One of my goals for having this blog is to keep record of the exercises I do in order to become a better writer. So this is an intro of what I’m calling, a Scene Stream. It’s basically writing a scene, that’s timed, out of thin air without thought or any preconceived notion of where…
Author: Conrad
Conrad's a San Francisco Bay Area Playwright. He loves long walks upon the concrete and rainy days. Aside from writing words for actors to regurgitate into an audience's ears and eyes, he loves sports, 90's R&B, and learning.
My Destination Ends at You
My Destination Ends at Youa Scene Stream exercise Character 1: Brian (Littrell – Jesus Loves You)Character 2: Nelly (Furtado – Say It Right) Situation: While driving to work one morning, (Brian) decides to pass the office and keep on driving. Time: 20 minutes (start: 11:34pm) NELLYBrian, what are you doing? You just missed the exit….
Remembering Fermin Tobera
I started doing research about the 1930 Watsonville riot that claimed the life of Fermin Tobera. A play is in there somewhere. The weird coinikidinky in this research is that the riot started at The Filipino Club in Palm Beach which is 7 miles SW of Watsonville, so that would make it near Moss Landing….
Garden Of Dreams – Staged Reading
Well it’s over… for now. On Sunday, I had the first public reading of my play, GARDEN OF DREAMS. I was nervous as fuck, but i got through it okay. LESSONS LEARNED– LISTEN TO YOUR ACTORS – A concern was brought to attention by one of the actors. He was having some trouble getting out…
Six Degrees of Separation – Play Review
So I watched SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION tonight at the SF Playhouse and I really liked it. It’s so weird now to watch a show from the playwright’s POV. Being from the “actors” world before in another life, I would always watch the performances and analyze how they do what – but now, I’m so…
Yankee Dawg You Die – Script Review
I just finished reading YANKEE DAWG YOU DIE by one of my teachers, Philip Kan Gotanda. Again, I’m inspired by it. For some reason, I always thought the play was something that it obviously is not. SYNOPSISBradley Yamashita is one of the new breed of Asian-American actors. Highly political and outspoken, he will only take…
Zoot Suit – Script Review
I just read ZOOT SUIT by Luis Valdez play and I LOVE IT! There’s just so many great things that I’ve learned from reading it. SYNOPSISIn Zoot Suit, Luis Valdez weaves a story involving the real-life events of the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial — when a group of young Mexican-Americans were wrongfully charged with murder…
How to write a 10-minute play
HOW TO WRITE A 10-MINUTE PLAYcopied and pasted from 10-Minute-Plays.com (http://www.10-minute-plays.com/index.html) TWELVE RULES FOR THE ASPIRING PLAYWRIGHT 1) NO EXPOSITION! Just jump into your story. This presents a puzzle for the audience to unravel and allows them to play with you. Remember—we are fascinated by the unknown! 2) EVERY DETAIL MUST RELATE TO THE ACTION…
Stories High Session 2 – Playwriting Notes
Here’s some general notes that I took for me from the latest class. – Beat: – building blocks of theater/play/script – each beat moves the story forward – can be seen when different tactics or strategies are used to develop the protagonist’s Action (want) – If you have a block, look at the play’s Action, Conflict, and Event…
Where’s Your Brother?
Where’s Your Brotherby conrad panganiban Louise Parker – Mid 50’sBenny Parker – Late teens Setting: Night, The Parker living room, Rural Kansas, Present LOUISE and her teenage son, BENNY, are in their living room where BENNY is cutting his mother’s toenails. There’s an pizza box and a glass of wine on a table. LOUISEDon’t cut…