Holy shit.
(drooling on keyboard)
I wrote 7 plays in 7 days. Plus I generated enough hand written material in my 10 hours of class with Tanya Barfield to fill an entire notebook and several sheets of printer paper. My thumb is broken, I think.
Shall we recap?
Day #1- I wrote the internet hit Support Local Music or Die, Mother Fucker! While I may have ruffled a feather or two this play has had an overwhelmingly positive response from all my musician friends. That just makes me feel all warm and gushy inside.
Day #2 - I wrote Riverwalk Preserve which was LOL'ed and appreciated by the riverwalk volunteer that inspired it. She'll be sharing it with the other volunteers. Also makes me warm and gushy inside. If my writing for 30 minutes makes them feel appreciated for all the hard work they do for the preserve I have "done good" - so to speak.
Day #3 - I wrote 40 and Life. Inspired by a terribly dark chapter in Stamford's history. After writing this (and play #4) I feel I have to change the details to spare the survivors. Especially if these plays are ever going to see the light of day.
Day #4 - I wrote Pre-Inferno which was inspired in part by the Christmas Day fire and in part by the fact that I lost my virginity in that house. Sorry for the TMI. But I did have a connection to the house - that's what playwrights do, they write what they know. This one I feel I need to change the details, but I'm not sure how I can. The house still needs to burn down for the story to work. We'll see what happens.
Day #5 - Oh, geez, I'm gonna catch shit for this one. I'll just hope none of my friends read this blog. In class, the day before, our teacher told us to write a play that no one wants to see. The previous exercise had us writing about what was going on in our lives and it spilled over into this exercise. And the prompt from 31 Days 31 Plays was "Killer Unicorns" - so I did what any logical playwright would do. I combined my "friend drama" with "Killer Unicorns" and the tin foil hat guy that used to hang out at A&W. I ended up with Candy and Unicorns, and if any of my friends think I'm talking about them and they want to read it I suppose they can. As long as they promise to still love me :)
Day #6 - Possibly the worst title ever - Train Station Play. But as I sat down to write this one I had pretty much no idea what it was about or what was going to happen. It features the Darien homeless woman (yes, Darien had one homeless woman) at (drumroll, please) the Stamford train station. The dialogue was pretty much what she used to say when she came into the Darien TCBY looking for free coffee. Sad, but true.
Day #7 - Brain death kicked in on this day. I managed to eek out a page and a third on Stamford Traffic. Specifically the three lanes facing the train trestle on Elm Street. Only the right lane is supposed to go straight under the bridge... "Supposed to" being the key words in the phrase.
So, what have I learned? Hmm... It's okay to offend city officials but not crime victims. I can write and come up with things I hadn't thought of, even when comatose. Write what you shouldn't, people will probably like it anyway. And stop writing this blog post because I have to write a play today!
-VD
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