Triumph of Love

[thoreau]

Tonight - my season at California Shakespeare continues with their non-Shakespeare selection of the season. A french play titled Triumph of Love a romantic comedy by Pierre Marivaux. I love live theater - it's very exciting! One of the best decisions I made during the winter blues - was to buy this subscription. Man and Superman was MARVELOUS! I'm looking forward to tonight's play.

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I had a brainblast last night - and was up till 1am - working on the first block of serious dialogue for the new work. Dialogue is HARD to write without it sounding boring boring boring!

This particular section of dialogue - since it hits me directly - is particularly difficult but a very important launching point into the new material. Robert has to hit Bill right between the eyes - but in a gentle way that will make him want to keep the conversation going. Bill (me) breaks into a "my ex this and my ex that" diatribe - and Robert has to stop him and say "I don't hear you loving yourself anywhere in this story? When did you forget to love yourself?" which leads the set up of Rumi's poetry and a zen/buddhist journey into self.

So last night I did an Anne Lamott lesson and spoke my conversation between Bill and Robert into a tape recorder. I'll listen to it tomorrow night (my next writing opportunity) and think it through. I want Robert's reactions to Bill's story to be compassionate - yet with enough "get over it miss thing" to be real. I want Bill to be stung by Robert's appraisals but not be devastated. The key being that each chapter afterwards will begin with a letter exchange between the two - and events in both of their lives connecting back to a different Rumi poem in each chapter.

I know that this project sounds esoteric and unapproachable - but with finesse and polish (e.g. months and months of work) I think I'm onto something personally - that other folks might want to read.