As I move on through my play, the process becomes more involved--naturally--and I find myself needing more time to get things accomplished the way I want. And time is the one thing there is never enough of. Work has become increasingly unbearable, as I have mentioned loudly, but I can use a lot of this in my story; these are the reasons that prompted my choice. However, I never in my wildest dreams anticipated my place of business would turn into the hellhole it has become. The only consolation is that I can infuse my aggravation, frustration and irritation into the lines of my play, and anyone who has ever had a similiar experience can identify with those raw emotions.
It will be done with humor, because it is a comedy, but sarcasm as these are unacceptable work ethics and manner of treating people. Well, now that I have had my rant, let me tell you how my character list is doing. I have all my characters in both the opening and second scene completed, which comprises a sizable number of pages. It was very therapeutic and even funny, as I worked my way through descriptions of the people with whom I work, wait on line for coffee, share good and bad times, and cheer or jeer the bosses every day. In doing this lengthy task, I have discovered that many of these players in my piece need to simply be in the scene, not necessarily speak. There are a couple of other faces I want to introduce in the next scene, but I am uncertain if that is a wise thing to do, because the cast list is extraordinarily high right now! I will be putting that together over this week so I will make a decision then; one solution is an old theatre trick--small roles in different scenes are played by the same character. So perhaps that will be an underlying factor in the upcoming scene, as well as reusing a few players who had but a few lines in the previous one.
My new character is still in the story, but because she was prompted by--you guessed--a real person (who I tweaked for emphasis) I have, sadly, found some less pleasant attributes in the real character, and need to figure out the best way to utilize them in her stage persona. This may work out to the play's advantage, especially in lieu of the direct jab at corporate bull***t being emphaiszed in this production. The atmosphere that has to be brought to the forefront in the next two scenes involve the sexuality of the women, and the mens increased desire as they are being adamantly denied. The next scene will be transitional, but I hope to show a little more teasing in the manner the women (and specific others) are fighting with the men about the point of conflict. The corporate character is taking their side but can she be trusted? Maybe she wants
her contest to be a fun interactive source of sales incentives instead of a heart-attack, stress making machine that will drive men to drink or destruction of each other simply to be the winner. And maybe she too has a significant other who is too involved in the biz to pay any attention to her. I have not ironed out all her details, but feel I am almost ready to tackle the next part. I have noticed a lot of what happens involves thinking, free-writing, and changing my mind. Then I usually have what I need--on numerous pieces of paper, post-it notes and sometimes, on the edge of books. Let's hope I can find all the little reminders of the latest brilliant addition when I try to put it on paper. I will be back next week and hoping that I have some solid writing completed on the next challenge. My prayers that we all get a lot of good writing out of our heads and on the paper as my favorite holiday, Christmas, draws near. The magic of the season is all around so let me get started!
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