Endeavors: Ten Minute Plays

Why have I been busy? I’ve been writing… a lot of it.

But what exactly? Well that is a bit of a loaded question with a not so easy answer so I will try.

Over a year ago I was in rehearsals for a series of one-acts, one of those one-acts was Christopher Durang’s Kitty the Waitress. In his afterword this particular ten minute play was created with the intention of being one in a series of nine cat related plays… In his original intention the fifth life. So why not create something like that?

So where would I begin? Considering that I listen to music non-stop while working I decided to go with that and listen to songs and if inspiration strikes to quickly write ideas down before I forget them and move on. So if I were to do that what songs would I use? Early on, two songs whose story popped up rather quickly were:
1) Savage Garden’s Two Beds and a Coffee Machine
2) Celine Dion’s It’s All Coming Back to Me Now

What if my current goal with all these ten minute play I have in my head is to write a series of them that could either be stand alones or done in a group. I mean the songs that inspire them are depressing but some have good beats. It would be an interesting way to tie a series of plays together by a singular thread.

Not only that but it would also solve my problem of wanting to do a “one woman show” of sorts without really having to do a one woman show.

At the moment the first of the ten-minutes is written and awaiting for me to give the “go ahead” for a table reading, but a table reading for one ten-minute play didn’t seem like much… **boom** a second ten-minute play popped out of my head and is written and is now undergoing heavy editing. Not only that but two other possibilities are percolating in my head.

As for style: yes… I am trying a different type of storytelling for this particular ten-minute play. Eventually I intend to create a series of ten-minute plays that tell the story of Neil and Alexis in snapshots. Right now I have four (two written, two in my head) and who knows how many others there are beyond that.

Overall, I’d like to have a handful of ten-minutes that revolve around the pairing presented in the first of the series. These ten-minutes would reflect on what makes them tick and their lives “together”… this way if it ever hits publication and if people actually want to produce them… they could create their own series by either doing all the ten-mins in one sitting or pick and choosing which ones to produce to fit their needs. So eventually there would be an addendum of ideas and changes if certain combos were to be done.

Stemming from that I do have another series of ten-minutes that deals with another pair (currently unnamed) with other snapshots… but that’s for a different time.

Hmm…

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