The story of Sleepover is not merely the story of the play itself, but also the stories of its creation and its consequences: particularly, the stories of my friendships with Grace and Anne.
The story of how I met Grace will come later (I think this is the 3rd time now I've teased that, but it is coming), but out friendship really took off after we had known each other and worked together for awhile. After Casting Call and Aftermath, I had been very impressed with Grace's writing ability. She was always coming up with great ideas, and was very easy to work with.
So, when I began brainstorming ideas for a scene to direct in the fall of my senior year, I mentioned something to Grace, who at the time was studying abroad in China as I was living in South Carolina.
(from Skype. July 23, 2012)
Zachary Bucholtz: Grace I have an important question
Grace Hawkins: talk to me
Zachary Bucholtz: I need a setting. A place where, if you were to put characters, they could interact and reveal themselves. My first thought was alcoholics anonymous. I need better ideas.
Grace Hawkins: hmmm
Grace Hawkins: what needs to be revealed?
Zachary Bucholtz: I'm not sure yet.
Grace Hawkins: a parent teacher conference
Grace Hawkins: a meal at a round table, people gett drunk
Zachary Bucholtz: Keep going. I like the pt conference
Grace Hawkins: a talk show
Grace Hawkins: reveals a story
Grace Hawkins: operah
Grace Hawkins: talking to a therapist is cliche
Grace Hawkins: an anger management class
Grace Hawkins: sleepover with girls
Grace Hawkins: something in war where the guys have to wait for a looooooong time
Grace Hawkins: and are stressed
Grace Hawkins: staying up late working on a group project to the point you're all silly
Zachary Bucholtz: Good thoughts
Zachary Bucholtz: I'm thinking of evening of scenes this fall.
Grace Hawkins: yeah?
Grace Hawkins: what do you want to do?
Zachary Bucholtz: Well I thought about another casting call type thing but I already did that.
Zachary Bucholtz: So now I'm thinking something with less people
Grace Hawkins: haha
Zachary Bucholtz: Where I'm not relying on celebrity impressions
Zachary Bucholtz: And actually have to write something original haha
Grace Hawkins: ten minutes right?
Zachary Bucholtz: Yeah. I like the idea of a girl sleepover with a guy who is stranded there because of a storm. And how he fits in. I could do something like that. Which is basically my life.
Grace Hawkins: Haha yes
Zachary Bucholtz: Parent teacher conference could be really really funny
Grace Hawkins: can i help you write something?
Zachary Bucholtz: Yes. I was thinking about it for awhile today and was actually going to see if you wanted to cowrite a scene
Grace Hawkins: let's do it
Zachary Bucholtz: Yesssssss
Grace Hawkins: how should we go about this? brainstorm now?
Zachary Bucholtz: Yes.
Grace Hawkins: okay, so we want the situation to allow for something to be revealed
Grace Hawkins: haha maybe you should guide me, i'm better at filling in the blanks
Zachary Bucholtz: one sec
Zachary Bucholtz: i was on my phone but now i switched to my laptop because it's easier to type
Zachary Bucholtz: ok
Grace Hawkins: perfect
Zachary Bucholtz: yes, it should be one scene, one location. like with casting call, it was one room obviously. eliminates the need for set changes. more time for story. and one thing we learned in screenwriting is that setting often dictates the action. a great example is the scene in the diner in RENT. the dancing on the table, "wine and beer", benny walking in, etc
Grace Hawkins: okay, i like that. plus the scene changes are distracting in something as short as EOS
Zachary Bucholtz: exactly
Grace Hawkins: so do we want a common setting, or something strange
Grace Hawkins: or something common with a strange part (boy at girls sleepover)
Zachary Bucholtz: the second. nothing too common because it'd be boring and nothing too strange because then it'd be weird
Grace Hawkins: haha
Grace Hawkins: okay
Zachary Bucholtz: i kinda like the boys at a girl sleepover thing. what do you think?
Grace Hawkins: i like that
Grace Hawkins: just thorwing this out there
Grace Hawkins: because it's happened to me, but a student moving in with a teacher
Grace Hawkins: (aka literally happening to me here in china)
Grace Hawkins: but i do like the boy at the girls sleepover
Then, after discussing some other ideas...
Zachary Bucholtz: i keep going back to the sleepover idea
Zachary Bucholtz: with greg as the main character
Zachary Bucholtz: hahahaha
Grace Hawkins: yes
Grace Hawkins: okay, greg nervous in the corner
Grace Hawkins: how does he end up ther
Zachary Bucholtz: snowstorm
Grace Hawkins: haha so can he come in like extremely bundled up
Zachary Bucholtz: and the girls are in their underwear (or bedtime apparel)
Grace Hawkins: haha nooo they have to be little girls
Zachary Bucholtz: and he's wearing something totally embarassing underneath and refuses to take it off
Zachary Bucholtz: hahahaha
Zachary Bucholtz: not too little
Grace Hawkins: they should all be like 13-years-old
Zachary Bucholtz: teenage
Zachary Bucholtz: exactly
Zachary Bucholtz: haha we're on the same page
Grace Hawkins: so there's still a separation between the sexes
Zachary Bucholtz: good
Zachary Bucholtz: yeah
Zachary Bucholtz: i really like this idea. there's a lot that can be done with this. what do you think?
Zachary Bucholtz: it's a classic greg role, too
Grace Hawkins: i like it, i just want to steer away from anything "slutty" or too stereotypical
Zachary Bucholtz: agree
Grace Hawkins: like, the innocence of a sleepover needs to be maintained
From there, out writing partnership was officially formed. We are, in terms of writers, the perfect complements to each other. Grace is comedy, I'm drama. She comes up with great premises and characters, I come up with storylines and structures. She comes up with seeds of ideas, and I take ideas and develop them. Or, as she famously put it: she's the meat and I'm the bones.
As a screenwriting student, I've been trained in structure and character arcs. Grace, with history in theatre, has a lot of creative juices that I just lack completely.
With "Sleepover," I fell in love with Grace's idea to make it innocent. I also liked how we were relying on physical humor, and PG-level stuff. It felt very "old school" to me, which I loved.
Our friendship, of course, extends beyond two people who like to write together. Grace is one of the few people I've been able to share my complete, unabridged life story with; she's not only a great listener, but she's not afraid to tell me when I'm wrong and need to get my head on straight. I've told people before that if they ever want to get me to change my mind, go to Grace, because she's one of the few people who can get me to change my mind on anything.
Grace is also one of the most trustworthy and trusting people I know. She knows my secrets, and has shared some of hers with me, in addition to trusting me to direct two things she's written (Sleepover and Ann Arborland).
The pinnacle of our friendship can be defined in two events. The first was when we took a roadtrip together to Minnesota. I was going to see my cousin, Justin, and when I told Grace she asked if she could tag along to visit a friend of hers. On the drive to my grandma's house (where me joined my aunt and uncle), and on the drive back, Grace and I had one of the deepest, most honest and intimate conversations I've ever had with anyone. It was such a fulfilling experience, it almost received it's own entry in the Top 25 before I decided to incorporate it into this.
The second, of course, was Sleepover.
When we got back to school from summer vacation, the two of us started meeting regularly to brainstorm more ideas. I would tell Grace what we needed in terms of structure, characters, and story beats, and she would begin the brainstorming.
The character of Greg (the naive, innocent little boy) was somewhat autobiographical for me. I also think I did a lot of the creation and writing of Hannah's character (the good girl, the party host) and a lot of Jo (the tough girl), as well. Katie (the emotional one) was all Grace, and it was Grace's idea to make Hannah's mom a flamboyant father. Grace recognized the importance of Katie's character, too; we came up with the idea that Katie was the heart, Hannah the brain, and Jo the soul of their group.
The way the writing process worked was I would come up with a basic outline, Grace would fill it in with ideas, I'd write the script and then she would punch it up with better dialogue. This near-perfect system we came up with allowed us both to play to our strengths as writers and eliminate the potential for disagreement.
Casting was a unique process because I could only make it to the first day of auditions (there were two), and therefore Grace cast it based on my notes (she was directing another short play at the same time, and I would be the sole director of Sleepover, but with her input). Greg and Ryan were obvious decisions, as the parts were written for and named for them. Anne was my top choice to play Katie. Grace loved Andrew as the father, and then we were impressed with Micah and Phia's auditions, but not necessarily for a particular part. Grace cast Phia as Jo and Micah as Katie.
Everyone in the cast thinks I'm creepy for telling this story, but the day of the first rehearsal I was int he shower thinking of how to approach directing it, and had an epiphany that Micah and Phia should switch roles. Creepy or not, I think they were both much better than the other would have been in each role, and it may have saved the show.
Rehearsals were a blast, in part because of how I overused the line "DO IT LIVE" and in part because of the chemistry Grace, Greg, Ryan, and I already had. I also loved directing Andrew ("juxtaposition of extremes," I told him, in how I wanted the tough dad and gay dad to be polar opposites of each other). Phia was awesome in how she took so many different sets of directions from Grace and I in coming up with her character. Micah, despite never acting before, was really good and had a natural ability to act that impressed me.
Ryan made up a lot of his own lines, of course, including the "Californians" reference he makes upon seeing Greg at the sleepover. Greg also came up with the "put a ring on it" line (watch him come up with it on the spot here). But Greg and I also fought (bickered, maybe) quite a bit during rehearsals. I love Greg, but he has a tendency, admittedly, to try to direct the director (being a director himself), and had a hard time taking my direction.
The one most memorable argument Greg and I had was when he told me that we needed to be further along in the rehearsal process than we were (which is already laughable because I rehearse more than anyone as it is). I yelled at him, told him not to question me, and continued. Then, after the rehearsal that day, I explained to him that I was slowing things down intentionally to let one of our actresses catch up because she was holding herself back. It worked, I was able to get everyone motivated and the show was a great success, as you can see here:
And that actress was Anne Scheps.
Anne instantly made an impression on both Grace and me. I remember at one point during rehearsals, the two of us just kind of shaking are heads and saying to one another how perfect she was for the role of Hannah and how naturally talented she was.
And that's very true. Anne is one of the best, most talented actresses or actors I've worked with in any capacity (writing, directing, acting) and I could see that right away. I could also see, as I told Greg that one day, that Anne was holding herself back. She was obviously very shy and very nervous, which I understood seeing as how this was her freshman year and her first college production.
So, after my discussion with Greg, I sent Anne a text message and told her how talented I thought she was; so many of the things she does on stage - with her face, the inflection in her voice, her body language - are very difficult to teach. I also told her that I knew she was nervous but that I needed her to come out of her shell soon. She did, and was awesome in the show.
Anne and I became friends after that, which is one of the best things to happen to me at Michigan. I've told her that one of my few regrets is that I didn't meet her earlier. I'll spare you all some of the details of how we became friends, but the bottom line is this:
Anne is, truly, one of the most genuine, kindhearted, and nicest human beings I've ever met. She's one of the few people that has the ability to brighten my day at any time, and is a reminder to me that really good people do exist in the otherwise awful world we live in.
It's my hope that someday I'll have the ability to fly Anne out to LA (or wherever I'm living) and cast her as the star of a movie or play, because she's not only one of my favorite people to work with, but one of my favorite people, period.
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