Sunday, September 05, 2004

CRAM THE FUN DEEP INSIDE

So in the hopes of generating some interest in my play, I'm writing a short, short story everyday set in the world of DISLOCATED LIPS. Most of the play takes place in an English as a Second Language school and I thought it would be interesting to explore this school in a series of short, short stories. The core of my play is located in the life of one of the teachers at the school, Tom, but for the most part I avoid this core in these short, short stories, opting instead to explore tangents of what else happens at this school. These are little literary experiments of what happens when I sit down for fifteen minutes at this computer and I'm hoping people will get a taste of my writing and imagination.

That's all I've got to say today. So on the topic of silence...



CRAM THE FUN DEEP INSIDE

"This year I think we should do something different," Mandy Markelston suggested to John. "Every year we go and drink the weekend away but I think this time we should focus on some kind of inner growth."

Coming out of anyone else's mouth, this would have been dismissed immediately by John as new age gobbledygook, but from Mandy he would always take these suggestions seriously. They'd known each other since kindergarten and had grown up together in various private catholic schools, distinguishing themselves as being staunch non-believers. After their first confessional they spent several hours recreating this sacrament in mocking tones in a dumpster that was at the back of the school. Some kind of unbreakable bond had developed through those years. Yet in the end they came out completely different people: Mandy finding spirituality everywhere outside of Catholicism and John not seeing it anywhere.

"What do you suggest ?" he asked in a tone of voice that he used only with Mandy.

"Well the teachers are used to talking and listening to language all the time at work and really we want to get as far away from that as possible, right ? We don't want to talk shop or even be thinking about the shop, but how can we get away from the shop when English is what we're teaching ?" Mandy's eyes started getting bigger, filling up with the excitement of an idea. "If we spend the entire weekend with a no-speaking policy, we'll have gone as far away from the school as possible. And" - here she started waving her arms like a featherless bird- "we'll hire a couple of mimes to run around and help us with our non-verbal communication. We'll have the best teacher retreat ever."

"Consider it done," John nodded. With anyone else he would have flown into a rant on the uselessness of mimes.

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