More than waiting for GODDO
A short 5-10 minutes free form play about creativity
by © Megan A Sampson November 2010
All rights reserved contact megamoneybox at yahoo dot com dot au
Executive summary:
This short play is about tapping into creativity by use of words, cards and symbols.
It is about play and entertaining and amusing ourselves, and others..
The actors try to set rules to make sense of free form or experimental theatre.(see explanation on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_theatre )
They then co-operate and involve the audience in a magical performance. (Free form theatre can be used to help actors and or audience members to verbalise concerns and heal emotional traumas. However the purpose of this play is simply to amaze, surprise and entertain. )
This play is most suitable for actors who can dance, sing and play drums, guitar etc. I wrote it with Flamenco Fusions group in mind. new name Flamenco Ruido, leader April Sampson-Kelly. I hope they will perform it one day.
Scene 1
Outside in a park. Late afternoon. minimal backdrops. no distractions.
3 people are in a park. One sitting on a bench and the others nearby on a picnic rug. Props include a large bag which contains 3 coloured capes ( red , yellow blue.) and a large piece of yellow see-through curtain material, about 3 -5 metres long.
Actors are called by number. 1,2, and 3.
1 is the leader,(preferably female 50 ish)
2 a bright pretty young thing (female aged 18- 20)
3 is a middle aged negative and funny male.
Begins with No.1 -Leader ,
"I have an idea. I know what we should do.
Let's perform a play. That way we can entertain people"
No. 2 - "and we can charge them to come and we'll all get paid."
No. 3 - gets up and walks around in a small circle. " Who wants to come and see us? We're just nobodies. We're not celebrities. We're not Known. "
No. 2 "I Think they might come and see us if they think we might be funny, or different or entertaining'
No. 1 "OR CLEVER.
No. 3 "OR idiots".
No. 2 "let's just presume that someone has nothing better to do.
Maybe they will come out of curiosity..."
No. 3 "Yeah, and leave in the 1st two minutes."
No.1 "Obstacles, obstacles, Mr Negative. Can we just make an assumption that we will get an audience. Actually, I guarantee an audience !.
People will pay to hear us. and they will even be emotionally affected".
No. 2 " emotionally affected? like how? (frowns) "like sex?"
No.1 "No, NO sex. We're going to be sexless."
No. 3 "sexless?"
No. 1 "Yes. When I said emotionally affected ,I meant enthused."
No. 2 "YOU MEAN CHEERED UP?"
No. 3 " Yes, They'll feel happy about laughing at us!"
No. 1 "No, I don't mean laughing at us.- I mean- happy, cheered up. Even inspired-
like being put on a path to a more positive life."
No. 3 "Deep and meaningful.- that's a big call"
No. 2 "well I like it. "
No. 3 "so what will we wear if we're sexless?"
No. 1 "Wear, everything isn't about appearances. We could all wear a cape or a cloak. just so we all look the same. Here try it." ( they are handed capes. yellow to the pretty girl, red for Mr negative and blue for the leader.)
No. 3 "Sexless, unattractive, uninteresting - UN-entertaining."
No. 2 " Well, I suppose it depends on what we will say."
No. 3 " so what do we say? where's the script?"
No. 1 " Oh- we will say it all in free form. It will evolve. We'll use cards as triggers.
No. 3 "I don't like free form. We could end up saying anything".
No. 2 "or nothing"
No. 1 "Why would you say nothing?"
No. 2 "Well, I might not have any thoughts on the subject.
I might not know anything.
and even if I did know something,
I might not want to say it."
No. 3 "What? You're scared to embarrass yourself?"
No. 2 "maybe. yes. But I might not have an opinion or a thought, or even know what to say.
No. 3 speaks to audience "She means she's an empty head"
No. 1 "Don't be ridiculous. She's got thoughts and opinions and ideas.
We've just got to get it out of her head."
No. 2 "Can I just try to say yes or no or maybe, or just one word... just to start with.?"
No. 3 "That'll limit the time scale of the play to about 2 minutes! - The audience will want their money back, or They might sue us or worse, shoot us because we're sexless!"
No. 2 "I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT A FREE FORM PLAY IS"
No. 1 "IT'S EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE.
We start with limits.
like one word, one colour.. One choice. Whatever.
You look at a card and say what's in your head.
you talk for one sentence or no more than one minute.
then we add to it. We see where it goes.
No. 3 "like what or whatever? what does that mean?"
No. 1 " We could use any word - here's a bundle of cards. I'll write the word equal.
I mean, we could use any word. I could poke a hole in a newspaper and choose a word near the hole..preferably a noun, or a verb or an adjective. then write it on a card,
I hold up the card with the word equal and you say one sentence about it,
or you describe what you see in your head. Try it.
No. 3 "equal what?
No. 2 "just say anything about equal !"
No. 3 "OK. Equal, equality, we're all born equal, free like, naked, no name, nameless, no ownership, no taxes, no.........."
No. 2 interrupts excitedly. "I just saw this in my head! it was those two little lines that make the equal sign.. you know the ones that go together, one above the other..I could say that "
No. 1 "OK, no 3. You write one of your words on a card. Free or born or something.
Just choose one, and you No 2, you can write your equal symbol.
I'll write Enthuse on my next card.
Now let's do it again. let's try..say.. entertain, communicate.
No2 , you give us another symbol. and No 3 you give us another word".
No. 3 "like UN-equal, inequality, unbalanced"..
No. 2 "No, something positive, for goodness sake.".
No. 3 "I can't. It might take a while. I have to think about it".
No. 2 "my next symbol is the same little equal sign crossed out.. or should I have a dash through it.. to mean it's not equal?"
No. 3 "She's got the easy bit. all symbols or signs. I wanted symbols."
No. 1 " All we need is 3 words, 3 symbols, 3 colours. I could have done them myself, but I want your input. your ideas."
No. 3 "Colours? this is the first I heard of Colours."
No. 2 " I'm seeing colours now. I see RED. I'm getting angry!"
No. 1 "just write RED on a card. Yes use a red texta. That was good. We'll play a game in a minute.".
No. 2 " like a game to entertain the audience? "
No. 1 " A game to amuse ourselves. But the real reason is to UNLOCK, UNBLOCK or release our creativity. Just in case there's no audience, and no creativity to unlock or unblock."
No. 3 "you're sounding negative now, by saying in case there's no audience and no creativity."
No. 1 "maybe. But there's always an audience. "
No. 3 "How can you say that?"
No. 1 "There's 3 of us right? We are an audience to each other. I mean, If I was on the stage alone and you were watching in the wings, you'd be my audience. You have to accept that no man is an island."
No. 2 "like we all watch each other like in the street or on a train or a bus?"
No. 3 " more like we're all being watched. big brother and all that".
No. 1 "Please no more interruptions. we're losing momentum. I think we'll go with what we have.
Here's 3 colours. red, blue and yellow.
and three words. free, entertain, enthuse.
Plus three symbols, equal, stop and go.
let's just do it. No 1 shuffles the nine cards.
No 3 choose 3 cards.
He chooses RED, free, entertain.
No. 3 "Ok.. I chose RED, free, entertain.
So I'm red. red can mean angry..something's angry. I'm free to entertain.
let's see. I can say whatever I like. whatever comes into my head.
I can only think that if I had a red cape, I'd rush at the bull in the bull ring and the wounded matador would go free, The clowns would run and distract the bull, I'd bow and the audience would cheer and be entertained. "
No1 and No 2 clap and cheer.
Then No1 starts to sing /play/ hum the toreador song.
tor re a- dor Da Da da-da Da ..tor re a dor, and
No 3 swings his red cape and twirls like a matador. .. the the audience cheer bravo...and clap in time".
No2 says" I can dance free form.I can even do flamenco. I could do a dance"
She dances, using her cape as a skirt, while Number 3 and his red cape swirls and everyone sings and claps and yells bravo..
Then No 3 calls out to the audience, hand over his eyes...
"is there a drummer out there?" A drummer comes forward and starts drumming softly..
then No 2 says "has anyone got castanets in their handbag? or 2 soup spoons?"
spoons are handed over.
A guitarist yells," I can play the guitar for you.." he is motioned forward.
No 1 says "That was great, Lets do it again", while someone else yells out "I can sing for you"
and another comes up and says "I can wail".
No. 1 " Great. you wail, we clap, we do that three times, then drummer drums and the singer sings, and we all clap in time. then we repeat, while the cape twirls and then the dancer dances and we all yell bravo at each pause.. everyone claps and yells bravo at the end..
curtain call. interval
Scene 2
No. 1 "How about we choose another 3 cards,?"
No. 2 "But it mightn’t be as good as last time. I mean..that was pretty good wasn't it?"
No. 3 "I thought the last free form would fail, but it didn't .
I'm surprised. Maybe we can succeed again. You know, build one success on another.".
No. 1 "yes, let's do it. you pick this time, number 2."
No. 3 "You can do it - go on."
No. 2 " I picked yellow, Enthuse and the go sign. hmm
I am yellow, a pretty bright yellow, and I can see myself in a little yellow bug of a car, and it goes up, not on the road, but on a road up in the sky (?) and I wonder why?"
No. 3 It's all about the pretty you, a bit like a dream analysis. A yellow butterfly on a bright sunny day and flying off to a bright yellow sky."
Number 1 starts singing "My, My, my, what a beautiful day - claps and encourages the audience while No 3 wraps No 2 in a large piece of yellow parachute fabric and they twirl her around and flutter the cloth, until she goes offstage. .
The audience keep singing. the troop bow and run off.
then eventual silence. curtain call . end of scene.
Scene 3
No. 3 says "how about you pick now." to number 1.
"it must be your turn"
No. 1 "OK..here goes".
etc continued..
write to me at sampsms at ozemail dot com au for the rest of the play.Or create your own play using the ideas above and maintaining the rythmn of the play.
..
Sunday, November 21, 2010
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