{"id":4385,"date":"2015-11-17T18:31:41","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T05:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dfmamea.com\/?p=4385"},"modified":"2016-01-30T22:22:50","modified_gmt":"2016-01-30T09:22:50","slug":"stalk-leaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/stalk-leaf\/","title":{"rendered":"Stalk and Leaf"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m obsessed with\u00a0Jerusalem cherry<\/a>: I’m walking the dogs, I see it, I pull it; I’m dancing\u00a0through the\u00a0Orange Grove<\/strong>, inhaling\u00a0its citrus fragrance when I see a certain leaf shape and I stop and pull it \u2014 you get the idea. And the thing is, there’s so much of it around that if there’s one, there’s usually his friends nearby (and those friends\u00a0have\u00a0their friends\u00a0<\/em>nearby, if you knowhumsayin).<\/p>\n

So there’s the shape recognition thing going on (I can pick it out from a carpet of green \u2014 and I’m talking the non-fruiting plant), and there’s the method of pulling it out (grab it as low as possible to the ground for maximum effect). This weed\u00a0is an\u00a0hardy little bastard where if just the stalk is removed,\u00a0the root will continue to grow<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I’ve come across pockets \u2014 goddamned\u00a0handbags<\/em>, more like it \u2014 where careful pulling on a tiny stalk and leaf reveals a substantial root.<\/p>\n

\"This
The enemy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Great characterisation does that, too: a mild-mannered wall-flower of a reporter is also a Son of Krypton with powers beyond imagining; a traumatised warrant officer\u00a0returns to the planet she warned everyone about\u00a0is also a natural leader, a resourceful fighter and mother; a taciturn consultant who joins a special task force\u00a0steals the film right out from under the named lead\u2026 and so forth.<\/p>\n

I’ve got a one-person theatre project where\u00a0I’ve got all the first impressions down pat: funny, opinionated, long suffering, and compassionate. But I’m having some difficulty getting across the character’s\u00a0history without turning the piece into a long recitation of who-done-wrong, how-I-got-here, and variations on My-Cat-Blackie.<\/p>\n

I’ve got the stalk and the leaf to tempt the audience with. I just have to come up with the root.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m obsessed with\u00a0Jerusalem cherry: I’m walking the dogs, I see it, I pull it; I’m dancing\u00a0through the\u00a0Orange Grove, inhaling\u00a0its citrus fragrance when I see a certain leaf shape and I stop and pull it \u2014 you get the idea. And the thing is, there’s so much of it around that if there’s one, there’s usually … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Stalk and Leaf”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[241],"class_list":["post-4385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scriptwriting","tag-character"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4385"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4408,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4385\/revisions\/4408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}