Kristoffer Diaz's #freescenes: Charles Mee for the YouTube Age

I file this under the Why-The-Hell-Not? category. Because, seriously, it is a brilliant idea from a Pulitzer Prize-losing playwright. Excellent way to take advantage of internet technology, nurture a community and most of all for Mr. Diaz, workshop material.

Kristoffer Diaz describes his #freescenes experiment thus:

And so I thought what I’d do is give some scenes and monologues and maybe eventually a whole play away online, and hope that maybe some actors might want to play with them. And I hope that through the power of the internet, those actors can share some of that work with the world. And me.

So later today I’m going to post a scene here on my Tumblr. It’ll be the whole scene, stage directions and all. What I would love to have happen is that actors all over the world — here in NYC and in small towns nationwide, in other countries, in whatever translations and languages — go ahead and record themselves doing the scene. Think Charles Mee in the Youtube age. Do the scene. Put it on the internet. Tell me about it.

Here's one of the ones posted online so far. Really sweet, well-acted scene, too.

The more thorough telling of the backstory is here. The text of the scene is here.