 process. For those of you who have never done this before with us, I've been doing this show for 11 years, mostly in the lobby of the public theater and also in venues all over the world. And so thank you for the public theater for supporting me. A few years ago HowlRound came on and helped us livestream. They are also helping us create this awesome community where we are doing it five days a week, Monday through Friday at 5 p.m. Eastern time. Thank you to both the public theater and HowlRound. So during this thing we write for 20 minutes together. We create the action of the show together and then we create the dialogue of the show together where you will ask me questions about your work and your creative process. What we don't have the bandwidth for in this setting is where I would offer you specific critique and feedback of something that you're working on. But we can talk about your work and your creative process and that will give all of us a lot of encouragement and insight into our own work and our own creative process. So yeah so if you want to ask a question or get in touch, Otter is going to tell you how to do it. All right so if you are in the Zoom class what you need to do is click on the raise your hand button in order to ask a question. You'll see that in a participant tab in the likely the bottom hand of your screen if you are on a laptop or a top if you're on an iPad. If you don't see it please feel free to shoot me a text in the chat and I'll be happy to help you out. And then if you're watching live on HowlRound.tv what you can do is engage with us on social media you can tweet at us on the public theater Twitter or on our Instagram or you can tweet us at us at at me where oh my gosh Jesus. HowlRound this was a tough one today you guys so glad you're here. Myself I'm gonna unmute myself okay thanks Audrey thanks moderators you guys are great helping to happen we're going to work for 20 minutes and yeah looking out the window there's someone doing push-ups in the grass okay he's doing his work and he will do ours here we go right that was 20 minutes yay okay now if anybody has any questions for the next 40 minutes or so we'll take we'll talk about your work in your creative process does anybody yep we've got Isaiah has got a question all right Isaiah where are you go for it hi SOP hey hey how are you well good to see you good to see you um so I my question is about so yesterday I watched Jeremy O'Harris the guy who wrote like he had a he threw New York Theatre Workshop had a like a master class thing that was it was titled it was titled dramaturgies for dystopias 101 and he was talking about like writing plays and and making plays where we might not be able to gather in theater spaces like writing for this sort of world that we live in now and I it made me think of this show as a space that sort of could only operate on I mean this version of this show on Zoom which is operating outside of the theater and I'm currently working on a play and I want to like I don't know try to mess around with the world of the play or with the motive the modes of storytelling that I use in in the construction of the world of the play to somehow speak to this like dystopic moment or like explore sort of non hierarchical like I really love how like when we are writing here for example if someone were to walk in there would be very there would be zero indication of like who's leading who's the director who's the organizer it's just like a bunch of flat panels of faces writing and I love that I love the non hierarchical system of this show and of other similar things I've been taking taking part in my question I guess is just like about like reconciling the the desire for like up creating a piece that like imagines slash embodies that like future not like less hierarchical more democratic structure of a theater space while also like I don't know like main I feel having never necessarily like seen the things that I'm trying to write there's like less of a clear referent and a clear yeah thing to refer back to to to know what I'm what I'm doing this question would just be about like reconciling that that that makes sense um I love everything you said I but I don't understand the question would be reconciling what reconciling like how to um how to write a play or yeah because I'm writing how to write a play that imagines this this new new understand some new understanding of a theater when we when I don't know what that is when the when I don't know what that looks like um like how to write for a world that I don't know what that world is going to look or feel or sound like but I but I feel like myself in it right now something I don't yeah so right about the world you're in right now I mean I mean you had how to write about a world that how to write about a world that I don't know what it's going to be like sure I mean that I mean it's a you know life is an act of faith you know going forward is an act of faith so how to write about I mean even even if we take it back to say I don't know November last November when things were you know the worst part of it was that you have to go home for Thanksgiving and see my parents and I didn't vote for the same people they did or what you know that was what everybody was talking about um but how to write for a world then you know how to write how to write a play no maybe you're not sure it's going to get done maybe you're not sure it's going to be received well you know so there's there's always it's interesting that you we're you know so many of us are seeing uncertainty now you know hello uncertainty has been around for a long time and it's an act of I guess uh it's an indication of privilege if we're just seeing it now you know what I mean so uncertainty and what you know what am I going to do and oh no that's been around for a long time so it's good that you're you know seeing it now and asking questions like how do I write for a world that I don't even know what it's going to be right are you putting the time in you know are you are you putting the however much 20 minutes you know is a good place to you know a good benchmark if that's hard or difficult you know 10 minutes is good you know a daily practice you know there's some things that that don't need to be thought of thought about too much you know are you putting the time in are you writing things are you are you sitting down with your notebook or your computer or whatever and writing are you doing that Isaiah yeah I'm I I'm taking this class where I um I have I have to write 10 pages a week yeah so I've been doing that for the past month or so great and you're writing every day most days yeah okay we'll try well that's me try writing every day okay you know me I mean it's it's like how do we do anything we act as if it's it's the tools that we've always employed and now maybe we're just realizing that uh I guess I have to use that that mantra that my grandmother used keep on keeping on ain't nobody gonna turn me around maybe those are useful you know maybe the old people don't have to die off like a lot of people are suggesting for things to get back on their feet maybe we just need to start listening to them you know so I I mean I think it's like you want you it sounds like you want some kind of insurance you know so this is what the world's going to look like in 2021 and so write a play that's going to work for that you know yeah yeah so and and okay and so but with not knowing what that what that is right about exactly right right you don't you know you know that the same concerns you have right now are the same concerns that keep people from writing plays or that keep regional theaters from programming plays with black people in them I don't know if people are going to come to that so we better not you see what I'm saying it's a it's a kind of you want an assurance of success and we we don't we who live and who work in and our soldiers in the realm of the spirit uh have to to some extent let go of that this is this is part of the creative act you have to go you have to go out on faith and this you have to show up on faith every day you know and no amount of thinking you know it's like a crab trying to get its claws around the universe no amount of thinking or fancy language is going to you know it's going to get you through you got to just sit down and do the work and it sounds like you're doing the work which is awesome just keep doing the work and you know I say a worst-case scenario you have a play that doesn't get performed oh well you know what I mean is that's okay you'll find a way you'll find a way to do it right right you're the work you will find a way to do it but if you sit back and go I don't know what to write because I don't know what kind of world we're going to be in so I want to make sure right okay write your play write your novel write your poem write your song write your whatever make the blueprints to your house or whatever it is that you're doing you know everybody you know what I'm saying yeah thank you you're welcome good question Isaiah thank you thank you Isaiah and next we have Jennifer Jennifer can you hear us yes hi um hey Jennifer hey it's over to be here thank you so much for doing this it's it's just tremendous of you so thank you thank you for being you've got the aurora borealis in the background yeah I find it calming and my my performance kind of messy so both that's fantastic yeah so my question is I um I wrote and um performed in a solo show about growing up with the birthmark a number of years ago it was about 40 minutes long and it was actually a thesis for a drama therapy program it was like part of that um so it was for a very small audience maybe I don't know 50 people or something um and then I sort of left it there um and it comes back up in my like consciousness every now and then and I'm in a memoir class now and I'm also the memoir is about like it's kind of about both like now it's more than one thing because my parents passed in the last five years so there's this huge grief from that and um and then there's the collective grief of what's happening now but that's you know um and then there's growing up with the birthmark and which is ultimately about acceptance right um I don't want to go on too long with my explanation but um so as I'm writing this memoir uh this the one the show is coming up and the characters in the show are coming up and I'm like okay how can I sort of bring it into the memoir and also I know that the other side of it is I know I'm gonna want to perform this show again hopefully in New York City which is where I live now I used to live in um I'm from New York but I when I performed this show before it was in San Francisco um so that's that's my question it's kind of was it help was it clear like enough well let's say so um first of all I'm really sorry that your parents passed um so recently I'm really sorry to hear that and um our hearts go out to you and thanks for being here with us today um so you have a solo show that you've performed you've written and performed and you also now you're writing a memoir and there's some overlap is that yes okay there's some overlap and you'd like to uh put some of the characters from the show include them in the memoir is that correct yes which I've started to do maybe write about because this the even the process of creating the solo show had a very big impact on my life and um yeah it just did this was in the 10 years okay so the question is how to incorporate the the characters from the solo show into the memoir is that um I think it's kind of that and also I think I do eventually want to revisit the solo show and like part of me is wanting to work on both which um might not be I I've heard from you before like work on one thing if you can um I'm but I kind of want to work on both well just to clarify I say work on one thing at a time right okay so if you've got two hours of writing time in the morning you work on one project you can have two hours of writing time in the afternoon to work on another project those of us then there are many of us who work on many projects at one okay so yeah so you can work on a hundred projects at a time at you know during the course of a week you just have to it for me it's more effective when I choose what project I'm working on right now right right now and people watch me work I'm not doing anything else you see and then at six I'll be doing something else um but um I think well number one totally work on both if you want you know if you want to work on both um but I I feel like if you've got the the solo show already written then and you're in a memoir class you did say that right right now why don't you focus on the the memoir since the there's overlap and you'll have the satisfaction at the end of the class or as the class progresses of having written something new which is a really good feeling you know how that feeling goes you know and you'll have you know you're in that class for a reason it's gonna it sounds like it's a wonderful opportunity to get some really cool work done um you can always after you've have a draft of your memoir you can go back and sort of you know work on your solo show but it might be a good time to just focus on your memoir it's scary um writing new things and sometimes you go oh I think maybe maybe I'll I'll revisit that that old thing because you know yeah yeah but but I would suggest um writing your memoir and you might find new you know just you'll probably find all kinds of new things to to tell you know and say right um but you can totally bring in um sorry the sun is is is on you can totally bring in characters from your solo show into your memoir I mean it's your stuff it's your material you can do whatever you want yeah thanks for that it's a good reminder yeah yeah I mean they could and they can be very much alike at the end of the day there's nothing wrong with that you know one can inform the other and um yeah well thank you okay thank you thank you so much thanks Jennifer um next we've got Karina are you there oh hold on I'm muted oh there you are hi okay hey Karina hi how are you I'm well thank you thanks for asking I have a question it may not be a deep question but I have I have a question I find when I'm writing I have to go back before I to go forward um especially when I'm doing if I'm doing um like a story it's not I don't have to do that but when I'm working on plays if I enjoy working on a lot more I find that when I talk I just talk to me just to keep going right away I have to go back and look at everything and be safe and safe to go forward in that I'm wondering if that's not a good thing to do or should I just keep writing no matter what and do you think that would ever come out comes out even if it goes kind of off a little bit I hear you so when you're writing um and when you write short stories this happens less I'm just repeating to make sure I heard it right because the connection was kind of funny um so when you're writing a story story you don't have to do it as much but when you're writing a play which you which is very enjoyable you write some and then you have to go back and um before you can go forward but Karina is that that you have to go back and rewrite before you go forward or you have to go back and reread what is going back what does that look like I have to go back go whoa that's how often do you work on it Karina well even if I work on it every day so I find that for some reason I have to start at the beginning before I go on I do go on but I have to go back it's not like I don't keep writing but I have to go back and pick up that um the energy of the flow of my character I think that's I mean it's it's funny sometimes people ask questions that are like totally fine if that's your thing you know if that's your thing Karima then cool what's great is that you go back to reread and that gives you kind of a running start get you warmed up in a way and then you can go forward it sounds like it's working the fact that you asked a question makes me wonder do you do you feel it's a problem does it get in the way does it get in the way of your writing time do you spend so much time rereading that you only have three minutes to write because you have you know this is it why is it problematic or is it problematic it's not that it's just in my way but you always just hear and you just keep writing and let it come out and let it come out and let it come out and I don't really write that way so I kind of wonder you know should I be trying to write that way I understand I understand Karima um I yeah and I've often said when someone says they write a first scene of their novel or the first chapter of their novel and then they're about to write the second chapter and they want to go back and rewrite the first chapter first when they go back to rewrite and get it perfect before they move forward that can create a um a difficulty in getting the work done there are plenty of writers who do that but I always suggest just go forward and sort it out when you have a full draft but but some writers rewrite it and get it perfect and then they'll rewrite the second chapter and get it perfect and by the end it's you know it's a it's a complete game completed thing but I certainly think if you need to reread before you get going to kind of give yourself a warm up that's fine I think as long as you as long as you keep going that's fine again there there are not a lot of rules there are tools and so you know if you're doing something that works for you and you're getting your writing done I would say that works for you when it becomes problematic then we can talk about options but it sounds like it's working sounds like it's working great yes especially these days thank you thank you Karima um next we've got Timothy are you here yes hi hi uh thank you sir thank you hi my first time on here thanks for having me on uh you sort of broached this when you were talking to Jennifer but um I'll figure I'll ask anyway let me talk about it a little more where do you come down on working on several things at the same time uh because I'm in a situation where I've got for the first time I've got two or three different projects at various stages and now I've had um since we've all been under quarantine a couple of friends of mine excuse me who are directors uh have asked to approach me to write them stuff and I don't want to turn anything down um and you know I should always have such problems but I was just wondering where you know where you came down on the issue of um working on several things at the same time the you know something you do something you not do um I know it wouldn't it wouldn't be helpful at all if I said no you're only allowed I'll shout only there is only one and it's the project in first position and you're not allowed to that's ridiculous that's ridiculous and it's um it's it's again it's it's not suited to what you're going through right now so we got to find something that's going to be more effective um what I do often someone's driving fast what I do often is I I help I encourage people to become mindful because some people will start you know they'll start one project and they'll the right the right you know and then they'll get to page three and go that's hard let me start another one get to page four and then that's hard and then let me start another one and let me go back to the one that I had last year and you know so okay and I just that can create confusion and you're not getting anything done okay but if you're committed to working on each project to some sort of place of completion right which it sounds like you are so say you have three projects to work on just say right um putting aside the ones that your friends have asked you to write just for a minute okay so you have three projects that are already in the air you know like the airplanes we have you ever you know you've been in a plane and you look over there and there's a plane going by it's like zoom me like shit it's on it's in another lane right it's like maybe 300 miles away it looks close but it's like far away right um more than one plane can be in the air and your air traffic control right so maybe in the morning you work on project number one for two hours or three hours okay and then you take a little break or whatever and then and then for the next two hours you work on project number two okay and then for the next two and then you take a little pause and then for the next couple of hours or whatever or even an hour you can switch it up you work on project number three you know so that's a one day that's how you would you would uh divide one day of of work for example or you can do it uh in groups of days Monday and Tuesday I'm going to work on project number one Wednesday and Thursday I'm going to work on project number two Friday and Saturday project you know like that you can bounce or Monday is project number one Tuesday you see what I mean you can divide up your time as you please the calendar by hours and a day or by days of the week or by weeks week one I'm working on project number one we two okay um think of it as a I love the lazy Susan you know or dim sum you know you have the things spinning around and so you have your project and you work on it a little bit and then you turn the wheel and you work on another project and you turn the wheel and you work on another project okay and you can get a lot of work done that way what's important is that you're committed to finishing all the projects and you're not jumping from one project to another as an avoidance technique you know okay you know what I'm saying yeah okay it's a way of not thinking about something else yeah yeah I mean sometimes we do that but if you if that becomes part of your habit and you're not finishing anything then it's not going to be satisfying it's only going to create a sense of like oh shit I can't get anything done you see what I'm saying maybe you need to just just focus on one project you know does that make sense cool yeah sounds like you're going to get a lot done let's hope so thank you so much you're welcome so much thanks Timothy um next we have Laura all right Laura are you unmuted okay there she goes oh hi hey Laura yay hi Laura thank you so much for this I've been doing this you created a warm community both you and Audrey and it's made me very disciplined and I look forward to this and you're my therapist I don't have a license though I don't have a license good check will be in the mail okay um I've been doing a little stand up and I'm writing for new material okay I want to use stand up for um to talk about race in America and I've written a joke and some people think it's funny and other people think it's offensive because they don't know where I'm coming from you know I'm just wondering when you write your material on you know in race um does the audience become part of your process when you're writing or do you just write creatively and then forget it and just do editing at the end that's a great question Laura and I'm so glad you're doing stand up more women in stand up ha ha ha under Chinese earth a kid oh right oh right on right on okay um but no I mean it's it's a combination of the of the two things sure I just write hey hey could you be quiet please thanks my child is talking to um I just write but then when you put it in front of an audience you go ah you know they're they're like or you know they're laughing at that and it wasn't a joke it happens sometimes oh no you know so the audience is very much a part of the creative process but I don't write let's see if I can do it here oh so here you are writing on your computer I don't write by and say the audience is back there right I don't write looking over my shoulder wondering what the audience is going to think that's very different from writing what I want and then when it's a show but especially if you do in stand up you're going to try out your routine many times and stand up comedians work very much like that you know oh that one didn't fly that one really landed that one died you know they're always you guys are always working with the audience to sort of make your act to improve your act right so it's a constant collaborative experience at that point you know so I would say write your stuff and then you gotta you gotta get out you know you'll get out there in front of people even whether it's this format or you know I mean not this show but whether it's an online format or you know you'll get out there and you'll get a response great thank you it's great thank you thank you Laura um next we have Catherine hi oh oh sorry can you hear oh hi okay okay sorry child child in the room um my question is about taking critique I'm I I workshopped and was able to finish the first draft of a pilot and got comments from folks in the industry and my you know how do you incorporate comments that you receive in critique while still maintaining your own voice and also the you know the through line and enthusiasm for the story that you want to tell I find that when I come back to you know I'm doing the revisions now and I come back to some of the comments I'm incorporating them it is not that they change the sometimes it does it it changes kind of the the feel of things for me and I'm trying to you know keep things keep the story that I want to tell um and the way that I want to tell it and that's that's not you know just regarding the technical uh notes that I need to incorporate but sure sure sure yeah notes um the taking notes is always a real challenge it's it's almost a a craft art form in itself you know and I have this uh this mantra and it gets me through these note sessions and it sometimes surprises the the givers of notes and I say yeah all every note is going to make this better and they look at me really you know every yeah every note is going to make it better thanks for these notes these are great notes great no do I take them all no you know but the attitude of the notes are going to make it better is helpful for me okay in my writing process it helps me not be resistant to the notes because there might be two or three notes in there that are really good there's also a saying it's not the note it's how you take it okay which has which has been very helpful to me you know what I mean uh so you basically um uh if some if someone says um do you always have to wear black and if I take it like who knows that means I have to wear you know a lot of poochie or a lot of colorful things all the time you know or does that mean something else it's it's not and hold on child in the room quietly it's it's how you take the note always my other question for you is who are the people giving you these notes are they the people who commissioned your work or what uh no it's uh it was a workshop through Sundance and so they have people that are already in the industry so they're people that are working right now on shows they might be uh uh show runners and writers themselves and actually writers that are in the writing room giving me notes and they're great notes you know I'm just trying to keep it keep it mine in a sense um there was one session of notes that were more from peers and that was a little bit that was a little different it was there turned out to be more just formatting stuff you know it was no big deal um you know and the notes are really I mean yeah they're great you know but it is changing you know some of the things that the kind of the trajectory in some sense of the story so I mean there's another saying it's take what you like and leave the rest you know if you've written down the notes and I'm assuming you've you've recorded them in some fashion yeah okay great so you can go through you can print out the the document circle the notes that resonate with you it might they might have given you 20 notes maybe only three resonate with you you know what I mean and then maybe spend some time thinking about how you might how you might implement those the ones that don't resonate with you let them wait a while pause you know maybe in a month maybe then you've done the notes you've done a rewrite pause maybe you know work on another project put it let it cool then maybe come back and read the notes again maybe one more might resonate with you you know maybe not yeah you know take the ones that work and and for right now don't take the ones that don't what I'm said what uh that's the way around of saying you're not working for these people they're not paying you okay so right now you just just be true to the thing that you want to see on the page okay okay when I work for people and they say we really want to see you know Gumby run in the room or whatever you know and they're they're paying me they want to see Gumby they might see Gumby you see what I'm saying and but that's not a me that is not a compromise of my creative spirit that's me being hired to do a job you see what I'm saying okay yeah so I'm hired to do a job to write them something that they like and we're working collaboratively on it and they really think and I'm going to find a way to deliver yeah because in that way I'm more of a you know I'm a hired gun I'm a chef you know what I'm saying you see what I'm saying so it's a different right now it's sometimes it's yours take their notes their notes should help you make it better you should feel that if you don't yeah like this is taking me into a whole another story and all that then put it on pause don't don't take the notes just yet maybe it'll resonate in six months maybe not yeah either way I'm sure you like you said you love the notes you appreciate the notes you know okay take what you like and leave the rest thank you thank you good question Catherine thank you Catherine um we've got about three minutes left so we're gonna up some up next is Hasan you're ready oh hi hi hi hi hi s lp thank you so much for this it's so wonderful I've been following it all these of these days and they've been really motivating oh thank you I haven't this is my second question so I I wanted to ask you I have a play that I've been sort of scared by it's a big commission it's uh it's got over 20 characters it's an adaptation of a Persian love poem and I'm sort of the first time somebody's doing it in an English version of it and it's got some songs in it and so on and I had I had a workshop about a couple of years ago with it I've been I've been working on this on and off because I've had to do other projects in between just to kind of survive but I've also been a bit scared of it so I've had I've had other projects I had a workshop with a drama tag and she gave me some notes and and now I'm coming back to it I've left it for a while but so I'm looking at it afresh and I'm doing what you've suggested which is read the whole thing make a make a note of when you're engaged with the text and make a note of when you're getting bored or something seems flat and I've identified pockets of writing that are a bit flat so I what I'm stuck on is my next step how do I deal with that is it I clearly haven't probably gone in depth in the characters enough maybe that's that's one of the issues do I should I go back to the original source material I've read them a couple of times I've read the book a couple of times is that helpful what would you suggest as a kind of once you identify the pockets that are not working what to do about them that's great oh what a beautiful project has sounded sounds like sounds gorgeous so you've identified the places where that you love right yeah in your and you've identified the places that you don't love so much yet okay um can have you asked yourself why isn't this gelling have you asked yourself that you know like this part I don't love what's not working it treats flat a little bit or it reads it reads a bit dense something about the energy of the piece dropping a little bit in these places uh-huh and can you be and can you just with yourself as you're sort of being your own dramaturg you know can you with yourself articulate why do you think there's do you think it doesn't have enough of the source material in it do you think you haven't gone deep enough for the character you think you've kind of skimmed over the story point that might that you might have been uh you know carving out you see what I'm saying yes perhaps or or maybe I've taken too long to get one little point across okay there's too much dialogue okay okay okay okay but those kinds of things but that's the thing if you identify the parts that aren't working as well and then you say well why not why aren't they working as well okay and that can lead you to your next step you know if it's if it's not quite in tune with the source material then I would say reread the source material if it's not the character isn't developed enough then I would say go deeper and and develop the character if you think you're taking too long to to have to have to tease a moment out then I would say how can you cut it down and maybe it's long like a big rope that's just flopping around you know blah blah like that and you want it to be like that you know so you're gonna trim a little bit can I trim to get it you know taught right maybe that's maybe that's um something you can also are you working with the dramaturgs still or are they no they uh yeah no no don't turn to another company now okay okay okay that's okay that's okay so um but it's a commission you said correct yeah it is yeah so is there someone in the community that commissioned the play one of the yes that is that is an there's an uh the head dramaturg is taking over okay so I I had asked her to read that draft but she seems very very busy uh and she's she's dealing with there with a lot of writers sure sure sure sure sure so I am I just uh I thought I'll have a go at writing and because I have I have an idea of of rewrite a major rewrite but I'm now doing a smaller rewrite just keeping the story I already have and um and trying to expand on that uh uh yeah yeah do the smaller rewrite first definitely and just look at the sections that aren't working and ask yourself why you know and maybe come up with two or three answers you see I mean and if you're going to reread uh the source material reread just the part that's specific to that section that you're adapting yeah just limit it I don't want you to get lost in the source material again you've read it a couple of times just reread that that those couple of pages maybe get up on your feet maybe right standing up right have you ever tried that you know get the action get yeah get the get the um activity in your body you know move around talk it out to yourself um and and when you do connect back with that dramaturg they will be so impressed great yeah these are great suggestions thank you great question though great thank you great thank you well it is 603 let's do it again tomorrow Wednesday April 15th April 15th April 15th yeah um as a reminder in order to sign up for the zoom class all you need to do is go to publicfeeder.org by 3 p.m eastern time every single day and you can sign up there and I will send you a link between 3 p.m and 4 30 p.m eastern um and you know can always just watch on homeroom.tv as well see you there thank you thank you thanks folks see you tomorrow bye