31 Plays in 31 Days, #20 - "Tap Dance"

This scene comes in the back half of the fourth episode of Dream Machine, at some point after Day #5 - "Park Moms", Day #13 - "Mobile Set Pieces", and Day #16 - "Crawling Back".

Thanks to 31P31D this year, I've drafted about half of episode four, which focuses on nailing down the lead cast for the network's new show. I want a big part of it to force Leah and Josie to work together, to figure out who the main character Josie is going to be playing is. The show is an adaptation of a romance novel series from the 90's, and they have to collaborate to imbue the new version of character with a personality that is compelling to an audience of modern women. But Leah is resistant to working with others, while Josie is pulled between her own artistic ambitions and her desire to please and win the approval of the people around her. Forcing her and Leah to hash it out will be a good source of conflict, and something that will finally push Josie to standing up for herself and her work.

This is a somewhat poorly excerpted moment from a larger interaction between the two. This is the point where Josie starts to get tired of trying to be what Leah's looking for and starts calling her on her lack of collaborative effort. I like using what I think of as the Pinter method of forcing interpersonal conflict, by locking the characters in a room unable to get away from each other, and so their issues come out.

A big chunk of this is stolen from a pact Bob Fosse and Paddy Chayefsky supposedly had with each other, with Josie as Fosse and Leah as Chayefsky.



( Day #20 - Tap Dance )