Playwrighting

My two writing partners in mid-session, amidst Cocoa Puffs, coffee, pretzels, and various energy drinks.

On Friday night we started the "Show in 24 Hours" with nothing. We picked a cast (3 men and a woman, and what drama program has that ratio?), then went off to write. Generally, Mike and I riff on something-- the favorite this year was "ass" whether it was man-ass, elephant-ass, or baboon-ass, and AJ has control of the laptop.

She's not just taking notes, she's deciding what's funny enough or makes sense enough to be in the play. I program word with a macro for every character so she can go pretty quickly and it comes out pretty much formatted.

A lot of argument, silliness, and too many breaks later, and we have a script. This year it took us about an hour longer than last year, but Mike says it was because we took too long in the store getting munchies, and that I was telling a long story about beef jerky that took up all the extra hour.

It's possible.

Our director showed up around 2am to remind us that the set was a city street. By then we were halfway through writing a couch play. We ignored the set. Every other play did too.

We finished at 4am, then went to find other writing groups to gloat. We found Amanda Gray and Sarah Pavis in the Green Room-- they took it from us this year, damn them!!!!! -- but they looked so cold and miserable that it was no fun to gloat. I had to wish them well.

I drove home around 4:30am, and I think it was kind of a dangerous ride. Not good. Showed up at the theatre at 7pm and watched the show at 8pm.

In retrospect, we should have cut some of the ass talk at the end. It's not Return of the King with 11 endings, but the play ends and the guys keep talking about ass.

So grab our play, if you're interested.