You Say Repugnant, I Say … Let’s Do It! | Freakonomics Radio

You Say Repugnant, I Say … Let’s Do It! | Freakonomics Radio

The podcast about organ donation, just figured out how to post it.

Jess's Inspiration:

http://freakonomicsradio.com/you-say-repugnant-i-say-…-lets-do-it.html

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/174514.php and

This is part of a larger discussion we were all having about organ donations, which the directors can expand on further. But basically what is a more fleeting and more intimate relationship then donating an organ to a stranger. These two links, one a podcast, and the other an article deal with new ways of dealing with the organ donor market.

Finally Bruffy posts his inspiration

Ah... NPR and This American Life... yes. Ok, but this has really stuck with me.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/425/slow-to-react
It is the first story on "Slow to React" called "When I Grow Up"
The story for me is both about strangers lives being interconnected but also about how the actions of our youth, or anytime in life, effect other people in ways we may never have imagined.
This story, made me tear up on the subway, though that is not that out of character for me while listening to This American Life on the subway. I like to have my own private opera.
(As a side note, the second story is by a friend of mine, also a playwright and definitely worth checking out)...
The story is in print here: http://www.westword.com/2004-05-13/news/stalking-the-bogeyman/

As another note before I sign-off my lame-late post...
Ani Difranco has a line from Hell Yeah that goes:
life is a b-movie 
it's stupid and it's strange 
it's a directionless story 
and the dialogue is lame 
but in the he said she said 
sometimes there's some poetry 
if you turn your back long enough 
and let it happen naturally

MORGAN'S THOUGHTS

Okay here is some research about strangers:

This one just blows my mind because Chad is a good friend of mine...and like, I would NEVER have pegged him as this guy. But obviously he is. And after it happened, he told me he dusted himself off and GOT ON THE TRAIN that nearly hit him to go to rehearsal. And he was late. And he got yelled at. So in a single breath, you can be a regular person, a hero, and then a regular person again. The hero aspect changes NOTHING about your life...or maybe it does? I don't know...just found this funny...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3DxoyIIVDU&feature=related


This is so funny to me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Blind_Date

My old roommate used to do these ALL THE TIME. And some of the people were fine. But once she met up with a guy who, after ordering a brownie for dessert, added some water too it, and shaped it and then said, "look, a poop brownie!" and THEN HE ATE IT. Of course, I have since spent many hours making brownies and molding them into poops and then putting them in our fridge for her to find. I am not actually a "nice" person.

I also find this quite delightful, as I'm sure everyone in the NY metropolitan area does:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/search/mis/?query=m4w&s=100

Bit Of Inspiration, from Heidi

Hey writers,

So, each of us directors is going to contribute a bit or two of inspiration on the theme of Strangers Lives Becoming Intertwined.

I'm excited about my bit here, the first 20 or so minutes of one of my favorite episodes of RadioLab, the best radio show EVER. I think.

I suggest listening to the whole 20ish minutes -- it's very much worth it!

The episode is about Stochasticity (fancy word for Randomness, basically). The section is called A Very Lucky Wind. Here it is:



And here is a link, if you'd rather download it.

Please enjoy!

The Patrick Bruffy Project: A One Woman Show By Jess Platt, Directed by Rachel Yousefzadeh. Starring Morgan Conkel and Anna Handelsman

OUR TOPIC:
"when strangers' lives become intertwined"

Hey writers!
So we want you to write on our theme--about chance encounters, or random things that bind us to people who otherwise, we never would have met/ known. We're going to post some research for inspiration here, nothing you HAVE to do or write about, just articles/ videos/ images that spoke to us. Just fuel for your fire.

For now, here are...

THE EVIL RULES MUAHAHAHAHA

Rules to live by, I mean write by:

1) Each section should have no more then 5 actors.

2) Each section should be between 10-15 pages. (And completed on time!!)

3) Each section should pick up from where the previous section left off and should finish open ended. A scene may end mid-section, but you cannot end your section with a scene break. (That's not fun! Too easy!)--that mean sections can not begin or end with a blackout or scene ending device (such as music or fades). It can even end mid-line...!

4) Okay--this gets complicated--bear with us...After the first playwright, each subsequent playwright should carry over one character from the previous section (this is so that directors share only one actor with one another and no more!). A character who has appeared in one section, and has been carried over into a second should somehow make a graceful (or ungraceful) exit (or disappearance?) in the transition to the third section. And so on. The character that you are passed along can not be the same character you pass along. EXAMPLE: Anna writes section 1 featuring characters A, B, and C. Anna writes characters A and B out of the scene somehow and then suddenly Patrick takes over and writes about characters C, D and E. (C being a character that remains from Anna's section). Patrick then writes characters C and D out and leaves character E. Then Jason then comes on board and writes about characters E, F and G. Patrick CANNOT pass character C onto Jason since character C has already appeared in two sections. He can only carry over characters D OR E. (It is merely to prevent a scheduling nightmare with actor sharing.)

*It the playwright who is ENDING their section has the responsibility of clearing the stage of all but one of their characters. Each new playwright that is picking up the baton should be left with a stage of only one character.*

5) A writer can bring back any character from earlier in the play who has not already continued on in a previous section. EXAMPLE: When Josh begins writing, he could write about characters A, H, and I...since A only appeared in Anna's section. Or even A, B and D, for instance.

6) We encourage you to play with style, language, tone, storytelling medium, etc. We're not afraid of abrupt shifts--so write how you'd write! If a quiet, poetic play turns into an insane musical romp--we love that. Have fun and go wild!