31 Plays in 31 Days, #4 - "Enough Time to Learn"

Another scene from the first draft of Gilded Cages. This scene sets up Nathaniel's journey in the play, his discovering of the Colonel's turning down a knighthood and struggling with the fact that he'll never know why. Originally I was going to set this piece in 1885, pushing it a little farther into the future, but I looked at my timeline and realize that since the Colonel died in 1879, I should go with a year earlier to get that five-year milestone. I kind of wish it could occur a little later-- a historical event I'm planning on including in part 6 happens in 1888, so I'm trying to spread out the time jumps between episodes --but I think this shift was necessary.

The scene I posted for day #2 - "The One" is the next step of this story thread.

( Day #4 - Enough Time to Learn )

31 Plays in 31 Days, #5 - "Continual Practice"

This is a weird one. It's a scene I scribbled to see how it might work, as I had a wild hare of an idea that kind of works into something I want to deal with in Mrs. Hawking part 6. I want to keep the character of Mrs. Frost present-- I joke I might transition her story role from James Moriarty to Hannibal Lector --for several stories because I like her so much.

But this idea... it's a little twisted, and comes from a pretty deep dive into Mrs. Hawking's psychology. And, truth be told, a lot of my own. Mrs. Hawking is something of a power fantasy for me, so a lot of stuff I think about or wish I could do shows up in her. Still, she rarely reflects my issues so... directly, let's say... as she does here. While I think it's very in character, she's angry here about something I'm angry about. This idea needs more development, but I think I can use to to accomplish an idea I'll eventually want to include in the sixth story.

( Day #5 - Continual Practice )