Day 18

So I had my first day of classes today. I'm signed up for classes only on Monday and Wednesday and classes are stacked so I'm down there for most of the day. On Wednesday I have a speech class, which went over pretty quickly and easily, but the Playwriting class I'm a little afraid of. I've never really done anything like it before, the closest thing I've done to the form is writing script for comics a year back, which I enjoyed, but I was out of my element. Instead of easing us into the form, the entire class today was discussing what we would be doing: a ten minute play completed by week six, and a one act play (that being a complete action, not part of a larger work, done by the end of the semester) and instead of a lot of different exercises and homeworks to play with the form we will be assigned to simply work on out projects each week and progress them. There is no filler homework to get a feel for playwriting, he didn't even give us a format lesson, just go at it. And I'm afraid I won't be able to keep up.

So today, for my creation, I'll present the scene(s) I roughly hacked at from the exercises we did in class. The first was simple prompt, purposely bland to give a straight intro and characters together. Everyone was given the same prompt:

There is one character (1) sitting at a table in a room.
(2) knocks at the Door
(1): "Yes?"
(2): "You don't mind?"
(1): "Sure."
(2) sits down, "I've got a proposition for you." And the exercise was then to present the proposition as if it was a beginning of a play, so that it was understandable. And at the end (1) accepts or rejects.

Here is my original for (2)'s monologue:
"Stacey told me about the rats. He told me about how you wake him up at night, walking too and from the bathroom, tapping at the baseboard to hear a knock back. And Stacey was worried, but he shouldn't, because he came to me. I wanted to come by and let both of you know that it can all be handled. Now, I know you won't like it, another unwanted guest in your home, but I find it necessary to scout out the vermin. While your at the bank, I'll be here, waiting for them, and you can count on me, because Stacey is worried, and I know you don't like to worry Stacey. But the rats worry you. I've seen your eyes dart to the kitchen, and you need to know--I hear them too. Even is Stacey is so worried he says that he doesn't. I hear them, and I can get rid of them if you make me a copy of your key.
(1): They have to be gone.
(2): They'll be gone. I promise. And it will be painless for both parties.
(1): Then you'll get the key.

Now, this is completely front loaded with information which can be presented at different points in a play. The sight of (1) tapping at the baseboards can appear earlier or later, the paranoia can appear elsewhere. These are the things that our professor came to talk about before I got to present the exercise. Oh, that's right, I didn't say that each week we would be acting out our scripts so that others can give their basic feel for it, not "That was good" or "That was terrible" but how they think the conflict is shaping and if the idea can be done in the format presented. It was intimidating though, really, really intimidating to have no experience in writing this form or this style and then have to act out a scene you wrote in ten minutes with a person you don't know.
So while other people were going I cut up the proposition to this.

(2): Stacey told me about the rates. I know you won't like it, another unwanted guest, but leave me your key and they'll be gone.
(1): They'll be gone?
(2): And it'll be painless
(1): Then you'll get your key.

And I feel like this is such a weird concept for me to get. I'm such a writer who is in my own head, so maybe it might be too hard to get good dialogue, I don't know. Anyway, everybody else in there seemed to know their shit better than I did, and there were a lot of acting and directing majors in there who were at least versed in the form. And the actors acted better than I did too. So its all a little overwhelming. There was another exercise but I don't want to post it, it was shitty.

And next week I have to have the opening moments of the ten minute play starting to be hammered out. Ugh, man, I don't know what to do really.