 Okay, everybody. Yeah, we just started talking. Don't worry SLP, I think you're here. Looks like you're here. Oh That now I can it was saying the host is not allowing you to unmute yourself. Oh I was like, I'm gonna call you We've done it we're good we worked out. Thank you for your patience. Hey, no, thank you. Thank you everybody We're guess what guess what we're doing today. No, this is watch me work again and Yay, look at everybody. Hey Carol. Hey Rebecca. Hey everybody. Hey Hi, hey Larry's back and all these other fabulous people. Look at these beautiful people. Hi We're back Jim's back lose back everybody's back It's watch me work. Those of you who don't know what we're doing Let me just tell you so we've been doing this for like 10 1112 years. We forgot Carol will Carol would know how long we've been doing it. We started out in the lobby of the public theater It's called watch me work the me and the title is you It's experimental theater. Oh my god. I know it. It's free because it's experimental and This is where we hang out with you and we talk about your work and your creative process. That's what it's all about. So We want to say thank you to howl around who has been hosting us, but especially during You know when we got when it's a lockdown and we were doing it like five days a week for weeks and weeks and weeks on end and And the public theater. Thank you team Audrey and the public theater for hosting us for keeping it going because it's Now that we can meet in person again, we realize that meeting on zoom is so much more better And we just do what we do every time we meet we we work together for 20 minutes and then I take your questions about your work and your creative process And and and Audrey will tell us how they how do you ask a question? Right? Is that what it was? Yeah, that's perfect Well done So if you want to if you're inside of the zoom and you want to ask the question all you need to do is Raise your hand and you do that by going to the reactions button likely at the bottom of your screen if you're on a desktop or laptop and the top of your iPad Click raise your hand And we will we don't necessarily go in any particular order. So we'll call on people and we try and get to as many people as we can And if you are watching the live stream You can tweet at us that at watch me work slp with the hashtag howl around h o w l r o u n d Or you can also write into the public theaters Facebook or instagram and we will take questions that way And that's sort of it Sort of it. That's pretty much what we do and Yes, okay, so I have my timer And i'm going to turn it on and then we're going to work. All right Hey Hey, mo Perfect timing. Here we are Okay, I hope you guys got some some work done And or something so anybody with a question how you can call on you Yeah, it looks like Lou's here with the question go for it Hey, it's so good to see you all to be here with Thank you so much. Um, just to say ahead of time, I have conjured SL what would slp do so many times since I've seen you last so thank you Have my timer over here. So oh, thank you. Yeah, there you go Yeah, I thought it's been great. Um, so it's great to be here, but I will ask the question. Here's my question Um, I want to ask about the balance between Outlining your vision for your story versus being inspired and energized by inspiration as you're working um I was really bound to an outline for like a year that I had imagined and I was torturing myself and I have recently Kind of set it aside and it's not that I'm not abiding the outline, but I'm breaking it and Having the most fun I've had But I kind of don't know where I'm ending up. So I just was curious To talk about the balance of those things and and how you might see it or I love the question. I mean, I'm taking I would take the cues the clues from An answer that I might offer Based on two things you said, uh, darn and I forgot but torture. I think did you use the word torture? And then you use the word like joyous or fun or happy Okay, so um, so Since you never know how something's going to end up anyway, right? If you're having if you feel like you're being tortured And only you would know, you know, because it's your process and you're working if it feels that awful And doing something different Or doing the process differently feels joyful that I would go with the more joyful Experience regardless of where you're going with it Yeah Yeah, I mean that's when you say it. It's like, well, is this even a question like why I'm asking the question But but I hear you. Yeah, because perhaps. I mean, are you asking um, what will get you to where you want to go with more What is a more sort of time tested way to get where you want to go And if the outline is the way then you are willing to endure the torture might that be what you yeah I think I thought it was the right way and I guess if I'm being honest I think having had the outline for a while even though it was torture Is informing the fun Like it hasn't gone totally out the window. It still exists in this form. It's just that it's not By the book, you know, now I'm not by the book by the beat and there's some new beats and some new ideas Right. I what I'm trying to avoid too. I'll just say is I just don't want to go forever Like I want to complete my project that I have in mind and I feel like part of what I might be doing is just Changing course or something, but I don't I don't know if that's true. So I just was just trying to balance inspiration and Yeah, I'm lying to yourself about where you're going, you know, yeah, yeah, I mean You know, it's it's hard. It's hard to know. It's hard to know. I think one of one of the best ways to maybe gauge that Is to something we talk about and hear a lot set yourself some kind of finish line You know, if you were running the new york marathon a couple weeks ago with all those people who were running and I was not among them But um, they were out there running, you know And they would just be running unless there were had been a finish line Maybe some would still be running I'm like bullshitting myself. I haven't seen my family in weeks Am I doing out here in the streets of new york city? Right, but since they set themselves a finish line and they everybody agreed on it Everybody involved they call it a marathon and there they go You know, so you call it a finish even if it's like i'm gonna get a chapter done or i'm gonna get a scene done or i'm gonna You know get five pages done By can't you can it can be any kind of finish line, you know Set yourself a series of finish lines and then you'll see Whatever method even if you're crawling on the marathon you still know that this is what i'm doing You know So set yourself a series of finish lines and that's the way you can gauge Whether or not you're bullshitting yourself your method of getting to the finish line doesn't really matter Yeah, right if I mean and if you want to get to the finish line That's what's important and for those of you who don't aren't interested in getting into a finish line and just Are you interested in getting into your work? Then the finish line method is not appropriate for you But if you're interested in saying then then then if you want to get done Get done Also, thank you. No, thanks. Good question. Good question. Thank you All right, um, I've next we've got mac go for a mac Hey mac Okay, hi, I really had not for well, I was trying to formulate a question and then I was so uh intrigued by Um, I've forgotten her name but her question about finish lines and outlines um Well, I started writing a little play when when we were doing this the way I usually write with just by the seat of my pants I got a character doing something and then it just goes from there and um, It's kind of a dystopian thing and it said in this woman's apartment And she's in there by herself thinking that there's been a major attack or something and There's sirens and she's trapped and she's trying to call For help to be evacuated or something So the whole thing is a conversation between her and her phone And I know what I was doing this is a film if I was trying to write film I could I could actually show the phone screen Mm-hmm. Um But there's a place where I do need the phone is is responding to her but it's it's a recorded message So is it okay to just do this with verbally like she's Having this conversation with the phone You know and she goes out and finally looks out the windows and sees billowing smoke and Your sirens and this is whatever it is is escalating and I do have an idea to finish it. I just didn't quite get there So in a play format, how do I handle the phone? I mean, it's it's a character play Is it a phone? Is it like a smartphone or is it a rotary phone? What kind of phone you talking about? So the so the the phone could light up and and go dark when it it quits talking She's getting very frustrated because she's trying to get through and it'll come on and she'll get this garbled message And then it'll click off when she starts talking So I don't know if I just do that With or you could you I could do that with okay the phone is Goes dark and then all of a sudden it Comes back and somebody's talking and she's suddenly. Oh, I'm back here. Please don't go and blah blah blah So, um, right, right? Maybe this should be a film instead of a play I mean, it could it could be either. I mean what's the most important thing is her relationship with whoever it is on the other end of the Conversation whether it's a recorded message whether it's something she's trying to get through I mean, that's more important than what you show I mean, so once you establish that mac and it tells you you've got a really good handle on that You could show in a variety of ways. I mean you could have a screen in the back that that lights up like the phone You know, and you could have a variety of Of I mean that's a sort of more of a set designer would come out come up with a really cool way of showing the visuals Um for you, but that's not to say we don't want to jump over the The reality that the most important more more interesting and more important than showing the phone kind of thing Is that intense relationship that she would have? And she's being more more frustrated and freaking out and support because all she's getting are different recorded messages Oh Yes, you know, like please stay on the line. Someone will be with you shortly and this is just constantly Yes, that's exactly right. Yeah I'm trying to escalate it But I just I just wondered if her screaming into the phone and maybe throwing it out the window in the end I don't know what's going to happen, but sure As I haven't gotten to the edge yet. I'm almost I'm almost there. There you go Really fast and see if there's anything and then go back That sounds cool. That sounds cool back. Yeah, totally Larry said something in the chat about it. I just flashed On there. Larry you want to say something about that? I don't I can't um Did Larry Larry had something? Did you go did you get the unmute? Oh, yeah, great. I did. Thanks for summoning me. I was just going to say that as a director I'm always, you know, we do a lot of We do a lot of interesting behaviors while being on the phone So I usually as a director when there's a phone call to play I usually try to figure out what what's a revelation of behavior like what's the revelation Of the behavior during the phone call That can be much more expressionistic and I rarely have people like really pick up a phone When they're on the phone So there's usually ways to indicate the phone, but I'm always sort of interested in what is the phone call express So, yeah, I just want to say is when I get a play as a director and there's a phone call I mess with it. So, um, yeah So I'm I always think about like what's the what's the Expressionistic behavior That um reveals something Okay, yeah, I've been I've had all these little things that she's doing and showing her frustration So forth, but I think we have to go further. So cool. Cool. Yeah, sounds cool, huh? Thanks, Mack. Cool. Awesome. Okay All right up next you've got Raven Go for it. Raven Hi everybody. Hi Hi, great hat Thank you. Yeah, that's so cute I'm so excited we're we're back. I didn't know until the drama bookshop. Oh, I'm sorry. They will be closing in 25 minutes We know where you are I'm at the drama bookshop And they're announcing the the closing of the cafe Um, so I'm just gonna my question is can you share some words on the producing process? I wrote a jazzical and I got um A really like fancy, you know reading in vermont and then I brought it to new york and did a A private reading where I invited, you know producers and collaborators and and things like that um, and it it Went really well. And so now I guess I'm in the the the process of when I just started writing something new I guess I'm also in the place where like I've never had to like juggle the plays in this way and then I'm still I don't want to like Neglect the jazzical because I do think that's also a timely piece and that needs to Live now I feel like all my work is in that way And so one of part of this question as well is like I also know like the playwright that I think You know would be the perfect mentor for my for my play and so How would you I guess advise me to approaching um this playwright and Also just like this murky part of the like producing process where like there's a lot of traction people are super excited and then like I'm the You know, I'm a co-producer as well and I'm just like, you know, okay now. I'm here with it alone again and like I Don't know it was congratulations are writing something and having a lot of people excited about it. That's really really wonderful Yay, and and you know, I mean You have had a couple of questions. I mean the the producing and the things I would say just You know, what are the next steps ask the producers? You know other than yourself, of course What the next steps would be and just try to keep you know, it's like airplanes, you know You've got more than one project. So you're going to have to be sort of air traffic control, right? Because there's more than one plane in the air Right, so you're and that's your job to keep them All sort of going in the direction that they want to go in but not colliding with each other or getting into each other's way Right So you're just going to have to stagger yourself and producing is a different kind of energy as you know than writing as you know so Just set aside a little time every day to do maybe the To keep each project going, you know, kind of divide up your days Or the time you have to work to keep each of your projects going. That's I find that to be super helpful Yeah, the approach to the mentor. I don't know different different mentors need to be approached in different ways So I I'm not really sure about that. I wouldn't Uh, I mean Maybe if you know them, you know, uh, but I I don't know. I don't know different people I can be approached in different ways. I guess how do you know What makes you uh look twice when someone approaches you for mentorship because the thing about mentorship to it's it's It's Essence, you know, it's it's not something that's just like okay. We can work together. It's it's more about spirit And alignment in that way at least from from my perspective, but I'm just curious how what what makes you Um, want to invest in someone's work well, um I'm uh Maybe it's a good thing. I'm kind of random here I am investing showing up inviting People who pretty much most of them I I did not know at all when we started this Most of you I you know, I might know I might not know. Um So, uh, this is a form of mentorship. I have different I have non-standard forms of mentorship being um Kind of a out-of-the-box kind of individual So I start watch me work and I just open the door and see who comes in So my criteria for mentorship. Are you going to show up? You're going to do the work If you show up, I show up. Um, I also teach at NYU, which is a more formal, you know thing for people who go to NYU and that's kind of a more formal academia conservatory kind of experience Um, and that's NYU does a selection there So I think I think every like I said every mentor has kind of a different a different thing and You know, if I said like when you meet your mentor, you have to wear a great hat, you know You might find a mentor who hates hats So, you know, I wouldn't want to give you that advice not knowing not knowing Much more about it than just um, but I think in lieu of a mentor. Um, we're um Work is a great mentor Doing the work is a is the best mentor. Um Yeah, that's really the best You can learn so much from The page, you know back in the day when we had just pages you can learn a lot from the empty page and from facing the page and from just going to Going to see plays reading plays reading novels, you know, filling the well of your spirit with literature I must say that you like you just popped up back into my my sphere And last week and I was I've been Paula Vogel's boot camp and we've spoke your name and work so much and all of a sudden I didn't know that this was starting again. So it's kind of cool. There you go. There you go All that you just share. I'll you know, thanks Raven. Thank you. Enjoy the drama bookshop. That's a great bookshop I haven't been up there in ages. So Glad to be there It's it's wonderful Thanks very much. Thank you All right, we are going to go to Kimi next go for it Okay, hi, hi, thank you so much. Hi I miss you so much. Thank you. Um I appreciate you have funny internet years ago. I mean years ago Gee whenever did you have some funny some funky internet or is that my imagination? Did you know was yeah Melania's remembering. Hey Melania. You were always outside, right? It was like ah my internet. Yeah, she was she was outdoors Right. You guys remember. Okay. Okay. How you doing? I'm well. I just got back from a five months cross-country trip driving around in my car and I yeah, I had a lot of amazing experiences Where'd you go? Where'd you go? I I went to about uh 10 different um national parks I I took a I took a A helicopter ride around mount rushmore. Uh, that was really exciting. I for the first time For the first time in 60 years I heard my mother's name because I'm adopted and I didn't know what what her name was and I got to see pictures of family members for the first time and um, I actually looked like somebody it was pretty amazing to So it's been a big it's been a big trip with a lot fun And uh, I've only been home a week. So there's still a lot of processing That i'm doing and one of the One day I was hiking with a fella who's also a writer in a stand-up comic and I told him about my play Um, it's called waste management and it's uh, you know, I'm from new jersey. What else? Like That's good So it's loosely based on my life. Um in that the realities are child sexual abuse and stand-up comedy Dead father love of jazz. Those are kind of the things that Are the truth about me and the one thing that I that I did with the character was Um to show her arc she struggles with substance issues and my friend um said to me Do you have that issue and I said no, I've never been drunk in my life I only took mitral because I like you, you know, like You know, uh drugs have never been my thing and he says well, I think it's more interesting if you show that character not Using those crutches And getting through her abuse she he said we've already seen you know That story because most people That go through what I've been through turn to those Tools will say to help you get through right because you think it's a tool at first, right? You need to numb the pain or whatever He says it's much more interesting If we see the character Go through everything without the use of alcohol and drugs And I went okay Now how do I show her arc now? How do I show? because Like seeing myself for the first time at 60 I don't see how I I moved through my life surviving other than the need to just keep moving forward so You know, maybe it's too much of a trope to have her be a substance abuse in the beginning and now she's sober at the end And I agreed with that but now i'm just figuring out how the hell Do you show somebody's arc and growth when First of all in 411 so there hasn't been much I'm the same height it was as a child So I'm just wondering what possible opportunities Whether they're I mean I have no Dogma that they have to be something I actually went through but what are other ways to show an arc Uh for dramatic purposes, and I also think that the more intense The Scenes are The jokes will land better and there'll be a better need for comic relief so I wanted to up the ante on some of the dramatic parts of the play and I know I could do that now with lighting and With sound and things like that everything doesn't have to be it's theater I can do whatever the fuck I want right so but But I just don't know how to show her arc of growth Without that trope and I was wondering if you had any helpful hints You've lived the life though I mean But I'm in it though. You know what I mean It's like you look in the mirror and you go home. Oh my god. I'm 50 pounds overweight. When did that happen? Do you know what I mean? And that and that and that came me I mean, I think that note is really good from your friend and it sounds like it's meaningful to you So I think it's well worth considering Yeah, that's what I wanted. Yeah, but you don't even know how yeah, and and here begins the second round of work For you. I mean, I you know, that's it's like it's like, you know It's like you've got on the ruby slippers. I can't tell you how to how to how to do it Especially especially since you've lived the life You know, how do you how do you? examine yourself When you still feel like you're in the middle of something Well, you You're technically you're at a you're somewhere, right? Like technically you weren't where you were last week, right? Right, right, right, right? So is that interesting to the audience if it's so subtle? Well, you're you're not going to just be charted. I don't think you're your journey from Last week to now are you? No. No. Okay, so it won't be a subtle, right? I mean you're gonna have to look in the mirror I mean, you know It's a self-portrait. You got to take a look at who you're talking about Okay You know I mean and it's not as if you haven't been doing any work up until now You've been doing a tremendous amount of work and now begins, you know round whatever you want to call Let's call it round two. All right. You'd call it round two and this is where you're gonna have to dig You know deeper You know, yeah, not to worry. You've lived it's not like you're talking, you know, like we say You know out the side of your neck like you're not talking about stuff. You don't know anything about right, you know But but you um, you're talking about stuff. You do know about so So All right, that gives me a little bit more of a handle my friend Paul prevents a he told me a long time ago We, you know, write down 12 of your shittiest stories and we'll mine that for the play There you go. There you go. So I guess I'll go back to those notes. There you go And the bottom of the hole Yeah, there you go. No, no, no. That's that sounds like it Yeah, but that sounds like it, you know, thank you so much exactly it and keep checking in, you know I will I'll be here every day now that I know we're back. I'm so grateful to you all. Thank you. Thank you Thank you All right, let uh, we got about 10 minutes left. We're gonna go to milania Hey milania Hello Are you still in miami? I'm still in miami here. All right. All right, girl. It's great to see How are your daughters? They are fine. They are at when and now we don't have the zoom school So they are at school in the in the building. They are doing much better because they have the friends Yeah, of course, it's cool and it's tough and we have a lot of homework and all that stuff Yeah, they have the friends. They are not it's not the same as being But it was at the same time quite an adjustment for me because you remember that I was all day long three different times and in all the classes so suddenly They went out So it was great and at the same time was like, whoa Yeah But it was very good for me because I am showing up to my work And I have more time to do that And I am happy about that. I was contacting people here in miami because I I write in Spanish and an Spanish speaking author that is very famous here and he was Mentoring if you want to leave me some advice and he also said about showing up and I said that's Susan So I am doing that I am doing the the work I am liking a lot of the things that I am doing other things Remember what you taught me taught us I write and I Leave them, you know rest and I am in waiting period of seeing if that is something or maybe I enjoy the process what is happening to me and I would like to ask you about this is that even showing up and Doing the the work there is some part of me And I think that there are thoughts thinking that Okay, your girls are at school Okay, everything is fine. You have the time you are using the time But I don't know. Maybe this is not serious. You know this this kind of what are you doing? Are you playing? This is a joke and Intellectually speaking, I know it Is serious and and I'm having fun at the same time But there is this it's like recurrent, you know, it's like What are you doing people don't understand or nobody knows What you are doing and you are there? How can I this is my question? How can I work on that? So I know that I can't control that they appear But I know that I can maybe embrace them and say, okay. Thank you I I don't right. How can I do that? And keep working Right. That's a great question Melania and you know, I mean we talk about like talk to the hand, you know All these techniques we do, you know to sort of I mean sometimes I think like the voice of let's just say That questioning voice the voice that is of we could say maybe negativity or to encourage you to to Like you want to go to a party and that's the voice that tells you stay home You don't want to go to the party, you know, I mean it's like Cinderella You don't want to go to the ball You want to stay home, don't you because because it's safe at home You know, it's the voice is just trying to it's do it's this say that's the voice that's trying to keep you safe Keep you within the the confine Keep you within the the life that you're living right now Maybe so kind of maybe reframe what that voice is trying to do And talk to it With an understanding that it's trying to maybe help you I don't know. I'm just trying to say a different way because we can say talk to the hand like shut up I don't want to talk to you like that's one thing, you know, stop talking. You're trying to ruin my day but we can also say To sort of have a dialogue with it that's that understands that it might be trying to help you um And at the end of the day still it's like yeah, yeah, you're trying to help me, but you're more like my You're more like the person who said don't go to the ball Cinderella I mean, you know, and I'd like to go to the ball Because I have this beautiful dress to wear and the coach is outside waiting And every day you write you get to go to the ball You know what I mean, and that's what you're giving yourself So you know more you the writer you know knows more than The naysayer. Let's just say the cautious one You know you know more because I mean, what's the So what if you're just playing number one? Are you allowed to play? Yeah, so I mean you can say that too. So what if I'm just having fun? You know what I mean, so what if I'm just enjoying myself? So what if I'm just experimenting I'm allowed You know So just know that maybe the voice is coming from a place of trying to help But it's it's It's it's not helpful So um You can also, you know, just write responses Just like if the voice is coming to you while you're writing you can just have a notebook and just write Oh, please. I want to keep writing you you can just answer it Have a running conversation with it Um, also when we talked about you know, we set the timer and you write for periods of time and then Whether the voice is in your head or not you constantly sort of write quick I sometimes I write quickly and that keeps the voice The voice is kind of slow Not like a sloth but kind of You know, you can imagine the voice of that's that thing that's talking to you is a sloth You know a sloth, you know You can imagine and then when you laugh and then they have that that face You know that sloth face and their hands and they're very interesting They're very slow and they say You're like I already wrote this I I've been writing for 20 minutes shut up, you know, you know, but they're trying to help They don't want you to get hurt out there So we laugh at them and we just keep writing That's great. Thank you very much. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's great to see you All right, it's great to see you. Yeah, yeah, really great to see you For everything you did for us during the pandemic the lockdown You were a light a light Thank you very much. Oh, thank you. And so are you and so are you all we were all lights for each other Weren't we kind of showing up and going we're still here. We can't leave the house, but we're still here You know, you really were Yeah So we've got like less than you know, we've got about two minutes left So do we have time for one more question? Should we wrap it up for today and we can we can wrap it up for today We're going to be back next week. Yeah, we are. Yeah Yeah, so I just put in the chat the um Link to the page on the public theaters website where you can see all of the dates for the rest of the year We'll be doing every monday from now through december 20th And in mid december we'll announce new dates for for the new year But yeah, you've got all of the links to sign up for every single week on the website and We can't wait to see you back. We're here. So keep you know Keep writing right all week even on Thanksgiving, you know, that which Thanksgiving. What do we we have so much to be thankful for You know, even even this past year was hard It's really hard. You have so much to be thankful for so and I really appreciate you all I really do and thanks again to the public theater and thanks to howl around for Giving us the fabulous technology You know and hooking us up here. This is really really an amazing group of of people. We all are together So, thank you. Thanks to Susan Laurie Pucks for being the best All right, all right friends have a great great week. See you next week. Yeah, okay. Happy Thanksgiving. Bye.