the enemy of done, because it will never be perfect. I'll tell you now, it will never be perfect. But it will be good enough. And good enough is pretty, right? Let it go. And what you want to do is you want to take your skill that you've learned in writing this wonderful play and you want to apply it to the next one. Because that could have a voice, your voice is a version of Felicia's voice. You're not done yet. Come on. You need to do what we write. That's what you got because that's your thing, right? And you're next but you'll have something else, another voice. And it's okay. We all have these voices. You just have to recognize what it is. You're done. Boom. Even when it gets, and this writer talked about it, the play is Polish. It won lots of prizes. He backed every bank. It's okay. You know, I don't know. I'm not calling it on his process but I will guess from what you're telling me that you're trying to make it perfect. And instead of making it perfect, just make it an employee. Yeah, let it go. It is, you're probably done. I'm just guessing. I mean, you love it. You love it and it's going well. Write the next thing. You can always go back. I mean, really. Write the next thing and you can always go back and you really need to go back if you're in production and a lovely, gorgeous, ginormous production, a fabulous theater. You're gonna be working on it then, right? Okay, so I think that you're done. You're done for now. What is it that makes it hard to let it go? Every month. I feel like my perspective on the play changes every month. Identifying my voice within it is never my thing. I just think where you are and you're writing to and it's a funny play and a lot of it is like, you know, you're painting your jokes that you're trying to speak to and you're trying to, and as I change and as my thoughts change out of what I'm writing to, I think that I just kind of keep shifting my thoughts. It's people who are talking about it and what they're doing. Let it go. I'm serious. No, I'm really serious. Let it go. It's time to let it go, and just move on to the next one. Really? Write the next one. It's like, it's okay. It's like, pack your stuff on the back. You finish the play. Yay. And you love it. I know. It's like, oh wow. That's such a beautiful problem to have. I mean, I work, work, work, work, work and then move on. So, did you grow up in one place? Like where Philadelphia, like your family still lives there? It's just an interesting, you know, maybe that has something to do. Not Philadelphia, it's just, you know. You have one thing, you know, you're responsible and responsible to people that you know for a while, you know. You're allowed to, like, you won't sing that song, but you won't. You know that song. Anybody have some of an answer? There's a question. Come on. Jay. So, sometimes I feel like in my work, the middle tends to sag. There's like a little sag in the middle where it's like the protagonist is doing something. Right. But then it just feels like it's one person kind of, yeah, yeah, just like. Kidding, I'm in your play. Yeah, yeah, no, that's literally what happens. Yeah. Okay, so the connection to the beginning, it's like nice and strong. Yeah, we don't want it. And the ending's really strong. But I'm like, when I'm rewrite it, like it just feels like it's this kind of like, not a mess, but like this, everything kind of gets a little too long and old. Right. And I don't know if it has to do with it. Is the protagonist being active enough? Or it's that the other characters in the play aren't? Uh-huh. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Shabani, do you all hear Shabani? She has a nice, strong beginning in her plays, nice, strong ending in the middle. It gets a little mush-mushy. Yeah. Mush-mushy. It's probably both. It's probably both. It's probably your protagonist, your main character, losing her or his way a little bit. And it's probably your other characters not doing their job. I mean, remember we talked about it in a play, in a novel, too, you know. It's like, you know, to focus on what do the characters want? What do they want? All of them, not just the main person, you know. But what does she, what does he want in the scene? What does he want in that speech right there? What's he trying to do? Even the people who are in the chorus, you know, in the background, the people in the foreground, they all, it's, it's made strong because they're all trying to get something, all the time, even the minor characters, of course, you know. Yeah. Even the smaller characters, the characters with not as many lines. And that's what kind of, you know, that's what holds it up. You think of, you know, you, I'm sure you've seen, heard the analogy of the metaphor, whatever the analogy of the metaphor is. Something hanging on a clothesline, right? Oh, okay, good. Something, so you think we're sheep. You've got clothes, a lot of people haven't done this. Maybe if they do this, they'll do it. They do the, you know, you've got clothes on the line. If you've seen a movie where there have been clothes hanging on the line, in Wizard of Oz, I think there are clothes hanging on the way it comes. So, that's what I mean. Clothespins, you know, we know what clothespins are. I'm from Texas. There are lots of clothes hanging on the line. Clothespins at the beginning, right? And you have to have those clothespins along the way. Right? And if you don't have enough clothespins along the way, you get that saggy, saggy, saggy, especially when the clothes are wet. There's a lot of sagging going on. So, those clothespins are, what does my character want? What are they doing? Yeah, it seems it sounds really peep by and hungry. And it might feel that way as you're riding along, but you can always make it better after you've gotten sort of the basic. This is what she wants on this scene. Here's where she goes. Because, you know, again, we're starting on a road trip. We're gonna go to California and end up on Santa Monica Pier. You're getting mushy around Chicago. Why? I don't know. Because I'm like, yeah. You know, right? You're in the fire, bitch. You're getting a little mushy. So, where are you going? Chicago. Then where? I don't know what state it's next, but before the end, can't go there. It's going down. I don't know what state it's next. You know, I don't know how we get her out, but we have to go down into Kentucky to get around. We just lost. We're Kentucky. Well, you know, we're gonna get there. The clothespins, you know? Kentucky lost, didn't they? They're supposed to win everything. And in Indiana, what did they do? They had losers. Losers. And not the state, just that normal person. You're getting better. Yeah. Putting this foot down. Anybody else? Does that help? Does that help? Yeah. Just a little bit. And sometimes these things, they feel like, you know, like, oh my God, I'm not writing because it's not like snowy and it doesn't feel like magical. It feels like stupid and kind of like that. But not to worry. Because you can smooth it out later on, you know? Asking yourself those really boring questions, what does my character want right now? If you don't know, then, you know, it might be a little soft. Unless you want it to be soft, show your hands to her. It's a whole different thing. Necessarily, and you're writing characters that somebody's seen maybe too close to real people. Yeah. Yeah. What's your name? I'm Rob. Have you been? I've been a while. You've been a geotrimer? Yeah. How do you know if you're Tristan? Yes, that's right. Hi, Rob. So you're writing something and there are people, it feels like people that you know? Yeah, it seems like the characters are very close to people that are actually in your life. You know, right? Right, well, that's what they say. I don't know. I'm not sure what that means, actually. So then, if you ask people that, characters that are very strongly identifiable as somebody. Right. Right. And these are people who would sort of like cry if they... Perhaps. Perhaps. Or go like, oh, that's me. Like that? Yeah, yeah. Horrible. Right, okay. Yeah, so what do you do? So it's not a bad thing. It depends. It depends on what that voice in your headset, you know, that voice again. So your voice is going, oh, man, I don't know. Do you really think you wanna write about people like that you're gonna recognize yourself in your place? Yeah. Like that. And you have to make that decision. And people are always, or usually always gonna go to your stuff, read your novels, whatever, and go, that's just like me. And you're like, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, because when I did that thing, never do you remember anything that's just me, right? So you're gonna have that. I would say unless someone's gonna, you know, like, shoot you to death, for writing something that kind of looks like them, I would say not to sweat it. Because it sounds like it's coming out of you. And make sure the name is like not theirs. They make them from another city. You know, try to do little cosmetic things, you know, to make it like that ain't you. That's somebody that didn't create a whole fiction. That's not you. That's somebody that I met in morning when I was down there. Man, why do you think it's you? I think you're okay. Just wipe away your tracks, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And it's okay. And you know, if you know you're saying something mean about somebody that you should, you know, you have judgment. If somebody comes up to you after a play, it slaps you. Ah, you're gonna get it that way. Narrator? Narrator. Uh-huh, okay. Rachel, so Rachel has a, can you tell me who you look for? You have a yes. So Rachel has a question about narrators. Does everybody here, what do you think about narrators? What do you think about narrators? Who's your, in a play, who's your favorite narrator? Can you think of a narrator that's, I mean, awesome. I think it's what would a net, like, play, you know how we play, are you writing a program on a play? What do you think you're gonna play with, and say, what's been a, like, talk about? Try to have a conversation based on something that you like. It's sort of something that you need. But can anybody think about a play that they like with a narrator, or like a person talking to the audience who's explaining information? What's that? Can you record? Our town. There you go. Our town mistakes, then. So, that worked. It's our problem, yo! Right? That's what I'm saying. So, yeah, that's a good play to think about as you think about your play, and how the stage manager, I guess most people like that guy. You know, we use through, you know, the town and tells us this person's getting up, you know, put a stool in this place, you know, that's very beautiful. And it works, it's very effective. And it was a fun conversation a couple of years ago, down at Bear Street or something. It was really, really, really well done. I would add to it, I would add, I don't know if this, I don't know if the stage manager does this, I'm not totally sure, maybe some of us, but I would say it's important, it might be important to have your narrator want something, or have some stakes in the action. So they're not just, they have some stake, they have some, you know, it's part of their story too, you know. You know, you could say in The Blast Menagerie, you know, Tom talks to the audience. That's kind of an narrator. Sideman, I think, has an narrator who comes out and talks to the audience, you know. And that might not be, those aren't historical necessarily, but they're kind of a history, you know, memory player. But if they have stakes in the story, that's very important. So if they are also a character in the story, they're not just someone standing there, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know. Okay? And so then you ask the question, why are they stepping out of the story to talk to us? And the answer is not because the player needs to convey information. That's not the right answer. That's what you're getting, right? That's your like, eh, eh, eh, right? That's your payoff thing. But they have a need to step outside the action and talk to the audience. Like, write like, house of cards. Yes. Yes. Exactly. There are no, they have their own thing going on. It's, what do you mean it's so low? A major project, I can't read it. I just said it makes it more powerful. It makes it more, it drives it. It makes it more active. So every time they break from the, I mean, they don't have to be a main player in the action, but even if they're a player on the sidelines, they come out and, I mean, house of cards, he's the main character, but they can be a sideline character. Just to use example, my own work, Venus sets the need for resurrections. He's a great player. He's the guy who lives around. So he's a side, he's the guy kind of on the sidelines, but he has a role in the show. And that's a kind of an area person. So does that make sense? They have a hand. There's some skin in the game, I would say. That's all your characters should have. And then anybody else? Hey, all right, thank you so much for coming. We'll see you next week. Thank you. The lovely look that happened. It was working. So there you go. Wow, so I guess it just came on. I don't know how. You know how? Well, maybe the DJ was like, I'm working on it. Oh, maybe, but the public theater, so I couldn't, I think it was at five o'clock,