Tuesdays with Daniel : )

A decent day’s work.

I spent the morning re-reading some characterization techniques. 10 is about as many actors as you’d expect a company to typically be able to perform… So I made a list of everyone in the book I could think of – there are 22 so far. 

So there’s that. Then I got to thinking about Our Town again – which, by the way, has 22 characters even with the stage manager playing several others.  So it’s not impossible – but still.

Since I’m considering Cain will be the ‘stage manager’ at the opening, he could then play several other smaller roles throughout the play – the mayor, Dulan, Odell, etc.  But there are also a lot of female peripheral characters (Belle, Miss Caroline, Macy’s grandmother, etc.). 

SO – My immediate thought is that perhaps Cain and Macy could both open the play and play all the minor characters, male and female throughout. There’s still too many characters overall – because we’d also have YOUNG Cain and Macy, but it’s a thought.

It could be interesting to have them both at the opening – the town is abandoned. The audience won’t necessarily know what relationship this couple has… married? siblings? cousins? Exes? It’s always good to engage curiosity as soon as possible. And Macy could bring a little more bite to how she explains things… Cain is more sentimental and nostalgic while she’d be a little jaded – so that could be a good contrast.

So – then I decided to read all of Our Town again. It came out in 1938, but is set in 1901-1913 (again – 12 years, 22 characters - cue spooky music).  Reading it again, still made me cry and think about the first time I saw it on stage.  It’s a minimalist set, which is interesting – only chairs and ladders really – no real props. You may remember it as the play that Woody from Cheers was in where he climbed the ladder to talk to the girl. : )

Anyway, after reading it, I spent a couple hours on the screenplay to let my mind absorb it all. I’m currently 16 pages into a screenplay - and only at Dip’s memorial at the store. This is going to be a LONG screenplay – but the goal on the screenplay is to do it verbatim from the book – just to keep the juices flowing. When I have the humongous final product I can whittle it down to the best parts.

Calling it a day now. By the way – my random dancing song today was Run Joey Run, by David Geddes. A classic. lol 

Though technically it was more of a performance than a dance.

 : )