Rejection, Pain, and Loneliness

or having fun with rejection, pain, and loneliness.

Image: Author — Mill Valley open air theatre in the Woods

Good evening.

My name is Harry Hogg. I was scheduled to perform a monologue about the male experience.

I’m sorry to say I won’t be doing that.

I know you’re disappointed, and well, you should be. I would have been magnificent.

But let me explain.

A few months ago, that annoying person in my head told me to write a monologue—a one-person play.

So, after I hit the delete key on the story I was writing, the voice said, “Write about what you know, a monologue about the male experience."

‘What the hell?’ I mused. I’m male. I have experience. How hard can it be?

But then again, where would I perform?

The Medium Starlight Theatre came to mind. Then I remembered I’d submitted material to them before. The material to which they had responded with such phrases was a lack of structure and cohesiveness, as though structure and cohesiveness were some kinds of dramatic virtues. Rambles was another comment. Doesn’t stick to the point. Never actually makes a point.

That tells you they didn’t get it. The fact that my plays don’t have a point is precisely the point.