Genre Depot

[beardedlamb]

when i do genre work i like to write out a bunch of things onto a sheet of paper, just so it's there in the foreconcious and not buried deep in the subconcious where i think it's in everyone. so, here's one we did for a shakespearean cupholders show. feel free to add your own and we'll all be the more enlightened. i need particular help on authors.
putting this here was spurred by last saturday's micetro where troy got the suggestion eugene o'neill for an playwright's style to play. he looked dazed but faked it quite well. i would have been screwed.

SHAKESPEARE

THEMES
Betrayal
Family
Royalty
Free Will v. Destiny
Gods
Magic
Love
Power
Greed
Revenge
Jealousy
Corruption

DEVICES
Disguise
Spying
Letters
Misfortune
Miscommunication
Funerals
Weddings
Death
History
Play within a Play
Inebriation
Supernatural
Having a posse
Banishment
Dreams

TECHNIQUES
Asides / Monologues
Metaphor
Alliteration
Simile
Descriptive Imagery
Soliloquies

COMMON OBJECTS
Swords
Poison
Wine
Horses
Meaningful Jewelry
Dowry
Inheritance
Ships
Scrolls / Letters
Feasts
Trumpets
Crowns
Cape
Bag of Money
Cod Piece

CHARACTERS
Ghosts
Elves
Witches
Royalty
Clergy
Peasants
Non-royal Suitor
Posse
Army
Nurse
Guards
Jesters
Merchants
Fools

LOCATIONS
Castle
Ship
Beach
Forrest
Battleground
Dungeon
Heaven
Estate
Great Hall
Village

[ratliff]

'Posse'?

[beardedlamb]

You know, the chuckling group of friends that act as a sounding board for the protagonist or the antagonist. it's there sometimes. it's all over r and j.

[ratliff]

Right, once I saw you were using other contemporary terms I understood.

[kaci_beeler]

I like/understand these genres and think they could work in improv:
Tennessee Williams
Sam Shepard (like he would ever come up though)
British High Comedy & Comedy of Manners (they are similar but not the same)
Realist turn of the century Drama
Dream/Freudian-inspired play
Burlesque (the vaudeville-like one, not the half naked show of today)
French farce


more on these later...

[Asaf]

So are you looking for more lists on other playwrights?

Are there specific playwrights that you would like tackled? I could brush off some stuff. That game that we played that night with three actors each playing a different genre is something that I did with a group where we stretched that idea over a two act play. And we got the suggestions of just playwrights from the audience so we had to brush up.

[beardedlamb]

yeah, i think this could be a cool little treasure trove of genre info that people can read and get schooled on. it should improve everyone's game. so yes, anyone please add authors, tv styles, playwrights, film director's, anything that you think is a genre. the list doesn't ave to be as detailed as that first shaksp. one and we can add and correct each other as necessary.
beard

[kbadr]

Here's a brief one, that bugs me everytime we get it in Micetro. Believe it or not, noir isn't just smoking a cigarette and voice-overs. It actually involves characters. Go figure. In fact, now that I think about it, watch The Maltese Falcon (one of the most perfectly crafted noir stories) and tell me how many voice-overs there are. I think there are none.

Also, while traditionally, noir seems to be bound to the 1930s-1950s, there really is no reason for that. Some of my favorite noir books take place in modern times. (I've forced a few people on the forum to read them, so they can attest)

(I'll add to this as I think about it some more)

NOIR

Characters
An Imperfect Protagonist - He's the protagonist, in that he's the central character, but he's not strictly "good". He could have a shady past. And although he ultimately makes the right decisions, he sometimes just has to look out for himself.
The Client - male or female, the client is who hires the prot (if he's indeed a private detective.) Chances are, whatever they hire the prot for isn't actually what they want out of the prot (see Devices below)
The Antagonist - depends on the story, but this could be an external character who's causing problems for The Client, or it could end up being the person The Client hires the prot to find/deal with.
Color Characters - minor characters who build the environment/city are very important. They establish who the Prot is in the city. Bartenders, waiters, bookies, etc.
Status Asshole - There is very often someone in the story who is higher social status than the Prot. This irritates the Prot, and the high status character is ultimately knocked down a peg through the course of the story.
Information Man - someone who has some status (either legitimate, or not) who the Prot can go to for some information he can't get on his own. Maybe it's a senior detective in the police department, or an old friend who's also a detective of sorts, or maybe it's just the guy who owes the Prot a favor from way back. Depending on the story, of course, the information could be completely suspect.

Devices
Ulterior Motives - This, combined with the imperfect protagonist, is the heart of noir, in my opinion. Every central character (besides the prot) is deceiving almost every other central character. This is really the key to noir characters.
Tension Between Cops and Prot - there tends to be a love/hate relationship between the Prot and the "real" Police. Usually it's split within the department, though. Some of the cops like him (maybe they used to work with him) and some of the (possible corrupt) cops think he's a joke.

Locations
The City. The importance of the city (almost always at night) cannot be understated. The prot's knowledge of the city must be immediately obvious. He has his routines, he knows where to go to talk to someone. In fact, and this probably isn't unique to noir at all, the settings can basically be split between two types: the prot's "home terf", where he is intimately familiar with everything and everyone, and the foreign places, where he is somewhat out of his element.
Bars/Clubs
Diners
Hotels
Casinos/Horse Track
Police Stations.
Prot's Office/Apartment
A Client's Home.
Jail - yer Prot could very well spend a night in the clink. He'll shrug it off.

As far as plot, the prot always gets in over his head. In that sense, he becomes a very archetypal protagonist. Everything gets a lot worse (quickly) before it even begins to get better. And in the end, "getting better" might just mean that the protagonist comes out alive.

There's always a fair amount of corruption, on one level or another, as well, but that's probably a bi-product of everyone's ulterior motives.

Movie Recommendations:
The Maltese Falcon
The Third Man
Chinatown
BladeRunner, director's cut (good example of noir film with a twist)

Book Recommendations
The Long Goodbye, by Raymond Chandler
The Killer Inside me, by Jim Thompson (good example of noir fiction that isn't what you'd traditionally expect)

And I cannot recommend these 2 books/authors enough. They are modern noir and they're excellent examples of noir stories that don't involve the stereotypical setting and cast of characters.
Dermaphoria, by Craig Clevenger
Kiss Me, Judas (and the entire Phineas Poe trilogy), by Will Christopher Baer

If anyone would like to borrow the last two books, that can be arranged.

[acrouch]

Don't forget the loyal sidekick/partner.

[kbadr]

Don't forget the loyal sidekick/partner.

If you're talking about noir:

I don't know that I agree with that. Noir Prot's in my mind are basically loners. They have people who help them along the way, but don't really have sidekicks, so to speak. There might even be characters who play the role of side-kick (sometimes The Client acts as such), but that role will not be long-lived, and the Prot will ultimately be forced to challenge or question the sidekick's motives.

And partners exist to be killed off in the first act, or ultimately turn on the Prot.

That's just my opinion, though.

[acrouch]

Don't forget the loyal sidekick/partner.

And partners exist to be killed off in the first act, or ultimately turn on the Prot.

I think that's more modern noir. Every generation seems to need more twists in the plotting than the previous. And in the original generation, wasn't there often the go-to guy that the hero could always trust to tail the girl or run interference or take the train to San Diego and check up on x, y and z? A partner or associate that the hero has absolute faith in?

[kbadr]

I think that's more modern noir. Every generation seems to need more twists in the plotting than the previous. And in the original generation, wasn't there often the go-to guy that the hero could always trust to tail the girl or run interference or take the train to San Diego and check up on x, y and z? A partner or associate that the hero has absolute faith in?

Sam Spade's partner gets bumped off pretty quick.

There might be a go-to guy, who the the hero contacts. I added The Information Man to the list of characters recently. I don't really think of them as a partner or sidekick, per se, because the story still follows the prot exclusively. We don't become emotionally invested in the Information Man. He's there to serve a very specific purpose (or two) and that's it.

I think the go-to guy you're mentioning is what I've called the Information Man.

I don't think of the prot as having a side kick, because that would reduce the danger when he's in a bind. Someone would bail him out. Whenever I read/watch noir, I'm always given the impression that the prot's fucked if he gets stranded or trapped somewhere. He's got to rely on himself.

[Mike]

I think that's more modern noir. Every generation seems to need more twists in the plotting than the previous. And in the original generation, wasn't there often the go-to guy that the hero could always trust to tail the girl or run interference or take the train to San Diego and check up on x, y and z? A partner or associate that the hero has absolute faith in?

Sam Spade's partner gets bumped off pretty quick.

There might be a go-to guy, who the the hero contacts. I added The Information Man to the list of characters recently. I don't really think of them as a partner or sidekick, per se, because the story still follows the prot exclusively. We don't become emotionally invested in the Information Man. He's there to serve a very specific purpose (or two) and that's it.

I think the go-to guy you're mentioning is what I've called the Information Man.

I don't think of the prot as having a side kick, because that would reduce the danger when he's in a bind. Someone would bail him out. Whenever I read/watch noir, I'm always given the impression that the prot's fucked if he gets stranded or trapped somewhere. He's got to rely on himself.

What about the faithful secretary ( almost always seen working for the P.I. ) who seems to be in love with her boss, and takes on certain duties for him..she's also used as bait by the bad guys to lure the Prot. into some deathtrap.

[kbadr]

What about the faithful secretary ( almost always seen working for the P.I. ) who seems to be in love with her boss, and takes on certain duties for him..she's also used as bait by the bad guys to lure the Prot. into some deathtrap.

Yeah, that can exist. The problem I have with that character is that it's very dated. If you're doing noir in the 30s or 40s, yeah that'd be a possible character. She was certainly present in The Maltese Falcon.

[Mike]

What about the faithful secretary ( almost always seen working for the P.I. ) who seems to be in love with her boss, and takes on certain duties for him..she's also used as bait by the bad guys to lure the Prot. into some deathtrap.

Yeah, that can exist. The problem I have with that character is that it's very dated. If you're doing noir in the 30s or 40s, yeah that'd be a possible character. She was certainly present in The Maltese Falcon.

I don't think the character is a staple in every Noir event, though you do see some authors using it more than others. Mickey Spillane wrote one into his Mike Hammer series, and I think the character is good if you're looking at a long run or string of books/movies. In The Maltese Falcon, I think a secretary would have ruined the story. But in some other cases I think it compliments and grounds the Prot.