Playwriting Exercise: Indoor Clouds

Sometimes you just come across something that is Wicked Cool. That’s right, I capitalized both words and they weren’t at the beginning of a sentence. I did it, I own it. That’s how cool I think this is.

Indoor Clouds. That is not a trick of the light or CGI or Photoshop. That’s a cloud, indoors. Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde has come up with a way to make clouds indoors, and then takes pictures of them. And I’m just so cooled out by seeing this. It makes my brain whir. And it’s an awesome picture prompt for some dramatic writing.

Choose one of the following prompts. Write a two page scene.

• Write a scene in which a cloud finds itself trapped indoors. Who would a cloud talk to?
• Write a scene in which a scientist wants to harness the weather.
• Write a scene in which a person going through depression actually has a cloud follow them around all day. The person talks to the cloud – is the person trying to get better and wants to say goodbye to the cloud? Does the person want to be swallowed by the cloud?
• Write a scene between a young girl and the cloud. No one but the young girl can see the cloud.
• Write a scene in which a producer wants to make the indoor cloud famous. Does the indoor cloud succumb to fame or resist?