I need a job

Wow. This trip has gone on forever. At least that’s how it seems. I don’t mean that it has been bad by any means. What I mean is that the days have been so busy and i’ve learned and seen so much it feels like I’ve been here a month. So begin with we have seen almost all of the best shows being performed right now. Every professional I have talked to at the end of the interview always asks what show’s we are seeing and when I give them the list they are always asstounded by the quality of the show’s we’ve seen. Though they’ve all been great so far the best has been August: Osage County. The show effected me in away that I had not been effected in a long time. It was one of those plays that really reminded me why I want to do theatre and why I want to write plays. The interviews have also been great. I’ve learned so much since I’ve been here. I think the most important thing I’ve learned is I cannot be afraid to get my work out there. A lot of this business is about connecting with the right people and when I get out of school I cannot be afraid to really put my play out at any chance I get. Ok, this post has been slighting less spastic then my last one. I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything that’s happened. Thanks for reading. Unless you didn’t read in which case I don’t thank you.

So far this trip has been really incredible. I’ve been so busy I’ve had no time to write. My first meeting was by far the most intimidating. I got to mee with Nicky Silver who in case you don’t know is a major playwright in New York City. He said a few things that really got me thinking about who I am as a writer. He talked about how feedback did not help him because he was only interested in writing what he thought was good. At the readings I have had of my plays I find myself more and more ignoring peoples suggestions. I thought that I was being overconfident. Now I am starting to beleive that maybe I’m just interested in writing my play to be just the way I want it. Plays today are most often workshopped, not written. Maybe I want this play to just simply be written. It’s nice to think maybe I’m not overconfident. Wow this post is so spastic. I’ll write again when my heads clearer.

So I haven’t written in a long time mainly due to business and not really having anything to write about. I was given the idea in class that I should put up some of the dialogue from my play. This is a section of my play that I’m not very confident with. If you read this feel free to comment and tell me what you think. Thanks dudes.

DEVIL

(Enters)

Hello.

JASON

Hello.

DEVIL

How are you?

JASON

I’ve been better.

DEVIL

Cigarette?

JASON

Sure.

DEVIL

Well this is just not fair.

JASON

Why not?

DEVIL

Do you like men?

JASON

I like them as friends.

DEVIL

Not what I meant.

JASON

I know what you meant.

DEVIL

So what would you do if you were me?

JASON

Grow boobs.

DEVIL

Hehe. How about another cigarette?

JASON

Close enough.

DEVIL

Here.

JASON

So are you gonna start?

DEVIL

Start what?

JASON

Trying to convince me to kill my Dad.

DEVIL

That’s not why I’m here.

JASON

So why are you here?

DEVIL

Hmm. I’m not telling yet.

JASON

Why not?

DEVIL

Cause then you won’t want to do it.

JASON

What makes you think that?

DEVIL

Cause you’re trying to do what your Doctor told you to.

JASON

So?

DEVIL

So I’m waiting for you to get over it.

JASON

Who says I’ll get over it?

DEVIL

Wow. You did not use to be this feisty.

JASON

Yea well my Dad killed my fucking mom and my brother in front of me. You can’t expect me to be exactly the same.

DEVIL

I thought it was a some random criminal?

JASON

Yea well it wasn’t.

DEVIL

I’ve never heard you admit it.

JASON

You were there. You know what happened.

DEVIL

You’re making progress with me. You should tell your shrink.

JASON

Maybe I don’t need to see him anymore.

DEVIL

I like that.

JASON

I know you do.

DEVIL

So if you don’t need him and you know I don’t want you to why are you still going?

JASON

I don’t know.

DEVIL

So maybe you just don’t go anymore.

JASON

Yea and maybe you fuck yourself. Ya know whatever you want.

DEVIL

Oh quit trying to act tough. Just because it worked on her doesn’t mean it’ll work on me.

JASON

It didn’t work on her.

DEVIL

We sure can be stubborn can’t we?

JASON

You sure can be assholes.

DEVIL

You need to calm down.

JASON

What?

DEVIL

You are taking this all way to seriously.

JASON

Most of my family is dead.

DEVIL

So?

JASON

So I don’t think I’m being that unreasonable.

DEVIL

Bitch, bitch, bitch.

JASON

Tell me what you want and fuck off.

DEVIL

Not right now.

JASON

Oh my god, are you serious.

DEVIL

No I’m not serious.

JASON

Good.

DEVIL

Good.

JASON

Just tell me to kill my father and leave.

DEVIL

Oh stop putting words in my mouth.

JASON

Ok. So what do you want?

DEVIL

What if I told you I want you to not kill your father.

I have been walking around in a daze all day that only happens when I’m really upset. No my girlfriend did not break up with me. All my family members are still alive. Even my pets are as healthy as ever. So why am I so upset? Well yesterday Ellis hobbs left Plexico Burress wide open and the Giants took the lead to beat the Undefeated New England Patriots in the Superbowl. I could have cried. Now last year when the Patriots blew a lead on the Colts and lost in the AFC championship I wasn’t happy but it was nothing like this. Yes this year has been different. This year they won 18 games in a row and beat just about every record there is. But I think it is something more then that. In Theatre Managment while talking about regional theatres Gregg brouth up Lambeau Stadium in Greenbay Minnesota and the fact that it has been sold out for nearly 50 years. He made this tie in with regional theatres by saying that people want to belong to something. These theatres sell tickets by making people feel like they belong with this theatre. They go to all their shows and sit in the same seat every year because they feel like they belong. Being from vermont it is difficult for me to feel like I belong to many sports teams. With both basketball and baseball I have to choose between either New York and Boston but I’ll still have to deal with fans from the other city that I do not pick calling me a traitor. But the Patriots aren’t from Boston or New York. They represnt all of New England. All of the states in New England are very different but still share a common bond. It is a team that I can truly belong to. This year has made me a bigger football fan but more importantly has made feel like I belong to a team. It was difficult to watch would should have been that teams greatest moment come crashing down. Wow, that loosley tied into theatre. The giants suck.

It is impossible not to check a newspaper or CNN without hearing a new story about Heath Ledger. Through the course of hearing all of the stories I stumbled across one in particular that was incredibly interesting. As almost everyone knows Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger shared the role of the Joker in Batman. When Jack Nicholson was approached by the press to comment on Heath’s death his supposed only remark was “I warned him”. What this comment was in regards to was that Jack Nicholson warned Heath Ledger about taking on this role. He says that when he played the part in 1989that he experienced insomnia and problems with depression. Heath Ledger confessed he was suffering from the same symtoms after he finished shooting and was taking sleeping pills to combat his insomnia. If these comments are true then there is something about this role that does damage to a person’s mental health. Heath Ledger described the Joker character as”a psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy”. Ledgers portrayal of the Joker has been news since it was announced. There was a lot of speculation as to wether or not he could meet Jack Nicholsons performance. But when the trailer came out and people began to beleive that he was going to go beyond even the Nicholson performance it became even bigger news. Sir Michael Caine (Portraying the role of Batman’s butler Alfred) told a story of the first scene he shot in the new Batman. He had to watch a video of the Joker and he Said that Heath Ledgers performance scared and impressed him so much that he completely forgot his lines. It is no doubt that Ledgers performance his impressed many people. The question that these circumstances brings up is can you get to deep into a role. Did what he discovered while digging into the mind of a phsycopath scare him so much that he couldn’t sleep forcing him to overdose on pills. Throughout our study of the history of theatre we were constantly asking the question of why throughout history theatre has many times been considered dangerous. Could this be one of the reasons. Is it possible to go so deep into the mind of a character that there is no going back.

I really wish I had some sort of experience with a blog or at least a journal. I’m still getting used to the idea of writing down what I’m thinking on a regular basis. We’ll see how well I remember. So far the whole technology segement of this class is incredibly intimidating. We have a 2 minute digital story due in two weeks. I have no idea where to even begin. I don’t feel like we’ve done much in terms of my focus of study which is playwriting so i really don’t know what I’m going to do it about. Also I have no camera or video camera so i have no idea what I’d use even if I did. I’m hoping that if I wait till next week it will sort itself out.

No as for the class itself I enjoyed the discussion this week so much more then last week. Last week I felt like we did a lot of talking but nobody really said anything. This time I feel like we actually touched on important issues in our field. Though after the conversation when we had to make decisions about where we stayed and how we got there things got very frustrating. Though it was nice to leave it was not fun to talk to people after to hear that right now without a grant we’ll see a maximum of three plays in New York. Which highly diminishes the purpose of the coure for me. It seems to me that the biggest problem is I do not think this class was designed to have so many people in it. It would’ve been easier to find a place to stay and decide on how we were gonna get there with less people. But obviously I can’t change it so from now on I’ll just work on helping things run smoothly. Well I feel like that’s enough for my first post. If you’ve gotten this far then I can’t beleive you haven’t stopped yet. I had no idea my life was so interesting. But thanks anyway. Peace

Reggie

I just wanted to make sure I wrote slightly more then Layton. I’ll do better for next week. Please don’t make fun of me.

Love

Reggie

Welcome to UMW Blogs.org. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!