scripts please!

Hello you lot -- I've been thinking about you all even more than usual as I have started writing about my year as an observer of Writers Bloc. I'm starting off with an article and then will see if I can do more with it all (book?). I have loads of material on the workshop, of course, but would so much appreciate it if you could send me final versions of the plays that were performed last month. You probably have my email address but in case not, it is harriet.devine@tiscali.co.uk
Thanks and love
Harriet

Hello from London

Thanks to RGK I am now promoted from blog lurker to fully fledged contributor. I wear my Writers Bloc t-shirt proudly here in the land of Big Brother, although it's a bit too chilly to do so without a jumper over the top. I have been giving my own solo performances of key moments from the festival to those who wish to know more (my rendition of Poornaviram lacks emotional intensity maybe, but is strong on costume changes...) I am embarrassingly late completing the new draft of my new play which lacks an acceptable ending but does (thanks to its young cast) have a myspace presence. No more now as I must write. I miss you all loads.

Update (and outpouring of bile)

hullo!

important bit:
im in the process of settling on an acceptable template that we can all use to standard format our final scripts, as per Shernaz's mail. Any inputs, suggestions are welcome...
I'm currently tinkering with the Script Smart template from the BBC writersroom resource. Any other templates, links will be useful. will mass mail shortly.

random bit:
got shitloads to say on multiple issues and im not in the mood to be eloquent, polite, overly coherent or PC... so...

1. as writers we've been influencing each other. there were several points in the workshop and while watching the performances when i felt beats in plays that were very similar - (involving ants, globs of blood, sunsets etc...) ... it feels odd but nice in some way... like we have a common voice at some level. it's only expected when we are all writing together. it doesn't bother me. from my lit.crit. days - Bloom's 'anxiety of influence' is a bucket o' crap tht doesn't matter to me. similarly, thematically the plays may/may not be covering radically new ground, it doesn't matter... we're developing our voices and we are honest in our attempt.

some wanker digs up an existing text and levels the charge of plagirism - that fucking matters! you belittle the efforts of the writer and you trivialise the emerging voice as being redundant, unoriginal. take any of our texts and we can all dig up similar works that already exist. have we been stealing? fuck you. is my work unimportant because the ground has been covered already? fuck you. do you have a problem with my writer's voice? I'll quote Kane, Mamet and Marber at you - "Fuck you."

2. there's a difference between feedback, criticism and opinion. each is a very different reaction to a work. figure out the difference and accord each its due.

3. voices of dissent are important. they make a space healthy, honest. they result in fucking noisy spaces, but i'd rather a noisy space where people speak their minds, than a fucking set of sitting room tea cup conversations that reek of hypocrisy. crush the voice of dissent and you might as well quit being a playwright... at some level you ARE the voice of dissent.

4. if there are hardly any playwrights, there are even fewer critics.

5. the general critical reaction to the festival is understandably predictable - 'personal apolitical voices', 'dominated by relationships', and somewhere a comment on a generation - "technicians before wordsmiths" ... this is food for thought. i may not agree with many things, i may have counter arguements for all of these, but it is something to think about. and confront in the WORK. there will always be mischief makers/genuine colloborators, adoring/dead/disinterested/electric audiences, grumpy/sensitive/archaic/perceptive academics/critics and fellow playwrights/intellectuals/critics/writers... that's the fun of it, that's the big fuckup too...

6. how is everyone? i'm suffering a major case of post-festival depression. i wish you lurkers would stop lurking and fucking post man...

7. isn't it funny, how all the different processes merge into the final performance? it's like i'm invloved in making scrambled eggs. some might like the final taste, some won't. what i find hilarious is when someone tries to isolate one element beyond a degree of accuracy and ends up making an ass of themselves... and then you get a comment like... "yes, i found the french toast was poorly prepared, it was all scrambled and full of egg..." sigh... no wonder people keep saying that playwriting is thankless...

8. hmmm... im done for now. miss u guys like mad! and before i turn into a puddle of sentimental goop, i'm off. ciao...

My address

This is for Harriet. Am putting this in a post so it won't get lost!
My address is:
147 A, Pocket C,
Siddharth Extension,
New Delhi-110014

Thanks a ton, Harriet, one more time!

intersexual bums and other critiques

There is a formidably intellectual type (or pompous fartbag, depending on how you look at it) theater person floating around cyberspace...calls himself angry fix (and what fun we could have with that, could we not boys and girls) who seems to be deeply grieved by how terrible all our plays were.
He says, for instance, that Epilogue's ghosts being soldiers is a bad intertextual pun.
Will somebody please tell me what that is?
Or at least how to fucking say it without offending my tongue!
:-)

Update on my life - against overcharging, against harassment

its not been an easy week. i was trying to give more time to my second play when this happened:

5th feb evening, i went to buy my regular 1/2 litre milk pouch from the neighbourhood's Nandini milk booth. it was out of stock. so i asked for two packets of goodlife. and a set curd. the woman at the booth said she would charge me 14 rupees each. the MRP for goodlife is 12 rupees and set curd's 13 rupees. she mentioned the cauvery verdict problem as a reason. while i was telling her that she couldn't overcharge because hers was an authorized retailer and that i could go and complain about it, her husband (the owner) came and snatched away the milk packets from me. then immediately he started abusing me in kannada, pointed to his private parts and physically intimidated me. when i told him to behave, he verbally assaulted me and a crowd gathered. strengthened by their attention, he hammered more abuse. i decided that it was no use confronting him and went home, resolving to file a complaint with the police, the consumer court and KMF. when amit came home, i told him about the incident. he went to speak to the milkman. he and his assistant physically assaulted him and threatened him that they would rape me and knife him to death....he boasted that he knew politicians all around and he would see us...

i have filed an FIR against this man and his assistant. met the Managing Director of Karnataka Milk Federation yesterday and he has already started an inquiry. went to the Consumer Court yesterday and I am filing a complaint today. have called up the Alternative Law Forum too...

street harassment of women in bangalore has reached a menacing level. it is impossible to travel alone at night, we get overcharged everywhere by autowallas, milkmen, shopkeepers...and we are told that we have no right to live in this city because we are outsiders...

amit has full updates of this case here on his blog. please do go read it whenever you have the time.

And life goes...?

That's it. Shows over. Just like that.
sigh!
Why?
Now to let go of mama-papa's hands and walk that long, hard road of edit and rewrite, work out shows, publicity, sponsors...and try very very hard not to compare other efforts with WB.
sigh.
I'm in depression.
How are you all?
Oh, and all the best to Maia for her show tomorrow.