 It's five o'clock and it's watch me work. We've been doing this show for 11 years. We started in the lobby of the public theater It was a joke like a lot of my plays It was it started out as a joke and now look at us. We've been telling the same joke for 11 years and Some people seem to like it and the joke is that we sit here and we work together We're supported by the public theater all the way and we're supported We've been supported by HowlRound for a few years in the lobby and then they came on they're making they're helping us make this beautiful community The deal is that we work together for 20 minutes and then we talk about your work and your creative process whether it be writing or painting or dancing or Just general how do I keep going in very magnificent and difficult times? We talked to you about your work and your creative process if you have questions after our work session I'm just going to tell us how to get touch Thanks, SLP So if you are inside of the zoom all you need to do is click on the raise your hand button in the Participant tab likely at the bottom of your screen on the laptop or the top if you're on an iPad or a tablet And if you're watching on HowlRound.tv you can tweet at us at watch me work SLP with the hashtag HowlRound H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D And you can also tweet at public theater and why or message us in our Instagram And that's all so many ways to get in touch And here we go, so we're gonna work for 20 minutes and then we're gonna talk to you. Here we go All right. All right. Here we are. Here we go It's Thursday. I don't have any questions quite. Oh, okay. We'll just sit in silence Sorry, I clicked the wrong button. I ended myself. We have a question Sumaya You're up first My name is Sumaya. I asked you a question yesterday on Twitter about Writing about racism and your answer was super Inspiring so I just want to thank you and I guess Thank you. I guess my question might be in a similar vein, but I'm When writing about things that are I guess Painful, do you ever worry about how people might? React or respond Because I sometimes worry that to put that on the page am I kind of re in like re I guess Inventing violence or re like is that it feels purposeful to me But I don't always know if it is Helpful to my reader. I don't know if that makes sense. Yeah, that's a really great question You pronounce your name Sumaya like Sumaya We learned I was really good at names I learned something from you every day Audrey, but Sumaya so great question Yeah, because what we don't want to do and it sounds like you're very woke and conscious about this We don't want to traffic in you know You know, we don't want to recreate the crime. It's kind of pornographic, right? It's kind It's it's disgusting really to think yeah, you know the rip from the headlines kind of thing You know yay things are difficult things you're happening in the world and and we're gonna make money off it somehow by peddling it, you know We don't We're not doing that doesn't sound like you're about that at all, but you do want to perhaps Open up discussion and conversation about some of the things that are going on in the world So I would say just keep a mind, you know keep an eye out for it and I mean for me it's always like For me it's that my son is getting snacks. What kind of snacks are you getting pumpkin? Oh, yeah For me it's always like I asked myself how much skin do I have in the game? You know what I mean Which is You know how much does this cost me to talk about You know am I just telling the story of them so I can you know get in some kind of foot in the conversation Where am I is it really coming from here? And often if it's coming from here doesn't have to be people who necessarily look like you or the same social economic class Or the same set of experiences I'm not saying that but if it's coming from here if it's you feel that it is One of your stories Right regardless of the way the people look All right, then I say you know keep your eyes open and your ears open and tell it You know that makes sense. Thank you so much. I appreciate that All right, we up a fast we have verneed are you there? Yes, hey, hi Yes, good to see you. I know I'm trying to share the space. I'm like I don't want to ask any questions But this is a little bit of a follow-up from the last week or two. I know I mentioned that pleaded my article on Uplifting black men Particularly in this time. I got it out. It's getting you know positive responses and I guess my question is kind of how much to Worry about or not worry about all the demographics that the writing is hitting so You know, I know I wrote it with a very Specific lens and my inspiration behind the piece was my relationship with my own older brother and The and while in general I was greatly impacted by the murder of George Floyd in a way that It hit me in a way far and beyond all of the other previous, you know black life matters incidents that I kind of You know, I'm constantly kind of filling myself with but trudging through and and moving on But this one I couldn't just trudging and move on. I got this one really got to me In a different way and it made me recognize, you know, where I have Not done all that I could do in going Recognizing and appreciating my brother that he's in my life It very jarred me in a way. It's like without our fight for social justice or racial justice in this country Our our country is really designed for our black men not to be here It feels like an exception for them to be alive to be thriving to not be caught up in some type of institutionalized system and so In in getting the this piece out into the world, you know, it's not only going to black men It's not only going to black women I've had Some black what I should say at least one black woman respond that, you know, she liked the piece but she felt she's kind of tired of hearing the black women uplifting black men when it's not always reciprocated and Also, I feel like I'm getting a lot of responses from my white colleagues or white people in my network where I worry about if the piece the piece is my experience and a reflection of that but then you know in other demographics, I feel like more responsible to have a call to action and So that's a long-winded way of saying, you know, writing a piece and how much to worry about that Because it's going to be seen not just by one specific group of people Yeah, Bernita, that's a great question. That's why Star Wars has so many parts. You know I'm saying You know, he didn't get it all out there in the first Iteration which wasn't even the first part. So you got part two After having written this piece. I've been thinking You know I'm saying and then you got part three I've been thinking some more and you know, you got part four plus I got this to say before you know You have a whole collection of writings You know, you don't have to get it all in one This isn't a one-shot, you know, this isn't a one one-time kind of thing, you know, this is a relationship You know what I'm saying? We got a relationship. You have a relationship with your work You have a relationship with the country and the the world You know, it's a relationship. So you're gonna hit it more than one time, right? You can keep talking about it. You know, you can keep talking about it You don't only have to limit yourself to talking about that You can talk about anything you want but if you feel like gee there were two or three things that I left out Right, then you can you can write more. That's the idea Okay, right. Okay, right. You don't have to hit it all when I say certainly not Okay, that's helpful because I think I think I was putting that on myself to yeah get it all in Like that almost as if it was a one-shot deal Like this is my Black Lives Matter piece, right? It's a relationship Have you ever you know, right when you're like in love with somebody? It's not a one-night stand, baby I know sometimes I go there but that's because it really all is it's it everything comes back to dating or love really No, but that's helpful. Thank you. Thanks, Renita. Thanks, Renita. Nice to see you Yes All right, we don't oh we have a twitter question It is from someone named Marmar And Marmar says I received a commission for a group theater piece. However, due to covid I am changing it to a solo piece And it may be an online version. What do you think is the future of live theater? Love that question. I'm going to Look into I asked my husband the other day. I'm reading the tea leaves. He says but you're drinking coffee Um looking into my orchid that just fell from the my orchid plant up above my head. Um What's the future of live theater? What's the future of america? I vote that will keep going We were talking to Jim the other last week, you know, we we go out on faith here. So I Uh, I believe in the future of live theater I think we're going to find a way if we if we love it If we want to have it happen We're going to find a way to to make it keep happening years ago. I think Oh, I didn't tell you guys um years and years and years and years ago There was a theater conference and I was a young and up-and-coming writer and I was on a panel and People said gee theater's dying. This was like a hundred years ago and they ever it was fashionable to talk about how theater was dying And they asked me so theater's dying. What are you going to do? And I said, I don't think theater's dying I just think we need to give more love And the room filled with laughter awful laughter because people thought I was so stupid for saying such a stupid thing And I said well, I'm never going back to this theater conference But I say to you guys, um It's fashionable to say oh, oh, it's dying theater's dying america's over, you know That's the luxury that I can't afford the america part America didn't over we're just getting started. Maybe theater isn't over. Maybe we're just getting started Maybe this is something that's going to evolve into something beautiful um So that's what I say. I think it's great that you're doing Thanks mo. I think it's great that you're doing a uh, uh A solo piece. I think it's great that you're doing something um You can you can do both you can have two versions You can have a solo version and you can have a version. I've seen many beautiful shows on zoom recently Or other platforms um So and and live theater I think there's some live theater happening every day in washington square park around this time and it's called The movement and if you want to see the future of live theater and the future of america in one beautiful show for free You can show up in washington square park if you live in new york city and other places too You know so Yeah, we're coming back. I love that answer All right, what's the choice, you know great, um Yeah, hold on one second. I think we might have another social media question is to quickly find it. Oh virginia virginia you're up next Hey virginia Hi, so I my question is um, I'm a new playwright Um, I just graduated last year and um, I've been in theater for a long time. So um I kind of picked up a lot of things along the way um But my question is So I wrote the play did a festival and got feedback and I love feedback because I think it's helps me to Create and understand the audience and so forth um, so within my last um iteration of rewrites I felt like I got too wordy And it was like too much going on So have you ever had to go back to your first thought? To kind of clean out the cobwebs or do you just keep moving on? I know sometimes in theater when they're when the the writer Has something or a song there's something there and they want to do something else And it's to me it feels like the first one was better, but they don't go back to that They keep moving forward. So I'm not really sure if I should Try something else or go with my first thought I'm not really sure what to do So you you wrote a piece You have a few workshops. You're getting notes, right? And do you feel like you know, you have a piece in the notes You're kind of taking you over here. So now you have a piece like it's kind of over here Yes, that's what it kind of starting to feel like and I just started last week going back to Some right original ideas It feels better because I felt like it just spoke to me as I was writing it And it felt very connected to it now. I'm kind of feeling right right right something else Yeah, Virginia sometimes that happens. Giving notes is I believe is an art form Is is is a real high level of craft I think a lot of folks give notes who are not as skilled as they might be You know and taking notes well Is another is a whole level of being you know So you say you're you're you've done theater for a while, but that you're relatively new to play writing Taking notes is a skill, you know So um, sometimes it's hard even when a note is a great note, you know given by a very skilled practitioner On a writer who's not as not used to taking notes You know, you might take it in the wrong way and it might just kind of sit there flat, right? Or take you off in a direction that's not your your piece So I would say if you're like this and your notes are taking over here and you're looking back at this and you're going This feels better It's a gut thing Go back to here Okay, and and focus on that and maybe then when you get back to here and feel good about where you started You can look at the notes And you will have gained skill in The reception of notes, you know, okay. Yes. Yes, that's great And great congratulations for one writing and two listening to your gut. Yeah, it's no small thing. Thank you. No small thing. Good job Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate this this form too Thanks Virginia. Thank you Um, all right So we actually have another um, oh marmar also tweeted at us to say that she also loved your answer to her social media question So I just want to make sure that's coming through um, so Uh, there's another question from social media. It's um, I journal every day and on occasion. I write poems I'd love to divide it develop a writing habit that's less Stream of consciousness and more purposeful and on topic. Do you have any thoughts about that? Sure. Well, you journal, that's great. You journal every day and sometimes you write poems. Um You might think of uh, there are a couple of ways to go about it. You might start with a character You know like do I is there a character in mind that I'd like to follow around for a while you know, or you might start with a Format like I want to write a play You know sometimes it's helpful because you say you already write poems sometimes it's helpful to Think of I want to write a play or I want to write a screenplay So you can start to see what it's going to look like in your mind And then think is there a character that I kind of would like to have in my screenplay Someone that I'd like to see on screen Oh, my grandmother. Oh, that could be cool or someone like my grandma. That could be cool. Okay. What's she doing? Well, you know she and then you start Adding flesh onto the bones of your character. They don't have to be a real person I just my grandmother came to mind. Okay But I would I would say just start thinking of character my a lot of my work and a lot of work that I love is character based What are your characters want more than anything ask yourself that What are they reaching for? They're reaching they're reaching. What are they reaching for? What do they want more than anything? You know Once you decide on the form If it's a say it's a play for example read some plays If you can get your hands on some there are plenty plays Scripts online, you know, you don't have to buy anything. You can meet them online If it's a screenplay there's screenplays that you can read or movies you can watch You know take a deep dive. It's a great time to take a deep dive into Into making something beautiful and new You know good question though. Thank you. Um, all right next we've got Melania Oh, I gotta click good again. Sorry. Oh Oh now. Yes. Thank you. Hi Okay I was listening to Virginia and her question about notes and I am In this, you know that I am taking this class about theater for children And I am giving my work and this teacher that I have that I love her but she gives me a lot of notes and I see that she come for and they are very interesting notes But what is happening to me and we I am I have one more Time that I have to The workshop But what is happening to me is that It gives me I have this idea. So I write And I do and sometimes I am happy with that sometimes I say He gives me notes and some of them are good for me But suddenly there are some another ones that are That Gets me confused Suddenly I begin to wonder if it's in this way this way. What can I do? And in the middle of the workshop what happened is that there is a time Limit and sometimes I feel pressure and I get so confused and suddenly my story that I was so sure about gets lost and I know that now this Instantly this workshop is ending and I'm happy about that. But what I am wondering is how can I Know When a note is good for me or not because sometimes even I see that I see the note and I say this is good But then what it becomes so confusing that I say maybe it's not So I am a little confused about how can I Evaluate how to keep going because I want to write and I try to keep going and I I do it but at the same time it's it's very confusing. So Right now there are a couple of things and thanks malania and your questions are always good. They're always good But there are a couple of things that that you your your question brought to my mind. Um one is It's the way a lot of writing courses are structured Which make it sometimes difficult for the students to develop uh, their own Sustainable and independent process And this is nothing wrong with your teacher. Your teacher sounds awesome and amazing And there's so many good writing programs out there and all that it just because what happens is the writing teacher is in your flow What I like to do when I teach writing is I don't get in the flow. I stay outside of the flow Allowing a writer to write her entire draft before I give critique See, so it's just a different way. It's a different way of writing But each teacher is different and and they have valid reasons for doing what they do But you're experiencing kind of a Interrupt us, you know a flow creative us interrupt us, you know what I mean? It's a getting in the way a little bit Um With these notes I wonder if you could and we talked about this I think before if you could write and turn in your Project just just answer half of your question right and turn in your project. Well, it's the class is over But next time you find yourself in a class like this. Yeah Don't read the notes every single week Okay. Yeah, you know what I mean kind of put them aside a little bit Yeah, and read them I mean if you're if you feel jammed or stuck or blocked you might read the notes for encouragement Or to give you a perspective, but if you're feeling good about it Stay in the flow and and and keep someone else's voice out of your head Okay Okay, um, and I forgot the second part of your question, but I was going to answer it. What was this? I forgot it too Don't go much I can I cannot I cannot remember I cannot remember the second part of your question but um, but that's the that's the most important thing to try to When you The class is going to be over. Yeah Important that year the your creative voice when you sit down and write is the loudest voice in your head Okay, and so anything you can do to Focus and and build up your your focusing stamina Will help you in the long run Okay, you know and again and all it's focusing stamina doesn't mean that you got to write for 20 hours at a stretch You know, again, that's why we use this timer 20 minutes 20 minutes of pop, you know, you're getting your stamina together If that if you do three 20 minute segments a day, you're going to get your writing done um Okay, and classes classes showed whatever this is a play actually If anybody was wondering But yeah, it is and this is the dialogue of the play and before we did the action I always forget to mention that but I like that. Yeah, but plays like interactive things like this. This is actually um Encouraging the participants to go with their flow That's what the How do you say subtext is that's what the real reason for the show is Mm-hmm. Yeah, see and the the voice that's the That might come before the negativity voices is the voice of encouragement Yeah, right and that's what we're trying to build a huge Storehouse of encouraging words In your track in your grooves, you know, so when you kind of get confused or something that you can you can hear Encouraging words, you can see a community of faces that are rooting for you Yes It's a treasure to me, right? If I am asking you this if because I can feel that something is Not right, you know, like in another time of my life. I will try to do everything this note say Now I feel that No, there is something. No, that's the reason why I have that's the second question. You just No, so when a note doesn't feel good like Virginia Yeah, you know, it's not that the person who gave the note is evil or anything great I give bad notes to my students all the time. It's just you know, it's it's hard to give good notes all the time So but if a note doesn't feel good, don't don't don't take it You don't have to take the note, you know, you can you can put it aside I was just in a meeting with some hollywood people right before I got on the zoom call I'm like, what's up with that note They're like, uh, I'm like really you really want I mean, I don't feel good to me. They're like, okay. Okay. Just cross it off the list Yeah Doesn't feel good if it doesn't feel I mean maybe in another draft down the line. It will make sense, you know But if it doesn't feel good at the moment, don't try to jam it into your to your piece if it doesn't feel good Don't take it That's all We remembered everything Bye Melania. Thank you All right, we've got about 11 minutes left and chris we're going to you Oh my gosh. Um, hi slp I'm kind of nervous right now um And I actually like I got to know you through elaine elaine avila I study real good and yeah, she spoke so fondly with you. You know, um Oh, okay. Well right now, um, especially during quarantine time. I kind of like Came up for a lot of baby pieces sort of some of them just kind of fell out formed and some of them are sort of half finished half there and um, but I feel like there's a lot of them So like I kind of have like a whole herd of them and I want to find a home for them Or some kind of structure to you know, take them to to more finished state But I'm sort of at a loss like when I google, you know, look for like courses or whatever and this is so many and um, I guess my question is just where can I take these pieces like Should I you know look for courses? Should I look for submissions or like Or is there anything else that I'm not aware of? Um, yeah Yeah, I um I I have it sounds like you're doing all the work. So I sort of am I'm slow to suggest that you you mesh yourself in an institution That might ask you for money to do what you've already done on your own Um, I would suggest that since christians you've already done the work since you're doing the work on your own Which is a beauty. They sound beautiful That maybe you can get friends together to start to do, you know Zoom performances might be fun. It might be you might uh, maybe if you know any their are they plays what you've written? baby pieces you say so some of them are Like poems and that's that's really new to me some of them sort of like prose and some of them are A bit like the beginnings of a character Yeah, so Yeah And I do have like a sunday like writing group that I gotta hang out with Do you have a do you have a group of They don't have to be writers these people i'm thinking would be um, maybe performers people who would like to read your work um Maybe a director who would like to talk with you about how the pieces might Go together or not You know people people who um like a virtual potluck Where you know, you would assign each of your friends they have to be you know friends or friendly people You know each of your friends Peace and they would read it to you, you know, and then they talk to you about your work You know, they could be friends. Um, it doesn't have to be a writing group. It can be non writers performers Would be awesome, you know um And talk about how these works perhaps might Enjoy being threaded together. Maybe maybe not um Anything resonates if like that works sounds like it belongs with that one or those two works together could be the beginning of a Bird or a story, you know, you know what I mean? um But I would say it sounds like it could be fun to involve of Other people non writers Yeah, it does that sounds like a great idea. I didn't even think about that And you could also reciprocate so if you're worried about oh, no, you know, they're gonna be reading my work and talking to me about my work It's gonna be all about me for like an hour and a half. Oh, no, you can offer to reciprocate Um, okay, you know what I mean and I'll I'll play or I'll join in or I'll if you have a new song. I'll listen to it and talk to Like I'm like that. Yeah Yeah, thank you All right, so we've got about seven minutes left we're gonna go to Pamela Pamela, are you there? Hi Hi, Pamela Hi, it's my first time in here. Um, so thank you so much for being generous of this space um, it's accidentally, but maybe not by uh, maybe destiny's design My question is a little connected where I was going to ask about um Over time like your experience, maybe having friends be readers of your works in progress Um, the way I've been right now. It's been a couple of years. I want to say like four or five years of really being serious about my writing mostly poetry, but I'm really out of all of their genres right now and uh, Some of the programs that I've been in Were not as diverse. So I learned to figure out where I was going to have like my people Who were who was really like my community? And so I've been really blessed to kind of like be in different workshops kind of around the country to just kind of have these friends that I I like to say We've made for life and everything but I'm being very careful and intentional about um, you know, we're all doing our own work and The the asks that I can make like, please can you look at those manuscripts or like or this is about to go out, you know, do you have some time because even for myself I might um I might offer and I'll say, hey, you know, do you want to send it to me? So I'll take a look and even looking back now. I'm like, oh my god It's been like a week since I responded So, um, you know, this is it for me like this is what I want to be doing writing being an artist like the rest of my life But I want to be really good to my friends. I want to be Like really conscious of the things that I ask of them. Um, so right now I just still have like the one Um, definitely have a pin I another fellow pin I reader who's just like I'm keeping to the one kind of looking at My pieces and we we work or like we love each other very well in our writing. Um, so I'm curious how you've kind of um Done this bit of readers and friendship and community over the years I know over the years Yeah, that's a great question. Um, I like to do I mean I'm Probably not as good a friend in reading scripts as other people are of me I would just put that out there, you know, because I generate a lot of stuff And so I'm more often in the in the could you please read my work kind of thing? I but what I really work on doing is trying to reciprocate in some kind of way number one If I say I'm going to read someone's work make a date with yourself if you say, you know I'd like to read you make a date with yourself put it on your calendar read, you know, jane's work You know sunday afternoon that's that's that nothing will get in the way of that because that is your expression of love for your friend Right, and then you can make a date with jane to talk with her about it Uh, and that will kind of hold you to the finish line of I'm going to read it and I'm going to have some ideas, right? um That really helps because sometimes we just get busy and you say you want to be helpful to jane But uh, things other things get in the way. So make yourself and put it in your calendar. It's like going to work No, right? Also, um, we want to be generous and kind and loving. So sometimes we over extend ourselves And that's often tricky, you know, we want to um Back in the days when we Mingle together I would give lots of lectures all around the world and people would say people come up to me Afterwards and say hey, please could you read my manuscript and I'd say no And they'd say why and it's I said because I if I said yes I wouldn't and then you wouldn't need hate me and then it would be sad So say no up front or I I just can't I love you, but I can't get I'm not going to get to it for another couple of months So give it to me in a couple of months We have to learn to say no. Thank you. Not right now. It's not good. It's not a good time for me right now Right, so I think kind of an openness You seem like you have a lot of really great friends That's wonderful. I really uh, I I'm impressed by you have sort of the one friend and you say I'm going to give it to them You know, maybe you'll make a date with them like Please will you read this? It's one person you're asking. You're making a date with them to talk about it Right Okay, and you're you're gonna receive that loving feedback um Yeah, I have a few I just have a few people even though I've been at it for a while I have uh, just a few people that I Talk with about my work. I mean one of them luckily he's uh, you know, what do you what do you call it? Whatever the people who are capped are capped hostage, you know my husband And who gets you know, 99 percent of the you know, every line is like, what do you think? You know like that. It's horrible. I you know, it's just horrible But that's you know, that's the relationship Which I really really really appreciate And he's got a really great ear and a great sense of timing and drama and structure and everything so I'm very appreciative of that. But I have some friends. I have a great friend named Bonnie Metzger who's in Chicago I'm always calling up Bonnie. Hey, could you read something please? You know And I try to reciprocate even if it's not reading a manuscript of hers in the same time frame I try to give in ways I can Is that helpful? Are you there? Oh, I was yeah, I was trying to say it was really helpful and it's just It's um, I forgot what I was reading. I'm you know, I'm reading a lot of things. Um Or maybe I was watching something that was just like it's not bad to be indebted to the people you love To like allow them to help you or something. Oh, it was probably a k-drama. I'll be honest um um Yeah, just having that like but I know this person could help me and I try to be like really just like Just conscious, you know that they're working on their own stuff too. Mm-hmm Can you can you offer like so when are you gonna let me read? You know that novel years, you know, you can because some people are really shy. They're like Pamela stuff is so good. I'm not gonna you know, you can invite but you can invite The reciprocal thing or just talk about it You know, you want to talk about how's it going? Let's talk about your work for an hour You don't have to actually give me pages that we can have a conversation about it Maybe that would be helpful too Yeah, I think it's just opening it up and just saying like, oh, you know, I really kind of want to know what y'all are doing like some of us Got together in a group at one time and right now and then I hold a space of just like anybody want to drop in We'll hang out talk about what we're doing But also not making them feel guilty like if they're not working on something or They're really unable like a lot of friends. I know that are actually really unable to write right now Have them come here too. This is exactly what we do like hey Like two people who definitely already signed up Yeah, yeah, but that's a great thing that you're doing with your friends. It's it's a really beautiful thing. Pamela Thank you so much for this. Thank you. Thank you I think so one I think this was our ninth week and we're just finishing up. Yes, you're amazing If you guys weren't here, I'd just be alone in a zoom call with Audrey. Well, that'll be cool. That'd be cool But you could do that too, but we could do it another time kind of sad. We kind of said Um Awesome. Well as a reminder everyone the links for next week will go up tomorrow at 3 p.m. Eastern I know they went up late last week and they will not this week. Um, so please sign up for next week when they go Thank you guys. Have a good weekend. Thanks everyone Bye. Thank you. SLP. Oh, thank you, Audrey