Doomsday Think Tank

I've always loved plays. In high school I went from reading them for assignment to reading them for fun and always wanted to write them, along with my other projects.

A couple of years ago Dennis Magnant and myself were digging deep into our comic book Tourniquet. There's a scene in the first or second issue when a man our monsters save reveals he was holding a chip of information. I wrote a 3-5 page scene of the four monsters sitting around a table in headquarters trading theories of what it might contain. I loved the scene but it wasn't a good fit for our book. Tourniquet is a team of monsters killing the likes of pedophiles, terrorists, and such, not sitting around musing about conspiracies. I separated it into another tab as I liked it too much to throw it away. I would frequently return to this little trading of dialogue when something would strike me. When it had hit 8 pages I thought it was done - a nice little short: the pentagon announces the return of a disc with important information but no details have been given; four conspiracy theorists are invited to sit down and share their thoughts.

Then it grew and continued to grow. For a long time I felt it was done at 32 pages. I had printed it off and gave it to my dad, who showed it to his friends and they all loved it and freaked out about it. Ideas and thoughts kept hitting me recently so I dusted it off and worked some more on it. It grew to 72 pages. It's not long, I know, but for what it is, I suppose it can be rather lengthy. I didn't expect it to get to 32 pages let alone 72 pages. Thought I was done. Nope. It kept calling to me to say more and I did and, after several times of thinking I was finished, I stopped at 88 pages. My wonderful Aunt Wanda is going to edit it for me. I don't know if she'll like it but I at least hope she doesn't hate it haha.

I titled it early on "Doomsday Think Tank". The characters are nameless and simply color coded (Blue, Black, Green, & Red). Financially speaking, it'd be a cheap show to put on. 4 people (2 men, 2 women) sitting at a table trading theories and discussing world issues. There's actually a lot of humor in it as well, balancing out the serious issues talked about. I'm hoping once the final draft is done, I can start holding readings. This play that's been kind of therapeutic for me grew out of a deleted scene for a comic book. You never know when something will hit and where it'll come from, so always be open.

I hope you all check it out when it finds its way to you.