Dear Candice - I have a story prompted by your 'booby' allusion.
A few years ago I was in Singapore as a guest at their Writers' Week - with
others from around the world: Jon Silkin, Ian Wedde, Lee Young-Lee, Jan
Kemp, and poets form China, Sarawak, and other regions. Each day we were
picked up and taken on a tour of various schools; each day we had a
different partner. One day I was teamed with a local playwright, a pregnant
lady who spoke very fine English with a sweet accent. With Singapore's
strict censorship laws, playwrights have it hard up there, and she told the
first two schools the story of an American play they would never see
because of its content. This was a political act on her behalf, because it
really taught the kids nothing about playwriting.
The play was about a young ballerina who was in a relationship with a
gangster who used to beat her up. She would cover her face to save it being
bruised and scarred so she could keep dancing ballet. The inevitable
happened. The next scene started with a spruiker coming out in a strip
club, and saying to his audience, "Our next dancer is a little shy ...
She'll only show you her face or her body - Do you want the face or the
body? The face or the body?" This was as risque as the playwright dared go.
As we drove towards our next appointment, it was my habit to ask the driver
what the next school was like, as they grade their schools by intelligence,
not by district. This time he said it was the top 1% of the nation's youth,
the smartest young people on the island. The playwright smiled broadly and
said: "Ah, now I can use _real_ language." Wow, I wondered, what will she
say ...
She went through her spiel, built the play's plot up nicely, and came to
the spruiker's lines ... "And then he asked them, Do you want the face or
the boobies? The face or the boobies?"
Ah, it was very funny, and I had to hide my face in my hands until I
stopping smiling.
Does anybody else have funny 'touring' stories?
I'm working on my Soreros poem ...
Andrew
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Andrew Burke Copywriting
[log in to unmask] Creative Writing
http://www.bam.com.au/andrew/ Editing
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