May 15, 2013
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Writing Surge: It’s A-Comin’
Once again inspiration struck while I was doing my hair. You may laugh, but I find it’s during those daily routines that we do…well…daily, that our minds have the opportunity to wander. My thoughts tend to wander like that when I’m washing dishes, washing my hair or blowing drying my hair. All three take up time and all three don’t require a lot of brain power to accomplish the task at hand.
Lately though, my thoughts haven’t wandered to writing. I’ve been preoccupied thinking about my day job. But this morning, I found myself thinking about Wolf at the Door. I was thinking about its theatricality and found myself thinking about sound.
My first play, Braided Sorrow, had a sound motif that ran through the entire play. Water. Water dripping, coursing, surging, crashing. The sound was connected to the character La Llorona–the mother from Latino mythology who drowned her children. And while I really liked using sound to shape moments in the narrative, I haven’t really used it in the same way since Braided Sorrow.
Now Wolf at the Door has some sound already in the script, but it’s not used in the same way. So I began thinking of trying to use the wolf howls in a more theatrical way and figured out a possible new opening to the play. This new opening potentially solves one of the issues that arose during the last read through, that is, it was unclear how Septimo had hurt Isadora and how her injury caused her to go into labor.
So here’s what I’m thinking for the opening scene:
In the dark the sound of a lone wolf howl. Other wolf howls join in building into a cacophony of sound. The howling dissolves into the sound of a single wolf growling and snapping. The sound lowers as a spotlight comes up on ISADORA. Very pregnant, she wears a nightgown and has a faded black eye. She holds up her hands as if to calm an unseen person.
ISADORA:
(desperate) Wait.The disembodied voice of SEPTIMO shouts “Move!” ISADORA is hurled, belly first, into the wall. Lights up as she sinks to the floor clutching her belly. She inhales sharply, obviously in serious pain.
I can’t wait to get back into my rewrites. Draft 2 here I come!
