So, i’m starting a string of posts for ideas that I have for plays, short and full-length, because I don’t want these nuggets to go to waste and forgotten. To make sure that these plays will get written, I’ll start each post with “This story is about…” This is a lesson I learned from Philip Kan Gotanda. When he’d grill us in the class/workshop, he’d ask us this. These four words brought initial fear in all of us because it truly is a struggle to concisely break down a whole concept for a play into one sentence. However, this statement lays the foundation of the play. This short sentence begins the elevator pitch!
(elevator ding. an artistic director for a theater company gets into the elevator with you.)
ME
Hi. I’m Conrad Panganiban and I’ve written a play I know you’d want to produce.
AD
Really… what it’s about? You have 3 floors.
ME
The story is about…