 Yeah I want to check the sound. No. Sorry, just a moment. I should be recording this on the camera too. There was a point that they were recording. Who is? Paul. I said it up so that it was recorded. Who is that going to? It's really, I mean, the best thing about it is that you can see it later. It's a lot of cloth making, really good. This is a very good record, I'm not sure. We're doing the best we can with our music. Tomorrow. I wish you would stop doing it. You know? She feels guilty and she can't keep doing it. I know, I don't know what can be done. I can't say too much. I don't know what I'm actually doing, by the way. She's going to continue. I realize that. I mean, Kimmy, I guess it might not have been longer than three weeks. Who is? Paul. Yeah, I guess so. Next week. That's good. That's good. Are we going to do anything for Tuesday at all? Is that this Tuesday? Yeah. That Tuesday? That Tuesday. I'm sure. Okay. I might try to come up. If you can. I have to shut this down. There's somebody else getting on the channel. I have to shut this down. Does Mike know? Yes, he does. Is he waiting? I don't know. Actually, you know what's going to be on Thursday? What? Dave and Texas is going to be on it. The Texas team? Austin. I think it should be for St. Texas. Yeah, some kind of a panel. Good evening. Good evening. The various stages of development. It's a time for a lot of people to check in with their ideas. People don't get the opportunity to do that very much. As artists, we're all focused on trying to get it perfect before we allow anyone to see it. And this festival sort of throws that aside and allows us to put something out there that is not done, is declared not done. Share it with an audience, have a conversation, break some bread, have a beer, talk about it, get some ideas, and then we can move forward. That's sort of the whole premise of what we're doing here in these two weeks. There's a lot of information that I'm going to have for the picture view, but I'm going to do it over several different speeches throughout the evening so I don't have to look into it once. This document has a lot of great stuff in it. It's all about what we've been doing, what we've been working on, everything that's happened over two weeks. Please check it out in your free time. The first act you're going to see tonight is going to be readings of three new plays. Our theme this year for Dumbo was Art and the Brain. We got really fascinated by these new ideas in neurobiology and how the brain perceives art and why the brain perceives art. And sort of took a challenge to ourselves and sent the challenge out to a lot of workers' playwrights' laboratories in the program we run. And 18 of our playwrights responded and wrote new plays in one month. And what you're going to hear tonight is the first time these words are in spoken in front of the audience. So they're very raw, very new, and all of them are moving forward. Tonight we have Harleys of the Mind by Ann Timonette and Wanda. We have The Charlie Problem by Stephanie Swersky and Cartographer's Dream by Dipka Hula. I want to ask you all to turn off your cell phones. I want to remind you that in case of an emergency, the doors you came in also work the other way. Don't go that way. It's not going to end well. Thank you all for coming tonight. Everything we do here is by donation only. It's just past the hat and pay what you can, pay what you think it's worth. So if you think it's worth something, then you can ask one of my lovely assistants, Kerry Simbreros, out there. If you like what you see, it almost a couple of bucks. We really appreciate it. I'll see you tonight. This evening is Stephanie Swersky. Her plays have been developed or produced at the Brick Theatre, the Flee Theatre, The African Botanical, and War Bridge, among others. She received her BA from New York University and an F.A. in dramatic writing from the University of Southern California. The trawling problem by Stephanie Swersky. Characters Leah, 22, Max, 20, and Burt, 20. We are in a dorm room. Leah and Max are studying. So there's a trolley headed to collect five people, and the only way to save these people is to get a switch that would divert the trolley to a different lane where there's one person. And so, only one person, guys. What do you do? Yeah, watch out! You can only hit the switch. Break my hands like... We're here now. You told me you wanted to know what I'm studying. Hit the switch so it goes like... What asshole killed the five? Noah. That's the point. That's the whole thing? That's easy-greasy. Can I take this button? That isn't it. Oh, he's born to the needs of the eye. Not for you. Oh, boy. I like simple guys. Like you. Where do I find this trolley? Okay. So there's another trolley, and this time the trolley is headed towards five people. And the only way to stop the trolley would be to lead the people the only way, only, only, only... Yes, the only way is to push this guy on a bridge over and onto the track. The trolley will run over the guy and save the other people. Help me do this guy. That guy sounds like a fat, like twirling sounds. Yeah, next time I see a fat guy, I'm gonna be like, What would you like? Yeah, pushing. Stop the trolley. Whoa, I'm a hero. Why is he so shocking to me? Answer it so quickly. It's pretty simple. Five lives per one. Put your pushing hand. It's not a switch you're pressing. I know. Take a picture of the guy, okay? Picture someone. You're gonna think he's really talking. Why is this so shocking to you? Picture... Guys, a picture of you on the bridge with you. Hey, hey, hey, hey. You can't trust me? Back to the lens. You're closest to the guy, and we are closest to her too. So if you're on a bridge with this guy... You're a smooth and straight and the point is where the trolley comes on, and plays with this guy. You see him? Yes, and there's this magical calm over in life. He knows he's going to beat this guy. You're also kind of... I'm being up there, and sending him to his death. Yuri is standing watch. He's a guard. But he can still move around. They can get bored after all. Each individual, like this, Max opens his eyes. Yes, each individual. So how much more do five lives mean? Four lives. What are you doing? I just need to study. You're distracting me. You're being a fucking weird. You push the guy, and watch the other five of you in the corner. The whole thing is like a cycle pass, but then they realize they couldn't just push a guy... You're fucking trolley, touring his horn below. You, of all people, should know that you don't really know what you're going to do, instead of doing it. You pushed that guy. I wasn't. You did that by the decision, real time, in the army, else would in America go into the Israeli army. Just stop. To make those fucking tough decisions, and figure out what? Figure out what? What? Why are you taking this up seriously, on a crazy cycle of that? Tell me something that I didn't know. Don't push the guy. Oh no. A good thing you ordered. No. I'm now serious for my own good. Sorry. What? No. What? Look into my eyes. Are these the eyes of a crazy person? What did I say? We learn new things about each other every day. Why aren't we? The impact is weak. We're trying. The top secret? Making me feel top secret by not telling me. You've been dating a mom. Is everything I think you do? Guard. Cool. What did you guard? Whole country. Whole country. Do you understand me now? I didn't realize how big and powerful you are. You're on reserve duty? I don't get the big deal. One life, one hope. Honestly, I think even fitting the switch in the first scenario is hard. Well, think so hard about it. You're like those dudes in England. Totally. Do you think there's anything you can do in a routine before? Hard from the back. Yeah, that's how I hold them in high school. It's pretty amazing. Elijah, you know what you did? That was real. Never felt real. Watching Sam in this big tall tower. Think things better or tolerable. The last couple of months I was with her. I'm surprised you were with her. There's nothing out there until she met a different soldier and then he closed the lid of the trip. So he's trying to... Joe, as you say. Why are you laughing? I'm purposely enjoying the story because it could hook up with someone else. Dad, we went... Am I doing something? Maybe something's up. I'm doing something near the army. I didn't know what I was saying and he was lying there. You don't want to stay in Israel after. It's okay. Let's say... He hardly spoke to me in Hebrew. Everyone else did. But he said he liked me because he could practice with me and I felt more comfortable speaking in English too. You're even better. I was just so stressed out that I stopped having my period. I wish I could have told her. Father Wallace. You're at least. Leah looks at the screen. Saw this Palestinian girl. Probably my age. Running. I put my hand on the screen and I imagined that she could feel my hand on her shoulder and said, it's going to be okay. My hand smothered her entire body on that screen, but you know, like that. I mean, I knew what happened. But I didn't. I thought I did. But when I got there, I realized I didn't do nothing at all. It was a total fucking waste. We did give you up. I just stood there. Were you supposed to shoot someone? You were pulling. That's all. I was really supposed to do. That's not what you could be born. I think if I was working with Charlie, five people would die each time I come here. You won't agree? No. You're an address. You're acting. I know. You're a psychopath. I tried hard not to be, but sometimes it just spilled out. Actually, you know, that's what they say. In class, a professor said that psychopaths, they try to act normal. They work really hard at it, actually. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex on the amygdala, which works for emotional responses, they don't work. They don't work right. So I guess psychopaths can't understand emotional trigger or figure it out and seem totally normal. It's all that thinking, misfires, and then they end up acting like an asshole. I guess we're both crazy. He takes it. No, we're not. But then you do. That's what I've learned about you. Hang on. Okay. And if you want to, she is a New York-based writer, who would like to spend honor with ACTS who will write a hands very clean writing award and the NEC's Douglas Turner Award Prize. Her plays have been produced and developed by the Movement Theatre Company, Word Bridge Playwrights Laboratory, Greenscape Theatre, Fine This Time, and the Monarch Theatre Company. She is a member of the drama's field. Parliament of the Mind, or Clara versus the Skydive. The Breakdown. Judge Will Power, male, British, old, a stuffy judge who peers down over his spectacles, wears a powdered wig, represents the part of Claire's brain that gives her Will Power. Barney Reason, male, nervous when he doesn't, represents the part of Claire's brain that formulates her reason. Mr. Bigelten, male, young, or late, a man and child with a blankie, wears a tongue, curly, unkempt hair, has a raise in his hand-raised feet, but not his brain responsible for an ocean. And when, with red, fire, air, he wears an emerald-green dress and those shoes, she is Claire's soul. Ten minutes before the jump. Nine over today's proceedings, for this session of the Parliament of the Mind, all things logical and rational with order, were more than ready, Your Honour. And Mr. Bigelten's pants, how goes the case for the emotion? I just want to say, I love you guys so much. That won't be necessary. Now, it seems as though we have a gupting new decision. In the case of... Oh, good heavens. Clara V. The Sky Guy. Your Honour, sounds like murmuring from before. Order! Order, right this instant, all of you, before I throw you out. And I mean you, instinct and murmur skills. We'll have no more mouth bursts from anyone. All right, now, Lonnie, what's all this noise about? Thank you, Judge. I'll do my best to present the facts and only the facts. Two weeks ago, a certain male that we'll call Ken. Oh, let's see us for Kevin. Yes, Chief Chief, we know. So why not call him Kevin? It's a really nice first name because we need to keep our heads about as if we want to make a reasonable decision in this case. We'll stick to none of the facts. Hey, stands for Kevin? It's a fact. An awesome fact. Professor, please continue. Thank you, Judge. Two weeks ago, Kevin invited our dear Clara and therefore us on what some might call a rather unusual outing. Fun! I call it fun. He asked us to go to Sky Guy. And have we done this sort of thing before? No, Judge. We certainly have not. So, we did say to Kevin, and I quote, I've always wanted to be more adventurous and I quote. And then we did that thing. We sometimes do the things dirty. Do that as it may. The fact remains that a decision must be paid. Do we say yes to this excursion, which I might remind the court is both expensive and insane. He said he paid. What's that, Chief Chief? It's just that Kevin said he paid. His cousin's stepmom posed the place towards us. And we wouldn't jump alone. They have these harness things and then they sort of strap you to an expert. That sounds so reassuring. Come on, guys. Pretty soon we're going to graduate and college life will end and then it's real-world problems. Let's just have a little more before I get scared. May I remind the court that in a vacuum, bottles, like the one I hope we're all trying to protect are bound by laws of science to accelerate at 32 feet per second. Every second. And that's without the resistance from the wind or how high the plane will be or whether someone's still inside will have to push us. Given all these facts, it's so quiet and there's the chambers as though she's been running for a long time. What the hell is taking you so long? A huge swell from our marionette court. What happened, woman? These are private proceedings in the mind of Clara. Who exactly are you? I'm Clara's self. Her total self. Messes. What's right about that? That picture's trying to capture Okay. I give up. Somebody wake me up and we get back to the business of making informed decisions. All this can't see. Yes, yes. I wonder what those ugly truths would be in our heads. Judge Wilpower, with all due respect in each of these previous cases of this nature, you sided with my opponent and the unabashed emotion he is here to represent, his relationships that were to put it mildly disastrous. Exhibit A, the drummer. Oh, come on. That was a phase. You know how this leather jacket smelled like leather? And then he broke our heart. Exhibit B, sprinkling with that associate professor. He knew so much about the white bath. And then he broke our heart. Exhibit C. Alright, alright. Exhibit C, that deadbeat Steve from high school. No fair, we haven't seen him in ages. No. But thanks to you, we did send him a couple dozen texts that night last month while we were drunk. And so, your honor, here, all evidence suggests that we must once again rely on reason. Only reason. This is Clara versus this guy. We must respond to Kevin's rash and irresponsible request for the resounding. No. Do you have a counter? We like it. I said we like it. Anything jumping will be fun. Guess it's up to me now. And I have to deliver it. But it's too late for that. Oh dear, where are we now? We're going over the last minute safety instructions. Yes, but where is Kevin? He's here. He's right next to us. And he's telling us it's going to be okay. He takes our hand. Why, please? I'm just meaning to hear the safety instructions. Mistake. We bought a money bag. How many times do I have to say this? Kevin, baby. Hold her up at the door of the hall. Exhibit A, B, N, C. Tell me, I don't. I do not have to look. I do not. I don't leave this place. You're so crisp and sharp. I think I want to do this body. Then you're on your own. Cool it, chocolate. I'll be sure you will be heated games from late night's crowd. I hate you late night's crowd. Sorry too soon. Please, I know you're not convinced. I know there have been missteps. This might be it. What will we do then? I was made for nothing else. This might be it. Barney Stanton's chair joins the others up in the air. They all join hands. A surgeon, female, late 30s. Actor 2, a factory worker at the backup factory. Actor 3, at the spotlight on surgeons, late 30s, extremely well-trapped, articulate, with that strange, intense weight of doctors, impetuous ability of doctors who are doing their job. I'm a good surgeon because I feel nothing for my patients. My slow and sometimes own, shall we say, biologically sluggish, empathic response has been a tremendous thing in my perspective. For one, it's a real time saver. Instead of being locked down by the way the emotional content of the formula, I can't practically just concentrate on the important stuff. I am both in my own excavation and not others. A remarkable search. Yeah, it comes into life. My son's a hobbit. I had no idea this was true until I started to spend more time with him. And then it was something I just kind of noticed. He had these tiny hobbit hands, tiny sort of hobbit-y fingers. It's a squat little head. I know these three. It's a snokes. We had a joke growing up. She felt pain, and I did feel pain. Only it wasn't real. Because she, well, she gets up for pregnant women on trains. She talks the elderly down the stairs. And they're on these deep pregnant women. And my sister, who was supposed to go to this boat was supposed to rage. You know. But she's the only one who would like me to be their guardian angel. And it's funny, though, because I don't have any habit genes. I mean, we all look like me. You know, you're a stock-average size type human. And so I'm really worried about it. More worried. The smaller you look. In my view, they say that to get ahead you have to be focused and driven. Which, again, because I never felt critical I didn't mean to be nice. It's just not in my data. It's just not in my data. It's not in my data. It's not in my data. It's just not in my data. It's not in my data. In fact, I think niceness is a little useless. It's all about provoking the response that you want to get. It is a way our brains have. Let's create this devolve so that we can get what we want from each other without a clump in the head. I never understood it. Or, more accurately, I did understand it. I just didn't know. I am the youngest female surgeon at the hospital. I'm not the only woman in this field who understands that Google is not that first. But if you do want to go to dinner, I will lock you up. And then I realized there wasn't any reason to have. It's not a genetic thing. He's just young, age-wide, little guy. And I'd forgotten what I looked like at age. And you know, I was small, too. That's my conclusion. Children, like puppets, are small. And sometimes when they eat bad things, they go green. Engage in any kind of story teller. It needs to know where we are, when we are, and why we're here. Like the large and the small. So we draw you a map. A protector turns on a very basic, not-to-scale map of a small town. This is a map of the town where this story happens. So that's the where of taking care of it. There's the main swag here are the stores through the hospital, the library, the public office, and here, here, here, and here. That's where everyone lives. Got it? And it's an almost boring time. If you place the projector in the year 2013, it pops up under the map. This year, life is very large and very huge. So we try to condense it down as economically as possible. You need to know this will all come together because of the artistic aspect of this year. Any questions? Good. So here's where I will throw in a competition. I am not what I am. I have chosen someone else to be my servant because I have a very large roster of patients, all entwiring needle-sensitive kinds of brain surgeries, and although I have profound appreciation for the role of the artist, we don't have time to be accurate. The actress to be picked to play myself, to dance in front of you, to speak to me like is, you must know, incredibly good. She has been here in no less than five episodes of Law & Order, and she has a really good episode of CSI. But she was also incredibly good on the artist. I didn't have to do the whole casting thing. I had the time, so I thought, why not be here myself? And anyway, I like the idea of telling my own story. So here I am, spotlight on the woman. She is bright and bubbly. A picture-perfect Hollywood actor. This is my story. You wouldn't know it since I don't come on to this show. The only job I could ask is that of you, which I kept for ten years. Two years ago, I started seeing things. The first time was when I was driving. He is in hands. He's in the ignition. Pulled down my driveway. I was in the highway. There's a lot of noise. And people melding. I'm behind the windows, and I don't have a horn on to the front shoulder. Looking in the mirror, I can only see me, you know, age ten, in the back seat. I'm a blue blouse. I have a skirt. It's all in my head, and there's a man there right next to me with his hands on my back. He's hips and I can't see his face. And I'm screen. And I look at the blackout because of the night. I turned the light on and I went home. I keep cutting my mirror. You have no time, you can't do some time. You'll see that in a choreograph. I start to black out everywhere. I didn't lose my job. Me and my wife was making more money. And, you know, the little guy was getting sick a lot at daycare. I mean, they're really sick. The burkeloz is sick. The rectilizer is sick. So it seemed like a good idea. I didn't lose it. I left it. And then they hurt someone else. And just got the brain surgery. Brain tumor surgery. Brain aneurysm surgery. Leading brain surgery. Minin-GOM brain surgery. Minimally invasive brain surgery. I excel at them all. Sometimes I long for more regimen surgery. Because once you've reached the top, it's much worse about what to do next. The images keep coming. I'm here with my legs coming out of my bed. And I've just got a body. They're over me. Some of the images are in black and white. And then the one day when I'm standing in the line to keep the clothes for you, I can see a small boy across the aisle in the door. They look at the windows. They put each other on the windows. Maybe they're over the windows the other day. And then in a flash, I see me in my bed. And this time, his face stands out in the camera of my memory. I feel everything fall away from my hands. The last thing I hear is a loose coffee in my mouth. I specialize in craniomics. Sometimes the patient's face are weak. And we talk about it. We talk kind of. And he points and I say the name of things and he repeats after me. Kind of like a conversation. Sometimes we make animal noises together. He likes that. I took him to the grocery store recently, but he and his little girl hit it off. Well, they hit each other. Just blue. It's not serious, but her mom threatened to sue. It's going just great. I feel like a potting major for the way. During the day, I lose all sense of where I'm standing, sitting, and hopping with the police. And then I have a brilliant idea. We go to the library. There's a play area there with well-educated children who surely have fewer germs in those ones in their daycare. And I can read and use my festering brain there. I go to the library. I woke up knowing the agents. Hoping that something exists in the world and that these things can be graduated very quickly from electricity in my mind. It's there in the mind-body section that I can't do. I start thinking of it as a new product. I go back to the library many times after that. I don't want to look out the information online. So the first time I worked like a treat. Lovely little well-fed children. We can stay there all day. We've got a burger for brunch. I read the paper. He's as happy as can be. And so I decided we'd go there every other day. After meals, we'd get in the car. And I stopped feeling so obliged to do the housework. My new friend is called Phineas Gage. Phineas sits hard back and down next to a yellow book called Signs of Intelligence. And a purple book about the failure of modern psychology and the biblical and the spiritual that I found at all. There's a whole chapter dedicated entirely to his life. Still cared, chiseled job. Two hundred years younger than I. He was an impersonality contention before. He was standing by a rule bed in 1848 and lost concentration. And I am barred in the can by completely despite the test. His mind, I said, was rightly changed. Both his friends and acquaintances, he was no longer a teacher before. I said, what is the right of change? I strapped him in the back seat. No child policy. Nothing but a little advantage. They're called too much trouble. Pass the fire. Music. Go. He already has that strange, homidy old wise man smile on his face. Because he knows where we're going. I became a doctor. We're singing together when I hear the explosion. And I don't even think that's happening to me. But then there's glass in my skin and I look into the back seat. And there he is, this little guy with his eyes wide open. I snatched my glove on, something in the back of my head. This feels awfully familiar, but I can't tell why. Soak in the blood. Whenever I see somebody sliding into the MRI scan, I think, do I move her? Or do I polish her? All I can do is think about how media does a number here. How we're supposed to be home. And I realize it's the middle of the world. Mia asks me if I'm all right. She hasn't asked me how I am in months. It's always about him and his foolishness. Big, hazy eyes. He needs age. Not in 200 years has anyone performed this surgery. I am indefinitely for white purpose in my heart and speech to conduct a successful surgery and some pre-native after the surgery. I'm fortunate for that. I tell her, I'm fine. surgery is successful. I tell her I've forgotten how to be anything else, but fine. She said I'm in shock, but I'm... I'm quite sure I've felt like this for years. In shape or head. The first thing I say when I come to you is, immediately. Well, the notice of your penis, which they interpret as meaning in the piece, whatever you mean by that. I want to take her home. I don't know why. It looks like an infant. Her hand is burning hot. The next surgery will be all pain in my chest. And I can't come back. It's too special. I feel like I'm flying straight off the hospital. Straight on the wall, I send out the newsstands. And those offends of valor have seizures. Can't speak and can't remember how to count. Someone tell me it's been two years since I walked last. I don't know what two is. But I'm still somehow new. Not my voice, but... I made her dinner. I'd like grocery for the first time in my life. And I made a family for the first time in my life. And really, we were out of time here. Six out of ten. Me and Matt had ended together. Without our son. I tell her she looks nice. Being off paper plates with Roma. She's thinking about our son and she's with me. I can't tell her. I hope her hand... I mean... I've been walking down the streets of this town and we've been together. We've been in a crowded club. She doesn't know what I'd say. But I'd like to consider anyone. She'll be my first friend. I know she might ever be able to. I think I'm flying off the town. I'm going to stop this from another area. I've got to be in the hospital. I'm going to go. Straight on the wall. Bring Matt at least. Build the flight in color. I'm going to end the flight. Even her! Keep coming. That's what the evening's about. Let's give a round of applause for Stephanie Swersky and Diffrida Guha. They put it in the space for the next...