Manna-Hata: What You Probably WON'T See

Because of the episodic nature of my new piece, Manna-Hata, I've written a number of scenes that most likely—and in some cases, most definitely—will not be in the finished work. Some are ideas that I had early in the writing process that might have worked if I'd gone a different direction with the piece: compelling stories I found that just don't add anything to narrative I'm trying to create.* I may eventually cannibalize some of the material in them for other scenes—I've already done that in a few instances—but, as written, they're essentially detritus. I've had the idea for a while to post these to the Interlude to show a little of my process as a playwright on the piece.

The link at the bottom is a flight of fancy I had based on a few paragraphs from E.B. White's incredible treatise, Here is New York. As far as I'm concerned, any New Yorker who hasn't read this essay is not a New Yorker. At one point, this scene was going to be the beginning of the piece. At the end of the dialogue, you'll find the excerpt from White's essay that inspired the scene.

The Three New Yorks