But It’s All About Me
Scene One
Set: It is a bare workshop space. There are 12 chairs in a semi-circle. Beneath each chair is a notebook, a pen, and a few candies. In the centre of the semi-circle is a box of tissues.
Style: Movement based. Physical storytelling. Rhythmic, and poetic.
Invitation to:
Consider the three characters are interchangeable.
Consider choosing an issue of the ‘time’ and infuse it through the script.
Consider exploring a theme where reconciliation is the yearning behind the text.
Characters: The workshop junkies.
A man in his late twenties.
A woman in her mid forties
A gender-neutral person who self-identifies to the pro-noun ‘they’ in their thirties.
These three know each other but they are not friends. They have simply been in multiple workshops together. They know each other intimately. They know the intimate details of each other’s lives because they’ve been to many of the same workshops. They are not family. They don’t ‘know’ each other, yet they ‘know’ each other’s details, pain points, and great triumphs.
They are workshop junkies.
They don’t live ‘out there’, they live ‘in here’, in workshop spaces.
Entrance: The workshop junkies arrive to the space.
He: He walks in first, notices he’s the first one in the room. He scans the room, counts the chairs and chooses the farthest chair on the right. He examines the chair. Tips it up. Tips it back. Sits down. He inspects the pens. Click click click click. He tries them out on the journal offered. He flips through the journal. Bends the first page down. He chooses a pen and writes his name on the back of journal. He looks at his watch.
She: She comes running in. She wanted to be the first one in the room but she’s not. She notices Him. Barely contains a sigh of defeat. She looks across the chairs and chooses the one furthest from him on the other side. She sits down, puts her various bags bulging with an assortment of scarves, sweaters and such on the floor at her feet. She grabs the journal and starts digging around for her own pen. She starts unloading each bag as she looks. Her things are piling up in front of her seat. Journals, books, three sets of glasses, tampons, lipgloss, a half eaten cookie, a hammer (?) — she has the never ending and bottomless bag. She finds a pen, tries it, it doesn’t work. She goes back in. Eventually she dumps the bag she has slung around her neck.
He: is cringing and trying to look away, but he can’t.
She: pulls out a metal water bottle and as she is hunting for her pen, she knocks it over. It rolls across the floor.
He and She: watch it roll.
It stops in no man’s land. Who is going to pick it up?
They: They walk in with earphones on with their phone in their hands. They are listening to a podcast. Purposefully casual, but not relaxed.
He & She: look up and notice They have just walked in. Both of them make an audible sigh. He & She continue to look at the water bottle, unsure who is going to make the first move.
They: Sees the water bottle and casually walks over to it. As They are about to pick it up…
She: dumps what she’s digging in to grab it before They can get it. She goes back to her seat. Finds a pen and leans back.
They: chooses a seat in the back in the centre.
The three of them are a perfect triangle.
She/He/They: METAPHOR — CONTROL/PREPARE-CHOREOGRAPHY
Choreographed piece: dance/movement piece — pull out their journals and begin to write, move through the space, check the door, look at their watch, click their pens, avoid each other, move around each other. Final position: All three trying to get above the other.
Entrance of Instructor (spotlight down stage centre): signals the arrival of the instructor.
The three fall off of each other, now self-conscious and scurry to their seats.
Scene.
There is a festival in Vancouver called: Theatre Under the Gun. In it, writers and actors come together to write, rehearse, stage and perform a one act play in 48 hours. At the time I wrote this, I was heavily involved in personal development work and the character of ‘the workshop junkie’ arrived. I have always loved physical theatre, clown work, mask and poetic dialogue. This piece is my exploration of storytelling this way.
And yes, we did stage the show. It was performed at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre a very long time ago with: Cyndi Mason, Judi Closkey and a guy named Ryan… oh man… I couldn’t tell you his last name. We met at a workshop.
For real.
TinaO is a storyteller, performer, and a professional listener who works with narrative and story structure as a vehicle for human connection. Her work is rooted in Myth, Mysticism, and the practice of personal faith. She is the founder of Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat of deep listening held on Bowen Island, BC, Canada and is the voice and story behind TinaOLife. Tina is a proud associate of PowHERhouse Impact Media Group where she listens and supports the ‘stories’ of whole and integrated leaders of tomorrow.
