Mike Mariano

mikemariano.com presents:

True Playwright Confessions

Years ago I read a very serious, short drama, which will remain nameless. The one-act depicted a struggling young couple in a weary, angry argument, exhausted by their impoverished situation.

At the end of the play, the husband leaves the apartment. Tempers have cooled, but it’s strongly implied that he will kill himself. The author ends here, but my sick imagination keeps going.

In my imagined production of the play, the play would linger on the wife. She sits alone on the couch, worried—then, unseen by her through the window, a body drops from the sky.

Whee! Goodbye implicit tragedy, hello explicit, laughable death! Deny it all you want, but the truth is: corpses are funny!

What’s even funnier? I went further, imagining the production crew required to simulate this suicide. A stagehand would perch on a ladder, holding the dummy, waiting for his cue from the stage manager.

“Body…go!”

WHUMP!

But the kicker? I cross paths with this playwright. Frequently. And every time I do, I hear the stage manager’s words and see the corpse in free fall.

My conversations so far with the author have been strictly small talk. I hope they stay that way.

Has it really been almost four years since Tony first expressed physical love for his furniture? Indeed yes; the act of Couchophilia has existed for a long while. So why was the play’s last production in 2002?

All of that will change this month. Couchophilia will be performed at Hull College in the UK!

This, production, my first play in England, will have just one performance Wednesday, November 23 at 8pm. The performance is part of the Arts Festival at Hull College and will take place in The Riverside Theatre, Horncastle Building, Charlotte Street, Hull, UK.

As always, performance is mandatory for all Mike Mariano dot com readers. So for all you Americans, you need to get out your rowboats and start paddling.

It’s done.

A rough first draft of Norwegians is complete. But folks, it’s bad. So bad. I know how I want to reapproach it, but after seeing the full script I don’t know if it’s worth it.

I still have a full-length to work on, but what about my hypothetical evening of short plays? I’ll either toughen up my Ibsen or perhaps revive an old idea I had—about George Washington?

If the George Washington play is real, I still don’t know if it would be able to lead into Philosopher Kings and then into Menage a Sartre. The idea I have is straight out of Stan Freberg by way of Gracie Allen. An audience for this material might not be receptive to an orgy in the second act.

Surprisingly, adding sex and violence to Ibsen was the easiest part about Norwegians. I’ll take my victories where I can get them.