turning back to “infinity”

On and off, for the last few years I have been working on infinity=infinity+1, a play. It’s had a rich history, to say the least.

This play has been about many things. Early drafts saw a character named Velasco in its cast, a new member of SPAA (Soft Porn Addicts Anonymous). As well as Prue, a young man who lived in a real-life Skinner Box. Characters have popped in and out, but so have various themes — fear of water, one couple’s path to marriage, a mother’s fear that her daughter will make the same mistakes in her life, the nature of adultery.

Despite the changes, there are a few characters that have stayed in the infinity curve. Particularly, George, Ropert and Alison.

George is gay, but hasn’t always been. Once upon a time he was a guy who was so frustrated with finding so many of the wrong girls that he turned to plants for solace. And so now he is a botanist.

Ropert wins things. Contests, sweepstakes, but only what he needs. In any draft of the play when I tried to write something about his occupation, I couldn’t find one. So, he has none. But I was so fascianted by the idea that some people are luckier than others. For instance, Rebecca has this theory that you’re either lucky in love or in parking.

Alison. Alison’s seen more jobs than a Mattel doll. Once in Public Relations, once an environmental lawyer, once a wedding planner (I think). Now, her character seems content to be a music journalist.

It’s also funny how the relationships change as well. George and Ropert used to be best friends — George was scheduled to be Ropert’s best man in the marriage scenarios. Now, George and Alison are siblings. And it seems to work.

And so for draft number nine, this is the general plan:

• Alison and Ropert meet, via an online dating service (I want to explore the difference/similarities between the virtual world and the real world)
• near the top of the show, George has just walked in on his boy in a Doublemint twist with two so-not-of-age blondes and swears, Never again
• George, who runs in and out of the closet (depending on the situation), teaches college botany but has never actually planted a seed, bulb, shoot in his entire life
• Alison’s/George’s mother arrives on their doorstep, announcing that she and their father are getting a divorce; they, of course, take her in — George has yet to come out to his mother
• Alison, a freelance journalist, is assigned a story about a mathematician who claims he can evaluate any personal relationship with two simple diagnostic questions; Alison is also writing a personal history of the Beatles in secret
• Ropert, still wins things, but keeps himself busy by working a few days a week at a flower shop

I’m giving myself a week to congeal all these ideas together and then I will begin (ominous drum roll) draft nine.