Playwrighting Week 11 and Finale

Well it's all over and no the fat lady didn't sing. The last six plays were read through by the actors and other roles taken from within the writing team as needed. Anna's play was a longish 25 minutes about feminism and the duality of mentor - sponsor relationships. Her play was really memorable. Gerald's play Spider was creepy and salutory. Written about the pervasive world wide media and the paparazzi, there was a cast of thousands and I even got to read an acting role in it. The rounds of applause for the final plays were solid and encouraging. We talked about post dramaticism and the new plays that leave their scripts and actors wide open and polarise audiences. Daryll was a keen listener to Anna's play but he didn't hang with everyone until the night was over. We toasted Hilary and the writers past, present and future of William Street. (Slessor, Sayer, Nowra, Macauley, Franklin etc) The moon was a dramatic half hanging lowly in the north western sky above the city. We went out into the nights with promises to keep meeting and I am really hoping that we do.

Playwrighting Week Six

We listened to the rest of the group's synopses.They ranged from a triangulated relationship to a film noir version of Bligh and Christian in a parallel universe loosely based on the romantic tale of The Mutiny on the Bounty. Everyone took turns unlocking the keys to the writer's imaginations. Then we played another word based writing game. You write down 6 things, 3 emotions and 3 colours then order your list alphabetically to write a piece on a theme in our case mortality.
I wrote "You ask if you can have an apricot - just because you sit in front of me in that chair looking out the window at the creek and I still wonder if you even remember the egg cup I brought with your breakfast. No - you were too busy watering your fern - picking up a hairpin to begin your day with happiness. To not be hurried by my indecision or indigo mood. For us it was a lighter moment tinged with red solicitude. That is how I remember you."
The idea is that you write something that you would otherwise have never written.

This week we read the ten minute first drafts of our plays to the group one at a time.