…I’m really looking forward to Momentum ‘08 and starting to look over the play. A few things need to be added/changed but I’m hoping not fully from ’scratch’ (which is a relief!!)-but I do find re-drafting and editing THE most difficult process. Having heard the play read out loud for the first time with the other writers (at the get together) I’m thinking more about my characters and how to make them seem more ‘real’…it’s sometimes the little details that make a huge difference. Although, saying that, I’m still trying to develop my skills in ‘fleshing out’ characters and narrative-(I know I always like to see characters on stage I believe in) so this whole process is a learning curve for me…which I like, as I still feel there’s A LOT to learn!
DANCE LIKE THE BUTTERFLY:
kidnapping stories in the news really stuck in my head over the past year and I was discussing them in school with my students. They automatically jumped to the conclusion that the kidnapper was ‘bad’ or ’sick’ and it didn’t matter how I tried to make them consider ‘his’ point of view or childhood/background, they found it very dfficult. Maybe they related more to the teenager and just saw the whole thing as a ‘crime’ and inexcusable.
I was interested in the kidnapper’s motives and how it is that some ‘victims’ actually come to respect and even ‘love’ their captors. I found this really hard to understand at first but then read up on some recent stories and accepted that if they see/know no one else and have no other choice but to trust this ONE person then what else is there? Maybe a human need is ‘to love’ and ‘be loved’ and maybe, in some circumstances, it doesn’t really matter who that person is, as long as they’re there.
Also, I thought about the fact that someone like Cassie, the girl in the play, has lost out on her adolesence and emotional ‘growing up’-so what is she? A child? A woman? She doesn’t know how to be or who to be-she only knows what the kidanpper has made her and let her know. And he, himself, acts as if he is an innocent child-so is he really ‘evil’? Cassie doesn’t think so.
That’s why I tried to write something about how she felt when she finally came home and how she deals with adapting to the real world and being a supposed ‘adult’! She can’t let go of ‘him’ and the childish lifestyle they led, but she can’t understand WHY she won’t let go. The play is about the struggle in Cassie’s mind and her fear of saying good bye to all she has known for a huge part of her life.
