Challenge #11 - Punk Monkey, Film Noir, and Ride The Pink Horse

Hi folks

Just a reminder, if this prompt doesn’t fit what you’re working on or feel like doing right now, ignore it and write something else to turn in for the deadline instead.

The habit of writing, not the specific content, is the important thing.

Have fun!



Let’s get you that writing prompt…


Challenge #11 - Punk Monkey, Film Noir, and Ride The Pink Horse

Due: Friday, November 12th, 8am
(whenever 8am arrives in your time zone; we’ll do the math here in the Central Time zone, no worries :)

A few years back (everything with theater is a few years back right now, pandemic times), there was this theater with a fun name, Punk Monkey Productions (now sadly on hiatus, again, pandemic):

“Based in the notorious North Hollywood Arts District, Punk Monkey Productions set out to return to the basics of theatre and focus primarily of performance and storytelling, feeling it was more important for the audience to use their imagination without the distraction of elaborate sets and theatrical effects."

and they were calling for scripts in the style of film noir:

"Plays should ideally be 10-20 pages in length and possess the classic noir themes of murder, mystery, deceit, and double-crossing.  We always encourage playwrights to submit pieces with strong female characters, whether ingenue or femme-fatale.  Examples to draw upon include The Maltese Falcon, The Third Man, and Double Indemnity.”

That seemed like a fun idea so I went down a research rabbit hole to peruse a variety of different plots in the genre.  The genre as a whole is so aggressively heterosexual that it seemed like putting a gay twist on it might be an interesting exercise.  And then in a list of noir from Collider, I found a title that absolutely fascinated me - Ride The Pink Horse.

(Which honestly, sounded dirty, until I realized it was a literal pink horse on a carousel to which the title was metaphorically referring.)

But if a gay playwright can’t do something fun with a title like Ride The Pink Horse, he should just put away his laptop.

I pulled up a lot of additional info specifically on the original Ride The Pink Horse (that I won't trouble you with here) as a base to work from, but sadly other deadlines intervened and I didn’t bring the idea to fruition at that time.  It's still in my "to do" file, taunting me.

Still the idea of a mini-noir for the stage seems like something worthy of exploration and experimentation.  So that’s the challenge.  If you’ve already got a favorite film noir to inspire you, great.  If you’re looking for ideas to play with, there’s a number of handy lists online as jumping off points.  These were ones I ran across that I found useful:

from The Guardian

and IndieWire

and The Independent

and  the British Film Institute

and a film buff named Eddie Muller

(just for starters)

Then, like me, if you find an idea or a title that particularly intrigues you, you can go digging for more info.

The internet is full of film nerds.  You’ll see a lot of overlap and agreement between lists, but the places the lists differ and bring up other titles always pique my interest.  Your mileage may vary.

Bonus points if you feel like doing something crazy like taking film noir tropes and running them through the lens of the Bechdel Test or putting them in a science fiction or fantasy context to really switch things up.  Use your imagination to create the kind of stage noir you want.



How to submit your work for Challenge #11

You have options.  They are:

Save your script as a PDF or Word Doc and send as an attachment to an email sent to ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com

OR

Copy and past your script in the body of an email and send it to ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com

OR

Post your script online (as a Google doc, or in a blog post, on your own personal website, etc.) - email a link to this script to ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com
(If you’re going to Google doc route, just make sure to have the document public, or give permissions to our email address to open it)

When emailing us, make the subject line of your email - Challenge #11
(That just helps us sort through the email more quickly)
(Or, you know, just reply to this email if you want :)

OR

Post the link for the online document option above in the comments section on this very blog post for this challenge on our writing challenge blog.



Again, this is: Due: Friday, November 12th, 8am
(whenever 8am arrives in your time zone; we’ll do the math here in the Central Time zone, no worries :)

And, just to reassure you, no, we are not going to be sticklers about you following these directions down to the minutest detail - the important thing is that you write, and then that you share it with us, so we can keep track of who’s writing every day.

We will be VERY understanding about technical difficulties and how they can screw up making the deadline on the first few days.  No need to fret about anything except the writing (and hopefully that’s not something causing you to fret too much either :)

Also, no, there is no penalty for finishing and submitting early - but it also isn’t a race, so give yourself all the time up til 8am on Friday to write if you need it.  When you’re done, you’re done.

A friendly reminder - you don’t have to write to the prompts if they don’t inspire you.  You can ignore them and just write whatever you want, just as long as you’re writing (that’s the main thing, not what you write)

Someone had a good question about the overall goal of the month, are we supposed to write a full-length play, or two one-act plays, etc.?  The short answer is no (unless you want to).  The longer answer is here if you’re curious.

For those concerned about format, we’re pretty liberal about that, too - just as long as it’s legible and in English.  More on that here.

Again, remember, it doesn’t need to be great, it doesn’t even need to be responding to this prompt (the prompt is just there so you’re not staring at a blank screen to start with no idea what to write about :)

Doesn't even need to be complete - you could have the beginning or the middle or the end of an idea, maybe two out of three but not all, that's still fine. This is all about getting things started, you can write more later. You have 19 more days to build on whatever you come up with today, if you want. Just get anything on the page, even if won't make sense to anyone else, as long as it make sense to you.

It just needs to be something.

And that something can be:

Lights up.

A man in a trench coat and fedora.  A woman with a cigarette.  A shot rings out.

Lights down.

The End

That’s always your escape hatch, every day.

That’s your base line.

Build on it.

Have fun.

Don’t stress.

Make an impulsive decision and run with it.

Breathe.

You’ve got the day (and a half).

Just write.