As it says on the home page, my plays will never be set "on an island off the coast of massachusetts." I don't mean to be a snob; for the uninitiated, that simply means Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket, the two enclaves that almost define what it means to be a quintessential Yankee. Though, that's not quite true. The little I know about the places, what I just wrote says more about the people who vacation there (er, excuse me: summer there.) So, see, I wouldn't write about them simply because I don' t know a whole lot about their lives. It wouldn't be genuine.
But, like a small child who will stare at a freak, I am fascinated by people who live off the grid, off the map if you will. Who say to hell with society and work out their own ways and rules. (You know, I actually sat here and stared into space for a good two minutes trying to figure out what the PC word is for the word, freak, so I wouldn't attract the ire of the well-intentioned. But I decided to use that word in the spirit of that lifestyle. I think PC is one of the first things that gets jettisoned along with cable and trips to Wal-Mart when you go off the map. Living off the map means you don't have to worry about the PC crowd anymore because, frankly, they wouldn't be caring about you either. Off the map isn't on anyone's radar screen.)
So, this bit of research caught my eye over the weekend. It's about people who live in a place called Antelope Valley outside Los Angeles, and how the county is harassing them and trying to remove them from their land. What has this to do with playwriting? Well, it definitely has something to do with what I'm currently working on.
But, like a small child who will stare at a freak, I am fascinated by people who live off the grid, off the map if you will. Who say to hell with society and work out their own ways and rules. (You know, I actually sat here and stared into space for a good two minutes trying to figure out what the PC word is for the word, freak, so I wouldn't attract the ire of the well-intentioned. But I decided to use that word in the spirit of that lifestyle. I think PC is one of the first things that gets jettisoned along with cable and trips to Wal-Mart when you go off the map. Living off the map means you don't have to worry about the PC crowd anymore because, frankly, they wouldn't be caring about you either. Off the map isn't on anyone's radar screen.)
So, this bit of research caught my eye over the weekend. It's about people who live in a place called Antelope Valley outside Los Angeles, and how the county is harassing them and trying to remove them from their land. What has this to do with playwriting? Well, it definitely has something to do with what I'm currently working on.
As the struggle to put down Bella's life in Turtles continues, I intently watched these videos for clues into what I might be getting right, and wrong, when presenting Bella's life. At one point while viewing these clips, the idea popped into my head that the premise for the entire play was wrong, and that instead of Bella being chased by her husband (who personifies genteel, suburban society) she should make a stand by the side of the road for her an her family against the police. Well, thank goodness, I decided that that was a whole 'nuther play. Not a good idea, like when I toyed with the idea that Jesus was really a bad guy. Not a good idea either, but then you have to consider everything, because look at how the character of Emanuel, Jesus' brother, evolved from that thought. Where's there's good, there has to be evil, right?
This is just a normal day in the life of a writer. You're living inside this world that you've conjured up, and as I blogged about earlier, people don't see the mistakes and the missteps we make. Are they even mistakes and missteps? Sometimes they lead somewhere, and sometimes they don't. It's just really part of the creative process all artists go through, and to some it might be maddening but I find it not only fascinating
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