NEVER ENOUGH, the book I published last week, has a lot going on. Having protagonists who are creatives is fun, whether they are career creatives or devoted hobbyists. Generally speaking I write about creative stuff that I’ve done myself. I am not an expert with anything, but I’ve tried a lot of different things.
The first few novellas were very dance-heavy, probably because at the time I was writing them (2012-2014) I was doing a lot of dancing. In addition to the whole lotta dancers in the series, I have two painters (Kevin Park, BREATHING SPACE and Reggie Galant, NEVER ENOUGH); a miniatures artist (Paul Xiao, BREATHING SPACE); two photographers (Andy Martin of EXPOSURE and Charlotte Montgomery, heroine of my upcoming novel LOST AND FOUND); two jewelers (Juan Santiago of BENCHWORK and Jan de Witt of SUGAR DADDY); three costume designers; numerous actors; and a growing number of musicians. Nick and Lucy of SET DRESSING are both in the interior design space. The list goes on.
Creative people rarely settle for one single pursuit. Reza of DRAWN OUT, for example, makes a living as a residential designer but his heart belongs to filmmaking. His inamorata Tina makes a living doing computer animation but she is also a filmmaker, as well as writing and drawing graphic novels. Tomas Calderon of TORCH is a multi-talent like series stars Andy and Victor. For people who work in the entertainment industry, being able to turn from music to acting to dance, as Tomas does, improves the chance of getting some kind of job.
Even when getting a job isn’t the aim, a truly creative person is going to have ideas. Given time and opportunity, that person is probably going to actually create something. In last winter’s novel A BRAID OF LOVE, heroes Niall and Geoffrey meet Andy, who, being a photographer, immediately wants to take their picture. He has an off-the-cuff idea for staging a series of photos inspired by ‘Lawrence of Arabia;’ they counteroffer with ‘The Tempest.’
As a writer, where did that come from? Well, I’ve seen a film version of ‘Tempest’ (the one with Helen Mirren as Prospera) and I read the play last summer, when I was writing NEVER ENOUGH and A BRAID OF LOVE. I noticed that if you look at Shakespeare from the side, as it were, there is a lot of intriguing subtext in the lines. So I had Niall and Geoffrey pull thirteen lines out of ‘The Tempest’ for their photo shoot. Andy and Victor then brainstormed the staging for those lines. In the play, Prospero and Ariel have a quid pro quo kind of relationship.
The way Niall and Geoffrey conceive the project, and the way Andy ultimately stages it, Prospero and Ariel are in love.
During the whole brainstorming phase, because Andy needs to be distracted from some painful stuff happening in his life, he and Victor conceive of a much larger project. They start combing through Shakespeare’s plays for other lines, or other character relationships, that can be viewed from the side. The Tempest photos will be part of it when it’s finished.
Below are some of the lines I pulled out, with the characters I imagined in those roles for Andy’s photographs and some notes on the staging.
Mary (one of my dancer characters) as Lady Macduff: ‘The most diminutive of birds, will fight, Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.’ Andy stages this with the Lady armed with a sword, protecting her son from Macbeth’s assassins (she and the boy don’t die in my version of the play).
Loretta (Victor’s co-star) as Viola as Cesario (Twelfth Night): ‘I am not what I am.’ In Shakespeare’s time, Viola would have been played by a boy; it was illegal for women to take the stage. So the twist here is simply that it is a woman playing a woman playing a man.
Dmitri & Patrick (longtime friends of Andy’s) as Kent & Lear;
Kent: ‘My life I never held but as a pawn to wage against thine enemies.’ Lear on the draped throne, seated facing front but with upper body turned toward Kent; gaze on Kent’s face. Kent stands beside throne in profile, leaning in, looking down; their foreheads almost touch.
Lear: ‘Thou serv’st me, and I’ll love thee.’ Both standing; Lear turned to upstage corner; downstage hand on Kent’s shoulder, oblivious; Kent’s heart breaking. This line is addressed to Kent when he has returned to Lear’s court in disguise. Though he’s been in Lear’s service for years, the aged and infirm king does not recognize him. These are both canon lines. It is the staging of the Kent line that goes between, or beneath, to imply why Kent is so fiercely and tenaciously loyal: because of love.
Anya (SHAKEN & STIRRED) as Desdemona with Terry as dead Othello and Ricky as dead Iago: ‘Talk you of killing?’ (wiping her dagger on that effing handkerchief in Victor’s Taxi Driver-inspired staging)
Andy & Victor (EXPOSURE) as Antonio & Bassanio:
Bassanio, ‘my blood speaks to you in my veins’ (this line is addressed to Portia in the ‘The Merchant of Venice’);
Antonio, ‘say how I loved you, speak me fair in death.’ This line is actually addressed to Bassanio in the play; there are others implying a deep bond between the two men. The whole reason Antonio is in danger from Shylock is because he (Antonio) lost a ton of money trying to help Bassanio.
Jonathan (Victor’s co-star in a movie series) & Mike (FACE THE MUSIC) as Caius Coriolanus & Tullus Aufidius: ‘Let me twine mine arms about that body;’ ‘I have nightly since dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me.’ (both lines are spoken by Aufidius to Coriolanus in the play; they have been deadly enemies and will be again, but in the middle: this!)
Dana & Rory (STRIPPED) as Romeo & Tybalt:
Romeo, ‘I do protest, I never injured thee, But love thee better than thou canst devise;’
Tybalt, ‘What wouldst thou have with me?’
Two twists here: both male characters portrayed by women, and enemies speaking intimately of love (and, perhaps, surrender).
Sacha (LOST AND FOUND) as Rosalind: ‘my way is to conjure you.’ Rosalind, like Viola, would have been played by a boy in Shakespeare’s time. Andy’s staging plays on Sacha’s history of [spoilers redacted].
In fanfic there is a thing called a slash pairing, which is when you take two fictional characters who don’t have a romantic (or sexual) relationship and put them together. For example: Prospero and Ariel. Here are the thirteen lines used for ‘A Tempest.’
Prospero: Thy charge exactly is perform’d
Ariel: I come to answer thy best pleasure
Prospero: Be subject to no sight but thine and mine
Ariel: Let me remember thee what thou hast promised
Prospero: What is’t thou canst demand?
Ariel: Remember I have done thee worthy service
Prospero: Hark what thou else shalt do me
Ariel: Thy thoughts I cleave to. What’s your pleasure?
Prospero: (Do you love me?)* Dearly my delicate Ariel
Ariel: What would my potent master? Here I am
Prospero: Our revels now are ended
Ariel: Was’t well done?
Prospero: This rough magic I here abjure
*This is a real line of Ariel’s, immediately preceding the Prospero line given.
In the play, those last two line’s of Prospero’s are not addressed to Ariel. When staged to imply consummation of an affair, and subsequent surrender to the loved one, they resolve the sequence. In ‘The Tempest,’ Prospero is nominally in charge of everything; he orders Ariel to do this or that. But it is Ariel who actually has the greater magical powers. Ariel raises the tempest that causes the shipwreck that brings Prospero’s enemies to the island for retribution. Ariel consents to serve, because Prospero freed him from a different enchantment. The reimagined relationship of these two characters has a direct correlation to the relationship of Niall and Geoffrey in A BRAID OF LOVE. Niall has a history as an actor, and Geoffrey is a writer; put them together with artist/dancer/actor Andy, and something interesting was bound to happen. I have very thoroughly imagined the staging for these lines, from costume and makeup to props. It may get used in the next Andy & Victor novel, you never know.