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THE CEILING

“The ceiling is the roof!” – Michael Jordan

Welcome to The Ceiling, where I will be discussing THE ROOF as I write/publish it. Returning readers will know that this is a new version of “autopsy.” So hey, it’s been a while; how are you? How are things? If you’re reading this soon after I’m writing it, I’m sure things are pretty crazy. I think the craziness going on is a part of what’s brought me to writing THE ROOF now. You see, the concept of THE ROOF is something I came up with in grad school, back in like 2013 I’d say. THE ROOF is an intentional echo of The Road and The Room; hopefully the execution of the play falls somewhere between the two in quality. As Bruce explains in the introductory scene, the relevance of the title comes from the play’s setting: a group of misfits start meeting as a group on the roof of a parking garage at a college campus to hold discussions or what have you. Meanwhile, crazy things happen in the world at large and our story is born.

I’ve heard from a few people about a positive way to look at quarantine and lockdown: focusing on the creative potential of spending more time at home thinking. I know this has certainly led to my plans for THE ROOF. Back at the beginning of 2020 I wasn’t necessarily planning on writing this summer and I definitely wasn’t going back to the idea of THE ROOF; the funny thing is, though, that this time has re-energized my interest in a number of story ideas. I want to give THE ROOF the merit it deserves in inspiring me to write again, so this play will be the focus for now, but I’m hoping to write more regularly going forward.

I’m not sure if I’ve written about it here before, but the character of You in Waiting for Gadot was inspired by a short story written by a friend of a friend that I’d read in college. That story featured a character named They and you have to figure the reason for that is to disrupt the usual reading experience. You, my character, does that and also speaks to the experience of reading a play rather than seeing a performance. Only readers would know this character is named You and thus might be seen as having some connection with you readers. It’s like all the background information Arthur Miller puts in The Crucible that never gets spoken aloud on stage. Reading a play becomes even more of a fundamentally different experience watching a performance of the same drama. Obviously, I’m still interested in the idea because there is a new character named You in THE ROOF, but I have different aims with this character, as will hopefully become more apparent as the story develops.

I will leave you with a final thought: THE ROOF is, in my head, one of two things. If performed, THE ROOF is a piece of live theatre, taking place, necessarily, on an actual parking garage roof and not on a stage. However, for you readers, I plan THE ROOF to be a video game-like “choose your own adventure” piece of storytelling. If you are looking for a novel, go read the book Bruce talks about, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut; you probably have time. That’s another positive way to look at social distancing: more time to create and consume art. Stay safe and hang in there, we’ll talk again soon.