From: Chris [mailto:ninebuddhas@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, January 4, 2013 3:41 PM
Subject: Abnormal Psychology (A Short Film)
Abnormal Psychology is a short comedy set in a group psychotherapy session (six patients moderated by one psychotherapist) with the primary dynamic being juxtaposing claims by each patient with flashbacks to the character’s totally inconsistent actual behavior to explore the elusiveness of “normal” psychology.
All actors must be over 18. Race is open for all roles. We are open to casting either a man or a woman in each role. For the role of the Hypochondriac we are looking for someone who would be willing to shave their head (to make the initial claim of having a brain tumor compelling). For that role we would prefer casting a woman (but are not excluding male actors from consideration).
We will be filming sometime between mid January and mid February and will cast in part based on actor availability. The roles we are casting for are:
1. The Psychotherapist. The psychotherapist has been retained by the state to lead and monitor the group therapy sessions. He has a file on each patient and is under pressure to close files, because the state bureaucrats are claiming that he is defrauding the state since no one seems to be getting better.
To close files he is looking for patients that he can deem normal or cured. But while most of the patients don’t seem to be suffering from the disorder they have been labeled with – they really don’t seem normal. Normal is elusive.
When different disorders are mentioned, the psychotherapist will list the symptoms with such personal intensity that it becomes clear that he is not only educated regarding such disorders, he has often suffered the disorders himself. Flashbacks will follow his personal experiences.
While the psychotherapist is talking, there’s a conversation between two patients discussing the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist (the former being a PhD who can only employ useless talk and the latter being a medical doctor who can prescribe drugs). They conclude that a psychotherapist is someone who does not want you to know if they are a psychiatrist or a psychologist. [This role has already been cast.]
2. The Hypochondriac. The film opens with a close up of a woman with a shaved head who is dramatically describing her treatment for a brain tumor. The shaved head makes her case for having actually undergone chemotherapy compelling. Everyone in the room is on the verge of tears until her story expands to other medical illnesses that she claims to have had and combatted successfully, which leads the audience to understand that she is just a hypochondriac.
At the end of her presentation, the psychotherapist lists the medication she is supposed to be taking, with a flashback of her spitting out the pills. [Each patient’s initial presentation ends with a review of the patient’s prescribed medication and a flashback showing that one way or another that they are not taking it (spitting it out, flushing it down the toilet, leaving it in the cup, feeding it to pets under the table).]
For the Hypochondriac – we are looking for a woman who is willing to shave her head. Open to age (over 18) and open as to race.
3. Problems with Anger Management. One patient is at group therapy because he has been ordered by the court to attend an anger management program. He apparently is currently incarcerated and has been delivered to the session by prison guards in hand cuffs. Ironically this patient seems exceptionally calm and in control. He explains to the group that he doesn’t have any problem with anger management (and on the face of it one would think that he doesn’t need it). Before he speaks to the group he flirts with a woman sitting next to him. The group leader is excited about the possibility that he is normal and that his file can be closed.
The psychiatrist reads the descriptions of different altercations the patient has had. In the session he explains them away with his peaceful tone. But the audience sees flashbacks of the actual events revealing his horrific violent tendencies.
The psychiatrist’s interview with the patient ends with the psychiatrist reading from the file that the patient had killed a cat. With the killing of the cat, the tone of the patient in the session and the tone of the flashback is reversed. The flashback is of the patient peacefully holding a cat in his lap. But in the session, his peaceful expression drops and he admits: “I just don’t like cats.”
4. The Mis-Diagnosed. One patient claims to be suffering from a medical condition (tentatively prostate cancer). It is a mild case and it is not life threatening. He is aware that surgically removing his prostate could lead to impotence or incontinence but he is not particularly concerned. Arguably he should be anxious or suffering from depression, but psychologically he is top notch. He feels great and he is only attending these sessions because his doctor tells him that doing so will increase the scope of his insurance coverage regarding his prostate surgery.
There is a discussion between patients about the unfortunate location of the prostate, what it was doing there, whether women have a prostate, and whether you could identify the prostate through physical examination (coughing and probing).
The psychotherapist tells the patient that he’s going to clear his case because it was a medical not a psychological issue and that there was nothing the psychotherapist could do about the medical condition. The patient says he was just trying to secure insurance. The psychotherapist tries to assure him that attending would not enhance his coverage and that even if it did, he could not participate in defrauding his insurance company. But the patient says it wouldn’t be defrauding his insurance company if attending the sessions did not actually extend his insurance coverage.
The discussion continues in a circle making participates in it for too long – insane.
5. The Sex Addict. One patient claims that she is a sex addict. She is conservatively dressed and nothing about her looks sexual. [Two other patients discuss the fact that when they were growing up was no such thing as being a sex addicts. Aren’t all men sex addicts? And if there are sex addicts – who would have guessed that this conservative looking woman would be one.] The patient describes her addiction as feeling compelled to relate to all men sexually, feeling compelled to do anything and everything a man could want, and feeling that each man she is with is the best lover that could ever be (and telling his so). When she explains her condition, all of the men in the room become attentive.
A woman in the group asks whether she is attracted to women or just to men. The patient goes into a long answer about having sex with women, but that she doesn’t really know if she is having sex with women, because she is addicted to having sex with women, or if she is just attracted to sex with women, because men love her to want to have sex with women. Everyone loves lesbians. After the long explanation, the other woman who originally asked if the patient had sex with women, repeats, “So you do have sex with women?” The patient looks her in the eyes and says, “Yes.”
The psychotherapist then starts to explore if this addiction negatively interfered with her personal life or work. She says it doesn’t. The psychotherapist asks how often the patient has sex. She says once. He asks here to clarify if she means once an hour, once a day, once a week . . . She explains that she has only had sex with a man once, because before she had sex every man (once they heard she was a sex addict) treated her like a goddess. But sex seemed to be the antidote – not for her disorder – but to their infatuation. So she just avoids sex like an alcoholic avoids beer.
[The patients that had been talking about sex addiction hear her explanation and conclude that she might be screwed up – but just like all of the woman they sleep with are screwed up. Then the woman who asked about the patient’s lesbian tendencies asks: “So you don’t really have sex with women?”]
6. The Shoplifter. One patient claims to have been ordered to attend these sessions by the court. She explained that the judge claimed that she was suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder since she had repeatedly been arrested for shoplifting, even though she was affluent and could to buy all of the items she had attempted to steal. No matter how the psychotherapist came at she said – she responded by saying that she wasn’t disturbed. She was OK – don’t worry about her. And in the end, concluded by saying that she loved lipstick, but that she loved free lipstick even more. Does that seem wrong to you?
7. The Anorexic. One patient claims to be anorexic. She goes on at length about knowing the health risks involved in anorexia and that her doctor has advised her that her excessive exercise and her self deprivation of nutrients could lead to various medical problems including heart and organ failure an death. [If the patient is a man, there is a discussion about eating disorders being much more prevalent in women.] The patient goes on about the symptoms of anorexia including speaking at length about no longer getting her period. When she was getting her period she dreaded it, now she actually misses her period and not getting it makes her stressed out about whether she will be able to have a baby.
This discussion is intercut with two men in the group talking about menstruation.
Everything the patient says is consistent with a diagnosis of anorexia, except she is not emaciated, not even thin. She is clearly full figured. [The bigger the better.]
We learn that she has had lap band surgery, but she claims the surgery really was redundant, as she was already eating nothing. She claims that she eats like a bird, but we get flashbacks to Chinese Buffets and self serve yogurt stores.
The psychiatrist becomes perplexed because the patient clearly seems to be delusional – but she in no way seems anorexic. He takes a Polaroid of her to put in her file in an attempt to establish that she is not anorexic.
When he does this, she becomes enraged, claiming that he wants her picture to sell to porn sites and that she only looks the way she does because men have made her do this to herself, to get their sexual attention. She claims she makes herself this way because this is the only look that men respond to. She repeats – men love this.
The film concludes with the psychotherapist dying while partaking in autoerotic asphyxiation during a break from the group therapy. When the patients find the psychotherapist dead (if the psychiatrist is a man) they debate whether dry cleaners will remove the stains of semen from his dress pants. If the psychotherapist is a woman, they debate whether woman practice autoerotic asphyxiation or if it is a sport reserved for men. Then they debate whether it was a suicide or an accident. The patients conclude that autoerotic asphyxiation in itself is “not abnormal” – it’s normal and the psychiatrist’s unfortunate death was just bad control of the restraints (not unlike a car accident -- except while having sex – by yourself).
When the psychiatrist is found dead, the anorexic patient insists that he died while masturbating to her picture. She empathizes with him. Given that he had her picture in his file and her strong attractiveness to men, his inability to wait until after the session to masturbate was understandable. Ultimately she feels responsible for his death.
Extras. We are also looking for actors to play psychiatric institution attendants (people in white lab coats), the psychotherapist’s secretary, prison guards, and other psychiatric patients that appear in the background of scenes. We may also add additional speaking patients (for example the cowardly lion) to the extent additional roles match up with strong actors expressing interest in the project.
There is no monetary compensation but you will receive title credit and a digital copy of the film.
Let me know if you are interested in the project and your preference as to role.
Ya Ya Perez
Casting Director
Nine Buddhas Pictures
----------------
Tucson Theatre Announcements List
Subscription information at TucsonStage.com
No comments:
Post a Comment