 or something. Something like that. I really get excited about seeing all the different backgrounds. I mean whether they're actual or virtual they're really really fun. So watch me work if anybody doesn't know. Probably most of you know by now I'm just gonna say in any way watch me work we've been doing this for 11 years mostly live at the public theater and also in venues around the country around the world. We've been doing this. I've been doing this and what we usually and recently in the past three years or so maybe four years Howl Round has come on board to help us live stream our live show and they've come on board to help us create this beautiful community during this difficult time. And so big thanks to the public theater and to Howl Round. This is what we do during our time together. I'm looking around for my timer. Anyway we work together for 20 minutes and then we talk about your work and your creative process in the time remaining. That's all it is. What we don't have time for is to give an actual critique on something you might have written but we do have plenty of time to talk about your work and your creative process and give sort of develop conversations that help all of us regardless of where we are specifically in our work or what specifically we're working on. Okay so Amber is going to tell you how to get in touch while I go and find my timer. Hello everyone. If you would like to ask a question during the questions portion and you are inside of the Zoom please click the raise your hand button. It should be in the participants tab. That's more than likely at the bottom of your screen if you're on a computer or laptop if you're on an iPad more than likely at the top of your screen. If you are doing the stream at HowlRound.tv you can ask questions via the public theater's Twitter or Instagram and you can also ask questions via the Watch Me Work Twitter which is at Watch Me Work SLP. Be sure to use the hashtag HowlRound which is H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D and that is all. Oh you're muted SLP. Thanks Amber. Thank you. The advantages of having a very small apartment is that you lose something it's really nearby. So that's where we are. Okay so we're going to work for 20 minutes and then we will spend some time talking about you and your work. Okay here we go. Right. Alright. Alright. So that was 20 minutes of action. Now we're going to have about 40 minutes of dialogue. So who's does anybody who's got a question? Does anybody have a question? Taffa has a question. Hi. Hi. Wow I didn't think I'd be first. First of all, thank you for doing this. This has been it's literally kept me sane and like kept me working. So I really appreciate that it's great to like have a community and kind of sort of have accountability. So yeah, I've been working on a couple different projects and like bouncing between but the the newest one is like this idea that I've had for a couple of years for a book that is now like turned into a trilogy in my mind doesn't exist yet will exist. But I had been thinking along the plot lines. And as I've been like going I've been like, you know, outlining and whatnot. And I'm finding myself way more interested in like the latter half of the plot and forgetting how I even got there. And so now I don't know how to go back to the start. If that makes any sense. I'm still pretty early on in the process. So I don't know how to get back to the beginning and get interested enough to like, make that first part so I can get to the part that I'm like, you know, itching to create. I would I would say that's a great question, Thomas. I would say maybe do the part that is itching first. There's nothing wrong with, you know, just if you know the part that's itching, it's okay to write that. And then after that's written, go back and write the other ones, you know, or that doesn't, you say, no, I can't write the You froze. I froze. I didn't freeze. Am I frozen? Okay. I froze. I probably haven't It's okay. It's okay. But does that does that make does that make a kind of sense to work on the part that's most compelling to you right now? Yeah, I'm so detail oriented. I feel like maybe I'm just like getting scared that like I'm going to write that part and then like filling things in I'll either like go somewhere completely different. Like when I'm writing the first part after having written the second part and have to like rewrite the whole second part or whatever. Yeah, that might happen. But it might not. I mean, either I mean this easier choices, right? So you've got this great idea for trilogy. You are really excited about one of the later parts. Don't really have an idea about the first part. And your choices either write the part that you're really interested in first. And maybe through the writing of it, you will come to know what came before, right? Or maybe you'll find out that the first that that part that you're itching about the later part might actually be a beginning, you know, and you might be going forward from there. You don't know it's a creative process. Or you can sit and you can sit around and go gee, how did we get here? You know what I mean? If that doesn't hold you up too much though, as you are detail oriented. Hello, this is our detail oriented member of the family. Yeah, go go and do something with yourself. Sorry. Right. So you can sit there and say, how did we get here? You can you can spend some time thinking about it, though. You can do some outlining on the part that you're most interested in. And then when you really feel that you have that, go back to the part that you have less of a clue about and do that if that's more helpful. God, yeah, you know, so you have a choice. You have a choice. I was again, it's okay. You're not now you're not now you're not now you're moving. Not now you're frozen. Where are you, Tabitha? Where are you calling from? Oh, you're frozen. You're frozen again. Okay, it's okay. If she comes back with that connection is so it's all right. Okay. But does that make sense? Are you are you here? Okay. Yeah, yeah, I can hear you. That totally makes sense. I think that's something that like I had thought about, but I need someone else to give me permission to do. Okay, either one, you could either one, you can, you can try to figure out the first part before you go forward or write the part that you're most interested in, and figure out the first part later. It's important to just write. That's the most important thing. Just do the work, you know. Okay. All right. Thanks, Tabitha. Next, we have Catherine. Catherine, you there? Yes, I'm here. Hi. Hey, Catherine. Hi. Thank you so much for this daily burst of inspiration. Thank you for your generosity. Well, thanks for being here. Yeah. My question is has to do with putting the work out there for a reading? And I'm thinking about when you get a draft that's ready for someone else to read, whether it's a trusted reader or like a big public reading, what do you find are the most productive kinds of questions to ask the people who are hearing you? And are there any unproductive kinds of questions that you know of? Right. I mean, you know, you might want to know, of course, we want to know as creators, as creative artists, you know, did you like it? You know, you can ask that. That's not a bad question to ask. We're just getting a vibe in the room. You know, do they do they seem like they're they're into it? Oh my god, is that Joe exotic behind you, Julian Christopher? Yeah, okay. Sorry, just look at I'm obsessing about backgrounds, people's backgrounds, all of you have such interesting backgrounds. But you know, you can you can you want to know, you want to get the vibe in the room if they liked it, maybe what resonated with you guys, maybe what worked, you know, what didn't. What are unhelpful questions? I don't know. I don't know if any questions from the writer are unhelpful, but they might set you up for disappointment, you know, you know what I mean? Did you like it? You know, some people, you know, if they come out in that question with a lukewarm answer, then you're going to feel yucky, you know, it's going to be hard. You know, I write, it's it's usually not realistic. And it's pretty nonlinear. So and it's told the plot comes last. So sometimes in readings, people I've had people get just angry like, I don't get this, I don't get it. And they're still productive things they can say to you. Right, right. Yeah, well, definitely. So I mean, you could it could also be helpful to have a reading to have to read, you know, to have like a if you have a reading with just the actors, and if you're going to direct yourself from the just just the core team, and then widen it up a little bit. So you're working with actors, so they get familiar with it. Before you sort of open the door. So the circle will be small, and then gradually get bigger. And again, you're not looking for approval necessary, you know, that kind of approval, like, oh, you're, you know, you're looking for just ideas and notes that will help you take it to the next level. Yeah, like an actor says, like, I just don't get the through liner, I don't understand my relationship with so and so. That's helpful. That's helpful. And also, you can say to the to the readers, did you understand the relationship her relationship with her? You know, did you get that? Did you get where she's coming from? Do you get why she wants the things she wants? You know, you can ask you can ask those questions. Did you get these these story points, these beats? Yeah. Cool. Thank you so much. Good luck with it. Good luck with your work. Thanks, Catherine. All right. Looks like we have a question from Beverly. Everly there? Yes, I'm at Sam. Can you hear me? Yes. My question is about process right now, with all that's going on in the world. I'm finding I used to have kind of a good practice. And right now, with time being so sort of elastic, it feels like a little bit and days can suddenly go by and I haven't written, I'm wondering if you have any, I don't know, tips or things that work for you to help you focus on writing and feel pressured to write the king layer we're all supposed to be writing right now. The queen layer, actually. Just saying. The female leaders are bringing it people. Yeah, really exciting. But but yeah, Beverly, I think a schedule helps, you know, give yourself kind of a gentle schedule, you know, some kind of guideline to get you like, I mean, it's kind of like outlining, you know, outline your day, you know, a little bit. Give yourself at whatever o'clock, you know, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna, and then I'm going to go for a walk or whatever. I don't know where you live. Where do you live? Toronto, Canada. Oh, you have that accent. We love Canadians. But you know, you have but, you know, go for a walk outside, and then you're gonna do whatever, you know, call friend or, you know, sort of organize your day a little bit, give yourself a schedule, I think it could help. And you know, and you can you can decide I'm gonna write the 20 minutes three times a day, you could say. Yeah, you know, so it's not a big huge, you know, oh my god, you know, I find myself surfing, you know, and looking at CNN more than I'm writing, you know, this is all okay. But you do want to get your your work done just because it's going to give you that that good feeling. Yeah. And it's gonna keep me connected with the spirit. Do you use apps to block the internet when you write? Or do you have self discipline? No, and I have an eight year old, and there's no app that blocks him. Did you see him coming in a way? Yeah. Yeah. So there's no, you know, there's no use. There's no, there's no help. He used to run around the apartment while I'm away again, I have a very small apartment to one bedroom apartment, very small. And me and my husband and my son, our son, we live in here together. So yeah, it's it's really I have to really focus it's great because I have to I have trained myself I have taught myself to focus a lot. Schools are out, you know, yeah, the rest of the academic year in New York City and elsewhere. And those of us who are homeschooling and not able to go outside, we don't have a backyard. You know, we don't have a yard of any kind. Yeah, he just runs around the apartment all day. Yeah, this is hard. So yeah, there are no apps. But I'm sure there are, you know, if you know of apps, I know there are some, yeah, you can just turn it off, you can just turn off your Wi Fi, you know, you can just go up to the whatever bar and click that thing and turn it off. Yeah. Yeah, I find that I, you know, I think, oh, I'm going to research this one little thing. And then finally, I'm gone, right? Yeah, well, yeah, stop. Yeah. Yeah, well, you don't you know, that's you can also give yourself, you know, 20, you know, I'll research it for five minutes. Set your timer five minutes research. Here we go. I'm gonna research. It goes off. Okay, I got to go back to the writing. My 20 minutes was spent, you know, 15 minutes writing and five minutes of researching. Yeah, I'll research it when I'm done. Yeah, it's a writing. I'm going to research for five minutes. Yeah. So just try to try to use what you have to create the kind of structure that you need. Yeah, thank you. Thanks. Good question. Thanks. Spanley. All right, next we have Rob. Rob has a question. Rob, are you there? Yes, I am. Thanks, Amber. I'm high as healthy. Okay. So, so thank you for doing this. This has been really great, like the past few weeks for me, in terms of just making sure I sit down every day and do something. And some days, it's just this and other days, it's a few more hours. And, like, that's felt really good to work on some project every day. And I want to take that win. And I do feel good about that. But what I'm doing I'm finding is I'm ending up working on like five or six different projects, like whatever I feel inspired about each day, I'll go to that. And that's also nice. But I'm struggling with like, nothing is getting finished and nothing is feels like it's approaching the finish line. So I am making progress. But I guess how do you know when to like, just focus on one thing and get to the end and finish it? Or is it okay to just bounce back and forth? That's a great question. You can totally bounce back and forth. If that is pleasing to you, you know, but if you're also looking at it going, I'm just kind of bouncing back and forth, are you avoiding something or you play, you play with it a little bit, and then it gets difficult. And so you want to do something else. That's all okay. And if you want to, you know, usher something toward the finish line, then you got to put the time into it, right? So I mean, it's okay to have little five different projects. Look, they're five days of the week, how I mean, they're five days of the week, the work week, although work, right? But they're five days of the whatever it's called the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and you can work on one project for every day. You can do that, you know, you can pick just look at your project, which two maybe am I most excited about this one and this one. Okay, for the next week, just week, I'm only going to work on this project or this project. I'm not going to work on the other ones yet. I'm going to leave them for a minute. And then I'm going to do you see what I mean? So you just got to pick two, two of the two of the five, let's say, okay, work on those two, and see if they progress and they will. And then you can say, okay, week number two, I'm going to keep working on these two projects. You work on those a little or I'm going to switch out and work on the two others. Usher those along a little bit, or I'm just going to work on one for this week. You know, we talked about the lazy Susan, which I love because that's part of my name, but you know, the dim sum, the lazy Susan, and you know how it has things on it, you just you're stationary, and the lazy Susan spins around, right? So you work on one project for a little bit, and then you move the circular revolving thing a little bit. And then there's the next project there for you, right? So you can work on multiple projects at once, but you have to put the time into each one. Okay, so try that pick two projects or one or two projects next week, just on those. That's helpful and to think about it sort of on a weekly basis, actually see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then put them down and choose two others if you want. Yeah, cool. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Rob. Alright, next we have Chris. Chris, are you there? It's me. Yes, hi, Chris. Hi, Chris. How's the poem coming? Yeah, the woman is she's opened up. She's become really chaotic by making her a real person and not just a symbol. And she cracks me up. And I love it. I'm sure it's gonna, I'm sure it's gonna take me to a much better place. I realized she was a symbol. And once I started doing what you said about making her specific. So that's been great. Which reminded me of my next question, which is you talk a lot about dating about thinking of it like dating. And there's another poem that I've been working on for two years. That's not it's not narrative. It's a poem that's super important to me. But when I read it over, I am just I love it at the beginning I'm full of energy. And then I get to a part. I respect it, but I started to get really tired and drained, which reminds me of some dates, if you know what I'm saying. So like this is a great, you know, it's I respect that it's good. It's like, intellectually, but I start to lose affection, I start to lose energy and get drained. And so I'm wondering if that's related to what you mean about thinking like dating, I try I've been working on that poem today, trying to loosen it up and right, right. Like a date, right, right. Well, the good thing about writing, or the creative process is that, unlike dating, you can change your writing, you really, you know, you really can't, you know, you got to take your spouse or your date for who they are. Okay, but the cool thing about the creative process is you can actually circle, you can actually go through your manuscript, Chris, and where you feel drained and kind of respectful, but not as excited, you can circle that and say you're, you're right down in the margins. What about this isn't clicking? Just what is if you didn't write it? You know what I mean, if you were if it was a friend, we're a friend who sent it to you read my beautiful poem, you know, you get this part isn't working like some of the other parts that are interesting. You know, do a little be your own teacher, be your own best critic, you know. And you can really go through your poem and do that. That's I mean, it's very helpful. What do you think about that? Okay, and then work to work towards making the entire thing. Just really vibrate really Exactly, exactly, exactly. You circle the parts that don't work. And it's not only circling the parts that don't work, which is like, Oh, you're bad. No, no, you circle the parts that don't work. And then write, why aren't they working? What would make this really fun? What would energize this? What's missing? You know, and look at the maybe the parts that are exciting and say, Oh, see this, I used a lot of detail. I really got specific with the character. I was really telling a story. I was, I was telling something instead of just, just, you know, impressing myself with my own use of language, things like that, you can look at it and say, Yeah, no, I really got to get back into the feet of the body of the character, you know, write some of this stuff, like, jot some of this stuff down. Yeah, on the draft. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, write it right in the mart, right all over the page, you know, if you print out, you know, I do, and you print out and you write it all over the page. This part right here, this is what this needs. You know, yeah, you know, so we're are we, you know, physician heal by self, not a quote. So anyway, we're our own, we can be our own doctor in that, you know. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's Chris. Alright, we have a question from Jonathan. Jonathan, are you there? Yes. Hi there. Thank you. As everyone else says, this is actually my mom and I actually both do this. She's well, she's in Pennsylvania. I'm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. So it's fun. So thank you for all of that. My question is kind of about narrative structure. One of the things. So I'm a director that dabbles in playwriting. And I'm always like, okay, what's the inciting incident? What's the climax? What's the resolve? Like, what's the new world order? I was just curious, if you have any, not formulas, but questions of like, how this best to do this in writing a play. That's sort of where my question starts. Right. So to those those words, inciting incident. I mean, I'm like, fascinated by these words. Although I learned in literature class when we were in grade school, or something. I know it's funny. I never learned those things. And I'm always, you know, my students at NYU, they use those terms, I'm fascinated by them. I'm like, Oh, wow, there's a term inciting incident and brand new order or whatever. And all the points in between. Yeah. No, no, no, it's hysterical. I mean, it's great. But like, so it's kind of, you know, it sounds like you've got the formula. What do you need? Does it come out feeling formulaic? I guess the question is, is, you know, sometimes I feel like it's less of a drama and more pedestrian, if that makes sense. You know, so like, why am I telling this story today? And so just kind of massaging that and trying to make it a little bit more exciting or a little bit more dramatic. If that, yes. Yeah, well, the question that I often have, regardless of the form is, how much skin does the writer have in the game? And oftentimes I'm talking about this, because some people think, Oh, I can just write about anybody I want. And they haven't done, they haven't earned the right. Anybody can write about anything, but you got to earn it, you know, right, regardless of who you're writing about, you got to put the time in and earn it. So I always ask myself, so how much skin does the writer have in the game? Right? How much why do you want to write that? Why does she want to write such and such? You know what I mean? So if you can, and you don't have to like, have, you know, six months of therapy and figure it out, you just got to get specific, you got to dig deep into those characters. And, and because I want to make money and be on Broadway, I'm sorry, for me, for my taste, it's not fucking good enough. Sorry. And there are a lot of people who do write like that, because they want to be, you know, on the cover of some magazine, having written something salacious or whatever. Not not my cup of tea, but you know, it's it's what the marketplace is interested in sometimes. You really got to got to dig deep into your characters. Why is this interesting to me? You know, what's in it for me? What am I trying to work through? You know, that kind of thing. So once you start, so if you if it feels kind of pedestrian or kind of like me, you know, then you got to ask yourself, why did I want to write this? Why do I Jane is going to the bakery and it's a play? Huh? What is it? Baker, you know, I mean, I don't know. I don't know what it would be about. But wow, you know, and I don't know. No, that makes sense. And I think. Yeah, I think I get lost in the well, I direct a play and so it has to have this this and this and it's like, wait, what's the story? Like, why? Why? Why is this story so important? Right, important to as a director, you come to a text and you have to ask the same questions. Because when you decide to direct a play, you're going to be in a relationship with that play for a long time, a year or more, you know, and you're going to be meshed embedded with that play. So you got to know why it is that you want to work on it. You know, No, that that helps. Okay. Can I ask a practical question just because I'm also new to this? Sure. When you I've written a lot. And so after you write a bunch, do you then just transpose that into computer format? And then, you know, and then start because I've written nonlinearly, meaning like I've jumped around a bunch, but just a practical. Well, so you've written like longhand in your notebook, you're saying? Yes. Okay, great. And you so yeah, you can just spend some time typing it out. Okay, that's the first thing, then print it out, then start looking at it and going, Okay, what's the structure of this beautiful thing that I'm making? Okay, what's the story? Are there characters? What are they doing? You know, just start start shaping it in some way that's pleasing to you. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. Great questions. Thank you. Thanks, Jonathan. Looks like we have a question from Joan. Joan, are you there? Yes, I am. Can you hear me? Yes. Oh, good. Hello. Hi, Joan. Hi. I'm Cole. I'm a writer and I'm calling from Denver from the ambience of my bedroom. I hope you like it. Love it. Love it. I wanted to thank you for Wednesday. That was my first experience here. And I was so I don't know what inspired I wrote till midnight. So I wrote about five hours after the call. I have a question I hope you can help me with this. I'm basically adapting or trying to adapt a book that I wrote. And per year last dialogue there. It's very personal. It's, it's a story of a relative rags to riches in early Brooklyn. And it goes from 1854 to 2011, where he basically saves, you know, the author, author's life. My question is, it's really, really hard to distill a book into a play. Because of course, in a book, you can go on and on. But I'm finding and I've written most of the play already, but I'm finding that to distill and have meaningful dialogue between the characters in the book is difficult. And I was thinking that also say with the godfather, you know, that they made that into three movies basically to tell that timeframe. But I found out something very interesting. I had, I have a narrator in the play. And I was thinking, this is going to work really good. I'm going to do it like our town and it's going to be very interesting. It wasn't interesting. It was very boring. And someone said, don't have that narrator come out and talk, you know, do something different. So my problem was how in the world am I going to tell this story, which spans Brooklyn, New York and Ireland without a narrator in there. So what I came up with, and that's what I want to ask you about this, if you've ever seen this or if it's effective, I've included the narrator and of course, his his outfit changes as the years go by. But he does appear on the stage and he does address the audience. But what I did on this, and I hope it works, it's sort of whimsical. And every now and then he he he is invisible to the characters in the play. But he does some physical things, you know, to kind of another words like he'll, he'll open the door for someone or in one in one aspect of it, the author is having coffee with co worker and telling about how she wants to, you know, find out about the relative. And so when the conversation is over, he goes around to the desk, and he takes away the coffee and the roles, you know, and whatever. And he does react with facial reactions and with his posture, to the things that are being said about him throughout the play. And in the end of the play, he saves the author's life. It's a 911 type of rescue. And you realize that all throughout the play, he is helping the characters along, he's kind of like a helper. And I'm wondering, in your experience, have you ever seen anything like that where there is a narrator, but he's also like a pantomime, almost like a whimsical type of of helper on the stage. And is that is that acceptable? Have you seen that? That's my question. Wow, Joan, I mean, I don't know if I've ever seen it. I may have. I mean, Ariel is is invisible in the tempest for a little bit, you know what I'm saying? Ariel does. You know, I mean, Prospero creates, you know, what they call, you know, what a fairy sprites or whatever they call to do things. I think what's most interesting to me is, what is the that character have at stake? You know, how how much are they a part of the story? So everything. Great, great. And you don't but you don't want them you don't want them to talk at all, except Oh, he will talk to the audience. Yes. But not to the characters, you know, on stage, he's invisible. Oh, he is the protagonist. Right, right, right. Okay. Okay. No, I think that's go for it. That's fine. That's fine. But just continue to, you know, be judicious in your selection of material, you have to choose, you know, what to leave in and what to leave out, and choose the things that are most dramatically urgent and resonant. And don't include something just because you wrote it beautifully in another form. You know, you know what I mean? So you have this beautiful novel, and you want to just be be mindful about, okay, I'm going to put this in the and you can also invent new things that will be maybe more dramatically interesting for your play. And it can be on Wednesday, you made a very good comment that was very resonant with me. And you were saying that with the protagonist, if there's anything that detracts or doesn't move it along, or something that's not really important to the protagonist, get rid of it. And that helped me that helped me cut through a lot of things that were important to me, but didn't necessarily move that story along. So you're welcome, Joan. And you know, people, we can stay at long hours and discuss that point. I it's something that I believe in. I'm a writer who loves to cut. There are writers who don't like to cut and want to keep every great idea they've ever had in their plays or novels or screenplays. And I'm not like that. So, you know, just realize it's coming from a writer me who actually enjoys trimming and getting it slim and trim. And I want everything to be, you know, impactful, you know what I'm saying? So it's a taste thing. But it's, and it's just my advice. Perfect. Thank you. One other quick one. How long is like, say your basic play these days? Is it about 70 pages? I don't know. 120. I don't know. It can be more than one, you know, it can be in many parts. Just write it so that you feel the story is being told. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Joan. Thanks, Joan. We have about five minutes left. We do have a question from say fairy there. Yes, I am. Hi there. Hi. Hey, so my question is about how important it is or when it is important to really understand what you're trying to write about. So I am, I was talking to a friend who's writing the other day and she was saying she's really interested in the question of how people make decisions in really difficult time. So she had a seat and she was exploring that. And that was kind of driving her piece. And I just submitted a short piece, my first short piece to a festival. And I was thinking after she said that, and I realized, I don't really even know exactly what this was about. Like I think about the question of like, the dramatic question, like to be driving a story. And, and frequently, I just start with a character in a scene. And I don't know why this character comes to my head. And, and, so I'm just that whole question about how and why and when do you need to know what, yeah, not the topic, just like what's motivating the whole thing. Yeah. And say, I mean, you wrote a whole play and liked it enough to send it in. And you didn't even know what you're writing about. I mean, kind of, no, because I mean, that's why I was, I was busting on Jonathan a minute ago, you know, all these, you know, term, you know, inciting incident and, you know, it's like, wow, I hear those. And I think, wow, how exciting. I don't understand any of them. But, but, but hooray, because they're useful. If you need them, they're useful tools. So sometimes people will need to know what their play is about to write it. I mean, what their play is trying to say. Is that what you mean? Um, yeah, what is, yes, I guess what it's trying to say. Yeah, what it's trying to say, what it's trying to understand. Yeah, like, there's like one thing. I mean, this play was about a bunch of things. But, but sometimes it's just about a character in a situation. I don't know. Right. Right. And I think that's fine. I think that's fine. I really, I my own personal, when I hear people distill their plays down to, you know, one sentence, I'm like, yeah, that's all it's, but you went on for two hours, you know, you know, just talking to me on a stage and all that when it was about, you know, homelessness is bad. You know, great. You know what I'm saying? So I feel like the plays I love, I mean, like King Lear, you know, what's King Lear about in a sentence? You know what I'm saying? It's not a test. I'm just saying, right? Right? I mean, yeah, it's about like a lot of things. And it's, you know, then so those are the kinds of plays that I appreciate. Things that are about a lot of things. And like Ernest Hemingway said, if you want to send a message, go to Western Union. So, you know, I think it's okay that you wrote a whole play, and you sent it off, and you feel good about it, and you can't really distill what it's about, or what the message is in one sentence. But if you were stuck, I would encourage you to ask yourself things like what do the characters want? What are they trying to do? You know? And I'm not sure if you asked me any one of anything I've ever written, screenplays, plays, songs, movies, everything. I don't know what any of them are about. I mean, I can tell you the story. But what the issue is, you know, I leave that to these scholars to write about. I don't know. That's not where my creative juice rests. So, you know, it's just a taste thing, but okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. All right. It is 559. Anybody else have a really quick question? I'll have a really quick answer. Um, in liquor, are you there? Yes. Quick question. Quick question. Okay, here we go. Okay, I'm new at this. I'm trying to develop a relationship between two people who are kind of exploring a relationship, but they speak a different language. There's language barrier involved. And what are the complications of exploring that? And if you ever had a situation where you've done that in your plays, and how have you gone about it? Oh, wow. So they speak different languages and there is no common language between them? No, there's a couple of her people who have served as, you know, kind of interpreters, but eventually they're going to have to talk to each other. And one of them speaks a little English, the other speaks a little Spanish, but because of the circumstances here and there's something they want to explore. And what are the pitfalls or how do you go about doing that? Oh, it sounds like a great, it sounds like a beautiful, great play, man. I would say just focus on what the character, again, focus on what the characters want. And, you know, if they want, if they're sitting down for a meal, and whatever, you know, just focus on the given circumstances, like what is the scene, for lack of a better phrase about like what's happening in this scene, you know, they're sitting down or they're making dinner together, right, or whatever the scene is, you know, and just focus on what is happening in this scene. What do my characters want? And the language will find a way. You know what I mean? And even if it's, you know, a language that the audience has to piece together, as it's a little bit of English, a little bit of Spanish, a little bit of something else, a little bit of that in this, you know, it's going to be really beautiful because their desire will be driving the conversation, not necessarily the words they choose necessarily. You know what I mean? Does that make sense? Yeah, thank you. Thank you. It's Friday. It is Friday. We will be back here on Monday. So just a reminder, you can sign up to be an each day zoom class at public theater dot org by three p.m. Eastern Standard Time each day. We will email the zoom link out between three and four 30 p.m. Next week's links are already up on the website. So thank you all and see you all on my