Post for post's sake

I have been commanded to post a new blog entry by my bored and impatient office wonder twin Janet. (She's form of a really blunt dinosaur, and I'm shape of a wise-cracking ice cage. Together, we battle colleagues who fail to use verbs in their photo captions. Yes, Ellen and Arlene, I'm talking about you!)

Unfortunately for Janet, I don't have anything that fascinating to say.

Nothing new to report on my plays, but recently I've been able to see and read some stuff from other people's scripts. And it's helped me realize this about myself: I've really grown to dislike arty, weird stuff. In college, I thought anything experimental was cool. But now, I really hate symbolism. Perhaps that's too broad a statement. To clarify: I can't enjoy work that doesn't have some sort of relatable human emotion behind it. Using symbolic colors, props or movement to present an idea that makes a statement but has no feeling behind it ... well, it isn't my cup of tea.

I can appreciate a beautiful stage picture, a presentational aesthetic, performance artsy choices, etc. as an audience member. For example, last season when CPT did the Gao plays, there were moments in "The Other Shore" that I really connected with. It was all pretty non-literal, using ropes and movement and group speak and songs to tell an abstract tale. I didn't follow all of it (who did?), but I connected emotionally to moments where characters showed real pain or joy. So, I actually really enjoyed it. But I'm never going to write that kind of stuff. Never. And that's probably why, as my playwriting buddy Steve Maistros says, CPT likes us, but will never ask us to go steady.

What I feel compelled to write is a story about real people who talk about real things in a somewhat conversational way. My plays will never explore the abstract nature of dreams. They will never feature a Greek chorus of masked actors or multiple actors playing different facets of one character. And lord knows, I will never have a dressmaker's dummy on roller skates draped in an American flag as it rolls past an "olive drab" background to symbolize a man's troubled childhood. Because that's pretentious bullshit. Tell me a real story, please. It can be abstract and arty and focused on the visuals. I just need to care about the soul of the person or people at the center of your artistic statement.