Mardi Gras! Fat Tuesday! Shrove Tuesday…

Today’s theme was… today! Bonus points for referencing the Rex Parade.

Had tons of fun writing this one – yet again as it happens.

“The Lure and Legend of Gold”

Mr and Mrs Gold, a retired couple in 2021, are making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday whilst doing cryptic crosswords together. At the same time their 30 year old counterparts (Peter and Donna) are in the 1987 Rex Parade in New Orleans. Whenever Mr and Mrs Gold get the answer to a crossword clue it is matched up to the storyline of the antics of the 1987 Mardi Gras where Donna ends up going topless and accidentally covering Peter with squirty cream whilst he is trapped on a flotilla of dancing German transvestites brandishing an enormous bratwurst…. 🙂

NB The Rex Parade in 1987 was entitled “The Lure and Legend of Gold”

Another really fun brief. Writing blind: put a timer on for 15 mins and just write, unplanned, a dialogue between two parts of your brain.

My head was in a car with two people in their thirties in a long term relationship having a frustrating conversation. He’s annoyed about her bring up ‘Kevin’ and her poor driving, and they seem generally to be trying to annoy each other. Just as you think maybe they’re agreeing they’ve come to the end of things they both surrender up that they love each other.

But will you keep your eyes on the road!!!

Oh, and he wants to grow orange trees.

(She’ll probably kill them though.)

Today’s brief was to write a musical work. Still had to be theatrical – but needed to be ‘composed’ rather than written. This one was straight up my alley – so once I’d got my concept in my head I just freeballed this and it was written quite quickly.

Entitled “Jordan” this is a theatre-song based in the Levant and featuring Jordan and its surrounding neighbour countries entering and greeting and passing each other in rhythm and words and movement. They reach a peak of the ‘crossroads’ and then unwind from each other.

Is it love? Is it peace? Is it reconciliation?

Who knows.

They exit.

Sanskrit Theatre piece. That was the brief.

Quite the challenge!

Ended up with a mashed up throughly enjoyable Sanskrit come modern day morality tale about the importance of living who you truly are.

Present day: Marvel is a genius banker who is on set to get a Nobel prize for revolutionising the banking industry. She’s at her first big job interview. During that interview, Marvel tells a story from childhood about how she runs away from home because although her family are great she’s not quite being who she is. She ran away and found seven drag queens who turn out to be people in her future that all have had their lives improved because she ran away and found out who she truly was. Conclusion: she nails the job interview. Living her truth.

Took a lot to write but really satisfying to finish.

Chinese New Year! Include some mandarin or Cantonese, a new font and preferably keep it light and cheerful. That was the brief. So naturally I thought… Tudor England!

“When Mary Saw Red” is set in 1545 in the school room of the precocious Princess Elizabeth (Bess) and Prince Edward (Ned). Bess has decided to learn Mandarin Chinese, become a Ruist and re-enact the story of Nian for Chinese New Year and Ned is fully on board.

Big sister Princess Mary enters and starts disapproving of everything. Except the ending where Elizabeth accidentally starts a fire out of bamboo canes and fireworks. Ending heresy with fire Mary seems strangely on board with…

The brief for this one was that it had to be inspired by Billie Holiday and feature a character with white gardenias in their hair.

I decided to take as my creative launch pad the story behind the creation of her song “God Bless the Child” – that she went to her Mum to ask for some money from the business that Billie herself helped set up and her Mum turned her away.

In “That Got His Own” it’s 2021. Nic has an online hairdressing assessment on zoom first thing in the morning. She’s 16 and a carer for her Mum who has depression and migraines. The lady who’s due to come and sit with her Mum bails on her and her absent dad won’t help and come over cos he reckons he’ll just start a fight with her mum.

To make it worse, Nic’s Mum vomits all over her mannequin head just before the test is due to start.

Not to be deterred, Nic pulls herself together, grabs her tools, places her Mum in front of the camera, gives her a kiss and puts some white gardenias to her hair and cracks on!

This one was a really good challenge, and something I’ve never tried before. We had to write in an entirely made up language and yet produce a compelling drama.

“Bedang” is the short story of a woman who walks into a newsagent on Halloween and whilst the proprietor is distracted by trick or treaters egging the front of his shop she proceeds to have a full mental breakdown in the shop.

Heavy going this one but felt satisfying. My love to anyone who has ever had a mental health crisis or been involved.

Really fun brief today – a conversation between two non-fictional people that could never have met. But more than just two characters.

Set it in a rehearsal room at the National in 1963 with Olivier’s production of Hamlet at the newly formed National Theatre directing Peter O’Toole as Hamlet, Robert Stephenson as Horatio and Frank Finlay as the grave digger. They’re on the graveyard scene and it’s not going well. They keep trying different skulls to see if it helps when the third skull re-animates into William Shakespeare who berates them for a boring version of Hamlet and tries to get Larry to work on a new play called “Tits and Booze” that will be “better than Falstaff!”.

Bewildered, as Peter and Will head off to find a pub, Larry laments to Robert… “I Knew Him?”

Day 8 – now into the second week of this challenge – where does the time go?

Leaks, Lumps and Blobs

For this one we were given both an opening and potential closing line to base the play on. I used both and one referenced “leaks” and the other “blobs” so along came “Leaks, Lumps and Blobs”. A short, three scene play set in a botox clinic looking at two gay man struggling with self acceptance and their relationships with their families and each other.

Brechtian was the brief for today. Just the thing to go with your Weetabix for breakfast… 😉

Polished this one off first thing because I have lots on today. Called it “Twenty-Three”. A twenty-three year old version of a person in conversation with a sixty-five year old version of the same person realises too late that when a woman told them to count sea-shells they figured out what she really meant too late and now they’re stuck endlessly counting…

One… Two… Three…

CURTAIN.