Month: May 2018

Solo Script – Super Boy

(Lights Circle Around. ‘Superman’ Theme plays. 22 secs in, play Narr 1)

NARRATOR (Narr 1)

Who do you call when your life is in peril? Whose name strikes fear into the hearts of evil-doers? When you ring for help, who picks up the phone? There’s only one answer…

(SUPER-BOY enters from the back of the room)

Super Boy, the greatest hero in the entire world!

SUPER BOY

Hey.

NARRATOR (Narr 2)

With his incredible strength…

SUPER BOY

Look at it.

NARRATOR (Narr 3)

….miraculous speed…

SUPER-BOY

Whoosh.

NARRATOR (Narr 4)

…and unmatchable intelligence…

SUPER-BOY

‘Unmatchable’.

NARRATOR (Narr 5)

…he will overcome any forces of villainy! Behold as he surveys the the world for matters that may require him, his heroic responsibility is unwavering. 

SUPER-BOY

Errr, right, world news, world news, worrrrrrrld news! 

(Super-Boy reads a newspaper as the music continues.)

SUPER-BOY

‘Hurricane in Cuba. (Beat) Earthquake in Portugal. (Beat) Flooded Asda in Yorkshire.’ That’s doable.

NARRATOR (Narr 6)

Astonishing! His bravery inspires us all! The people of Yorkshire are in safe hands, their fears will soon fade away once they’ve heard Super Boy’s famous catchphrase!

SUPER-BOY

(Pause) When…baddies are about……I will save- hopefully, I’ll save you.

NARRATOR (Narr 7)

Ooo that gave me chills! Now it is time to go kick some heinous anus! But first, superheroes must warm up before venturing out into the world and Super Boy loves to exercise.

(Super-Boy walks to the workout area)

NARRATOR (Narr 8)

Do not be fooled, Super Boy’s rippling muscles and butch physique are not all natural. Even superheroes need to look after themselves! Super Boy has got to work out to make sure that he’s in peak physical condition.

(Super-Boy removes his cape)

NARRATOR (Narr 9)

Let the routine begin! First we have ‘Superior Stretches’!

Next it’s ‘Justice Jacks’, get jumping! 

Now, a ‘Marvelous Marathon’!

My favourite, ‘Wonder Weights’! ….whilst doing ‘Justice Jacks’!

And finally, a real challenge which shall demonstrate Super Boy’s legendary might,  ‘One Thousand Pushups’! Ready. Set. Go! One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven…. Super Boy? Huh, that’s disappointing. No problem, onwards, more preparation should make up for that failure.  

(Super-Boy walks to the paint area)

NARRATOR (Narr 10)

See as Super Boy glides through the air, his dedication to justice will never end! He will answer your call for help, for he is the icon of hope! When people see him coming they know they are safe and the villains realise they’re time is up. Which is why Super Boy makes sure his costume is all in tact and in it’s correct place. His signature look is not only recognisable, but also protects his hidden identity. Before every adventure, Super Boy puts on a mask even larger than the last, adding to the layers that hide who he truly is. 

(Super-Boy begins to add paint to his mask)

NARRATOR (Narr 11)

Gee willikers! Would you look at that, Super Boy looks more heroic than ever! His devotion to his duty is inspiring. …….. In fact, he wants to add even more to his disguise. 

…And a little bit more…

…Annnndddd the last bit. (Beat) Incredible, now that’s a hero. But before Super Boy flies off, he always recites some phrases he may use while rescuing others. Phrases such as ‘I am here to help you.’

SUPER-BOY

I am here to help you.

NARRATOR (Narr 12)

Or ‘Call and I’ll pick up.’

SUPER-BOY

Call and I’ll pick up.

NARRATOR (Narr 13)

Or even ‘My name is Super Boy and I am the greatest hero in the world!’

SUPER-BOY

My name is Super Boy and I… am the greatest hero in the world.

NARRATOR (Narr 14)

You sure are. Did you know that every superhero has an origin story? Super Boy’s origin story is the best one around, it begins in space and ends with him becoming the hero you see before you! It appears that he wants to tell you it now so you can all believe in him. Here he goes.

(Super-Boy moves towards the audience)

SUPER-BOY

I was born on another planet and then I came here and now I’m Super Boy. 

NARRATOR (Narr 15)

Hahaha, there’s more to it than that! Super Boy goes to tell the viewers again, but this time, with all the details.

SUPER-BOY

(Pause) I…I…

NARRATOR (Narr 16)

(Sighs, clears throat) Super Boy was born on the planet Zenlah, which is twelve trillion light-years away. He lived there with his family, until one day when a radioactive Astro-Cloud appeared in the stratosphere. Zenlah’s civilisation began to mutant and were at risk of being totally eradicated, so they sent out a distress signal to all the orbatting moons, but none of them replied. They had turned their back on Zenlah, who had found themselves doomed and hopeless. Just before their final hour, Super Boy’s parents put him inside an escape pod and sent him to nearest colonised planet, which happened to be none other than our third rock from the sun that we call Earth. Now, Super Boy uses his powers to fight crime as to thank us for giving him a new home. But what pushes him to be a hero is knowing that Zenlah may have been saved had the moons answered their distress call. That is Super Boy’s one rule, he will pick up the call for help, he will never let you down, he will be there for you, for he is the greatest hero of all time!

(The phone ringing sound begins to play, cutting off the superman theme song. The lights gradually become normal, the room in neutral)

NARRATOR (Narr 17)

Oh look, someone needs help! Don’t worry, Super Boy is on it!

Super boy will pick up the phone!

He’s on the case!

He will never let you down!

Super Boy, to the rescue!

It’s time to pick up the phone!

Pick up the phone, Super Boy. 

It’s your heroic duty. 

Here he goes!

Three. Two. One. NOW!

Pick it up.

Now!

Super Boy!

(Super Boy takes the phone off the hook and walks around space and removes his mask and cape.) (Ringing sound cuts off)

(Afterwards he picks up the phone and sits with it and dials a number and holds it up to his ear)

SUPER-BOY

I need some help.

(Lights fade to black out.)

THE END

Once I had created the name ‘Super Boy’, I needed to discover what his ‘pain’ was and how he was going to hide it. From a very young age, I have always loved superheroes. I enjoyed seeing their powers and how they used them to fight the villains, their abilities were a part of their identity. You can’t think of swinging from webs without thinking of Spiderman. I became obsessed with watching weekly episodes of all superhero shows I could find, all just to see their powers and the introductions of new villains with new abilities.

Things changed when I got to my into my teens. I still loved watching the new powers, but as I matured (and along with me the stories I could view), I began to be more invested in the people underneath the masks. Batman was cool and scary, but it was Bruce Wayne’s inner demons that pushed him and that was fascinating to me. Much like Macbeth’s plans of betrayal or Woyzeck’s madness, these characters have two sides to them. One that they present to the world and another that consisted of who they truly were or soon becoming.

For ‘Super Boy’, I wanted to use a classic superhero mask, but further explore its use as a disguise. I wanted my mask to hide not only the hero’s identity but also symbolise a barrier to inner struggles and discomfort.

I recalled getting my face painted as a child, I remembered that I would always forget about the paint and always ended up itching/touching my face and smear the paint, it was a mess. In fact, still do this, having played The Wolf in Lincoln Drama Society’s Grimm Tales production, where I had to keep stopping myself from ruining my wolf make up.

 

Playing The Wolf cemented the idea that I could use facepaint in my piece. I decided to connect my personal memory/behavior to my Super Boy character. I wanted to paint the hero mask on to my face and at some point rub it off to reveal the character’s inner ‘pain’ from my initial ‘pain-t’ idea. However, this way as far as intended to go with connecting my personal life with my piece. I had already experienced incorporating my life into a role and piece of original writing and although it was eye-opening, I didn’t feel comfortable doing so with my solo piece. I applaud those that wanted to in my class, I think it was very brave of them, but personally, I didn’t want to tackle something as personal so directly. Instead, I decided to focus on ‘identity’, as it felt a more universal theme, every0ne at some point struggles with who they truly are and how they present themselves.

I began to play around with facepaint and came up with this:

 

It was very simple, which I liked, it made me feel like a character from ‘The Incredibles’ movie.

 

I always loved their design and how with one glance, you knew they were heroes.

I began to write and script and decided to use a narrator who could order me about. Narrators were often used in classic shows like 60s Batman cartoon. I recoreded myself reading the lines and used a satirical nasally American accent, like the voice the cartoons used. I made the narrator give orders and behave like a dictator, he would tell the audience who and what Super Boy was, even if Super Boy disagreed. The Narrator served as the opressive force for Super Boy’s true self to rebel against.

I set myself the challenge of using minimal set and I also wanted to use the length of my stage to symbolise time. Much like how an episode of my a superhero cartoon, I wanted to story to build. I would first appear at the end of the room, furthest away from my audience, making it hard to see the details of my outfit, I wanted to start off as the generic symbol of a hero. Whilst starting of with this and then gradually getting closer to the audience, Super Boy got nearly to the end of the ‘episode’, the distance from the back of the room to the front was the ‘runtime’. During the piece, as he went towards the audiece he would reveal more and more of his distaste of being expected to be the ‘hero’, when in reality he hated it. He would then demomstrate this by rubbing off his mask, taking charge and eventually calling for help himself.

This is my first post on my blog. I tried to do this during the creative process but it never came naturally to me, I’d much rather tell the story once it’s done. So here is the first part:

When I began to form ideas of what I wanted to do for my piece, I decided to see what came naturally. Anytime that something popped into my head, however vague it was, I wrote it down on to a post-it note and put it on my wall.

Here are some examples:

  

 

I felt that I had the beginnings of two approaches/styles, I was either going to do something very dark or funny.

I pictured using long curtains to create a narrow passage that I would perform in. It would be a piece for one audience member at a time. They would sit at one end of the passage and wear headphones that would play voice recordings of phrases like ‘You’re in here with me’ in a loop. I wanted to play with fear by creeping out the audience member, but also create this very direct connection, one actor – one viewer.

However, I began to feel that it would be too much to perform a ten-minute piece so many times, each only for one person. I had no doubt that is was possible, I had watched performances artists such as Marina Abramovic have very long intimate connections with individuals, but I felt that this was too large of a challenge for me, a drama student. For now, I would leave the big stuff to the professionals, but I still wanted to find a way to challenge myself.

Through the collecting all my random ideas, I wrote ‘paint’ (seen above), but used colours to reveal the word ‘pain’ inside. This spoke to me, I wasn’t sure how or why, but I couldn’t help but return to this idea again and again. I’ve always loved plays, performances or stories that made me think and not left me mindlessly watching, I want a level of engagement. I like it when creators respect their audience to work out things themselves, I want the audience to work and be present. My ‘paint’ idea seemed to capture this ideal for me, there was a deeper message (although it’s in a different colour). I knew then that I wanted to create a story that had hidden pain but now needed to discover how exactly ‘paint’ was going to come into this.

I theorised that I could use paint to hide the ‘pain’. This was when I remembered someone from when I lived in Newcastle. There was a man who dresses up as Spiderman and beatboxes in the city center, he became a kind of folk hero, who everyone calls ‘Geordie Spiderman’. One day I joked to my friends that what if that really was Spiderman but that he didn’t want to be a hero and just wanted to beatbox instead. I always felt that would be a funny plot for a comic series, although now I considered incorporating that into my solo piece and create a superhero that didn’t want to be a superhero. I came up with the name ‘Super Boy’, I liked how simple it was and how you knew instantly that he was a superhero.