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Microeconomic Wailing

Posted by DCA Theater on August 10, 2010 in July-December 2010 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Thirteen Pocket

by Jeff Phillips, playwright for Bosto script as part of XIII Pocket Incubator

This week we at XIII Pocket kicked off this month of August with the workshopping of 3 new original plays as part of the DCA Incubator series.  The three of these are written by members of XIII Pocket; Bosto by myself (Jeff Phillips), Cash by Stephen Louis Grush, and The Method (Displaced) by Anthony Nikolchev.  We’re dedicating the first three weeks one to each play, and then re-capping and following up on re-writes in the last week to lead into a live reading open to the public.  This week we began jumping into Bosto.  Much of my writing in the past has been of the nature of short stories, novellas, all very prose like, or they have been screenplays.  Bosto is, in a sense, the first play I’ve written aside from short 10 minute plays from my high school days. It’s thrilling I must say to hear it aloud, read by very talented actors all approaching their roles seriously.  At the same time, it is overwhelming to dive into a theatrical work that is still in its infancy.  Bosto was roughly in its fourth draft entering into this week. It has been somewhat fine tuned from where it was, but still many layers need to be explored, and connected appropriately.  Brain’s are quite drained at the end of each session, but the food for thought is quite substantial.

I wrote the first draft of Bosto this past February in one sitting. I was between jobs, attempting to find work with a temp agency but each day hearing of no assignments, I felt like somewhat of a deadbeat. Those feelings started to transpire as I sat down one morning to write, looking to explore a character named Beer Battered Barry that popped into my head a few evenings prior, while cooking up some beer battered chicken.  I’ve had a weird time so far trying to create a synopsis of the piece.  It’s a mystery of sorts, not in the who-dunnit sort of why, but a mystery of the economic dynamics of one building, a sort of “micro-economic” tale.  The building mentioned exists in an overcrowded fishing town.  It is three stories tall.  The first floor is home to a fine seafood establishment, run by the building’s owner, Brian Griss, seen as a tyrant by many.  The top floor is home to three fishermen, two of whom are out of work and frustrated.  As they learn of their new neighbors on the second floor, a shelter for battered women, strange wailing is heard throughout the building, through the intricate network of old vents.  The wailing not only disrupts the peace but the cash flow on floor one.

The play is focused on the top floor, from the perspective of the three gentlemen, but one the big things I’m ready to chew is to flesh out the story of the floors below, which should in the end tighten the perspective up top.