Directorial notes

Directorial Venue options

In our class we brainstormed ideas for various different areas in and around our school where we could possibly perform our very own adaptation of Neil Labute’s ‘in the beginning’ and we decided on using the ‘grassy area at the back of the canteen’ because not only is there a concrete raised platform which would be ideal for use as a performance space, but also because the layout of the area makes it easily divisible for use to have our protesters in two distinct groupings: children and parents.

I also then took some photographs of the area whilst we were deliberating on whether or not it would be a suitable performance space:

"And she's off......"

Character Research

PARENT

Who am I?

I am a parent. I have one child who is currently studying at college. I live in New York

 with my wife and my son. The relationship between my son and I is extremely difficult 

and we are not close at all anymore. I am tall but slightly underweight, one of the things 

I like doing the least is dealing with my son and being forced to have conversation with

 my wife. I only stayed with her so long because of our son. I resent him slightly for this.

 I have never voted in a single election in my life. I don’t see the point, it is all pointless. Everything is pointless!!! This is where the tension between my son and I derives from 

as well. Of course he thinks that he cares about politics and protesting for a better world

 but it’s only because he’s too young and he is simply just too naive. One day he’ll

 realise nothing that he does is worth the bother.

CHILD

Who am I?

I am 18 years old and I come from Boston, USA. I am an only child and used to live

 at home with both of my parents, but I have been at college for a while. My relationship 

with my father is not good; he and I fight and argue all the time. He’s a bit of an asshole. 

I often wonder whether he loves me or not. Since being at college and making lots of

 different interesting friends I have found myself feeling more politically motivated. I want

 to be out in the world, doing real stuff, not writing essays and revising for pointless 

exams. I hate studying and I hate working. My problem is that I don’t have any money and

 I try to get a job but I can’t. Taking part in protests is something I enjoy doing because it makes me feel like I am a part of something that is bigger than just you and me. It’s also 

great because I get to chill with my friends drinks whilst we are making a real difference

 in the world!

Neil N. LaBute (born March 19, 1963) is an American film director, screenwriter and playwright.

LaBute's style is very language-oriented. His work is terse, rhythmic, and highly colloquial. His
 stylebears similarity to one of his favorite playwrights, David Mamet. LaBute even shares some 
similar themes with Mamet including gender relations, political correctness, and masculinity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_LaBute

THEATRE UNCUT, Collection of Political Plays by Neil LaBute 

& More, to Play the Young Vic, Nov 13-17

 0  0 

 

Friday, October 5, 2012; 05:10 PM                                                                             .

A collection of new political plays by writers from across the globe including Neil LaBute 
(USA), Mohammad Al Attar (Syria), David Greig (UK) and Lena Kitsopoulou (Greece)
available for anyone to perform anywhere in an international week of theatrical action.
The flagship performances will be held at the Young Vic from the 13th to 17th November.
Theatre Uncut was established in 2011 in response to cuts in UK public spending. Plays by
 the UK’s leading playwrights were made available through the company website and a
 total of 87 performances were held simultaneously across the UK, USA, Germany and
Ireland in theatres, community centres, universities, schools, in people’s houses and on
 the streets. Over 800 people were involved.
This year playwrights from Greece, Syria, Spain the US, Iceland and the UK have
penned short dramatic responses to the political and economic challenges facing their
own countries, tackling a range of issues including the Eurozone crisis, the state of global 
capitalism, the effects of austerity and the Occupy movement. Participants are free to 
curate these plays to create their own unique Theatre Uncut events. To find out where
 these performances are taking place across the world, visitwww.theatreuncut.com.
Co-Artistic Director Emma Callander: “Theatre Uncut was created to raise debate and
galvanise action around political issues that affect all of our lives. We do this by making
our plays available to as many people as possible. We feel honored to be working with
writers of such high calibre and it thrills me that performances of these powerful short
plays will be happening simultaneously across the world, from Scarborough to South
 Africa. With the continued cuts to public services in the UK, against a landscape of civil
 unrest and enforced austerity across the world, the need to speak out in resistance is
stronger now than ever before.”
The Theatre Uncut 2012 plays include:

A Chance Encounter by Mohammad Al Attar (Syria)
Tensions rise as a young Syrian activist confronts an elderly businessman on the
chaotic streets of Beirut.

Spine by Clara Brennan (UK)
As cuts force the closure of libraries across the nation, one playwright considers the
high cost for future generations.

The Birth of My Violence by Marco Canale (Spain)
A meditation on theatre's relationship to the burning passion that drives an act
 of protest.

Dead Point by Blanca Doménech (Spain)
Is today the day to walk away from it all? An office worker in Spain reaches
breaking point.

Dalgety by David Greig (UK)
Activist Stephen Gough - known as the 'Naked Rambler' - was recently re-arrested
 for breaching the peace. David Greig’s play asks why.

London 2012 : Glasgow by Kieran Hurley (UK)
Did you inspire a generation? A raucous satire on the marketing machine
behind the Olympics.

The Price by Lena Kitsopoulou (Greece)
A searing Greek comedy set in a world of extreme austerity where
absolutely everything has its price.

In the Beginning by Neil LaBute (US)
As Occupy movements spring up across the globe, one of America's leading
 playwrights questions our passion for holding on to what we believe in.

The Breakout by Anders Lustgarten (UK)
A brick falls out of a cell wall offering the inmates a view of the great advantages
 of being on the outside...

Indulge by Andri Snær Magnason and Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson (Iceland)
As banks collapse and credit is crunched, this surreal Icelandic comedy
reinvents values in the banking world.

250 Words by Stef Smith (UK)
In July London was shocked when a businessman took his life on the roof of an
 art gallery. But when news coverage distils a life into just 250 words, can it ever
be the full story?

Blondie by Hayley Squires (UK)
With the coalition government a distant memory, the new leader is brought to
 trial for crimes against humanity.

Yesterday by Helena Tornero (Spain)
Amidst the chaos of a Spanish protest a couple realise their loyalty is more
 divided than they thought possible.

Details of three more brand new plays will be made available in late October.

http://westend.broadwayworld.com/article/THEATRE-UNCUT-
Collection-of-Political-Plays-by-Neil-LaBute-More-to-Play-the-
Young-Vic-Nov-13-17-20121005#ixzz2EO1HWMsI

Given Circumstances

THE FOLLOWING IS THE GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CHARACTER 'PARENT' IN NEIL LABUTE'S PAY 'IN THE BEGINNING'

PG.	CHARACTER	LINE	FACT	OPINION
1	Stage direction	“PARENT AND HIS ONLY CHILD”	*
1	CHILD	“You love to say ‘we’ll see’ or ‘I don’t know’.		*
2	CHILD	“You’re refusing to help me”		*
2	PARENT	“My whole life I’ve helped you”		*
2	CHILD	“We fight sometimes”	*
2	PARENT	“I feel like I can recall a time or two [when you’ve called me an asshole in public]”	*
2	PARENT	“Belittled me. Humiliated me. In front of your friends or your fellow... students”		*
2	PARENT	“Rioters. Occupiers.”		*
3	CHILD	“I was down there in the park and you tried to get me to come... home...”	*
3	PARENT	“I brought your food... carried this overflowing bo* of sandwiches and drinks down to you...”	*
3	PARENT	“I’m not asking for any thanks for school or your rent or the air-line ticket to Iceland so you could be on the news... be seen around the world tossing a firebomb at that hotel”	*
3	PARENT	“Everybody has a tipping point and I’ve hit mine”	*
3	CHILD	“All I want is for you to just respect my decision to do this”	*
3	CHILD	“You don’t listen!”		*
4	PARENT	“I am not stopping you”		*
4	PARENT	“... not just you college kids who do it for a couple of weeks because you care so much... because you love this planet and all its peoples so so much...”		*
5	PARENT	“I am saying you won’t ever ask me this again because I can’t hear you anymore”		*
5	PARENT	“I am looking forward... I have seen the future and it’s not you.”		*
5	PARENT	“I had such hopes and dreams for you”	*
5	PARENT	“... but it’s not you or anyone like you. (BEAT) Folks like you mean well but in the end, they don’t do shit. Nothing. They sit on the grass and smoke a little pot and I don’t wanna be part of that”		*
5	CHILD	“I wish you would [put a gun to your head]! I really do!”	*	*
5	PARENT	“I love you—I love the fucking shit   outta you!!”		*
6	PARENT	“That’s why I stayed at a job I didn’t like all these years and with a woman I didn’t love all these years, in a neighbourhood I despised all these years!! For you. For the hope that it was you”	*
6	PARENT	“Not a lot you can say about the truth: it just is”		*
6	CHILD	“I came home for your birthday”	*
6	PARENT	“If you wanna be there so bad you can’t even wait for your friends to pick you up... then walk”		*
7	PARENT	“I just mean... in the beginning, the first people who wanted to see an ocean or the Arctic... Africa, even... those first men and women would walk for miles and miles and miles. Hundreds or thousands of miles to e*plore them. Those sights.”	*
7	PARENT	“Some of them did [have wagon trains]. Yes. But not all”	*
7	PARENT	“If they wanted a thing badly enough then they built it or walked to it or dug it up out of the ground with their own bare hands.”	*
7	PARENT	“That’s what people do when they really believe in something or desire it badly enough.”		*
7	CHILD	“You’re crazy!”		*
7	PARENT	“You’re lazy!”		*
7	PARENT	“I’d take your jacket with you. Gonna be cold tonight”		*
8	PARENT	“You should go up to your nice rom and crawl in to your soft bed and forget about the whole thing”		*
8	CHILD	“You’re such an asshole!”		*
8	PARENT	“I know we’d get back round to that if I waited long enough”		*
8	CHILD	“I hate you! I hate you!! I hate you!!!”		*
8	PARENT	“This movement of yours... it’s a bunch of kiddies who despise their mommies and daddies and so they’re taking it out on the whole goddamn planet!”		*
8	PARENT	“No you won’t [do something]! You’re a pussy and you’re weak and the weak never win!”		*
9	CHILD	“You’re wrong”		*
9	PARENT	“You little shitbag”		*
9	PARENT	“And they’ll be crushed back down, just like the ones who came before them”		*
9	PARENTS	“You’re freeloaders and parasites—embrace it and I might even respect you”		*
9	CHILD	“I don’t want your respect!”	*
9	PARENT	“Perfect, because you don’t have it!”	*
9	CHILD	“You never really loved me! Never, never, NEVER!!”		*
9	PARENT	“This is the real problem here. It’s not at all about Wall Street... it’s about ‘daddy didn’t hold me enough when I was a baby.’”		*
9	PARENT	“Overall? Yeah, I think [it is as simple as that]”		*
10	CHILD	“You’re an old fool whose time has come like all the other old fools before him”		*
10	CHILD	“If you make me crawl back to New York on my hands and knees then I will, I will!”		*
10	CHILD	“You should support that, support me in that!! Not because you agree with me but because you believe in me!! Believe that I believe in it!”		*
10	CHILD	“I beg you! I am begging you on the ground, here at your feet! ... Daddy?”	*
10	Stage direction	“REACHES IN TO HIS POCKET AND PRODUCES A SET OF KEYS. SOME CASH”	*
10	PARENT	“Take the Mercedes”	*
10	PARENT	“I e*pect you back on the weekend.”	*
11	PARENT	“I don’t wanna drive down to get you out of jail”	*
11	PARENT	“I’m sure they need help digging a latrine or something”		*
11	PARENT	“You know how your mom is...”		*
11	CHILD	“You know what, Dad? You’re not as bad as you think you are.”		*
12	CHILD	“I mean, don’t get me wrong: you’re an asshole... but you’re a good-hearted asshole”		*
12	PARENT	“That’s... that means a lot. Son.”	*
12	PARENT	“Shit. Why can’t he just go to rehab, like normal kids do?”		*
12	Stage direction	“THE PARENT SHAKES HIS HEAD WHILE PULLING A CELL PHONE OUT OF A JACKET POCKET”	*

THE FOLLOWING IS THE GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CHARACTER 'CHILD' IN NEIL LABUTE'S PAY 'IN THE BEGINNING'

PG.	CHARACTER	LINE	FACT	OPINION
1	Stage direction	“PARENT AND HIS ONLY CHILD”	*
1	CHILD	“You love to say ‘we’ll see’ or ‘I don’t know’.		*
2	CHILD	“You’re refusing to help me”		*
2	PARENT	“My whole life I’ve helped you”		*
2	CHILD	“That’s not what I mean”	*
2	PARENT	“You never do, you don’t state the facts when you’re screaming at me, telling me what an asshole I am”		*
2	CHILD	“We fight sometimes”	*
2	CHILD	“... but I don’t just go around calling you names. No, I don’t”		*
2	PARENT	“I feel like I can recall a time or two [when you’ve called me an asshole in public]”	*
2	PARENT	“Belittled me. Humiliated me. In front of your friends or your fellow... students”		*
3	CHILD	“I was down there in the park and you tried to get me to come... home...”	*
3	PARENT	“I brought your food... carried this overflowing bo* of sandwiches and drinks down to you...”	*
3	CHILD	“Mom made you do that! Mom did!”	*
3	PARENT	“I’m not asking for any thanks for school or your rent or the air-line ticket to Iceland so you could be on the news... be seen around the world tossing a firebomb at that hotel”	*
3	PARENT	“Everybody has a tipping point and I’ve hit mine”	*
3	CHILD	“People still need help! Our help.”		*
3	CHILD	“All I want is for you to just respect my decision to do this”	*
3	PARENT	“You never speak in specifics!”		*
3	CHILD	“You don’t listen!”		*
4	CHILD	“We’re not... it isn’t just one thing! It’s lots of things. The homeless and, and... what the banks have done... look at what students are doing right now! Going back to grad school, deeper into debt because there aren’t any jobs out there, nothing! (BEAT) And I believe in these people, in helping give voice to all of them and in any way that I can. That is what I wanna do... that’s what I wanna be a part of.”	*
4	PARENT	“everybody who does work for a living can be scolded by you and your kind”		*
4	PARENT	“I am not stopping you”		*
4	CHILD	“I don’t have enough money in my account. I need some money. Please.”	*
4	PARENT	“... not just you college kids who do it for a couple of weeks because you care so much... because you lovethis planet and all its peoples so so much...”		*
4	CHILD	“I won’t ask again! I promise.”		*
5	PARENT	“I am saying you won’t ever ask me this again because I can’t hear you anymore”		*
5	PARENT	“I am looking forward... I have seen the future and it’s not you.”		*
5	PARENT	“... but it’s not you or anyone like you. (BEAT) Folks like you mean well but in the end, they don’t do shit. Nothing. They sit on the grass and smoke a little pot and I don’t wanna be part of that”		*
5	CHILD	“You don’t have to buy in to anything! It is happening right now... the world’s... things are changing right in front of us and I want to be there, to help out when and where I can! I am a part of something that is bigger than just you and me”		*
5	CHILD	“I’m not the problem, I’m the solution! I am the future!! Me, and people like me!!”		*
5	CHILD	“I wish you would [put a gun to your head]! I really do!”	*	*
5	PARENT	“I love you—I love the fucking shit outta you!!”		*
6	PARENT	“That’s why I stayed at a job I didn’t like all these years and with a woman I didn’t love all these years, in a neighbourhood I despised all these years!! For you. For the hope that it was you”	*
6	CHILD	“I came home for your birthday”	*
6	CHILD	“That’s just ridiculous [to walk to New York City]. I mean... come on!”		*
6	CHILD	“Because it would take days, that’s why!! Because it’s far!		*
7	PARENT	“They had horses too! And wagons!”	*
7	CHILD	“You’re crazy!”		*
7	PARENT	“You’re lazy!”		*
7	CHILD	“I’m not walking to New York!”	*
8	PARENT	“You should go up to your nice room and crawl in to your soft bed and forget about the whole thing”		*
8	CHILD	“You’re such an asshole!”		*
8	CHILD	“I hate you! I hate you!! I hate you!!!”		*
8	PARENT	“This movement of yours... it’s a bunch of kiddies who despise their mommies and daddies and so they’re taking it out on the whole goddamn planet!”		*
8	CHILD	“I’m not doing this for me, okay?! This is important! This is our future!”		*
8	CHILD	“I DO! THE PEOPLE I LOVE AND RESPECT DO!”		*
8	CHILD	“I will! [go and do something]”		*
8	PARENT	“No you won’t [do something]! You’re a pussy and you’re weak and the weak never win!”		*
9	CHILD	“You’re wrong”		*
9	PARENT	“You little shitbag”		*
9	CHILD	“If we fail someone else will rise up...”		*
9	CHILD	“We are revolutionaries!”		*
9	PARENTS	“You’re freeloaders and parasites—embrace it and I might even respect you”		*
9	CHILD	“I don’t want your respect!”	*
9	PARENT	“Perfect, because you don’t have it!”	*
9	CHILD	“I never had it! You never really loved me! Never, never, NEVER!!”		*
10	CHILD	“You’re an old fool whose time has come like all the other old fools before him”		*
10	CHILD	“... we have a mission and a message and I am a part of that... [cont’d]... as the strong batter the weak in to the dust, I will do that!”		*
10	CHILD	“If you make me crawl back to New York on my hands and knees then I will, I will!”		*
10	CHILD	“To be part of something great and true and pure”		*
10	CHILD	“You should support that, support me in that!! Not because you agree with me but because you believe in me!! Believe that I believe in it!”		*
10	CHILD	“I beg you! I am begging you on the ground, here at your feet! ... Daddy?”	*
10	CHILD	“I won’t. I promise [not to park the Mercedes on the street]”	*
10	PARENT	“I e*pect you back on the weekend.”	*
10	CHILD	“I’ll be back Friday night. I promise.”		*
11	CHILD	“I’ll do my best [not to get arrested]... but the cops are... you know how they are! They provoke us!!”		*
11	CHILD	“I’ve never done that [yell and burn the flag]! That was not me! That was Tommy, my roommate! He did that!”	*
11	CHILD	“I won’t. I promise! [to try not to kill anybody]”	*
11	PARENT	“You know how your mom is...”		*
11	CHILD	“I’ll keep an eye on it [the fuel tank]”	*
11	CHILD	“You know what, Dad? You’re not as bad as you think you are.”		*
12	CHILD	“I mean, don’t get me wrong: you’re an asshole... but you’re a good-hearted asshole”		*
12	PARENT	“Shit. Why can’t he just go to rehab, like normal kids do?”		*