breakinglight11 | Preparing to write for Giving@First on 2/8

This weekend I'm going to be writing for Theatre@First's next charity 24-hour play marathon, Giving@First to benefit Team Fox in its Parkinson's research.

I've written for it both previous times as well, in October and April 2018. The first time I wrote LOVE IS DEAD: Or, You Can't Spell "Necromancer" Without "Romance" about a zombie who resented his necromancer's attempts at online dating. The second time I wrote The Creature From the Backlot Lagoon, which involved a film actor finding out that movie monsters weren't just CGI or rubber suits. They both came out witty and funny, particularly LOVE IS DEAD, and I was proud of them because they were an exercise in doing humor of a different sort than the dry, mannered, Wildean style that I usually do because of Mrs. Hawking. And apparently I like to write about ridiculous monsters when the pressure is on.

I'm trying to do a little advance brainstorming for this Friday. Not to bend the rules too hard, but I'm not really a night person and the event doesn't even kick off until 9pm. It's tricky for me to come up with everything late at night, so I'd like to already have an idea to write once things get going, something flexible enough to fit whatever secret ingredients we receive.

I guess ideally I'll do something funny. In these slapdash festival situations, I know the humorous pieces tend to go over best with the audiences. But I wonder if it would be inappropriate to do something serious, or even dark. At the moment the only ideas springing to mind are more on that side. I don't want to kill the vibe, or throw something in that doesn't fit the context. I should probably do my best not to kill my streak, and do something funny about monsters again, seeing as those went over so well last time. But my brain is going to more dramatic, even dark, scenarios only right now.

Or else, Hawking related stuff. That's what's mostly on my creative radar right now; I've even got ideas for funny scenes. But that might even be more inappropriate, maybe? Would it be hijacking the event to promote my own show? Would the audience who wasn't familiar with it think it was out of place? It's just it's the easiest thing for me to put together well in a short amount of time. And I notice that there are even a few actors who've been in the shows— Eric Cheung, Jackie Freyman, for example —and if I happen to get paired with them, I could write something for their characters. But I don't want to contribute anything that's wrong for the venue, and I'm not sure what the limits here are.

Oh, well. More brainstorming to do.