 So, she's also a writer in her spare time. Okay, great. Okay. So, I'm Suzanne Parks, and this is Watch Me Work. We're the lobby of the Public Theater for those of you watching this online and for those of you watching this live in person. You're in the lobby of the Public Theater. Thank you for turning on the speakers upstairs. Hey, Jesse. Thank you. So, this is our last Watch Me Work of 2014. And we will be coming back just to see if you guys know. We will be coming back in February. Yeah, I know. Yeah, technology. Is it that strong? Wow, cool. All right. So, Watch Me Work is... I have to read this because I haven't been doing this show for five years so I still don't realize. Watch Me Work is a play. We're going to do the action together, which means we're going to work together. Most of us here in the lobby are writers, so we're going to write together or think together or be together. And then we're going to... That's the action. And then we're going to do the dialogue together, which is you talking to me about your creative process. I know. Oh, it's right. You talking to me about your creative process. So, basically, if you try to ask me a question about me, I'll make it about you. Watch Me Work is about you. Yay. So, it's a play. And that would do the action and the dialogue. And then it's also, as you figured out, a meta-theatrical free writing class. So, it's a writing class, basically. And we're going to be talking about your creative process. So, any questions you might have about, you know, where you are in your process, whether it's writing or dancing or fiddle playing or whatever it is that you do so wonderfully, we'll be talking about that. Now, if you're out there in the interwebs and you want to tweet us a question as you often do, Caroline will give us the information. You can tweet at us. And our handle is atwatchmeworkslp with the hashtag newplay. Atwatchmeworkslp with the hashtag newplay. We have a fabulous cameraman today whose name I'm spacing out. Mike. Mike. Mike. Okay, I got it now. Great forever. So, Mike is behind the camera and we're going to work. I mean, I'm feeling in the holiday mood, so I think we should work for 20 minutes. Now, we'll work for 20 minutes which gives us more time to talk. Okay, so I'm going to use this timer and I'm going to write on this typewriter. Oh, yeah, Caroline. So today, Caroline took my typewriter to a shop and the kindly person gave me a new ribbon and she's going to tell you about the typewriter shop. Compliments of the Gramercy typewriter company. Thank you for the new ribbon. It is located on Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street. Did he leave you a message? He said, this is a sample done on this typewriter, new ribbon installed Remington portable typewriter. Nice. Well, all right. It puts me in a really good mood. I'm just going to take the paper out So let's start working now. Okay, that was the action part and now we're going to do the dialogue part. Yeah. Does anybody have any questions, suggestions, answers, prayers? Yes, sir. What's your name? Darnell. Darnell? Darnell? Yes. So this is, I'm currently working on what is my first. Absolutely. It might be helpful, your question. Sure, sure. So this, I'm working on the first piece, first official piece, venturing as a writer. I've done some reading to, you know, find a like format or, you know, the formula for creating a piece. I've chosen to take the route of like just kind of going with what comes to mind and just to get it out and then to go back and, you know, I'm just curious as to, you know, is that okay? Are you allowed? Are you allowed? So Darnell, is that his theory? Darnell? Darnell is writing what he calls his first official piece. And it's a play, am I right? No, it's actually a series. A series, like a TV series? I'm writing it in the format of a web series but allowing a link for a TV series. Cool, okay. So he's writing like a series, cool. And he wonders if he's allowed to just go ahead and write. You know, without, sure. Without bashing off the characters first. Sure, sure. Like I had, like the idea has been sitting in my mind so it's been playing my head as it would play on screen, I guess. And so it's been like writing it out. Sure, sure. Right. I think you're allowed. I mean, the thing is that we all know, right? Is that, you know, how far are you in it? How many pages? How many pages? Currently, well, each episode is about 12 to 15 pages. I'm starting with 10 pages. So there might come a time on like episode 173, maybe, when you go like, ooh, I need to know more about this character. Or I need to know more background about this blah, blah, blah. Nuclear fission. I didn't do research on nuclear fission, and now it's a centerpiece of my series. So that's when you drop in and do your research. If it works for you, and this is the thing, different ways work for different artists, right? We all have our things. Some people like to spend exactly two months doing research before they launch into their, some people do thick character bibles, they call them. You know, different things work for different people. And what might be working for you now, you might have to change up on your next project. You see what I mean? So the way you're working now, and the way that is working now for you, might not work next time around. And so you should know, don't, not know anything to panic or freak out. Just know that you've kind of gone to the next level, next level of difficulty we were talking about last week with Chris. Next, you know, like if you gain, or if you've ever known anybody who gains, like Zelda, that's what I know about gaming. Zelda. She's on a different level, and now she has to carry things with two hands. That's my gaming experience. But you know what I mean? So suddenly, you know, maybe you have to change up your game a little bit to accommodate the next thing you're working on. So go forward. And I say if it's working, then work it. You know? Right? Yeah. If it's working, it sounds like it's working. Congratulations. That's great. I'll switch. Anybody else? Yes. I'm Daria. Hi Daria. I'm trying to write a play on, like events that have happened, like real events, not my personal life. But I'm having trouble trying to decide between, because I'm reading a lot of biography about those, like the event. Right. And deciding between if I should actually use that or just use it as an inspiration. Because I really want to use the actual things that people have said too. But I also want to abstract it. Is there like any way I can find a middle ground between that? There you go. Again, it's like what works, you know what I mean? So if you find that the actual historical information, the actual lines that the people say, but the actual she ate a stick of butter. If that's not working in your play, then don't include it. You know what I'm saying? Or you know what I'm saying? So you don't have to be, you know, enslaved to the historical material. It depends. It depends. If someone were writing a play based on your life, and they said, no, I'm just going to take this thing that Daria said. No, I'm not going to include that. And I'm going to change out such and such. You know what I mean? Then maybe you would have an opinion about that. Hey, wait a minute. I didn't say that, you might say. So we would want always the writer, and you'll know the writer to respect the material, but not to be a slave to it. You know what I mean? There's a line. So you want to kind of be able to do your own thing and tell your version of the story. You know, you don't have to quote the word for word. It really depends. You don't want to put, you know, cram words into the mouth of a character in order to prove your point. Because if that's what you're doing, then you should write something else. I really, that's my, but that's my belief. You know, some people do that all the time. You know, so it really, really depends. You're going to have to listen. Listen to the actual historical character. They were a living person, correct? Okay, so they were a living person that lived a long time ago, or that was a long time ago. They had a long time ago in the 60s, back when people used typewriters and all the phones had wires on them. Yeah, so yeah, that was a long time ago. No one will ever remember that. No, but you know, you want to be respectful. So listen to them. Even if they're not living anymore, treat them as if they're living and be respectful of them. Have fun. Have fun. Thanks. Thanks, Doreen. Who fails? Yeah. Remind me of your name. So last time I was here, you told me to buy an index card. You signed your clip and I did. Oh, and it helped a lot. So now I have a rough draft of the play getting middle and edge. Okay. So now I think you might know what you're talking about. That's what I'm thinking. Do you have any tricks for or ideas for editing? Editing? Yeah. Like, you're done. You've done a draft. This is amazing. Like, last year, amazing. Last week she was like, oh my God, I don't know what to do. I was like, why don't you buy some index cards? She's like, I bought me an index card. It's not a printed draft. I'd trade up like all night. This is amazing. This is miraculous. Wow. Editing? So any tricks for editing? Tricks, tricks, tricks. I think that one of the things I personally do best is edit my own work. Your writing is, but editing, I can rarely edit. So maybe you can try. And I know you stayed up all night and you wrote it this week and it's very precious. I mean, it's very close to your heart. It's like the baby is only like two days old. You still have all those like, oh, I love you. I love you more than myself. Okay. But what you need, I'm a mom. So it's okay. So what you need to do though, perhaps is create some distance from it. I know. It's like a romance. Yeah. So you can take, you have it printed out? Yes. Okay. Do you have, you can go to Staples though. Did you, where did you get the index cards? At Walgreens. So maybe they have on-globes too. I mean Walgreens might be your spot, you know. So go check out Walgreens. See if they have an envelope that's large enough to fit the manuscript. Okay. Or if they don't go to Staples, that's a magical spot, Staples. That one on Broadway. It's magical. Okay. Yeah. So you go there, you buy an envelope, you put it in the envelope, you close it up and you maybe write something, oh, before you close it, write yourself a note like, this is a wonderful, wonderful piece of work. Congratulations. Put it in there too. And then close it up for like a week. And go to something else, write something else, get some more index cards. And then come back to it and read it out loud. Do you have time in your home when you couldn't be alone? Read it out loud in your apartment or room or whatever, standing up. Okay. All the way through. You have to read it fast, but just read it all the way through, standing up. Right. And you'll start to hear what needs to change. Okay. Because your flow, you had a flow question before. So I don't want you to sit down and start working on it today. That's stuck, right? That's like, you want to create space and flow. So let it cool off a little bit. Then read it out loud, standing up. And start, and then read it out loud. No pen in your hand, or anything. And then get a pen in your hand, read it again, and start adding stuff. But try to see if you can work standing up for the first two read-throughs. And then you can sit down. It's like, I just made that up. I don't know. It might work. It's going to work great. It's going to work great. I do it all the time. See? I do. I think, I think really well sitting down. Good luck. And I won't see you until February if you're in February. So we'll check on it then. Yes. Logan. Hi, Logan. So, I'm so glad you're here. Logan's a great director and we met through a thing at NYU. I put in a good work for you, by the way. Do you know what I mean? Okay. Good. You know what I mean. Right. So, so Logan has, let me see if I got this right. So Logan has a project she's working on with a writer. And one of the characters in the project is a nun. She could be, she, the character's nun. 1920's nun. Yeah. So she, for all of these purposes I should pretend she's an astronaut. So your question is how do I approach the astronaut and get to know the day to day, an astronaut in the 1960's which was so far away. So history. No, this is an astronaut in the 1960's. So how do I approach an astronaut in the 1960's and get to know most of them all and most of them are guys. How do I get to know his day to day? Right. So I can, so my material that I write can be authentic? Real? Sure. Our, our creative, the, the events are created in the day to day. So, but we'll say an astronaut in the 1960's because the answer might be the same. Because a nun in the 1920's is probably not alive. Where is she? Where is she? Where is she living? In Harlem. So, okay. So she's probably not alive. Can you guess? And she's African American. Okay. But she's probably not alive and the life of a sister in the 1920's, a sister, a nun in the 1920's, a sister sister is probably not the same as the life of a nun now. Especially when the Pope, Pope Francis just came down with this like nuns are okay. I mean, iffy. Yeah, thanks. You know? But, you know, so, because the church, the Catholic church is very different now. So, just like the life of an astronaut in the 1960's is not the life of an astronaut now. Right? So, do some research and punt. That's a long answer to a short question. But right? Do your research and then punt. Kick the ball. You know? And if you want to go talk about real nuns who live in Harlem, great, but I think that's creating I think that's less than necessary than you might think to create a believable authentic character. If there were none alive, you know, if there were none in the 2014 to live in Harlem, then yeah, they wouldn't get, it's, I think you can do some research and punt. Punt, meaning, you know, you're not close to, you know, football. Oaks, oaks, oaks. Oaks, I know, I want to say oaks sometimes. I know, but you say oaks. I know. And it's your name. Yeah. I changed it to that so I'm always very particular about that. Really? And what was it before? Oaks is good. I like Oaks. I like Oaks because you're kind of liking Oaks. Oh, really? Yeah. I wanted to ask about the rewriting process. Yeah. I don't know if I have, I do it obviously all the time. You do. I do. But I guess when I know that like my job is to take something that goes deeper into something or someone I can get kind of like caramelized, like that, because I hear that a lot from people, like, oh, I love this, you should go deeper. I think go deeper. Like, because there are another way for me to hear about a deeper and translate that to the pile of gift. You know what I mean? I know, I know what you mean. So Oaks is asking a question so he writes brilliantly and beautifully and funnily, funnily, humor, whatever, funnily. And and sometimes when he's rewriting and he hears the directive go deeper, it's like, wow, WTF, what are they talking about? Right. So how, it's how to make a note work for you, right? I mean, how to make a note and probably a smart note, in language that we do speak, but it doesn't make any sense to you. So how to make it work for you. So go deeper. You have to find a way to translate those words so they're going to work for you. So what about like, what is that character really, really, really want? What does he want, for example, what does he want more than anything? I'm thinking of like, actor house, right? What does he want more than anything? What does she really, really want? And I'll, tell me about the ghost, the note that I kept giving him last semester. What does the ghost want? Really, really, really, right? So to connect it with desire, right? I mean, if you're like, if you're dating, for example, and you have your date, or your significant other says, well, forget that. But you want to, you want to get deeper into the relationship, right? You want to get specific, I know, it's holiday time. You want to get specific about what you really, really, really want, right? So you want to ask your characters, and you can have a conversation with your characters. What do you really, really want? What are you doing here? You know what are you doing? What are you actually doing? We talked about like last week, doing things and talking sometimes is not enough of an answer. Meaning, if your character says, I'm just talking. What are you doing? I'm making pancakes. Interesting. No, I can watch that. You know what I mean? Learning how to flip a pizza. Because my dad says that's the only job I'm going to get when I, graduate. So I want to flip pizza. And I'm flipping a pizza. You know, whatever. I'm practicing my one-legged balance pose. Because someone told me that was going to help me. You know, whatever. What are they doing? What are they doing? What are they doing on stage, right? So those are ways that you can go deeper. You want to find, when people say go deeper, your question is, where can I dig? You want to dig in. You want to tire what a character wants. Is it a great way to dig? Through their guts. Through their body. Is it a great way to dig? What are they doing? You know, I love when characters are actually doing, like, sewing, washing, dancing, practicing a dance, step over and over because they want to win a competition. See? Does that help? It's really a little easy, those things. Anytime. Next semester I'll see you. It'll be fun. Do anybody else? We'll find it. We'll find it. Yes. The subject is really a sad thing. Yes. How do you find the balance between you and her? I guess, you just tell it like it is. You see, when you say, something's really sad, you kind of decide what it is, right? But what about just telling me the secrets of events? And instead of trying to maybe put humor in something, allow the events to unfold as you are seeing them in your mind's eye. You see, and I have an example, but I'm not going to give it because it involves a dear friend who has had a hard thing happen recently. But, you know, in the middle of really horrible things, there's something kind of maybe goofy going on on the sidelines. That if you label it sad events, then you're not going to see the goofy little thing going on the sidelines. But if you just label it, this is what happened today, then you're going to see that little thing. It's going to come up because it's there. You know? Or maybe it's not, and that's okay to have a sad, a series of sad events. You know? So you have to expand your game your gaze, you know? Do you understand what I'm saying? You have to listen for everything that happens in the room, and not just the sad events. All right? So that's a good question. They're all good questions. Anybody? Goals, I know that's it. So it's going to be, you know, it's coming to the end of the year, which means it's coming to the beginning of another year. And does anybody have any goals or things that they want to accomplish? Things that they want to accomplish. And it's fun to think about, you know, effective ways to get shit done. Because I realized at the end of this year, I mean, I think I realized a long time ago, really at the end of this year, that I'm really going to get these shit done. And it's kind of like, whoa, wow, look at all this stuff I got done. So it's fun to talk to people about getting stuff done, especially if it's maybe something that I'm trying to do for a long time. It's setting up a way to get things done. Any questions on this topic that you're all in? Like if anybody has something they really want to do for next year, you know, and they're thinking, how the heck am I going to accomplish that? No? No? I'm not sure what I'm doing, but it's something that's up to you. Great, so Carol's writing an attitude, it's a book that you wrote that you're adapting. Right, it's a book that Carol wrote that she's adapting, that she has adapted into a play, and she's wondering, oh, maybe it's a musical, maybe because she's also writing songs. Which is cool, which is, I mean, it sounds like you're really good at getting stuff done, too. And it sounds like you're just continuing to put the time in and not really worrying about where it's going. Oh, that's very good. Or where it's coming from. Well said, that's really smart. Yeah, we're just going with it, right? Yeah, that's good. That's really smart. Anybody else? Is that your first marathon in the fall? Yeah! Beautiful, beautiful, yeah. And you're heading back to school in January. Congratulations. I'm good for you. You're not moving to Portland, are you? Good, good, good. Oh, yeah. Jason East. Jason East, oh, somebody. Somebody lives there. Somebody lives there. Somebody, somebody. Somebody, cool. Congratulations, those are huge things. When is the marathon? When? Yes. It's in the fall. Oh, good, okay, okay. So you have, you're already a runner, yes? Yes. Yes, and so you have a whole plan to get done. Because there are lots of great training plans and a part of that, I mean, going back to school. Oh, cool. That's good. Yeah, yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. That's really great. Yes, going to school is a great way to help you accomplish really big things. Running a marathon. I know Alana's running a marathon next year, too. Yeah, she's running several. Yeah, it's hard, it's hard. I just waved. I used to run a marathon, but that was a long time ago. Anybody else read out? Anybody else have a burning itching? Oh darn, I wish, I wish, I asked that question. Now she's gone and I won't see her until February. You know, under the radar, the Fabulous Under the Radar Festival is going to be in the public theater and all over the city, but mostly in the public theater in the month of January. And so we will see them the lobby and I will come back in February. I'm almost going to be doing Fabulous Under the Radar Festival at the American Repertory Theater, so that's going to be fun. We're going to be up there. Yeah, I know. Can we do a workshop? We should, we should. I think I'm going to do much of the work up there, too. Yeah, it'll be fun. Anybody else anything? No? Oh, perfect. Okay, well, thank you very much for coming. Thanks a lot.