A New Litter of Plot Bunnies

Hello again, friends! I come to you today with a joyful announcement. A new litter of plot bunnies has just been born!

In case you’re unfamiliar with the phrase, a plot bunny is an idea for a new story or plot twist. It’s based on a quote from John Steinbeck:

Well, unlike that master John Steinbeck, I don’t know how to handle all my ideas. Any plot bunny has the potential to wreak havoc with my current work-in-progress. As I’ve said before, starting something new is always easier than crafting a finale. But plot bunnies have a way of sticking in your brain and demanding attention, so I’ll give mine a little airing here. Hopefully, that will get them out of my system. After that, I’ve gotta get myself back to “The Princess Maid.” The ending is so close, yet so far.

Plot Bunny #1: The Full Monty, Dream Season Two

Yesterday, I retold a scene that I originally read in the work of Dr. Joseph Berke, the incident that prompted him to quit establishment psychiatry. A patient having a manic episode was disrupting the group therapy session by dancing. The supervising doctor had the orderlies remove her by force. It struck me that since that Gaz was a hospital orderly, I could rewrite the scene to include him. Not only would he refuse, he’d dance with her. Can’t you just see it?

My gosh, I’m dreaming that someone associated with the show will read this and like the idea. Dream of dreams: they like it so much, they hire me as an underling writer.

Plot Bunny #2: The Full Monty/Unorthodox Crossover

Now here is a plot bunny I am uniquely qualified to develop. Gaz’s daughter Destiny (Des, for short) is an aspiring musician and rap poet. I’m pretty sure she’s the alter ego of the series co-writer Alice Nutter, who was in the band Chumbawamba. Their most famous song includes some rap.

Well, I know another character who finds her lifeline through music: Esty Shapiro from “Unorthodox.” She was raised in the Satmar community in Williamsburgh, Brooklyn. That’s probably the most right-wing of all Hasidic sects, other than Skver. She leaves her faith and her husband to study music in Berlin. Just like Des, she has her own dramatic audition scene.

She’s singing the traditional song that is played when a Jewish bride walks to the wedding canopy, our equivalent of “Here Comes the Bride.” Since a Jewish woman is not allowed to sing solo in public, this performance is an act of defiance. The bearded man in the back is her estranged husband. He’s still in love with her and has followed her all the way to Europe, so the scene packs an emotional wallop.

Here’s a translation of the lyrics. They’re much more poetic than “Here Comes the Bride.”

He [G-d] Who understands
the conversation of
the rose among thorns,
the love of a bride,
the joy of lovers,
may He bless
the groom and bride.

My idea is for Des and Esty to meet. Neither one has much formal musical education, but both got into their schools on raw talent. Culturally, they’re very different than each another, but they’re also both outsiders within their new schools. In my story, Esty goes to England for a term, and she and Des end up as classmates and friends, if not actual roommates. Because Esty has left an intensely conservative religious tradition, she’s in a position to advise Tabani, who has to make a choice between her family and her love of Des.

And those are my two plot bunnies. A small enough litter that I should be able to get back to “The Princess Maid” without too much difficulty. When I left off, Belle just landed in China. . .