Bathroom Reading: Laughter and Awkwardness

So at the most recent Interim Writers evening of staged readings, "Have You Read? February," I had the first ever reading of the first 51 pages of Meet Me In The Bathroom. It was so much fun, and the actors were fantastic!

I think the most interesting part was the laughter. People were falling out of their seats laughing so hard -- I always think this play is a Greek Tragedy, and I completely forgot how funny it is. And of course, around page 36 all the sudden things got very quiet. Not the bad kind of quiet, not the sleeping sort of quiet, it was the intense uncomfortable sort of quiet. A local director to the right of me was covering his mouth with his hand... the way you do in a scary movie when you know someone is about to open that door, the door you know the bad guy is hiding in, ready to pounce with a knife.  Anyway, people were jolted from the funny back and forth banter scenes between the high school rebel characters, and then all the sudden thrown into the pressure cooker that is a girls bathroom (with the male English teacher, suddenly, on the inside).

Anyway, I'm pretty glad about this reaction. I have to say that it is one of the things I strive to achieve in the plays I write. I don't want the audience to turn their brains off -- if they want that, then go to see a Disney Musical -- I want to make people think and question their morals.

Hopefully, the success of the reading and the submissions will prove fruitful soon. I really want to get this bad-boy on it's feet! (Of course, I'd want Vicki to direct it... she called dibs!)