Back at the beginning of the semester, I signed up for two classes: Playwriting and Contemporary American Writers for my Masters program in writing fiction. Well, since only two students signed up for the playwriting class, they canceled it. When I found out, every other class in Baltimore was either full or had nothing to do with my discipline (IE, fiction). There were classes available in DC, but there’s just no way that I am going to drive two hours for a class even if it is on a Saturday.
Well, to make a long story short, I raised a stink. I wrote many emails to a lot of people, asking why I was never told that HALF of the classes in this major are held in DC, that I’m not going to get financial so I won’t be able to take ANY classes this semester, and pointed out that this will be the SECOND time Johns Hopkins has set me back. Basically, through little or no fault of my own, I would have been in my master’s program for a year with ONE class to show for it. ONE. As a compromise, they let me take Playwriting as an independent study. This allowed me to get financial aid and get two classes done this semester. The JHU Master’s in Writing Fiction is a 9-class masters degree. So, if I can take one in the summer and two next semester, I’ll only have the big Thesis and Publication class next spring and I’ll be done.
So, the instructor contacts me. His name is Marc.
Marc – So, obviously you have an idea for a full-length play in mind?
Me – Uh, no.
Marc – I don’t understand. Why did you want this class, then?
Me – Well, I needed another class so I could get financial aid and . . . .
Marc – Aaron, this class can’t run like a workshop with just the two of us. You have to write a play. Do you have an idea for a play?
Me – No.
Marc – Are you familiar with plays?
Me – Yes.
Marc - If you already understand format, then I expect a full-length play out of you.
Me – May I have the weekend to think about it and get back to you?
Oh shit.
After leaving it on the back burner for a couple of days, I settled down on an idea that was more marketable than it was inspirational.
Years ago, I got drunk with a chick who loved musicals so we sat down and wrote one. Well, “wrote” is a loose term. We brainstormed on plot and made up songs as we went. We SHOULD have written it down, there was some really great stuff in there. The premise was that there was a guy who was mentally stuck in the wrong time period; the 40’s, as inspired by “City Of Angels” (the musical not the Nicholas Cage flick). He saves a girl who believes that she’s suddenly been sent back in time, since this guy’s entire house is decked out like the 40’s. (sound familiar, Dan?) By the end of the play, she has figured out what is going on and embraces his madness so that she can be with him. So, that went into the soup.
Next up, I wanted to add Steampunk into the mix. I believe that Steampunk is on the rise and that subculture can only get stronger. So, what if the main character believed he was in a steampunk world instead of the 1940’s? That went into the soup.
Next, I wanted to capture the truth and essence of why people (like me) engage in alternate realities such as Ren Faires, Fairy Festivals, D&D, Sci Fi conventions, LARPS, etc. I called Marc back and told him that I had an idea and that I would start work right away. He liked it and told me to stop talking to him about it and get to work.
I do not consider myself an expert on many of these things, so I had to do some research specifically in the area of costuming and LARPS. I also wanted someone else’s opinion of why they game. The research consisted of asking people to share, rather than reading a book on the subject. Being from the Stanislavski school of thought, I figured it would be better to experience the material rather than create it in a vacuum. I got back some REALLY good stuff, thanks Facebook. And thank YOU to all of you who contributed. Some gave me a little, some gave me tons. It all went into the soup.
I began mixing. I wanted to have two parallel plots going at the same time. I wanted to bring all of the really good stuff that I’d got from my fellow dreamers into it. Lastly, the entire play had to be didactic; it had to really open the door to understanding the “whys” of created realities. Ok, how the fuck do I do this?
The play has three things going on. The first is the main character attempting to win back his prestige in a Steampunk LARP. This, I had to create from scratch because there is no Steampunk LARP that I know of. It gave me a lot of flexibility, since I couldn’t get it wrong as long as I stayed true to what I know about LARP’s in general. The second is all of these gamers dealing with a non-believer dropped into their midst. It was difficult because I had to stay away from heavy explanation but still get all of the info out. Well, there was my parallel plot structure. Yeeha. Lastly, I decided the best way to get all of the “good stuff” I got from other people into the mix was to simply put them in as standalone soliloquies or vignettes, as I like to call them. Originally, each vignette would be a character that was put in ONLY to deliver that vignette. Also, the original concept was that each vignette would ‘set up’ the next scene of the play. Great idea, until the scenes I had written stopped correlating to the concepts within each vignette.
I took a step back. I had a mess. I had a plot that wasn’t going anywhere, crazy people jumping up to tell their story for no reason, and a cast of over twenty people. I had to flesh out the characters, make them relate to each other better, and make the whole thing more coherent. The play went to the back burner for a couple of days.
I returned with this idea: part out every vignette to a character already within the play. I liked this idea for several reasons. The best is that, for an audience member, it adds more depth to the character than one could ever infer from simple dialogue alone. Now, any given character in the play is three people: who he is in the LARP, who he lets his other players see, and finally the “secret” relationship he has with the audience, much like Richard III. It also cut the cast in half and allows for the passage of time without closing he curtain or changing scenery. In doing this, these characters become guides or instructors for the edifying level of the play. They are the “why and how” of the gamers.
So, I got the play done. Then I rewrote it. Then I rewrote it again. Finally, I got drunk and went through it again. Finally, I gave it to Marc.
Marc liked it. He like my writing, my humor, and he could tell that I’d put a lot of work into it. But, it didn’t take me long to figure out that he was looking at gamers as an “us and them” sort of thing, thinking it more as a cult than a hobby. He was looking at it from a strictly theatrical standpoint. I explained that I wrote this for a very specific purpose: to capture the lifestyle of people who have blurred the boundaries of real and imaginary to the point where it becomes a strength rather than an affliction. I became an ambassador for the dreamers, explaining that there are some who all but live at the Ren Faire, spend every weekend at festivals, etc. He thought that they must all be independently wealthy, since they couldn’t function in the real world. I tried to explain that rejection of the mundane did not mean rejection of real life, that people actually made a good living as well as living an alternative lifestyle. The play doesn’t share what every character does for a living, since I didn’t think it was important at the time. One of characters is wealthy, one is a business owner, one is a secretary, and one is a dressmaker. I thought this was a good enough representation of “all walks of life.” Marc’s idea of character was very two-dimensional.
He had other suggestions, but they were all suggestions that would have made the play more meaningful for him, and each one was in direct conflict with what I was trying to do.
Basically, he didn’t get it. We both settled down on the fact that it needs to be “play tested” by being put in front of an audience who WOULD get it.
So, if you were made fun of in High School because you were a geek, if you have ever stood in a convenience store in costume, if you have swords hanging on your wall or have an elaborate closet full of Halloween costumes, you may enjoy this play. You may even see someone very much like you in it.
On Sunday, January 17th, 2010, Sean has been gracious enough to set up a reading. I’d be really interested to find out if I’ve succeeded, got my work cut out for me, or if I’ve outright failed in my attempt to capture something that no one else ever has.
Marc gave me an A - , so it has already served one purpose. I’m curious to know if it serves the greater purpose.
