Find The Beginning
- dhalberstein
- Feb 6
- 2 min read
"Find the Beginning," my first imperfect lyric video of both After Every Dream
and the included play-within-the-play, "The O.G. and the Aegean."
I should warn sensitive viewers that I had a field day with pointless effects, and that the above video might lead to a good old-fashioned seizure.
I began fiddling with this format after the last Song Salon (mentioned here), in which I noticed that many of the other songwriters were including lyric videos.
That leads me to the next show development: Beginning later in February, we welcome composer Sean Breen, another Song Salon vet, to our roster. (I'll change the website once we complete a song together!)
Now for the word stuff...
Rewrites continue. This show balances related stories, including Ryder's relationship to Cally, and to make it feel human, these two need some humanizing.
The trouble is that they exist in a hall of mirrors of character similarities.
So, we have a very flesh-and-blood tick-tock to establish for Ryder and Cally. Then we have thematic doubles among warring cast-members, then we have another dynamic involving their characters within "The O.G. and the Aegean."
Themes abound -- home, "replacement," entitlement, grievance, jealousy, rebellion, etc., etc., etc. But as you make the characters and themes feel lived in, new issues pop up.
Another spot of bother is that Ryder, the protagonist, is not a hero. He's just the first character we follow and the one to whom we return.
(If you like words, check out that etymology link. There's a fascinating difference between the Greek protos, or "first," and the Latin pro-, as in "pros and cons." The would-be Latin etymology caused the coining of the word "antagonist.")
Etymology aside, even if Ryder's not a standard-issue good guy, we have to care what happens to him. The agon continues.
Ultimately, we won't know whether people will like Ryder until this thing is in front of an audience later this year. There's a fine line between a protagonist that you suffer with, and one that you suffer through.
If all this makes your brain hurt, it positively scrambles mine. So, this week, I finally started writing a one-act, "The Condemned." I promise I'll let folks know when I have a draft!
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