Tangles In Your Teeth
Good Things Coming |
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Good Things Coming |
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I may finish the first rewrite today of my comedy Tangles In Your Teeth, if I can create a monologue for Sam. That's my hurdle. I want to intertwine Happy and Sam in their monologues. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm working on it.
I've realized that my 'comedy' is more of a combination of comedy and drama. I do not think comedically. So, in rewriting Tangles In Your Teeth, I am creating strong comedic characters. (In my opinion). I don't know any jokes, and I can't write punchlines. So, I have created Chuck and Amelia. I think that Chuck and Amelia can be taken out of this play and plunked anywhere, and they'll bring laughter. I am trying to build Amelia's character, at present, place her in a situation where her zaniness comes through. Through two strong characters, I'm bringing comedy into my otherwise serious play. I know nothing about comedy, so, I cannot rely on things like structure. As an experimental writer, I don't utilize traditional structure, anyway. God knows I don't follow the prescribed 5-Act format for my abstract plays. For Tangles..., I have to think in terms of building up the characters, and creating scenes that reveal their natures. I cannot write comedy otherwise. All of this leads me to realize that my technique is very different than that used by contemporary playwrights of comedy. It seems to me that those who have a natural inclination for comedy think wholly in comedic terms. Their dialogue is entirely driven by comedy. Writers today seem to create from a comedic world where physical comedy and comedic situations reign. And, as comedic writers, they probably have studied comedy in some capacity, for they understand the ideas of "set up" and "punchline". (I do not). All I know about comedy is Shakespeare, commedia dell'arte, and Woody Allen. I've read and seen comedic plays. I don't enjoy them as much as drama, as a whole. Mostly, I notice that there is no poetic dialogue used in today's comedy, though, as in the case of a play I recently saw, From The Mouths Of Babes by Israel Horovitz, the dialogue may be strong. (Sadly, I do not think strong dialogue abounds in contemporary comedy). But, the lush, haughty poetic is void from most contemporary comedic dialogue. Since I am a poet, everything I write comes out poetically, and, I write naturally in iambic meter. So, this makes me an anomaly. What does all my observation tell me? What conclusion do I derive from all this intense thought? ... ... I'm old-fashioned. Poetically-- Old-fashioned. I'm old/fashion out-of-date. So far past the Egg Beaters freshiness blue-typed graphic, I've become soufflé. Not the fancy kind, either, with bacon inside. Just plain ol' eggs. Puffy on top, water in the bottom. Sad face, sad face. :( I am not deterred! (insert heroic emoticon) No. Oh, no. I embrace my antiquity! I embrace it. (syn. hug, cuddle, squeeze). I am infusing my contemporary comedy Tangles In Your Teeth with sensual, poetic dialogue. I have sporadic rhyme in my play. I have a few lines of iambic pentameter. Yes! Ah, I have poetic interludes in Tangles..., by golly. My character Leonora speaks in plush, erotic lines. Leonora is a passionate creature. We can all relate to (her) passion. I'm taking my bad poetic self and writing a beautiful comedy. Rewrite #1 is almost complete.
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June 2018
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