Write-up on Aleastory

This is a pretty unique description of a Lucky Dogs meeting- it's written by the play...


A lucky dog.By Qfwfq. Filed in 'Qfwfq'

Last night I attended what might be bizzarly described as a panoptican of interpretation.
It was a writer’s group, with actors and actresses in attendance, eager to get their teeth into a fleshy script.

The evening started with the tooing-and-froing of witty marital banter, sharply decanting the subtle insecurities displayed in otherwise entirely ‘average’ conversation; punctuated by the lyrical spewing of a sleep deprived woman, chastising the human race for claiming everything for their own (Orion’s Belt, for example, stars recklessly named after a human invention to keep trousers around hips), and considering a sort of ‘philosophical dialectic’ in; “Caterpillar for eternity – butterfly for ten minutes…?” ["The Other Side of Everything" by Sally Beaumont]

Clearly, by this point, I was feeling nervous. I know it’s a cliche… but that was a tough act to follow; all the eager eyes in the room to immanently fall upon my laxidasical drivel, with the embryonic beauty of a well measured playscript fresh in their minds.

I explained myself, as a preface – or perhaps erecting a preemptive defense – to my unsuspecting predators:
the first bombshell; ‘There are no characters!’
The second; “Everyone can read, [who wants to read?]” – to which I received some anxious glances
another; “I am not a play”
“nor do I have structure, plot, linear-narrative”
…and I’m sure there were more, but by this point I was probably hyperventilating.

They performed me in the round, for ease of reading and to avoid (much) confusion. There were eleven of them; they took their time over the large portions and negotiated the staccato with consideration and attended to each of my facets without washing over any one moment.
They read parts of me that I have never heard, or in ways I had not expected; the numbers, for example, of the recipe (even when the actual recipe ceases, and the numbers protrude into other segments of text); the jumbled page where I recount the incident at the cash machine was read from top to bottom, rigorously, disregarding any column formation.

I have noticed that, particularly with actors, when a line is read incorrectly, or a word mispronnounced, as a matter of principle (or strict self-correction), the performer goes back, and tries again – often with an apology to accompany. And so I have become observant of precisely when this doesn’t happen – where self-correction doesn’t occurr, there is a good chance the performer has not noticed their error...

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Many thanks to Will Wade for sharing Aleastory with us- all the Lucky Dogs wish you the best!