 It's also a mediatheatical free writing class, so it's both at the same time. So you really get in your money's worth, especially because it's free. I'm Susan Lori Parks, and this is how it goes. So the action of the play is we're going to set the timer, and Drew's going to set his timer, and we're going to work for 45 minutes, okay? We're all going to work for 45 minutes, and those of you online because we're streaming live, they're going to be working for 45 minutes. Then comes the dialogue part of the play where we talk about your work, your creative process, okay? So it's not, so watch me work, it's not me, it's you, your work, your creative process, and those of you who are watching online can tweet us at, what is it, at Watch Me Work, SLP, hashtag new play. I read it. Watch Me Work, SLP, hashtag new play. If you have any questions about your work or your creative process, okay? So we're going to set our timers, we're going to work for 45 minutes, and then we're going to talk, and then everything will be revealed. I promise. I promise, okay? So yeah, so let's begin. The work session begins. Oh, that's quiet. Questions or talk about your work, your creative process, what you're working on. If you have some things that are going really well, you can share them and perhaps that will inspire us all and make us all jealous. And if you have some things that aren't going so well, you can also share those and maybe we can help you find some solutions, maybe. Anybody have any answers? I just, she reminded me of that. I don't know why. And the address again is Watch Me Work, SLP, hashtag new play. I have a question. I got a response on a play that I could send in to a theater and they told me that the writing was a tad bit ominous for them. And I kind of looked that up. They used the word tad? Yes. Really? It's not a very traditional. Yeah, were they? I don't know. But what does that mean for them? Yeah. The name of the person I was referring to was A.Y.U. And Nathan wrote a play and it said, quote, tad bit on the nose. They used the word tad as in tad hole. Tad bit. Do you know what that means for a card? He was A.Y.U. so he's really smart. Well, thank you. You're welcome. This is actually something that I struggled with. Oh really? Yeah. Really? It's great. And sometimes I see it myself and sometimes I have a really good friend who's like anti sentimental, anti like exposition, anti. So she and I work really well together because she's like, yeah. But being on the nose just means that you're either your, it could mean a variety of things actually. It could mean that you're either stating something that's really obvious. It could be that your characters are speaking their subtext. Like, I'm really angry at you and I'm never, you know, they're just saying how they feel as opposed to acting it out or doing other things. Or, I mean, the play I worked on, the three women. The three women, yeah. It was very much, it could also mean that that play was led by ideas and politics rather than being very character related. So it could mean any number of those things and it tends to mean something about being obvious. And I'd say the fact that they responded is a good thing, period. Yeah. And they could also be very, they could be like my friend who just has no patience for sentimentality or things that are, you know. Right. I would agree. Does that sound like, because I, you know, I'm never sure what these things mean. Because I don't, you know, but that sounds, that sounds appropriate. So when someone, so are you cool with that? It's like now that I know what it means. Yeah. Because I kind of got it a little bit, but I just wanted someone else to explain it. Do you wonder what, is that kind of what people said? A little bit just something that was too apparent. Apparent. Yeah. I like what Ricardo was saying about, about your play is led by issues instead of by characters. I think that's a really helpful, because maybe in your question, maybe not. I'll offer unsolicited advice. Maybe in your question is, so I get a note like that. What do I do? It's hard to get on the nose. Okay. Thanks for responding, folks. You know, thanks for reading my play and having, you know, comment, writing back, whatever. But now what do I do? You know? So maybe I like what Ricardo said about it being, that your play is issue-based, driven. You know? It's about, you know, it's about homelessness and how homelessness is bad. It sounds more like an offense, it's less like a play, right? So you want to get inside the characters and have them explore what's going on today. Talk about people with issues instead of issues driven by issues. Maybe, but maybe that's not, we're just reminding. You know, it's kind of getting to the heart of your characters and maybe making it less about the issues and more about the people. It's always a trick because they ask you like, so what's your play about? They expect you to boil it down to, you know, a line, you know? And I always feel like that's helpful for marketing, you know, to get the word out and stuff. But if it's funny, you can't do that. Your play is just about that. The parts of their lives aren't exactly about following A.C.E.'s line kind of thing. For those inner thoughts, so the subtext. Right. I want to have my character say it directly to the audience. Right. Is that an okay thing to do or does that get to the audience? So Carol's adapting her novel into a cool way. Which, so there's a lot of fun. So there's a lot of thoughts because it's a novel. You know, Hamlet, you know, Hamlet, heard of him. Yeah. He talks a lot about his inner thoughts. He's always going, you know, in a network, you know. So there's precedent. It's helpful. So that's what I think. I think, yeah, the solo play. The invention that works really well. Also a side, you know, but I don't know what it is. But, you know, those kinds of things. Directly to the audience. Yeah. Like, you know, to be here, not to be. Yada, yada, yada. You know what I'm saying? That works. It works. And because it works, you can always go back to, you know, Shakespeare. You just look to Tom and write to the audience. And now it's a winner of our discontent. I mean, Richard III starts on stage. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then the action comes, right? The action starts. So this guy was born. So I'd say yes. I'd say yes. Also he can hit very plays. Flash and Adri. Tom, doesn't he? He starts talking to the audience. This is a memory play. Right, he starts talking to the audience. It's a great thing because if you're doing something that's been done before, you might want to look at those plays. It's a well done one. I like your cat. Thank you. That's kind of cool. Is it like a flag? It's supposed to be a union, Jerry. Oh, it's very nice. I like it. So something I feel is going on and off of writing things and sort of what you were doing. You're from? I'm from London. Oh, right. I used to work ten. Just so you know. I used that word. I was just, because I know there are moments when I just, you stop writing and you're just in a funk. Right. And I'm just so curious how to get out of that. Yeah. Just to not let that just stop the entire thing. Right, right. That's great. So Ben is like, sometimes you're in a funk. And like a funk sometimes is good as a funky. Like funky. Be damned. That's good. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the kind of thing where you're like, this is what we do. This is like so much about like what we do, right? We, and when we're not together, we're alone. And so you put the time in. And I'm a real big fan. I don't have this timer, which my son wrote. So room doesn't work. I just wore out a prop now. Right. Other than your phone, you get a kitchen timer. You know, a cheap thing, right? And you set it for maybe 15 minutes. And you say, I'm just going to write for 15 minutes. So you kind of allow yourself the time to work on this. That's a lot of time to work in a funk. It's because I don't think I'm going to do a good job. You get the chatter. Just set your timer for a small amount of time. Every day. I don't care if it, I don't care. I'm going to sit in front of my commitment. Just sitting down for any time. And then you are working with it. You're embracing your bad mood. You're not saying I'm not the bad mood. You're saying I'm in a bad mood. I'm in a funk. And I'm trying to, you know, kind of deal with it. That's why we do this. That's what this is all about. So when you go home, if you live in a, if you go home, you watch my live. And you can sit. Yeah. It's 45 minutes. You can just turn on your computer. And we're here. You can just like, okay. So you're not alone. A lot of time to be alone and doing it as far. So we get energy from each other. I get a lot of energy. It's good. I have a career-ish question. A what? Just about. Yes? So I've had a collaboration that's gone completely awry. It's just bad. Oh, okay. And it's with the director and this musical I mentioned before. The one you were. Yeah. But one of the things that, you know, things are happening with lawyers after things going, you know, fine. But yeah, it's not, you know, it's that way. But when I've spoken to the director, one of the things that's been told to me, as you know, I'm a young playwright. And, you know, it's how wonderful it is that he, you know, chose me, that he commissioned me to do this work. And, you know, he had a choice of playwrights, more experience and all these things. And my body of work is impressive. So I've heard that from him. And I know that's emotional manipulation. And it's like rankist form. It's like very clear to me. Right. However, in working, in soliciting advice from people I respect and mentors and colleagues. Yes. I've heard that as well. Like you're a young playwright. It's going to be okay. Like, and I think it's partially to calm me. Yes. But I'm starting to wonder, when on the Good Green Earth do I stop being a young playwright and somebody that can be taken seriously? Right. Yeah. I guess which is a larger kind of career work question. Right. What is that line? Right. How do I make that transition myself, you know? To let people know that's actually not how I expect to be treated. Right. While still being an emerging playwright. I know. That's such a great question. Wait, why are so many people doing that? Because I can't. That's a great thing. So you all heard Carter's question, right? Yeah. You know that when someone says that as a way of justifying their less than appropriate behavior toward you, their face is never worth it. I don't care. You know, one should try to be a playwright or a playwright. And the justification of, I could have chosen so many people. So you're lucky that I chose you to stop on. The thing you should have chosen somebody else. So you know that's important. Your friends, sure, they're trying to help you just get to the day. And that's so you understand that. So first person is inappropriate. And we know that second folks are your friends and trying to help you get to the day. So we understand that. But the question really is you, right? Yeah. So when do you start feeling like you deserve better treatment? You can start that right now. Right now. Right now. And because what happens in any misstep you can speak up about and which will make you, you know, not the most, maybe not the most popular playwright, you know, but you're someone who stands up for himself and believes in his work. You know, and not that you did anything wrong, this is not sit-down. You know, we all learn and, you know, all that kind of thing. But you could start that right now. Right now. This moment forward, you are an emerging writer who deserves respect. Period. Because we all are. Because every work coming out of this is an emerging thing. So everything I write, I'm an emerging, it's emerging. Here it comes. You know what I mean? It deserves respect. You know, because people can say, well, you've never been, they've never performed your work in Dutch. So, you know, or, well, you know, we could have chosen 80 people when we chose you. So I, you know, I'm a writer who deserves respect. You can start that right now. And every step of the way, you have to, what you have to do is turn on your, you have your bullshit, shock-proof shit detectors. Your built-in shock-proof shit detectors like anybody talked about. You have that for your own work. Right? You've got that. That's how you can do a rewrite. You've all got that thing in you that goes, oh, this line isn't right. You have that for your own work. Turn it on when you deal with other people. Woo! That's inappropriate. Excuse me. And there's a nice way to say, excuse me, but I don't think that, that doesn't sit well with me. You know what I mean? And maybe they'll do it anyway. And they will, maybe, sometimes. But at least you stood up for yourself. So, you know, at the end of the day, you can say, at least I recognize that it's not appropriate when I said something and they did it anyway, but at least I stood up for myself. And next time, maybe I'll choose a different way. To you, it happens to me, it happens to everybody on every level. There's always somebody who's going to say, well, this is your, oh, this is your first time on Broadway. You've heard that one. Oh, this is your second time on Broadway. Oh, you're working with these people and so they know, I guess we're, I'm going to stand up for myself. At the end of the day, I know that I did my best work. And I was kind and gracious to whoever I interacted with. Very important. At the end of the day, don't let them take that away from you. Don't turn into who they are. You know what I mean? That's what we worked about. We did a class together at NYU. And at the end of the day, you don't want to replicate that behavior. You want to be kind and gracious and so the new emerging playwright who's going to come and maybe be your intern, you want to be nice to her or him. You know, the new emerging, you know what I mean? You don't want to pass on that behavior. So it's like parenting. You learn that bullshit from people from our, our, you know, elders or whatever. And then we pass it down. It's like bad parenting. He can take that or she can take that back wherever they got it. You know, they can pull over that. You're going to pass on something better. You know? Okay. And I know you will. I know you will. You're wonderful. You know, shit happens. You didn't do anything wrong with it. I think repeating that will lead to myself will be helpful. Yes. It happens to everybody. Nothing bad. No, no bad on you. For the rest of their life. That's who they are. Yeah. So let me tell, I told my students this past semester, students, there are a couple different kinds of people. There are assholes and there are people who are full of shit. Right? Now, at one time, you know, we're all full of shit. Because you got it. Okay. The cool thing about being full of shit is that it passes. Like, today I'm full of shit, but it will pass. Here's the code. That's the code. Right? An asshole could distinguish between assholes and people who are full of shit. Every once in a while, you're going to run into somebody because a wonderful person happens to be full of shit on that given day or for that project or whatever. But an asshole is an asshole forever. And, like my son says, no. No. No, thank you. Good. Anything else? Anybody? I don't know if you're here today. The school's out. So now all the people are free. What's your name? Mr. behind the camera. What's your name? Damien. Damien. On. Damien? Yeah, that's right. Okay. Damien behind the camera. Thank you very much. Any questions about? No. Damien has all the answers. Are you good? Are you good? Are you done? Are there any people today? Um, but they are online. They are. They are online. They're watching us. Listen, if you have a question, write that out. What else can we say? Um, what do I actually move along? I can answer your class. You want your action to move along like a colon? Like, if it moves like a colon, you don't want it to be like that and not move. You know, you want it to kind of move along, move along, move along. Do you want your characters and the things and thoughts to be absorbed? Absorbed? By your audience? Exactly. Exactly. That's what I think. That's right. And we kind of just I don't know, it's just, we just want to move along. We just want to move along. We just want to move along. We have a fart with his mouth. Boy, I was a hit. We farted a lot this time with our mouths. I got nothing else to say. Anything else? No? Okay. Well, next week, we'll be here. Hopefully, you guys will be here. Next week, we'll be online. We need to answer some questions because we'd love to talk about it. Darren! Darren! Darren! Darren! Darren! He should come in! Where is he? I can tell him to. Where is he? It's downtown, running somebody's campaign. Yeah, I know. I ran into him in the subway. He just came back. I know. He has like, dresses, and stuff. Yeah, he's like, tada! I was this when you just came back. Oh, great. Oh, great.