The Creative Act

So I’m not sure how I’m going to handle this, but my goal is to work on a play through this blog. This may turn out terribly intrusive, or simply fall behind all the other entries. We’ll see. New things will appear italicized. Should save some time if you’re interested, but not so devoted you’ll compare the entirety of the post to the previous (”Ah hah! He changed the spelling of Analyze to Analyse!!”).

For those of you that don’t know, I’m an amateur puppeteer. I was in a Fringe Festival play last year, and my troupe (sans moi) is in again with a much more, dare I say, audacious piece than last time. They haven’t received quite the reviews they did when I was in the show, but who would?

Anyhoo, my buddy Asa, the man behind the strings, has found this to be a huge burden in terms of the effort involved in staging the show. Since the venue is not reserved for their act alone it means that they must strike the stage and all the props each performance. This is a huge effort, since even the actors must be lifted up carefully, and stored with an eye to not breaking them.

All that said, NEXT year he/we will likely try to stage a show of our/his own outside the fringe, in a devoted venue. So I thought I’d start the script writing process a little early this year, and try to flesh out one of the few ideas I’ve been working on.

(If you’re interested, a trailer for his new play is at members.shaw.ca/a_nod. Look for Fringe 08, or the Aethernomicon)

So, Idea 1 – The Noble forger - A foppish gentleman finds his life empty and devoid of meaning. He believes he needs the thrill of flouting the law like a highwayman. His assorted hangers-on will be cleverly performed by a one piece puppet. They will all laugh in synchronization.

Act 1 – He complains about his life. Know one really KNOWS who he is (a lovely young thing with gigantic teeth with protest this, but he will continue). But Criminals get known! Oh to be hung upon a noble gallows… So, gentleman of books that he is, he goes to the dockyard pubs and starts throwing money around asking ‘Do you know anyone particularly… unsavoury, my good chap?’. A recently arrived forger notes his presence, and befriends him.

Act 2 – They go into business. The forger keeps the nobleman quiet about the thrill of their crime by taking silverware from the nobleman and turning it into forged coins. Meanwhile he has used the original funds to hire an engraver who is devoted, heart and soul, to the art of copying (ample room for at least one joke about derivative theatre). The nobleman, anxious to be known as a rough-and-tumble sort starts dropping coins around town, and acting conspicuously secretive. Finally he is forced to just say, before a magistrate, “ha! You had no idea! These coins are fraudulent! I have fooled you utterly!” All three men are taken to prison.

Act 3 – the Trial – some prison escape attempts, and the trial where the engraver is ordered executed (”Oh, praise the lord… Recognition!”), the true forger is similarly sentenced (”WHAT? ” attempts to throttle the ninny gentleman) and the nobleman, accused of passing fraudulent currency, is actually found to have been passing true currency. The forger lied to him, and simply sold the silverware, and gave him cash. The act will end/epilogue with another party (similar to the one at the opening) where he is telling stories about his wild and treacherous past where each man would as soon cut the throat of the man beside as spit on his boots.

Idea 2 – Competition of the Gods – Changed focus!  My good friend suggested that it might be more interesting to have the puppeteers play the gods en masque, which does seem more appropriate.  That’d be neat, to dress up like Zeus, eh?

The gods (shadow puppets/Marionettes), bored yet again, compete with each other to determine who’s hero was the greatest. They do this by telling stories about their heroes (marionettes/Shadow puppets) which are shown in This will allow a nice mix of marionette-ery and shadow puppets. Originally I was thinking fabulous God puppets, but they wouldn’t be moving much, and people like to see puppets move, so flip the two, with heroes as real puppets, gods as shadow puppets, and their narration over the scenes in the foreground. Each god (likely Zeus, Odin/Thor, Buddha, Xaos/Eris, Trickster Crow, … Moai, … ummm… Mammon)

The only problem I’m having with switching them is that having the hero stories as shadow puppets would allow cool shadow puppets, each story done in a style corresponding to their culture of origin.

Idea 3 – this is more for a web-based serial, and I’ve got most of the script somewhere, but I fear that’s on the East coast.

Zee’s Moon Patrol – A rag tag crew of misfits on a naval patrol submarine that guards the cornfields under the moon’s oceans. Led by the daring Lance Banner and crewed by a bunch of, as previously mentioned, misfits they must constantly battle both the conservative elements of the naval command and the evil Moon Mutants (led by the fiendish Brainiac Proteus) to protect the citizens of the United States of Lunaria.

I’ve most of the first episode written. The dastardly moon mutants are using drilling machines to undermine the lunar cities, making the inhabitants evacuate for fear of moonquakes. When the mutants take the cities it is up to Zee’s Moon Patrol to drive them off and win the day!

More as I have time. I was just jealous that everyone else was posting so much!