SCRIPT REPORT

**TITLE/AUTHOR EDITED FOR COPYRIGHT PURPOSES

SYNOPSIS:
F is a homosexual boxer who is working out in his gym in the middle of the night.
As he exercises, he remembers different moments in his life that impacted him
and that he plays out in his head: as both a motivation for the future and a
reminder of the past. The show flashes between these moments, all imagined
and re-visited in the gym, culminating in him beating up the boxer outside a bar
to whom he won the championship against. The play ends with him awaiting the
polices arrival.

PREMISE
A boxer reflects on the lenses world perceives him in: a champion, a fighter, and
a gay man.

THOUGHTS ON STRUCTURE, PLOT, ETC.

As the play went on and I caught on with how everything was being presented, I
thoroughly enjoyed it. The silences followed by Fs interactions with various
people (presumably offstage) was an interesting way to give his
character/motivation context while not requiring the changing of scenery. I will
say, though, that the literal way this play was written made this format confusing
for a bit. I understand leaving the staging and presentation of the work in the
hands of theatre directors, but I was lost as a reader not having any visual aid,
character names, or notation of scene breaks; some bare bone additions with
clarifying action/description will make this much easier to process. Moreover, the
characters whose lines are in quotation marks need to be named in some way. If
one offstage actor or even the actor portraying F recites those lines, thats
alright. Without character names, reading the play is disorienting in a nontheatrical way. Why the lines written in red on pages 6 through 14? Other
flashbacks in the script lack this element. Again, I think this is distracting and
should be specified a bit more.
This inner struggle of F being a gay boxer is one you dont often hear about. Page
36 is the first real instance of truly implying his sexual orientation. Keeping a
reveal until midway through act 2 makes perfect sense, but there should be more
clues (subtle as you like) peppered in. Does Fs father approve of his sexual
orientation? Does he know? The first 25 pages or so consisting mainly of mantras
and metaphors could be used to include more struggles about being in the
spotlight and being closeted. As F steps away from explaining his craft and these
metaphors, the story as a whole becomes stronger and more appealing. These
descriptions of fights and the carnage that follows should be limited as it feels
repetitive and can lose the audience.
The non-linear scenes scattered throughout the play are interesting and a
welcome change of pace from Fs monologues, but there should be a clear
purpose and gain of knowledge to the audience to justify each. We should come
out of each flashback/flash-forward seeing things different than before.

CHARACTER/DIALOGUE OF F
It makes sense that we dont know a whole lot about F. Hes a boxer, hes gay,
and hes pretty lonely. I love the contrast between the inherent masculinity of
boxing contrasted with the stereotypical feminine notion of homosexuality. His
father is an influence on him, being a former boxer and all, but F is also fighting
stereotypes and the constraints society puts on the LGBT community to act and
do things a certain way. Does F want his dad to see him box? Planting seeds of
his homosexuality should be placed earlier. It took nearly 30 pages in the script
before I wrote down in my notes: Is F gay?
The dialogue is for the most part a monologue of Fs. Again, having some bits in
quotation marks and others not is confusing while reading this play. It is unclear
if these are truly other roles to be played by other actors in the show or if they
are all to be portrayed by F, perhaps in different voices. I dont fully buy Fs
dialogue at times. The setting of the play is roughly 3 AM in a gym. As a boxer
who probably has mild brain damage from fighting as well as fatigue from being
up so late, I doubt he would be spouting all these perfect metaphors and
beautiful imagery about what its like to be in the ring.
Some dialogue highlights

Page 10: Spray of crimson think hes drunk.

Page 27: Never trust a man... Your final argument.
Page 30-31: Hes shifty and the animal you are!

FEASIBILITY
A boxer working out by himself in a gym late at night is simple enough for
smaller theatre productions to put on while larger companies can easily add
theatricality to the flashback/flash-forward scenes, making them more lavish.
Provided that Fs monologues become more clear in why hes telling us what hes
telling and the flashbacks/flash-forwards have clearer purposes, audiences will
latch onto this story and the inner struggles F deals with. There is not a clear
pandering to any specific demographics (except adults), so this could work
regardless of majority males or females in the audience. Everyone can relate to
the feeling of hiding ones true self and being stuck with a label/position
someone else gave you.