uh oh

I looked over Act 2 just now. It's coming along. Scenes are slowly getting checked off. GREAT! I have already input all of the songs. I have more writing to do, of course. But once I'm done - I;m pretty sure that Act 2 will only be 30 pages WITH songs. I find this very funny. Act 1 hovers around 60. I mean, I know that the first act is always longer than the second. All the conflicts and back stories get set up in the first act. That's where we learn who's related; attracted to; in cahoots with; in love with; afraid of; angry at... whom.

IT TAKES TIME, DAMMIT!

Act 2 is where all the ends that came loose in Act 1 get tied up again. Think of it as a child's playroom. There are toys in large Tupperware bins. Blocks; Dolls; Kitchen; dress-up; etc... Now, Tommy two-year-old comes in and, being two years old, dumps ALL the bins out and spreads the mess around the room. But he goes one bin at a time. He dumps out the blocks and plays for a few minutes, gets bored, dumps out the dolls, etc... That's ACT 1.

But now it's nap time and the floor is full of toys. So, he has to clean up. A two year-old's version of clean up is clear a space. So the toys eventually make their way back into bins. Everything looks neat and tidy, even if it isn't. At least everything is put somewhere, in A place, if not it's PROPER place. Now, he can nap peacefully. That is ACT 2. It doesn't matter if dolls are in with blocks and the kitchen things are all in the dress-up bin while the bin specifically MARKED KITCHEN is empty. Sometimes, at the end of a play, someone comes up empty. It doesn't matter, so long as the conflicts that involved them are somehow resolved. Resolution isn't always resolution. Sometimes it's just a matter of someone accepting that they aren't going to be happy. It isn't wonderful for that person, but they usually deserve it - or the audience needs that, so that they can actually come away from it having LEARNED what the writer intended.

But, still. A two year-old is cleaning up REALLY quickly in this play. Hmmm... Cutting stuff out is pretty easy. Adding stuff, when you have all you need? Not so much.