06-You Got This

Challenge 6 – Due 07/02 at 09:59:59am GMT

Today is in celebration of the 100th year anniversary of Women first being given the vote in the UK. However, we’re also going to acknowledge that women didn’t actually get equal voting rights to men until 1928, so today’s prompt is: ‘Still Not Equal.’

And to reflect modern times, I’d love you to write it in the style of a farce, if you like (or whatever you conceive to be farce in these days)!

A weekday means bonus points I believe: So here you get bonus points if you drop in surprise celebrity appearances from the following feminists: Emily Pankhurst, Simone De Beauvoir, Germaine Greer, and Oprah Winfrey.

Easy, right. Just like the fight for female equality ;o)

I went totally off the reservation on this one. First, I was a little uncomfortable writing a farce about women’s suffrage as a white dude. Second, I had just gotten back from a weekend away, and was coming down off a “being close to my friends” high. And coming down HARD. So I got a little self indulgent. Sorry.

05-Dicklberg

Challenge 5 – Due 06/02 at 09:59:59am GMT

Today I’ll give you the opening line – you just have to do the rest!

And here it is:

“Take off the girdle, Gertl, and tell me everything about Onun’s onions, or else little Dicklberg here will get it with this!”

Make the play as long or as short as you like!

Use as many or as few actors as you like!

In other words, do what you like!

Bonus points if you end the play with the following line:

“So there really were 50 of them buying groceries in Panama!”

I totally missed that there was a “Bonus points line” for this one.  Whoops!

04-Holy Sonnet 10

Challenge 4 – Due 05/02 at 09:59:59am GMT

Today we’re going to adapt.

Find a short story, or a film, or a poem, or a song, or a… uhm… TV show… or… whateves.

Make it into a play – try to ensure it’s all there – all the characters, all the plots, all the small details, all the dialogue.

Sounds impossible in one day? Naaaa… you can do it! You’re 3 challenges down… Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Bonus points to anyone who manages to modernise the adaptation and make it their own (whilst still retaining the original)

Oh darn it! We’re not meant to have bonus points on weekends… uhm… don’t tell anyone!

03-28 PLAYS LATER – CHALLENGE 3 (DUE 04…

Challenge 3 – Due 04/02 at 09:59:59am GMT

The world?! Inspiring?! Peh!

Enough with the rational and into our subconcious – we’re going surreal today!

Tap into your dreams… and put them on stage.

I expect the unexpected. Or do I?

I want to see things that can not make sense.

I want hallucinatory experiences.

I want a distruption of conventional notions of form.

To quote the Guggenheim museum, I want you to “effect a revolution in everyday consciosness (sic) based on a critique of rationalist thought”

I mean, we live in pretty irrational times, don’t we?

Maybe you can use some of Andre Breton’s automatic writing techniques (but if you do – still make it into a play, you get me?)

Or just do some dream-remembering techniques and translate your nightmares onto the stage.

Now, I’m not encouraging heavy drinking, but if you happen to have some Absinthe laying about…

And here’s the trick – make it a fascinating piece of drama. Think not only of the visuals but also of the story.

Oh, and make the production huge. Try to make the budget sky rocket (maybe literally) – spend as much money as you can – but make the whole experience feel like a dream.

02-35000 Feet

Challenge 2 – Due 03/02 at 09:59:59am GMT

Let’s let something else inspire us today!

Go outside and have a look around you. Notice things. People. Animals. Buildings. Let something that you see outside be the starting point of the play.

Maybe set it in the beautiful house you pass by on your way to work,

perhaps as you’re sitting on public transport, you overhear someone saying a random sentence. (Here’s one I picked up the other day “and I was doing the face the hippo was doing”),

maybe a bird lands by you and inspires a poetic ‘ode to a tit’ monologue.

If you’re not planning on leaving the house today, maybe look out the window (if you have one) or maybe turn the TV on for a few minutes (if you have one) or browse the internet (if you… hold on… you definitely have one or you won’t be getting this)

Just be sure not to watch the news. We don’t want the news accidentally inspiring you or you might end up writing about wars or soldiers or something like that. And who wants to write about such a boring and cliched topic, eh?

And as yesterday’s challenge was set in your hometown, today take it as far away as possible. Maybe a different country – or maybe a different planet – or maybe a different universe …

If you add yourself as a character in the play – you will get bonus points! And points mean prizes!

(if by prizes you mean absolutely nothing, obviously)

01-Brave Little Soldier

Challenge 1 – Due 02/02 at 09:59:59am GMT (do not miss the deadline or you will be disqualified)

So, when you registered this year, I called you all ‘brave little soldiers’.

Some of you questioned why I did that…

some of me questioned why I did that too… so let’s pretend it was intentional preparation for the first challenge, and this is it:

Write a play about a brave little soldier.

Maybe you can write a hard-hitting drama about a soldier coping with PTSD talking to their partner?

or perhaps about Elf-land who are at war with the Trolls?

How about a monologue by a piece of bread debating whether “to egg or not to egg”?

Or a historical play about any of history’s brave warriors?

What about two characters: Mrs Brave and Mr Little discussing the futility of war whilst torturing a soldier?

Or simply a play set in a kindergarden with the characters: Bray, Vee, Lit, Talis, Ola and Dre!

As this is the first challenge, make it simple. Simple language, simple uncomplicated plot, simple characters, simple minds! And don’t you (forget about me)!

Write in the style you feel most comfortable in… fantastical, absuridcal, satirical, realistical, abstractical, farcical, musicalcal, whatever ‘ical’ your ickle mind licks… likes!

And now for the 28 Plays Later world famous bonus points…

For bonus points – and to completely intentionally tie it in with the pre-task-dry-test-run – set the play in your hometown!

For those of you new this year, bonus points are everything! EVERYTHING I say!

They make the world go around

They make the sun rise and set

They make brave soldiers run in fear (see what I did there? It’s all intentional!)

Chalo! Yalla! Vamonos! Pame! Awn ni! Lad os ga! Laten we gaan! Geh ma! Allons-y! Andiamo! Poyekali!

Woke up to this in my mailbox after submitting:

From: 28 Plays Later
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2018 11:25 PM
To: Clay
Subject: Re: Challenge 1 (due 02/02 at 10am GMT)

That’s really sad and beautiful…