28 Plays Later: Day 6 “Trumpus Mustus”

What a challenge for this one! A Greek Tragedy was called for… so enter Chorus stage right and a Greek general called Trumpus Mustus – his sage Commonius Sensus and his son Biden Triden and a whole lot of plague. Really enjoyed writing in verse too.

They mostly all died (including the chorus… especially the chorus)… (spoiler!).

Well, it is a tragedy after all?

🙂

28 Plays Later: Day 5 “Why Won’t You Sleep?”

We were asked to write about petrification and dead wood today… I created a character called Amber who is struggling in the middle of the night to get her new baby to sleep. She ends up feeling sympathy for the dead wood that is holding the slats of the crib together and muses over what sacrifices we make to create and nurture the things that matter most to us.

Bit different from what I’ve written so far – but another enjoyable session!

28 Plays Later: Day 4 “Angel”

A very different any prescient brief for today: write a script that can be performed in isolation. But lay off the zoom/video cam ideas and multiple actors so…

Set mine in a public car park or town centre and had an elderly, apparently homeless character called Angel find a woman’s dropped mobile phone and when people around try to retrieve it she mysterious seems to rebuff them with an invisible barrier.

Took a bit more plotting this one, but really pleased with it in the end. Felt like an empowering story to write and I fell in love with my Angel a bit! (If that doesn’t sound too terribly self-indulgent!).

28 Plays Later: Day 3 Define “Sane”

Today’s brief was to repeat yesterday’s brief to begin with then take it somewhere totally different. So… my research scientist trapped in a wind tunnel now thinks he actually a kitten just disguised as a human. He only pretends to be human when ‘the humans’ are watching. The Dalai Lama still turns up but encourages him to embrace his quirks whilst simultaneously rapping to him about the joys of being free.

Anyway, Define “Sane”.

Meooooow.

28 Plays Later: Day 2 “Wind Tunnel”

So the brief for day 2 was all about the present with a ‘surprise guest’….

Today’s script, “Wind Tunnel”, featured a research scientist, James, studying the flight of condors in a wind tunnel. At the end of the day he gets stuck in the tunnel with the blasts of air being controlled by a female colleague who is annoyed at him for how their short lived dating ended immediately after they slept together.

Til the Dalai Lama turns up….

Had a lot of fun with this brief! Get in touch if you’d like to know more 🙂

28 Plays Later: Day 1 “What They Knew”

I’ve started Day 1 of 28 Plays Later with a Musical called “What They Knew” based on two political prisoners (“Aunt” and “Uncle”) looking back over their lives. If you’re interested in reading the script please do get in touch via my contact page.

(Rough) demo audios of the three songs can be found here:

Song 1: What (They Knew)

Aunt and Uncle talk about their writing careers.

Song 2: (What) They (Knew)

Aunt and Uncle think about the families and loved ones they left behind.

Song 3: (What They) Knew

Aunt and Uncle reminisce over the legal trials.