Letters to Aaron Sorkin

Wasn't I just avoiding Halloween candy? It feels like I went underwater for a second, came back up for air, and got poked in the eye by a Christmas tree. 

What influences the way we perceive time?

Music, books, movies, plane rides, not being able to look at a clock, amount of light, comfort level, and my level of engagement in an activity influence my experience of time. And apparently, the month of November. 

What changes time for you?

Best, 

Laura

This excerpt comes to me from Lisa Firke via her website, Hit Those Keys. It comes to her from Anne Lamott in her writer's guide, Bird by Bird. 

L, X, and U. 

Best, 

Laura

The one person show gets a bad rap in this town. Here is my little protest. 

I once heard a CD say something like this:

"I see plays all the time, and I'll go see anything except a one person show. Those are a waste of time because acting is about reacting."

Hmmm. Yes, but...

Surely this casting director has seen movies that employed the use of a green screen or CGI, so that the actor was reacting to something other than another actor or even something tangible. And surely this casting director uses a reader for auditions in their office, expecting actors to act with a fairly non-responsive person so that the CD can judge the actor's interpretation of the role. Perhaps they've even heard a soliloquy.

Hmmm. 

What's going on here?

It's possible that the CD just doesn't like one person shows. I find that to be a valid opinion. It could be that for scouting and research purposes a one person show is not a good use of time for the CD. This is also valid. 

I have seen the indulgent, disconnected one person show. I have seen the indulgent, disconnected 3, 5, and 30 person show. The presence of another person does not guarantee that an actor will react to what is going on in the moment, nor does the absence of another person preclude it. 

In 2004, I saw Jefferson Mays on Broadway in the one man show I Am My Own Wife, for which he won the Drama Desk Award that year. He was alone on stage. He was a fine actor.

Maybe what the CD really meant was, "No, you people in this room, I will not see your one person show. I believe it will be shallow and false and a waste of my time."  

I can accept that much easier than I can accept the discounting of an entire genre of the performing arts.

(Protest is officially over.) 

Best, 

Laura

I like to work, and sometimes I do so at the expense of having fun. So when I set out to produce my own project a few months ago, I got very clear about what I wanted the process and the product to be like, and then I engineered it to be fun. 

It's a little thing I work on here and there with a partner, and things are kind of crawling along, but darn it if I don't laugh out loud and slap my thigh every time we "work" on it. We're making something that we think other people will get a kick out of, but if they don't, it's ok. There's no pressure, and no deadlines except the ones we impose on ourselves. I hope the end result will be "a success" and of value to other people, but the real success will be when we finish the darn thing and have the start to finish experience of making our own stuff. 

Many of your projects are so enormous, I wonder if you still make little things for fun. Things where you have room to experiment and mess up and get it wrong. Even an off-color annual holiday letter. Anything?

Best, 

Laura