Kellie Powell's Notes
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Apparently Kraft runs some kind of video competition and one of the entries is Leah's monologue from Like Dreaming, Backwards. I'm pretty sure the actor changed some words around. And, she chose to emphasize Leah's anger at her dead daughter, which is not a choice I'd recommend. I wonder why people make the acting decisions they do.
If you are interested in listening to some of my plays, as performed on WHRW, there should be new content every week at:
http://notmyshoes.mypodcas
Supposedly you can subscribe with iTunes and it will automatically download new things for you as they are posted. Enjoy!
http://notmyshoes.mypodcas
Supposedly you can subscribe with iTunes and it will automatically download new things for you as they are posted. Enjoy!
Heartland has announced the ten-minute play competition theme for this year: "Inns & Outs" - by which they mean, this year, all the plays will take place in a hotel lobby. The only ideas I have are (predictably) ones from real-life experience:
One night when I was working at the Courtyard, a woman came downstairs at 3am and proceeded to talk to me about nothing for an hour and a half. I kept politely asking if there was something I could do for her, and she continued babbling. I think she was an insomniac. So, what I'm asking is, if I wrote a play in which a strange woman talked a night staff's ear off for ten minutes, and then went back to her room and set the hotel on fire... is that something you'd want to read?
The other idea is, a night staff calls the police and claims that there has been a robbery. The play starts as the cops and the hotel manager are arriving, around 4am. They eventually, somehow, discover that the night staff is lying and that there was no robbery, in fact, the night staff worker had stolen the money in the register. This is, believe it or not, what happened to Courtney, the guy who trained me to work at the Courtyard. I didn't personally witness this incident, so I don't have that many details.
What would you guys prefer to read?
One night when I was working at the Courtyard, a woman came downstairs at 3am and proceeded to talk to me about nothing for an hour and a half. I kept politely asking if there was something I could do for her, and she continued babbling. I think she was an insomniac. So, what I'm asking is, if I wrote a play in which a strange woman talked a night staff's ear off for ten minutes, and then went back to her room and set the hotel on fire... is that something you'd want to read?
The other idea is, a night staff calls the police and claims that there has been a robbery. The play starts as the cops and the hotel manager are arriving, around 4am. They eventually, somehow, discover that the night staff is lying and that there was no robbery, in fact, the night staff worker had stolen the money in the register. This is, believe it or not, what happened to Courtney, the guy who trained me to work at the Courtyard. I didn't personally witness this incident, so I don't have that many details.
What would you guys prefer to read?
My review of Portland Noir was published today over at The Feminist Review. It was a fun read, it made me want to buy a copy of Chicago Noir. If you want to read all of my Feminist Reviews, you can visit the site and just search for "Kellie Powell."
The sound quality is a little unfortunate. I think this is one of the best Amy monologues I've seen. She seems very committed to what she's saying, and I think she's got just the right mix of anger and sadness. I even kind of like the lost expression on her face just before she walks away - and I'm not even sure that's supposed to be part of the "performance." A lot of actors just yell their guts out during the whole monologue, I really appreciate this more subtle, realistic approach.
More Monologue Videos
The radio version of my play, Bargaining is now available on the Art International Radio website. To listen, visit: http://www.artonair.org/ar
This version stars Amanda White and Ross Iosefson, with narration by Ava Rosenblatt and original music composed by Shane Thorn. I hope you will all listen and enjoy, and let me know what you think.
This version stars Amanda White and Ross Iosefson, with narration by Ava Rosenblatt and original music composed by Shane Thorn. I hope you will all listen and enjoy, and let me know what you think.
Hi Kellie,
I'm performing a monologue from Bargaining (as my friend Megan may have mentioned) and I'm having a hard time finding enough info on it. If you could help that would be great.
Can you please tell me a bit about yourself? Like where and when you where born, what schools and courses you attended, and why you decided to become a playwright etc...
Why did you write Bargaining? What significance does it have for you, and what significance do you want the audience to take away with them?
What do you think the most important themes and intended meanings of the play are?
How do you picture it being performed? On an elaborate set, with different lighting and sound effects, or in an open space, with nothing but the two actors and a few props?
Any other info would be really good too.
Thank you very much, in advance.
Kate
* * *
Dear Kate,
I'm very flattered that you chose a monologue from "Bargaining." I'm happy to answer your questions, I hope you find it helpful.
I was born on Halloween 1983, in Bloomington, Illinois. I attended Metcalf Laboratory School, University High School, and Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. I have also taken courses at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York. I majored in Theatre in college, with a directing emphasis. I took all the standard courses for Theatre, plus advanced directing, and the school's only Play Writing course.
I have always been a writer. As a small child, I wrote poems and short stories and adapted stories from R.L. Stein's "Goosebumps" series and chapters from the book "Dealing With Dragons" into short plays and coaxed my brother and my cousins to performing in them in our backyard. When I was sixteen, I wrote And Turning, Stay, which I usually think of as my first "real" play. By the end of high school, I had moved from prose and poetry to almost exclusively writing plays. I love theatre, and I love writing dialogue. I have a far easier time writing a conversation than I do when trying to describe something. Mine is an aural, verbal mind, not a visual one, so the choice to be a playwright seemed obvious.
"Bargaining" was written in the summer of 2006, during a difficult time in my life. It was how I processed the loss of my first love, and the suicidal depression that I went through after that loss. The idea to include a supernatural element - immortality - in the story is probably the result of my enduring love for a writer/director named Joss Whedon. In his series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" he uses supernatural and fantasy elements to tell stories that are very emotionally real. By making Hannah and Ryan immortal, I could raise the stakes for the characters, isolating them from the rest of the world, and, I could explore Hannah's suffering in a new way. If Hannah were an average woman, it would probably seem unreasonable for her to want to end her life after Ryan decides to leave her. But, as an immortal being, the idea of surrendering her immortality is more understandable - but still ultimately not the right decision.
To me, the play is about the intersection of two themes: devotion and impermanence. The play asks the question of whether the fleeting, temporary nature of human life makes it more or less significant. Is human experience irrelevant because it is so brief, so small when viewed objectively in the history of time and space? Or is every individual human life more precious because our time is so limited? It also asks less esoteric questions: Is it reasonable to promise to love someone forever? Do people change too much over the course of a lifetime to be expected to make lifelong commitments?
As for production concerns, I am a minimalist. It is my belief that elaborate set pieces, too many costume changes, and all the other "spectacle" that goes into theatre distracts the audience from what is important: the characters and the story. I think this piece works best when performed with a table, two chairs, and whatever props the actors feel comfortable with. The most important thing is that production design elements not be allowed to interfere with the pacing and flow of the work. I'm sort of Aristotelian in that way.
Break a leg,
Kellie Powell
I'm performing a monologue from Bargaining (as my friend Megan may have mentioned) and I'm having a hard time finding enough info on it. If you could help that would be great.
Can you please tell me a bit about yourself? Like where and when you where born, what schools and courses you attended, and why you decided to become a playwright etc...
Why did you write Bargaining? What significance does it have for you, and what significance do you want the audience to take away with them?
What do you think the most important themes and intended meanings of the play are?
How do you picture it being performed? On an elaborate set, with different lighting and sound effects, or in an open space, with nothing but the two actors and a few props?
Any other info would be really good too.
Thank you very much, in advance.
Kate
* * *
Dear Kate,
I'm very flattered that you chose a monologue from "Bargaining." I'm happy to answer your questions, I hope you find it helpful.
I was born on Halloween 1983, in Bloomington, Illinois. I attended Metcalf Laboratory School, University High School, and Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. I have also taken courses at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York. I majored in Theatre in college, with a directing emphasis. I took all the standard courses for Theatre, plus advanced directing, and the school's only Play Writing course.
I have always been a writer. As a small child, I wrote poems and short stories and adapted stories from R.L. Stein's "Goosebumps" series and chapters from the book "Dealing With Dragons" into short plays and coaxed my brother and my cousins to performing in them in our backyard. When I was sixteen, I wrote And Turning, Stay, which I usually think of as my first "real" play. By the end of high school, I had moved from prose and poetry to almost exclusively writing plays. I love theatre, and I love writing dialogue. I have a far easier time writing a conversation than I do when trying to describe something. Mine is an aural, verbal mind, not a visual one, so the choice to be a playwright seemed obvious.
"Bargaining" was written in the summer of 2006, during a difficult time in my life. It was how I processed the loss of my first love, and the suicidal depression that I went through after that loss. The idea to include a supernatural element - immortality - in the story is probably the result of my enduring love for a writer/director named Joss Whedon. In his series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" he uses supernatural and fantasy elements to tell stories that are very emotionally real. By making Hannah and Ryan immortal, I could raise the stakes for the characters, isolating them from the rest of the world, and, I could explore Hannah's suffering in a new way. If Hannah were an average woman, it would probably seem unreasonable for her to want to end her life after Ryan decides to leave her. But, as an immortal being, the idea of surrendering her immortality is more understandable - but still ultimately not the right decision.
To me, the play is about the intersection of two themes: devotion and impermanence. The play asks the question of whether the fleeting, temporary nature of human life makes it more or less significant. Is human experience irrelevant because it is so brief, so small when viewed objectively in the history of time and space? Or is every individual human life more precious because our time is so limited? It also asks less esoteric questions: Is it reasonable to promise to love someone forever? Do people change too much over the course of a lifetime to be expected to make lifelong commitments?
As for production concerns, I am a minimalist. It is my belief that elaborate set pieces, too many costume changes, and all the other "spectacle" that goes into theatre distracts the audience from what is important: the characters and the story. I think this piece works best when performed with a table, two chairs, and whatever props the actors feel comfortable with. The most important thing is that production design elements not be allowed to interfere with the pacing and flow of the work. I'm sort of Aristotelian in that way.
Break a leg,
Kellie Powell