May the Thesising Begin!

For those who don't know, in order for me to receive my MFA I must finish a grad thesis of my choosing and defend it. I have from next year until forever to finish it (but would have to keep paying fees for every semester, so in the next year or so is the best idea). I've decided to do my project on Sept.11, 2001. It will be a one man show that I write based on the day's events in lower Manhattan. If you've ever seen a show by Anna Deveare Smith, I will be going in and out of characters describing what is happening at any given moment. Unlike Smith, my characters will be fictitious and from my head and not re-enactments of interviews.

The idea came from the fact that I'm in class with people who were 12-15 years old when this major event happened in my life. It is a day that is seared in my brain. The days, months, and years after have changed the way I think and behave. My main goal with the show is to bring the day to life for those who weren't there and maybe don't know all the details of how it played out.

I know what I went through. I know what my friends and neighbors went through. I know what NYC went through. I'm tackling this project from a creative writing perspective that invents no new material, but expands on things that I experienced, heard of, or read about. What is the message I'm sending? I'm not sure yet. Heroism. Living life to the fullest. Ordinary people doing bigger than life things. How people react in a crisis.

My biggest concern is making the whole show too dark. Nothing hysterical happened that day, but I can't imagine doing an entire show that is depressing, screaming, crying, and disastrous. I need to find some inspiring moments, lighthearted jokes, and feel good characters. I haven't figured out how to do that yet. I have some ideas.

I've almost finished 102 Minutes, the book about what happened in the towers from the first plane attack on the North tower to the final collapse. I realized that this project is going to be an emotional landslide. We're coming up on the 10 year anniversary and it still feels like yesterday. Reading that book has unlocked some pockets of memories I had from that day and weeks after that still feel like a Jimi Hendrix concert.....just with more drugs.

This show will push me extremely far in my acting. I'm learning a lot in grad school and in order to bring 10-15 characters to a full emotional and physical life, I will have to go places I might not even be ready to right now. Even though I came up with this thesis idea months ago, I just started putting it in motion about 3 days ago. I'll keep this blog as project diary and if you're interested, you can take the journey with me. Plus, my parents like to know what I'm doing so then they know I'm not getting in trouble. This is their proof.