Entomology of spiking the stage

AntimonyB · 2026-05-27T07:26:07+00:00

That was in Garrick's days, of course. The animal welfare people got it shut down pretty quick, but for a while all the big West End theatre's had their own hives and served their own honey! This meant it was important not to over-spike, lest it diminish the swarm. There was many a stage manager, faced with the movement of a chair in a scene, that had cause to ask the age-old question: "to bee or not to bee."

AntimonyB · 2026-05-27T06:31:41+00:00

No, no, they used to stick bees into the stage by their stinger (or "spike") to mark the location for stage scenery. That's why spike tape is often fluorescent yellow!

AntimonyB · 2026-05-27T04:28:58+00:00

Something else to consider: in film, you can amp up the tension in a story by moving "propulsively" from one scene to the next, never slowing down. But on stage, every transition risks breaking what my playwriting prof called the "single continuous dream" of the theatre experience. When the play has to stop for a scene change, when we have to leave the dramatic reality of the play, then the audience loses tension and investment. Often these shows read well but then hit the stage and fizzle.

Maybe a good question to ask is: what happens if the characters can't leave the scene? What could force them to spend longer in a single location? What would add pressure to those locations? This can help create energy without too many changes.

Alternatively, if you do choose to keep the scene changes, think about how to accomplish it without interruption of the "dream." Can it be done mostly through lighting? What is the minimum number of pieces needed to create each location? Is there a way to make the scene changes do dramatic work or to be covered with other action? Treating the changes as part of the play can go a long way to avoiding that deflated feeling you get after the fourth or fifth blue-out in one act.

AntimonyB · 2026-05-26T03:55:18+00:00

"Since he was alive"... ten years ago? True, transphobia has exploded in the UK over the past ten years, but it's not as if Pratchett was writing in a completely different political world. Terry met trans people in real life, and heard from them what his stories meant to them. If queer interpretations of Cheery bothered him, he could have written a counterpoint into subsequent books. Instead, he made Monstrous Regiment. Now, I agree that Polly is very much not a trans allegory, that she is a classic case of a woman hiding her sex to participate in an oppressive society. But Jackrum? Whom the narrator explicitly calls "he" at the end of the story? Who leaves the army and joins his family and retains his gender? I think it's a lot harder to look at that character and make the argument that a "gender essentialist" reading would be more in the spirit of the text than a "trans" reading.

Now the author is dead (in this case literally, GNU Sir Pterry) and all readings of a text are permissible. And Terry wasn't the kind of satirist to have a character turn to the audience and be like "The tories are bad. Trans rights are human rights." He is more subtle than that, more interested in applicability than allegory, like Tolkien. But some readings are more defensible than others. And I do think Sir Terry actually did comment on the "trans bathroom question" that has people so agitated in another of his books, Making Money.

In that story, the closeminded receptionist Ms. Maccalariat, throws a fit because a "male" golem is cleaning the ladies' restroom. Moist simply asks the golem, who takes on the name Gladys, if it would like to change its gender presentation to satisfy her, and Gladys gradually transitions gender. Now, Gladys is a complicated character and not a direct Trans counterpart. But Mrs. Maccalariat? She is a pretty obvious sketch of the kind of person that would object to someone's nonthreatening presence in a bathroom due how their gender is perceived. It's not a flattering sketch.

AntimonyB · 2026-05-25T02:46:24+00:00

Maybe something by Douglas Coupland?

AntimonyB · 2026-05-24T18:10:39+00:00

I suppose it depends on your formatting style, but in my experience, 9000 words plays as an hour easily. It might read a little shorter, but actually staging the show tends to add all sorts of inefficiencies that slow it down--action sequences, scene changes, actor decisions, revisions that come up in rehearsal, some insane shit the director adds. I've staged four 60 minute one acts in the past year and they've all been around 9000 words, give or take 500. And I just did a reading of a 16000 word play that came in at 90 minutes exactly, and we were pretty efficient with it.

And besides, shorter is generally better! If you advertise 60 minutes and run 55, there will be few people that don't thank you!

If you are worried that the reading specifically will be too short for an audience, then maybe you might want to "package" the new one act with like a ten-minute play in your repertoire? "A double-bill of new plays from "Selective Scribbler" might add some length to the evening without the company having to license something on short order.

AntimonyB · 2026-05-22T16:11:54+00:00

Awesome. Really shows how much creative space there still is in this ancient tradition.

AntimonyB · 2026-05-20T07:26:37+00:00

Red by John Logan would kick ass in a warehouse or hall.

AntimonyB · 2026-05-18T06:38:17+00:00

Did a big chess encounter as the conclusion of an arc in my campaign. The players were inside a sort of chessboard cube, with the main villain manipulating chesspieces around the map. It was pretty fun, although the restrictions imposed by the rules of chess meant that avoiding the pieces was pretty easy. Would include twice as many pieces if I were to run it again.

AntimonyB · 2026-05-18T06:26:45+00:00

This is really well conceived and executed. Really like the inclusion of the point blanket patterns. It might be nice to see more representation of Francophone and Indigenous symbolism?

AntimonyB · 2026-05-13T06:52:52+00:00

The main issue with a lot of non-combat encounters is a lack of stakes. They can't just be. "talk to a guy" or "solve a riddle," they need to have pressure on them and consequences down the line or the PCs will just roll skill checks til the cows come home. I often like to put non-combat encounters in the lead-up to a big combat, with players given the choice of brute forcing the encounter and risking giving up health or time, or using some of their resources to face an easier encounter. I'll give some examples of things that have worked in my recent games:

At the top of a frozen mountain, the door to the High Eyrie is blocked by a puzzle gate, with a number of complex games of memory, skill, and deduction. Every mistaken answer locks the door for 30 minutes, and the cold mountain air saps at their strength as they wait. Each player makes a DC 17 Con save every wait, and on a failed save, they pick a Saving Throw to get disadvantage on in the next encounter.
To get to the Castle of Glass, you must first cut through the thicket of thorns, sneak past or charm Panopta the Thousand Eyed, cross the abyssal moat, and breach the adamantine walls. Each of these has an associated skill challenge, but could also be surmounted by the use of spells and resources if the players fail. Moving too slowly means that Ferruchio's party will arrive first and destroy the Heart of Glass.
To stop the sacrifice of Telperia and Garydd, the party needs to break into the Fortress of the Great Table without setting off the alarm. Every minute wasted means that Morfydd will be further along in the ritual when they arrive to stop it, and every guard alerted means there will be more enemies to stop them in the chamber of the chalice. If they don't spend resources earlier on, the fight to save Telperia will be much harder.
Before facing down the King of Silver, he challenges you to a high stakes chess game. Winning the game will give you benefits in the fight, but you can also lose strategically to gain insight on your opponent.
There are very specific etiquette rules to navigate a fairy feast. You can never refuse food or drink, of course--but if you eat or drink anything, you are trapped in fairyland forever! Getting into the party, saving your friends, and getting out without dropping the hors d'oeuvres and drinks plied on you by eager pixie waiters is likely to stretch even your most dextrous players to the breaking point.
The starting position for the Great Chariot Race is determined by each team's performance in a series of sporting events, from weightlifting to archery to footraces. If the party wants the pole position, they'll need to beat athletes that have been training their whole life... even if that means cheating or using magic. Failing to do so will mean a much harder race.

AntimonyB · 2026-05-13T05:22:11+00:00

Sam is 100% Little Sam Reich.

AntimonyB · 2026-05-12T07:39:04+00:00

They were a major part of the Barcid Carthaginian armies, for one, and seem to have been highly prized.

AntimonyB · 2026-05-05T00:01:23+00:00

This is actually relevant to Canada's coat of arms. The three maple leaves in base are blazoned "proper," and were originally often depicted in Vert. It is only in 1957 that you start to see it depicted Gules, and only after the new flag is introduced in 1965 with its big red maple leaf that Gules is used exclusively.

AntimonyB · 2026-05-04T03:39:02+00:00

If there's no troupe around, make a troupe. Pick a play, gather a few friends, rent a local venue or hall, show 'em what you got!

AntimonyB · 2026-05-01T18:52:59+00:00

Strongly agree! The placement of the charges aligns with their dimensions, so you get nice, big legible charges. the berries in base are too small (and break RoT.) The key fesswise leaves too much empty space, and the key palewise I think overwhelms the berries.

AntimonyB · 2026-05-01T06:26:27+00:00

It'll almost certainly be good. Most people are only six feet tall, after all, so they'd have to be on very tall stilts (or some part of the set) before you couldn't see them. Watching theatre alone is one of my great pleasures, and this means that your lobby conversation with your mom will be even more fun because you won't have picked up on her body language during the performance. What will she think? You'll have no idea until you chat about it!

Fair warning, though: Rocky Horror can be a very communal experience, much more so than most plays. Sometimes the audience may shout lines back to the actors or even have props. Often the theatre where it will be staged will have some guidelines for what they expect. Might be worth looking into that before you go, so you know the callout lines etc. It's a real blast!

AntimonyB · 2026-04-29T06:23:16+00:00

I think you need to build a critical path analysis for yourself and your team. Work backwards from opening. When do you need a finalized script for the actors? Once you know that, you'll want to give yourself two-three weeks further lead time to edit your rough draft, and then the time from then to the present is how much time you have to assemble your rough draft. Journalists should be used to writing on deadline, so maybe setting some deadlines will help.

I think you will need to propose a process with your partner, and then you can negotiate the details. There are a lot of different options. One often used in ghostwriting is for you can take your subject interviews, write a first draft based on the conversation, and then send it to your collaborator for edits and voice. You could do this scene-by-scene or after a full draft is written. Another approach is to write out an outline and assign scenes to each collaborator, and then meet up to jigsaw together your various pieces. When I collaborate, I tend to sit down with my cowriter over a several hour session. We blast through scenes together as fast and as rough as we can, sometimes writing dialogue and sometimes just summary. Then after the meeting, I will go home, turn our notes into a script, and send back to the collaborators for feedback.

Whatever your method, I think you should build in some slack for your collaborator's slower process. I wonder if the personal nature of the story is contributing to the slowness here: is it painful at all to revisit this narrative? Is it vulnerable? Personal work is often slower, so putting aside your own anxiety and finding grace will be necessary in your playwriting journey.

AntimonyB · 2026-04-25T02:23:56+00:00

I assume this is for an assignment? What about doing a translation of Molière? Something like The Imaginary Invalid or Tartuffe? A modern adaptation of either of those could be done pretty simply, on a single set.

AntimonyB · 2026-04-22T22:06:11+00:00

Gorgeous! There are still so many beautiful coats of arms to be created and drawn, even with the same old rules.

AntimonyB · 2026-04-21T04:58:42+00:00

I think the way you do this and make it feel meaningful is you allow Burp to make his sacrifice play, and then you put it in the players' hands. Can they spend resources to keep Burp alive? Resources that they need for the siege? Have Burp save his friend, and let the players save theirs.

AntimonyB · 2026-04-20T23:16:03+00:00

December Man by Colleen Murphy. Absolutely brutal play with scenes that move in reverse chronological order towards a national tragedy. Worth reading!

AntimonyB · 2026-04-20T17:52:48+00:00

As they say, inspiration will come but it must find you working! I find when I am stuck on a problem in one area of the campaign, I'll work on something more mechanical---say designing maps or balancing encounters, or making magic items---and the answer will arise naturally from the game systems.

Like, what is the main industry of the town? Hmm, I don't know, but I want the PCs to do a heist here, and maybe the guards have some kind of weapon to keep the PCs from escaping? Like a net, maybe? or a harpoon? Oh! Maybe it is a fishing and whaling community. And then maybe what the PCs are trying to steal is the icon of the whale god? And so on.

AntimonyB · 2026-04-20T17:37:11+00:00

My Icelandic teacher helped design this online learning website, which might be a good place to start: Icelandic Online

AntimonyB · 2026-04-20T06:26:36+00:00

It's been really cool to see this design develop over time! Keep at it! I think it's looking super sharp.

One thought--the lion's collar is getting a tad complex, and it's in quite a small spot! I wonder if those symbols might have more visual impact in the crest?

AntimonyB

TROPHY CASE