ReVamp Collective
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Mission & History
    • Vamps of ReVamp
    • In the News
  • Productions
    • 2015-16 >
      • Shit Men Have Said or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Patriarchy >
        • Photos
        • Multimedia
      • Shit Men Have Said - Mz. Fest 2015 >
        • Photos
        • Multimedia
      • I Dream Before I Take the Stand
      • In The Terminus
    • 2016-17 >
      • 12 Chairs >
        • Playwright
        • Directors
        • Actors
        • Visual Artists
      • Brief (Political) Encounters >
        • Playwrights
        • Directors
        • Actors
      • Jimmy Gorski is Dead >
        • Actors
        • Production Team
        • Photos/Multimedia
      • The Subject Project >
        • Women Organized Against Rape
    • 2017-18 >
      • Artist's Lab: Beyond the Surface >
        • Wilder >
          • Devising Artists
          • Actors
        • Snow White Rose Red >
          • Devising Artists
          • Actors
        • They Belonged to the Sunlight >
          • Devising Artists
          • Actors
      • Brief (physical) Encounters >
        • Playwrights
        • Directors
        • Actors
      • The Helen Project >
        • Actors
        • Production Team
  • Collaborations
    • Community/Corporate
    • Partner Artists
    • Education
  • Support
    • Patrons
    • Advertise >
      • Past Advertisers
  • Opportunities
  • Contact
  • ReVamp Writes
  • Podcast
  • Events
    • Philly Speaks Out
    • Cincy Speaks Out
    • ReVamp Rummage & ReMix
    • Philly Theatre Week 2018 >
      • Close Your Legs, Honey
      • Catholic Guilt

Dispatches from the resident playwright - writer's block edition

3/20/2018

0 Comments

 
I never liked math.

Numbers didn't interest me much. They were so boring, stagnant - a four was always a four. Four minus two was always two. You could do the same equation in 2018 as some mathematician did in 2018 BCE, and you'd get the same answer. With numbers, the story is always the same.

I like words better. Words are alive, playful, a little slippery - some words can mean two, three, four different things. The meaning of a word can change over time, or new words can be invented (when was the last time we invented a new number?). And look how many stories you can tell with words - an infinite amount! Look at how many stories have already been written, and yet their are crazy people like me who still want to write new stories! 

However, in my two decades or so of writing stories, I have come to find that there are some similarities between writing and working mathematical equations. For instance, tonight, as I work on my latest play, The Helen Project, which will be produced this June by ReVamp Collective, I've reached a point where I'm not sure what to do next. I've written about three-quarters of the scene, and I know what the end is, but that last quarter eludes me. And it reminded me of so many complicated math equations in high school and college, in which I got so far, and knew what the answer was supposed to be, and yet couldn't figure out how to get there. 

And so I'm trying the tactic that I so often did when I was working those difficult equations in high school and college, and I'm distracting myself. Thinking about something else for awhile so my subconscious can work out the thorny knots of the problem into which I've gotten myself. And so here we are, at this blog post.

Writing The Helen Project has been a lot of fun. Because it is rooted in classic Greek mythology and existing works (primarily Euripedes' Helen and The Trojan Women, and Homer's The Iliad), I've had a chance to really nerd out and do a lot of research, which I love almost as much as writing. I've been vindicated in my refusal to throw away anything because it might be useful later, as a Scholastic book about Greek gods and mythology that I got probably in the 4th grade has proven to be a great source of information and reference. My recent Google search history also betrays the wild mix of ingredients I'm throwing in this pot, including but not limited to:
  • fad diets
  • Teeny-bopper magazines
  • Romantic comedies based on Greek myths
  • Medea special powers
  • Basically anyone who had anything to do with the Trojan War (Agammemnon, Clytemnaestra, Iphigenia, Odysseus, Paris, Achilles), and
  • Taping boobs together
So yeah, this is definitely not 2 + 2 = 4. How do all of these random elements fit together to tell a story? You'll just have to join us at Plays & Players Theatre in June to find out!

​

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

FOLLOW US

Fiscally Sponsored by Plays & Players Theatre

    Join Our Mailing List

Subscribe
Picture
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Mission & History
    • Vamps of ReVamp
    • In the News
  • Productions
    • 2015-16 >
      • Shit Men Have Said or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Patriarchy >
        • Photos
        • Multimedia
      • Shit Men Have Said - Mz. Fest 2015 >
        • Photos
        • Multimedia
      • I Dream Before I Take the Stand
      • In The Terminus
    • 2016-17 >
      • 12 Chairs >
        • Playwright
        • Directors
        • Actors
        • Visual Artists
      • Brief (Political) Encounters >
        • Playwrights
        • Directors
        • Actors
      • Jimmy Gorski is Dead >
        • Actors
        • Production Team
        • Photos/Multimedia
      • The Subject Project >
        • Women Organized Against Rape
    • 2017-18 >
      • Artist's Lab: Beyond the Surface >
        • Wilder >
          • Devising Artists
          • Actors
        • Snow White Rose Red >
          • Devising Artists
          • Actors
        • They Belonged to the Sunlight >
          • Devising Artists
          • Actors
      • Brief (physical) Encounters >
        • Playwrights
        • Directors
        • Actors
      • The Helen Project >
        • Actors
        • Production Team
  • Collaborations
    • Community/Corporate
    • Partner Artists
    • Education
  • Support
    • Patrons
    • Advertise >
      • Past Advertisers
  • Opportunities
  • Contact
  • ReVamp Writes
  • Podcast
  • Events
    • Philly Speaks Out
    • Cincy Speaks Out
    • ReVamp Rummage & ReMix
    • Philly Theatre Week 2018 >
      • Close Your Legs, Honey
      • Catholic Guilt