----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Burke" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2000 11:27 PM
Subject: Re: SoEros on tour
> 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
>
> ----------------------------------------
> Andrew Burke Copywriting
> [log in to unmask] Creative Writing
> http://www.bam.com.au/andrew/ Editing
> ----------------------------------------
>
>
>
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