That...was...AWESOME!
Tonight was the first live video meeting of the semester with my cohort of playwrights and man was it great! The other students in my class are so talented and inspiring - it’s just such a thrill to read and offer feedback on their work. I’m really diggin’ this program!
Two cool things happened tonight:
1) One of my classmates acknowledged that my written notes on an earlier draft of his script served as a catalyst to significant and essential revisions. It’s always encouraging to hear from your peers that your feedback is informative and useful.
2) I read (technically “performed”) a hastily drafted monologue inspired by a somewhat emergent character in my one-man show. The title of the piece is On Barriers and the speaker is ostensibly an over-the-top and somewhat bombastic self-help guru named Ralph Raggedy. Not only did my classmates love it, but one of them asked for permission to preform it himself right that moment. So of course I said “go for it!” and wow - that was something else! And of course being a trained actor he brought so much life and nuance to the lines that I had not delivered in my own reading. All of this was quite revealing and a significant boost to my self-confidence as a writer.
Here’s the thing - one of the reasons I’m writing a one-man show this spring with the intention to perform it myself at some point down the road is that I just don’t think there are many artists out there who would ever want to produce or perform my work. This probably stems from a lack of confidence and experience, but ultimately it’s been a guiding approach to all of my creative pursuits to date. I don’t write scripts or devise stories with the ambition of selling them or pitching them for someone else to make. I just never considered that to be a particularly realistic prospect. I write projects with an eye towards self-production - my operative premise being that if anyone’s ever gonna produce my projects it’s most likely gonna be me, because who the hell else would?!
Tonight really drove home an important lesson - when it comes to the potential of my work, I have an unnecessarily constrained mindset. It’s time to bash through that nonsense and write with reckless abandon. Just the very thought of this opens new doors and opportunities for the story I’m currently writing. While American Pop! may be a compelling one-man show, maybe I’m selling the concept short. I’m coming to think I may have more potential as a screenwriter and playwright than I give myself credit for.
Oh, on a final note - not surprisingly, I’ve revised the outline to American Pop! yet again! Here’s the latest draft, complete with Act and Scene summaries. Good times!!