Kirk Bowman (3) Understanding Stage Directions

I really like the story of an unconventional playwright who offered no stage directions whatsoever.  Apparently actors loved the complete freedom of figuring out where to be.  In my first go at theater, I shan't be so bold, as I have little experience to draw from or relationship to leverage.  But I do intend to engage my cast and crew actively in bringing The Room to life on stage. 

Kirk Bowman (2) Structuring a Play

Kirk Bowman expounds clearly on the structure of play, and I see that The Room, just a veritable, amorphous mountain of clay in my studio, has quite a few good options for the shape it will take.  For example, I may begin with a quiet (1) exposition, lasting a minute or two, the soundtrack hinting ever so subtly at a yet-unknown (2) rising action, then boom clap! I bring everything into media res.  I bring everything back into a simmer, then work that rising action into more of a slower boil.  I have entertained a number of options for the (3) falling action and (4) denouement, too, which I hope can be emotional wrenching but ultimately ennobling for an audience.
 

Kirk Bowman (1) Play Writing Steps

It was July 1st 2014 that I resumed work in earnest on my play The Room.  I came up with the idea in 2009, when I lived in Dubai, and I aim to make this play the centerpiece of an artistic endeavor | advocacy project on housemaid abuse.  To Kirk Bowman's point, I've been doing quite a lot of research since, and basically I'm ready to start drafting the script.  But it is taking time to make this transition.  The Room is writing itself in my head, though in fits and bits, but I haven't yet translated that into ink on paper.  I've never written a play before, but I am very confident that I can figure it out and have quite a good go at it.

Identity

"Living in a world where everybody wears masks due to lack of self-identity, a brave girl encounters the truth that sets her free."

This is for those who need to hear this message.

"Identity" is a project made for the youth in schools.
Don't let society define your Identity, or to tell you who you have to be.
The truth is already inside of you. Don't lose who you are.

Wow very well-conceived, well-filmed.  This short film must speak to scores of adolescents who struggle to find themselves, amid a uniformity of identities, and to stake a place in their world.  I love the reference to the Allegory of the Caves, which I draw on in Theory of Algorithms.  I can speak for myself: I want to be enlightened, and seek to be so on a daily basis.  So, too, the young lady in this film, in a discomforting, near fainting spell, lifts her mask off, and is the first of the enlightened that Plato imagined in his allegory.

Perfection

"I'm just trying to make you more perfect." - Mom

From infancy, an Asian American woman learns the game of perfection - but if your goal is perfection, will the game ever end?

Wow, double wow, I don't know to what extent Asian parents in general inculcate perfectionism in their children, but this moving short film portrays how calculated, patient and entrenched that inculcation may be.  I have a rough formulation for a perfect process, built off of the Six Sigma model, and infinity is part of that formulation.  So the answer to the foregoing question above is The game never ends.  But this film returns control back to the child: Before all the pieces of her life blow apart, she can pause, breathe, meditate, and do something different.  The child can stop the game.

Geena Davis brings more diversity to the screen

Geena Davis

Films like The Fly (1986), Thelma & Louise (1991), A League of her Own (1992), and The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) come to mind easily, when I think about Geena Davis.  The talented and beautiful actress, now 59 years old, deserves applause for something more than just her Academy Award winning acting: She deserves it for her social conscience and awesome effort in bringing more women and minorities to the screen.

To wit

Why Did Geena Davis Create the Institute [on Gender and Media] and See Jane?

While watching children’s entertainment with her young daughter, Geena Davis was astounded by the dearth of female characters. Fueled to take action, she commissioned the largest research project on gender in film and television ever undertaken, conducted by Dr. Stacy Smith at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. The research confirmed the disparity she observed: in family films, there is only one female character for every three male characters. In group scenes, only 17% of the characters are female. The repetitive viewing patterns of children ensure that these negative stereotypes are ingrained and imprinted over and over.

So then

Geena Davis is teaming with ARC Entertainment to launch the Bentonville Film Festival with the aim of highlighting diversity in film.

The festival, set for May 5-9 in the Arkansas city, is touting itself as the only film competition in the world to offer guaranteed theatrical, TV, digital and retail home entertainment distribution for its winners.

The festival — hosted by ARC Entertainment, Walmart, Coca-Cola and AMC Theatres — will be chaired by Davis and screen approximately 75 films in competition. Members of the advisory board are Angela Bassett, Bruce Dern, Samuel L. Jackson, Randy Jackson, Eva Longoria, Julianne Moore, Paula Patton, Natalie Portman, Nina Tassler and Shailene Woodley.

Reference: Geena Davis Launching Bentonville Film Festival to Push for Diversity in Film.

Even more importantly, I think, Davis' philosophy and strategy resonate very nicely with the thrust of my philanthropy framework (rf. The Core Algorithm): In order to sustain itself over the long haul, any humanitarian, charitable or philanthropic effort must have a working business model, along with a social conscience. 

“We are looking for films that can succeed commercially,” Davis added.

This is a terrific challenge and opportunity for women and minorities in the film industry.