I've been working on an idea for a play for the last decade, but until recently I didn't know how to go about writing it. Like many women, I have struggled with my weight for most of my life and have had a long battle with bulimia. Though I stopped being a bulimic years ago, I still struggle daily with the desire to overeat and the more than occasional binge episode. For a long time after I stopped purging I still binged, and it sent my weight skyrocketing. When my daughter was born, I decided I wanted to change. I wanted to set a good example for her in hopes that it would help her make better choices than I had. I started eating vegetables, which is something I had refused to do for the first 25 years of my life. I started exercising. It was going well for a little while.
When I was pregnant with my son, I reached 250 lbs. After he was born, I still tipped the scales at 230 lbs and decided enough was enough. I started eating better, I learned everything I could about living healthfully, and I started running. So far, I've lost 65 lbs, run a 5k and a 10k, and have taken up Zumba.
So, what does all of this have to do with the play I haven't been able to write for ten years? I wanted to write about the struggle I've been through. I know I'm not alone. A lot of people struggle with their weight, and if I could find the right way of expressing it, I know I would have a receptive audience. The problem I've had with writing the play so far, is that I am too close to the subject and take it too seriously. I could never finish a script.
Feeling better and more confident has made it easier for me to take a step back and look at my choices and actions with a more detached frame of mind. I could see the humor in it and the ridiculousness of what people go through to attain some vague idea of perfection. Suddenly, I knew it had to be a comedy.
That freed me to start thinking about the show in a new way. I had been watching a lot of musicals and started having song ideas that would fit into a musical about the crazy diet industry and the overwhelming presence of fatty, processed foods. So, Fat Camp: The Musical was born. After months of notes, I finally attempted to write the script. It was difficult, and I was only partially satisfied with the result. I left it alone. I knew there were some good ideas in there, but I had other projects that I wanted to work on.
I signed up for Scriptfrenzy, which is a program where you write a 100 page script during the month of April. I didn't have any other play ideas at the time, and I decided to write a new version of Fat Camp. I started from scratch and wrote without editing myself. I have a habit of editing as I go and end up with a bland, boring script. This time I wrote without limitations, and I loved the result. I knew when it was done that I had something good. I am not usually confident in anything, and it is rare that I feel this positive about a project so early in the process.
I passed it on to my husband, Andy, who is someone I trust to be brutally honest with me. He laughed out loud while he read it, and I was even more reassured that my initial feelings were correct. We had some great discussions about the script, and I did some revising. I sent it to our friend, Rob, who is a great writer, and asked him to help write the lyrics for the songs. I am not a song writer, so I made notes and wrote down my ideas but didn't write anything that had to stay. I am leaving the songs to Andy and Rob.
That's where we are right now. The guys are starting to work on the songs, and I am polishing the script. This blog is going to chronicle our process as we create this crazy show. I love this show enough to try to take it as far as I can. Our initial plan is to film it and put it on the Internet. Once we have an internet following, we hope it will be easy to find a place to stage it. After that, who knows? I'm not ruling out Broadway. That's the distant goal. I know it's a crazy one, but I don't think it's impossible. Until I know it is, I'm not giving up.
So, this is how it begins. Fat Camp is in existence, and now I need to start looking into grants, locations, and actors. I'm so excited to work on this show, and I know when it finally gets out into the public, they are going to love it.
