Something strange is happening in Oz…and in Rivendell…and in Wonderland, for that matter. Just a trickle at first, supporting characters have been disappearing from some of the world’s greatest works of literature, and since reading has fallen off in recent years it took some time before anyone realized that the Phantom of the Opera was missing Stagehand #57 and that War of the Worlds wasn’t quite the same without that nameless Martian on page 26.
When Jean Valjean disappeared from Les Miserables, people started talking. Even Inspector Javert couldn’t track him down, and pages began to seem different…could it be that the words were rewriting themselves without the book’s protagonist? Marius ended up marrying Eponine, since Cosette had died years ago thanks to the Thenardier’s neglect, so some readers weren’t exactly complaining, but still…
Even characters who were friends in the pages of their stories started to eye one another suspiciously, wondering who was going to be next. Something was definitely rotten in the state of Fiction, and when the body of Victor Frankenstein showed up in the gardens of Mansfield Park, some action needed to be taken.
Imagine the lives that characters have outside of their books, when nobody’s turning the pages
CHARACTER GUIDELINES:
Your character should be pulled directly from the pages of fiction, any time period, any genre. I’m looking for 6 (possibly as many as 8) players who can embody their known fictional persona. Creativity is welcome, particularly when the canon you’re drawing from leaves room for different interpretation, but your character should be recognizably faithful to their book analogue and honor the original book.
I’ve included the basic fictional archetypes, so select whichever the closest match is for your character and adapt as needed.
These characters have been summoned by Hamlet himself to Elsinore Castle, the time somewhere between Act I, Scene I, to start looking into what is threatening the great works of literature and to attempt to try and stop the madness if possible. In order to find out the truth, it is going to be necessary to dive into some good books.
NOTE ON BOOK TRAVEL
There will need to be a certain amount of meta involved. In other words, your character knows that they’re in a story, and when someone reads their book it is almost as if they are playing a part, sticking to a script so that the story can work out the way it has since it was written. These characters have a life between readings, of course, where they’re off-book. Traveling to another book is a bit like going on vacation and visiting a foreign country. There will be different customs, of course, but characters out of their books are recognized as tourists. The rules of etiquette are to stay “offstage” and out of any part of the book that is being read, and to leave another book without changing the story. That’s made even harder now that books are starting to unravel without primary characters. The “script” is being rewritten, and strange things are happening.
Questions can be sent to me at ErevKochavah@yahoo.com
Hosted and narrated by:
Juliet (ShakespeareanSoprano)
Started 07/30/14.
Scenes played: 13
License: Community License
