Issue 191
News: My Newest Play will be Performed.
A few years ago, I wrote a short story, entitled "Trust Me" that was based on Chaucer's "Pardoner's Tale." The plot of the story was that three policemen are on the trail of a serial killer who calls himself "The Lord High Executioner." They question a homeless guy, and he directs them to go to a bridge. When they get there, they find a suitcase full of brand-new $20 bills. The most senior officer takes some of the money and drives off with it. Meanwhile, he and the two officers set up plans to kill each other: The senior officer spikes two wine bottles with arsenic for them, and the other two decide to shoot him. Both plans succeed, and it turns out that the homeless guy was behind it all along. A few years later, I decided to try and work out some of my writers' block by adapting that story into a one-act play for my college's PlayOn festival. I changed some parts of the original story, mostly filling up some holes I found I had put into the story (like how the elder cop managed to figure out how to get back to town after stranding his inferiors), changing the place names to actual Nebraskan city names (I had originally set the story in the town of "Fidgit." For the record, there are two truly difficult parts of writing: 1) Actually bringing yourself to get started [This is why I have come to only update this blog twice a month], and 2) Naming characters and possibly places), and adding a minor subplot relating to racism against Latinos, with regards to Officer Alvarez, a police recruit just out of the academy, and the most sane officer of the three. And, finally, it turned out that the play was actually chosen to be performed at Oakton's Third Annual PlayOn festival. In the first festival, I had written an adaptation of the Confessional scene from The Seventh Seal, that I hoped would be part of a larger adaptation of the film, updated to 1918 and the Spanish Flu Pandemic. However, the next year, I submitted two plays, and I thought that both of them were problematic; The first one was a monologue that was too difficult to perform, as the climax hinged upon the mononoguist being able to sing (Lip-synching is not an option, as it is supposed to be sung along with another recording) "Largo al Factotum" from Rossini's Barber of Seville (an aria notably difficult to sing) while miming raping an invisible woman, even going so far as to orgasm while singing the last "Della Citta." The second one was an attempt to try and adapt another short story that I didn't think would translate well on the stage, and I think I was right. Fortunately, this one worked out well. The only thing I think would be logistically problematic is how we would be able to create the police car on the relatively small stage of the Black Box theatre it would be set in. Unfortunately, I would not be able to see it, as during the time the play was playing, I would be in Wisconsin.
Quote of the Day: "The task of filling up the blanks I'd rather leave to you.
But it really doesn't matter whom you put upon the list,
For they'd none of 'em be missed — they'd none of 'em be missed!"
____________Ko-Ko, The Mikado, a Gilbert and Sullivan lyric quoted in the end of the play.
A few years ago, I wrote a short story, entitled "Trust Me" that was based on Chaucer's "Pardoner's Tale." The plot of the story was that three policemen are on the trail of a serial killer who calls himself "The Lord High Executioner." They question a homeless guy, and he directs them to go to a bridge. When they get there, they find a suitcase full of brand-new $20 bills. The most senior officer takes some of the money and drives off with it. Meanwhile, he and the two officers set up plans to kill each other: The senior officer spikes two wine bottles with arsenic for them, and the other two decide to shoot him. Both plans succeed, and it turns out that the homeless guy was behind it all along. A few years later, I decided to try and work out some of my writers' block by adapting that story into a one-act play for my college's PlayOn festival. I changed some parts of the original story, mostly filling up some holes I found I had put into the story (like how the elder cop managed to figure out how to get back to town after stranding his inferiors), changing the place names to actual Nebraskan city names (I had originally set the story in the town of "Fidgit." For the record, there are two truly difficult parts of writing: 1) Actually bringing yourself to get started [This is why I have come to only update this blog twice a month], and 2) Naming characters and possibly places), and adding a minor subplot relating to racism against Latinos, with regards to Officer Alvarez, a police recruit just out of the academy, and the most sane officer of the three. And, finally, it turned out that the play was actually chosen to be performed at Oakton's Third Annual PlayOn festival. In the first festival, I had written an adaptation of the Confessional scene from The Seventh Seal, that I hoped would be part of a larger adaptation of the film, updated to 1918 and the Spanish Flu Pandemic. However, the next year, I submitted two plays, and I thought that both of them were problematic; The first one was a monologue that was too difficult to perform, as the climax hinged upon the mononoguist being able to sing (Lip-synching is not an option, as it is supposed to be sung along with another recording) "Largo al Factotum" from Rossini's Barber of Seville (an aria notably difficult to sing) while miming raping an invisible woman, even going so far as to orgasm while singing the last "Della Citta." The second one was an attempt to try and adapt another short story that I didn't think would translate well on the stage, and I think I was right. Fortunately, this one worked out well. The only thing I think would be logistically problematic is how we would be able to create the police car on the relatively small stage of the Black Box theatre it would be set in. Unfortunately, I would not be able to see it, as during the time the play was playing, I would be in Wisconsin.
Quote of the Day: "The task of filling up the blanks I'd rather leave to you.
But it really doesn't matter whom you put upon the list,
For they'd none of 'em be missed — they'd none of 'em be missed!"
____________Ko-Ko, The Mikado, a Gilbert and Sullivan lyric quoted in the end of the play.
posted by DerekAxe at 9:17 PM
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