#roach filming a tiktok real

[wrylu]

hihi guys!! almost fainted today when i sat up from my bed & ice spice songs were stuck in my head so i drew 😞

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

A Miraculous TikTok Account

Part 18

First

Previous

Next

The previous night, Chloe and Chat had been standing on the table, arms wrapped around each other as they screamed for the help of the other house members.

Rena, the only person home at the time, had run in. Her brown eyes were wide and frantic as she looked around for some kind of threat.

“What?! What is it?! Why’re you --?!”

“Roach!” Said Chat, his voice high. “Kill it!”

Instead of killing it like the two had hoped, she screeched and immediately jumped for the safety of the table.

Except… it was a table. And it definitely wasn’t made to hold the weight of three fully grown adults. It collapsed under their weight.

This wasn’t their main concern, though, because she sat up and looked around for the roach, only to find that it wasn’t where she’d last spotted it.

“Where did it go?! Who has eyes on it?!”

“Run!”

The three of them scrambled from the room as quickly as they possibly could, shoving each other around in attempts to be the first to the maybe-safety of the living room. They got up on the couch after brief scans to check for the roach and none of them relaxed until they were completely sure the roach hadn’t followed them into the room.

And then they all tensed up again because they realized what they’d done.

Ladybug and Carapace were going to kill them.

(Well, Ladybug was going to kill them, Carapace would just give them the Exasperated Dad Sigh and tell them how he wasn’t mad just disappointed which was WAY worse and --!)

“We’re screwed,” mumbled Chat, hugging his knees to his chest as tears threatened to spill from the corners of his eyes.

Chloe rested her head in her hands. “I just got back to normal after all the salsa, I can’t handle another one of their passive-aggressive punishments.”

There was a beat before the couch shifted. Chloe peeked through her fingers to see Rena was pacing around, trying to think.

“Listen, they can only get mad if they find out. Chat, you go out and see if you can find a new table. Chloe and I are going to try and see if we can fix it.”

They all looked at each other, considering their options. They figured it was better than nothing, might as well try.

He took a shaky breath to steel himself and then nodded. He got up and grabbed the envelope with their monthly allowance from Fu before beginning his mission.

The women were left to rebuild a table.

It… might have worked. They were using glue to try and make it harder to see and they managed to put all the pieces together in a way that made them look more or less like normal. Sure, there were a lot of cracks, but Ladybug and Carapace were sleep deprived pretty much at all times, they probably wouldn’t notice.

Rena set the centerpiece -- a vase of flowers -- in the center of the table and they held their breath as they waited for the table to break under the little weight.

It didn't!

They breathed a sigh of relief.

It collapsed.

Chloe stared at the pile that had once been their table. “Hopefully, Chat managed to find a table.”

“I’ll clean,” said Rena.

Chloe shook her head and waved her hands vaguely. This got a confused look from the other woman, but only for a few moments before a swarm of bees floated down the stairs and started working together to carry pieces out the open window and to the dumpster.

“... you’ve been able to help clean the house this whole time and you’ve never once offered.”

“Never bothered me before,” explained Chloe, grinning at the obviously annoyed miraculous holder.

Thankfully, Rena didn’t have enough time to strangle her properly before they heard Chat yelling for help getting the table inside.

They walked out and looked at the table and exchanged worried glances. It was obviously different, the quality of the wood was way better than the first table (who knows, this one might have actually been able to withstand all of their weights). The color was also slightly off, which wasn’t great.

“It was... the closest... I could find,” he said through pants.

Chloe wondered, vaguely, how far he had dragged it.

“They’re gonna know,” said Rena.

“They’re... not going to know,” argued Chat, though it seemed like he was only trying to reassure himself.

Rena pinched the bridge of her nose. “They’re going to know.”

“... how would they know?”

Chloe leveled him with a cold stare. “They have eyes.”

The three of them all looked at the table with dejected expressions before Rena snapped her fingers.

“I’ve got it: tablecloth. We need a tablecloth.”

Chloe took off in the direction of a store without another word.

~

They laid the tablecloth on top of the table and then set the vase down. This table didn’t break, it would have been weird if it had, but that didn’t stop the women from taking a step back before they sighed in relief.

They heard the doorknob jingle and Carapace curse outside as he fetched his keys and the three looked at each other with wide eyes.

Act natural.

They scrambled to the living room for the second time that night (or, rather, the second time in twenty four hours, since it was now daybreak). Chat booted up a game on the console. She grabbed the controllers. Rena took a seat on the arm of the couch and allowed a mischievous smile to grace her face (she’d been fighting it almost all day).

The impulse control stepped in and seemed to instantly figure out something was wrong…

But apparently patrols had tired them out, because they didn’t say anything as they went to join them.

~

Ladybug looked at the tablecloth for a few moments before she turned to give Chloe a questioning look.

Chloe sent her her brightest smile. “I thought it would look nice.”

The miraculous holder blinked.

“I… I suppose it doesn’t look bad…?”

“Of course not, I chose it.”

This pulled Ladybug’s attention away from the table, if only temporarily, and Chloe only smiled wider at the eyeroll she was sent.

~

Carapace raised his eyebrows as he picked up the envelope. He slowly pulled the money out and looked around at the unlucky pair who happened to be in the room.

She met Chat’s eyes. Had he really forgotten to put back the money for the table?

He gave her a sheepish smile.

She scoffed a little and then turned to look at Carapace, who had a shockingly calculated expression on his face as he looked at the money.

And then he sighed. “That was one expensive tablecloth.”

Chloe’s forehead beaded with sweat. Time to lean into her rich kid-ness and hope that was enough to convince him. “Is that so? I hadn’t thought it was that bad. Should I pay it back?”

He sighed again. “No. It’s fine, we have enough for the month, it’s just… talk to me before you buy anything? You, too, Chat. Both of you have no concept of money.”

They both nodded their understanding and Carapace left to go grocery shopping.

She relaxed, her head tipping back against the chair. They had gotten away with it.

~

Chloe hummed as she considered the two video ideas.

The first video was the edited down footage of when she’d gone shopping with Rena and Ladybug and all the dumb things people had said to them while they thought they were cosplayers. It was a fun video and she was actually kind of proud of it.

The other was a video of her calling people out for the dumb things they did. It was on brand and what she was going to devote her entire account to it, because Parisians had… let’s call them ‘interesting’ thought processes. (Also, she liked calling people stupid. Sue her.)

She drummed her fingers on the keyboard as if they would type out an answer for her, then reluctantly came to her conclusion: she should make her debut video representative of her account so people knew what they were signing up for when they followed her.

… but she would also upload the ‘cosplay’ video the next day. For fun.

~

Time to film.

Chloe rested her head on her hand, glaring at the camera.

“Hey, Paris. Queen Bee here to call you out because none of the people I live with have the balls to do it.”

Her lip barely twitched at the quiet whine of protest that Rena made, but apparently she didn’t care enough to look up from her cleaning.

“Listen, if you’re scared of walking home alone and you happen to see one of us on patrols, wave us down. I know you’re all worried and you think it isn’t our jobs to help you, and you’d be right… if our jobs didn’t hinge on everyone in Paris being mentally stable.”

“We’d rather take a few minutes out of our days to walk -- or even carry -- you home than spend half an hour or more fighting you off as an akuma.”

“And, hey, if an akuma does happen to crop up we’ll take you to the nearest akuma shelter. One less civilian to worry about, right?”

She smiled now. “Stop being stupid. Thanks!”

She turned off the video and looked up to see Rena giving her an odd look.

Chloe scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “What? Are you surprised I’m a nice person...?”

The word ‘too’ died on her tongue.

Rena slowly shook her head. “I don’t think you’re nice.”

Oh. Okay. Ow.

An angry buzz started under her skin, but Rena held up a hand to stop her before she could say anything.

“Let me explain. I think you’re kind, but you’re not nice.”

Now it was Chloe’s turn to give her a confused look, the buzz lowering to a dull thrum. What does that even mean?

Rena was off cleaning another room before Chloe even thought to ask her.

~

The next video started out shaky because the phone hadn’t had a stable place to rest.

The camera focused until people could make out Rena, in her costume, talking to a person who’d been carefully blurred. The both of them were clearly excited about something, waving their hands around wildly as they spoke, but the cameraperson had to get closer for anyone to understand what they were saying.

“-- always wondered whether or not Queen Bee and Ladybug actually need the wings or if they’re just for show,” the stranger was saying.

“Too coordinated for it to be fake wings,” said Rena with a shake of her head. “They’re real. I wonder if they have to watch their weight to make sure they can still fly.”

“But then wouldn’t they be easier for akumas to hit around --?”

The camera panned to Chloe’s deadpan expression. “You can believe that Ladybug can create anything she wants with her yoyo but the problem is her wings?”

The camera cut.

Now the viewers were looking at Ladybug, who was smiling at what was obviously a little kid due to all the pink in her outfit. She had lifted the polka dotted red part of her dress up manually to reveal the shimmering wings in question.

“They’re so shiny! What’re they made of?”

Ladybug smiled and knelt down so the kid could reach out and touch her wings. “I’m gonna let you in on a secret --” The audio was temporarily muted to hide the name. “I’m actually Ladybug.”

“No way!” She yelled in her excitement. (Rena stiffened in the background.) “Are you really --?”

Ladybug held a finger to her lips. “Shhhh! It’s a secret, remember?”

The kid lowered her voice to what basically amounted to a stage-whisper. “Are you really Ladybug?!”

Ladybug smiled and nodded her head. “Yeah, but don’t tell anyone, okay?”

The girl gave her a salute.

The next few cuts were just Chloe taking pictures with people. Why was she doing that when their faces were blurred for privacy? Because her hair and makeup had looked really good that day and she was proud, dang it!

The next cut was to Rena and a new guy, though the viewers wouldn’t be able to tell until they heard a distinctly different voice:

“Your outfit is really good, but you got the shading wrong. The orange is lighter than that.”

Rena stared at him for five seconds, jaw slack, eyes wide. The next five seconds were spent opening and closing her mouth without sound coming out. And then she finally got a hold of herself.

“Okay,” she said, apparently too stunned to even be sarcastic about it.

The last cut had all three miraculous holders in frame, they were talking to someone offscreen.

“Who do you guys ship?”

The three of them had looked at each other awkwardly and then Rena’s face split into a mischievous grin.

“If we’re going on who has the most chemistry, I’d have to say QueenBug.”

A blush spread across Ladybug’s cheeks and she made a move like she was going to bury her face in Chloe’s shoulder before she thought better of it and rested her face in her hands instead.

(If anyone had noticed the steady warming of Chloe’s face, no they didn’t.)

The woman they were talking to sounded confused: “QueenBug? I always heard people calling it ChloeBug.”

Chloe tried not to laugh at Ladybug’s clear distress, but she couldn’t help but tease her a little bit. “ChloeBug? QueenBug? I thought it was LadyBee.”

Rena had no such reservations against laughing. “Whatever the ship name, it’s pretty popular.”

“Of course it is, they team up the most. And did you see that thirst trap prank video? If they’re not dating, I’d eat my shoe,” said the woman who had a shoe in her future.

Ladybug, who was still bright red but had gained back some of her functionality now, whispered: “I thought we were called The Lovebugs.”

The video zoomed in on the stunned faces of Rena and Chloe individually before cutting out.

~~~

Taglist

@nathleigh @sassakitty @th1s-1s-my-aesthet1c @blueslushgueen @woe-is-me0 @ladybug-182 @cas-and-their-refusal-to-write

[ayeshintheclouds]

What a strange middle space I exist in. It’s like the time between Christmas and New Year. When everything’s done, but technically it’s not. When the year is so practically over that you act as if it already is. But it’s not. High school is over. Except it’s not. 

We still have assignments sometimes. An occasional Zoom call. But that’s not what high school is to me. I have an obsession with lasts. In so many aspects of life. I remember a specific time, the week before my eleventh birthday. Every single night before bed that week, I’d think to myself, “it’s my last Tuesday 10” “my last Friday 10” it was stupid. But I did that with everything. When we moved. My last time using this shower. My last night in my room. My last time opening this closet door. I never stopped that. And I had built up so many lasts in my head for high school. It was such a crazy time of my life, the most I’d ever changed as a person, the most experience I’d gotten in the real world. I’m attached to that building, its people, the walls, the books. I was so prepared to live through each and every one of those lasts.

My last time using the disgusting school restrooms with roaches. My last time sleeping on the giant comfy library sofas. My last time walking in to gov with an orange and sticking its cutie sticker on the back of the seat in front of me. My last time listening to music in class and then jolting up when uh oh stinky starts playing on max volume cuz zahra hijacked my airpods. My last time walking to euro with the same song playing in both our ears as we walk off in different directions, sighing when the Bluetooth connection cuts off cuz you’re too far. As far as you can get in one building. What we wouldn’t give to be in the same building right now. My last time quickly clicking out of my Papa’s freezeria tab and zoning back into a lecture about scandalous prince Henry and his million wives. My last time filling out forensics notes made by our sweet teacher who draws cute lil heart bulletins for each of the 19 ways a man’s blood can drain out of his body. My last time rushing to lunch before the giant pizza line or the crowds around the restroom mosh pits cuz some rapper died. My last time cuddling up in a giant blanket with my friends on the floor of our freezing cold English room to watch A Quiet Place or Marriage Story or The Good Place. Our last time making a steaming cup of hot chocolate using our teachers coffee machine to read a picture of Dorian grey. My last time sneaking my friend into library free period and then getting caught. She made my friend go out but we keep talking, through the glass. We write words on our notebook paper and show each other. We play charades. We FaceTime and text despite being a foot apart but there’s glass separating us. My last time sneaking up to the abandoned second floor of the library where all the lonely dead books live, where it feels like an airplane when it rains. You can hear the rain pattering above you and the lights go out and u feel like ur in a giant haunted library all alone. But then ms b yells for you to come down and change the water filters or take out todays orbeez and youre back in reality. My last time jolting awake to the sound of the awful trumpet bell and rushing to the bus. Saving a seat for zahra and cringing at boys’ conversations behind us as they compare weewee sizes and rate girls. Recording a bus vlog together and sharing headphones to watch funny videos. My last time walking home with Renelle and MonaLisa, stopping every few feet so they can film tiktoks. Arriving at the crossroad between our houses and saying “See you tomorrow,” before heading home. Every day. Every day we said those exact words like a tradition, even on Fridays by accident and then we’d giggle and say “oh I mean Monday” and I thought to myself that the last month of school I’d record us saying that everyday to make a graduation memory compilation.

My last time going to high school. Or school at all. Unless you count college as school, which I guess it is. But still. It’ll never be the same. We’re opening one chapter before finishing the last. We haven’t fully left high school but technically we’re in college. We haven’t fully started college cuz we’re technically still in high school. It’s over. My last day of school was something I barely remember. My friend had memorized a thousand digits of pi for extra credit and we watched her perform it in front of her class. I’m trying so hard to go back and count the lasts. But I didn’t savor it. I wish I’d known it’d be my last. It’s taught me at least to savor everything. Anything can be a last moment. Life can change at the drop of a hat.

We missed our university orientation. It was gonna be the most amazing two days of our lives. Our first ever slumber party. We’d be roommates in a dorm room and we’d do the candlelight traditions and the songs and everything. They gave us an online one now. Staff people speaking us through green screens and a bunch of twenty minute videos. Zoom calls. Surveys. Emails. All our real life experiences replaced by the stupid internet that I hate so much but it’s all I’ve got.

Who knows if we’ll have a graduation, a prom? If we’ll ever get to walk across that stage or wear that dress or even see each other in person again. Sometimes my friends come by, on their bikes or with their parents. We talk through my second floor window or on the porch six feet apart. When they leave it feels like they never came at all because it was so surreal. It doesn’t feel the same. Nothing feels the same. It feels empty and hollow and lonely and like reality is fake. Time passes as a blob now. Someone says it’s Friday and I want to scream. What does that supposed to mean? Is that supposed to hold any meaning to me anymore? Friday meant no school tomorrow. There’s no school today or tomorrow or the day after or ever.

I know I shouldn’t complain. I have life in my arms and legs and color in my cheeks and my body can breathe without machinery that costs thousands to make. The height of my pain is boredom and I’m sure there’s thousands, millions, who would kill to have a problem as first world as mine. So I have no right to complain. But I will. Because although others’ pain is greater than mine, pain is pain, and I want so badly to get it off my chest without hurting the feelings of people actually suffering. And I’m well aware that anyone reading this might think me a spoiled brat. I guess I am. But high school’s over. Except it’s not

[saitamastamaticsoup]

Fr they were traumatizing the black actors on set and this is made by a white gay man sensationalizing this. Bc y’all snow roaches are on Tiktok like oh I didn’t flinch I wish it had more fire THESE WERE REAL PEOPLE NOT A FUCKING SLASHER FILM!! Y’all have absolutely NO empathy for black and brown queer people and it’s disgusting. This ain’t teaching nobody shit there’s so many videos and podcasts about this already that’s NOT giving the dude a voice. It a single one of y’all’s re gunna research these victims past being a body on his kill count, not their families( that are still living watching y’all behave like freaks)

Don't watch Dahmer on Netflix

Families of he victims have described the show as cruel and say it retraumatized them.

True Crime people. Please remember that romantisizing serial killers is trauma porn and minimizing the very real trauma of love ones and survivors.

Dahmer is a scumbag that deserves his name forgotten to history.

-fae

[highwiredazeken]

THE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF AMERICAN TEETH

American Teeth is the sonic alter ego of Elijah Noll, who collaborates alongside producer Colin Brittain (All Time Low, A Day To Remember, ONE OK ROCK, Papa Roach) and this meeting of the minds has resulted in quite a journey into the realm of pop punk and beyond. Hailing from Portland, Maine but currently based in Los Angeles, American Teeth recently signed to Fearless Records and plan to release his debut album later this year.  With singles such as Barred Out and One Of These Days already making a lasting impression on all types of music fans, American Teeth is slated to open the Aftershock Music Festival in Sacramento and has other live shows in the works as well.  Highwire Daze recently interviewed Elijah Noll find out a whole lot more about the up and coming American Teeth and their absolutely exhilarating, imaginative songs!  Read on…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in American Teeth and how long you’ve been doing this project. I am the singer, writer, co-producer of American Teeth. I started the project – we’re coming up on two years in June actually. So, it’s a fairly new project that came out of a session that I had with my now frequent collaborator Colin Brittain – who’s a great producer. We had a session with Munky from KORN actually – that was kind of put together and we really ended up hitting it off the two of us and started writing songs for fun – and that’s kind of how it all started.

How did you wind up signing with Fearless Records? That was after a couple of different meetings – Colin and I together ended up going around meeting a couple of different record labels – Fearless was one of them. Colin actually knew Andy Serrao the President of the label – so we ended up popping in there after one of our meetings in the area out here in LA.

You’re originally from Portland, Maine. What was the music scene like in Portland, Maine and were you involved with any bands up there? The music scene was definitely small. I was more involved as a fan of the emo scene up in the area. I don’t know if you know the band Sparks The Rescue – I went to some of their shows. We had a few venues like The State Theater. The Cumberland County Civic Center was kind of like our arena-type venue. I specifically remember seeing My Chemical Romance and Green Day there, which were pretty pivotal moments for me at the time. I used to play mostly house parties in kid’s basements and stuff like that. I definitely didn’t explode on the Portland, Maine scene. I was more kind of a fan within the scene.

And now you’re all the way across the country in Los Angeles which has a legendary music scene. What did you think of the music scene out here prior to the pandemic? I think that it’s actually growing because of the ability to connect virtually and all of that. I feel like people are just more driven to connect whether it’s through Zoom or Facetime. You could just do a quick meetup to see if it’s worth working together. It’s different than when shows are happening, but I do a lot of stuff on the writing side of the music scene out here, so I’ve been able to really connect with a lot of people – not only in Los Angeles but all over via Zoom. I’ve personally found that my network has expanded pretty quickly throughout this strange time.

What has it been like to write and release new music for American Teeth in the middle of a pandemic and all this social unrest in the world? It’s definitely helped fuel my creativity and the creation process around that. As far as releasing, it’s been interesting because it’s really kind of this thing where you’re putting it out and you don’t get to go play it live like you usually would. Like you’re just putting it out there. I’m focusing more on getting the song out and really making sure that I’m creating visuals that match the story I’m trying to tell or the vibe that I want people to feel. And I’ve been getting into TikTok too which has been an interesting journey.

Let’s talk about your new song One Of These Days and what inspired the lyrics for you. That song is essentially about acceptance honestly. It’s about waking up and just feeling terrible right off the bat. A lot of times when I’m feeling down or I’m going through a bad day, I’ll try to deny that that’s happening, or try to convince myself “It’s fine. I’ll be fine…” and just push through. But I found recently with some trial and error that sometimes often when you just accept that you’re having a shitty day, and allow yourself to feel that, you can move past it quicker. It’s really kind of the meaning behind the whole thing – let go and accept that you’re having a shitty day – and by doing that, most of the time you’ll be able to move forward that way.

You have another song called Barred Out that you did with Twin XL – Cameron Walker who used to be in Weatherstar and The Ready Set. How did that collaboration come about, and tell me a little about that song? Yeah, that was a fun one! That one came out of a co-writing session that we had with Cameron. I brought him in with the intention of doing some stuff for American Teeth. And while we were writing, he was singing the pre-chorus part that he’s featured on. Colin and I heard him singing on it and he just killed that performance of it! I got up on the mic and sang the same thing, and it just didn’t feel the same. There was something about his take that felt really natural and perfect for it. And we told him if you want to be on this track, it would be a great way to cross our worlds. And he was down and that’s how it all kind of came together. It was pretty natural.

You also did something with the band Dreamers called Still Not Dead. Tell me how that came about. That was actually another situation where there was another co-writing situation with Nick from Dreamers and I and Colin. That day the intent was to do a Dreamers song, so I wasn’t intending on being on the song. But it was the day a little over a year ago that Kobe Bryant passed away – and Nick had just gotten back from a trip from his hometown in Seattle – unfortunately one of his childhood friends had committed suicide, so he was coming back from that funeral. It was really a dark day for everybody in general. I’ve had plenty of loss and death in my life, including my dad when I was like 12 – and a lot of family members over the years. So, we just kind of decided that we were going to write a song about how we were feeling in that moment. It was kind of like glaringly obvious that that’s what we needed to get out. So, we kind of each told our story about our experiences with death and loss – and wanted to put a bit of a spin on it that was hopeful in a way – like a celebration of life amongst all of the loss.

Your producer Colin Brittain – he’s worked with bands such as All Time Low, Papa Roach, 5 Seconds Of Summer – the list is crazy! What is it like working with him? It’s really fun – we have a good thing. He’s so incredible. His track record shows how talented he is. I think that when you bring both of our talents together, we have something that I feel is really unique – and we just have so much fun creating together.

Providing live shows actually start to happen, what are you looking forward to the most about your appearance at Aftershock later in the year? It looks like you’re playing the same day as My Chemical Romance… Yeah, it’s crazy man! It’s a dream honestly. I think about Aftershock frequently, and I can’t wait. Performing is my all-time favorite piece of music, and being an artist I just can’t wait to jump around on a festival stage. It’s going to be so amazing!

If you could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why? I would say that number one would be The 1975. I’m a really big fan of that band, and I think the band has really developed this awesome fan base that I would really love to perform for. My Chemical Romance is one of them, but I happen to be technically opening the stage for them, so that’s going to be Step 1. Step 2 would definitely be being a direct opener on a My Chemical Romance tour. That would be just completely insane. I’m a big fan of Gerard Way and his artistry and his creativity – and I just think that would be so cool!

If the music of American Teeth was a donut, what kind would it be and why? Oh, that’s a good question because I love donuts. This isn’t my favorite donut, but I think this represents us the best – a rainbow sprinkle chocolate donut. The sprinkles for me represent the many colors – the many dimensions of the sound that American Teeth has. And maybe it has a soft cream filling because the music a lot of times has a hard outer shell, but there’s a softness and warmth in the middle.

What do you hope the rest of 2021 brings for American Teeth? A lot more live shows – I want to manifest that now. More live opportunities and the ability to connect with real people in person – and to meet new people that way. An album is happening this year, and that’s exciting. And I’m also experimenting with some visual stuff with creating little, short films and things around the music – so definitely more of that as well.

(Interview by Ken Morton)

American Teeth on Facebook

[newyorktheater]

Paul Rudnick

You’re getting attention for “Coastal Elites,” which was supposed to be a play at the Public Theater, but launches as a film on HBO September 12th, starring Bette Midler, Kaitlyn Dever, Dan Levy, Sarah Paulson, and Issa Rae in five separate monologues about coping with the new abnormal. Less heralded is your role as Tweeter of Trump family foibles; some of these Tweets strike me as mini-plays, and others just draw blood. How did you come up with the two enterprises, and do you consider them connected in any way?

Paul Rudnick: As with everybody else, Twitter lets me talk back to the Trump administration. It’s like an anti-anxiety medication, and I’ve been trying to make my tweets mostly funny, instead of just constant howls of anguish. The Twitter community intrigued me, from every side of the political divide; it’s like a global town hall. It’s insane and filled with crackpots, but I like logging on to follow the world’s reactions to unfolding events in real time. Trump has galvanized Twitter and the weirdest part is, he pays attention to it. He’s furious when #TrumpMeltdown or #TrumpIsAnIdiot are trending.

I wanted to capture some of this rawness and frenzy in “Coastal Elites.” Right after the 2016 election I went to see my doctor for a check-up. He’s a very circumspect, ultra-professional guy, and he looked shell-shocked. He said that all of his patients didn’t want to talk about any medical problems – they couldn’t stop talking about the election. I wondered if this obsessiveness would subside, but it’s only expanded. And that’s where “Coastal Elites” came from. I started writing it about a year ago, and I was able to rewrite up until shooting, which ended a little over a month ago. We filmed the show remotely, with every possible Covid protection, and our director, Jay Roach and the amazing cast were incredibly helpful – everyone was hyper-informed about every nuance of politics.

The piece was always a collection of monologues, which also reflects Twitter, where people can pour out their frustrations without getting interrupted.

Neither of these projects are theater in any normal definition of theater, although it feels like there’s a theatrical sensibility at work (whatever that means.) I know you’ve had a varied career as a writer [e.g. films such as  Addams Family Values and In & Out; essay collections such as I Shudder], but many people see you primarily as a playwright [The Collected Plays of Paul Rudnick] Or at least I certainly do, given that I’ve been attending your plays since “Poor Little Lambs.” Do you see yourself that way? Yet now playwrights are focusing online. Do you foresee any lasting effect on the theater of the current period, when “theater” and “online theater” are basically synonymous?

I very much think of myself as first and foremost a playwright. That’s how I started and that’s the world I love. When I started writing “Coastal Elites” it felt theatrical but I wasn’t sure where it would land; I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. I’ve written monologues before and combined them into full evenings – this was the structure of my play “The New Century,” which was produced at Lincoln Center. I knew “Coastal Elites” wanted to be monologues, because I was dealing with characters at peaks of emotion and storytelling; they’re all in crisis. Monologues can be like songs in musicals – they’re outbursts.

We were originally going to stage “Coastal Elites” for a series of performances at the Public Theater in NYC, with a live audience, which Jay Roach would film for HBO. When the pandemic hit this became impossible, but then HBO and the show’s production team, which includes Jeffrey Seller, Scott Chaloff and Flody Suarez, all with extensive backgrounds in theater, wondered if there was another route. Once we knew that our cast and crew could be kept safe, Jay and I talked about how the show could be filmed remotely. Because the pieces are monologues, they lent themselves to the intense focus and intimacy of being filmed for TV. It’s like having a front row seat for performances by an incredible cast.

I never anticipated any of this, but the format ended up feeling like a great match for the material, and thanks to Jay, it doesn’t feel limited.

I’ve watched a lot of online theater, and much of it is amazing, especially because the times we’re living in give the shows such yearning. But with all that, I’m like everybody else: I’m desperate for the live event, to see actors onstage, to react as part of a packed theater, and to be in a rehearsal room. I have a new play called “Guilty Pleasure,” which was scheduled for this Fall at the LaJolla Playhouse, to be directed by my long-time collaborator, Chris Ashley. The production has understandably been postponed to next Fall.

I love how theater people are adapting creatively to the shutdown, and trying to stay economically afloat. And online theater will continue to be a world to explore, but nothing replaces, or will ever replace, live theater. It’s too essential and too joyous.

Ok, but do you think this moment of online theater experimentation will have any kind of effect on live theater itself when live theater returns?

The online experimentation during the pandemic will certainly affect subject matter, in terms of plays or musicals taking place during this period. It’s part of the internet’s and social media’s ongoing effect on theater; artists are inventing ways to include the online world in live events, with regard to everything from dating apps to TikTok. The world lives online, and theater had already begun to reflect that. Also, auditions and meetings were already taking place virtually, but this may become even more commonplace. Zoom readings will probably remain a useful tool for writers, actors and directors, as a shorthand during the development of theater projects. Maybe the pandemic has normalized a new form of rehearsal, especially for performers whose personal lives and schedules don’t always allow everyone to be in the same room.

Even more than the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement is already having a huge and welcome effect on theater. Artists have been using this downtime to examine how theater, at every level, can become truly inclusive. Whenever life returns to something resembling normal, theater may, in many necessary ways, be changed forever.

What was lost in “Coastal Elites” by having it become a film on HBO rather than a play at the Public Theater?

I’m not sure what was lost in transforming Coastal Elites from a theatrical experience to a filmed one. On one hand, comedy benefits enormously from audience response; but I watched our cast navigate this potential obstacle with incredible skill, and the script gained an intensity. Most of our cast has stage and film experience, so they drew on both. Also, on a sheerly practical level, it most likely would have been impossible to assemble this particular group of actors for a stage run, due to their schedule demands and other commitments. So while I miss having a live audience, and the thrill that can provide, I’m so grateful that these performances have been captured on film.

In the monologue The Blonde Cloud in “Coastal Elites,” Issa Rae portrays a former schoolmate of Ivanka, who calls her “Dracula with a blowout!” In your writing (especially in your feed), you focus more attention — more venom and more wit — on Ivanka than Donald. Why? Is there a strategy in that?

Trump has become a hopelessly easy and infuriating target. We know he’s a horrific tyrant. I’ve tried to approach his ongoing damage from an angle. Ivanka, who claims to empower women, has denied all of her father’s sexual assaults, and when asked about his war on women’s reproductive freedom, she smiles brightly, and refuses to answer, claiming such matters aren’t in her “portfolio.” She, along with her family members, have wholeheartedly supported Trump’s bigotry, lies and his many other crimes.

Ivanka has tried to remain in an untouchable bubble, which is insulting to all Americans. She’s constantly retweeting praise for herself, along with hopelessly privileged and out-of-touch advice: in the early days of the pandemic, she posted photos of herself making pillow forts with her kids at her Washington estate, and flew private to her family’s resorts. None of this is okay and a lot of it is ripe for satire. In Coastal Elites, I examined this situation through a character who’s every bit as rich and powerful as Ivanka, but her moral opposite. The brilliant Issa Rae plays Callie, who attended boarding school with Ivanka, but who’s been raised with a sense of responsibility and service. Their reunion, at the White House, raises the stakes for everyone involved.

The five monologues of “Coastal Elites”  each seem to represent different aspects of the new abnormal. Which are you most hopeful about?

I can be as anxious and pessimistic as anyone, but this can be self-defeating. I’ve been inspired by the millions of people, all over the world, who are figuring out work, family, love and basic survival right now. One of the Coastal Elite characters is a young nurse from Wyoming, superbly played by Kaitlyn Dever, who comes to New York to volunteer as a frontline worker, The courage of doctors, nurses and healthcare workers remains astonishing. Even in the early days, without any protective equipment, they worked around the clock, providing care and whenever possible, saving lives. This degree of sacrifice is both staggering and hopeful; these workers are an inspiration to all of us.

In addition, I wanted Coastal Elites to be a tribute to the sense of humor that’s helping everyone cope. Bette Midler plays Miriam, a public school teacher and hardcore New York liberal who’s very much a tribute to my Mom and her sisters. Their passion and wisecracks always gave me hope, and I see their spirit in so many people. Bette Midler herself gives me hope: she’s a legendary performer whose tweets are hilarious and outrageously committed to changing the world for the better. Theater artists always give me hope. No one pursues theater to make a fortune or have an easy life. People work in the theater because they can’t imagine doing anything else. The pandemic has made theater almost impossible, but the theater community has stayed in constant touch, Theater people don’t give up, and that’s hope itself.

Paul Rudnick On Coastal Elites, Trash-Tweeting Ivanka, and How Bette Midler and Theater Give Him Hope You're getting attention for "Coastal Elites," which was supposed to be a play at the Public Theater, but launches as a film on HBO September 12th, starring Bette Midler, Kaitlyn Dever, Dan Levy, Sarah Paulson, and Issa Rae in five separate monologues about coping with the new abnormal.