u/Positive-Ring-5172

I'm working on production notes for my play. The opening scene has a character with a life threatening head wound. A character is applying bandages to the wound and they are turning red as she does so. I'm wanting to put into the production notes some ways to accomplish this image.

One idea I had, but haven't tried, is having the bandages be made of a therochromic cloth. They are pulled from totebag - so putting an ice pack in there to cool the cloth can be done without the audience seeing. Ideally, the cloth would turn red from the actress' body heat alone. Then between shows the cloth will return to white in a refrigerator or the like.

Anyone tried this?

Any other ideas?

Should I even bother? This is being put in the afterword section of the document after the play itself along with other production notes. Part of my personality is I like presenting ideas to people to see which ones get picked up on.

I'm in the 5th district. This morning the only election on my ballot was Senate. I don't get to vote for County Clerk, Jailor, Commissioner or half a dozen other offices because I won't support the Pedophile Protection Party.

If the Democrats won't field a candidate for an office, then the Republicans should be allowed to send the top TWO vote getters into the general election. This way the Anti-Trump Republican, which usually finishes second, will be on the ballot for me to back in November, along with all the other independents who don't want anything to do with the Guardians of Pedophilia or the Democrats.

Hopefully discussions of Kentucky politics are allowed here.

So I'm a registered Democrat in the 5th district. That means I got to vote for a senate candidate to face off against whichever pedophile protector wins on the Republican side. From all other elections, I've been disenfranchised - I don't get to vote for County clerk, Jailor, Mayor, Commissioner, etc. cause the Democrats are by and large cowardly shits that don't offer up candidates

I have a modest proposal to change this. Simply, when a party fails to nominate a candidate in a race then the party that did have a field of candidates gets to send TWO candidates into the general election.

Because I, and quite a few others like me, do not want to associate in any way with the Guardians Of Pedophilia. I shouldn't effectively lose my vote by refusing to declare to the world that I support the war in Iran, the murder of schoolchildren, the 1.7 billion dollar slush fund to line the god-king of the evangelical's pockets, and so on.

TLDR summary: Make the top two vote getters in a party run off instead of doing an unopposed general election.

Discuss.

My thoughts

Christian Slater to play JD's dad, Winona Ryder playing Veronica's Mom in a fun shout out to the original movie. I'm pretty sure Ms. Ryder would almost do it for free given her love of the movie displayed over the years.

Outside of that though who would you cast? (provided they can sing. Russel Crowe's performance of Javier proves that just cause you're a Hollywood actor doesn't mean you can sing your way out of a paper bag).

So, how would this be pronounced in Cajun dialect?

Mon Dieu aux cieux, sois miséricordieux.

I can find bots to read this off in standard French, but that's not what I'm looking for. Also, if there's a similar but more authentic phrase to this I'm all ears.

For those who missed my previous post, I'm working on a play set in the French Gulf Coast. I lived in Mobile Alabama and Bayou le Batre for about 5 years and found my Cajun neighbors there to be very fascinating even though I didn't speak a word of French to start (I picked up a few endearments they'd use with their English, mére, memére, etc.).

I've chosen to weave some of the language into the dialog of the family in the play. Also, in the household the villain and abusive partner has suppressed the use of the language by the family, and I'm well aware of the parallel between that and the Louisiana state suppression of the speaking of Cajun in schools. One of the key moments at the end of the play is when the protagonist chooses to defy him, reclaim, and use her childhood tongue to command her daughter to take a sequence of actions in his presence so that he will not be able to understand her command.

Also, at some point I probably need to have a Cajun speaker do a linguistic accuracy check, but I don't know how much that should pay, or how to authenticate whoever is doing it since I won't be able to independently verify what I'm told. At least here in this subreddit multiple people have chimed in and I can draw on the consensus that forms and be reasonably sure it is accurate.

Marsha Norman's 'Night Mother is one of my favorite plays. On a lark, I wrote a theme for it, and thought I'd misplaced and lost the notebook It'd written it in by hand. Well, today while spring cleaning I found the notebook.

Figured I'd share. This song is an end credits or exit piece, it's not really meant to be inserted anywhere into the play.

>'NIGHT MOTHER,
>I TAKE MY LEAVE
>I WISH YOU WOULD NOT CRY OR GRIEVE
>I KNOW IT HURTS, BUT I CAN'T STAY
>THERE IS NO COMING BRIGHTER DAY
>
>THOUGH IT HURTS YOU SO
>KNOW THAT I MUST GO
>I JUST WISH YOU WOULDN'T CRY
>KNOW IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT
>THAT I WISH TO HALT
>I'M JUST FAR TOO TIRED TO TRY
>AND SO I NOW MUST SAY, GOODBYE.
>
>PLEASE MOTHER, IT HURTS TO STAY.
>MEMORIES DON'T GO AWAY
>I'M BROKEN AND I CANNOT MEND
>AND THAT IS WHY I SEEK AN END
>
>I WILL BREAK YOUR HEART
>BY CHOOSING TO PART
>AND I KNOW YOU'LL QUESTION "WHY?"
>YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND
>NOT EVEN I CAN
>I JUST KNOW MY LIFE IS A LIE
>AND SO I CHOOSE TO SAY GOODBYE.
>
>KNOW MOTHER, I'VE NAUGHT TO GAIN.
>IN STAYING HERE LIVING IN PAIN
>I HOPE SOMEDAY YOU'LL FORGIVE ME
>I PRAY THAT SOMEDAY YOU WILL SEE
>
>IT'S NOT CAUSE OF YOU
>OR WHAT YOU FAILED TO DO
>THOUGH THIS HURTS, YOUR TEARS WILL DRY.
>IT'S JUST IT HURTS MUCH MORE
>NOT TO CLOSE THE DOOR
>NOW AT LAST I KNOW NOW WHY
>THE HARDEST WORD IS GOODBYE.

I’m approaching the point where I need to get my musical read through after a massive rewrite. I’ve not done one online before.

Just a book/lyrics read through after - the music won’t be done for awhile yet.

Body type casting is a touchy issue, but I have a problem scene in my play where it is coming to the front because the characters are describing themselves. This is necessary to the play because the topic is domestic violence and body shaming is one of the tactics used by the abusive male antagonist.

The characters are comparing themselves to each other. They are both young - 14 & 15 - and insecure to some degree. A sad irony of the scene is the attributes they dislike the most in themselves they envy in the other.

The scene establishes the following - one is taller than the other. The shorter one refers to herself as 'pudgy' and doesn't like her height. The taller calls herself a beanpole and outright says she wishes she had a real butt like the shorter one. I intend to leave it at that because part of my point is the characters are being unfair to themselves. Each one is beautiful in their own way.

Any ideas on how to approach this, or am I just being a little neurotic?

EDIT:

I've added a scene note to the scene in question. Since it is realtively small, here it is:

>Lisa
> No, you’re prettier. Stand up. Come over here. > >Takes her over to the mirror. The lines that follow from here until LISA pulls the barrette out of PAMELA’s hair are a placeholder. Change them to suit the actresses actually cast. Retain the sad irony that the attributes Lisa and Pamela are most insecure about are those the other loves the most about them. > >Perfect height. > >Pamela
>I don’t like being short. > >Lisa
>You’re petite, not short. Guys like that. > >Pamela
>I’m pudgy. > >Lisa
>So you have an ass. I’d love to have that ass. Guys love that – not bean poles like me.  > >Gently pulls the barrette out of Pam’s hair that’s holding it up and out of the way. It falls nearly to the floor.

I'm working on one, and it occurred to me this morning that all the musicals I'm familiar with actually have ensembles. So what are some good small cast / no ensemble musicals out there (10 or less actors)?

Gerrymandering works through packing opposition voters into as few districts as possible or spreading them out. While the practice dates back at least 200 years, it's only become truly viable with modern computers to sort through the mountains of data necessary to make accurate predictions on voter behaviors.

But, as any pollster will tell you, prediction only gets you so far. And as with many gambles, the greedier you get, the greater the chance of a backfire.

Take Tennessee. They are dismantling a packed Democrat district in Memphis to spread it to the three surrounding districts. Those districts were R+25 in the last election. A recent special election near Nashville saw an R+30 district win by only +3. A 27 point swing.

After this redistrict the three districts created to split up Memphis are now R+10 on paper, based on the results of the last election.

I would not be surprised if the Republicans lost all three in a massive backfire.

The Texas and Florida gerrymanders threaten the same. In their greed, and following an incompetent god-king, the Republicans are slitting their own throats for us - if we will show up to the polls and vote.

So, last night I rewrote a scene in response to a question my writing coach posed - why is a character suddenly changing how she dresses? That change leads to her father going on an abusive tirade about how she's not allowed to wear clothes he hasn't approved, and what she has on is way too revealing.

I got to thinking - I'd already chose that the first act is in the fall, and a couple weeks ago I'd chosen the start day of the play down to an actual date - Oct 19, 2018. I realized it was not unreasonable for the day of the scene to be Halloween - which fell on Wednesday of that year. My play isn't about Halloween - but Die Hard isn't really about Christmas either, but it does occur at Christmas. So it works, gives the play some extra verisimilitude.

Which costume is she wearing? Well, after a long think I settled on Sailor Mercury from Sailor Moon - and linked that up with an existing subplot about her longing to be accepted with the in crowd which her friend (another character in the play) is already a member of. So the plot goes that the leader of the cliche wanted to get everyone to dress as a Sailor scout - but no one was right for or wanted to dress as Mercury so her friend suggested it.

As to why Mercury - of the sailor scouts that character I feel she would appeal the most to the character in question.

Also, the leader of the in group never appears on stage but I needed a name for her. On a lark I picked "Heather" in a nod to that musical.

Getting back to the thread question - what references have y'all used in your writing? Any in jokes? Or just fun easter eggs that some members of the audience will appreciate even though it won't be important to anyone else or to the plot?

I ran a text search on my script and I drop the F bomb a health 28 times during the run.

How best to present "clean" lines for those theaters whose policies censor language for whatever reason?

I don't want this to devolve into a debate about the merits of such censorship. It's a reality.