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how do you do, my fellow kids
Dec. 5th, 2018 08:27 amLast year* I was the lead playwright and co-star for "Code Review, Forwards and Back", a play about different ways code review can go. In a sense I play several different characters who have different approaches to code review. Here's the video.
The third character I play is very laid-back. I am not laid-back. I am extra and have no chill. (Only in about the last three months have I come to understand what "laid-back" can mean other than "unreliable and inattentive to detail" -- instead, "laid-back" can mean "calm, amenable to other people's preferences in low-stakes negotiations, with a demeanor that puts people at ease".) So the director had to coach me in how to properly perform laidbackitude for this character; I reached for sort of a beach surfer caricature, I think, slouching further and further in my chair. At one point, improvising a response to my co-star's distress, I said, "Bummer," and my director immediately said, "OK, we've found the line, bring it back. Not quite that far."
Last month, we reprised the play at RubyConf in Los Angeles. We revised the play a bit, added a scene, and worked to get as off-book as possible before the show. During rehearsal, in that same scene, when my co-star got his mouth tangled on a line, I improvised: "Dude, have a vape." And I immediately knew, on some level, that this ridiculousness is what he and I will say to make each other laugh in tense moments for the rest of our friendship.
The video recording for our RubyConf performance just went live (direct YouTube link) and I guess I should watch it, though I wince. Fortifying myself with some tea first!
* Wow, as I was writing this I started "A few years ago" but this was actually like August 2017. Brain, what is happening.
The third character I play is very laid-back. I am not laid-back. I am extra and have no chill. (Only in about the last three months have I come to understand what "laid-back" can mean other than "unreliable and inattentive to detail" -- instead, "laid-back" can mean "calm, amenable to other people's preferences in low-stakes negotiations, with a demeanor that puts people at ease".) So the director had to coach me in how to properly perform laidbackitude for this character; I reached for sort of a beach surfer caricature, I think, slouching further and further in my chair. At one point, improvising a response to my co-star's distress, I said, "Bummer," and my director immediately said, "OK, we've found the line, bring it back. Not quite that far."
Last month, we reprised the play at RubyConf in Los Angeles. We revised the play a bit, added a scene, and worked to get as off-book as possible before the show. During rehearsal, in that same scene, when my co-star got his mouth tangled on a line, I improvised: "Dude, have a vape." And I immediately knew, on some level, that this ridiculousness is what he and I will say to make each other laugh in tense moments for the rest of our friendship.
The video recording for our RubyConf performance just went live (direct YouTube link) and I guess I should watch it, though I wince. Fortifying myself with some tea first!
* Wow, as I was writing this I started "A few years ago" but this was actually like August 2017. Brain, what is happening.
