12/2/13-12/6/13

This week, I had the goal of sending in my pieces for Girl Be Heard Unplugged, which is a show that Girl Be Heard has every season that features new work by the active company members. We were told to submit anything we have been working on over the season, and at least one piece would end up in the show. I decided to submit my three strongest pieces (or at least the pieces I felt were the strongest). They were already in draft form, so I spent this week making final cuts and edits. I have copied and pasted them here:



PIECE 1

(Lights up on 3 teenage girls and an older, middle aged woman. The girl in the middle, Briana, is sitting across from the middle aged woman. The two other girls to her sides, Bri and Ana, stand beside her.)

Doctor

 So Briana, do you want to tell me what's wrong?

Briana

 I'm depressed

Doctor

 And why's that?

Bri

Yeah why's that? You have so much to be grateful for! Loving parents, good friends, a bright future. What more could you ask for?

Ana

I can answer that.

Bri

Excuse me?

Ana

 I can tell you what more she could ask for.

Bri

Well now I'm curious. Shoot.

Ana

Well for one, she could ask for a treadmill. She's packing on more pounds. She can stop over exaggerating every little thing. She could get people to actually like her. Oh, and she can stop being a burden to everyone.

Bri

 What was that last part?

Ana

She's a burden

Bri

 No she's not.

Ana

Yeah she is. She has her parents spending all of this money on her SAT classes, trips into Manhattan, and this therapy session too. She bothers her friends with every little problem she has. They talk about her behind her back all the time

Bri

You’re a liar

Ana

How so?

Bri

 Her parents do those things because they love her, and her friends listen to her problems because they care. And you have no proof that they talk about her behind her back

Ana

 Well who wouldn't? She's a stress case.

Bri

No!

Ana

Yes!

Bri

 No!

Ana

 Yes!

Briana

Guys!

Doctor

 Briana, is everything okay?

Bri

Yes!

Ana

No!

Briana

 I... I don't know

Doctor

 Who are you talking to?

Briana

 Myself

Doctor

Do you do that a lot?

Briana

I guess

Ana

You guess? Give her a straight answer you idiot!

Bri

Stop that! Briana, tell her whatever you want.

Briana

 Yes. I do       

Doctor

When did this start?

Bri

Um, I really don’t know. Probably when puberty started.

Ana

Because that’s when she became disgusting

Bri

Stop that! She’s beautiful

Doctor

So middle school?

Briana

Um, yeah.

Doctor

And in your head, are you talking to anyone specific?

Briana

Yeah um, two of me.

Doctor

What do they say?

Briana

Um, one’s pretty good I guess. Talks me through problems, gets me through the day.

Doctor

And the other one?

Ana

 The other one?

Briana

 The other one is….

Ana

 Honest

Briana

Brutal

Doctor

Define brutal

Ana

I’ll define brutal for you. I tell it how it is. I don’t sugar coat things for you like little miss sunshine over here.

Bri

 Hey!

Ana

Does it hurt? Maybe, but you wouldn’t last a day without me. I protect you.

Briana

 She protects me.

Bri

 Don’t listen to her! She doesn’t protect you, she brings you down! She tells you lies to make you disgusted with yourself.

Briana

But she makes me feel disgusted with myself.

Doctor

 Can you give me an example?

Ana

Here’s one! Remember freshman year when you had a crush on Brett and he found out? He tried to let you down easy and all by saying he just saw you as a friend, but he was lying. There was a different reason.

Bri

 Briana don’t listen

Ana

 You don’t have to listen, but you already know the reason. You’re…

Bri

Don’t

Ana

 Fat. You’re a cow.

Bri

She isn’t fat. She’s slightly overweight and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. Curves are good. They’re healthy

Ana

 Not when she can barely run two feet in front of her.

Doctor

Briana?

Briana

Huh?

Doctor

 I asked if you could give me an example of something she says to you.

Briana

 Um, things about myself that I already know I guess.

Doctor

Such as?

Briana

 I’m fat.

Bri

 See what you did!

Ana

 Hey she said she already knew.

Doctor

 Anything else?

Briana

 Well, I’m…

Briana & Ana

Ugly, awkward, boring, weird, stupid, unexperienced, oversensitive.

Bri

That’s it!

Ana

Way to interrupt. That’s rude.

Bri

 Really? I’m the rude one? You’re destroying her!

Ana

 I’m just repeating what she already knows.

Bri

 Yeah because you’ve been drilling these adjectives into her head for years! You’re horrible!

Ana

 Flattery won’t get you anywhere.

Doctor

And it’s only things like this?

Briana

 Um, not really.

Doctor

 What else?

Briana

 She talks me into things, out of things.

Doctor

 Such as?

Briana

She talked me out of going to a party today

Ana

 Hey don’t blame that on me. You were invited out of pity.

Bri

Liar. You just don’t want her to have fun.

Doctor

 And how did she do that?

Briana

Convinced me it was a bad idea. I’m not really a party person anyway

Ana

 You aren’t.

Bri

She could be!

Doctor

And why’s that?

Briana

 I’m…

Briana & Ana

 So awkward.

                                                            Bri

Again. Lies. She’s perfectly capable of socializing at a party.

                                                            Ana

But the question is, does she want to?

                                                            Bri

Do you want to?

                                                            Briana

Even if I wasn’t so awkward. I’m not really sure if I’d want to

                                                            Doctor

So it’s not just a self-confidence thing?

                                                            Briana
I don’t think so. I’m not a people person.

                                                            Ana

See?

                                                            Bri

Be quiet.

                                                            Doctor

I see. (Pause) Well we only have about 5 more minutes, but I’ll tell you what I think.

                                                            Ana

Lay it on her doc. She’s hopeless

                                                           

Bri

She’s not hopeless she just needs help. A lot of help.

                                                            Ana

Just face it. I’m not going anywhere.

                                                            Doctor

Well, you can’t have a little voice in your head always telling you the bad things about yourself. It just isn’t healthy.

                                                            Bri

See!

                                                            Doctor

But everyone has flaws. It’s just life.

                                                            Ana

See!

                                                            Doctor

So here’s what we’re going to do. You and I are going to work together so that those two voices in your head can become one. Okay?

                                                            Briana

How are we going to do that?

                                                            Doctor

That’s up to you.

                                                            Briana

I don’t know.

                                                            Doctor

You control what goes on in your head, even though it may be hard to believe.

                                                            Bri

It’s true.

                                                            Ana

Yeah, it is.

                                                            Bri

Did we just agree on something?

                                                            Ana

Shit... I think we did.

                                                            Briana

Whoa, you’re right.

                                                            Doctor

So can we do this?

                                                            Bri

Truce?

                                                            Ana

Yeah.. why not? Truce.

                                                                                    (Bri and Ana shake hands)

                                                            Briana

Yes.

END

END OF PLAY

PIECE 2

So Wrong, It’s Right

I want to be a feminist. A feminist doesn’t fan girl right? A feminist doesn’t wait outside a concert venue for hours just to get a glimpse of that cute guitar player. A feminist doesn’t scream on the top of her lungs for an encore. A feminist doesn’t do this. A feminist isn’t someone whose day can be made by listening to her favorite song. A feminist doesn’t measure her life in the amount of concerts she has attended. A feminist doesn’t fantasize about band members.

 A feminist doesn’t do this, but I do.       

What lifts my spirits isn’t drinking my favorite Starbucks drink. What puts me out of a depression isn’t curling up with a good book. I don’t live for an applause or an “I love you”. I live for my music. Music is what gets me out of bed in the morning. Music is the reason I’m still here. I save all of my money to see my favorite bands in concert. I have more band merch than friends. Warped Tour is my Christmas.                                                                                                                                  

 If being a feminist and having a slight obsession with something that brings me most of my happiness is wrong, well then I don’t want to be right.

PIECE 3

            

What I’m scared of is so not feminist of me. What I’m scared of isn’t that big of a deal to most people, but that’s because most people have had this. But when I tell people, they say: “Oh, big deal. You’re being dramatic.” Or “That’s a stupid reason to be upset.” But I say it is. And I say that I’m not being dramatic.    All of my friends, they have had boyfriends and “experiences”. But me? I’m just innocent old Bri. The one who is too awkward to find anyone to like her. The one who has the romantic experience of a toilet brush.                                                                                                                                                           This scares me. It scares me that no one will ever look at me that way. I’m scared that no one will ever want to be with me. I’m scared that when prom comes around, all of my friends will have dates and I’ll be that person who goes alone and third wheels everyone.                                                                                          People always talk about slut shaming right? Well I think people should start talking about virgin shaming. Because it is a big deal to some girls. Girls are looked at differently for it. Girls are bullied for it, and that is just as bad as shaming a girl for the opposite reason.

So as it turns out, pieces 1 and 2 were picked for the open mic. Which means I have to DUN DUN DUN perform. It's pretty cool because most new company members usually only have one piece in the show. The show is next monday, so I will spend this week memorizing my work completely and working on stage presence because lets face it, I don't really have any

11/18/13-11/22/13

For this marking period's blogs, I will be doing the same thing I did last time, which was prepare for any Girl Be Heard events I had coming up.

As of now, I will be writing, performing, and directing different parts of Girl Be Heard Unplugged. So my blog will consist of that process for the next few weeks

10/28/13-11/1/13

This week was the week of my directing debut (yay.) I spent all of this week preparing for it, which turned out to be way harder then I expected. I'm starting to learn how to direct, as well as the ups and downs of it

Well, for starters, after weeks of asking for them, I finally got everyone's pieces and was able to put together a script for the workshop

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EYEy8UQ1ApRFZCSPyNNBqrjKDKdgQxvbjqlZ5TOmffE/pub

This process was a little difficult for many reasons
-None of the girls showed up to workshop on the same day
-We all live in different states (NJ, NY, CT, ectc.) So an outside rehearsal was not an option
-I had asked for their pieces in an email since we started the project a month ago, and the day I had a full script was the afternoon of the show
-When I did call for a rehearsal before our show call time (which I sent over and over again a week in advance) I got yeses from 3/4 of the girls, and only one showed up on time.

In the end, our reading wasn't a complete disaster. However, if we would have had a more clear communication process during it, I think it could have moved much more smoothly then it did.

I learned a lot in these few weeks. It was the first time I had the title of a director. As an actor, you get those pre-show butterflies and nerves. What if I forget my lines? What if mess up my blocking? I didn't expect to feel that as a director, but oddly enough I felt it more as a director.

10/21/13-10/27/13

I was sick for the majority of this week, so it was a little difficult for me to get much done. However, I did accomplish a little bit, and I have a lot to reflect on in terms of the beginning of my directing career


I was faced with a few issues this week. Ont op of being really sick, my team for Estrogenius failed to meet this weeks requirements that I set for them.

After last Sunday's great rehearsal, I sent all of the girls this message:

My personal goal for the week was to get an official script for all of the girls. Even though they know their own pieces, I thought it would be helpful to see the entire performance out on paper. Unfortunately, the only response I got was from Ayanda:

To add to my continuing luck, nobody but Ayanda and Tiffany Amber showed up to rehearsal today. Tiffany Amber was not at last week's rehearsal, which I figured would not be too much of an issue if all of the girls showed up today. We could have just changed a few lines around and added her accordingly. It was a little difficult to get anything done at today's rehearsal with only two girls, so we had Tiffany Amber write her piece.

My other goal for the week was to do blocking. It isn't complicated at all, but it is necessary before Saturday's performance. I worked out a plan with the Stage Manager to have a rehearsal before the company call time on Saturday. I sent a message to all of the girls today: 

I haven't gotten an answer from anyone yet. This directing thing is a little harder then I expected. 

This has been a good learning experience thus far. This the first time I have led a group completely, and me being a very take charge person, it is hard when people aren't putting in the effort that you are. If we can get into the space earlier that day, I have no worries that the performance will go smoothly since it is workshop style and not completely off book. However, if the blocking isn't where it needs to be, we may have a problem.

10/14/13-10/18/13

This week, I made a lot of progress with my Girl Be Heard piece.

I started out with a completely different idea then what I have now. Actually, I bounced from a million different ideas. But today, sitting down with all of the girls on my team helped a lot. Our ideas bounced off one another and we have a complete idea of what we are doing. We are beginning and ending with 4 lines of a song. We finished composing the beginning of it:

After this, each girl will recite their monologue. What I did to make each of them tie together is assigning them the first line and last line of their monologue. The last line of the monologue will be the first line of another girls', and so on (if that makes sense.) 

We have a 10 minute time slot, so here is my layout of how the performance will go

Start: 4 lines of song (30 seconds)

Shaquilla's Piece (2-3 minutes)

Halle's Piece (2-3 minutes)

Hazel's Piece (2-3 minutes)

Ayonda's Piece (2-3 minutes)

End: 4 lines of song (30 seconds)

I will have a precise plan of the time once I get the finalized drafts of each girl's piece (which I am waiting on now) 

Today, we performed a rough run-through of our piece and I have to say, I am very happy with it and know for a fact we will be prepared by November 2nd. 

10/7/13- 10/11/13

This week was mostly focused on my Girl Be Heard work. I spent wens and thurs writing my piece for Saturday's International Day of Girl performance. 

I also ushered for Cake Production's The Learned Ladies Saturdy night.

I am going to have to spend my blogs working on my Girl Be Heard work. I just got word today that my first piece that i will be directing will be at Estrogenius (a festivel for Women's theatre) on November 2nd. I will also be co-writing it with a few other girls in the program. My next piece will be shown at my Girl Be Heard open mic on December 15th

9/30/13-10/4/13

This week, I continued working on my shot sheet as well as new storyboards.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GHkuHXedsFe9IbhXd3u9RUuMpUHPPDHwiaitj8nT-SQ/pub

After looking back at the storyboards I attempted last week, I realized, well, I am the worst sketcher on the planet. They looked worse than cartoons, and I can't believe my hands produced something that horrifying. I started with basics this time, which I probably should have done in the first place by using basic circles and adding on from there. I will never be able to produce masterpieces, but the storyboards are for myself and I at least need to know what it will look like in live action. Doing the shot sheets first is helping a lot. I am no longer aimlessly scribbling until something seems kind of right.

Everything seems to be on track as of now, but the more I think about it, I don't have much time. I want to film exactly a month from now, and my schedule is only getting more and more packed. My to do list is as followed

-Pick a clear shooting day, get conflicts
-Get permission for using school (or change last scene all together)
-Confirm with Brett about borrowing his camera/editing software
-Confirm with costume designer

These all seem simple on paper, but depending on how busy I get with Girl Be Heard, I may have to put this project on hold.