#2 NEWSLETTER - "LAYERING"
Creativity is just connecting things. LET'S CONNECT!
WRITING WITH YOUR LEFT HAND
A BIG thank you to my first subscribers. We made it to over 150 in our first few weeks! I hope I can hold your interest in the months to come.
With the holidays approaching, I’m going to set aside a good amount of time to complete some writing projects. I hope you find this time fruitful and productive, whether you spend it celebrating with loved ones or with loved projects.
In these winter months, we begin to think about layers, especially with energy prices soaring, layers are definitely on all our minds. So, I thought THE STORY ONION might be an appropriate writing exercise to try this month.
WRITING EXERCISE
So let’s continue talking about layers, which in all cases make things more sophisticated and rich. Picture a master’s painting with coat upon coat of oil paint or a highly complex musical composition or a multifaceted arthouse film full of meaning - all have added nuance and subtlety due to their layers. The same can apply to storytelling. So, if you’re a writer, take a look at this month’s writing exercise and see if THE STORY ONION can add depth to your new or existing stories. We will peel the onion to it’s core and it won’t be a c-hore! And if you do make your own onion, please let me know how it changes your story and do share your paper onion with us if you like, or better yet, just send in a photo of your onion. Bonne Chance!
The Story Onion
“A lot of meticulousness interspersed with tiny bits of story stabs through the heart.” Knausgaard
INTRO
We will make an onion - out of paper – and words. Each onion will be a complete story consisting of six layers. We will make layers. We will tell the same story over and over until your story becomes apparent.
A good way to think of this exercise is that you are looking through the lens of a camera. With each step, the lens zooms in a bit and things come more into focus.METHOD
IRAN MEMOIRS
I am still following the current happenings in very Iran closely and am wondering if we are nearing a resolution that may bring about great change. I never thought clothes and hair and make up could be so political but the women of Iran have taught me differently. I send prayers to all the people there and wish them much strength and sustenance for the coming days.
Meanwhile, ‘tis the season of snow and snow globes are little contraptions that bottle the illusion of this white powder so that with the shake of the wrist, you can conjure up its magic any time. It’s no wonder we like them so much!
In this month’s excerpt from my memoirs, I try just such a trick to remind myself of the magic of childhood with a snow globe that stood in a corner of my room after traveling thousands of miles, over oceans and seas to decorate a corner of my mind.
THE SNOW GLOBE
I remember when I was a little girl I was once given a snow globe with a Las Vegas sign that teeter-tottered as the liquid bubbled before my eyes. There, in a corner of my room stood this souvenir that had come millions of miles, over oceans and seas and now decorated a corner of my mind.
"I am going to live in America one day. Teeter totter on the see-saw from Las Vegas and dance in the Florida sun," I repeated night after night before I went to bed. And I did. I danced in Las Vegas and rode a see-saw in Florida. Then my granny Parik would ask me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” “I want to be a blonde Hollywood film star,” I would reply. “Yes, of course,” she would say “Of course, you will be. You can be whatever you want.” And I was sure of it.
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PODCAST OF THE ABSURD
I am delighted to announce that beginning next month will be my new podcast series titled, “PODCAST OF THE ABSURD.”
We will have monthly discussions with guest writers who will talk about their writing and reflect on the absurd in their own work and as it relates to “theater that seeks to represent the absurdity of human existence in a meaningless universe by bizarre or fantastic means.”
Theatre of the Absurd came after the periods of Dadaism and Surrealism and was a direct response to the brutality of World War ll in the 1950s. Artists began to rebel against the traditional notions of theatre and created what playwright Eugène Ionesco called “anti-theatre” in response to a world that seemed devoid of reason and purpose.
In my mind, these circumstances also relate to our current day - a world where we can no longer make sense of events around us as we constantly try to sort out reality from misinformation.
Some of my favorite playwrights come from this period - Pinter, Ionescu, Beckett - writers who blurred the line between reality and illusion. And of course,
UBU ROI, Alfred Jarry’s 1896 play was an inspiration to this movement. (Did you know that Jarry was actually inspired by Shakespeare to write this play?)
Our first guest in January will be playwright and instructor, Charles Gershman who will talk about all the absurd and wonderful projects he’s been working on. So be sure to tune in next month!
WATCH
PACHINKO on Apple + - From the beautiful opening sequence to the very end, the scope of this family saga is astounding. The history of the Korean and Japanese wars with the colonization of Korea by Japan is on show here in this masterful series of eight episodes that spans generations of one family.
Told cleverly in three languages, Korean, English and Japanese, we go back and forth in time with a highly engaging storyline. It revolves around the main female character, Sunja and her journey from Busan to life in Osaka.
Besides good entertainment, this is certainly an opportunity to better understand the period of Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945). This period also gave birth to Korean Art Songs which were based on poetry written during this time.
Pachinko is based on the novel of the same name by Min Kin Lee. And if you happen to catch the series, don’t miss the very touching interviews with the actual surviving women, all now over 90, who still live in Osaka at the very end. Another example of fantastic content from Korea. And kudos to Apple TV - if only all historic series were made so brilliantly!
DO
I’m always looking for stories in the news and a poignant one that caught my eye a few weeks ago was about some men in Dundee reading poems they had written for “lonely funerals”. Poet Andy Jackson is piloting a project in his town that gives a personal farewell to people who would otherwise have no one at their funerals by constructing poems about them from what personal information is available. He attempts to capture a little something about the character of each deceased person in each poem. This project was inspired by a similar one in the Netherlands.
This idea really touched my heart. It’s such a good example of the little things we can do to make our world a more humane place and is something we could all easily try in our own backyard.
BUNNYMAN BOOK
Another little snippet from the crazy bunny has been added to the BUNNYMAN BOOK tab of my Substack for those of you who are paid subscribers. Again, this is a personal story so it is a bit more protected. Take a look at “The Patient Patient” and follow the adventures of the mad bunnyman as he galavants through time and space, breaking all preconceptions and more.
LISTEN
Something a little more seasonal, whether you celebrate the holidays or not.
I have always enjoyed the tradition of carols and love tuning in to “A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols” which has been taking place at King’s College, Cambridge, since 1918. It’s broadcast annually on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service on 24 December (3 pm UK or 10:00 EST or 07:00 PST). The service is also broadcast at 1 pm on BBC Radio 3 on Christmas Day, and at various times on the BBC World Service. I hope the above link works for you. Enjoy your holidays however you spend them and see you on the other side!
MONTHLY LOTTERY
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About
Bianca Bagatourian is an award-winning playwright whose play, THE TIME OF OUR LIES co-produced with Viggo Mortensen was nominated for The Amnesty International Human Rights Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. THE TIME OF OUR LIES premiered at The Park Theatre in London, 2019, and told the life story of radical historian, Howard Zinn, through words, movement and music.
What’s Your Story?
Everyone has a story to tell. What’s your story? The story you would like to tell? Though everyone has different writing styles and writing processes, you cannot create in a vacuum! If you’d like to discuss your play or play idea, get in touch. Whether you’re on page one or on the third draft, I look forward to helping you crack your script. After reading your piece, we’ll schedule a two-hour discussion to go over notes. Contact me at: BIANCABAGATOURIAN@SUBSTACK.COM. I will also recommend books on playwriting, playwriting classes and workshops online. Here’s what award-winning poet Aaron Poochigian had to say:
“By identifying the unfulfilled potentialities of my script, Bianca turned my pipe dream into a real, performable play. In retrospect, her suggestions were what should have been obvious to me all along. Without her advice, I might have spent years stumbling around, discovering what my play wanted to be."
- Aaron Poochigian
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