Jack And Jill Plays - Part 26 - Jacob

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.

Jacob
by Adam Szymkowicz

NARRATOR
Jack and Jill stand in the graveyard.  The wind kicks up.  You can hear the old oak trees creaking overhead.  Jack and Jill look down at the fresh grave.

JACK
It's not fair.

NARRATOR
Jack thinks about the day Jacob was born.  It was a great joy, the wattage of which he had never experienced before.  It was love like he'd never known.  And he thought he knew about love.

JACK
It's not fair.

NARRATOR
Jill remembers cutting Jacob's crusts off.  Nursing him.  Cajoling him to eat his greens.  She remembers, she thinks, all the times he made her cry.  But now, she has no tears.

JACK
It's not fair it's not fair it's not fair!

JILL
I know.

JACK
It should be me.

JILL
No.

JACK
Or you.

JILL
No.

JACK
Before him I mean.

NARRATOR
Jacob watches them just out of their view.  Or something like Jacob.  Something Jacoby.  Some essence.  It prickles the back of Jill's neck but she doesn't turn.

JILL
There's nothing we could have done.

JACK
I know.  But--

JILL
Nothing.

JACK
I know.

NARRATOR
Jacob doesn't cry for them.  He has such love in his heart but it's an unbroken heart.  It was.  It is.  It is-was.

JACK
We have to remember everything about him.

JILL
We'll write it down.

JACK
Yes.

NARRATOR
But they don't.  It's too hard.  Too painful.  But sometimes they remember and laugh.  And the tears come too.  Sometimes.  They've thought of themselves so long as mother and father but now suddenly they aren't.  They don't know who they are.  Anymore.


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Jack And Jill Plays - Part 25 - Just Monkeys

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.


Just Monkeys
by Adam Szymkowicz

JACK
Do you remember--

JILL
Can we not talk about it?

JACK
Yeah.  I just thought--

JILL
I'm just not in the mood.

JACK
Right.  Sure.

(Silence.)

JILL
Just think about something else.

JACK
Like don't think about an elephant.

JILL
I never have to stop myself from thinking of an elephant.

JACK
I know.  I mean.  Nevermind.

JILL
I know what you mean.  I just think, why an elephant?

JACK
Maybe because of Hemingway.

JILL
I never have to try not to think of Hemingway either.

JACK
Sometimes I can't stop thinking about monkeys.  Like what if we were monkeys?  Would we get along with the other monkeys?

JILL
I think I'd be a terrible monkey.

JACK
Me too.  We could be terrible monkeys together.

JILL
I love you, terrible monkey.

JACK
You too, chimpy chimparoo.  (Off her reaction.)  No?

JILL
No.

JACK
I'm going to get a job soon.


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I Interview Playwrights Part 988: November Christine

November Christine

Hometown: That's a tough one. I was a military brat, born in Germany. We moved every two years til I was about 12. Most of my family now lives in Greenville, NC.

Current Town: Los Angeles, CA

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I'm writing and producing a musical theatre audiobook series called LEGACY. It's a historical fiction based on the life of Martin Luther. Think Hamilton meets A Christmas Carol. To my knowledge, it's the first original musical to be produced as an audiobook.

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

A:  When I was very young I had a fear of dandelions. It was the white seedlings, the way they'd fly off like a swarm of gnats. I remember picking one and carefully bringing it to my mom. "Blow it," I said. "I won't run this time." She blew it, and I ran away as fast as my little legs could carry me. I didn't succeed at facing my fear. Not that time. But I had tried. Anyway, I overcame it eventually. Still can't stand swarms though.

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

A:  More women, people of color, LGBT, and differently abled people at the producer/investor level. We can write our stories all we want, but we need representatives from marginalized communities at the decision making level, or these stories will never see the light of day.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I really love Mamet's work. I'm also inspired by Danai Jekesai Gurira's journey from being a television actress to a powerful female voice on the Broadway stage.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love theatre that makes me uncomfortable; theatre that makes me question what I already believe to be true.

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

A:  Don't worry about being good. You're just starting. So probably you're not good. The point is to always be writing. That's how you become a good writer.

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 on anything except napkins--only because I'll forget and throw the napkin out as trash later. I don't like pencils. I prefer lightly scratching out mistakes rather than erasing because 90% of the time I decide the mistake was the right choice after all. There's a life lesson in there somewhere.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My Facebook Page:
https://m.facebook.com/NovemberChristineOfficial

You can get Episodes 1 & 2 of the LEGACY series on Audible, Amazon, or iTunes.
https://www.amazon.com/Revelation-Legacy-Musical-Indictment-Episode/dp/B01NH5ATJ9

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B073X7FKDW

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Jack and Jill Plays - Part 24 - Futility

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.




Futility
by Adam Szymkowicz

(JILL studying on a book or laptop.  JACK enters, throws something on the floor.)

JACK
I mean, what's the point?

JILL
I bet there is one.

JACK
But it's all this this and then that that and then what exactly, right?

JILL
Yeah.

JACK
Right?

JILL
I know.

JACK
Why do I keep doing it?

JILL
Yeah.

JACK
Why?

JILL
I have a solution.

JACK
No.

JILL
It'll solve this.

JACK
No.

JILL
You don't even know what I'm going to say.  I could have all the answers to all your questions.  You don't know.  You don't let me talk.

JACK
Okay, fine.  What are you going to say?

JILL
I could do brain surgery on you.

JACK
See.  No.

JILL
You would never feel this way again.

JACK
Never?  No.  No.  Definitely not, no.

JILL
I could do it.

JACK
Stop thinking about it.

JILL
I can't.

JACK
Futility doesn't end just because I'm not aware of it.

JILL
Doesn't it?  It might.  I think it might.

(JILL takes out a top.  She spins it.  JACK takes out a top he spins it.  They watch their tops spin.)

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I Interview Playwrights Part 987: Ken Munch

Ken Munch

Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I've just finished a first draft of a new play, which is a revitalization of an earlier failed play, previously known as "Explosion at the Happiness Factory," which was given a great reading at EST back in 2010--a reading that helped expose how bad the whole thing was. I left it alone after that, thoroughly discouraged. Now, I think I have finally cracked it, and am hoping to continue developing this over the next few months.

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

A:  When I was young, I used to create my own version of TV Guide, and fill it with all imaginary programs. For each show, I would write a synopsis in the style of TV Guide. Movies, talk shows, sitcoms--I invented a world of alternate TV programming. I think in its own crazy way this definitely helped me start to take apart and examine the storytelling process.

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

A:  It should be more affordable, and less precious. We should look at it as a laboratory, where great things can be discovered, though it can get messy and might even blow us all up, and not as a glass case in Tiffany's window, where we only display the most polished and worked-over jewels for everyone to "ooh" and "ahh" over. Let's make it easier for playwrights to see their work up on stage--any kind of stage, anywhere--rather than develop pieces incessantly in the hopes of making them more accessible or critic-proof.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  So, so many.

Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, David Mamet, Sam Shepard, John Guare. David Rabe, Caryl Churchill, August Wilson, Jez Butterworth, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Annie Baker, etc, etc.

The list is endless--basically anyone who even tries to write a play is a hero in my book.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I hook into dialogue probably more than anything else, when I see (or read) a play. I love it when it sings, when it has muscularity and a driving rhythm, when it throws proper grammar and syntax to the wind in order to chart the music of a character's desire. Beyond that, I love moral ambiguity, when the author loves the villain as much as the hero, or in fact can't tell you who exactly is the hero and who's the villain.

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

A:  Write all you can, whenever you can, and get your work seen and/or heard any way you can. Don't have any preconceived notions about what your work should be like, or where your work should or should not be done. Seek out all opportunities, gather collaborators around you. There are actors, directors, and designers who are also starting out when you are. Gather together and build something yourselves.

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 have long been obsessed with notebooks and pens, and am only now weaning myself off this powerful habit, which has resulted in boxes and boxes filled with blank notebooks--more than I'll ever be able to use. Moleskines, Paperblanks, Bindewerk (great German notebooks just now being imported here), and everything in between--I've used them all.

On computer, I use Final Draft software, and love their "Courier Final Draft" font--looks exactly like a typewritten page. In my fantasy life, I am the last playwright still using a manual typewriter.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  I am part of a great organization, Rough and Ready Productions, which has a monthly night of readings of new work. Plays, screenplays, songs, monologues--whatever you're working on at the moment, you can put it up before a friendly, encouraging audience. Our next night of readings is on Monday, September 11 at Alchemical Theatre Lab, 104 West 14th street, NYC. I urge anyone to submit material for future evenings to: idemandanaudience@gmail.com

and like the Rough and Ready Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/iamroughandready/

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Jack And Jill Plays - Part 23 - A Small Cough

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.



A Small Cough
by Adam Szymkowicz


(JACK has a coughing fit.  It goes on for a while and then it stops.)

JILL
You should get that looked at.

JACK
Yeah.

JILL
Really.

JACK
I know.

JILL
You won't though, will you?

JACK
I might.

JILL
Don't you want to feel better?  Don't you want to be better?

JACK
Kind of.

JILL
Right?

JACK
Kind of.

JILL
Yeah.

(JACK coughs but not as much as before.)

JACK
I think I'm getting better.

JILL
I don't want to worry about you and me both.

JACK
Don't worry about anything.

JILL
I won't.

JACK
Good.  What are we fighting about?

JILL
We're not fighting.

JACK
Then let's have sex.

JILL
Okay.

(They look at each other.  They don't move.)


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