Chicago: The Musical. No, not that one.
I spent a few days in Chicago1 to see the premiere of my friends’ new musical Asphalt Beach, which is workshopping at Northwestern University. The show was terrific, and vindication for my decade of belief in my friends’ talent.
I took advantage of being away from L.A. to start writing something brand new. That’s my modus operandi; I generally barricade myself in a hotel room for a few days to crank through pages when starting a new project. I write longhand and quickly — first a scribble draft of a scene, then a more legible (but still handwritten) version. I fax pages back to Los Angeles and don’t let myself edit.
Since a writer can only stare at the same four walls for so long, I try to pick someplace interesting for my sequestration. Vegas is a good choice. When one doesn’t drink or gamble, it’s basically a giant, noisy food court. That’s where I started both Charlie’s Angels scripts and The Movie. I wrote Fury in San Diego, and Tarzan on a 23-hour train ride from Los Angeles to Seattle. I wrote Fantasy Island and Jurassic Park III in Hawaii, though the latter was more “forced labor” than a writing vacation.
It’s been six months since I’ve written something new, which is my longest hiatus by far. So I was happy to find that I could still string words together in a non-blog environment. After months of dealing with actors and vehicles and visual effects, it’s liberating to deal with only words.
This time, I wrote a play. An honest-to-Baal, curtain-comes-up stage play. The story sort of demanded it: it’s necessarily talky, less about What Happens as much as What It’s About. The lack of easy CUT TO:’s is more than made up for by the luxury of scene length. In a stage play, you can do things that are unwieldy in films:
TOM: Let me make Point One.
MARY: Sure, we’ll talk about Point One.
TOM: Now let me tie that in to Point Two.
MARY: Really? Well, here’s Point Three.
(Steve ENTERS)
STEVE: What are we talking about?
MARY: Point Three.
STEVE: That sounds a lot like Point Four, which Tom and I were talking about in the previous scene, only from the opposite perspective.
TOM: Unlike a movie, we don’t have to simplify arguments down to postage-stamp sized thought nuggets. Ambiguity and uncertainty are a-okay.
MARY: We can also assume a much higher level of audience sophistication, since only rich, educated people bother seeing plays.
STEVE: And no unnecessary car chases!
On the downside, stage play formatting seriously blows. Dialogue stretches from margin to margin, and stage directions are surrounded by completely unnecessary parentheses. But one can’t have everything.
- Technically, Evanston, which is north of Chicago. Apparently, confusing the two is annoying to actual Chicagoans, on par with saying “Los Angeles” when one means “Orange County.” My apologies to anyone offended. ↩
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November 5th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
I managed to offend a Chicago resident (after I moved here) by making fun of commercials referring to the “Chicagoland area.” I said Chicagoland sounded like a cheesy theme park. I love Chicago, but as a former New Yorker, I was weary of Chicagoans’ reflexive insulting of New York, so my stock reply to New York dissing was “well, they don’t call Chicago the ’second city’ for nothing.” It did not endear me to the New York-insulting Chicagoans (most of whom, incidentally, were from the Chicago suburbs, not the city itself).
Thanks for the tip about Asphalt Beach–I’ll try to take it in next week.
November 5th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Yes, confusing Evanston with Chicago would annoy a certain stripe of local. (Possibly the same locals that consider marking a winter parking spot with lawn furniture a quaint regional custom and not a mark of reverse evolution. But I digress.)
Henceforth, I will blame my origins for my inability to decipher the actual city boundaries of Los Angeles. Because you make an excellent point–Chicagoans generally don’t blur the line between the city and adjacent towns. If you get busted calling yourself a Chicagoan, when you really grew up in the suburbs, that’s it–you’ll specify for the rest of your life the exact quadrant of Cook County you grew up in. (Me, I hail from E. Hemingway’s hometown, 1/2 mile from the city limits. But you won’t catch me calling myself a Chicagoan.)
From that view point, understanding the Los Angeles city/county situation is far beyond my abilities of comprehension.
November 5th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
On stage plays versus film scripts, do you find that certain styles are easier to write in one than the other? For example, I find it’s somewhat easier to write comedy for the stage and drama/thrillers for the screen. I assume that’s a personal style/talent point, but I’d be interested to know your experience there.
November 5th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
Yes yes. Plays and writing and what-not. But where did you eat pizza from?
November 6th, 2006 at 9:01 am
I have to say, having been to Las Vegas, the illusion has certainly been blown. It was my idea of hell. Nasty hot dry winds which burn your eyes raw even at 11pm at night. I felt I was suffocating, and someone was tailing me with a hairdryer set to singe. However I was there for July 4th, and the motel I stayed in had some colourful crack whores and pimps amongst the shootings and muggings. I couldn’t see myself writing anything but an obituary in Vegas, but to each there own.
November 6th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Okay, now I understand why you took a cab from the airport. If you are staying in Evanston rather than in the loop, you would need a cab. I assume that you know it is almost always faster, easier and cheaper to take the L or “el” from the airport into the city.
If no one told you that before, consider trying it, unless you are afraid of taking public transportation.
You’re not afraid, are you?
November 6th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
I was in Chicago for the International Children’s Film Festival last year. I took the el from the airport into the city. After very little deliberation at the end of my trip, I took a cab back.
November 7th, 2006 at 10:34 am
j.p. –
the reason chicago is called “the second city” is NOT because it is second-best or some bullshit like that. it is a reference to the great chicago fire in 1871 and the city needing to be rebuilt in a big way. the resulting construction over the rubble of the old made it “the second city” built on this strip of land, which in turn resulted in the modern skyscraper, and is just another reason why chicago is the best city in this country.
but i do have to agree with you that “chicagoland” sounds a little silly. i’ve gotten used to it at this point just out of hearing it a lot, but i used to balk at it as a reflex.
as you might have imagined, i am a chicago resident (although i was born in ohio).