Ch. 2: The Write Way (page 2)
by Emmet
“Grace!” I said. “You’re here. Sit.” She sat at a desk near the door. “Why do you write?”
She opened her backpack and pulled out a manila envelope. “Okay. I’ve been writing for, like, ever. Stories, making up stories. But I don’t have anyone who can read them, who I feel will give me real feedback, really useful criticism. I know a lot of things I’ve written aren’t anything special. But I brought five stories… I was hoping you could tell me what to do with them.”
There was a knock on the door and Alexa poked her head in. “One moment, Alexa. We’re almost finished.” She shut the door.
“I’d be happy to look at your stories, Grace,” I said. “If you’re serious about writing, it’s always helpful to get outside opinions. Not only from me, but even your friends, family. Leave something you’ve written lying around sometime. See if you get a reaction.”
“I don’t know about that,” she said. “Nobody else has read them .”
“You may want that to change,” I said. “Leave me what you have and I’ll go over them during the next couple weeks.”
She stood, handed me the envelope. For the first time since entering the room, her eyes met mine, and I saw that same apprehension as when she was anticipating a new direction in her journal writing. “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll be gentle.”
She smiled tentatively. “Just be honest,” she said. “I need to know.”
Grace left and Alexa came in. “Mr. Dimitri,” she began, standing against my desk. “I haven’t really written anything…” She paused, and I wasn’t sure if she was done talking, but the moment stretched on.
“You haven’t written anything? So you wanted to discuss what you haven’t written?”
“No! I mean, I have some ideas, and want to write stories. If I do, did you say you’d give extra credit for them?”
“I did indeed. Did you want to talk about some of your ideas?”
“No… no, I’m not sure, either. But I will. I have some... I’ll give them to you. When I get something done with them. What if you don’t know what to write about?”
“If you have a story to tell, that won’t be a problem. If you don’t, look around you. You may find ideas in unexpected places.”
“I’ll try that…” She said. “Looking around.”
“I look forward to it,” I said, kindly, not anticipating I’d see that much. Alexa struck me as a bright girl, a good reader, solid student, but not that creative. She continued standing in front of the desk.
“Was there something else?” I asked.
“Yes… I was wondering, do you know what play you’re doing this fall? I mean, aren’t auditions and everything going to be soon?”
Ah yes, the fall play. It always seems like the school year’s barely begun and then it’s time to start preparing for the play. The drama club does two plays a year at Upton Sinclair; I’m in charge first semester, and my colleague Jerry James does the spring. Jerry teaches sophomore English. We started the same year, and clicked right away. We share an appreciation of folk music and Shakespeare, and take turns doing a Shakespeare play every other year.
“Yes, as a matter of fact I was planning on announcing the information Monday. Why?”
“I just wanted to know if I could be stage manager.”
Stage manager? Without knowing the play. It was usually a thankless job, but I couldn’t guarantee anything. “We’ll have to see what the interest is after I post the announcements,” I said. I looked at the clock – it was time for my next class. I stood. “Monday afternoon we’ll have the first tech meeting, okay?”
“Okay.”
*****
As You Like It was my pick this year. I had my LCC class read it, too, and announced tryouts for the following Monday. I recommended that everyone in the class get involved in the production, behind the scenes or otherwise, to see the connection between words on paper and words enacted. Naturally, several journals discussed the play.
I love the theatre, Alexa wrote. Creating a play, putting it on, all the excitement. But never on stage, always behind, because behind the scenes is where everything is the most exciting. Where all the actors are interacting with one another as people and as the roles they play, and when you stage manage, you get to see everything about the play, both inside and outside. And you get to work with people what are the directors, who have much more experience, because they are the teachers, and you can learn from them, because they have been doing this for a long time, in college and in the community, so they know a lot about putting together a production. That’s what I like doing. Putting together a production. Picking who will play what against who else’s who. And Shakespeare is always the best kind of play because we can learn the most from him, since he influenced every other writer who ever lived or wrote a play.
The play’s the thing for Princeton, Tad wrote. Superficially, Tad seemed an unlikely person for LCC – he kept up a façade of macho ignorance, but he was one of those smart ones who played dumb. While he was not the most perceptive with spontaneous class participation, his papers showed a good grasp of the literature we were reading. Baseball, clarinet, drama, and all the As. Plus those throwaway kissing scenes. No obligation, part of the scenery, requirement for reality. Shit (sorry Mr. D, not cleaning up at all here, like you said), who wouldn’t want to do a play?