 Yes. Hello out there in TV land. I believe I am on the live stream on HowlRound. How is everyone doing this afternoon? All different time zones. I hope, I hope. I'm playwright Crystal Skillman and I'm the author of Plays Like Open that was at the tank with all for one last summer starring Megan Hill directed by Jesse D Hill and I'm also the bookwriter and musical called Mary Max with music composed by Bobby Cronin and I'm working on a few new plays including Rain and Zoe Save the World which is about two teenage activists who still motorcycle and go attempt to shut down a pipeline. And so speaking of Earth Day which is I picked today as the day to do this session because I think it's very important for us to remember you know all the battles we're fighting right now obviously we're kind of oversaturated but also the glory of what we're fighting for which is this earth which is something larger than ourselves. So that's why I'm here today but one of the more specific reasons I'm here today in this hour is that if you joined you know there are ways to you can ask uh there's an email on the HowlRound website if you write that I've got some incredible mentees Caleb and Stephanie who are looking at that and they will get those questions to me and I can brainstorm a little bit if you're finding that you're getting a bit stuck as a writer trying to work in this incredibly stressful time or any specific questions you have about playwriting or theater that you think would be helpful for me to address. But basically shortly after this occurred I had a lot of deadlines that I still had to meet. It went to as we all know zoom rehearsals I'm sure you've been writing some zoom things or perhaps not and taking stock of where you're at. So because I had teams that I was had to get you know I had to get work to a composer I had to get work to a director or a producer you know how to write during this time is stressful and crazy and a lot a lot of things. So I began to develop these techniques and I realized that they might be really useful for other writers and so I began to teach them a little bit at primary stages and then at PACE University where I'm also a professor so today it's kind of my bag of tricks for some of these things that I found are helpful to recognize the world in which we are living and not be in denial but also to enjoy and take what we're learning from that into fantasy and fiction and be safe in that place and time especially for this next hour. So the first thing that we're going to do is I'm going to and again you might have my video on I'll stay on I think but but you know obviously you can turn I think you can I'm not sure if you turn my video on or not but offer it on but you can also just listen to my voice and it will be just as effective. So the first thing I'm going to ask you to do is I'm going to ask you to make a list and I'm going to time you for five minutes so I will then guide you when it's up really three minutes I think of things that are stressing you out everything everything that is stressing you out. I have no doubt it is a long list so your timer as they say in Top Chef starts now I'm looking for a free writing list which is pen to paper or typing on your laptop and you're not going to take that pen off or keep stop typing you're just going to keep typing and you have three minutes to do a list of all the things that are stressing you out all right I think we are almost we're getting there we're getting there all of it all of it if the dishes aren't on there I don't believe you because this is really really stressing me out in addition to all the other things I rewatch 12 monkeys see sometimes we're going to sometimes we're not I feel like every time we come back it's a little bit of 12 monkeys are getting have to get hosed off from going outside but every single little stress you have a minute and a half left great you have 30 seconds every last little thing to shove all the stress in there just shove it in there every little bit it can be you remember this is a list for yourself no one else is going to see this list so other people might be on the list doesn't matter you're not going to get in trouble all good and in the next few seconds go ahead and find a stopping place might be stopping place for now I'm sure the list can go on and on and on all right whoo it's just a sample right of what's there so what I want you to do right now is I want you to go ahead and close your eyes um and listen to my voice and I'm going to you know all that stress that's living inside you when you think of them as different strands that are inside you right now and I'm going to go inside your heart and inside your body and one by one I'm going to pull these threads out so I'm going to take like the biggest one from your list the one that's just for you feel like it's crushing it's really crushing and I'm going to take that one out it's going to be a little hard but we're going to pull it out of you and we're going to toss it away we're going to let it drift up we're going to let it flop wherever it goes it goes but it's not a part of you anymore and I want you to take the next stress that comes to mind and let's pull it out and let it go the next three let's grab them real tight and yank them out okay this is reality this is what's happened but not anymore not right now it exists but not in you you're not responsible for it it's not a part of your mental state right now we've let that go and then all the rest from the list just let it pour out of you and feel and breathe without that in you because for the next 50 minutes it is not in you anymore and that is not selfish it's a beautiful thing you deserve that that's why you're here today so the first thing we're going to do well the next thing we're going to do now in this state in which we accept a few things we accept that writing is valuable and we accept that words are like gold we accept that that it is a beautiful act and it is something that one sometimes must be selfish to do in order to get done but it is not a selfish act it is a giving act and it has value and so by doing it even when things around us are going a little crazy it's still a beautiful important valuable thing so the first thing i want you to do is write a list another list of things that drive you and i would do them in question form like jeopardy things that it's like what i like to call your why today why why are you excited about life and living and the things that you know it might be pre this all happening but even now certain observations you've had wow that's that's really important to me i didn't realize that so you're going to form them in the form of a question so um your why today is why is there climate change is that something that you want to to change or you want to still be a part of your activist life um why uh why can't mothers be kinder to their daughters maybe you want to change that cycle maybe that's something you're passionate about or exploring but all the subjects or things that you're interested in that drive you that drive you to do the things you do or the new things you've observed and i'll just do like a minute and a half list but in question form as many as you can get down your why today's um the things that when you walk are questions that you have of the world or yourself that you want to investigate if you think are valuable that drive you that you think are powerful those are many ways the dramatic questions of your life and the themes of your life you might not even notice that they're happening but they are and let's just see how many we can get down in a minute and a half of course don't think about it too much when you start writing just let it go might get a little silly sometimes and that's great too um why does everybody hoard toilet paper right that might be a very valid question that comes up in this list and that's that's great and in the next few seconds find a stopping place for right now and from that list or just kind of where you're at right now and just being in your right or body and knowing that the right or body is valuable and um just as powerful as a warrior or um you know uh anyone um in this universe a very powerful being a god so to speak and that you know all these things um i want you to think about i want you to close your eyes and i want you to think about the three things that you're really excited to write you might have more actually i let's just do a bit of listing here too but things on your mind that you've been excited to write it might have been before this all happened or things that you just think are interesting um based on what you've seen or been feeling um but just jot down a few things that you know if you had your basket or your bin of things that you've been burning to write and i would think about it as like you know the the story that if i had to say right now i had all the money in the world and i had all the resources of the world to give you to support you in that what what is the what are the ideas that come to mind it's very hard to pick one right away but i think go ahead and jot some of those down for yourself and as you're jotting them down i want you to pick the top three so what the three that sing to you and then from the three i want you to pick one and i often um describe this moment as um a little bit like the dark crystal which is puppets it was great that we have this new version which is fantastic i love sequels but um in in the original there was a scene where jan had these these shards and they stay glow um well he plays a little pipe to be honest there are three shards and to understand the shard he needs to pick one glows and i think there's there's something about one of these ideas it's going to glow a little brighter than the other it's going to talk to you a little bit um and once you think about how that idea goes with your why today's and who you are and your dna and who you are and kind of start to think about wow that's interesting how how does that go back to me in some interesting way um and i think let's start there let's just take that idea and let's just close our eyes and see if we can picture a scene from this idea and go into it so to do that we're going to do a visualization exercise so what we're going to do is we're going to close our eyes i like closing our eyes like i find very calming i don't know i don't know it's not like romper room but i i just i find it calming so um you're going to close your eyes you know listen to my voice um you see something different than what i say totally great um just go with what you see um you're going to go head and see a white space completely white you used to say like the matrix but nobody knows that that is anymore but it's totally white and i want you to think about a setting that is strong for that idea doesn't have to be for every moment of that idea but just the first idea that comes to mind of a setting and it should be something that's um challenging or provocative or evocative you know a living room or bedroom might be that place it might be a beach it might be a park it might be a lot of things um it could be uh you know a backyard um a street but once you have that place i want you to take three items from that place and click and drag them into the space so they're going to fill out so maybe if it's a a beach maybe it's um some water maybe it's uh you know a shell maybe it's a fish um but three major items that come together or or or elements and i want you to click and drag them into the white space and as they click and drag into the white space they're going to go ahead and fill the whole white space with the actual setting so you're actually inside it right now and i want you to see a character in that space i'm not sure if they're in that space right now or if they've entered i want you to try and see uh their age how they walked characteristics um are they five are they 81 are they you know are they indiscriminate age are they you know is is their gender is you know is is there's something particular they're wearing just kind of take stock of that and they're doing something a task and they feel very very strongly about this task or it's something that keeps them a powerful feeling as they're doing this task and they're continuing to do it um i don't know they might be talking themselves they might be singing or humming a little bit but or they might be doing just the task itself and then uh i think another character is either in the space or about to enter i'm not sure where they're entering from i'm not sure on what they look like um but in many ways they uh they might have similarities but they're they're in some way pretty opposite there's a strong contrast between these two characters in some way i'm not sure if they know each other i'm not sure if they're have a what the relationship is but try to feel it out as that person is entering and seeing how they enter and what they're doing and they don't necessarily dislike what the task that the person's doing but they're definitely interfering in some way perhaps they have something else that they want to do perhaps they want to get the person's attention perhaps they want to help in some way um and it's something that your other characters not so sure how they feel about it now as this is going on i want you to think about they have strong needs from each other as this is going to go on and those needs are not the same thing at least not in this moment but let's um let's time for five five minutes and let's see what they write say and do so that is in essence could be stage direction could be action we see on stage could be the character uh speaking back and forth could be a monologue could be a monologue and a scene um or scene work or dialogue so i want you to just go ahead and just like write the very beginning of this and see what comes out um might be completely wordless which is great too uh just a quick reminder all stage directions are in the present because a play can only take place in the present even if it's a flashback of some kind um and uh and have some fun or be playful with the languages that they're using see what comes to you see what you're discovering and i will also give a countdown for you too for the time i didn't tell you how you started i totally was bad but your timer has started okay so you have like two and a half two and a half minutes left for this little exploratory beginning moment of something don't be um uh it's at this time too that i always try to remind myself of beats can be filled with um your five senses so you can write it as a beat but maybe it becomes um you know a sound of a bird uh an sound of an ambulance um the sky turns red um it rains starts to rain um you know just using any of your five senses and the environment can be very helpful in any way if you get stuck in any way too the characters can use that environment how many times have we not known what to say next and we start you know fiddling with something um and uh the person remarks on it or anything like that um i also will say too with characters you know they might um uh the thing that binds it is that all theater is live so it very well might be that your characters are ghosts or animals or you know when i say characters they don't necessarily have to be human so we'll explore a few exercises so there's definitely room for play um and i'm sure if your mind wanted to go there different time periods of course can happen um what is now even now is very interesting um what is now in the current state which we living so great in one minute left so one minute left and you have like 20 seconds a little less than 20 seconds great and in the next few seconds once you find a stopping place for now if you have notes about oh i think this is going to happen this is going to happen go and write him down um get excited if you want to stay with it if you're like whoa i just want to stay here stay here i'm going to introduce a few other little exercises with the same um uh situation that can add to different scenes or moments of your play um but it's up to you you can always stay where you are too or write these exercises down later you can also always ask to the email what was that i was working on something else what was that exercise she was doing because i was doing something else we can always fill you in um and we're going to do some links after for anything that i reference um in terms of visuals so we might show a few visuals what we have are short on time so we might do this as links later um so i just want to be bop around in this idea for a little bit and this is a technique that i call flash forward or flash back um and then i'll show you how to do a quick outline organize if that's something you're interested in later but we need content first i very much think of writing as first we want the content and i think of so when i think of structure you know structure is the cup that you know holds this at the bones but the water is the content itself and you know i think that that um exploring with the content is first it just tells you a lot about where you want to go so um uh for a little uh fun thing with that i want to i want you now to dream on like it could be minutes later it might be like 10 minutes later in this scenario but with these characters um and again if you want to replace these characters if you're feeling if you want to try some new ones that's great but i think it might be great to stay with the same ones um i want you to pick one of the characters that you kind of feel like wow i know they're brand new both of them possibly but one that you feel like you know a little bit less or like trying to get a little bit more of a handle on and or the one who talks less those are those are the two categories that kind of help you figure out which one to pick and i want you to um uh uh okay put them in a state of high emotion so high emotion joy confusion um anger um you know um overzealousness just devastation love right any of these high states of emotion right so i you know this is not going to be necessarily right after we you start stopped writing you're gonna gonna dive forward um uh further into the play um and so i want you to have that character explain to the other character how they feel as a simile so we use similes all the time and this is a this is one of my bag of tricks this is a really great exercise that i've always done and it always creates a beautiful monologue basically is because if you sense where i was going um but uh you know i'm so mad at you i i feel like a balloon that could pop right we talk like this all the time you know i i you know i look at you and my my heart my heart is exploding like the fireworks on the 4th of july right like maybe not as corny and some of these things but we do we even say i look in you i in your eyes and i feel like i'm i'm looking in a mirror and i see myself right so um that so the character the first thing to do not unlike um sometimes writing a song where you get the lyric hook first um like shake it off right or whatever the lyric hook is but like you know i want you to get that simile down first like how does this character explain how they're feeling to this other character what is the simile so just write that down first try to get that line down first i've noticed and i'm sure you have too that we often use similes to to explain where we're at because in a way a weird way to say i'm sad or i'm angry or frustrated uh people don't understand but people are able to put themselves in someone else's shoes when you when you put it into story or you say it's like this um then they can actually understand hopefully if they've had some kind of similar experience or at least can imagine what that's like um so once you have that simile down i'm gonna let you go for um five minutes and in the five minutes what i want you to do is i want you to um build upon that simile so whatever imagery comes out as a result of that simile i want you to do so if it's if it's i'm so mad uh you know you uh you know i feel like a balloon that could pop um i feel like you're squeezing all the air out of everything that i say and i feel like uh i try to speak and my voice gets squeaky and strange and it's like someone else has taken over my life and i used to feel it was like a party but now i just feel like it's a disaster sometimes now sometimes my examples for the simile exercise are not as great i do it so you can do the great work so um i'm sure your simile uh will be much better than mine but the imagery so you know and you can go on tangents it's great like it's a rant really let's be honest it's a rant but see how that imagery weaves back in see see what happens for you as that character keeps talking if the other character wants to talk they totally can try to keep it small minimal so that's mostly the other character talking you can also always write in the stage direction um even even the character speaking might get so overwhelmed to go kick something or something like that um there might be a stage lighting something might change all sorts of things can happen you know uh another character might be listening in that we don't even see maybe a ghost or something we don't know um but let's just see what happens um great um i'm going to time you for five minutes and see where it goes now this is free writing so this means that for this to work you've got your simile let it go don't worry if it's good writing or not it will take care of itself do not stress about that in the least um you're just creating something from nothing which is um the most fun of all so your timer starts now um i will definitely keep time for you as you go if you find yourself stressed out and you'd like oh jeez how do i keep going um put a song on put a song on let the song and this this idea from one image to the next think about how the words um are connecting you can always edit later i'd rather you overwrite even if it doesn't make sense and we can always go back in and edit um character's not making sense by the way it can be absolutely terrific because a lot of us don't make sense right and then playwriting really captures these beautiful present moments between people um or you know characters um so think about how each word is like a it's like a trapeze act it's catch up one word's catching the other and of course they really want to they really need this other person to understand where they're coming from so that really drives them you have a little bit more than three minutes left sometimes these end up being like half a page or page sometimes they end up being five lines um but they always end up being something really interesting and good writing you know it's around this time too that things might end up being questions the character might end up asking questions of the other character or or having a new revelation or discovery um that goes into a new place about themselves or about the relationship or about the other character a place that they're in um something might be exposed in terms of a deeper want or longing or any any of those things um might might be happening we don't know but they might be happening um the character might be getting more bold more loud um more inflammatory might be getting also or might be getting more quiet more might be more space between the words or might be going faster you you can feel it out you can feel how they're feeling so just let it come through you and you have like a a little less than a minute and a half left one minute mark and this is where it can be kind of fun to be like if there is something unsaid that they just unearthed this is the time if you feel like pencils down you already got to the ending and go through and say and just you know you can edit a little bit or lift a line or two or reorganize a little bit if you want to just take a look is every line present one of my um or uh active and I always think a few tricks with that if a character saying you know when it doesn't feel active then is it something that other character already knows that they know themselves would they say that or I think because typically our action is in the thought we usually don't have to say I think sometimes it can be startling though to use that as well um it depends because it can shake things up as well you take a look at punctuation our characters is the character cutting themselves off is there a dash dot consistently are there ellipses are you through punctuation and how you're laying it out on the page are you capturing how the character talks do you think you could also add a stage direction before and after you could also add a response after so that all may be happening in that moment you may still be like all right he says great we have time we're transitioning here um we're going to go into the last part of just exploring this one idea we're going to do another flash forward um just prep you says you're as you're finishing up so it's going to be a moment where I like to call this moment um so maybe I will do uh I'll say belly of the whale but I'll show you a little visual after so that um you can think about um with this idea um uh you know organizing a little bit more if you this is something you want to explore deeper in a shorter play or a longer play um or these characters um the uh I call this the belly of the whale um moment and then in the belly of the whale moment in the hero's journey um and when I say hero I'm not picturing any gender I'm not picturing any class I don't know you know it could be a rabbit I don't know I've left watershed down many of you with that know we know I love watershed down very much great hero's journey but um uh in this case in the belly of the whale the character has to make an important choice before they can get out of where they are um in this case between these two characters um it's a moment where they whatever has been um um it's kind of a little bit of a point of return no return to so like wherever anything's been said that is dangerous you know it's going to be said or dealt with here or the person's going to be called on it but one person doesn't want to let the other person leave the room they may very well attempt to leave um and I think we'll just do three minutes for this like a quick short exchange between these two characters where later in the play um enough has come out um that these characters have dealt with or a secret is about to come out in the moment which you're just about to write that is going to force the other character to have to deal with that or um a discovery or revelation or they want to try to leave or they want to give them something or um I want you to explore what that is but this is a scene that would be later like leading to the climax of the piece um and I just want to see what they say to one another and what they do um maybe three uh it may be all stage direction sometimes you may not have dialogue yet my um trick for dialogue is I'm never afraid to write on the nose because I know it can replace it later so I never really worry if it's a great line when I first write it I think of them like little gems like I could polish I can always polish them later um this is an exercise and I'm more interested in discovering the moment and what the moment is um and so you know maybe that's dialogue maybe it's all stage direction maybe it's an idea maybe it's both um so your three minutes starts now to just explore this moment between these two characters where whatever pretenses they have are beginning to fall away and they're starting to look at each other and see each other in a different way um and it may be scary what they see they might really like what they see they might be falling in love with what they see they may be repelled by what they see I'm not sure or have discovered um and you know put how you feel in this moment with everything that you've been going through in the past month into these moments into this this these moments that you're writing right now um because most likely there's something that someone was afraid to say something frustrated um or discovery um and I bet you dollars to donuts that you've had similar as if kind of feelings recently even though they may not be the exact feelings but let's just sketch that out you may also see where they are they might be in a different place within that setting which will be kind of interesting um or you know the setting may also have changed the lighting may have changed the time of day may have changed maybe days later even it could be even months later I'm not really sure but let's just see what they do and say and it's just a little moment so let's let's do two more minutes and then we'll move on great we've got like 40 seconds left great and this is now we have the 30 seconds so anything that hasn't been exclaimed or happened or there might be an implosion happening uh maybe even a last visual of this kind of moment or it could even be leading to the end of the play that's all really interesting let's see what happens and 10 seconds 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 well we just did three little snippets a moments of an idea that came from you things that you were um driving you um and it came from uh emerging from the outside world but also embracing um uh fiction um and so just really quick just to kind of review a little bit let's see here i'm going to do a little screen share let me see i'm with the thea can we um unlock the screen share screen sharing here um and then we're going to move on and do a different exercise I think well look at that look at thea thank you thea this is so amazing um let's see here let's do desktop and let's I'm sorry it's so um it's disturbing um this is what I call my structure packet I use it with my students um it covers a few different things this is actually I use this for teaching high schoolers but I just love it I think it's pretty terrific so I just want to introduce this in case you do not know it um it's called five steps to the end I'm often again uh creating content and then looking at it and what is it so this is probably way too early but if you're liking um some of the ideas that you've been working on today or the scenes um a good way to start to think about you know how they get structured together I don't know why but for me five plot points is a really terrific exciting number I don't know what it is um and plot points to just to remind ourselves are not every nail that holds up um this are the rooms that we are in our house but they are the main nails that keep it together they're the bones uh as we call it a structure so in the in the trick of five steps to the end you just go one two three four five you put the first action of the play and you could do this with a short play like you can do this with a 10 minute play you can do this with a 60 minute play do this with a 90 minute play because there will be five plot points no matter what there may be more but there are at least five essential ones most likely um so I use here a quick example um jack and the beanstalk um by the way uh I don't know if there's any teenagers online but often uh teenagers have to explain to them jack and the beanstalk unless they've been into the woods in which case we are okay giants in the sky but um jack sells the cow to get magic beans uh so this is the uh I have little notes here for the high schoolers um you put the so basically the first part of the story right then here's the trick and this is always a way to do it no matter how you do this five plot point thing skip to the fifth one jack chops down the beanstalk and kills the giant right as you've noticed I'm not kind of already told you these answers we've got the want established here we've got exposition going here we've got also the resolution now what's greatest from two three and four started thinking how do I get there if you look at a Pixar movie that's very much what they're doing right there's this really great concept there's this great thing and well um post a link to it I'm sure you've seen the Pixar um story rules that they have there's like 22 or something they get their minds jazzed um and I find they're very creative and really lovely and they are very inventive ways of looking at cause and effect which is very similar to what this is doing but um what this does in a very simple way without having to do huge outlines of huge treatments at least for talking to yourself at the very beginning is that it's you know in two three or four we don't have room for a character to go get a stick of gum unless it's like going to majorly pay off right because these are plot points right um and we know there's a bunch of cause and effect within them so that's just something I like to do so this is a technique where I might create some content like what we just did and then I might ask myself um how that works in larger story uh some of the questions I always do is I always try to use setting which is what I was doing with you when I was talking I was asking certain questions about setting so this is just that that from that packet um I also want to show you guys um when I do a lot of my heroes journey classes this is from action philosophers which my husband Fred Van Linty wrote and Ryan Dunley we drew and it is like a board game and it does indeed have pop culture references which is something I adore um uh but here belly of the whale you know we have called to a venture as we know oh look I'm making things on here this is like terrible I'm just like not even not educated about PDFs um but uh like here's our very matrix moment obviously in every story right so that there's a call to adventure why the venture begins crossing the first thresholds pretty exciting because it's a moment but a character um can no longer go back in the story um here uh spider man and Peter Parker are now um two separate people in a way within one person and that's not something he can really go back from um because he's also made a vow because he lost his uncle so all those elements not just putting on the costume not just doing the wrestling match and making a big bag of money which is you know interesting all good stuff in terms of what this is referencing but as a point from which Peter Parker cannot come back in the story with great power comes great responsibility as they like to say um and the belly of the whale is what we did in here it's illustrated by Pinocchio a little bit so I just the reason why I sometimes like to look at the hero's journeys um it's definitely great to obviously if you're writing screenplays it's almost pretty much this in your own creative way but um it reminds me of obstacles and you know that even in a 10 minute play you know there are things that the characters are trying to do and then all you have to do um is remember that a new obstacle is introduced so that's something that as well when I start to come up with some content and ideas um obstacle plus conflict new action new obstacles but don't forget the new action you know that's something that I always forget and then those new obstacles can keep things going so that's just looking at the content you have and going forward with that um if you have any questions there is an email up on HowlRound so if you are having any specific writing issues or questions um like I can't get started I don't um know how to work my time in this and this is the other thing I will say about this in terms of uh oh let's stop sharing that'll be great um let's see let's go back here um the other thing I will say is that um uh your time is going to be different and I think you've noticed this uh well of course you have um so even if it's just you get one teeny little thing done and maybe you used to write in the morning and now you the only hour you have is like three to four um or we only have 30 minutes um I would start to think of dream uh dreaming on thoughts and ideas making thoughts and ideas um uh if you can even jot down a few thoughts I think that's terrific for a day the amount of work you can do it today is going to be different it's going to be divided up differently um in your house you're going to find different sources of power in places you want to write um they give you inspiration and I definitely think mixing it up is a good idea within your house itself if you can even ringing the kitchen like like just just uh anything you can do um to kind of find an experiment for yourself with that variety um and of course if you don't write every day that's great too um hopefully this exercise of trying to lift out from the stress is really terrific I think it's just also important that at least for me and I'm just sharing what how I'm I'm personally doing it I think about it like being at war there are things happening but it this work is valuable as well because also the work you're creating if this is work you want to go out and share this is a time of development to do that and people will want and need these things now a year from now two years from now um and I think that you know if you have a gift I think it's important and if you feel comfortable using it to um explore it um I'd love to end and we're going to see if there's any questions please do ask if you again we can problem solve and help you through anything uh writer's block or anything like that um but I would like to end with a really fun exercise I just came up with I called the origin of theater exercise and just started it yesterday it just ended up being really cool and um I'm going to give you five minutes and I want you to write me a scene um and I think maybe maybe there's a place where Hal Brown can post some of these pdfs too because that um because this will be up and if you want to share it I think it might be neat if you guys want to do want to share some of these things um but go ahead and write me a scene about what you think how did theater how did first of all is a big reset button like we're talking about theater how can we do it can we get into space is it all virtual what what is powerful and being virtual right um and uh you know I think it's interesting to ask ourselves even like what is this thing called theater that we got so obsessed with um what where did it come from is it aliens is it fairies is it is it is it uh cavemen I don't know but um I'm going to give you five minutes to write a scene it could be a scene monologue or just stage direction description um of the origin of theater and go crazy go nuts don't worry uh you can be as fantastical as you like obviously um so we're going to go ahead and go ahead and see what happens I'll give you guys four minutes for that so four minutes to write a scene or a moment when I say the words the origin of theater you know um what's that scene that comes to mind for you how did it come to be how did this wild and crazy thing come to be that now we're all on our little computers but before that we're maybe involved computers who knows maybe it's robots hey P and some people were saying they can't hear me I think can you hear me hopefully hopefully it's all good yes I wonder if my volume is my volume matter on this thing I don't know could you say something so I can hear you now I'm like paranoid hey yeah I'm uh I'm hearing you loud and clear okay perfect okay then I got the singer okay cool fabulous atrocity um that's a word that's absolutely a word um I have some questions here too so I'm going to answer this in a little bit see here but for the origin of the origin of theater it's very important it's what you know we're going to teach the wee ones this scene do you have like two minutes left again you may not completely finish this um as you continue to write I'll I'll say that in class some of the techniques that we've been doing um messing around we had to use this full mat it's a puppet show um uh we would do a screen share screen when we read these origin of theater scenes and we we considered this space the bonfire so that we would take the origin of theater scenes and we'd share the share screen and read the parts together um almost like we were around a bonfire sharing with each other what that origin was what we thought that was I got some questions here um we uh for the rest of this we have one minute so quick I did I did give them 10 minutes by the way in my class just so you know so typically this exercise can be really terrific with 10 minutes but you know it's a little bit of a smorgasbord I want to make sure you had a few um exercises well these are really really good questions okay okay 30 seconds left to finish out this now if you already finished this exercise what I don't think you did in five minutes probably but something I like to do if you're doing it for 10 minutes or you're leading this exercise if you happen to be a teacher um steal use these use these techniques um the I say I say if people are done come done um I was like okay we'll write a prologue and an epilogue to your origin and actually they ended up being pretty cool the prologues and origins I will also say that um one of my students did not write a scene at all and wrote this really riveting piece of text that almost read like a book or something it was really really great it was like it was torn from a book about the origin theater it was pretty cool um cool so we're gonna go to some some questions right now but that's okay you completely can keep writing and you know anything I say if you are on your own zone you know don't don't let me take you out of it um we can always multitask which is terrific um okay so this is I think this is from uh let's see I'm not exactly sure who this is from Caleb maybe let me know some names here but I'm doing the one of when you're writing about a real place thing or idea but you're using that just to talk about something bigger how I think this is Marianne how important is this to get that real thing um perfectly accurate um okay so research something based on research or historical work um uh actually my husband Fred Van Lentie uh does some nonfiction comics as well as fiction and he taught me a little trick that I really like and that is um I try to to imagine to understand the given circumstances that are that are realistic but I'm you know like so it's believable which honestly is the big thing right whether it's whether you're coming from an uh you know a fact or something completely made up or something kind of inspired by real life and like totally mostly made up or any of these combos um you know William Goldman is correct and that believability is everything so as long as we can believe it can happen which means the given circumstances are true right um now if this is a play where we see through the perspective of elephants and it's about you know two elephants you know or it's about a bunch of elephants um who are auditioning for a you know ballet act and in that world it makes sense it makes sense so like again believability is within the world and what you're doing um which is kind of like why I like not doing naturalism because it can be very binding and restricting to come back to historical work I find you just want to know just enough you want to know enough to get your imagination going to have uh this flesh and blood of these people and let them speak and not have not worry about oh gosh is every word that they're saying historically accurate that is something that you can think about later is it a play that has contemporary references um meaning like do they say buck and like you know maybe it's caveman times and like the it wasn't that word wasn't created yet again that's a stylistic thing right uh and I think in the beginning almost like creating content you're gonna want to explore that at some point when you have enough of a solidness of the excitement of what the dramatic question is or the store or the basic story then I would start to um go back and research a little bit more so it's like I would almost like almost like the water like content and the the cup with the structure just enough then go research researcher okay well I'm not sure okay that this was on the Hoover Dam but you know what this intake tower you know couldn't do that oh but they could do that in this level okay well I'm gonna adjust that or here you know these kinds of things um so so I think it's that balance because you don't want to cut off creativity you want to let the history fuel the creativity and go back and forth um and I also a big big thing to remember with that is um your job as a writer is not to explain how things happen right so it's not to like teach the history like if I'm writing a play about the Hoover Dam it isn't to teach about the Hoover Dam because they can watch documentaries in the Hoover Dam they can read you know anyone can read a book on the Hoover Dam what is the story we go to watch humans um or or humans embody things so um it's great um so that was that answers that question um but playing around and thinking about storytelling that doesn't follow the normal beginning climax ending cool so that become aware that kind of story didn't just follow the male orgasm yes it does little yes yes yes it does it's very um in fact that graph first came up when I was learning playwriting and I almost threw up and um yeah I thought I wasn't a playwright but I was wrong okay do you have any exercises advice for writing non-linearly or stories that may not follow typical structure that makes sense okay uh I actually think the hero's journey is helpful in that sense and I know it's seen as as a male thing sometimes it's called the heroine journey it has adapted things because when I see it I'm not trying to I find that because our minds are so creative um we don't actually go like your climax is not going to be like a mammoth climax because it's not possible so we could use the word climax but it would be very different um I think about so sometimes I do use those references but I would say the easiest would be something like five steps to the end the five steps thing right like it can rest on the climax in a certain way typically the fourth plot uh point ends up being fourth but you can think of them as almost like five q cards right so the five q cards could really go in a circle right they can go in any shape or direction it's a matter of visualization that speaks to you about how one thing leads to the other and what people are discovering and what that means and it might be completely language in your world it might be words activating something else um as long as the piece here's also a very quick way to put this let me just draw you a little something right so this is this is actually all you need to know if you want to really like make your own structure not like you know worry about the stuff is the one thing that is true no matter what kind of play we're making there's a five hour play it doesn't have a climax at all takes place in the shop and you have to find a location and it's immersive or whatever's going on um uh all theater is in the present okay I'm just doing a circle for now because I like crossbar and stuff um and there's the past and the future okay the past and the future are pressing into the present in a story when we're making a story that is a play we have a timeline of events right so if I did a timeline it might be like for my day I wake up I have oatmeal I go here I go there maybe from but maybe for your character the eating oatmeal is like going to be a huge amazing thing and experiencing them eating that on stage is going to make us feel a certain way because they start weeping into the oatmeal like 15 minutes in we're like oh my god who is this person I don't know in my story maybe I cut that out maybe I don't know but what we're going to do from that timeline is you're only going to put things in the present that are active and things that and so we don't and we don't have to show the past or explain the past because the past is in the present it fuels the present the future like even if someone can be pregnant maybe we don't see the birth of the child because the future looms right future looms we can show any elements that we want but as long as it's present and alive and and there's something at stake it does not need to be in a certain it does not need to be the male graph it it can be in any shape that you want so I would start to almost like map it out for yourself how you need to see it so I find visualizations and drawing very helpful for that you can also go from setting and on map of the world you can do that as well and that can be very helpful for alternative structures I went to art school so definitely like visualizations a lot here's another one question for someone who's starting a brand new project with no formal deadlines what advice do you have for carving out time I do journal every day but formal creative writing I still have a mental block starting you know I trained myself a little bit in this weird little journal I had that gave you okay how did we do it first okay you had it you can make your list for the day like the things you felt like you had to do you had to pick the top five and so I would just make this about writing so that's easier like the thing and and pick the top five and then put them in order and then give them each 30 minutes like 30 minute bubbles and time yourself for 30 minutes to accomplish those tasks and what that makes you do is really get minute but basically you can also just adapt that philosophy um you can um you can be you know adaptive basically so if it so it's a matter of saying you know um because Maggie I know Maggie's thought I can use Maggie's example you're working on something that's very comedic but it's exploring large issues and relationships of a mother and daughter um in a certain way and so what are you know is it is it um someone character means needs to be fleshed out a little bit more you need to know the history of that character you want to explore with a different beginning and ending all those things take time just break down the time okay I'm going to spend an hour um re-looking at how the beginning speaks to the ending I'm going to spend I think this will take three hours working on the climax of this show and I just kind of want to write this confrontation scene I might throw it out but let me let me see what it is so like you may not and again it always ends up being longer than you think but you can start to do that and then you can look at each day and you do not have to do everything in one day do not do everything do not do everything in one day that's why a little bit when it's like you know I understand not wanting to write every day I understand very much wanting to just consume media and a lot of other things but I also think it's igniting things within you that you might want to explore and again if you just do even something very small you can actually start almost like little droplets of water in a pail on something that you may have something of by like September very easily maybe by June maybe you know or right now you just put it up on Zoom um cool great uh let's see here oh device do you have any advice for processing or dealing with internalized um oh I also will say the last thing about the time thing don't beat yourself up like if if if if you can't wake up at six in the morning it's totally cool because I cannot um if it's something that happens over lunch in a certain way or coffee like kind of associate the little creature habits that work around that time um and figure out when when that works um and and check your progress by the end of the week and start to look at that way as well see what happens um do you have any advice for processing or dealing with internalized uh criticism I've been getting feedback on my business rating okay okay yes okay yes okay that's interesting Rebecca okay so different kinds of writing right like I quick example I did not think I was a playwright this is why I went to art school for photography and I ended up studying sculpture on a lot of great things and I'm really really grateful as you can see I live like like um like an art school baby but um every kind of writing is different and so every writing has a different uh kind of uh function like essay writing is very different than playwriting so I uh was only a b plus student really in writing so I I just was like I'm not a writer like you know I can't spell which is true you all know my actor friends out there are like she cannot spell um it's easier now with technology so uh you know you get certain criticisms because of of different forms of writing require different things people also speak about criticism differently especially in a work environment um you know because they're it's very different like it's very systematic in a way creativity and creative writing isn't as systematic and so therefore finding your own way to process criticism is crucial and every single writer is absolutely different I call it driving my own process and when I teach my students I you know you know I almost every student has had a moment where I've gone crazy because they come in they've been working on the most beautiful scene and they come in they're like oh I got really that first line because it was stupid and I was like wait no that was that was amazing like why they're like well I showed to my sister my sister doesn't like it I'm like no disrespect I was like who's your sister bring her to me because is she a writer does she has written other stuff like it's very different for someone who isn't a writer or isn't in this craft and world to process something that someone said out loud to them that they're writing as opposed to seeing it on stage in which case the sister might love that line but maybe she can't imagine it that far you know I'm not sure I don't know her right so like it's about feedback is and this is why you can't just ask random people for feedback you have to know the person if you know their style so even when I talk you can be like Crystal is the thing with sisters you know so I know that she might harp on that when she talks back to me so you can put them you can you can figure out how to put them and you have to go back to your own gut meaning we have to know what you want to do with it in terms of driving your process what are your actual questions and what are your feelings and gut instincts on it if someone is saying something in terms of feedback and it does not ring true to you it's usually wrong but typically what has happened is they have suggested a solution that is wrong but the solution is not the person who gives feedback's job that's our job all they need to do is is you know this part didn't quite flow or I was confused here or oh I'd love that but jeez I wonder if there was another image so that your mind can think and go and they can sense things that are working or not working that's what people can do they can give their instincts and their feelings they can answer specific questions about characters and and what they're getting they cannot tell you how to fix it they cannot tell you what to do and in most cases their solutions are wrong now other playwrights can I found can give terrific great different solutions I don't always take them but I think they're they're really helpful but I would say they're very different than the solutions I might get from someone in another industry I hope that that helps or within different parts of our industry and sometimes they'll say something I like a kernel of but I'm going to take it forward my own way the other thing I think is extremely important is if you have an internal critic that is hurting you that is like making it so you can't write that's telling you you know I you know this is not going to be good like don't start oh that's horrible like you're trying to write and because again get it out and then figure it out later don't judge yourself when you write because if you judge yourself when you write you're never right Paul Simon says something I think is amazing he says about criticism he says ask that voice to identify itself I think he got this somewhere else from some such characters but ask that voice to identify itself and and if it can identify itself then what is it so the truth is it doesn't really exist it's you know your ego because your ego would rather that you fail than succeed because then you know it wins it's like haha I knew you know it just wants absolute and that's a big deal of what we're talking about today too is feeling so weird to say this but feeling comfortable in uncertainty today we are doing things that we can do we can write we can rewrite we can make things we can change things we can do that we'll go into the outside world this is more complicated right we're living in an uncertain time but I think the power of that is about you know being able to drive your own process and drive through those things that are that little voice in your ear in fact the first thing I would do is I would pluck it out and I would throw that little inner critic on the ground I would squish it because it really means nothing it's really it's really my new shot it's just just fear and I have yet to meet a playwright that has written a beautiful play on the very first draft I think Edward always used to say he used to do it but I don't know if that's really true and I I know it takes drafts and drafts and drafts so if it takes drafts and drafts and drafts just get it out and see what it becomes and if you're getting tired have some actor friends read it and in fact I would say that's what I'd love to leave you with today is that I'd love to leave you with a little bit of homework which is that whatever you've been working on maybe take it forward and to talk to Maggie's thing maybe in terms of timing and schedule I think that was another one there are some great great tricks here so I dramaturg my own work in the mornings because my eyes are fresh and my mind is fresh and when I dramaturg what I've written I tried to look at it as if I hadn't written it like almost like an artifact or something and I try to go through the beats because I'm interested in how the beats line up and so I'll do that I'll see how it works and I'll do some edits and revise the scene then typically at some point then I'll revise a little bit this is a little bit more in a traditional non-pandemic like world but like there's still a little bit of this that I'm still able to keep not every day but maybe every other day and then well you know there is something in this world I think we are connecting with which is something called happy hour it comes you don't have to drink but I would say that typically in Harper Lee talked about this she would get her glass of wine at like seven and she would look over what she'd written or whatever she worked on the day now writing too that could be thoughts that could be your notes that could be journals so just kind of like either looking through that revised moment or kind of placing your thoughts and collecting them in a calm way and making your notes for the next day or in three days from now what you want to tackle but that kind of thing can be really helpful if you're in fact you could start at the six o'clock hour if you want and then if you're like to write at night then you might want to explore some things and then sleep in in the morning and then and then look at something I think it is challenging right now if you have a day job especially on the you know like at home in addition to doing this because everything's happening all in your house all at once everything's on the computer so I would definitely try to understand that even in a meeting where you feel like you have to give this but you know you're you're you're actually not part of the meaning but you know you have to show up maybe there you're paying attention but maybe there's like two things that like you can take notes on or dream of or think about when you get there's a way to multitask during the day job it's actually quite hard or maybe like during the lunch hour but don't try to fill it with too much try to explore one thought or one idea or ask yourself why does that character do that or is there something more driving them or do you want to write a monologue or something like that there's really really really small stuff I think is helpful because then you can do more when you have like an hour as opposed to five minutes any final questions anyone Caleb Stephanie I think I think that's pretty much it for now I'm really excited oh I wanted to do one last thing and that for anyone who's still listening and you can continue this after the call as we return to the outside world I want you to take care of your feeling right now and I want you to write your own simile exclamation and just write that one sentence and if you want to after we get off the call that might become a monologue for you but I want you to go ahead and just take that it could even be about returning to the the outside world or anything else that creeps in but it also might be maybe you're feeling good right now hopefully and it might be about that as well so something exclaiming about yourself that simile I feel like and let's just leave leave with that please do follow up we're going to do some posts to talk really quickly about the origin of theater I think it's really helpful to look at these clips from the the electric play mr burns and washburn's play I found this really great clip from play its horizons I think she's the best and we'll put some other fun creative clips free to look at for feel for thought for really evocative theatrical experiences that are playing very well through video but also can get you dreaming about your own language your own work your own characters thank you very much the I think that's it probably unless there's anything on your end nope that's it thank you so much and yeah have a great day thank you thank you everyone