Jack and Jill Plays - Part 20 - No Chairs

About Jack and Jill Plays:

This is a new thing I'm doing.  Posting a short play every day as long as I can.  This does not mean that I wrote this play today but I might have.  (My life is not always my own what with work and a 4 year old running around so maybe I wrote it today or maybe it was stockpiled in preparation for the days I can't get in writing.)  My goal is to do at least 100 of these or maybe more but probably 45 or 50 is the length of a full length play so even that would be good.  100 would be better.  300?  amazing.  500?  Does anyone want 500 of these plays?  Anyway, the goal is consecutive days.

The normal things about plays apply-- don't produce or reproduce this play without my permission.  I wrote it so I own it.  Etc.

No Chairs
by Adam Szymkowicz

(JACK and JILL are eating lobsters.  There are no chairs.)

JILL
Try this one.  It's succulent.

JACK
Mine too.

JILL
No, this one's better.

JACK
(trying hers)
Oh that is good.  It's too bad we spent all our money on this.

JILL
You mean all our money?

JACK
Yeah.  All of it.

JILL
That is too bad.  Open the champagne.

(JACK pops the cork.  They cheer.  He pours some for each of them.)

JACK
We are lucky motherfuckers.

JILL
We really are.

JACK
When I get money again, I'm going to buy a chair.

JILL
Yeah.

JACK
I'm tired of standing.

JILL
When will we have money again?

(They think.  They think.  They get depressed.)

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Jack and Jill Plays - Part 19 - To Pot

About Jack and Jill Plays:

This is a new thing I'm doing.  Posting a short play every day as long as I can.  This does not mean that I wrote this play today but I might have.  (My life is not always my own what with work and a 4 year old running around so maybe I wrote it today or maybe it was stockpiled in preparation for the days I can't get in writing.)  My goal is to do at least 100 of these or maybe more but probably 45 or 50 is the length of a full length play so even that would be good.  100 would be better.  300?  amazing.  500?  Does anyone want 500 of these plays?  Anyway, the goal is consecutive days.

The normal things about plays apply-- don't produce or reproduce this play without my permission.  I wrote it so I own it.  Etc.

To Pot
by Adam Szymkowicz

(JILL sitting on a lawn chair.  Enter JACK.)

JACK
Why can't I get anything done?

JILL
Didn't you just mow the lawn?

JACK
I should've mowed it like a week ago.

JILL
Dude.  I don't know.  Want to come watch hummingbirds with me?

JACK
You mean give up?  And let it all go to pot?

JILL
Yeah.  That.

JACK
Okay.

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I Interview Playwrights Part 982: Tori Keenan-Zelt

Tori Keenan-Zelt

Hometown: The Inimitable Pittsburgh

Current Town: Harlem

Q:  What are you working on now?

A: I’m about to start rehearsals for my new play SEPH, going up at the Araca Project in October. It’s about growing up on the crack between life and death and how to become a goddess in a broken world. I’m excited that this version will bring together some of the brilliant NYC and Nashville collaborators I’ve been working with.

I’m also writing a pilot about whether it’s cool to fix an oppressive society by helping a bloodthirsty countess become queen and a play about a recently divorced nanny who moonlights as “The Most Assassinated Woman in San Francisco.”

Q:  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A:  My mom is a musician and minister, and my dad is an evangelical surgeon who paints. They divorced when I was 2, so I spent half my childhood in hospital waiting rooms, at Jesus camps, in woods, and the other half in the back row of strangers’ funerals, on suburban rooftops, and smuggled into bars. I paid attention.

That’s not really a story. Um. OK -- one time, my mom took a picture of me totally embodying the Virgin Mary while cradling a baby rabbit, which, we discovered, happened to be having a heart attack. She got a full Victorian funeral. I still have the lock of hair.

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A: Less like church and more like a total solar eclipse.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes? 

A:  Shakespeare at first and forever. But then – shit – OK: Caryl Churchill, Sarah Ruhl, Rajiv Joseph, Paula Vogel, Tina Howe, Wendy Hammond, Nate Eppler, all actors, all musicians, all puppeteers, don’t even get me started on designers

Q:  What kind of theater excites you? 

A:  The kind with blood in it.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out? 

A:  The play you’re writing now is really about the play you’ll write in three years. Make this one, then make that one. But love them both all the way.

Q:  When not writing on a computer, what's your go-to paper and writing utensil? 

A:   I’m all about the composition books and any smooth pen I can smell. But also, have you heard the good news about Frixion?

Q:  When on computer, what's your font? 

A:  Helvetica – hell yes!

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  SEPH Showcase @ The Araca Project October 5-9 https://www.sephtheplay.com/

AIR SPACE Staged Reading @ San Francisco Playhouse November 6 https://www.sfplayhouse.org/sfph/play-reading-series/

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Jack And Jill Plays - Part 18 - Someone

About Jack and Jill Plays:

This is a new thing I'm doing.  Posting a short play every day as long as I can.  This does not mean that I wrote this play today but I might have.  (My life is not always my own what with work and a 4 year old running around so maybe I wrote it today or maybe it was stockpiled in preparation for the days I can't get in writing.)  My goal is to do at least 100 of these or maybe more but probably 45 or 50 is the length of a full length play so even that would be good.  100 would be better.  300?  amazing.  500?  Does anyone want 500 of these plays?  Anyway, the goal is consecutive days.

The normal things about plays apply-- don't produce or reproduce this play without my permission.  I wrote it so I own it.  Etc.

Someone
by Adam Szymkowicz

(JACK and JILL eating breakfast)

JILL
I mean it's like a few minutes a day.

JACK
Right.

JILL
But every day.  And then after a while something will emerge.  It's like anything.  If you put some time in every day--

JACK
Right.

JILL
Results.

JACK
Yeah, but.  I hear you but.  I don't think that's how you learn brain surgery.

JILL
Don't naysay me.

JACK
I'm not.

JILL
I can do anything I put my mind to.  I'm just going to put the time in.

JACK
Okay.  I should put more time in.  I could but I don't.

JILL
I know you don't.

JACK
I could do better.

JILL
Yes but then who would I compare myself to to feel better?

JACK
There's always someone.

JILL
Yeah.



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I Interview Playwrights Part 981: Emma Stanton

Emma Stanton

Hometown: Boston, MA.

Current Town: Chicago, IL

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I'm working on a couple things right now. I'm developing a new play called June in the Parade that I developed at the Goodman last year through their Playwrights Unit. The play is about a family of women who all have various forms of mental health problems, and who call into question what is inherited and who they become as a result of their family. I'm also starting to work on an adaptation of some Karen Russell short stories with NYC Director Marina McClure and an ensemble of graduates from NYU and CalArts' MFA programs. Lastly, I'm beginning a new play which will be a kind of sister play to my play No Candy--which is about a group of Bosnian Muslim women who survived the Srebrenica genocide in the 90s and, years later, are struggling to confront what happened to them during the war.

Q:  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A:  There's a couple of moments that come to mind from childhood that still resonate with me and (I think) informed who I am:
1) the image of my brother, as a little boy, eating a bowl of cereal while sitting in a tree
2) my grandfather suddenly launching into a story during Thanksgiving dinner about his love for Seagulls
3) watching a group of boys trying to kill ants with a magnifying glass and feeling like I couldn't stop them
4) singing the soundtrack of RENT to my pet fish, who were named Roger, Mimi, and Angel

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A:  Pay your artists.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Maria Irene Fornes, Chuck Mee, Pina Bausch, Mfoniso Udofia, Emily Morse, Bonnie Metzgar, Martine Kei Green-Rogers, Tarell McCraney, Mac Wellman

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  The kind I can't stop thinking about, where I have no words to describe what I just saw, and that puts me in direct harmony or conflict with who I am.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  It's a long and winding road.

Q:  When not writing on a computer, what's your go-to paper and writing
utensil? When on computer, what's your font?

A:  I'll write in a notebook (doesn't matter what kind) but the pen MATTERS (I use Pilot's Precise V5). I typically use a notebook to figure out problems of a play--which tend to be structural. I was on the train recently and tried to map out from memory the entire scene progression of a play and what happened in each scene. I did that over and over again for a couple of weeks. I can't remember if it worked, but I liked the process of it, and I liked getting away from the computer. Calibri is my font.



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Jack And Jill Plays - Part 17 - And All Else

About Jack and Jill Plays:

This is a new thing I'm doing.  Posting a short play every day as long as I can.  This does not mean that I wrote this play today but I might have.  (My life is not always my own what with work and a 4 year old running around so maybe I wrote it today or maybe it was stockpiled in preparation for the days I can't get in writing.)  My goal is to do at least 100 of these or maybe more but probably 45 or 50 is the length of a full length play so even that would be good.  100 would be better.  300?  amazing.  500?  Does anyone want 500 of these plays?  Anyway, the goal is consecutive days.

The normal things about plays apply-- don't produce or reproduce this play without my permission.  I wrote it so I own it.  Etc.

And All Else
by Adam Szymkowicz

JACK
A fortnight forthwith.

JILL
Or fifthwith even.

JACK
Sixthwith?

JILL
Let's not get carried away.

JACK
Okay but like, yes let's do it in like two weeks, right?

JILL
Right.  Let me check my calendar.

(She looks at her phone. He looks at his phone.)

JILL
No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  No.  Maybe.  No.  What do you think about like the month after?

JACK
Two fortnights?

JILL
Or the month after that?

JACK
Do you not want to?

JILL
I do.  I do.  Let's look at October.

JACK
I could do Halloween.

JILL
Yeah.  Okay.   Yeah.

JACK
We never dress up any more.

JILL
I know.

JACK
Let's dress up too.  I want to be someone completely different.

JILL
Like--

JACK
Like not like me at all.

JILL
I can support that.  Also let's drink champagne that night.  And like buy something online.  Like a chair or a basket we don't need.



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