Happy New Year!

Yeah, so it's 6:26 EST, but whatever. I'm going to be out celebrating the end of the awful 2008 and eagerly anticipating the start of 2009 (and the first rehearsal of Disorientation on the 5th, if only to play with a Wall-E mini robot) which should hopefully be a better year. Hope you all enjoy responsibly, and abide all laws, which probably neglects the "enjoy responsibly" part.

For the blog business, all character stuff will be done by the first rehearsal (and hopefully at a decent time on Sunday, but it's playoff time, so no guarantees). Then, hopefully, I'll be putting up some YouTube footage to bring this blog from straight 2D to perceived 3D (even though it's really still 2D) !

See you next year! omgomgomgomg NO I ONLY MEAN A FEW DAYS

lollerskatez

Meet: Lauren, Eric, and Jen

Name: Lauren

Location: Rutherford, NJ

Household: Full? I have a mom and a dad, and they’re in my household, and an older brother who is engaged. But he doesn’t count because he’s out of the house, right?

Fav. Music: Adam Pascal (Rent! Eeeee!), Rufus Wainwright, Stephen Sondheim (named my car after him), some hip-hop, mostly for dancing purposes. More Broadway than I’d like to admit. Oh, and some mid-90s pop when no one is around. Don’t tell anyone about that.

Fav. Movies: Gidget, Les Miserables, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Zoolander, American Beauty, Paris Je T’Aime, Amelie and some others I can’t really think of right now. But they’re good, honest.

Fav. TV Show: Arrested Development, Dexter, Gossip Girl, Sex and the City (obvi)

Fav. Sites: I wish I was above it, but perezhilton. Where’s Paint? <-- DIVA

Fav. Books: Jane Eyre, The Diary of Adam and Eve, Running with Scissors, The Beach, The Little Prince, Said the Shotgun to the Head

Personal Note: I hope it’s a great year! Is that too impersonal?

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Name: Eric

Location: Framingham, or as I call it “Smellsville.” Cause it smells like crap.

Household: I got one.

Fav. Music: Slayer, The Misfits, Sex Pistols, whatever’s on the laptops I find around town.

Fav. Movies: Mostly flicks where people got shot. Like Die Hard’s pretty awesome. Commando, man, Arnold kills a lotta folks. That’s awesome.

Fav. TV Show: The Wonder Years

Fav. Sites: Miami

Fav. Books: Fight Club. Like a how-to book.

Personal Note: There are only like 5 guys here right? And the rest are girls, right? They better both be yes or I’m leaving.

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Name: Jen

Location: Boonton, NJ

Household: I have a mother who reminds me that I need to start a family and a father who reminds me to not have a family like the one we have.

Fav. Music: Postal Service, Bright Eyes, Bob Dylan’s earlier stuff, Muse if I’m feeling loud.

Fav. Movies: 12 Angry Men, Wall-E, Vertigo, a lot of classic stuff, really. A lot of movies that come out now are just waaay too intense (I’m looking at you, Michael Bay).

Fav. TV Show: The Simpsons are great, What Not To Wear is fun to laugh at other people who get ridiculed for wearing clashing outfits, Oprah (sadly)

Fav. Sites: cnn.com is my main news source. Foxnews.com when I really want to laugh.

Fav. Books: City Mouse, Country Mouse, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Communist Manifesto (have a crush on Stalin, so dreamy) I’m kidding about that last part.

Personal Note: I hope we can all get along and stay out of my room cause I need to do work.

From The Notebook: A Study on Sarah

As I run through my notebook on this Christmas Eve eve and the third night of Chanukah (...right?), I have come to an odd conclusion that's both good and bad: most of what I wrote down ended up in the play. The good part is that "hey, it seems like a lot of my first ideas were good enough to stick around for the current draft!" The bad part is, "oh crap...there goes a lot of blog content." For the most part, the only things that were cut were far too sexually explicit lines from Vicky (specifically when she's with Will).

However, I have found some interesting little bits on the character of Sarah.

At first, Sarah (named Suzanne as a back-handed homage to my cousin of the same name) was just a character to tell the audience how time was moving on, specifically when she'd yell out her journal entries by which day it was, like an inmate in Shawshank. Clearly it would be an annoying roommate (as so many are) and would upset the main character (always Alison, always Elvis Costello influenced), but wouldn't be more than just a secondary character.

Eventually, the character blossomed into something bigger, and I think the impetus came with this selection which was cut from the play, mostly because it is far too close to Parker Posey's brilliant ad-lib in Dazed and Confused (1993). It comes roughly around page 34, as part of the reason Alison goes to go to Beth and ask for a new roommate. It was replaced with something more emotional and gave way to a bit more background on why Alison is so darn man hating. But first, there was:

Alison: hey, can you clean up your side of the room? (approx)
Sarah: Hey, can you clean the stupid off your face?
Alison: What?
Sarah: Didn't think so

Sarah goes back to writing her journal.

From that point forward, Sarah's part grew and grew if only because I loved writing her part. She even filled a hole later on when I had no one else for Will to talk to about the Alison situation, specifically after he tried to woo her and she tried to destroy his manhood. Who else but Alison's roommate, Sarah? My love for her grew further after I'd send the play out to a small cadre of friends and Sarah was almost universally loathed. Every time someone would say "oh I just wanted to STRANGLE that Sarah girl!" my heart would grow four times. And then a bell would ring, and Clarence would get a free venti skinny mocha. Wait. Backspaaaaaaace. Free venti skinny wings.

There should hopefully be a Christmas gift (read: post) up on the day, so check back, cause all I'll be doing is watching the NBA for about 11 straight hours. Thanks, Jesus !

Meet: Hillary, Jolene, and Kris

Name: Hillary

Location: Manhattan, NY (Upper East Side on the corner of 89th and Lex if you would like specifics). If interested, I do accept visitors, but I would have to clear it with Leonard, the doorman, first.

Household: I have a nuclear family consisting of my mother, a lawyer, and my father, a lawyer. They work at competing firms, so things are always up for grabs at my house. I have an older brother who is finishing a semester abroad in Finland with like-minded students from Yale and a little sister who is executive president at the school the entire family attended, as only an 8th grader, again; like the rest of the family.

Fav. Music: I find listening to music purely for the purpose of entertainment to be self-indulgent and a general waste of time, as well as brain capacity. However, I will throw on some music in the background, specifically Mozart, Bach, and, if I’m feeling randy, some John Coltrain (only if mother is not at home).

Fav. Movies: I prefer the term “films,” as I do not watch movies. My preferences are for foreign films, such as À bout de soufflé (Breathless) (1960), La Régle du jeu (Rules of the Game) (1939), and Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) (1948). They both inform as well as entertain, and allow me to keep up on my knowledge of foreign tongues (French, Italian, Latin, etc.).

Fav. TV Show: Ha!

Fav. Sites: I do not know how many “sites” I traverse on a given day, but Google.com and Wikipedia.org I frequent most often, if I had to guess.

Fav. Books: Dante – The Inferno, John Milton – Paradise Lost, Shelley – Frankenstein (but only the 1818 text), Homer – The Iliad as well as The Odyssey, Machiavelli – The Prince, Hillary Clinton – It Takes A Village, Barack Obama – The Au…I’m sorry, I couldn’t finish that with a straight face, let alone type it.

Personal Note: I hope I’m challenged more here than at prep school, as I know Harvard Law will be difficult and I need to receive adequate training to prepare myself.

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Name: Jolene

Location: Atlanta, Georgia, specifically beautiful Buckhead

Household: I live with my mom, as my Dad lives in a condo on the other side of Atlanta. I’ve got a little brother and he’s a pain in the ass. He came from my mom’s second marriage. That guy lives a few blocks away.

Fav. Music: T.I. is the best. Li’l John, Ne-Yo, Kanye, Li’l Wayne (wheezy!), and a local band down here, The Whigs, I’m pretty partial to.

Fav. Movies: I like some pretty random stuff, like ATL, Toy Story (even though it’s kinda gay), The Notebook, Dirty Dancing is my fav, prolly.

Fav. TV Show: I love love LOVE The Hills, Gossip Girl, Paris’ new BFF cuz the girls are sooooo dumb, um, that’s it I guess. OH! The Chappelle’s Show. That ish is mad phunnie.

Fav. Sites: I dunno I kinda click places.

Fav. Books: US Weekly, People. Those are books rite? lol I mean they look like books!

Personal Statement: I wanna have nights I can’t remember with the people I can’t forget.

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Name: Kris

Location: Chicago

Household: Full of children, even though two of them are considered my parents

Fav. Music: Fiery Furnaces, Noah and the Whale, St. Vincent, Broken Social Scene, Feist, Nicole Atkins, Cansei Der Se Sexy, Of Montreal, Arctic Monkeys, Black Keys, Iron & Wine, Arcade Fire, The Shins, Pavement, Chromeo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sufjan Stevens, I’m From Barcelona, Fiona Apple, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, MGMT, Foals, The National, Justice, Ting Tings, Tapes and Tapes, Architecture in Helsinki, Chairlift, Los Campesinos, Ra Ra Riot, Sex Pistols, and the Ramones. I used to like Vampire Weekend, Interpol, I’m From Barcelona, and Brazilian Girls but I’m over them now.

Fav. Movies: A Clockwork Orange, Manhattan, High Fidelity, Fight Club, Rushmore, Life Aquatic, American Psycho, Boondock Saints, Chasing Amy, Almost Famous, Wet Hot, The Last Waltz, Stop Making Sense

Fav. TV Show: clips from 120 Minutes on youtube, Simpsons, Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen (mostly), Frisky Dingo, Colbert, Attack of the Show, South Park

Fav. Sites: pitchforkmedia.com, allmusic.com, rollingstone (ha!), metacritic

Fav. Books: On The Road, Choke (Palahniuk), Slaughterhouse Five, Fahrenheit 451, Cather in the Rye

Personal Statement: ....

Awards Are Great (cause they're shinny)

Awards season is upon us. First the Golden Globes announce their nominees, and now Montclair State University releases their first-annual Theatre Night Awards. Congratulations are in order to both Park Ridge and Pascack Valley for Twelfth Night and Museum, respectively.

PR:
- Nyki Padula for Actress in a Leading Role in a Comedy
- Outstanding Production of a Classical Work

PV:
- Liz Lehman for Graphic Design
- Merielle Lupfer for Achievement in Properties
- Tom Lupfer for Scenic Achievement
- Tom and Mer for Best Direction
- Outstanding Production of a Drama (ed. note: drama? really?)
- Best Ensemble Cast in a Production

All nominations can be found here. The awards ceremony will be held somewhere on MSU's campus (presumably) January 9 at 7 pm.

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But this is a blog about Disorientation you say (no one says this) ! What does this have to do with that, Michael?

Well, theoretical person who doesn't exist, this means that there is some validation about the great work that PV is doing and furthers how excited I am to be doing this production with the school, as if that needed to be repeated. It's also a soapbox to congratulate folks I know and trumpet their achievements further. Oh, and it's filling you all in that the reading is the next afternoon and all of northern New Jersey theater will be in one room the night beforehand. So maybe we can get some butts in the seats while we revel in plaques. Hopefully there will be a few to pass around.

ps - new character Meet: up tomorrow, I promise

ooohhh Musicals!! They have SINGING!

Well both High Schools I hold dear to my heart have unveiled their respective musicals, so I wanted to post a little congrats to both for some great musicals and really interesting choices. For Park Ridge, we've got Curtains and for Pascack Valley, Seussical. One has a Boston accent (that I'll be listening to closely) and the other has a trampoline. So clearly there is something for everyone.

From The Notebook: Well, Have They Or Haven't They?

While putting together the script, there were a lot of things that were cut for time, for story, or were cut before they ever made it in to the script at all. From time to time I'll throw up what could have been, if only because I have about 3 or 4 months of stuff to fill this space with. And some of it is funny, or at least an alternate way of how the play could be.

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I've gotten two questions from cast members about whether or not Dean Anderson and Ms. Barron are married, divorced, or if they ever were married in any way. The big answer is, "I dunno." It really doesn't matter what I think. It's all about what you and your directors think.

However....

Here is a piece of a scene that was going to be for Beth what the Alison/Sarah, Alison/Bathroom scenes and Will/Dean Anderson, Will/Eric scenes are for those two characters. Here, we learn more about where Will came from, the circumstances of it, and Barron's general feeling about matters. It does not lend a lot of light on the question posed, but is an interesting little character beat for The Barron. Also, it is the set up for a call-back line that Jocelyn has when the girls come back from the party, and, possibly, how the cycle perpetuates itself. So, while this isn't necessarily the end-all, be-all answer (defend your point of view in the comments if you'd like), here is a snippet of What Could Have Been....

Barron: I was promiscuous once. Senior year, took the shuttle in to a party. They had this rare juice from a jungle of them recently visited, I presume. I met what passed for a man.
Beth: How was it?
Barron: Seedy. Untidy. Weak. A passing feeling.
Beth: What came out of it?
Barron: Immediate and permanent responsibility.

*Will walks into the scene*

So Now You Have Your Script

What do you do with it? It's thick enough to ward off any attacker by simply spraying pages into his or her eyes. It's sturdy enough to use as an oversized paperweight, ironically made out of nothing but paper. It's bright enough to use as a reflector when you tan.

But hopefully you'll just kinda read it. I'd warn you by saying it's 120 pages and that it'll take some time, so maybe rock that Act Break on page 62 and take a break yourself. But, after checking the status updates of some of you nutbags, I kind of have the idea that you're going to just rip through the entire thing in 15 minutes. More power to you, voracious readers.

I also hope that as you all read the full piece that I tried to give every character something that can leave a mark in your audience's heads as they leave the theater. When I was an actor, all those years ago, I relished playing a smaller role that I could really sink my teeth into and have fun with, even if I had, say three lines. I tried very, very hard to make it so that every actor would have to work to make an imprint, but that it was there in the writing.

You all saw the Yeah Dudes yesterday. Most of them you won't see again after that scene. But are you going to forget them? Some characters have only a handful of lines but have their own non-speaking arcs that could be really fun to watch if you take it all the way through. Some characters just have a one-liner, but hopefully it's funny and you bring that comedy out of you and the character. Yeah, it's great to have your work presented, I won't lie about that. But my main goal was to create something that would be both fun and challenging for a fairly large cast. That's the goal I would like to see reached.

If you have any questions about what you read, a reference you don't get, a description that befuddles, or any other concern, comment or question, feel free to leave something here, wall post or message me on the facebook (or the PV group), or an email either to the one listed on the title page or kingmanton [@] gmail (I'd prefer the latter email, but will take from either). I'll be back in town on Sundeeeee if I don't get bored and hit up a computer in Boston Saturday afternoon.

Congrats again. Hope you like it.

ps Go BU, BC Sucks

Cast List Is Up!

Here's your fate if you don't know it already

As a director (let alone a writer), I've never been in a casting conversation that was this difficult. I understand that a lot of you think I'm blowing smoke up your ass, but this was extremely difficult. Your biggest problem is that you have too much talent, and that's one hell of an odd blessing.

What you all also don't know is how many of these parts can be broadened, expanded, and show-stealing. You'll find out tomorrow.

To those that didn't make it, you have a really, really great musical ahead of you (that will come before this ever sees the stage in a production) and I hope you all go out and show your talents; this coming from a guy who doesn't have any rooting interest outside of sitting in the audience and watching a great show.

And for those who were cast, I'm incredibly excited for all the names that get to sit by characters I just happened to come up with. I'm flabbergasted at how many people (even those who didn't end up getting cast in these parts) absolutely hit the weird voice of these characters in my head (and aloud...which was weird to my mom).

Thank you all for your time. I will be updating this blog with all the little character bios I haven't gotten to so that we're all done by the time the show is read.

Best,
Manton

Fancy Updates While You Read

I hope everyone is busily going over the sides that are posted on The Official Site, figuring out which character they should read for, and trying to understand how someone actually auditions for a part where they're only given a couple of lines and a two sentence description of the character. Yeah, it'll be fun for us, too.

Anywhoos, because of the abundance of traffic the last two days, I figured I'd be a nice guy and throw up some RSS feed links. What are they, you ask? Well let me tell you what limited information I know about your options!

Basically, if you just want to see when the blog updates with a new post, hit the "Posts" button on the top right of the blog, under the very plainly stated: SUBSCRIBE TO THE BLOG. What I do is take that link (feed://pvdisorientation.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default), make that into a bookmark (I have one for my friend's LiverpoolFC blog) and it updates with a little (1) next to it when I know there's a new post. This way you don't have to be sporadically checking in English class as I heard some of you are wont to do. That hinders the educational process, folks, and that's not good. *Cue "The More You Know!" music* You can also add the feed to Google, bloglines, netvibes, newsgator, and your Yahoo!, which is good, I guess.

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NOW GET BACK TO FIGURING OUT WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO AUDITION WITH!!!

I'd suggest Sarah, she's a doll.






(she is not a doll)

What Did We Learn?

Today was an informational session, so let us discuss what information we gleamed from it. For me, I learned:

- If you wear a blazer, you might look like a tool, so leave it at home.
- Man there are a lot of kids interested in this, including some who couldn't make it (a flu shot? really? your health over ART, Lehman? I don't know you anymore).
- You can make impossibly quick dirty jokes off of character names (I won't list the name, thereby involving me)
- Quite a few people read this blog, and many more have read this since they get home. Hay thx !
- A lot of you knew the "Manton" name. Sort of threw me, not going to lie.
- The crew is very appreciative of new ladders. I didn't know how bad you guys had it (and no one mentioned the nail gun! c'mon! that's awesome!)

What Did You Learn?

I'm just going to copy and paste exactly what is up at your crucial little site, http://sites.google.com/pvdisorientation or by clicking here:

Auditions- Thursday, December 4 at 3:30pm

- All audition information is available below. You MUST bring a completed packet (parent signature on Agreement, Audition Form, Conflict Calendar) in order to audition.
- Audition sides and a character description sheet are attached below. You need to prepare a side to present for your audition. We will ask you to read other sides as we see fit. We may ask you to prepare a short improv based on a scenario/specific character we give you.

Cast Meeting- Friday, December 5 at 3:30pm (ed. note - you'll get your scripts)

If you learned anything else, throw it in the comments if you feel like being all comment-y.

Patience

It's a virtue. It's something I haven't been believing much in, to be honest. Ever since I put down my red pen (even before I transcribed my edits), I couldn't sleep. It's been a week, and last night I saw the sun come up. Again.

The hours are ticking down until I get to meet all of you PV kids, not just from this past summer or the brave ones who friended me on facebook, but all of you. Even more than that, I get to meet a Jocelyn, an Alison, a Kris, and maybe a Gavin or two, all before me. It should be at the very least surreal and the most incredibly enjoyable.

I have taken a lot from this experience already, doing a lot of things I've never been asked to do before, and in a time span much shorter than my other long-form piece (5 years vs. 5 months). But the process, growth, and hopeful maturation are still very much on going, and it will be aided by further by Viewers Like You (tm).

I hope I have devised a play that won't just play for an audience, but act as another challenge for you, the actors and crew. Hopefully you'll get a part and see that there is a lot to play with (which also means that hopefully I did my job and gave you characters that you can play a lot with, but I'm fairly certain that was achieved) and make them shine on stage, to build on what you have started with Museum and keep that through line going.

But only time will tell. Now, as a final gift for you dear loyal readers, I'll let you in on the ending:

Bruce Willis is dead the entire play.

Best,
Manton

I've Failed You All

My lofty ambitions to give you guys a look at all the characters came to a crashing halt a couple of weeks ago. My ambition only goes so far (hint: not very far). So we're at a point now where all the characters are locked in (and have been since the first draft, to be fair), so I'll let you guys know the entire character list. If you click a name, they are one of the lucky ones who actually got a sketch, so if you haven't checked them out yet, go right ahead and do that.

Swinton College
Alison
Angelica
Becca
Beth
Bridgette
Eric
Haley
Hillary
Jen
Jocelyn
Jolene
Katy
Kris
Lauren
Madison
Maya
Meg
Mona
Rachel
Sarah
Vicky
Will

Swinton College Staff
Dean Anderson
Ms. Barron

City College
Clint
Gavin
Nathaniel
Toby

One more pass for grammar and spelling checks, then we'll all meet this Tuesday at 3:30, then you get to be judged. Hurrah! Art!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm thankful for being asked to write a play for a high school.

I'm thankful for a talented group of actors to be a part of its original cast.

I'm thankful to have finished the third draft.

I'm thankful I have a ton of food to eat.

num num num

Hope you enjoy that little side (by right click - saving as). Main dish coming shortly....

Switch On Your Electric Light

At 1:20 A.M. on Tuesday, November 25th, I've completed spraying the white pages of Draft Two as a de facto baptisml, turning it into Draft Three. By this time tomorrow, after a full day of transcribing these notes into my Final Draft document, I will be done with the third draft, and will therefore be ready to share it with all of you wonderful Pascack Valley Indi...Native Americans.

And, if you come to the first audition, you'll have sides of this play in your hands on Monday, December 1st (or Wednesday if you're not a go-getter).

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to finish watching every special feature on the Wall-E three-disc DVD set, and probably that Pixar documentary for a second time.

Exciting stuff, people. Exciting stuff indeed.

(sorry about not getting any character stuff done, but it's much more taxing than I realized...might have to just let those die out where they are...)

Goodbye, page 62

There are times like this in the editing process that are both gratifying and painful all at the same time. I need to cut down on superfluous non-plot-oriented stuff, so taking out this entire page is great. But, that's been written once, edited, then re-written once again only to get canned now. The only thing that stays (and that you'll see in your hand and/or on stage) is the top slug line and description. Everything under it is gone forever, as if it never existed in the first place. Sigh.

Enjoy your last, fleeting moments with Page 62. You lived your life like a candle in the wind....

Final Final Approval (I think?)

Principal De Maio has given the final green light on putting up [i]Disorientation[/i]. I think this is the final final approval that we need to seek--as Mr. Puccio had already given the ok--so we move forward with these FINAL (until otherwise changed) DATES:

[b]Script Reading[/b] - Saturday, January 10th at 3 PM

[b]Full Production[/b] - Saturday, April 25th at 7 PM

The little box on the right of the page has been updated (G'bye June! You're crummy and too hot anyway!).

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I've been answering questions with a PV student over facebook wall posts and realize that there might be a few questions left unanswered about who I am, how I know Lup and She-Lup (Mer's name sounds like a horrible sequel to a horror movie, btw) the process, what's going on with the writing, etc. etc. If you have any questions, I'll answer them on this ole' blog, so leave them in the comments or email me at kingmanton [at] gmail.com. If I get a single question, color me surprised.

...And I'll try and get a character post up tomorrow. Sorry about being lazy.

I have permission from the director(s)....

And the fall shows have come to a close. Both PV's [i]Museum[/i] and PR's [i]Twelfth Night[/i] have had their successful, entertaining runs, and the only thing left to do is tear the whole set down, start a bonfire, and what that sucker BUUUUUUURRRRNNNN!!!!! Well, hopefully not PV, at least - we'll probably need all those flats.

But don't fret, boys and girls. With every ending comes a new beginning....

Meet: Bridgette, Maya, Vicky

Here we all come, hurtling towards Fall Plays. Cheap plugs abound: Pascack Valley's Museum is Thursday at 7, Friday at 5, Saturday at 1 and 7, while Park Ridge's Twelfth Night is Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm. Talent abounds off of both stages (even if PR's is a matchbox and PV's looks like a runway) so I hope you check out either (preferably both!).

Now, onto the characters. Only 10 Hares left....

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Name: Bridgette

Location: Brookline, MA

Household: I got my parents and two older brothers, both played on Syracuse’s football team. GO ORANGE!!!!!

Fav. Music: Bon Jovi is beyond awesome, some Metallica, a little Queen, and throw in Jay-Z, cause I have to keep it real, right?

Fav. Movies: The Departed, The Lion King, Harold and Kumar is hilarious, The Jerk

Fav. TV Show: Nip/Tuck, Lost, Rescue Me, Rescue Rangers, American Gladiators (the old version, not this crappy new totally fake stupid one)

Fav. Sites: perezhilton.com cause god celebrities are the worst and it’s so fun to laugh at them when they get all fat and bitchy

Fav. Books: None by the author Doesn’t Exist

Personal Note: GO PATS!!!

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Name: Maya

Location: Mystic, CT

Household: I have two parents who love each other very much and a little sister who is growing up way too fast right in front of my eyes.

Fav. Music: Pink Floyd, Broken Social Scene, Regina Spektor, The Doors in no particular order, cause they and all music are equally important in my life

Fav. Movies: The Wall, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Donnie Darko, Lord of the Rings, The Double Life of Veronique are all among my favorites, but countless other films could be there instead

Fav. TV Show: I don’t want watch TV, although a friend of mine showed me Planet Earth in HD and that was a pretty incredible experience to live through.

Fav. Sites: wikipedia.org, otherwise I don’t really use the internet

Fav. Books: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s complete works, The Giver, anything on Eastern relgions and books about things I don’t know about; the more spiritual the better.

Personal Note: I can’t wait to feel everyone’s energy!

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Name: Vicky

Location: Great Neck, NY

Household: I live in a lovely house with both of my parents, and a sister who recently moved into NYC after she graduated from Tufts in the spring. I hope this is the last time I’ll live in my parents house, because it’s time to move on.

Fav. Music: Madonna, Kanye West, Coldplay, Mariah Carey, Wilco

Fav. Movies: PS I Love You, Finding Nemo, Shakespeare In Love, You’ve Got Mail, Shadow of a Doubt

Fav. TV Show: Sex and the City, Gossip Girls, The Hills, Grey’s Anatomy, Mad Men

Fav. Sites: perezhilton, gawker, huffingtonpost

Fav. Books: The Nanny Diaries, Bitter is the New Black, The Notebook, The Tipping Point

Personal Note: The education better be worth the extreme lack of men.

Meet: Alison, Will, and Becca

If you're reading this and above the age of 18, you better be voting, dammit! There are 13 Swinton students left on the list and 6 non-Swinton Hares to plug through before you know everybody in the cast. Expect an update every other day since we need to get through these things before Draft Three is knocked out in earnest and, most importantly, before students get this little script in their grubby teenage hands on Monday the 24th. Here's a fun game to play while you lean - who are the main characters? Have fun trying to figure that out....

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Name: Will

Location: Wellesley, MA

Household: Two parents, one male, one female. They birthed me, and that was nice of them. They wouldn’t let me cross the street without one of them there until I was ten. That wasn’t so nice of them.

Fav. Music: The Kinks, The Clash, Elvis Costello, The Ramones, Beatles (only after Rubber Soul), MC5

Fav. Movies: Fight Club, Dog Day Afternoon, Reservoir Dogs, Sin City, Taxi Driver

Fav. TV Show: South Park, The Simpsons (until season 9, then they started to suck hard), Aqua Teen, Arrested Development, Colbert

Fav. Sites: allmusic.com, drudgereport for laughs, I don’t know, youtube?

Fav. Books: anything Chuck Palahniuk, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead – Crystal Zevon, 1984 – Orwell, Carrie – Stephen King, Watchmen – Moore/Gibbons

Personal Note: Not a single girl has probably seen or listened to my favorite anythings. Awesome.

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Name: Alison

Location: Ridgewood, NJ

Household: Live with my mom. My dad doesn’t live with us anymore. I think he’s in Phoenix, with his newer, better wife.

Fav. Music: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Wilco, Radiohead Neutral Milk Hotel, Broken Social Scene, The Band, The Roots, Van Morrison

Fav. Movies: Annie Hall, Knocked Up, Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, Back To The Future, High Fidelity

Fav. TV Show: The Office, Arrested Development, Freaks And Geeks, Six Feet Under

Fav. Sites: huffingtonpost, pitchforkmedia, some other random stuff

Fav. Books: Harry Potters, On The Road, Chuck Palaniuk’s Lullaby, Le Petit Prince

Personal Note: Just cause you feel it/doesn’t mean it’s there – Thom Yorke

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Name: Becca

Location: Burlington, VT

Household: I live with my Dad and my two younger sisters and I’m so happy I don’t have to hear them bitching anymore.

Fav. Music: Marley is awesome, Pearl Jam, The Roots, Cream, Clapton is God, Jurassic 5, Robert Randolph and the Family Band

Fav. Movies: The Big Lebowski is the best movie ever, Fargo, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is awesome, Evil Dead 2, definitely, DAZED AND CONFUSED!

Fav. TV Show: ummm South Park’s hilarious, Chappelle’s Show is the funniest show ever, Mr. Show, It’s Always Sunny

Fav. Sites: The internet.com rules

Fav. Books: Me Talk Pretty One Day is pretty cool, Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs is great, Klosterman rules, Through The Looking Glass is just bonkers!

Personal Note: I heard there are a lot more papers in college. Sounds alright by me.

Meet: Sarah, Meg, and Madison

Name: Sarah

Location: Bedford, NY

Household: I live with my Mom who’s kind of a bitch but whatever and my Dad lives in the city but he always gives me a nice allowance so that’s awesome. I have a big room but my mom keeps saying I can’t have people over and I’m all like “Mom, no, arite?” and GOD she’s such a pain in the ass but I’m like whatever.

Fav. Music: 50 Cent, Kanye, T-Pain, Rihanna. I already have a copy of Kanye’s new album and it’s hott. And no I can’t give it to you.

Fav. Movies: Step Up 2, Sex and the City, The Notebook

Fav. TV Show: Gossip Girls, that show is like my life! The Hills, The OC before it got stupid and dumb

Fav. Sites: perezhilton, gawker, defamer, TMZ

Fav. Books: does US Weekly count? US Weekly. Sometimes People lol

Personal Note: How much extra is it for room service? Who can my mom call about that?

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Name: Meg

Location: Woodstock, CT, I know you’re going to be like “omg you’re totally from that place where those concerts were” and I’m going to have to be all like “no sorry that’s in NY and I’m from CT but they have the same name don’t want to ruin it for ya!” lolol

Household: I’ve got a Dad, his name is Rich, and then I have a mom and her name is Lucinda and I have a little brother named Gerald but we just call him Gerry but then he spells it Jerry and I’m all like “but it’s Gerald so where does the J come from?” lol. I also have a 6 year old dog named Sandy, she’s a golden retriever she’s the cutest and we all love her very very very very much!!!!!

Fav. Music: Well right now I’m totally loving the new Britney! And omg TI is soooo hot and his songs are catchy and I like Jennifer Hudson cause of her family that’s sooooo sad. Her songs make me happy, tho.

Fav. Movies: Ok so I LOVED LOVED LOVED Dark Knight cause Christian Bale is just soooo HOTTTTT!!! And Sex and the City? LOVE THOSE GIRLS! Totally can’t wait to be Samantha when I get a lot older! High School Musical 3 was totally awesome too.

Fav. TV Show: Real World is AWESOME, and so is the Hills and Sex OF COURSE! Can’t stop watching Will and Grace reruns. SO. FUNNY.

Fav. Sites: mtv.com and perezhilton take up like all of my time. And I guess facebook if that counts.

Fav. Books: Um, I wouldn’t say I have one favorite book, I have a lot, but there are a lot to list so I’d rather not list any. But I really liked The Boxcar Children when I was younger.

Personal Note: What can I say? I really can’t wait to hang out with everyone in the dorm and it’s like so totally scary but exciting and nuts at the same time to be without our parents and then omg so much work to do in school with so much class time all at once but there’s so much time to hang out and get to know everyone and find out what they think and where they’re from and I hope they’re cool and they think I’m cool!!!! So I’m excited!

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Name: Madison

Location: Littleton, NH

Household: My father, my mother, my brother Brian and the Holy Spirit.

Fav. Music: Amy Grant, Switchfoot, Jars Of Clay, Bob Dylan (only Slow Train Coming)

Fav. Movies: Passion of the Christ, Luther, The Mission

Fav. TV Show: 700 Club, some History Channel, Saved By The Bell, Charles in Charge

Fav. Sites: Drudgereport.com, christianteenlounge usually has some good links

Fav. Books: Of Luke, John, and Paul, of course, Chronicles of Narnia

Personal Note: I hope we have a safe and productive journey towards eternal salvation together!

Meet: Beth, Jocelyn, and Mona

A week or two before the school year started at Swinton College, the Resident Advisors sent out an email to all the girls living on their floor. Elmore Two's RA, Beth, sent out this sample listed below. Following that and for the next series of blog posts, we'll be seeing those responses to get a better sense of who these characters are.

Name: Bethany, but you can all call me Beth because that's shorter and means we're friendlier!

Location: Eerie, Pennsylvania! Biggest little town around!

Household: Two loving parents, an older brother Josh who is a sports star at Ithaca and a little sis who might get the lead in her senior play! We’re very excited for her!

Fav. Music: The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Spice Girls, whatever you guys like

Fav. Movies: The Princess Bride, E.T., The Notebook, Mary Poppins, The Two Towers

Fav. TV Show: Buffy!!!!!

Fav. Sites: facebook, of course! You guys can find me on there! Friend me, we can chat! I’m also on myspace, friendster, and I gchat, too!

Fav. Books: Shiloh, Twlight series, Lord Of The Rings, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Personal Note: Can't wait to see you all! I'm bringing Jenga so we can all play in the study room, so you guys don't need to bring one!

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Name: Jocelyn

Location: Akron, Ohio

Household: My mother Laverne and father Geoffrey were both college professors, so they not only raised me but educated me for twelve years, too! The GRE was so easy, thanks to them.

Fav. Music: Mozart, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Bing Crosby

Fav. Movies: It’s A Wonderful Life, The Lion King, An Inconvenient Truth (LOVE Al Gore!!)

Fav. TV Show: MYTHBUSTERS!!! Anything on Science/Nat Geo/Discovery. Live for Shark Week. I’m interested in this MTV, though….

Fav. Sites: Google, Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Scholar, Yahoo (rarely)

Fav. Books: Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History Of Time,” the Peanuts comic collection, The Aeneid by Homer (yeah, like there was one guy named Homer who cam up with that right guys?), How Things Work, John Adams by David McCullough

Personal Note: I’m ready to learn all about you, and I hope you’re ready to learn all about The Big Bang cause I’m an expert!

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Name: Mona

Location: Fort Lee, NJ

Household: A family. Do I really have to do this?

Fav. Music: Death Cab.

Fav. Movies: Shawshank.

Fav. TV Show: Alias.

Fav. Sites: The internet.

Fav. Books: Catcher In The Rye.

Personal Note: Oh look, it’s like you practically know me now! This was a waste.

Dis-Update-ation

After sending out the second draft to a small group of (almost exclusively female) friends and my two directors, it's pretty clear what needs to be done with the play: burn it and start all over.

Ha! No, even if it was crap I don't have the willpower to do such a thing. Professionalism, folks - just can't buy it in any corner store.

The draft has many characters and many lines, but it's time to trim down so that the story, themes, and ideas I would like to get across take center stage, as opposed to just shallow comedy lines. This means yet another attack with red ink, which will more than likely be the last draft of this kind before it gets into the hands of the kids at Pascack Valley.

We've also gone over the schedule to decide what works best for the PV kids, myself, Tom and Mer, and the hopefully captive audience who surely wants to knock down the doors to come see this. While I don't have exact dates (merely because I forgot, remember that professionalism bit up there?), here's a general schedule:

-PV kids get a gander at the play a week after their fall drama, Museum, roughly before Thanksgiving.
-General public gets to hear it in early January during a reading, with the cast on stage, scripts in hands, sitting in 30 or so chairs.
-General public gets both audio and visual stimulation in early May, when the play is staged and put up for the first time in the history of the world, mankind, seeing eye dogs, etc. etc.

There's a lot of time between January and now, so every few days I'll be putting up a detailed sketch of each and every character. Mostly, it will be likes/dislikes of their music, movies, TV shows, websites, and a bit of a bio on each one. This lets you, the faithful blog reader, in to who these characters are, and allows me, the faithful writer, to get an even better grasp of who these characters are.

I'm still not sure if I should do it in any specific direction (ie from least lines to most lines or the other way around, alphabetical) so I'll probably just do it at random, as there are no small parts, just small people, like Mini-Me.

Draft Two: Done

Finally. God that felt like forever. And I already what I'm going to have to do with Draft III. It just goes and goes, people.

Let's get some tally counts out of the way just for laughs. The entire script is:

- 117 pages (up 17 pages from the first draft, mostly bolstering the second act)
- 318 lines for male characters
- 711 lines for female characters
- a total of 1,029 lines overall
- for 26 characters in all

People will be talking....

If Red Ink Were Blood

This script would be Gettysburg.



The weird nose-lookin' things ( > ) are a reference to a screenwriting term called "writing on the nose." This occurs when a character is feeling an emotion and instead of hinting at it or working around it, he or she just comes out and says it (eg. "You really hurt me, Jeff!") It happened a lot on this particular page, so I decided to make my life easier and write a little nose. I quickly realized how stupid that looks and refused to ever do it again...then put it on the internet. Sigh.

Second draft due this weekend....

Welcome To The Blog

Welcome to the PV Disorientation blog. What is it, you say? Why are you here, you ask? Who cares, you inquiry?

Good questions, all.

This is a blog dedicated to the potential Pascack Valley High School in-between-fall-drama-and-spring-musical play, Disorientation. Few people know about the play (most importantly all of the possible actors and actresses), so I figured a cool way to get the information out would be through a blog. This way, there can be some chronicle to what is a rather unorthodox (unprecedented?) decision to debut a newly-written play at a high school.

Every few days there will be some sort of update to let you know where I am and, well, frankly, what you'll be doing.

First, a bit of background....

I'm Mike Anton, a Park Ridge High School graduate ('04) and recent Boston University grad ('08) now with a shiny new BS in Film and Television. In mid-July I was contacted by Tom and Mer Lupfer (the fearless directors at PV) about the possibility of writing a play for consideration to be performed this Fall. I leapt at the chance. Then they told me that they had an extremely talented--although rather lopsided--group of young actors and actresses and that it was hard to find a play that could suit their needs. Namely, a play with 20+ female parts and about 5 or so male ones.

Then I nearly dropped the phone.

Since then, I have completed one draft of Disorientation and am busily working on a second draft (I'm taking a break to start this puppy up). The basic plot outline is such: an all-girl's college in New England accepts boys on a trial basis just so the Dean's son can try and get a date. The first draft was a clean 100 pages, which, when read aloud and timed, was roughly an hour and thirty minutes.

Just so you know that the this script actually DOES exist, here's the first page in my binder:



And just so you can trust that I have some sort of talent, here's a one-act that has been performed a couple of times for you to peruse.

Juicier things to come.

Best,
Manton