Eve (Episode 24) Transcript

The audio version of this podcast aired on October 1, 2020, and can be found here.

Hannah: In the Australian Alps, a group of dead CIA operatives become the victims in one of a series of brutal shark attacks. 

Jennie: Somebody write this.

Hannah: Hi, and welcome to somebody write this where we use a random plot generator to give us an idea. And then we brainstorm how that could be a thing somebody might want to write. I'm Hannah.

Jennie: And I'm Jennie. And to help us with our brainstorming today, we have a guest. Let's welcome Joelle Shenk.

Joelle: Hey, how's it going?

Hannah: It's good. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast, we're gonna start and just talk a little bit about-- about you as a storyteller, you and I met in a-- in a drama group that wrote all their own material. And now you've moved on to be a theater teacher who writes a lot of her own material. Let's just start off with what do you like about writing your own material for the stage, especially maybe to perform with kids?

Joelle: Sure, well, thank you for having me, I would say the thing that I just really enjoy about writing my own material is that I can tweak it to the students that I'm working with. So if they have a special, I don't know, it's weird to say ability. But if they're super interested in something, then I can implement that into the material. And that gets them a little bit more hyped even to learn the material that we're putting on in their production. And I also enjoy writing for various age groups, but writing new material because I can insert whatever moral of the story I think is relevant at that time. And I can also do it for as many kids as I need to for, you know, from three to a hundred. So.

Hannah: what makes you decide that you're going to write something versus find a script that's already out there?

Joelle: Normally, it is the amount of children that I have in the class for production. There's a lot of scripts out there that may call for a large cast, but they're not necessarily even keeled in the amount of stage time. So if I'm teaching a class, rather than an auditioned production, then in that class, I want everybody to have their ample time on stage. So writing my own material allows me to make sure that everybody is putting their technique to use and not just for like three lines in an hour production.

Hannah: Talk to me a little bit about where-- I know, this is the big question. But where do your ideas for the for these typically come from?

Joelle: Well, a lot of them have actually come from conversations with children. A child will say even sometimes during class or during rehearsals, they'll say, "you know what would be really cool is writing the show about this." A couple of our productions have been birthed from an actual mini script that a child has handed me, they say, "I wrote this story for you." And I take it and then I-- I'll, you know, message their parents later and ask to if I can use this idea. And then I'll tweak it and go from there. And we turn it into a full fledged production. 

Jennie: That's really awesome.

Joelle: Thank you.

Hannah: Is it for you sitting down and writing it out? Do you involve the kids in improvising scenes? What is-- what does this look like from conception to rehearsal?

Joelle: Generally, I write it out, I get the entire skeleton. And I do have some co-writers that come in as well. And so we brainstorm. And we think about, you know, how many children of course we have within the production, but we go back and forth a bit. And then once it's written, I do give the children during rehearsal, opportunity to give their input and many times and this has taught me to kind of give them a little bit of leeway. Many times they'll come up with lines that are a lot funnier than what I would have said. And so while I'm teaching them, you know, they're blocking and things. If they say something naturally, that comes about, that's a teaching opportunity. So I'll actually stop the entire class and let everybody know, this was an organic moment. This was something that happened, and we're going to keep it in the show. And it's a really-- it's a really cool process to watch happen.

Hannah: So most of your devised work has come out of needing to have a more evenly spread larger casts. Are there other things that you found are missing? Gaps that are-- that you feel like you can fill by writing something yourself rather than pulling from published scripts.

Joelle: I think for me in researching material online when I'm trying to find a play is to find material appropriate for the age that I am working with. A lot of times, say, I'm looking for an intermediate style script that is more middle school age. There's either very kind of campy scripts to go from, or there are very pushing the envelope type of scripts. And it seems to be that there's one extreme to the other. So I have to look at the kids that I have maturity level and things like that. And when I'm looking for a script, sometimes I find that there's this gap of appropriate material, because you might find something that has great lessons in the beginning or something like that, but then they start to dig really deep. And there's nothing wrong with that. But if that's not quite where your kids are, then you can't use it, you know, and it also has to do with the type of audience that you're trying to reach as well.

Hannah: Thank you for sharing a little bit about that, that process. I think it's gonna be interesting to jump on into our brainstorming here, which let's go through that. As a reminder, our synopsis is in the Australian Alps, a group of dead CIA operatives, become the victims in one of a series of brutal shark attacks. I did not realize until rereading this at the beginning of the episode that the CIA operatives are already dead.

Joelle: I wrote it down and I underlined dead and I was like, what is happening?

Hannah: I was still stuck on the sharks in the Alps.

Jennie: This is the Australian Alps. Yes. And if there were any Alps in the world that might have land sharks, it would be in Australia.

Hannah: So they're already dead. Does that mean they're the victims in some other way? Are the sharks not killing people? Are they dismembering them? Are they-- 

Joelle: Are they-- they come back to life on-- for only momentarily? 

Hannah: Are they-- are the sharks reanimating them?

Jennie: Yeah, this is obviously zombies, versus, you know, anthropomorphic sharks.

Joelle: The Alps have some sort of special healing qualities, and they were there for and that's when they went there and they were already dead. But the sharks were like, this is that moment. I'm dead dead.

Hannah: I'm fascinated by the idea that becoming the victim in this sense is not death, but is bringing back to life. The Sharks are brutally reanimating people in the Australian Alps. How long have the sharks been there? Has this been a thing that they've been doing? Were the CIA operatives there to find out what was going on with the zombies and then they-- they died and became them?

Joelle: I think that it's ancestral. I think that the sharks, maybe they are part of this for many, many, many, many years. And the CIA agents were sent there because of this. There's a lore so to speak. Is it not real? Gosh, golly, it is.

Hannah: So the sharks, they're-- they're following the sharks. Why is the CIA involved?

Jennie: Because the CIA is involved everywhere. Come on, Hannah.

Hannah: Well, I'm trying to think, is there an American interest in this?

Joelle: Maybe the CIA is not the CIA as we know it. Central Intelligence Agency, maybe it stands for Cutting Into A tax.

Hannah: It could be a different CIA. The A in there might be Australia itself. Okay, so the sharks are reanimating to the CIA operatives--

Jennie: Corpse Investigation of Australia. 

Joelle: They're like, they're like Captain America, if you will, how they regenerate him into something. They're like, super soldiers. They volunteered for this operative. 

Hannah: Are the operatives the point of view we're hearing? Is this them telling the story after they've died and been brought back to life? One of them? 

Jennie: I'm just wondering if the technology that the sharks are using to reanimate humans is that the technology that made the sharks this way in the first place? was somebody experimenting on sharks and now they're like now we're gonna experiment back on the humans?

Hannah: I mean, that even could get the original-- the CIA as we know it back involved if maybe during a--

Joelle: During a parallel dialogue would be very interesting for a story where you're-- you're hearing it from the dead CIA operative, but then you're also hearing it from these sharks. So you almost have an empathy for them. Is this a drama or a comedy?

Jennie: It's a dramedy. Well, no, I love the idea of of a story where you don't know who the bad guy is.

  

Joelle: Because if the sharks are dealing with this from somebody's creation-- 

Jennie: it's very Frankenstein, you know, the monster going I have been created what am I for? 

Joelle: Exactly.

Hannah: I was thinking specifically like-- like Bride of Frankenstein stuff with the monster's like I've been created. Now I need something else like me because I'm trying to figure out the shark motivation. Why are the sharks doing this? Is it to understand more about what made them this way? Is it because they want friends?

 

Joelle: I think that there is, Oh, goodness these-- I'm feeling toward the shark side right now. I feel for them 

Jennie: This poor mutated shark men? 

Joelle: Yes, they've been set in this circumstance. And now they're being almost invaded to figure out why they're like this or are they still like this or, you know, the CIA operatives are showing up and maybe they're unannounced. Maybe they're uninvited obviously.

Jennie: Maybe these mutated sharks were just peacefully living in the Australian Alps. 

  

Joelle: They're like, chill, we had this thing happened to us. And we've learned to adapt and be our-- our shark selves. And all of a sudden the CIA agents show up and they're like, we want to do tests. And they're like, rawr, no, and then that's where-- that's where it takes place.

  

Hannah: So yeah, so if the CIA shows up and threatens the existence of the sharks, the CIA die, possibly in confrontation with the shark men. What is the purpose in bringing them back? Is it to send a message back? Is it to to learn something about themselves?

  

Jennie: Do they wake up with like, it's not just bringing them back to life as humans, but like, do they wake up with fish parts? And the sharks are like, see how you like it? 

  

Joelle: No, yeah. You know, it'd be cool if the sharks-- Well, no, sharks aren't supposed to be in the Alps. So if they have this thing happened to them way back when maybe we have discovered they're like, okay, well see how it feels sucker. You know, like--

  

Jennie: You're now a mermaid. Enjoy. 

Joelle: You were dead and now you're alive. Now you're dead again. How does it feel? What now?

Hannah: Do the CIA operatives bring with them-- This is what I was trying to get out. Do they bring with them the serum or the whatever that made this happen in the first place? And so the sharks are testing it on them to see if they can-- if they can turn themselves back? Like maybe that's why they haven't done anything yet. Because up until this point, because they've A. been peaceful and B. don't know how this happened, or how they got this way, or how to fix it. And now somebody comes along with a solution.

Joelle: Yeah, we're actually talking the Sharks versus Jets. I definitely think that the CIA operatives have brought something with them. And I don't-- I think that it's new. And I think that the sharks are very apprehensive and upset. And that's kind of why they're attacking and doing this back and forth with the CIA agents, because that's-- maybe that's what put them in this situation in the first place. Because they had maybe a agent say, "This is amazing. You should try this thing that we've created", and they tried it, and that's what put them in this situation. And they're just like, "No more. We're putting our fin down."

Hannah: How long have they been shark men? Are we talking generations? Are we saying this happened? Like in the 1920s? They raised a group of shark children?

Jennie: It's possible.

Joelle: Or they just-- they're undead. So they're like, They can't die. Is that it? You know what I mean? Like they maybe they've been around for 300 years, but they're the same. 

Jennie: Oh, that's so sad. 

Joelle: I know that's why I'm feeling for the sharks.

Hannah: Okay, so we have hit the point where we're going to reveal our randomly generated title, which may help or hurt us. It's kind of neutral. Our title is Eve, which obviously has metaphorical implications.

Joelle: What is it? 

Hannah: Eve. E-V-E.

Jennie: Oh, of course the Sharks have a matriarchal society.

Hannah: Yeah. So we've obviously got like this possible biblical literary illusion going on here. Where there's, you know, maybe the shark society, there's some sense in which there's a paradise involved. And or the first-- the first of their kind.

Jennie: Okay, okay, here's-- here's an interesting idea. Here's an interesting idea. What if the existence of the shark people proves that humans were not the only ones in charge in the Garden of Eden? So like, what if so-- like-- like the humans got the land and the sharks got the water or whatever, or the sharks had to adapt to the water because of what happened. And that's why sharks are just animals for us these days. Except for these few in Australia, because of course, Australia has all the weird animals in the world, right? And so what if-- what if the Australian Alps are the scene of the original Garden of Eden, and like this, these few sharks are somehow still surviving. 

Joelle: Oh my gosh, there's so much you could go with that.

Hannah: I'm wondering if there's like a-- like a rebirth, a recreation kind of aspect that we can go with where these people are being, you know, mutated into sharks. Maybe-- maybe there is one of the dead CIA operatives who becomes sort of the central character along with the the sharks in who are doing this who becomes like the new Eve. Maybe like they only had male sharks or something. And one of them there's a CIA operative woman who becomes the new Eve or something.

Jennie: Okay. Okay, I know where the the the zombification process comes in. So if you go back to Victorian era literature, you have all our classic monsters, you have Frankenstein, and all that kind of stuff. And so what if the zombification technology was done way back then, in an attempt-- Like, you know, one of the naturalists back then discovered the shark community, and was like, "Oh, I know this technology that will help you guys live longer and be more human, so you can fit in with the rest of the world finally." And so that's how the sharks got the technology. But it didn't quite work how they thought now they're stuck as undead.

Joelle: In the Alps.

Jennie: In the Alps, right. They use to be quietly living there and actually progressing and having generations or whatever, but they've been stuck the last few hundred years, because this technology messed all of them up, and now they are just undead. And so now they're like, "Boo humans, because they, you know, they ruined us. 

Joelle: Yeah. So they're basically saying you ruined us. But we figured out how to live with ourselves. Leave us alone. 

Jennie: Yeah, how does that feel?

Hannah: Yeah, and playing around with it, now they're turning other people into them, or trying to bring them all--

  

Jennie: Because that's the only way they can reproduce. That's the only way they can they can extend their species is by turning humans into shark people. Instead of the onther way around that was promised.

Joelle: Yeah, now I feel for the humans.

Hannah: That's-- that's what a good story is gonna do, it's gonna bring it back and forth between the two of them. So yeah, there's, it's-- it's the sharks trying to do this. And you could even play with that, in-- in whose point of view you get in the story, whether you, you know, switch partway through, whereas our alternate sections, or--

 

Jennie: I love the alternating idea, because, you know, different recounts of of history and mythology, like the sharks would have their own mythologies and their own scripture of the-- of the creation of the world. And--

Joelle: And so it would definitely be the same story, but different points of view, therefore, completely different, you know?

Jennie: So it'd be a challenge to write with basically an alternate history of the entire world.

Hannah: My final question, as we're--- as we're looking at this is, our sympathies have moved from shark to human to shark to human. Is the ultimate goal for any of them some sort of reconciliation, Land Shark human option? Is there-- is it like, I don't know, like--

Jennie: I think the sharks, considering what has happened to them, they'd want to try and find a way to be alive, again. To be able to live and reproduce, and age, whatever that means. I think that would be their ultimate goal, because who wants to be undead stuck in the Australian Alps? 

Hannah: Not on my bucket list. 

Jennie: The CIA, I mean, who knows? It's the CIA. They just-- they just want the technology.

Joelle: And-- and I also feel like, this maybe is a new thing that these CIA people are headed to the Alps. It's a newly discovered, Oh, my gosh, the shark people are still there. Because this is a new discovery and that's why they've sent them there. Maybe the CIA kind of revisiting why it's not-- it doesn't mean what we think of CIA. But, CIA, they're sent there because they are dead. And this is a way to continue living.

Jennie: Oh, instead of Corpse Investigation, this is Corpse Investigators of Australia.

Joelle: But the shark people are like, this is no way to live. Like why would you-- you know, they go there they would be like, make us undead because they're dead. But they have this time frame that they have to turn into something. And some do, and that would be interesting.

Jennie: Or maybe it's just live-- live CIA, but like, they have dead ones. Like, let's bring, I don't know, Walt Disney back to life or something. Like important people from history that they you know.

Joelle: The lack of people, yeah. 

Jennie: Add some fish parts and bring them back to life and because we need these people. The fate of the world is important. 

Joelle: Yeah, but the shark people are like, this is no way to live.

  

Hannah: We are right about it time to close things out. This has gone a very philosophical direction, which I did not anticipate from this overtly goofy, initial thing, but that's what I love about this. That we take something like, this sounds delicious. And now I'm kind of like, you know, this is all these questions about what makes life worth living and to propagate your society.

Joelle: This is going to be in that section of the bookstore where people go and contemplate deeper meanings.

  

Hannah: Alright, listeners, we are turning this over to you. I am intrigued by this. We would love, love, love to have something written about this. If you do, please send it to us. We'll talk about it on the podcast and share whatever you want to cuz this is really fascinating. All right, before we close things out, we are going to, as always each take a second to shout out a story that we think our listeners should check out. I just finished reading the book of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, I've seen the movie, it's one of my favorites. And I really enjoyed the book as well, it's a different angle on it. One of the things that I love about the movie is that it does actually this kind of thing where it plays a little bit with your sense of villain and hero and the villain in all this seems slightly reasonable. And so really playing with that. And I find that, that that's really fascinating to watch in the film. And the book is a little bit more straightforward, but does a really really good job of giving me again, yet another angle to see the story through, which was really interesting. So I definitely highly recommend it. I really enjoyed it. Jennie, I'm going to toss it over to you. What do you want to recommend this week? 

Jennie: Alright. This time, I want to recommend a show that is currently on Netflix, it is called Grand Hotel. It's about this hotel in Spain and the family that owns and operates it around the turn of the century or earlier. The best way to talk about it is to say it's like Downton Abbey, except set in Spain, and there's more murder. And I am obsessed. The intrigues, the plans gone awry. The mistakes and the lies and like see one person scheming. And then they put their scheme together and then somebody else's scheme gets in the way, and you're like, Oh, no, it's not gonna work, and so and so's in trouble. And the characters are well rounded, and you feel for them. And most of them, even though you kind of despise them, you still kind of hope they do well. And so it's like a really, really well crafted show. And I'm not done with it yet. I'm in the middle of season three, and I got to finish but it's absolutely fabulous. And somebody else needs to watch it so I can talk about it with them.

  

Hannah: Alright, Joelle, what is the story that you think our listeners should check out? Old favorite, new favorite, whatever you want.

  

Joelle: Okay, so one of the things that I do is children's storytimes. So when I recommend books, most of the time, they are like, children's picture books. 

Jennie: Those are some of the best books in the world. 

Joelle: They are, I believe that everyone should check this book out. It's called Again! And it's by Emily Gravett. And hopefully I'm not pronouncing that incorrectly, but it's about a little dragon that wants it's mom to read a storybook. And so within the book, a nighttime story. And so within the book, you hear the mom read the story, a section of the story, and then at the end, the child keeps saying the baby dragon is like, "Again! Again!" What I love about the book, though, is that it challenges the reader when you're reading out loud, to create a different type of story with each time she reads and in which time that she reads it, it already is tweaked a little bit in the way of the inflection that the writer actually writes it in. But it challenges you to do just what the title says read it again, but in an interesting way. And so I love reading this book out loud to children. I've read it online to audiences, I've read it in person. So much fun. And I think that everybody should challenge themselves to read this book. It's great. 

Hannah: I love that. I'm gonna have to check that out. All right, before we head on off, Joel, is there anything that you would like to share our plug for yourself? There doesn't need to be, but if you want to plug a current project, your website or anything you want to share you totally can.

  

Joelle: Thank you so much. Well, first of all, this was a blast. So thank you both for having me. Thank you. There's not really anything that I want to plug right now. But I just want everybody to be encouraged that, just like with what we did right now, you can still create we can still create heart and that I know Hannah, you've heard this phrase so many times but if you have an imagination, then don't be afraid to use it. It's so true. And you can gain inspiration from anywhere. So everybody keep on keeping on. 

Jennie: Amen.

Hannah: Absolutely. Agree with all of that. Alright folks, that is our episode and as a reminder, you can find us every other Thursday wherever you get your podcasts.

Jennie: Follow us on Twitter @writethispod and if you've been inspired by this episode and have questions or comments or an illustration of an Australian shark person, email us at somebodywritethis@gmail.com we'd love to hear from you.

  

Hannah: We'll be back with another episode in two weeks we'll see event

Jennie: And as they say, from children expect childish acts.