Monday, April 25, 2011

Post-Show Melancholy

It's a week to the day since we first put How We Lost the Son on the stage in front of a paying audience, one week since the world premiere performance.  It seems an age ago.  There's an advanced-onset amnesia that strikes when one is involved in such endeavours.  You begin with surprise at how long ago the premiere seems, even if it was only a week.  You find yourself wondering "What next?" or worse, "What was the point of doing it?  Has it changed my life in any significant way?  Was anybody changed?  Did anybody in the audience find it cathartic or deeply moving or incredibly entertaining?  Did it go beyond being 'enjoyable' or 'ordinary' for any group involved?"


Then you begin to forget - first its the lines of dialogue that go, lines that you knew backwards and could recite ahead of the actors.  You know the scene in which Myra confronts Eliot on his return and certain phrases pop out: "He's said nothing about you since you left" and "But I haven't hurt you" - but the order of the lines is slipping.  Then the lines themselves go, then the order of scenes in the play itself, until finally it's a blur and all you remember is what you were feeling when you watched it.

Even then, what you were feeling as you watched it is an unreliable test, because as the writer you feel a raft of emotions completely contradictory to those that you want the audience to feel.  You're worried about whether the actors will remember their lines.  You're worried about why the couple two rows in front of you are whispering to each other and staring at their phones.  You're worried about whether you'll ever get paid to do this, because apparently you love writing so much.  If you've written it well, you will also care - as you hope the audience does - about the characters on stage, at least as much as you can whilst holding all those anxious thoughts in your head.  The worst thing is, anxiety is pointless.  When everything goes right, your anxiety is proven to be a waste, and when something goes wrong, it's completely out of your control anyway.

In fact, it's when things go wrong that you can have the most fun.  On one particular night of How We Lost the Son, a certain actor forgot to bring a certain important prop on stage.  He was to present this prop to another character, who - knowing the deep significance of it - was then to react violently towards him, in a song that made great use of this prop in its blocking.  Watching the actor sing that song without the prop he needed was amazing.  He improvised.  He tore at his hair, he clenched his teeth, he jumped up and down, he went off, he rocked out.  He conveyed exactly the emotion I wanted that song to convey.  He conveyed exactly the emotion I first experienced when writing that song.

The reason I write is because I find many things moving and interesting, and I think other people might find these things moving and interesting too.  I also write because it's fun.  But half of the fun of watching a story unfold is the discovery of the story - the development of a plot full of unexpected twists and turns, the sudden moments of pathos found in characters whom you have come to believe as real, the payoff of a satisfying conclusion that answers all your questions, and the compression of all of these discoveries into two hours.  When you write, the process takes months, not hours, and the development of those unexpected twists and turns, which seem like sheer inspiration to the audience, are the result of hours and hours of writing, cutting and rewriting.  The moments of pathos are half-formed and only grow to their full when an actor (a good actor) takes your words and breathes life into them on stage or in front of a camera.  The satisfying conclusion will still, hopefully, be satisfying for the writer, but you'll have exhausted yourself getting there.  Writing is like exploring - hacking a path through dense undergrowth in a dark jungle, being the first to find a path from one point to another, and then leading your audience in safety along that path.  It's fun, but it's a different kind of fun to that which the audience enjoys.

This might seem melodramatic, or archaically Victorian (conquering the dark jungles and all of that) but I hope it's a useful insight into the experience of writing.  No one really knows how anyone writes anything, where inspiration comes from or what is needed to form inspiration into entertainment (and there is a massive gap between the two, which I might go into at a later date).  All we can do is keep working.

  

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

It's Closing Night!

Autumn.  The Park.  Leaves falling.  The air is brisk.  Opening Night sits across from Closing Night on a park bench.

OPENING NIGHT:  So...

CLOSING NIGHT:  Mm...


OPENING NIGHT:  You're here.

CLOSING NIGHT:  I'm here.

Closing Night stamps an archipeligo-shaped imprint in the leaves.




OPENING NIGHT:  You're looking well.

CLOSING NIGHT:  Thank you... so are you.

Opening Night blushes.
OPENING NIGHT:  Oh, well, I... But how are you?

CLOSING NIGHT:  Good, I'm good... You? 

OPENING NIGHT:  Great!  I'm really good.  Thank you for asking. 

CLOSING NIGHT:  You, uh... you did a good job the other night.

OPENING NIGHT:  Really?  Wha- that?  No, I mean, it was - well, thank you. 


Opening Night searches Closing Night's scar-ravaged face.

OPENING NIGHT:  You're gonna be terrific tonight, I can tell! 

Closing Night grimaces.


OPENING NIGHT:  You will, really!

CLOSING NIGHT:  I just don't know why I do it anymore.

OPENING NIGHT:  Because you can't let them win.  Think of what it would do to their egos and their bank balances if you let these shows go on and on.  Look at the state Broadway is in!  Look at Cats and Phantom!

Closing Night doubles over in pain. 

CLOSING NIGHT:  You promised never to speak of them!

OPENING NIGHT:  I have to.  If only to make you see that How We Lost the Son must end tonight.  You know I'm right. 

Closing Night nods, resigned to the fact. 


OPENING NIGHT:  It's either that or you kill the author. 

CLOSING NIGHT:  Shh!  You want him to hear you?

OPENING NIGHT:  I'm just saying!

CLOSING NIGHT:  He is writing this as we speak, you realise?

OPENING NIGHT:  So what?  Let him know, I don't care.  What can he do to me?

A herd of elephants plummet from the sky and land on Opening Night, crushing it to death.


THE END. 






Monday, April 18, 2011

It's Opening Night!

OPENING NIGHT:  Hi there.  Mind if I make myself comfortable?

Phil looks at Opening Night, suspicious.


PHIL:  What are you doing here?

OPENING NIGHT:  Weren't you expecting me?

Phil hesitates, nods, crosses to window and looks down on seething mass.

PHIL:  But so soon?

Opening Night lights a cigarette, casually tapping the first hints of ash onto the shag-pile carpet.


OPENING NIGHT:  You want to get rid of me?

PHIL:  (nervous) No... I just... I don't know what I'm supposed to do with you.

Opening Night raises an eyebrow.

OPENING NIGHT:  I thought by now you would.  You've had enough time to prepare.

PHIL: You shouldn't smoke in here, you'll get sick and die.

Opening Night lights another cigarette, in contempt.

OPENING NIGHT: Given my reception, I should think you'd welcome my death.

PHIL:  No, no, no no I want you to be well.

OPENING NIGHT:  (reaching for the medicine cabinet)  What if I just down a couple of bottles of bleach?

Phil jumps between Opening Night and the medicine cabinet.


PHIL: (frantic) No, don't -- don't do that!  Please, I mean, come on, I... it's just a shock, I don't see you that often and... I need you to stay alive and healthy for me, okay?

OPENING NIGHT:  So give me a back massage.

PHIL:   ...

OPENING NIGHT:  Come on, what are you afraid of?

PHIL:  Just... can you just make sure you're safe and well and not drowning in your own reflux when you arrive at the theatre tonight?  It's very important for me.

OPENING NIGHT:  Then give me a BACK MASSAGE!

PHIL:  You don't even have a back!

OPENING NIGHT:  What do you think this is, an open-ended run?

PHIL:  There's a difference between a back and an end.  And you don't even get along with Closing Night any more.  When was the last time you two spoke?

Opening Night lights three more cigarettes, descending into a reverie.

OPENING NIGHT:  I don't want to talk about it.

PHIL:  Did you fight?

Opening Night nods, sniffs, dissolves into a puddle of tears.


PHIL:  Come on, this doesn't help me.  Look, pull yourself together.  All you have to do is get to St Judes' Anglican Church in Carlton around 6.30pm tonight, make the actors feel good and focussed, make sure the band are in tune, feed the sound and lighting guys some chocolate, get all the audience in by 8:05pm and give us a few nice rounds of applause along the way.

Phil turns to face you, dear reader.

PHIL:  Is that too much to ask?

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Two nights ago I watched "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps", Oliver Stone's sequel to the original "Wall Street" and my very first Oovie, which is just like a movie except it comes from a vending machine, by which I mean the plot was visible from the outside, the characters got stuck halfway through and only with a mighty directorial bashing of the machine in which it was produced did they come loose, and when you looked at the product in your hands you had the distinct sense that you'd paid far too much money for something you didn't really need.



But I should honour the intentions of this blog and attempt to be mostly positive.

Well, Michael Douglas is still a good actor, and Shia LaBouf is not untalented, and Carey Mulligan is a welcome addition to the coterie of Brits who can do American accents.  Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney also put in fine performances, particularly in the "John Adams" miniseries.  Unfortunately they weren't in this movie.

On a serious and positive note, what I really loved about "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" was the way it brings people together.  I had the pleasure of watching this movie with my girlfriend and my housemate, and all three of us were united in our opinion of it.  We also managed to fit in some productive conversations while the movie was in progress, so I suppose I can't really complain that it was bad value for money. 

You, dear readers, care not for bad value.  You care for good value, and for good value I have an offer you can't refuse.  MY SHOW, How We Lost the Son, is premiering tomorrow!  Book now www.stjudes.org.au/musical - it's $20 or $15 concession and that includes student tickets.  Really, you'll be missing out on a whole lot more than good conversations during the boring bits if you don't go.  Anyway, it's live theatre so you're not allowed to talk during it.  And there are no boring bits.  So I don't really see any way around this.  You have to come.

Monday, April 11, 2011

In seven days, much can be done...

I decided to diversify.  This was briefly a blog purely about movies; specifically, all-positive movie reviews.  Welcome to "Phil's Mostly Positive Attempts At: (blank)", which, as the same suggests, allows this corrective to my naturally occuring pessimism a broader focus than movies alone. 



Today's exclamation mark is in honour of "How We Lost the Son", a musical for which I've written music, lyrics and book, which is premiering in seven days, or eight, depending on your level of pedantry and which calendar you use*. 8pm, 19th - 21st April (Tuesday to Thursday NEXT WEEK!) at St Judes Anglican Church, Carlton



So we're neck-deep in rehearsals and I have to admit, as the writer I have the best job in rehearsals, which is merely to sit around and offer comments when comments are called for, and to generally be nice to everyone, a job I find I enjoy more than not being nice to everyone - I recognize it's a luxury.  Many people in the world have the unfortunate duty of kicking butts into gear, slapping faces with wet tea towels of motivation, asitwere, and of watching the tide of public opinion swallow them much like a gazelle in the flight path of a tornado, though what a gazelle would be doing in middle America I've no idea.  Perhaps they opened a zoo there.  In which case they presumably have lions as well, and unless the tornado reaches the lions first, the gazelle could just as well be swallowed by the lions.  Then again, we may presume that they keep the gazelles and lions in separate enclosures.  But what if the tornado were to destroy the fencing, allowing the lions to dash into the gazellerium and put an end to their antipodean enemies? 

Fortunately, this musical is much less likely to result in death.  I highly recommend you come and see it, if only to support a young artist / have your life irrevocably changed. 







*According to an ancient Mayan calendar it's actually in 4 days time, and it will also beckon the end of the world.  I suppose one of those might actually be true.