Greetings, people. Sorry for the lateness of this posting, but my life is in a weird order and I'll leave it at that. Anyway, today is the third day of the year and the second posting of 2011. Today's topic is a musing. Musings are what they are, ideas and whatnot that are floating in my head that I would like to have an outlet. Many of you have ideas that are dying to get out, so I'll use my blog as an outlet for mine.
Today's musing is an an idea for a stage play. As a writer, one must find ways of expressing that talent. One way is writing stage plays. Stage plays are an excellent form of entertainment, along with being the oldest form of visual expression.
Now, I also see myself as a would-be actor and this play would star me in the lead role. Writers who act is nothing new. In fact, writers always write themselves into their work. Plays and movies are just an extension of that. So, with that in mind, people, I will now give you the stage play.
The stage play is titled The Tale of Oddley Hutchinson and it contains many of my ideas on comedy. Those ideas form the basis of my comedic mindset as as you'll read the stories and serials, you'll see those ideas pop up over and over again. This stage play will contain those ideas and filter them into their purest expressions.
I've managed to outline the whole play but today, I'll put up Act One, which will keep you interested enough for Act Two. Act One contains more varied forms of my comedic ideals while Act Two contains the simplifed versions. Now, for your pleasure in any form, here's Act One...
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Scene 1 - At the Easy-Mart works Oddley Hutchinson. He meets new worker Gilda, who wonders at the origin of his name. He explains that his mother heard a nurse describe his rather unusual at-birth appearence as oddily, with his mother spelling it O-D-D-L-E-Y. Oddley then mentions that he has money riding on a big game, with him betting with a man named Thomas Newshaw.
Scene 2 - At work, Oddley is sitted with Gilda in the back room as he watches the big game. Slowly, he watches the team he bet on lose by a big margin. After the game ends, he receives a phone call from Newshaw, asking about his payment. Oddley soon reveals to Gilda that he bet three times his savings, sure of the outcome. It now appears that Oddley owns Newshaw $3,000
Scene 3 - At work, Newshaw makes a threatened appearence to collect and Oddley, with Gilda's help, tells the bookie that he is currently in no shape to pay. Rather than kill the worker and never see a cent, Oddley is given a chance to repay the money. Newshaw tells Oddley that he will choose the method of payment and will get back to him tomorrow.
Scene 4 - At the bar, Newshaw manages to catch Gilda after work, to probe for information for how Oddley can pay the $3,000. Gilda, in course, reveals two facts about Oddley she learned during their first meeting: that he claims of a wonderful singing voice and that he has a sister, named Susan. Newshaw then makes his leave as Oddley comes upon Gilda, who reveals nothing about her meeting with Newshaw.
Scene 5 - At Oddley's house, Newshaw visits him and tells him that he will cancel Oddley's debt for the price of a date with Susan. Oddley outright refuses to use his sister to cancel a debt. Susan then enters and reveals herself as a uptight woman who believes that men are useless. Denied a date, Newshaw tells Oddley that he will just give him 30 days to pay or else.
Scene 6 - At the bar, Oddley goes to drown his sorrows over having 30 days to pay three times an amount it took him six months to save up. As he sits with his beer, he is visited upon by a blonde named Willow who wants nothing but sex. Oddley, in getting Willow to leave him alone, reveals his money troubles. Willow then tells Oddley that he should look into employment at a lab.
Scene 7 - At the lab, Oddley shows up to see about a job. There, he meets Dr. Milner, a female scientist who reminds Oddley of Willow. Dr. Milner tells Oddley that she is in the market for an assistant, her last one quitting for unknown reasons. Oddley asks how much the job pays and is told $1,000 a week. Upon hearing this, Oddley decides to take the job. As he leaves, he sees a vial of strange liquid and seeing that Dr. Milner isn't taking interest in it, and pockets it.
Scene 8 - At work, Oddley tells Gilda about his new job at the lab but Gilda informs him that he still has his job at Easy-Mart. Rather than quit a job he'll need after he pays, he decides to take a leave of absence from the store, seeing how he hasn't taken one in six years of working there and the boss asking him to take one every other week. Oddley is then visited upon by the boss and Oddley gets his leave.
Scene 9 - At the lab, Oddley is given his first assignment under Dr. Milner, to research a new muscle builder for use in the space program. He is tasked with giving a body builder a test injection. The test injection build muscle but has the unfortunate side-effect of increasing feelings of anger in the subject, causing the body builder to nearly choke Oddley to death. After the experiment, Oddley decides no money is worth this and quits.
Scene 10 - At work, Oddley has another meeting with Newshaw, where Oddley tells him that he is not, under current means, going to pay his debt in 30 days. Newshaw tells Oddley that he has to pay or Newshaw will make sure that Oddley spends the rest of his life in constant pain. Oddley then walks away, wondering how he will pay Newshaw in 30 days without ending up in pain.
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As you can see, Act One is full of laughs and plot, a hard to find combo in today's world. The ideals I've expressed in Act One are:
- The character with an odd name. As Oddley himself mentioned, his mother give him that name after hearing a nurse gave an unflattering opinion of her newborn son.
- Pain inflicted for laughs. In the scene with the body builder, Oddley is to be choken while Dr. Milner just notes without looking at the scene playing out.
In Act Two, more ideals are expressed. Those ideals are more central to my idea of comedy. My idea of comedy involves weird and interesting things that I find amusing. They may not be amusing to you but they're amusing to me, and that's enough for me.
Tomorrow, Act Two of The Tale of Oddley Hutchinson
Yours truly, John Maxwell
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