 Hello. For those of you who just logged on, we're going to get started in just a couple of minutes. Hello. I put this in the chat, but for those of us who are just trickling in, we will get started in just a couple of minutes. Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for being here. I think SLP is just running a little behind today. So thank you for your patience. I'm going to give her a call. Okay, folks. So I have not heard from SLP yet. I'm sure that something came up. But if we want to just do our 20 minutes of independent work and get that started right now, and if SLP is able to hop on, we can do our questions portion. And if not, we'll have you save your questions for next week since we're here for the next several Mondays. So welcome to at least the first part of Watch Me Work. I am going to start my timer for 20 minutes. And this is the portion of the show where we work silently for 20 minutes together in the Zoom space. So here we go. Let's go. Hey, SLP. We are working. We started our 20 minutes. Hey there. Sorry about that. I had a little, whoops, crazy. Had a little technical difficulty. Sorry about that. No worries. Crazy. Do we want to, we can do our little intro spiel again. Are you there? Can you hear me now? Yeah, we can. I think we can hear you. Yes. Great. Sorry about that. It was just, I was just having a little bit of computer drama. Happy New Year, everybody. Happy New Year. Sorry, I'm tardy. It's Watch Me Work. Thanks, sweetie. Thanks for getting our technology together. Happy New Year. Happy Lunar New Year also. We're doing Watch Me Work and we're going to, we've been getting together and working together for many years and we're into another year. And let's see. I hope everybody knows what we're doing. If you don't know what we're doing, we'll explain to you as we go along. Lally, you want to tell us how to get in touch? We're going to work together and then we're going to talk about our work. Allie, go ahead and tell us how to do it. Thanks. Yes. So if after the end of the independent work session, you have a question for SLP, if you're in Zoom, you can ask your question by clicking on the raise your hand function, which should be in the reactions tab, likely at the bottom of your screen. If you have any trouble finding it, you can just send me a message in the chat and I'll help you out. If you are watching with us on the live stream, you can feel free to send us your questions via the public feeders Twitter or Instagram accounts or via Watch Me Works Twitter account, which is at Watch Me Work SLP with the hashtag HowlRound. That's hashtag H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D. So that's how you'll ask a question. All right. All right. So here we go. We're going to work together for 20 minutes. Then we're going to talk about you your work and your creative process. Okay. So here we go. And all right. All right. That's 20 minutes. Thrilling, thrilling. All right. So here's the part where if you have questions about your work or your creative process, we are here and happy to talk with you about it. Yes. Feel free to raise your hand. Looks like MC maybe has a question. Great. Okay. You can unmute yourself. Great. Happy new year. The year after last year. So how you doing MC? Good. It's so great to see you all. Nice to be back. Yeah. So I think the last session or before I heard you talk about you were reading Chekhov. So that made me go reach for my Chekhovs, which I haven't read for years. And, you know, and it's just like, what a master, you know, like the form. And I was, oh man, how I got a long way to go for myself. But I am learning so much just by reading great works. So that's a great thing to say. Yeah. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Sorry. Oh, nothing. Nothing. So yeah, I just and every and I read it a few times. It's not long. Each time I, I learn I pick up something a little different. And I think I get more of the nuance. So good reminder. So I followed your example. So thank you. Thank you. But thank you for that's a great that's a great thing to remind us all of how much we can, we can learn by reading, you know, reading great works. And if we're talking about playwriting, or, you know, it's a lot. And if we can't like afford to go to a play, or we have to get a babysitter, we have to organize, you know, you have to buy a ticket or whatever. Sometimes it's really great just to say, Hey, I can just, you know, watch a play in my head by rereading some play that's really great and already written. It's really inspiring, you know. And some, yeah, sometimes like, wow, look, you know, they've done such a great job and they did it, you know, maybe over 100 years ago, whatever. And wow, but there's always something more to do. I think there's always something more to add to it, you know, the conversation, which is what we bring to it our side of the conversation. Cool. Which play did you read? Which play did you read? Did you read a play? You should check out. Did you read a play or was it a short story? You have to unmute again. You should be able to. Okay. Yeah, I read some of his short stories. And the one I was really thinking about was the lady with the dog. Oh, okay. Wow. That's my sister calling me and I have to talk to her later. And I remember, you know, a lot of English teachers and writing teachers always point to this as an example of a great work and of crazies in the house, be quiet dogs. And I didn't get it. Why do you think it's a great work, a lady with the dog, the short story? Well, I'm delving into it. And the economy of language too. Like he'll just jump from one scene and maybe a week will pass or months. But he or when there's one of the characters, there's a lot of places where I, and I think would like get all this description in about the what he was thinking or all about, you know, the color of the tulips or whatever. But he doesn't do that because it's not in service of whatever theme he has. It's just sort of takes away from the focus. So I'm learning that, you know, that economy and he uses a lot of parallel symbols, like he'll show the meeting where this guy first meets the lady and then parallel the next time he meets her, you know, and you notice slight changes in their behavior or some things remain the same. So that's really good to use these sort of objects to reflect change and a state of mind. You know, I don't, I don't have to write. He felt sad. He started, you know, I'm not going to, you know, don't have to do that. So now we're going to go and reread it now because I was reading some plays. Now we're going to reread it. Yeah, first time maybe. Is there a translation that you'd recommend or I'm not going to read it in the original? No, I think there's a couple of free ones you can do. You know, I just, I don't have it in front of me right now, mine, but it was the one from college. So quite tattered. But and I'm reading a lot of other things like shorts, just learning how to make, just stop with all the exposition and description when it's not in service of and this all comes out, you know, after you revise and you revise and you revise. I mean, check off probably didn't, could write it in one spell, but for someone like me, it's endless revision, which I am not a fan of. Why not? Oh, because sometimes I get discouraged and I say, oh, this, this is, this sucks, you know, ah, don't even bother. And that inner voice says that, you know, but I should just keep going. Right. I do like line editing some things for other people actually and taking out unnecessary words or adverbs that aren't really needed. So I like doing that for friends. Is there a way that you could pretend you're, you're your friend? And I guess you know, I mean, sometimes the big question is like one of the questions is how do we keep going? You know, like how do how do we keep going when the when there's too much work or when there's, it seems daunting or it seems overwhelming. And they're little, I mean, that's pretty much what we do. We invent little tricks, the mind into continuing on for another, you know, another page, another minute, another five minutes. And if you enjoy doing line edits for friends, could you just pretend someone else wrote it? Your work? Yeah, I'll give it a try. I returned to check off because you, you talked about it. So yes, I'll give it a try. And everybody who reads that story, these opinions are solely my own. And they may or may not reflect your interpretation. And they may be like total bullshit, what I said earlier. Or maybe some things will, I don't know. What do you say? Call to you? Call to your work. So anyway, always good to read. And they're short. Right, right. So thank you. Oh, my pleasure. Thank you. Thank you, MC. Next up we have Emmanuel. Hi again. Hi again. Hi, I didn't want to ask a question, but no one was asking. So I do have a question. Awesome. So I've been applying to some residency places with this kind of multidisciplinary solar work. And I'm having a little trouble formulating or making it into a into something very clear, because it's a mix of very different disciplines. And it's it's not something that is very clear. Like, it's a musical or it's a sort of, you know, a stand up or it's a play or it's got a mix of like electronic music. And there's like a monologue a bit and there are songs and there's free improvisation. And there's like a whole mix of things. It's very clear when you see it, I hope. I mean, I've done a few like little end of residency performances. Right. And it is clear there is a story. And everything feeds into something else. It's not just these random things. So I'm just having trouble trying to make it clear that it's clear, but also that it's got a whole bunch of seemingly random elements. Right, right. They're not random, but right, right. That are very different. Uh-huh. And you're trying to you're writing a proposal for it. Yes. Yes. I've done a couple and I've got more to do. Right. Is there there's not a you don't have like a video clip of it or anything like that? Or do you because you had a yes, I have I have a small snippet of one of the end of residencies, but it's like a minute and a half. And you can't really see the full spectrum of it. And then there's one video where it's just one part, which is so it doesn't have what it's going to be. Yeah, I don't have a video. Could you sort of just narrow the focus of it just for the explanation of it? You know what I mean? So instead of trying to describe the 12 elements that it has in it, you know, like could you maybe talk about the work in terms of story? I think that's always a good way to talk about it. Story you're telling and maybe mentioned three of the elements. Because you know, three of the ones that are sort of like the most exciting to you, like this one, this one, this one, and you know, because then you're going to capture the idea that it's more than just one way of telling a story, but you'll still be communicating the the essential part, the essential aspect of it. You know what I mean? Narrow it a little bit because you know, you don't have to cover all of it. You're just trying to get a presidency so that you can work on it, you know? Yes. So does that make sense? Are there three or four elements that you could talk about? Yes. Yeah, that helps. Yes. Yeah, and make sure you're focused on the story because you said the story is very clear. Yeah, it's all very clear. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a true line through the whole thing. It's just using different elements to tell that story that just kind of come in and they disappear. Sure. Then maybe just focus on the ones that might stay the longest or recur the most, you know, or show the main tent poles. Okay. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Question. Good question. That's great. Thank you. Next up we have Kimmy and then after that we'll have Larry and then Lynn. Cool. You should be able to unmute Kimmy. How's that? Did I do it right? I really should have had children. I can't navigate technology without help from a nine-year-old. Okay. Thank you for taking my question. Hi, SLP. Hi, everybody. Thank you for being here. Susan, Larry, you made a comment a few weeks ago to me or to maybe somebody else and I just it's just been sitting with me and I understand it on the whole but if you could do a little bit more excavating for me regarding a scene you said get in as late as possible and out as early as possible. If you could, I don't know, elaborate a little bit more. Sure. And that's yeah, it kind of dovetails with what MC was talking about a little earlier about she's talking about all the exposition and explanation. So just try to show the essential if we're talking about a scene. Just try to show the essential of the scene. So I'm trying to think of King Lear. Do you know King Lear? So it's a scene where they're like, he's in the palace and he says get me the map and they bring him the map and he divides up his country, right? Right. With the three daughters. Exactly. So let's just say that's where the scene started. I don't know where the scene exactly starts but that's kind of the big part of it, right? He walks in and he's talking. Okay. You could have started it like around there or he could be having coffee in the morning looking out the window and then going for a walk in the garden. You see, there could be 12 events that happened before get me the map. You see what I mean? But get me the, I'm just trying to think of a play that we all know that the King Lear I saw was at the public. Great. I just can't remember exactly how that scene starts. So if it doesn't start that way, forgive me. But that's the idea behind it anyway. No, that's it. You just include the most essential information or to, what MC was talking about earlier, the description that's really going to help tell the story and not the description that tells the audience that you know what it's like to drink coffee on a sunny day. Right, right, right. Who cares? That's the story about a dude dividing up his kingdom. Now, if the coffee drinking is essential to telling that story, then great. But if it's not just starting where we need to start it. And then it's like after the action is completed and the essentials of the action are completed, wind up the scene. Don't show him, okay, now he's got to like, I don't know, bring in his shoe salesman and try on five pairs of shoes because he, you know, he might go for a walk later. You know what I mean? Who cares? You should have said we don't see that part. Maybe that was in an earlier draft at King Lear. Or maybe the fool was like doing a magic trick. Right, right. You know, cut, cut, cut. Okay, we don't need that. Yeah, thank you. Because I recently saw one woman show that had one woman too many in it and it seemed very self-indulgent. One woman shows one moment too many. I don't want to throw the person under the bus, but there was a lot of like the, the, the description of the play seemed very intriguing. And then the play did not deliver any of that. It was just went, went, went like family stuff. And I was just like, I, I'm not interested in your diary. I hate to be a bitch, but I'm just not interested. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I hear you. And you know, you know, I mean, I'm sure you're right about it. And you know, what's the most generous thing we could say about that wonderful person that they did their show, right? But they worked really hard writing it that they're trying to cathartically deal with whatever trauma they experienced through the activity of creativity. And I appreciate all that. I just don't, I got enough of my own problems. You know, the great thing about like someone, yeah, they put themselves out there. Yeah, absolutely. That's a hard, that's hard. And you know, it's super hard. And I hear you. I mean, I go to plays or I go to movies or whatever. And I'm like, oh, geez, you know, what was that? You know, and at the same time, you go, you know, we're all like seekers, you know what I mean? Yes, we can. You know, you know, cross the street with a walker. And it helps you know, maybe it helps hone your ear and your eye when you're writing your own work. That's exactly. Sometimes we go to work to show, to remind ourselves of what not to do. Yes, exactly. And that's why I wanted to like touch on this one element again and make sure that I was being, as MC said, economic and, you know, you don't want to be so sparse that the audience is constantly wracking their brain to find it where the hell you are. Be so mysterious, like catch up and, you know, oh, I'm so clever. I want you to be part of the story. I want you to be engaged, but I don't want to belabor a point, especially since it's dealing with, you know, childhood sexual trauma, you know, and I want like the, the depths I've been excavating myself to put on the page, but only in order to make the jokes pop more as opposed to, you know, because earlier iterations, it was like a very sarcastic person answering in a very curt way to deflect the pain. Whereas that doesn't serve anything and it doesn't tell a story. She's just bitching about her life. So by going deep into, I was too afraid to say no, I was too afraid to do this, then now we understand what too afraid to say no means. We've all been too afraid to say no about something, you know. So I just, I want the jokes to land, but there has to be a juxtaposition of depth for the comedy to be a relief as opposed to just a spewing of one-liners. I hear you. I hear you. Well, cool, cool. Thank you so much. Thank you, hon. Great question. Thank you. Love you, Mina. Gotta run to yoga. Bye. Bye. Larry, you're up next and then we will have Lynn. Hey. I, my mind just started really just going nuts when you were talking about check off because I put some things together I hadn't really thought of before, especially you were saying what keeps us going? And I was thinking all of check off plays are how do we go on? How do we go on? I've got 20 years to live. It's too much time. How do we go on? And it's interesting because I think I never put together some of the things I understand about that, his work. I never apply them to my writing, which is that I think so many people find check off boring because they think of him as writing literature and they do the work very preciously. And he was really writing about people who never know what to say. And someone says I love you and the next the person says pass the salt back or something like that. And there's so much miscommunication. I think there's actually a lot of exposition, but he leaves the exposition and then someone says shut up. And so it just kind of occurred to me about how often I try in my writing to write well. And I've heard you say time and time again about write that shitty first draft and how often I block myself because I'm trying to write the final draft the first time. And what would it be like to write the shitty first draft and then realize oh it's he's supposed to express this shitty. You know what I mean? You're not supposed to change the thing and that's where the conflict is is all that bad communication. So I guess I just wondered about you know there's so much bad communication in life. That's what Chekhov captured so well. You know he has all these long mologs where the people say God I wish I'd said this and that and they regret what the way they said things. So I don't know what I'm saying I'm trying to formulate a question but I guess I'm mostly just putting dots together which is but I guess I'm getting something at like can you intentionally write back? Can you create intentionally bad communication? Can you I guess I'm asking myself this question really is what I'm I guess I'm getting at so I don't know if there's an answer to it. I just was stimulated by all the things that you were saying and putting some things together and I thought oh how how often my problem is is the way that I stop myself. And if if part of the point was to write about the way people miscommunicate or poorly express or don't connect how much of the writing is already valid before I even you know edit it. So yeah I think right I think validity valid writing and the writing that is the finished draft are two different things really you know it's valid if you do it it's valid you know but I think to write I mean I don't know how many drafts Chekhov made I'm not a Chekhov Chekhov at all you know what I'm saying but I I do think that if he wrote a second draft or rewrote it all or enjoyed you know rewriting and rehearsal for for his plays anyway there's some rewriting going on there and to write I mean to to write about to write in the voices of people who are not connecting is a very very huge skill I mean you know I mean that's a big skill to people I mean because you because the reader has to notice like wow you know those two ships just passed in the night you know you know I mean that's a that's a that's a that's a skill and whether or not he got it on the first draft or not you know I really I don't know and I think it I think it it also doesn't matter what what matters is that he created something that you can read and go wow this is you know this is about the difficulty of communication and for yourself in your own process allowing yourself to continue working until you're done you know yeah you know you keep working until you're done and and what's great about reading you know writers are wow they're so good yeah you keep working until you're done you know whatever they do is at the end of the day yeah okay yeah you know and allow yourself to to write and that for that shitty first draft or that shitty third draft just keep digging away at it you know yeah yeah it was just uh yeah it just helped me to realize mostly to kind of uh it it made me think about that I'm um it just made me figure out a new way that I get in my own way so I appreciate that also before I go I just wanted to recommend Paul Schmidt as a great check off that's that's the that's the one I have Paul Schmidt he's great he's the best okay thank you appreciate it all right last we have Lynn hey Lynn happy new year happy new year you should be able to unmute yourself now oh Lynn we can't hear you you're gonna have to hit the unmute button okay there you go happy new year I noticed Miss Snyder changed her name to Michael and I think she's using her husbands or her son's thing and it's so nice to see you I lost you I lost so I really missed you and I'm so glad to be here um we're glad to have you back and Carol it's great to see you too you know no I'm going to call her Michael now okay but I this is not about you this is about a question I want to see top dog underdog and um I had seen it many many years ago when I was working at the public doing a workshop and when I saw it this time it was so much funnier is that because I'm older or is it because it it just seemed a deeper and funnier play you know it's not a funny but you know what I mean the direction is that the actors I know all of that has to do with it but I remember when I saw it some time ago at the public years ago uh I I was so taken with it and and the brothers and and the it wasn't funny to me then it was very serious and now there was so much humor and and it made the play deeper to me did you rewrite anything or is it was it on the page or was it just a different yeah well thanks first of all thanks for going to top dog one thank you um God it's wonderful wonderful yeah it was a great product they did a great job um yeah didn't rewrite any anything I didn't like have a punch up of the jokes no it's the same play it's the same play maybe um you know we're more they're more like family now you know those guys have been around yes uh for a long time with us and whether or not we we've seen the play or not or you've seen the play before but we're more they're more in the ground water their stories are just more uh they're they're closer to home because they've been with us for a long time yes and see what you mean yeah so the jokes are all the same I mean I I do remember with the first time the very first reading public reading we had uh in the Anzbacher which was packed so it was a sold out free I mean reading people were just rolling it was so funny there was so much laughter going on and that was you know over 20 years ago so wow wow yeah it's funny funny until it's not yeah well it's not but exactly and then it's I I I truly think when you know I I I think comedy's purpose is till it's not if you're writing something that has any meaning unless you're just writing a sketch you know or it's just a light thing but if you're writing something about human interaction and human foibles it's about I lost you oh there you are you keep on reading um I uh I I I think it's not about the joke it's about the relationship I've always felt that you know but it's so good to see you I'm so sorry I missed you for I don't know how uh long you know I I couldn't find and then I had some issues and I couldn't be on the computer it's so nice uh to be here you know likewise it's it's really nice to be here and we're we're back so we have dates we have at six o'clock but we have um we have more dates coming up this we do tell us we have dates uh Monday now through the end of February so we're at same time same place um you can find us oh we'll be here we'll be here all of us hermits all of us who have been hermits for this the pandemic you know it's sort of like being with family again very nice likewise okay well happy new year everybody have a great week and we'll see next week see you next week bye bye bye thank you