Featured Post
1100 Playwright Interviews
1100 Playwright Interviews A Sean Abley Rob Ackerman E.E. Adams Johnna Adams Liz Duffy Adams Tony Adams David Adjmi Keith Josef Adkins Nicc...
Nov 12, 2007
new scene, first draft as always
9
(NINA and LISA scour the streets in full Crimefighter getup. Normal city noises.)
LISA
There aren’t any accidents.
NINA
What?
LISA
No one is shouting at me.
NINA
Why would they shout at you?
LISA
Right. I mean I guess it’s this mask. They think I’m one of you. So they look but they don’t stare. They don’t run red lights or walk into passerbys. Because I’m a known quantity now. A Crimefighter. I can protect them.
NINA
Yes.
LISA
It feels great. I feel free. No one told me being anonymous was so much fun.
NINA
It’s one of the secrets of being a crimefighting hero.
LISA
What are the other secrets?
NINA
Oh, you’ll learn soon enough. Lots of free drinks. Cutting in line at the movies.
LISA
That already happens to me.
NINA
Oh.
LISA
But now it will be because of what I do instead of what I look like.
NINA
Oh.
LISA
No more men for me.
NINA
No?
LISA
How do you do it?
NINA
Oh, you get used to it.
LISA
I mean, there have been men?
NINA
Oh, sure. Sure. Well, no. Not in a long time. And honestly, I don’t miss it. Or rather, the job has taken over for providing me with that excitement. And there’s nothing that beats crimefighting. I don’t care what kind of sex you’ve had.
LISA
I’ve had lots of kinds.
NINA
We all have. Well, I haven’t, but you can’t go by me. I mean actually, the thing about me is, and please don’t say anything to the others—
LISA
I won’t.
NINA
The thing is, ever since my run in with Dr. X, well, it’s all I can think about. I can’t stop thinking about the doctor. Day and night. When I’m brushing my teeth. Even when—you know.
LISA
Oh.
NINA
Dr. X is just so exciting. And wrong. So exciting and wrong. I think the other girls have an inkling. Because I—I let him get away. I didn’t mean to. I paused. If you know me, you know I’m not someone who ever pauses. I run into any situation, burning building, shark infested pool without a thought. But I saw Dr. X and I paused, to the point of stopping even. And it was not revulsion I was feeling. Well, it was, but it was mixed with something else potent. I’m not sure what. They should bottle it if they could ever find a way to collect it. They’d make millions.
LISA
Who?
NINA
Exactly.
(DR. X enters here as NINA’s memory and they look at each other.)
NINA
Just stood there, looking at me, with a doctor’s bag and a syringe. Dr. X showed no remorse. Remorseless. Soulless maybe. And it took my breath away. I’m terrified of what might happen the next time I run into the doctor. You have to be ready at all times to kill if necessary. But when I think—I’m not sure I could do it in this case. I dread our next meeting and at the same time I look forward to it more than anything in my entire life. You know what I mean?
LISA
Yes.
Nov 9, 2007
what's going on with isaac
go here to listen to the song isaac wrote, lyrics by me.
http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2007/11/whats-goin-on.html
scene 2, first draft as always
2
(A hospital. The CRIMEFIGHTERS become NURSES. LISA in another area being examined by PETER, a heart doctor.)
NURSE 1
Is she in there?
NURSE 2
She’s in there with him.
NURSE 3
Lucky girl.
LISA
Thank you for seeing me so soon.
PETER
It’s no problem.
LISA
I’m sure you must be very busy these days, what with the rash of heart crimes.
PETER
Lot’s of people worried about their hearts. Lot’s of people sleeping alone. People who don’t even have to sleep alone. Don’t even want to. Lots of fear.
LISA
I was scratched.
PETER
You were?
LISA
By a syringe.
PETER
So you’re concerned.
LISA
I have concerns.
PETER
Well, let’s take a listen.
NURSE 1
He listened to my heart once.
NURSE 2
He did?
NURSE 3
He didn’t.
(LISA opens her shirt. PETER takes the stethoscope and listens to her heart.)
NURSE 2
Was the stethoscope cold?
NURSE 1
Only a little.
NURSE 3
Were his hands warm?
NURSE 1
He brushed my arm with his fingertips. They were like butterflies.
NURSE 2
Did you kiss him?
NURSE 1
I was too afraid. There was his breath in my ear. Pounding in my throat. I remember, he said—
PETER
Your heart is beating fast.
LISA
Is it?
PETER
You need to relax.
NURSE 1
He listened for a long time but when he was done, he told me I could go.
NURSE 2
And you went?
NURSE 1
There was nothing else to do.
PETER
(to LISA)
You have a strong heart. There are other tests I can run if you want but from what I’ve heard your heart is strong and capable of many things.
LISA
Thank you. That’s nice to hear.
PETER
Not everyone has such a strong heart. My own heart. It was damaged once and has never quite been able to recover. It’s a muscle you know.
LISA
I know.
PETER
And it atrophies if you don’t use it. Sometimes I don’t use mine as much as I should. Yours, though. You can be as active as you want. A heart like that.
LISA
Thank you, Doctor.
PETER
Call me Peter.
LISA
Thank you, Peter. (pause) There’s something else I wanted to ask you about.
PETER
Oh.
LISA
Sorry.
PETER
No. No. You heard about my experiments. It’s hard to keep anything a secret. I tried to keep it out of the papers, but I guess in the current climate—People are afraid to sleep together even when they shut their windows and lock their doors. My artificial heart would of course protect them. We could all sleep with our lovers without fear. We wouldn’t fear to love.
LISA
You have a lover you’re afraid to love?
PETER
No, no. With this heart? No, not me.
LISA
There’s not anyone?
PETER
No, not now. Not anymore. Not anyone.
LISA
But I’m sure, a man like you—
PETER
Please. I don’t want to talk about it.
LISA
Sorry. I just thought--
PETER
You were asking about the artificial heart. I’m going to be the first test subject. I can’t do the operation myself of course. But if the heart works on me and my body doesn’t reject it. . .
LISA
But doctor, can your heart . . . I mean, the artificial heart—can—Can it love?
PETER
There’s only one way to find out.
LISA
But what if it keeps you from ever loving again?
PETER
That’s the chance I’ll have to take, for science. For the hope of mankind.
LISA
Don’t you want to love again?
PETER
Me? Oh, no. Not me.
LISA
Why not?
PETER
My heart can’t handle it.
(LISA kisses him. A sound of a heart beating fast can be heard.)
LISA
It handled that OK.
(PETER looks shocked)
NURSE 1
I could fall in love with that doctor.
NURSE 2
Me too.
NURSE 3
In another life.
PETER
Well, I think we’re done here. I have other patients. You, I’m sure have other—
LISA
Come out to dinner with me.
PETER
Well—I—I don’t normally—with patients.
LISA
Have dinner with me.
PETER
It’s not—
LISA
Come out to dinner.
PETER
OK, Yes. OK. Yes. I would love to join you for dinner.
(A hospital. The CRIMEFIGHTERS become NURSES. LISA in another area being examined by PETER, a heart doctor.)
NURSE 1
Is she in there?
NURSE 2
She’s in there with him.
NURSE 3
Lucky girl.
LISA
Thank you for seeing me so soon.
PETER
It’s no problem.
LISA
I’m sure you must be very busy these days, what with the rash of heart crimes.
PETER
Lot’s of people worried about their hearts. Lot’s of people sleeping alone. People who don’t even have to sleep alone. Don’t even want to. Lots of fear.
LISA
I was scratched.
PETER
You were?
LISA
By a syringe.
PETER
So you’re concerned.
LISA
I have concerns.
PETER
Well, let’s take a listen.
NURSE 1
He listened to my heart once.
NURSE 2
He did?
NURSE 3
He didn’t.
(LISA opens her shirt. PETER takes the stethoscope and listens to her heart.)
NURSE 2
Was the stethoscope cold?
NURSE 1
Only a little.
NURSE 3
Were his hands warm?
NURSE 1
He brushed my arm with his fingertips. They were like butterflies.
NURSE 2
Did you kiss him?
NURSE 1
I was too afraid. There was his breath in my ear. Pounding in my throat. I remember, he said—
PETER
Your heart is beating fast.
LISA
Is it?
PETER
You need to relax.
NURSE 1
He listened for a long time but when he was done, he told me I could go.
NURSE 2
And you went?
NURSE 1
There was nothing else to do.
PETER
(to LISA)
You have a strong heart. There are other tests I can run if you want but from what I’ve heard your heart is strong and capable of many things.
LISA
Thank you. That’s nice to hear.
PETER
Not everyone has such a strong heart. My own heart. It was damaged once and has never quite been able to recover. It’s a muscle you know.
LISA
I know.
PETER
And it atrophies if you don’t use it. Sometimes I don’t use mine as much as I should. Yours, though. You can be as active as you want. A heart like that.
LISA
Thank you, Doctor.
PETER
Call me Peter.
LISA
Thank you, Peter. (pause) There’s something else I wanted to ask you about.
PETER
Oh.
LISA
Sorry.
PETER
No. No. You heard about my experiments. It’s hard to keep anything a secret. I tried to keep it out of the papers, but I guess in the current climate—People are afraid to sleep together even when they shut their windows and lock their doors. My artificial heart would of course protect them. We could all sleep with our lovers without fear. We wouldn’t fear to love.
LISA
You have a lover you’re afraid to love?
PETER
No, no. With this heart? No, not me.
LISA
There’s not anyone?
PETER
No, not now. Not anymore. Not anyone.
LISA
But I’m sure, a man like you—
PETER
Please. I don’t want to talk about it.
LISA
Sorry. I just thought--
PETER
You were asking about the artificial heart. I’m going to be the first test subject. I can’t do the operation myself of course. But if the heart works on me and my body doesn’t reject it. . .
LISA
But doctor, can your heart . . . I mean, the artificial heart—can—Can it love?
PETER
There’s only one way to find out.
LISA
But what if it keeps you from ever loving again?
PETER
That’s the chance I’ll have to take, for science. For the hope of mankind.
LISA
Don’t you want to love again?
PETER
Me? Oh, no. Not me.
LISA
Why not?
PETER
My heart can’t handle it.
(LISA kisses him. A sound of a heart beating fast can be heard.)
LISA
It handled that OK.
(PETER looks shocked)
NURSE 1
I could fall in love with that doctor.
NURSE 2
Me too.
NURSE 3
In another life.
PETER
Well, I think we’re done here. I have other patients. You, I’m sure have other—
LISA
Come out to dinner with me.
PETER
Well—I—I don’t normally—with patients.
LISA
Have dinner with me.
PETER
It’s not—
LISA
Come out to dinner.
PETER
OK, Yes. OK. Yes. I would love to join you for dinner.
Nov 8, 2007
early morning
I worked some on this new play today that I was calling The Heart Stopper but now I think is called Open Heart. I like what I'm doing. I feel good about it and the writing is coming slowly which I'm actually enjoying. It's more like laying bricks than letting the play fly out of me. Food For Fish was like that a lot of the time and the play that resulted is a play I'm proud of so I hope it will be like that. Right now it feels like it will be the best thing I've ever written, although I have to admit I often feel that way at this point in the process. Otherwise, why would I continue?
Two shows that I recommend:
Page 73's production of Grote's 1001
Peter and Jerry by Albee at Second Stage
Nov 7, 2007
Nov 6, 2007
2
After a day of watching a reading of Herbie: Poet of The Wild West and then some scenes from Open Minds, I discovered something my subconscious mind may already know.
First of all, they were written 3 years apart and are very different kinds of plays but they both have a character named Herbie in them. (I also have 3 plays with characters named Bobby--3 very different Bobbys.) And the Herbies are different too. And the plays are very different.
But, I wasn't aware that they had similar lines. From Herbie, a scene between him and his mother:
MARY
Well I guess you have to kill him, then. Who’s my soldier?
HERBIE
I am.
MARY
That’s right. Just, um…shoot him in the back, OK? Don’t let him take a shot at you.
From Open Minds:
MOTHER
Not quite yet. Oh, you’re such a good boy. Stand up straight. Now aren’t you a smart looking boy? Who’s my soldier?
HERBIE
I am.
MOTHER
That’s right. You are, aren’t you? Now what are you going to do when people come to visit?
Now in one way I have no idea where this phrase Who's my soldier came from. But also, apparently my subconscious thinks this phrase is funny. Funny enough to use twice.
The readings both went well yesterday. We'll see what happens next.
Nov 3, 2007
Nov 2, 2007
on the humanity front
I know waterboarding is torture - because I did it myself
By MALCOLM NANCE
"One has to overcome basic human decency to endure causing the effects. The brutality would force you into a personal moral dilemma between humanity and hatred. It would leave you questioning the meaning of what it is to be an American. "
h/t Mirrorup
in addition
First Flux Bar Series this Monday
You are invited to the first performance of our Bar Series, a selection of short scenes from various plays that have been explored at Flux Sundays. It's a chance to see the work we are doing as well as kick back and have a drink with us.
Monday, November 5, 7pm
Jimmy's No 43
43 East 7th St (2nd and 3rd Ave)
http://www.jimmysno43.com/
ADMISSION FREE!!!
Featuring scenes from:
Erin Brown's Narrator #1
Directed by Angela Astle
With: Michael Davis, Kitty Lindsay,
Brian Pracht, Christina Shipp
August Schulenburg's Angel Juice
Directed by Kelly O'Donnell
With: Tom Del Pizzo, Candice Holdorf,
Marnie Schulenburg, Jane Lincoln Taylor
Adam Szymkowicz's Open Minds
Directed by John Hurley
With Jake Alexander, Tiffany Clementi, Felicia Hudson, Joe Mathers, Jason Paradine,
Isaiah Tanenbaum, Cotton Wright
ALSO SAVE THE DATE FOR THE FIRST IN OUR POTLUCK READING SERIES
Pretty Theft
By Adam Szymkowicz
Sunday, December 2
FREE!!!
The potluck reading series is a reading of a full-length play, where members of Flux bring their favorite dishes
Nov 1, 2007
MONDAY at 6
Monday, November 5, 2007, 6:00 PM
Herbie: Poet of the Wild West
Free reading of a play by Adam Szymkowicz
Directed by Evan Cabnet.
Starring Matt Stadelmann, Audrey Lynn Weston, Jeff Biehl, Heidi Armbruster, Guy Boyd, Arthur Aulisi and Barbara Pitts.
at the New York Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center.
Bruno Walter Auditorium,
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10023-7498
(use Library entrance at 111 Amsterdam Avenue, just south of 65th Street.)
Blue Box Productions presents Sticky@ Bowery Poetry Club
Friday, November 2nd, 7-9 pm*
all new 10-minute plays and music with cabaret star Jeffrey Marsh
308 Bowery, b/w Houston and Bleecker
$8 at the door, $6 if you come by 6:30 pm to see the legendary Taylor Meade
This week's line-up includes plays, performances and direction by : Ali Ayala, Ethan Baum, Sheila Callaghan, Jody Christopherson, Jennifer Elliot, Libby Emmons, Laura Heidinger, Neil Hellegers, Jeannine Jones, David Marcus, Joe McLaughlin, Kara Ayn Napolitano, Michael Niederman, Tlaloc Rivas, Stacy Rock, Ann Rooney, Jacob Saxton, Mary Sheridan, Joshua Skidmore, Karen Sours, Adam Szymkowicz, Eve Udesky, Ari Vigoda
because anything that can happen can happen in a bar*
we'll be Sticky every Friday in November: November 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
Check the website for full details and listings of what's up each night: http://www.blueboxproductions.net/
Oct 31, 2007
I <3 A.M. Homes
but I have to say even though I'm loving Music For Torching, This Book
Will Change Your Life is my preference.
Will Change Your Life is my preference.
Jason Grote's project
I'm seeing the play tomorrow. Can't wait. Check out this new site. It's a trip.
So I'm very interested in getting your thoughts on a new web-based project. As both a marketing tool and artistic extension of my play 1001, Page 73 and I have created a sort of skeletal alternate site and reality game to accompany the play.
Here's how it works: if you go to http://1001nyc.com and click on "Enter The Story," you'll be taken to a web-based alternate reality - the world of the play. This links to character blogs and email conversations, message boards, a 1001 wiki, and a few other easter eggs. Thematically, the play is all about the power of narrative, the porous border between reality and fantasy, and the internet as a real-life Library of Babel, so the site idea fits. In an ideal world, I'd love to see it transform into a Henry Jenkins-like, open-source fan project (mass group dramaturgy!) , with the idea that we are all storytellers in one big infinite collection of Arabian Nights tales, but we'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it.
You can also get there directly at http://www.1001nyc.com/enter-the-story/ , but the first way is more fun.
Thanks!
Jason
Oct 29, 2007
what to do about despots
Post by Patrick
http://writinglife3.blogspot.com/2007/10/calling-all-daily-show-liberals-you.html
I welcome your thoughts.
Oct 28, 2007
Oct 26, 2007
are you going to be there?
Monday, November 5, 2007, 6:00 PM
A Rose by Any Other Name: Adaptations of Shakespeare
Herbie: Poet of the Wild West
Reading of a play by Adam Szymkowicz, based on Hamlet.
Introduced by the author, followed by discussion.
Directed by Evan Cabnet.
Starring Matt Stadelmann, Audrey Lynn Weston, Jeff
Biehl and 4 more TBA.
at the New York Performing Arts Library at Lincoln
Center.
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10023-7498
Oct 24, 2007
FBI threatens torture
http://www.psychsound.com/2007/10/a_tale_of_two_decisions_or_how.html
h/t isaac
isaac says:
"The FBI forced a man to confess (Falsely it turned out) to terrorist
activities when they threatened to torture his family. Once the man
was proven innocent, the section about how the FBI forced a false
confession out of him was redacted for national security reasons.
Read all about it here. If this doesn't get your blood boiling, what
will?"
Where I’m At
Last weekend I was creating a packet of writing to try and get a TV gig. I’m doing another one now.
I have to revise Herbie for the reading on the 5th and there might be a reason for me to revise Searching as well soon. And I have to go back and fix that screenplay, currently titled Stalker.
I am also on page 30 or so of a new play but I have to say, even though things about it excite me, I keep putting it aside. I can’t help but thinking writing a new play is a waste of my time. In some ways it is probably my best work, and it is certainly a play I would like to see, but the thought of going through the channels afterwards, the revising and re-revising, the readings, the waiting, the rejections, leaves me cold.
Why am I still doing this?
I have all sorts of stamps of approval. I have writers groups and readings when I need them. When my plays do go up, they go well. They go much better than I imagine they will go and I have a great time.
But breaking through to the next level seems not to be happening and it’s true I’m not a patient person, but I’m just not sure what exactly I have to do. For the first time, the answer does not seem to be write a new play. And I’m not sure what the answer is. The answer seems to be stop writing plays. I’ve already written about a bazillion of them. Why write more when no one is doing these ones?
And the thing is, I have great agents on both coasts. I should revise the plays I’ve written, perhaps and fix this screenplay and figure out how to get into the TV and Film area. Because I’m sick and tired of the day job and of being so poor and of putting so much effort into writing plays and working to get them into the hands of people who are unable or unwilling to take a chance on my work. And it’s not their fault either. The market is flooded with good work. Most theaters have specific needs and only a couple slots and a particular audience they are catering to.
But I’m tired of working so hard and not seeing results. If I can’t find a way in here, why should I stick around?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)