God and stereotypes and train stations and judgementalism collide-and resound-in Patrick Riviere's script, "I'm a Universalist."
If ever there is a moment when we need to check our stereotypes at the door, it would be at a production of this script where you should! Workshopping Riviere's script was a poignant look at how far down the spectrum of character stereotyping one should go, and how effective it is as the audience's believe-ability level increases.
A full house during the session, Patrick, Dorothy Distefano, Merridawn Duckler, and Jeremy Fiebig (our guest professor) and I had a lively discussion about voice and dialogue and context and how both of those elements contribute to one's ability to lose suspicion of the characters themselves. Digging into the relationship, we found we wanted more of a protagonist, more heroic action, to connect the characters in a common response to an external conflict.
My thanks to Patrick for his script and to Jeremy, Dorothy and Merridawn for doing the workshop!
Take a listen to the audio recording of the session and see for yourself!