All Eyes on Me

So this could turn into something fun, but right now it doesn’t have enough direction. It would be fun to do another Justin Hawking story in the vein of Gentlemen Never Tell, but right now I only have bits and pieces of ideas. I like the idea that each time we tell a Justin story, it comes in the form of a semi-tall tale Justin is recounting to a loved one, so today’s scene is noodling around with a frame for such a story. In this case, I chose Reggie, Nathaniel and Clara’s son and Justin’s nephew, who like his sister Beatrice is finally old enough to be depicted onstage. This scene doesn’t really know what it’s doing yet— what the story is about, what it’s trying to say, what the set up is— but I like the idea of Justin as Fun But Maybe a Bad Influence Uncle in Reggie’s life.



( Day #17 - Let Me Tell You )

Wanted to write something a little naughty, and this idea's been knocking around my head since we wrote Gentlemen Never Tell. We're very, very close to having a finished edit of Gentlemen Never Tell's full production, and so it's been very much on my mind.



Basically, Justin, Rosaline, and Cassius play Never Have I Ever. This scene doesn't really go anywhere, but it has some funny bits and amusing character moments.

( Day #23 - Never Have I Ever )

Thought since fall is now underway, it’s a good time to update on what I’ve got going on and what I’m working on. I’m back to work now, after a fairly lean summer.

I have five classes, for which I’m extremely grateful— four at Lesley, one at MCPHS, which is a new institution for me. I’ve been trying to get hired at a new institution for years, and I was actually offered classes at several other schools as well, though this was the only one I had time to accept. It’s a pretty heavy course load, but I need the money, so it’s good I was able to secure it. My kids are already making it clear that they’re going to need a lot of support— maybe more than any other semester of my career —so I’m already feeling the weight of it. I’m also putting everything in place for the next round of Hawking production.

We’re doing a live version of Gentlemen Never Tell to perform at Arisia 2022, but also I’ve decided I want to make recorded versions of the Hawking back catalogue, for accessibility and permanence. So our other show will be a return to Mrs. Hawking part I, to make a high-quality staged production specifically optimized for filming on camera, so people can get into the series even if they can’t make the stage shows, or at least couldn’t back when we first started. Bernie and I also re-edited the Hawking I script, because the original was written all the way back in 2012 and just isn’t up to our current standard. I like the new version much better, but it took us a long time to finish. Since Bernie’s been so busy with his new job, the going was slow.

We’re also working on finishing the first episode of Dream Machine. We put together an assembly cut for the cast party and I was really happy and proud of it so far. But again, Bernie’s the one in charge of the editing, and he’s been absolutely underwater. We’d hoped to have it done by the end of the summer, but it’ll just have to come at its own pace. We’re in the process of finding backgrounds, though I’ve already accomplished most of the sound design. I’m pretty proud of that, seeing as that’s not my usual strong suit.

And I’ve done a ton of work on my Captain America fan fictions. They’re pleasant, low-stakes, and I don’t need to work with or wait on anyone to make progress on them. They get kind of a lot of hits, and I don’t have to be begging my friends to check them out because of the built in audience, so as a validation source they’ve been really addictive. Because they’re the lowest priority, they get shoved to the wayside when I’m busy. But they’re a really nice boost when I need it.

So, quite a bit. Not too unusual for me, I guess. But I’m already feeling a touch of overwhelm. I know I’ll get through it, I suppose I always do. But I think it’s going to take a lot.

Was doing the last checks on the Hawking digital shows-- making sure the captions were good, that sort of thing. And it had me listening to the new soundtracks we put in one last time, in hopes that we'll enrich the experience and polish up the production value. And it reminded me just how lucky I am to know and work with a talent like Cari Keebaugh, who chose most of the music in FALLEN WOMEN.

Music and sound aren't my strong point, so when she offered to help me find the right stuff, I was incredibly grateful. Her choices were thoughtful and evocative, showing her deep understanding of the story we're telling. Even her silences were well-considered; when I was handling the music for GENTLEMEN NEVER TELL, I know I struggled with where to underscore and where to let the moment stand alone. The tracks add so much to the experience of the show, and I know it would never have come out as good on my own as it did with her work and her ear. GENTLEMEN's contributes to the energy, humor, and occasional pathos of the piece, but FALLEN's is moody, contemplative, and at times heartbreaking.

Most people would probably think they were doing their friend enough of a favor by being one of the most talented people they've ever worked with. Cari goes above and beyond.

October Review Challenge, #19 - "What’s a side character who turned out special?"

This is, without a doubt, Justin Hawking from the Mrs. Hawking series. He’s one of my favorite characters I’ve ever written. He is the charming, globetrotting elder brother of lead character Nathaniel Hawking, and designed to act as a foil to him. Where Nathaniel craves approval, Justin has turned not caring what people think of him into a lifestyle. Nathaniel is conventional, Justin is radical. Nathaniel is a mild-mannered monogamous father, while Justin is a bisexual libertine who’ll try anything once. It turned out I loved writing their interactions; I found giving them a push-pull between being there for one another and trying to get each other’s goat made for a very compelling relationship.

He’s just so charismatic and fun. He first appeared to needle everybody in part III: Base Instruments. I liked how he was sexy and fearless about it; again it made a nice contrast to the rest of the prudish and goody-goody cast. And I liked how he challenged them on their preconceptions, given his boldness in the face of social convention and his understanding of the artificiality and falseness of it. Still, we gave him a bit of extra dimension by revealing he’s sensitive to the fact that he’s the black sheep of his family, and Bernie suggested giving him a romantic history with Nathaniel’s wife Clara, to add an extra layer of complication.

I missed him since retiring Base Instruments from rep. He was played by Eric Cheung and Christian Krenek, each in their own way but both with a lot of charm. So, when Bernie and I wanted to go lighter and funny for our Hawking show this year, we decided it was finally time to bring him back— specifically in his own spinoff, the Wodehousian romantic comedy Gentlemen Never Tell. It allowed us to not only enjoy his fun and humorous qualities, it let us explore him a little bit more deeply. In this story, in addition to being funny, we let him confront his privilege as a wealthy libertine, and confront the fact that a lot of people see him as a user, as well as get to demonstrate his bisexuality in a meaningful way.

We’ll be putting that show up for the first time this fall. Christian plays Nathaniel these days, so Eric will be returning to bring him again to life. I’m really excited to be returning to him. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.


Photo by John Benfield

Well, shut my mouth. I’ve completed my one-scene-of-drama-every-day-for-a-month challenge for the ninth year in a row, and instead of it being a chore on top of all my other work, it was actually useful for the first time in ages in making progress toward completing projects.

Admittedly, it’s partially due to a mistake on my part. Due to losing planning ability from quarantine-related time blindness, Bernie and I started this year’s Hawking piece much later than we usually do. That meant that while usually we are taken up with editing an early draft of that play in August, this year we were actually generating it. So having to write something every day anyway actually assisted with that, and we made good, if late, headway.

Because of these timing issues, in previous years 31P31D has been primarily, often overwhelmingly, taken up with Hawking scenes. This year, we had of course a decent chunk, but I also spent a lot of time on my new side project, a sitcom series performed as screenplay readings over Zoom, Dream Machine. I started it to have something to make and perform while socially distancing, but I’ve enjoyed writing it and found getting together with lovely actor friends to read it to be a source of genuine joy during these rather bleak times. So I’ve devoted a fair bit of time and energy to it.

We’ve done three episodes already, and I used the 31P31D challenge to make a lot of progress on episode four. They’re purposefully designed to be banged together quickly, rather than requiring my usual lengthy and rigorous editing process, so they’re not exactly perfect, but I’ve been happy at how funny they are, without completely sacrificing character or pathos. I’m glad to be able to record another one soon, since they’ve been such a bright spot for me. At this point I’ve done some imagining for a full season, as if it were a real TV show, and even drafted a handful of scenes for future episodes this month.

( Here are the counts for what pieces and characters I wrote scenes for. )

I notice there’s a lot more variation of projects, and a wider range of characters included. Story leads are always much more frequently occurring, like Justin Hawking, who’s getting his own play for the first time, and Leah Lucchesi, the main character of Dream Machine, and the characters that respectively surrounds them. Mrs. Hawking, who is usually heavily represented, occurred only three times this year, due to the fact that she won’t appear in the Justin side story. Nathaniel always shows up a lot, because he’s so easy to write for.

I also found myself thinking this year about which actors I was writing for more than I ever have previously. Of course a lot of the characters are new and have not been cast yet, but I took note of who played the previously existing characters and who showed up most often. Far and away the actor I wrote the most material for was Eric Cheung, with him having played Justin Hawking, Ryan Dresden, and Freddy Crane, for a total of 17 scenes. Others frequently occurring were Naomi Ibatsitas as Leah with 8, and Liz Salazar as Meredith, Christian Krenek as Nathaniel, and Cari Keebaugh as Mrs. Hawking and Josie, each totaling 5.

It was a nice change to feel motivated by the experience rather than burdened. In fact, I pulled massively head during the process, eleven days in advance at the farthest point. As a result, I enjoyed actually DOING the challenge, rather than simply having done it, more than I have in years.

A too long scene that requires having the excess bits cut out from Justin’s story. It’s about adding another layer of complication to the narrative, giving Justin yet another job he’s going to have to accomplish over the course of the story. It also elaborates on the character of Theo, an old schoolfellow of Justin’s, who can be seen in Day #19 - “The Party Met” and Day #25 - “Beheaded”. Theo is our most conventionally Wodehouse archetype of all the characters— he’s our Drone, our hapless and slightly dumb young toff who’s gotten himself into a mess.

I like the ideas in this, but the scene is very long, and there’s a lot of fluff to it that could stand to lose.


Photo by John Benfield

( Day #29 - A New Fancy )

While I want Justin’s play to be by and large a comedy, I don’t want it to be completely without meaning. I like everything I write to have ideas in it. So it’s kind of turning out to be Justin recognizing the struggles of others who may not have the luxury of treating life like a game the way he can.

This scene references the events of Day #21 - "The Bet", where the tone was considerably more playful. But this is about when the fun’s over and things get real.


Photo by John Benfield

( Day #22 - Of a Kind )

This is the scene where the first real plot issue kicks off for Justin's adventure. It comes after Day #8 - "A Caper in Venice", Day #14 - "Man of Philosophy", Day #15 - “Reputation Precedes”, and Day #18 - "The Honorable Cash", in that order, though not immediately. The family to whom the house belongs is first introduced, as is something important about Rosaline Pembroke, which gives Justin the first complication he's facing in his adventure.

I notice there are seven of characters in this scene. Historically I have found blocking with more than five characters to be challenging, but since we'll be doing this socially distanced through video recordings, it won't give me the usual problems.


Photo by Anna Munch

( Day #19 - The Party Met )

One of the primary features of Justin Hawking is that he’s something of a man-slut. We wanted to make his romantic adventures a centerpiece of the adventure and humor of his first solo story, in addition to finally being able to manifest his bisexuality in some kind of tangible way. To this end, Justin will be chasing one new romantic prospect, in this case a woman, with whom he can have crackling interplay, and encountering a previous paramour, in this case a man, with whom he can bicker in an electric, sexually tense way. It will make both the bisexuality and the sluttiness present in a way that they might not have before.

This scene follows immediately after yesterday’s Day #14 - “Man of Philosophy” and introduces the woman he’ll be chasing, Rosaline. I want her to be both a charming match-slash-opponent for him, but also have some real need of her own to give her narrative weight, and challenge Justin’s flippant view of the world. It’s important to me that the Casanova does not fall in love and pair off— Justin’s not wired for that —but having to deal with the humanity and struggles of those who cannot float as freely as he does makes for a more interesting story.

Also, Justin loves cuties who are just a little bit mean to him.


Photo by Anna Munch

( Day #15 - Reputation Precedes )