Murder-Rapture: A Play Written in Four Days

As a writing experiment, I have cloistered myself in my house for the better part of four days to see if I could compose a full length play by January 15th. It is of note that I have written many many plays but have yet to actually complete a full one (a play is considered full length at 90-110 pages).

This was a two part experiment 1) To see if the shirt time span would make it easier to actually complete the thing without running out of gas and 2) To see what the shirt time span would do with the stream of conscience within the play itself. These two things are difficult to analyze because in the case of the first, I don't really know if the time span had anything to do with being able to complete the play, or if I finally found the right combination of plot elements to keep a play alive for two hours. The second is difficult because a writer must be removed from a play before he can objectively analyze it or he must have a trusted person who knows what they are talking about analyze it for him.

Since you don't care about the logistics of playwriting, I'll just tell you what it's about. Two men stumble into becoming the most prolific serial killers in history. Then one of them falls in love. Dark hilarity ensues. By the final scene, there are so many bodies stashed in the basement of this house that they are overflowing onto the stage floor and the audience learns that there is no life left in the whole town where the play takes place.

I am going to enter the play into Jewel Box's play contest, even if it is still need of revision by the 15th... just to see what happens. I desperately want to accept the award at their banquet and say, "thank you so much. I wrote this in four days." The prize money would also pay for nearly half a semester's tuition.