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Utopia Rising

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28 Plays Later – Challenge #23

…And besides, who even wants to write about the real world?! We’re writers, creators of worlds. We should make things up. Why would anybody be interested in art that’s “true”?! (still brewing here…)

Plus, I think we all deserve a good holiday! If only we had a skill that can help with that! Oh wait … we do!!!

So let’s create the best word ever! I think we can all do with a nice Utopia, right?

Copyright: kentoh / 123RF Stock Photo

UTOPIA RISING

 

Excerpt:

BASIL:                        (patiently) Elizabeth, I have asked you more than once not to use the word ‘glitch’ in reference to your brother’s condition.

ELIZABETH:             He’s not my brother; he’s a Synth.

BASIL:                        I am also a Synthetic being, and yet I am still your father.

ELIZABETH:             That’s different.

BASIL:                        Is it? Elizabeth, the fact that your mother and I have chosen to expand our family by creating George does not mean that we love you any less. You are our daughter, and you are precious to us.

ELIZABETH:             I know but… it’s bad enough, Dad, hearing kids talk about how mom is married to a robot.

 

To read the entire play, click the link below:

2018-23 – Utopia Rising

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UnPlanned Parenthood

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28 Plays Later – Challenge #22

Compassion… understanding… open-mindness… aren’t we all so friggin’ awesome (!) But can we truly be tolerant and respectful of people who are wron… I mean, people who have views that differ from ours?
So let’s try and see the world from their point of view?

But – you have to make sure that you do this without being sarcastic, without trying to prove them wrong… but from an honest place of understanding and acceptance!

 

Copyright: <a href='https://www.123rf.com/profile_dolgachov'>dolgachov / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

UNPLANNED PARENTHOOD

 

Excerpt:

I know this is a contentious issue. I live in the world. But today my oldest daughter, Erika, asked me why I hate women when I told her she couldn’t donate her allowance to Planned Parenthood, and I want to try and give her an answer.

First, I don’t hate women. Erika’s mother was a strong, independent woman. When we divorced, it wasn’t because I was leaning more republican and she was leaning more democrat, although we were; it was because we’d gotten married when we were barely more than kids, and our needs and desires had outgrown each other’s. We’re still friends, and we’re both active in our children’s lives.

To read the entire piece, click the link below:

2018-22 – UnPlanned Parenthood

 

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Lock Her Down

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28 Plays Later – Challenge #21
So let’s do that! Let’s write a play with the intention of offending others.
For bonus points – write something that offends you!
But like – TRULY makes you scream in anger and upset!

 

Copyright: <a href='https://www.123rf.com/profile_sdecoret'>sdecoret / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

 

LOCK HER DOWN

 

Excerpt:

CHARLIE:       Okay, let’s get started. Bill, it’s great that you’re allowed to talk to Bobby now. How do you feel about that?

BILL:               How do you think I feel. I’m pissed that I have to have permission to talk to my own kid…

CHARLIE:       Is that all?

BILL:               No, I…. I’m glad they’re letting me have the phone call. Even if it is only five minutes.

MARK:            Five minutes is five minutes more than I get.

SAM:               You did put her mother in the hospital for a month.

MARK:            Her bruises were so pretty, though. And the screams….

 

To read the entire play, click the link below:

2018-21 – Lock Her Down

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All I Am, All I Have

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28 Plays Later – Challenge #20
I’d like you to write about dates. Blind dates, speed dates, pub dates, stood-up dates and ‘my kids mustn’t know I’m here’ dates.
And for all you clever-clogs, if you’re writing about the fruit, then dates on a date.

 

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ALL I AM, ALL I HAVE

Excerpt:

HARMONY: I’d have picked a better place if I’d known you could spare the time. Usually you warn me you’re coming; you send a storm.

OSKAR: Yes, but no storm tonight. Is… date, not… tryst. Also, this place is where I want.

HARMONY: You chose it on purpose?

OSKAR: Is best place on earth to watch the moon and stars come.

HARMONY: I had it on good authority that I was your ‘moon and stars.’

OSKAR (simple, honest): No. You are breath and blood to me.

 

To read the entire play, click the link below:

2018-20 – All I Am

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I’d Do Anything for Love

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28 Plays Later – Challenge #19
Title Provided: “I’d do anything for love (but I won’t do that)”
For bonus points – stick a meatloaf in there somewhere!

 

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I’D DO ANYTHING FOR LOVE

Excerpt:

ZOE:               I may have ordered meatloaf, but it’s still replicated meatloaf. You know as well as I do that it’s not actually animal flesh, any more than you are.

BASIL:            That is true, but…

ZOE:               (bringing her tray to the table and placing a salad in front of BASIL. Both of them will eat their meals during the conversation.) I know, it’s the principal of the thing. From replicated meat to actual meat is a slippery slope you ‘have no wish to encounter.’

BASIL:            You are imitating me.

ZOE:               Yes, but I do it out of love… speaking of which…

BASIL:            (wary) Yes?

ZOE:               When were you going to tell me your mother was a Synth, like you?

 

To read the entire play, click the link below.

2018-19 – Anything for Love

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Less Than Three

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28 Plays Later – Challenge #18

So your challenge for today – write a play using emojis, gifs, and any other non verbal imagery that is now used as forms of communication.
Perhaps the entire play is in emojis, perhaps only the stage directions, perhaps use them sporadically in the dialogue.
Either way, use them!
USE THEM, I say!

 

 

Copyright: <a href='https://www.123rf.com/profile_stevanovicigor'>stevanovicigor / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

LESS THAN THREE

 

Excerpt:

DAVID closes the lid of his laptop, and picks up the phone.

DAVID (texting): U there? (smilie)

SARAH picks up her phone and looks at it, then grins softly.

SARAH (texting): I was just writing to you. (grin emoji)

DAVID (texting): Me too! But then I realized I’d have to wait for you to read email. (beat) I was just thinking about that last day on the boat (ship emoji)

SARAH: (texting): You mean when were in the hot tub and things got… (gif of couple in hot tub about to kiss) ???

DAVID (texting): (blushing smiley) Yeah… that…

To read the entire play, click the link below:

2018-18 – Less Than Three

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Frapping Pachelbel

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28 Plays Later – Challenge #17

Let’s be super duper strict. Below are the rules for your play:

1. You must have 4 characters in the play – and the gender for 3 of them must be undefined! You can add two more – but only if they are not human.
2. One of the characters plays the banjo – really badly, and one character only speaks in rhyming couplets (can be the same if you like).
3. There must be a minimum of 3 pauses in the play, one of them must be a super long pause (think Pinter to the power of Pinter).
4. One of the characters has had relations with everybody else in the play (as well as characters that are mentioned but not seen).
5. Every line of dialogue must have one of the following: either 7 words, 12 words, 22 words, 29 words, 56 words or 99 words (you can punctuate as you like).
6. The play will contain three acts/scenes, but you can add one more if it’s a dream.
7. At some point, everybody on stage falls down to the ground.
8. Each scene/act must contain one person being told off for shouting (even though they didn’t shout), and another person revealing a big secret (even though it may not be true).
9. Each scene/act must have at least 10 lines of dialogue and 10 lines of actions.
10. Oh – and you must pick one letter of the alphabet (not Q, X or Z) for each character (each one can have a different one or the same) that they are not allowed to use in their dialogue at all.

 

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FRAPPING PACHELBEL

(a dark fantasia for string quartet… and banjo)

 

Excerpt:

VIOLIN 1 (V-ONE), VIOLIN 2 (V-TWO), and CELLO enter from different directions, greet each other with awkward hugs, and then take their seats, leaving the chair between CELLO and V-TWO open.

CELLO (somewhat annoyed): I thought we were starting at two. Should we start warming up?

Before anyone can respond, CONDUCTOR and VIOLA enter together, pausing to share a kiss before they arrive at the group. They should be giggling and laughing like new lovers who were just having a quickie in one of the dressing rooms.

V-TWO:  Oh, look, though late, they’re alive!

Methought the pair would never arrive.

V-ONE:  Still significantly tardy, though, Conductor and Viola.

CELLO: Of course, they’re late. I bet they were busy canoodling. Brazen pair.

V-TWO: You imply that you and our baton holder

Never exhibited behavior bolder.

CELLO (to VIOLIN 2): Would using normal sentences cause your death?

 

To read the entire play, click the link below:

2018-17 – Frapping Pachelbel

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Any Audience will Do

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28 Plays Later – Challenge #16

Choose your favourite venue in the whole wide world – it can be a theatre you love, or another space, or somewhere (real or imaginary) that you would love your next play to be staged at.

Now write a play for that space.
Make sure it fits the stage size.
Make sure it fits the artistic remit of the venue.
Make sure it suits the audience that goes there…

 

Copyright: choreograph / 123RF Stock Photo

ANY AUDIENCE WILL DO

 

Excerpt:

KATIE: Good evening, ladies and gentlewoman. I’m so glad you’re here for my one-woman show.

KATIE steps onto the plywood.

KATIE: I thought I’d start by dancing for you.

KATIE looks around, as if waiting for an orchestra to start.

KATIE (giggling): Oops!

KATIE steps off the board and over to the dresser, where there is a red and white record player. She places a record on it, and switches it on, then lifts the arm onto the record near the middle. Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” plays.

KATIE (demonstrating): Now, it’s very important that you start with good posture, and then you do all your warm ups. In first position: tendu and back, tendu and back, side and back, side and back, and back and first, back and first. Now the other side (she repeats the actions on the other leg).

Now I will dance properly.

To read the entire piece, click the link below:

2018-16 – Any Audience Will Do

mars one

Red Sand, Hot Coffee

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28 Plays Later – Challenge #15
Let’s write a saga…

Massive, huge stories that span over years and years.

Many characters,
several generations.

The bigger – the better.

Oh, and whoever has the most characters (all speaking and all well-rounded)

wins a Brucie Bonus! (although nobody is going to check or verify… or indeed hand it out)

Notes: This challenge hit me on a day when the weather was making my head mushy, and I was having a high pain day thanks to my autoimmune issues, so while the brief asks for a saga, I only wrote a sketch. Per the rules: you don’t have to follow the brief.

mars one

RED SAND, HOT COFFEE

 

Excerpt:

lieutenant

Here we are, ma’am.

KAREN

I’m not old enough to be a ma’am. Call me Karen. (a beat) It’s awfully dark in here.

Lieutenant

Let me just activate the system for you, ma’am.

LIEUTENANT flips a switch on the wall.

COMPUTER (V/O)

Power system, activated

lieutenant

It takes minute to juice up.

The lights slowly rise to ‘normal’ indoor lighting, slightly cool, like fluorescents.

COMPUTER (v/o)

Air filtration system, activated.

Karen

Can we take off the masks now?

LIEUTENANT

Not just yet. The system will tell you.

 COMPUTER (V/O)

Oxygen mix, optimum. You may now remove any breathing devices.

LIEUTENANT

(stating the obvious)

It’s safe to remove your mask now ma’am.

To read the entire play, click the link below:

2018-15 – Red Sand Hot Coffee

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Hair Apparent

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28 Plays Later – Challenge #14

Body parts – meet writers, writers – meet body parts.
Hope you have a hoot!

Bonus points? Make the play the most moving, gut wrenching piece of drama ever written, maybe even make yourself weep as you write… but don’t write about illness, decay or death.

 

Copyright: <a href='https://www.123rf.com/profile_iconogenic'>iconogenic / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

 

HAIR APPARENT

 

Excerpt:

STYLIST:                    I do. Do you want to cut?

TESS:                          I…

TRESS:                        Yes. God, yes. You want to cut. You want – say it with me, honey, a stacked, chin-length bob.  With the dark base and the highlights, and that cut, I will be your crowning glory, as I should be, instead of dull, boring… stuff… growing out the top of your head.

TESS:                          Let’s cut. Let’s do a chin-length bob. (she grins into the mirror) Can you buzz the back – not all of it – but an undercut?

TRESS:                        Now we’re talking, sister. Buzz me. Buzzzzzzzz meeeeee. You’ll be so much cooler, and I’ll feel like puppy fur. It’s like, totes win-win, you know?

To read the entire piece, click the link below:

2018-14 – Hair Apparent