What is your favorite scene from a play? Why?

First scene in play..now what?

• I really wanted to write a play so I kind of just started without thinking of a plot or anything. Here is the first scene..now where should I take it? Elizabeth: seventeen Robert: seventeen Scene 1 (Lights go up. Elizabeth and Robert are sitting on the floor of a homey bedroom. Elizabeth is leaning on the end of the bed and Robert is leaning on the dresser. There is a bottle of wine and two glasses in the middle of them.) Elizabeth: It’s funny. All the writers I like killed themselves. Robert: Hilarious. Elizabeth: Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Ernest Hemingway – him and his brother! Robert: Oh, Virginia. Elizabeth: Yes, it’s quit terrible actually. She heard voices in her head. Eventually they got so loud that she drowned herself – stuffed rocks in her pockets and jumped. Her suicide note to Leonard was so beautiful. Robert: And Sylvia, what a beauty. Elizabeth: Stuck her head in an oven - poor soul. I mean really, there are so many other convenient ways to kill yourself - why the oven? Robert: I agree. At least Hemingway had some sense – a bullet straight through the head. Quick and easy. Elizabeth: Even so, it leaves such a mess. (pause) How would you kill yourself? Robert: I wouldn’t. Elizabeth: Come on, we’ve all thought about killing ourselves at some point. How would you do it? Robert: I would never think such terrible thoughts. Elizabeth: Well, I would overdose on sleeping pills. First, I would do my hair and makeup all glamorous, and then I would put on fancy lingerie and a silk robe. I would down all the pills and go into bed and gently sprawl myself across the mattress. I would turn my head to the side and let my hand, still gently grasping the bottle, dangle off the edge. Robert: I’m glad to hear you put so much thought into this. Elizabeth: I’m not actually going to do it; it’s what I would do. (pause) All famous writers seemed to hurt so much. Is it possible to produce great art without feeling pain, or is there always suffering behind beauty? Robert: Mm…the metaphysics of pain. Elizabeth: Well… Robert: I don’t know. Elizabeth: Do you still want to be a writer? Robert: Of course Elizabeth: Even after hearing the terrible fate of all these writers? Robert: Not all writers kill themselves. Elizabeth: Your favorite did. Robert: Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald did not kill himself. Elizabeth: He drank himself to death. Robert: Yes, and so shall we. (They toast, lights fade)

• Answer:

  Hey Julia! : ) Fabulous - now write the next one, silly! LOL There a differant ways to paint a picture and not everyone does the story plan first. Infact a lot of oscar winning screenwriters swear theyd have to kill themselves if they did that. Ok so ask yourself some questions - WHY is Liz telling Rob all this stuff - is she secretly battling suicidal feelings - if so how can she overcome this? Many people who feel suicidal are drawn to the text of these writers so it would make sense.... WHAT IF (THe best question in the world for writers LOL) it is Robert who is secretly battling this - AND why ishe so in denial ' I would never feel this way or do that blah blah " yeah yeah on the inside-( the subtext) he might be pretty close to it... WHAT IF she does kill herself? - and the death is NOT the pretty picture she fantasized about - because overdosing on pills actually makes you suffer 2 weeks of vomiting and extreme pain before you die of organ failure (they cant transplant because you have poisoned youself) - you dont just go to sleep. UGLY Way to die! She d have sick all over her! And everyone around her feeling terrible becasue they loved her. And awful for medical staff as all they can do is ease her pain until she dies. I know what you have written here is comedy - but sometimes something really dark can be wonderful when it is lightened with humour - as long as the actually subject of suicide is at some point revealled to be what it ACTUALLY is - devastating. (if that was what you were to make it about) You have written a fantastic scene - now write the next - let your characters suprise you - and the scene you are afraid to write the most is probably the one that will knock all other screenplays out the water. So go be brave and write it! (or abandon all this and go whereever you characters tell you - sometimes no plans are the plans that take you to the places you never dreamed you would go.... Keep it up Misses! The scene shows you have talent. Merry christmas! Dasiyx