 If anybody's not here for a watch viewer, this is like a plane that's going to Seattle. I'm going to go to Seattle right now. Get off this plane. Yeah, because we're going to go to Seattle for... Where else is there? Anybody just like Seattle? No. You do? Oh, really? Okay, we're going to go to Seattle. We'll go somewhere else. Paris. Okay, we'll go to Paris. France. France. Oh, I'm just going to go around the block right here. Does anybody not know how this works? Da-da-da-da-da! Can you graduate? Can you graduate? Can you graduate? Can you graduate? All right. Yay. You can just do the A in the class. Everybody else does too, but that's okay. Okay. Anyway, so this is once we work. We're going to work for 20 minutes together, and then we will... I will entertain questions. I will answer questions, provide answers along the way. You'll work in your creative process. So if anybody doesn't... You forget if you try to ask a question about me, I'll make it about you. And that's what we do every day, pretty much. That we're here. Everybody's behind the camera? No. Yes. It's confusing. Audrey and Audrey, that's a trick. How many letters are different? We've got A and Y. A and Y. A and Y. A and Y. And you only have three. And you have E. Yeah. And R. And R, C. C and C. And it's a U and a V. You're right. Because when I see it in my mind, it's like, uh-oh, wait, that's something wrong. Okay. But, Audrey's behind the camera. Audrey will tell us if you're out there in the land of Twitter, um, how to... Yeah, how to do it. So if you are out there in the land of Twitter, um, if you do want to ask a question, you can tweet at us, ask, watch, me, work, SLD, and you hashtag HowlRound, which is H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D. Exactly. And we'll see it, and we'll answer your questions. Um, that's it. Cool. All right, so here we go. Here we go. And... Anybody have any questions before we start? Like... Just start it. Let me just go a little bit. About your work, anybody have a question and answer? Yeah, I missed you. It's been so long. Anybody have a question, answer, issue? Agenda? Well, for sure. My socks. I've been at these. Wow. Wow. Now, there's... That's cool. That's really good. Yeah, I did socks, but they don't come out looking like that. That is really... Look at that. Wow. It's like a... like a lattice. Sort of... What do you call it? Stitch. It's like a... It's kind of like a variation, a variation. You should see them, because they're like... It looks like a design you can see on a very fancy sweater. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why I'm impressed. I mean, because Ryan, I just need a sock hat, you know, sock hat. They're warm. They're warm? Yeah. Do they... Do they... Do they... Are they kind of un-eater? No. On a warm day? You know. Oh, why? I don't know. I'm just kidding. Just ask. I haven't smelled them, though. No, no, no. It's okay. I mean, some of them... Some of them... No, it's okay. It's just a hot day. You know, it's wonderful. And you're gonna do, I don't know, a few drinks sometimes. Same. Do you smell it? In my experience, no, no, no, no. I know. And if I did it, it would be a problem, because I actually don't really have a sense of smell. So when I smell something, when I smell the litter box at home, it is time for the litter box to be changed, we tell you. Okay. So now, is anything... I know. Yeah. And after... Rebecca. Rebecca, Rebecca, Rebecca, Rebecca. Okay. Hey, Rebecca. It's good to see you again. It's good to see you too. How's it going? Good. I did HowlRound last week too, because we're two weeks together. Right on. Yeah. Thinking about query letters. Yeah. And... One drink, Right to, like, publishers or agents. Or both. Okay. Yeah. And just kind of, how much... Yeah. They need to know... Uh-huh. ...about a... A book. It's a book, but how much, you know, would make sense for... Right. Right. Hmm. I honestly do not know. I don't know. Carol, yeah, Carol would know. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want to write too much. They really... But you want to take the time to write something that will catch your attention. And it's nice to know all the things that they've published. Yeah. To say, or say, I noticed that you published something that was welcome about this... Right. ...and thought, and I related to that. Right. I'm interested in seeing my work. And then very briefly, something about to work. Hope to hear back from you. And it's the same with, agents or... So, yeah, I get the... Yeah. Just make sure everything's... You want to make sure it's directly spelled the word. Right. Just to get their attention. Although, you know, that may be an old-fashioned way. Maybe nowadays you just email. That would... Then I don't know. You have to spell well. You have to spell well. Yeah. Right. I mean, my guess would be, yeah, my guess would be that everything Carol said to you, you're absolutely right. And, because obviously, they publish things like sometimes that's kind of a helpful thing. But you don't want to get too much like it. Exactly. Exactly. Because they always publish three books like that. Yeah. You also want to sort of present yourself as someone who would be a great bone to the publisher or the agent. You know what I mean? If you hear that they... Because if they only publish stuff that's kind of sort of like what you do, you'd be a welcome addition to their books. Or if they have writers who... Anything like you, you'd be a welcome addition to their... You know, that kind of thing. You can bring in a whole bunch of books that will be interested in your work. One thing you don't want to say, especially if it's children's or... I read my book to all my grandchildren and the class of children and they all loved it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You want to leave that out? Because that sounds... It doesn't sound professional. Okay. So, do you have a suggestion? Sure. No, I'm not a skeptic. Okay. Does that... Does that... Yeah, that's helpful. It's helpful. There's probably information online too. Also, recommendations are good. You know, there's somebody who you know as agent that you like. You know, even if it doesn't turn out to be a fruitful search to that person, you can always ask that person. Okay, so if someone says, yeah, we're all friends, but I don't want to represent you, then could you suggest somebody or you could take their name, you know, and that's kind of helpful. You can also mention if you've had anything else published in the magazine. Sure. Sure. Yeah, you know, I have the sort of format for the actual... Yeah, yeah. Chapters and all. It's more the, you know, it's the letter to actually get to the chapters. My gut says short. Yeah. Because, you know, keep it, you know, a page or less, you know, I mean, you know, keep it short. Also, if there are any lectures that you've given or anything that you can, you can give them links to content. You know, just, you know, here I am, whatever, Northwestern, but just, they might not even watch it, but it might be fun to sort of just put yourself out there to them in that way. Because they're, when they sell things whether it's an agent or a publishing house, they're selling a brand, you know, a product that sounds tacky, but we can talk more about it. See? I'll think about that before something comes up. Great. Thank you. Thank you. No, I will add something to that because I'm trying right now. Great. And all the letters were short that we had. Great. If it started going long, we wouldn't read. Great. And also, having somebody walk your stuff in or recommend your stuff is the way to get it to the top of the pile. And these days, the other thing to keep in mind is what your social media presence is and that that is part of your brand and that if people are interested, they will go there too whether it's Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn, like all of that plays or your website. Like all that is in play and you want to make sure that that's consistent across the board to what you're trying to present. I'm having my all that done right now. Yeah. That's the way to go. Yeah. That's a big step. That's good. It's a big, expensive step. But it's worth it. And I'm not counting but that sounds like a business expense to me. Oh, yeah. It is. You can take that I don't know what sounds like a business expense to me. So that's that's it. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. So I do have a question that's different. So what is your response or what could your response be to people who would say to you are all the parts in your work about me that I thought were about me? Right? So if they see you or read or whatever they're like, they're all about me, right? You know, that kind of thing. Right, right, right, right. How do you So like if your mom reads your Sure. If my mom reads my novel. Let's keep it safe. Let's keep it safe. It's just my mom. That's right. We're just keeping it. So she's saying I didn't know that's what he's thought about me. Yeah. She'd say that and my mom would say that way. Like she wouldn't ask because it's about I wouldn't know that you thought of me. But then I'd have an opportunity to tell embrace the art of fiction. And I would even if it is them you know even if it's based on somebody like your mom or your lover or your you know whatever your puppy dog or whatever, right? I would encourage them to to think of it remember that it's a work of fiction. Yeah. Very much so. No, no, no, no. Why? You're having so much. Well the hard part is we're geometrists so what we write is I know you guys go I know you guys. Yeah. Okay, okay. So what we write is based in a truth we're not necessarily we're not writing fiction. Right. We're writing work that is you know pulled from our lives. Sure. And granted the last one that I just did was I had a metaphor at times and had amalgams of different people but some people's response or along the lines of oh I really like what you wrote about me or what I inspired or wow is that really about me those kind of things and it's like yeah it's everybody around me influenced my writing because I was absorbing it all. But that's the answer that's what I'm saying that's what I'm saying and either that is true or not Right. I'm writing about everything. I'm writing about my life and sure you're in it, but so are these other 80 million people. Oh no. That would be mean. That's a mean answer. So are these other five people? No, right. You know, right? Yeah. Because it sounds, what I get is that it's a question that's slightly annoying. Is it? Kind of like, hmm. Yeah. Well, I don't know. The interesting thing is that it's awesome that people see themselves reflected in the work. Yeah. But then it feels like it's like thinking for like, I remember early on when someone was like, what do you think of the record play about me? You know. And I'm like, just as happy as a baby, I'll write it now. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And there's something about like, it's almost like some people are coming about it or there's people are thinking to find out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would stick, I love your answer. I mean, you have the answer. The amalgam, the sort of, you know, it's a big melting pot. There's a lot about a lot of different people. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's what I would say. Because ultimate, I mean, because that's true. I mean, even if you, one would write about his or her mother. Yeah. No, it's your, the fact that the act of you writing it down transforms it. The act of you, you know, I'm going to tell, what, I'm going to tell the story of my mother's life. What's that? That's, there's fiction in there. Even if I say it's a true story. Sure. Me telling the story of her life, there's, right? Even me telling the story of my life. There's fiction in there already. Yeah. I'll say. Sure. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah, I, yeah, I wonder about this question. I mean, somebody told me, what is that? What is that? That's so awesome. Right? I got it, right? I'm like, it's not a multiple choice question. This is such a big brain. You're not taking a test. You know, it's okay. You're good. You know? Yeah. You're, I mean, like they say, oh, what is that movie? I watched twice because I don't have so much other head problems. I know Dr. Strange. You know? I know. Whatever you think of the casting, told us 20 times how she did a fine job. And she said to Dr. Strange, you know, it's not all about you. Right. And that's good. Yes. But you want to tell your audience, you know, it's about all y'all. They're not just one of you. All right. One, one, one. Not over. I like all y'all. All y'all. Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one. And usually it goes with the gesture, right? Can't palm up or down. I think it depends on the, you know. And it can mean like. That was quick. Now that's a big sign to say goodbye on the, yeah. So if you don't want to do that. Yeah, it can be like one person. Like if I say, I want all y'all coming. Right. And then your whole family. Right. Your mom, your brother, sister, everybody. Good. You try. All y'all. Like I want all y'all coming. You're free. Like we try. You're free. You're following. Southernism. Instagram. Okay. Southernism is most what? Southern, southernisms get a bad rap. It has a lot of places to be. Linguistic. Yeah. They do. I mean, I have my family from the south or Texas. They're not sure through the south or not. But yeah, there's a lot of cool stuff from out of Texas. And we often hear just about the bad things, you know, leading us to the conclusion that the news must be great. Well, we know that that's a piece of shit. So yeah. So it's all, you know, it's all of it. You also get the question sometimes, if you name the name that you have for a character. Right. I remember having someone who was sure that I wrote this book about them because the character's name was Ike, actually it was five words about my father. Right. Nothing to do with anything. But the name was the same. And yeah, I know rule number one when you're writing about stuff, you may change the name if you don't want to know. And that's like, duh. I know. You're talking about things about me. I know. But that's, you know, are those people writers who ask you those questions? Not Santa writers, that's all of them. Okay. Right here. Uh-huh. Sure. Yes. So I'm taking a playwriting class. You are. Wait a minute. This is a new development. Is it not? Remind me of your name. Wallace. Wallace. Wallace, is this new? No. Yeah. I mean, it's a, it's kind of with Andrew Sacks. Oh. He went to Carnegie Mellon. Cool. He's a civilian. I suppose it's done through the LGBT community center. Oh, cool. On Wednesday nights, there's a play, a gay playwright, or LGBTQ playwriting group that meets on Wednesdays. Cool. Same person. That's nice. And they're good because they do plays that are focused on the LGBTQ experience. Right. Right. So, um, so one of the things I'm working on this play now, and I, we have, we've had three, we're doing a ten minute play. Okay. And so what I found was in my writing the play, there was this period where I was writing, and I was just exploring the characters, you know. Right. I, I had it, I had this play I've been working on for several, for a couple of years. I started with New Federal League, right? Okay. And so I have a lot of character history, and a lot of story that I've developed behind the characters. Right. And so what I found was that when I wrote the first version, it was just to let the characters get on stage and talk about what they could talk about. Okay. Like have a ten minute scene. Okay. And it kind of was flat, right? Right. But then there was like a juicy piece that came out, that I said, ooh, let me just let them go ten minutes at that. Right. Just like very intensely at that one thing that really was juicy. Right. Okay. And then when I brought it back, it turns out, and this happens to me all the time. Well, I hear it all the time. So when people are talking about emotional things, they talk about a lot of stuff. Right. Almost too much to digest in ten minutes, and that was what the movie was. So when I, when I went back to writing for the third version and working on it now, I felt like I had let the characters go at what they need to talk about and get a real clear of how it felt. And so now I feel like I can go back and take a lighter touch. You know, I was just, a lighter touch meaning I don't have to have them go so intensely at that point. Like I can come back. I can gently move them all the same. So I'm just, I was, I was just wondering, you know, sharing about your process of, you know, character development and talking about it, developing the scenes. I know it's pokey about me. But yeah, just your insight about that process of discovering what the characters really feel about something and then pulling back to not overwhelm the audience with emotion. Right, right, right, right, right, right. First of all, I think you can do it everything right. Can everybody hear what Wallace is doing? He's writing a play, he's worked on the characters. Is still a ten minute play so far? Yeah, well I haven't finished the third version yet, but I think I can get it. Okay, so that's the idea. And you did a lot of exploration of the characters, right? And you found out a lot about them. You found out a really great nugget of something juicy. Let's me go at it, right? Yes! Some of the feedback was that there's so much emotion. There's not too much to digest. Yes. Right, okay, okay. And now you're thinking, okay, I'm going to sort of... See, this is the thing. And we know this, but we forget, right? Just like, I mean, is the play about, is the play about someone, is the play about me, right? The thing is, drama, it looks like a real life, but it's not. So a lot of times we, all of us, so me and you, I guess, make the mistake of going, well, it happened in real life. The play's about me, could it, right? It happened in real life, so it's got to go this way. But it's drama. It's a construct. And we can discuss how also reality is a construct, and that's a happy conversation we can have at another time for this true reaction. And you guys have really talked about this too much, but reality is a construct, or reality is a construct. Yes, we know that. We really have to pay attention to the construct. We're creating when we make something for the stage or for the screen or whatever, right? So that note about, wow, they're really going through stuff, but it's kind of too much for us to digest, because you have to adhere to the, what works for the thing that you're making, right? So you want to introduce drama. So they're not just talking to each other and making points. You tell you love me, no, I don't. This is, for example, you know, kind of a conversation between two people who are about to break up, great. But you want to make it, you want to introduce sort of a dramatic arc or dramatic spine in there, right? And you might be doing that already. I don't know. But do you feel like it has like a, I mean, for lack of better three words, beginning, middle, end? Because there's a clear object that they're trying to get. Okay, so it sounds like it's going well, no? Yeah, I think so. I mean, it feels like now I don't have to, that I, like right now I'm moving through it. I'm like doing things that are like dramatic, like talking about what time, in the conversation they're having, talking about the time of year it is by the things that they're doing, like what they're drinking, for example, iced tea. You know, sweet iced tea is something that you generally drink in the summertime, you know? That's true. And it is in the summertime. And finding a way to talk, for the characters to talk about the tea in a way that lets the audience know what time is. Right. But also, also, also, when I'm talking about dramatic spine, be very clear as much as you can be on what the characters want. What they want more than anything. Like Hamlet. Who killed my dad? You know, what's this ghost doing and what do I do about it? You know, very clearly in that play, he wants something. You see? So it's not just important to know that it's nighttime in the first couple of scenes, right? It's nighttime because the ghost is walking inside that. That's important. But what's more important than that is what the main character wants, what the other characters want. Desire is very important. And desire, in my experience, helps me create a dramatic spine or an arc or a beginning, middle, and end. Something the characters are reaching for. Right? I'm not going to add one more. So what was really interesting, too, is after I did that second part. Yeah. And the characters were acting just very intensely towards each other about this object. Right, right, right. In the background is a parent, right? And I'm thinking, what kind of parent would create siblings who would be this vicious towards each other? Right. And lo and behold, I walk into a store here and I meet that parent. And then you have to say, but it wasn't about you. Right, and you met the person. No, I met the personality that would be that parent that would make their children absolutely vicious. Right. Very good. Has that happened to you? It happens all the time. And that's one thing that just reminds me. And that's a flip of what you're talking about. It's the play about me. But what's happened in a great way, so the spirit, she wants to meet you halfway. So if you take steps in her direction, and she's all this way without her hands, you know what I mean? And if you take steps in her direction, she's going to take steps in her direction. Assume that she takes steps. She might not. She might fly or whatever. But that's what's really cool about the spirit that if you do some of the work, the spirit will help you and suddenly things start coming together. You see an example of a character. You're like, what kind of character is that? Oh, they are right there. And those things happen all the time. And on a difficult day, it can mean a thing that keeps you going. If you take steps in the direction of your goal, it's as if your goal is going to take steps toward you. And then you feel that you have all those feelings like, I'm on the right track. Things are clicking. Things are coming together. Definitely. I'm glad I have answers. It's very good. What's up? I'm trying to make sense. Answers and other questions. The answers. Yeah, now you have to. So, Doug, what do you do if you can see the answers and not the questions? It's tricky. So, I feel like if you're asking this question, then they're not the right answers. That's my guess. Because if I have a question and I come up with an answer for it, like what kind of parent would treat their child that way and I walk into all reasons. As an example of a parent, I'm okay. I'm not worried about the answer. But if you're asking me a question about the answer, then I wonder about your question. You have questions, right? There's something that's not connecting. You're not satisfied with what you're discovering, right? Right? So, I would just ask, is there a subject? Is there a character? Yes. Okay. That's what I'm saying. I see the characters, I see the situation, but I feel like justification. You have a character, right? So, Doug has a character and a situation. So, the justification for the situation is not... doesn't really... It's just because it's funny. Right. This is your... Yeah. Well, I'm just keeping it. Yeah. Okay. So, right. So, you have a character and they're doing stuff, and the justification for their actions don't really sit right with you, right? You're like, not really buying that. Or you might buy it on one level, because those are really, really funny writers. He's like, slight. But he wants to go a little further than that, right? And not just get the laugh, right? I'm like preaching your business online. I love everybody. But... It's kind of a reversal of shame. It's not how I'm covering it. But the thing is, is that you want to go beyond that. So, you have to keep dating. Because the funny thing is what you get to first, right? And then you have to have a finger relationship with your character. Right? It's like dating and you're dating and you're like, oh gee, you're so nice and you get on like five dates and the person's really nice. And then on date number six... They become different. You want to get to date number six. I usually don't get past date numbers. Well, that's what we're talking about. Okay, you have to get to date number six. Get to date number six and look up in the eye and say, come on. Yeah. Yeah, that's funny, good job. And they'll tell you something else that's even funnier. And they're going to try to convince you that being really funny is right. And that says, you want more than your right. And keep dating. Because it might, I think at the end it's going to be super, super funny and interesting drama. Right. Hannah has a question. Yeah, Hannah has a question. Okay. Okay, here we go. So, Hannah says, how do you decipher something that you're doing? You can't tell if it's a cool thing to put in because it would be cool having the story or if it's actually something that the characters would be doing. I feel is keep it in until you tell yourself. Because you never, you don't really, you know, you can't say, oh, it's really flashy that it's bad. That's not fun. And half the things that are fun, you know, oh, that's bad. It's flashy or if it's cool, it's hip or if it's contemporary. You know, I don't want you to start lopping off, cutting things just because they might seem cool. That'd be kind of a drag, right? So, I would say keep it, I would say keep it in. I would say keep it in, keep it in, keep it in. And if it seems specious, that word, it might not be. It just has to prove itself. Maybe you could, we could say that the cool things and the flashy things have to work a little harder and prove that they really need to be in the play or the movie or whatever. Okay? Look at it and you can say, why are you here? Do you want to hear? Talk to me. Plot, plot or character or, you know, line or dialogue, you know what I mean? But I would say keep it. You could go to the opposite direction and then move it. Move them to the bottom of the document, I would keep them right in. Really? Right in the middle of the page. But I feel like if it's going to come back, then it's okay. It's going to come back. Oh, you think cutting and moving it to the bottom of the document and then seeing if it works. Yeah, you could, you could. Like working your way to it. You could, or I'm just like, here it is. Dude. If you draft number two, you read it over. I mean, that's where you can really tell sometimes. Draft number two, you read it and you go, oh god, that's really stupid. Yeah. Maybe they moved it to the bottom of the document. Draft number three every second. I'm so glad I got rid of that. Then you did the right thing. But I would err on the side, especially when you move. Err on the side of keeping this shit. Because you cut, you know. You're like, no, that's okay. That's okay. And it's okay not to get everything right in your first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, tenth draft. It's okay. It's okay not to, it's okay let's get a movie made when the lines are all right. And it's okay. You know what? I just tell somebody they said, we're making movies. No. Movies. Not like, you know, they're movies. It's fun. You know? It's fun. It's okay. We can have a good time. It doesn't have to be all perfect and right in your first draft. Except you have to get it all right. I know. Because you're only perfect. Because you're neo-future. So you have to get right. Or what the fuck are we going to do tomorrow? Well, we're just going to change it. Oh, there you go. There you go. We've got about four minutes. Yes, yes. Can I just want to hear you? Oh. So, my name's Oscar. I'm trying to write a short form of ten minutes. Right now trying to figure out how to capture the audience quickly. Within the first, like, three or four pages. So I'm really curious. He's laughing. He's laughing. Can you hear what he's saying? His name is Oscar. And he's writing up a play. And he wants to know how to capture the audience. The first three or four minutes is a play? Ten minutes. A ten minute play. Right, yes. So you have to capture the first three or four minutes. So I was curious. If it's something to do with, is it a truth? Or is it, like, something that caused them an emotion or something? Right. Do you find this funny? Does this play as a movie? That's very interesting. And I, you know, when I have, when I do know it, I know a couple things. One, is that the good thing about writing for the theater, as opposed to say writing for, you know, the crew or Amazon or whatever it's called, TV, you know, I don't even know what it's called, TV. But whatever, right, is that once they buy the ticket and enter the theater, you've got them. You've got them. And it's going to take a lot of balls to get up and walk out, except they're an international team like. But it's ten minutes and you're cool. I think you don't have to worry. You know, so that's my honest answer. Okay. Personally, nothing makes me go in my seat. I don't get up. I just go, yeah. I've never done this with any of your players. Then someone who's trying to capture my attention. Because I'm a professional and I can smell it 5.5 miles away. I'm like, ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody's audience is probably not a professional. You've got that on your side. So number one, you've got it when they buy the ticket. Number two, for the seven professionals in the house at any given night, who cares what they say? Because there are only seven people. And you've got the other, say, 500 people who are professionals who win. You're winning. You're winning. Okay. The third thing I would say is, what is the honest opening of your story? So that asks you to put down your need to catch the audience. You've got it already. Put down your need to catch the audience. If you do it in a really fake way, you're going to, people are going to hate on that. Or hate your play. And tell what is the honest beginning of your play. Okay? Right? What is the honest beginning of your play? Right? What do you need to show? You know what I mean? It's like, boom, that's what you do. Like when you were born, right? I'm assuming you were. You came out of some body, some wonderful person. A woman, probably. Right? Okay. Assist woman with that. Okay? So there you came, Oscar. And boom, you were there. Now, that was, you couldn't hold back anymore. And either could your mom, right? Or your birth parent. They couldn't hold back anymore and boom, they came to the world. That's what it has to feel like in the beginning of the play. Not necessarily explosive, involving blood and screaming and pain or crying and tears. But it needs to feel like it just needs to begin. It just needs to begin. It doesn't need to be active. It can be someone standing in contemplation. Hamlet begins with a ghost. Go and look at, think of, do you have like five favorite plays? Okay. So look at your five favorite plays. How do they begin? You know? And for every play it has a different, awesome beginning. You know what I mean? The Scottish play begins, I think with the witches. Right? I think they're like, oh, hey, how you doing? How you doing? What? Hamlet begins with, oh shit, who's there? I don't know who's there, right? So these plays have these cool beginnings that launch the action. But even for a 10 minutes play, you want to appropriately launch the action, right? But don't go in a fake way where you're calculating, where you're sitting there trying to scheme to catch the audience because that smells really stinky. And you don't want to get into the habit of being a liar. Right? You want to get into the habit of being honest and brave. And this is different. I know for TV, the teasers and all this kind of stuff, it's a formulaic thing, and that's a different kind of thing. And you're not lying if you can create a great teaser in an art form. But for a play, run out on stage, make it. Make a thing like that. And if that doesn't cast attention, it will exit quickly, but shouldn't fire a bear, and that'll work. And they'll all be like, shit, he's been eaten alive. That'll keep him in their seats. He's so tall, it's time to go. So whatever it is, as far as we know, check the website because somebody has a meeting after this play on June 4th, and we don't know how long the big hand is going to walk you, give me notes. This is right. We're going to work it out. We're going to work it out. We'll keep you posted. We'll keep you posted. Check the website. Thank you so much. And we thank you all very, very much.