Writing a solo show is Tough!
Fighting it out for the Fringe
by Kirsten Rasmussen
If you are alone in a living room writing a solo show, and you laugh at yourself, does it mean it’s funny?
One week before I put Tough! up in Montreal for the first time this February, I was sitting on the floor of my living room in my apartment. I was finishing off my second pot of coffee of the day, and decided since it was after 8, I better switch to wine. (Ooh a delicious Dépanneur red, how becoming.).
I was staring at what used to be my living room floor which was now a thick carpet of paper. Scrap pages, loose leaf, journals, post-it notes, binders covered the floor, all with the word Tough scrawled somewhere on them. In the middle, a large piece of paper with the title TOUGH TIME LINE written on the top, and an arc drawn across the paper. The arc of a story which is the visual metaphor of the cathartic journey the writer hopes one feels when watching her play.
"Seven days," I thought to myself and tapped the pen on my noggin as if I hoped it would unleash the creative genius needed to craft all this mess into a play.
