September's Posts
Autobiography
Hello! My name is Roux, and my Signature project this year to is write a play based on the original legend 'Faust' and the subsequent works of Christopher Marlowe and Wolfgang von Goethe, titled 'One Soul, Paid in Fulfillment'!
​
A quick summary of my background and how I got here: I've been into writing stories pretty much since as soon as I knew how to do it. Throughout elementary and middle school you could often find me writing poems, or a new part to a story about a world entirely full of cats that sometimes battled Godzilla, or ghosts, or both at once. When I wasn't doing this, I would make up fantastical tales that seemed just real enough the be believable, but still absurd enough to capture the interest of my peers. And yes, I did tell these stories to get friends. It kind of worked. And this isn't even to mention the amount of reading I did then too.
​
But alas this all changed in freshman year of high school, when I was suddenly having to pay attention to my classes and keep up with more challenging material. My habit of reading before bed vanished, and other than essays for classes, I was writing nothing. Add on top of that a pandemic and quarantine that damaged my mental health, plus ADHD that makes it nearly impossible to think in a straight line let alone write or speak a coherent sentence, and you have the makings for a writer that has all the love and ideas for stories but a significant roadblock in getting it out there into the world. And I think it's funny that as I write this I'm noticing it's the first time I've been able to write in a focused stream of consciousness for a VERY long time.
​
But, I want this all to change, and more than that I don't want my stuff to be left on a page, I want to actually see it. I want others to see it. Which is why, drumroll please, I've decided to make my Signature project in the form of a play!
​
Why Faust? To be honest, the majority of my reasoning has been the fact that I'm still thinking about the idea to reimagine 'Faust', a play long retired since the 1700s, three years after I first thought of it in freshman year. I originally had stumbled across playwright Christopher Marlowe's 'Faust' after watching a video from the YouTube channel Game Theory about the game Hello Neighbor, in which the host hypothesizes that the main character made a deal with the Devil a la the original, first of it's kind, bargain made by Doctor Faustus in a German legend from the late 1400s. I was interested in reading the legend for myself, so I found and read through Marlowe's 'The Tragicall History of Doctor Faustus', and immediately fell in love with the characters. And not just that, but I loved how they fell in love with each other in a way. The play is contextually very interesting for a number of reasons, but for me one of the main draws is that it is very possible to read it through a queer lens, of which may or may not have been Marlowe's intention (a significant amount of historians agree that he was probably gay).
​
The basic plot of the legend, because I realize I've written this in a very roundabout way, is as follows: Johann Georg Faust is (in a simplest explanation of his character) a scholar from Wittenberg who is highly accomplished but dissatisfied with life, so he makes a deal with the Devil via a messenger demon named Mephistopheles to exchange his soul for 24 years of Mephistopheles' service -- and in turn all the worldly pleasures magic can get him. Marlowe's and Goethe's versions add their own extra flair; Marlowe's include an assassination attempt against a shallow Faust, complete with a revengeful character arc, while Goethe's includes a more burnt out and humanly relatable Faust, along with a pious and lovestruck Gretchen as his love interest (despite the fact they're at least 20 years apart in age). Both versions, however, have a Helen of Troy cameo for some unknown reason, which I enjoy but have no clue if it'll make the final cut.
​
​
I have a few goals for this play, and one of them is significantly harder than the rest: to combine Marlowe's and Goethe's 'Faust's into a coherent narrative, to explore the dynamic between Mephistopheles and Faust, and to leave the audience not with the dread that they're cosmically unimportant, but that because we as humans are inconsequential, it's up to us to find meaning in our lives. And this is as much a reflection of the audience as of me; I'm just the one that happens to be telling the story.
And I think this pretty much brings you up to speed on, well, everything.
Timeline
Below is a general outline of milestones I hope to hit, and when I want to hit them:
​
October: Get all of the pre-planning done; this includes a basic plot outline, a list of characters, and brief character sheets for the main characters. During this time I also want to edit what I already have written for the very beginning of Act 1.
​
November: Write all of Act 1, have an extra meeting with a liaison* to look at it, begin writing Act 2 if there's time.
​
December: Same process as November; write all of Act 2, have a meeting with my liaison, begin writing Act 3 if there's time.
​
January: Write Act 3 which ends in the main climax, have another meeting with my liaison, and step back and see what loose ends there are in the plot and spend time evaluating character arcs.
February: Minorly adjust first 3 Acts as necessary or plan for alterations to the next 2 Acts, and write the first half of Act 4.
March: Write second half of Act 4, meet with liaison, reevaluate any loose ends, and begin writing Act 5.
April: Finish writing Act 5, meet with liaison, then start (and hopefully finish) editing.
​
*Liaison meetings will be happening more than just the ones mentioned, these are just the ones I definitely need to have.
October's Posts
Poster
This is my finalized poster for this project, and I'll be honest I had a lot of fun making it! And because I have the time to do so, let me explain why I chose some of the images you see on there!
​
The scroll and hand holding a quill are also symbolic, but a lot more directly; they simply represent the infamous contract in which Faust sells his soul to Lucifer. On another note, the little images of two demons around a campfire or chasing a rabbit bring me so much joy, and although it was tricky at first figuring out where they fit best, I'm really happy with where they ended up!
One of the things I chose, totally not because I needed to fill a weird empty vertical space, was the set of planets between my picture and the key product box. As I think about the work I intend to produce, it's becoming clear that astronomy is consistent theme; not only is it a subject Faust has expertise in, but he also quizzes Mephistopheles about the "spheres of Heaven", and in Marlowe's play says "Had I as many souls as there be stars, I'd give them all for Mephistopheles." These references, as well as countless others, felt too important to not make it into the poster.
Thoughts Going Into Act 1
Due to an error I made in remembering what I had to do for this month, I’m slightly ahead of schedule in terms of the writing and planning, which is great news!
​
Over the long weekend I wrote -- well, rewrote -- the prologue to a play I started almost exactly three years ago, and as I traced my steps (and continue to do so) I started to remember all the questions and ideas I had at the beginning of the process. What characters will I have? Is a king a good replacement for the Pope? What place and time period should the play be set in? How about 1920s America (yes, a real thing I thought was good)? With a new setting in tow and a deeper sense of what I want the tone of each scene to be however, I got through writing the prologue with relative ease, and I now have plans in progress (insert evil cackle here) for the Manager, Poet, and Clown.
​
But it’s going into this first Act where I’m finding myself running into trouble, because it feels like I’m trying to precariously balance an immense weight for Faust to carry right off the bat, while making sure it doesn’t fall back on myself or worst of all, crush the audience. But that’s a very vague statement, so let me tell you what’s actually happening at this moment in the play, right when we meet the main character.
​
TW for the rest of this post - suicide/suicidal thoughts and feelings of isolation
​
As of now, I want the audience to first find Faust as an accomplished scholar, alone in his study in Wurttemberg, on the outskirts of the Black Forest. He paces from bookshelf to bookshelf, picking up his awards and honors, scorning each in turn and trying reckon with the fact that despite all of his achievements and the reverence he receives from the townspeople for supplying aid to those in need, he feels he’s reached the highest rung on the ladder and can go no higher, nor find any happiness in what he does. He is from three sides utterly consumed by work -- the medicine, cures, and household remedies he supplies to the town, the symposiums he must attend and the important people he needs to meet with to keep his reputation, and the tutelage he provides in philosophy and astronomy -- and it results in him having a crisis of identity because he’s given almost all of himself away to others. This in turn causes a cycle of guilt, which is added to when Wagner, a servant (or possibly pupil, I haven’t quite decided yet), enters and delivers Faust a letter from his sister Gretchen, who lives on the other side of town. The letter tells him of her money troubles -- she’s in serious debt -- and that becomes the final drop into the pool of helplessness he finds himself trapped in. For a moment, seeing no other option, he curses God for his intellect and resolves himself that he will take his own life and finally be free from the feeling of guilt and his duty to his town and peers. But before he drinks a bottle of poison on his shelf, he, in the words of a podcast I listen to, realizes that although the choices presented to him are to turn right or left, to choose between life or death, someone had to make the roads in the first place. And with that, he puts down the bottle and opens a book of divinity to summon a demon to be a servant to him, thus choosing to move forward and in the process defying what is expected of him by both the audience and the society he lives in.
​
And despite how worried I am that I might get this wrong and this inner, soon to be external, dialogue Faust has will come across as shallow and rushed, I don’t think I could’ve written what I’m trying to write now three years ago. Three years ago, I didn’t have the experience of over a year of isolation and trying to find self worth in the face of creative burnout brought on by COVID-19, or the knowledge of just how deep the well of grief can go after you almost lose all of your friends to suicide, and then have to seemingly lose them all again in the face of a pandemic. I am perfectly comfortable saying that three years ago, I was not emotionally mature enough to write a meaningful portrayal of Faust and where we meet him at in the beginning, and how he changes over the course of the play. And I’m positive there’s more experiences to come that would give this play an even deeper connection to the audience, but not only have I run out of time to wait for them, I’m tired of waiting, and I feel well equipped enough to start.
​
Long story short, am I projecting onto these characters? Almost definitely. Am I trying to do it in a hyper-aware way that adds to them while also translating some of my own feelings and complexities? Also very much yes. But most of all my main goal for the first Act is to convincingly depict Faust’s inner turmoil in a moment where he’s at his most desperate, and balance with it his (and some of my) own justifications for his actions.
​
We’ll see how this goes.
November's Posts
Annotated Bibliography
1. Goethe, J. W. Von. (1806). Faust. Project Gutenberg (EBook #14591).
Published in 1806, this is Part One of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe’s Faust, which starts with the scholar Dr. Faustus making a deal with Lucifer in return for a lifetime of the devil Mephistopheles’ service, and ends in a bit of an emotional cliffhanger with Marguerite’s (Gretchen’s) death. This, along with some of Part Two, is what I’m drawing inspiration from, together with Christopher Marlowe’s version of the play that predates this one and was in fact the inspiration for this work.
2. Marlowe, C. (1589-1592). The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus. Project Gutenberg (EBook #779).
The first ever English work written about the legend of Faust, Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus set the stage for Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and follows the story of a scholar (Dr. Faustus) who makes a deal with Lucifer in return for 24 years of Mephistopheles’ service, at first thinking nothing of it but in the end eventually being dragged off to Hell as he tries one last time to repent. Christopher Marlowe himself is/was rumored to be queer, and I think it shows in his work as well; there’s an undeniable chemistry between Faustus and Mephistopheles, evident in their addresses and, if it’s put on stage, often stage directions (albiet imposed by the directors, they are still following the script to make those decisions). This relationship, as well as the general emotional rise and fall of each scene, is what really drew me to this play, and it's something I want to maintain in my own work.
3. Pudney, E. (2019). "Witchcraft in Elizabethan drama". Scepticism and Belief in English Witchcraft Drama, 1538–1681. Manchester, England: Lund University Press. Retrieved Nov 4, 2021, from https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/9789198376876/978919837
​
From Lund University Press, this book talks in depth about the intersection between witchcraft and gender in Elizabethan dramas, particularly in how witchcraft is represented on stage and by whom. The author frequently reference Shakespeare's Macbeth and Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus to make their point, and I especially found interesting (and useful) the quote: “Dr. Faustus explores the psychology of its witch in detail and presents the first demonologically informed witch in English theatre – one for whom the characteristics of skepticism and credulity are essential features.” (p. 60) This statement is oddly similar when (Marlowe’s) Mephistopheles’ behavior is taken into account, because the demon is often honest with Faust, and not only doesn’t truly do anything to trick him but also to some level I think understands the appeal Faust sees in giving up his soul and wants to prevent it. The idea that Faust and Mephistopheles are actually not that dissimilar is also something I want to explore with this play, because in my mind there’s no way for Mephistopheles to be psychologically detached from Faust.
General Update on Act 1
Hello all! This'll have to be more of general update, because nothing in particular has happened this month. Unfortunately however, I'm already a bit behind schedule by about 1/2 an Act, and it's stressing me out knowing that it won't be done by the 30th. However, my time hasn't been completely wasted; I've been working on a thorough plot outline for my liaison and I to go through and solidify, meaning the last week or so has had me sitting down at my computer and struggling through every plot point.
​
Through this process, I'm realizing I have a LOT to include, and I'm not necessarily sure how long everything I'm writing will take place on stage; it's all well and good to write a one minute page of dialogue between two characters, but with natural pauses, set changes, etc. involved it can go from one minute to three. I have, however, limited myself to no more than 4 or 5 scenes per an Act, which hypothetically should help me keep it short. What I'm really struggling with is balancing the following: my favorite parts from Marlowe's plot, my favorite parts from Goethe's plot, having enough space (and time) for Faust and Mephistopheles to interact with each other naturally outside of casting magic, making sure Gretchen and a few others get dead by the end of Act 4, and maintaining some sense of logic and historical accuracy, without going overboard. It's...a lot, and writing it all out makes me very afraid that I might be prioritizing the plot over my characters, because when I set out to do this it was specifically so Faust and Mephistopheles could do some soul searching, with Faust realizing the world is his oyster (until he's dead) and Mephistopheles realizing that maybe being a damned soul isn't so bad when he's not alone in his misery (and maybe there could be a fluffy romance? Maybe?)
​
Anyway, that's where I'm at right now, and the problem is I can't do much more of this back-and-forth of scrutinizing my plot choices because I don't have the time to now.
​
In other news, the movie Bill (2015) is FANTASTIC and I sobbed (and also jumped with joy because of the excellent historical reference) when Christopher Marlowe died :(
AI Generates M̶y̶ ̶W̶o̶r̶s̶t̶ ̶N̶i̶g̶h̶t̶m̶a̶r̶e̶s̶ 'Faust' - PT 1
From top to bottom, left to right:
1st row - Gretchen and the jewelry box, The 3 Scholars, Mephistopheles, the Clown finds the poison, 'One Soul Paid in Fulfillment'
2nd row - Faust's guilt of Gretchen's death, Faust's (temporary) death at the hands of his friends (Cornelius, Valdes, Banquo), Wagner ponders the cosmos, original line from Marlowe's 'Faust': "Had I as many souls as there be stars, I'd give them all for Mephistopheles"
3rd row - Faust and Mephistopheles, the Good Angel defends the Old Man, Faust's study, a second rendition of Faust's "death"
I am very, VERY excited about this post, and because of that I'm not sure where to begin, so I'm just going to dive right in. Here's the context of how this happened: TikTok.
​
On TikTok right now there's a trend where people put characters, ideas, places in an AI art generator and convert the text to images. So I thought, why not do it with Faust? I tried to get at least one image for every major character, in different places and events, and in my opinion they range from pretty good to utterly astounding -- some of these legitimately made my jaw drop when I first saw them.
​
Additionally however, and slightly previous to this adventure into AI generated art, was a 24 charity livestream I watched that resulted in me needing to find a way to stay awake, and I was able to do so with drawing! So even before I had gotten the above pictures, I spent my time from the sensible 8pm to the ungodly 4:32am hand drawing out 12 possible character designs, and to my surprise it's some of my best work! I'll put the sketches to the left:
​
​
​
​
But alas, this post is already way too long, so a part two will be on the way with some of my favorite pictures that got generated, with descriptions!
​
Note: I refuse to put Pope Adrian's picture up here because it's altogether too horrifying, but rest assured it fits completely with his personality and his function in the play, and I love it so much that I never want to see it again.
​
​
MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD FOR SOMETHING THAT ISN'T EVEN WRITTEN YET!
.
.
PT 2
For this one, I let the AI run with the prompt 'Cornelius, Valdes, and Banquo, come to kill Faust', and when I got the result I was in absolute awe, because it was EXACTLY how I pictured the scene in my head. I think as an oil painting especially it depicts (without getting too poetical here) the apparent devastation of these three's, or as I like to call them, the *3 Lovers, actions.
​
In the scene, the three behead Faust in his study (in Marlowe's version, it's the woods) after coming to the conclusion that he's gotten too powerful and too dangerous. Being promised with what is essentially immortality for 24 years however, Faust is resurrected with no damage done, and he calls on Mephistopheles to send his three "friends" to hell.
​
*This nickname originated from a song from a band called The Mechanisms, in which Guinevere, Lancelot, and King Arthur (yes, the knights of the round table) are referred to as the 3 Lovers because of their profound friendship and love for one another. I borrowed it for Cornelius, Valdes, and Banquo because they have a very similar relationship -- they're connected by a deep platonic love for one another that triumphs, for better or for worse, over their connection with Faust, and they decide to literally cut him off from them when it's clear that he's a threat.
The prompt for this was the title of the play and its mini tag line: 'One Soul, Paid in Fulfillment': A play based on the German legend Faust'.
​
And WOW does this capture everything I've ever wanted out of that title, so much so that I don't have much more to add!
When I first started playing around with AI art, I tried 3 different generators and put the prompt 'Faust' into all of them. While I didn't continue using the specific generator that created this image, I think it's really cool that it also picked up on a red cape that I interpret as Mephistopheles. It also weirdly reminds me of both the beginning and end of the play, which both take place in Faust's study; on the left side I see a shelf over a desk, while on the right I see a cabinet or doorway engulfed in flame. I think part of my interest (and mild infuriation) with AI generated art is that really, it can be any of these things, but there's no definitive answer if you really do want it to be something in particular.
Okay, this one breaks my heart, and I'll explain why.
​
So. The Clown. We first meet him when Wagner is giving orders to him to go run errands, and threatens to turn him into a frog, dog, bat, etc. if he doesn't, which is already kind of sad. And kind of funny in scene, but also sad.
​
Wagner tells the Clown to go pick up a bottle of a homemade remedy for pneumonia Faust left on the shelf in his study and deliver it to a nice old lady in town, and he goes to do so. Importantly, the Clown can't read and through no fault of his own ends up accidentally taking a vial of poison Faust left on the table in Act 1 instead, eventually leading to the death of the old lady.
After learning what he's done but never having it revealed to him that Faust is the one that left out the poison, the Clown spends the remainder of the play in a state of despondency, feeling immensely guilty.
​
For me this picture is like one of those clickbait-y '10 photos taken before disaster' articles, because the Clown is so...happy here? Maybe carefree is a better word, but no matter what he's smiling as he picks up the poison, not knowing what's in store for him because of this single action.
...And then somehow, this image hurts just a little more than the last, because I used the prompt 'Faust is wracked with guilt over Gretchen's death', and the AI absolutely delivered. Not only is Gretchen front and center, but I love the fact that (in my interpretation of the AI's interpretation) Faust's guilt is represented by the town burning down behind him. And by this stage in the play, that's very much what's happened figuratively; he's responsible for two deaths, has lost his sister, lost the respect of the town and his reputation, all of his friends have turned against him, and he knows the only one who will stand by him is literally the Devil, and that even that will end soon.
​
I also like the fact that Mephistopheles seems to have laid his cape over Gretchen after she dies; her death comes minutes after Mephistopheles has, of his own accord, opened the cell door so that Gretchen can escape, and I think the cape is extra sign that he can be -- and often is -- a compassionate being.
December's Posts
January's Posts
Update on Act 2
Some good news! Writing Act 2 went off relatively without a hitch, AND I made Act 3 slightly shorter by moving the first scene of it into the end of Act 2 (that is if you ignore the fact I then proceeded to add another scene to take its place). Not only that, but I'm also pretty proud of it! Sure, the dialogue isn't exactly where I want it to be, but I'm considering that to be a '2nd-draft-Me' problem, not a 1st draft one. I actually took a bit of inspiration from a podcast I'm listening to called Storybreak, a writers room podcast from 3 Hollywood screenwriters, who each week come up with the plot for a new potential movie. Occasionally though, they take one of their ideas and create and entire script, breaking the movie down scene by scene, one scene per episode. In doing so, one of the things they acknowledged is that rough drafts are where you're allowed to try out ideas and make mistakes, but most of all you can have fun in them. I mean you'll still have to eventually edit things out, but you're allowed -- nay, encouraged -- to make the first draft whatever you want it to be, with no limitations, because that's for the producer part of your brain to deal with later.
​
However, writing Act 2 wasn't completely without its troubles. I think I'm starting to learn that 1) flowery Elizabethan language can evoke a whole lot of emotion in super complex ways, and does so more effectively than everyday language, and 2) that that poses a significant problem because my original plan was to take what Christopher Marlowe wrote and twist it around a little, while still keeping some modernized quotes in. Oh, and thirdly, now I need to do the thing of 'finding my own voice', which I'll be honest I'm not super prepared for. The idea that language isn't on my side here also directly conflicts with a strong belief I have that there are words for everything, and that you just have to put the right words in the right order in the right context to make the magic work. It's an idea that I'm not quite willing to let go of yet. But as a result, I'm feeling a little shaky going into Act 3, because I have some emotional points that I REALLY need to hit coming up, and what happens if I don't have the proper language to convey them?
​
I was thinking of ending the post here but I'd hate to leave it on a downer, so instead I'll finish off with something I do like about Act 2: Cornelius and Valdes. That's it. Just them. They have such a great dynamic, and they're so incredibly easy to write it's like transcribing a conversation I'm listening to play out on the other side of the room. They're both perfect and I love them and I'm going to be really sad when I have to literally put them through Hell.
Problem Solving
As a bit of the update to the last post, in which I talked about not being sure if I could effectively translate and preserve emotions from flowery Elizabethan into modern language, I've since talked to some peers and have landed on a solution to at the very least tackle part of the problem and increase my confidence in my writing. The plan is, either after the first draft or sometime consecutive with a second draft that I'll be continuing in college, to write a VERY short 1 Act play and get it finalized, so I have a play already done and am familiar with the process of writing it from start to finish. This way, I'll no longer be able to use the excuse of "I've never written a play before", and hopefully it'll reduce some of the anxiety of "I have no clue what I'm doing."
February's Posts
Updated Timeline
Below is an updated timeline for the rest of the year now that my deadline of 50% of the project completed by February has been hit:
​
​
​
Note: After I have a complete rough draft done, I plan on collaborating with a friend to write another version after I graduate (which will hopefully be a little more polished and cohesive), which I will continue working on revising through college so that by my junior year I have a complete final script.
​
February (50% done!) - Acts 1-3 are complete rough drafts by this point; by the end of February the rough draft of Act 4 should be done
March: Write the rough draft for Act 5 and complete by the end of the month
April: Read through and edit for continuity, grammar, etc., and make notes for a future 2nd rough draft. Pick a strong, engaging scene and focus on editing it to a final draft for May
May: Work on presentation
Interview
As I've run into a bit of a roadblock with Act 4 and writing St. Peter's Feast, I decided the best way to kill two birds with one stone was to interview a history teacher about the politics of the Holy Roman Empire (specifically in 1400s Germany), which is such a vast subject that even Wikipedia couldn't help me at first. More specifically, I needed help understanding the relationship between the Pope and the kings of independent states within the HRE, what authority the Emperor had, what an anti-pope is/was, and what exactly could get someone excommunicated the quickest. I'm not completely sure if I needed the last point, although I think it's handy to have, but regardless, here's a summary of my conversation and the things I learned!
​
​
1.) With no concept of the separation of Church and State in sight, the Pope really had most of the power in the HRE. While the Emperor technically looked over the kings of the independent states in the empire, the Pope had the power to turn people against the kings if he didn't like who they installed as dukes, counts, barons, etc. by excommunicating them, and thus basically blacklisting them. This could take the form of sermons being held against a king saying they're corrupt and unfit to rule because they're not being faithful to God, and as a result of excommunication, their subjects wouldn't be required to follow orders.
​
​
2.) During the Great Schism around 1054, French and Italian Catholics fought over who should be the elected Pope (it had previously always been someone from Rome) but the French disagreed with the Italian's nomination so there was the official Pope (Italian) and an anti-pope (French), and when they BOTH eventually got deposed, they became the anti-popes and the new pope was the official Pope. Unnecessarily complicated in my opinion, but it's some good comedy.
​
(side note: popes declaring other popes the antichrist is my new favorite thing)
​
​
3.) The Bishop of Rome = The Pope, and he's essentially a feudal lord, meaning he has the ability to collect taxes from the vassals who work the land he owns (and he owns a lot).
​
4.) Most common, fastest, and probably "best" way to get excommunicated if you're a king: put someone in power who the Pope doesn't like, OR insult his family/side with a rival family.
​
​
5.) Not Pope related, but Milan was known for weapons manufacturing at the time and I feel like it should be noted because in the play, the Bishop of Milan attends the feast.
March's Posts
Update on my last manager meeting
In the last manager meeting I had, I talked about my issues I’ve been having with Act 4 and the subsequent delay that’s caused, as well as some ways to at least temporarily fix it enough until a second draft. All of the scenes in Act 4 have at least two of the following traits: they’re really long, really important and emotional moments, or really complicated historically. The particular scene that I’m stuck on, St. Peter’s feast in Rome, hits all 3 of these: it requires me to know a lot about the Holy Roman Empire in the 1400s, it contains a whole sequence of events at a banquet, and it’s the final chance I have (in this draft) to tie up accidental loose ends and fill in plot holes before the climax of the story. One way my manager and I talked about finding a way around the first problem, which for me is the most challenging, is to “translate” as best I can Christopher Marlowe’s words into semi-contemporary English, as a placeholder, which I can then modify to fit certain needs; for example, have Gretchen’s jewelry box fall out of Bruno’s pockets instead of taking the crown from his head.
Update on Act 4!
Act 4 is finally written! It took long enough, but I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out for a rough draft, and I'm a little more confident about going into Act 5 now.
​
As I've stated before, the scene that was giving me the most trouble, both timing and content wise, was the scene at St. Peter's feast in Rome, where Faust and Mephistopheles essentially play a prank on the Pope. Instead of having Bruno's arrival and sentencing in the same scene as the feast though, as I had originally planned, I broke it up into two separate ones with a scene at a tavern inbetween. So, Act 4 runs as follows:
​
1. - Vanholt Castle Courtyard - Faust entertains the Duke and Duchess of Vanholt and their guests, and uses magic to humiliate a heckler, Benvolio by placing a pair of horns on his head. It's the first time we see Faust act a bit cruelly, even if in jest.
​
2. - St. Peter's Feast, Rome - Faust and Mephistopheles sneak into what I assume is probably the Vatican, where preparations are being made for St. Peter's feast. They see Pope Adrian abusing his power as a high ranking official as he attempts to bring down the wrath of Church down upon Bruno's head, the latter supposedly being a "traitor", and make a plan to sow chaos.
​
3. - The Statera (the tavern in Wittenberg) - Benvolio meets Cornelius and Valdes, 2 of Faust's friends, in the tavern and tell them how he was humiliated in front of the Duke. Cornelius and Valdes had for a while been fearing Faust's involvement in witchcraft and consider this the final straw; they also put it together (wrongly) that Faust must've purposely poisoned an old woman in town and framed the Clown for it. The 3 make a pact to kill Faust when he returns home from his trip, justifying it as "putting down a rabid dog".
​
4. - St. Peter's Feast, Rome - Disguised as cardinals, Faust and Mephistopheles order for Bruno to be locked in a dungeon; as the executioners take Bruno away, Gretchen's jewelry box spills out of his robes and is left on the stage. Chaos ensues as Faust and Mephistopheles wreck the feast, but only once everyone flees does Faust see the box. Recognizing it as the one he gave Gretchen and fearing something bad's happened to her, he orders Mephistopheles to take him to where she is.
​
5. - Faust and Mephistopheles arrive at Gretchen's cell; she's been accused of robbing her local church's treasury despite being a very pious person, and was thrown in jail where she now awaits her fate, very sick in a cold cell and hoping to reach Heaven. Mephistopheles unlocks the cell door and in conversation the two get along surprisingly well for a demon and a devoted Catholic, but she refuses any and all help from her brother Faust and Mephistopheles sympathizes. In the truly crushing final moments of Act 4, Gretchen dies with the final word, condemning her brother as a murderer, and Mephistopheles comforts an extremely guilty feeling Faust. The two decide to head back to Wittenberg, to the study.
April's Posts
Progress on Act 5
Although I'm a little behind schedule (ideally I would've had Act 5 finished by the end of March), I'm really proud of the progress I've made so far in this Act! I just finished writing the scene in which Valdes, Cornelius, and Benvolio sneak into Faust's study to kill him but fail miserably, and it might be my favorite that I've written so far! I really like being able to write a character who's changed so much since the last time he saw his friends that they've become his enemies, and especially with Faust I get to show the audience how cruel he can really be. And like I've said before, doing dialogue for Cornelius, Valdes, and now Benvolio has been an absolute dream, and I'm kind of sad I had to kill them off because they're some of the easiest characters to write.
It's Finished!
The rough draft is finally done!!!!! It's such a weird feeling knowing that it's finished, but also a relief because it means 1) I get to take a mini break and 2) get to start working with a friend of mine to write a second rough draft. This is a project that I plan to continue to work on and bring into college, and I want to really take my time with it and explore all the possibilities that come with an alternate telling of the story I want to write, inspired by what I've written this year. I'm really excited about doing a collaboration with someone I've been telling my ideas for this story to since freshman year, and who I completely trust with even some of my worst writing (trust me, Acts 1 and 2 are currently a mess).
​
​
But before I get ahead of myself, here's a quick reflection below of everything I'm really happy with in the current rough draft, because I often don't give myself enough credit for the work I've done, no matter the quality, and it's a habit I'm trying to break:
May - Final Thoughts
Cornelius
.png)
1. The rough draft is 60 pages long and written roughly in a screenplay format for timing sake. I only now realize that doesn't apply to theater, but still, around 1.5 hours ain't bad, and is actually quite a lot and I'm very proud.
​
2. This is the first thing I've written for fun and FINISHED since 6th grade. That's 6 years of me not completing projects I promised I'd finish, and I finally did it, and it's HUGE.
​
3. My favorite side characters to write are Cornelius and Valdes, Cornelius who by the way I've canonically decided is nonbinary, but my favorite arc for a side character is the Clown, who absolutely did not deserve the misery I put him through and I still feel a little bad about it.
​
4. My favorite dialogue (other than some really good stuff at the end between Faust and Mephistopheles) is between Mephistopheles and Gretchen in the latter's cell. In Goethe's version these characters are complete foils for one another, and I wanted to keep that, but I also wanted to see if they'd get along. Surprisingly, I think they do. They answer each other with very few words and only say what is absolutely necessary, but in doing so are very honest with each other about who they are and they find camaraderie in temporarily uniting against Faust.
​
5. On that point about things being really sad at the end, Act 4 Scene 5 lines up PERFECTLY with the song 'Can't Go Back' by the Crane Wives and it is BRUTAL to listen to. It definitely feels narcissistic to me to say that my own writing made me cry, but I think part of that is I know what's happening with the characters more than what is necessarily put to paper at times. That scene is also when it finally felt like the end for Faust, and despite trying to intentionally build the climax in Gretchen's death, I think it actually falls in this scene, which I like much better.
​
6. I really like Faust's emotional arc as a character and how he responds to conflict throughout the play before finally breaking down right before Act 5. He gradually grows more temperamental and cruel as conflict builds and he gains more power and influence over the other characters, and I think that's a really cool and chilling thing to see. Faust is a character we're supposed to sympathise with at first and he gradually turns murderous by his own hand, first messing with a heckling Benvolio by threatening to set wild dogs on him, then with a cruel pope and his crew by ruining their banquet, and finally killing his once-best-friends Benvolio, Cornelius, and Valdes by ordering for them to be thrown down to Hell for trying to assassinate him. Which...I don't necessarily disagree with on a surface level because they did try to kill him, but he does it in such a cruel way that you can't help but be sorry for the three unfortunate souls.
​
7. I really like having an astronomy thread throughout the play, and having it all connect back to the passing of time in the final scene!
There's so much more I'm really happy with, but I'll leave it at these for now. In the future, although I'm not exactly sure when, I think I might post a read through of the assassination scene from Act 5, along with a transcript.
And in other news, I got a stamp (pictured to the right) to celebrate finishing the first rough draft! I plan on printing out the last page of every script I make (first rough draft, edits, second rough draft, etc.) and stamping them, and then putting them in a folder or somewhere safe for me to look back on later!
​
I could rant forever about the significance of the stamp; I won't, but I imagine you can gather what the ending of this play is like from it :)
