I’ve been asked to write a ten minute play somehow concerning the upcoming election and so far I’m totally constipated about it. Usually when I get asked to write a short play, it goes something like:

THEATER PERSON: Hey Bekah, how’s it going?

ME: Going swell!

THEATER PERSON: Could you maybe write a ten minute play for this / festival?

ME: YEP just did it. Boom.

THEATER PERSON: ….Wait, what?

ME:…kaBLAM.

I LOVE writing short plays and love any good excuse to write them so I tend to make them pretty quickly. But with this prompt, I’m completely befuddled. There are SO MANY WAYS to approach a play about the election. I can’t yet figure out how I exist emotionally inside of all of it and I don’t want to just write something one sided or silly.  To be honest, I feel a bit outside of everyone’s angry facebook posts. Growing up with a Dad in politics, I literally can remember myself saying, I stay out of politics. My Dad’s a politician, so I stay out of all of that. What a twisted and terrible cop out. I’m ashamed. That’s apathy disguised as some rational choice. Sure, even my own Dad the politician claims to ‘stay out of politics’ but he’s moreso referring to staying out of the ridiculous and more ridiculous drama of it all. But still, he knows what he believes and stands firm. I guess that’s what I’m in the process of doing: shutting out the world a bit and trying to figure what’s really important to me when it comes to candidates. Therein perhaps lies the play. If not, Ann Romney  could always Walk into a Bar.