Under God’s undeviating paw*

On Friday night, we were given three rules.  By Sunday evening, we each needed a 10-minute play which included, in some form or fashion, the three rules.

1) A pair of mismatched failures. (the Odd Couple)

2) Peering into the void. (toilet bowl)

3) Mathematical error(s). (2+2=4)  You’ve made a miscalculation, my friend.

My first response to each is also included.

I'm a math guy.  I know that sounds weird since I'm a writer, but I like math.  Math is easy for me.  Even though I haven't taken a math class in years, I still remember basic calculus.  I tutored high school math three or four years back and was amazed at how easily it all came back.  Math is just too practical for my tastes.  Answers are right or wrong.  I like the mushy stuff in between, but...

My first bit of research was to investigate the biggest math mistakes in history. (This is not where my attention was drawn first.  I knew that my play was going to be set in a bathroom with someone staring into a commode.)
http://www.cracked.com/article_19623_6-small-math-errors-that-caused-huge-disasters.html

Interesting, but not what I was looking for.  I wanted a character, not a disaster.  Looked at a lot more math stuff on the world wide web (it's a series of tubes.)  Nothing that grab my attention.

So I went to where my play was going to start and did research on the history of toilets.  Again, lots of interesting stuff, but nothing that called to me.

But I did start to make a list of other stuff that came to mind as I researched:

Spinoza’s God  (Math... rationalism... Spinoza.. and the eventual title)
the universe and human stupidity (Einstein quote)
It’s my Uterus, Bitch  (I have a picture of a young woman holding this sign at a rally that I really like.)
Sphincter (just seemed to go with toilets)
The bomb (another picture)
Nuclear waste (toilets again)
Underground by Don DeLillo, Klara Sax restoring the pictures on cold war bombers.  (When in doubt I turn to Greek Mythology and ended up reading about this modern novel in another book called Venus in Exile: The Rejection of Beauty in the 20th Century.)
Venus of the Sewer (toilets again)
Venus in Exile: The Rejection of Beauty in the 20th Century
Ha Ha Ha - The Julie Ruin (a song I really like)
The toilet represents the modern world (The THEME!  Yes!)
The Waste Land (toilets.  I read a great deal of it.  I never had before.)
Breezeways, Carpools, Crispers, Bridge Parties, Sectional, Broadloom
Pride (from Venus in Exile: The Rejection of Beauty in the 20th Century)

That's it.  Spent 6 or 8 hours Friday night and Saturday wandering through these ideas.

Went to bed Saturday night with the beginnings of an idea.  Woke up Sunday and still liked it.  Wrote the play Sunday morning and went to the ScriptWorks Salon Sunday evening.

Mine was not the best, but it wasn't the worst either. At least, that's my opinion.

*Charles Baudelaire, The Little Old Women