Condition Blue and Other Plays

Condition Blue, as some of you know, is a play I wrote for the 2008 Ten Minute Play Festival, and is the first script I'd written that was performed and produced as part of a live theatrical event. On the surface the script is mock film noir about a detective cursed with a "condition," and the way that the "condition" causes others to act towards him. What's not apparent is that this script is, on a very basic level, autobiographical. While the play is raucous and over-the-top, it is ultimately about depression (the "condition") and the very real way people with depression are sometimes treated.

I've posted the script in its entirety on another blog I created for a class project and never bothered deleting; you can read it here:
http://tenminuteplays.blogspot.com/

If Condition Blue is the first act in my saga, than its spiritual sequel is full-length play I wrote from which this blog gets its name: I Feel Fantastic! This is a play I wrote about the dangers of extreme points of view in regards to antidepressant use. Set in the near future, I Feel Fantastic! shows an America where antidepressants are mandated to all citizens and strictly enforced, and how the lives of two individuals cross; one who seeks to quit antidepressants and one grappling with whether he should start taking them or not. This 80-page script is far from complete, and its current incarnation is a second draft that I'm not completely happy with. Once I am able to upload this script, I can post a link to it if you are interested in reading it.

The play I am very close to starting to write for my thesis project will then be a synthesis of these two acts with a third act added to the end, representing the genesis of my advocacy work. My intention is to create a work that is more straightforward than Condition Blue and at the same time more allegorical than I Feel Fantastic! I will post regular updates as I begin to work on this script, posting samples for your perusal and comments as I create them.

One last note, it may be interesting to you that my greatest source of inspiration as I write is music. I Feel Fantastic! is named after a song of the same name by independent singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton. As I've been formulating the idea for my thesis work I've been listening primarily to Muse and composer Bear McCreary's soundtrack for the excellent re-envisioning of Battlestar Galactica. Both of these musical sources have led me to the same obvious conclusion- that above all this new play should be about taking action, not just reacting to society's harsh stigmas and stereotypes.