Onsite Theatre Commission: Day 7 (+Playground: Splitting the Difference)

I couldn’t resist. I was supposed to take the night off from writing, from working, from theater. Give my brain a night to turn off. Didn’t happen. Playground’s Origin Story topic was too damn compelling to pass up. I mean, come on, I have a blog titled after a comic book character’s namesake. I thought about revisiting the Superman-like-character-lands-in-a-more-dysfunctional-Kansas story (ala Superman: Red Son) but found myself gravitating more towards a play from that same time period (I think?) about a man who believes that he has gained superpowers from the copier he slaves over at work . . . yes, this was a literary intern’s fantasy. That play was as much about the wife’s dissatisfaction in her marriage and also a newsman’s desperation to find a story, which would have a much different weight now during the death of print media. But I also wanted to explore the characters in the Hostel Play. Problem is, I don’t know who the fifth actor is. So, I split the difference: I am taking the character who gained superpowers from the copy machine (CopyBoy) and putting him in a five-character play. That way, I am at least practicing juggling five voices in a room.

For anyone writing a play about superheroes, Powers is required reading. The world of this series is explored through the investigations of a special police unit which solves superhero homicides. It is all about the humanity of superhumans in a world that doesn’t want them around but can’t afford to lose them, but it also constructs a healthy dose of mythology. Extremely dark and gritty and sexy and dangerous. What would society do if suddenly we had vigilantes who could fly with superstrength and superspeed, or villains who could eviscerate a whole police squad without breaking a sweat? Freak out, that’s what.

Onsite Theatre Commission: Day 5 (+Playground)

I checked out House & Garden (which I guess is their official name when they are spoken of as a pair?) from our library. Have I mentioned the conservatory has its own library? I have haven’t I. Easily one of the most amazing perks of the job. And I am in with the head librarian. I’ve got three books on Canadian theater that I am going to recommend he acquire. Amazing.

Anyway: Ayckbourn’s House & Garden is now in my possession. I should be rereading his Round and Round the Garden, which is the next play we’re doing after Vigil. Actually, I should be reading The Norman Conquests, the trilogy of which Round and Round is the third play. But, in fact, if I read any play this weekend it is going to be Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park, which our dramaturg really likes. Our dramaturg really likes well-crafted naturalism. He lent me his Christopher Shinn anthology and I was surprised how much I really like well-craft naturalism. I am really enjoying Clybourne Park as well. There is something really impressive about no-frills, human drama in which there is nothing extreme or extraordinary about the circumstances but the stakes are subtly very high. Some lessons I need to learn for the Hostel Play.

But, in fact, I probably won’t read any play this weekend because it is Playground Weekend! Playground every month gives the 36 playwrights in their writing pool a topic. That topic is to inspire a ten-minute play. That ten-minute play is to be written in a weekend. Of the 36 ten-minute plays, they pick 6 to produce. I was going to skip this month. I’ve got enough on my plate. But then they gave us the topic: Origin Story. Muthaf-insonuvamonkey’suncle’s#$%^&%#@! Come on! How am I going to pass that one up?

Origin Story: In comic book terminology, an origin story is an account or backstory revealing how a character or team gained their superpowers and/or the circumstances under which they became superheroes or supervillains.

My immediate thought was to experiment with this story I have had in my head since Chicago called Overmen, in which a superman-like character lands in another part of Kansas, not idealized Kansas, and is brought up in an unhappy household in which the wife abuses the husband. I started the research on husband-abuse. Really interesting and very upsetting.

But if I am going to do Playground this month, I should somehow be working towards the Onsite Commission, no? Is there a way to write 5 origin stories, one for each of the five characters in the Hostel Play? I mean, yes, of course there is; but is there a way to converge those five origin stories to craft a ten-minute play out of them? Oupff. That’s a trick.

Especially when this weekend is really supposed to be about finishing up Alice. So much to write. So little time.

Quote of the Day: “I’ll patrol and stuff as soon as I get off.”

Oh no! Apparently the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie might not be the high-quality film I hoped and dreamed it would be! All other criticism aside, the following might be the most damning in my mind:

As for Gambit, he barely appears and exists only to appease the few and vocal. His fight scene with Logan is especially amusing, as it causes tons of property damage without comment, and because it quickly becomes a classic ‘neither of us want to lose, but the fans want to see us fight’ smack down, resulting in no real outcome and no story advancement.

What the crap! Thanks for the heads up, Scott Mendelson! Unnecessary storyline. “Astoundingly conventional, uncompelling [sic], and completely cliché.” I can deal with that. I can lower my expectations. But insufficient use of Gambit? Unforgivable! This movie just got downgraded to Netflixable. 

In other superhero news, apparently while I’m talking the talk a number of people are walking the walk:

I visited Shadow Hare’s myspace page (of course I did) and found a definite quote of the day (bumping the line “The invented adjective ‘Santayanian’ lends his poem all the grace of a walking crow” found in the Edward Albee biography I am reading in prep for Edward Albee’s At Home At the Zoo [the play formerly known as, simply, At Home at the Zoo (previously titled Peter and Jerry)]):

Shadow Hare Is going to work….I’ll patrol and stuff as soon as I get off.

But as ridiculous as this status update makes Shadow Hare seem, reading through the comments on his page it becomes clear that even if he isn’t “doing” a whole lot of hero work, he is a hero to a lot of people, especially other aspiring heroes. Will some stupid kids in masks get hurt following his example? Seems exceedingly likely. If they are anything like Shadow Hare himself, they are scrawny, high-pitched youngsters walking around with pepper spray. But kids get hurt in a plethora of violent and nonviolent ways, and I’m not going to be a dick about it like Justin Yu is his article:

The first thing these guys need, judging from the video, is a super gym membership with a super personal trainer on the side. Plenty of comic book characters don’t actually have super powers, Batman being the most popular, but the difference here is that he makes up for it with intense physical and psychological training and gadgets unobtainable by the public–therein lies the mystique, that not just anyone can be a superhero. These guys, on the other hand, just look gross.

Are there ways that Shadow Hare and his posse could more effectively strike fear in the hearts of Cincinnati criminals? Surely. But I don’t see you out there, Mr. Yu. And as one commenter suggests,

Simply having the light on at night makes one’s home less desirable to thieves. So these group of, yes, less than powerful super heroes simply roaming around the streets does make the city safer. I don’t want them listening to police scanners, going out and interfering with crimes in progress because they could get hurt. But what they are doing, although it may seem silly, is commendable. As long as the police know who they are, and they aren’t actually trying to apprehend people, let them be.

And in Shadow Hare’s own words:

And as for anyone else reading this, we have just gotten started, we are nowhere near over yet. We will fight tooth and nail to make this world a much better place. The Allegiance has assembled….people are starting to know…..criminals and corrupt people will run out of places to hide. We are going to give the people the last laugh. Just wait and see.  Stay tuned for next time, Im sure things are going to get very furry.

I see the shadows of shadows

-Shadow Hare

Not the most eloquent, but certainly inspiring in its own way for its sincerity.

(The preceding video employs the use of expletives and homosexual innuendos that may be inappropriate for younger audiences, Puritans, and Old Testament characters named Lot. But if you laughed your ass off, go here for the other episodes.)