Names, Pt 1

For me personally, choosing names is one of the most time consuming parts of writing. I tend to overthink it really. Every one has met at least one person that they always want to call by a different name because they don't look like their actual name. My goal is to keep that from happening and just have the name fit the character. Usually. Sometimes there are other factors.

When James and I first started writing we knew we'd probably need a larger cast than most of the other submissions so we asked what gender ratio we'd have. Girls to boys 10 to 1. So we decided that rather than basically say, okay this is a guy, we gave everyone gender neutral names. We knew that the diva and the understudy had to be the same gender so those were given unmovable names but everyone else could be either.

Helena was chosen because it's the kind of name that A: would be given by wealthier parents, B: would frequently be incorrectly said by lesser-thans resulting in harsh criticism and C: it sounds Greek and that carries certain visual images. Toga! Toga! Toga!

Claire was picked because it has an assuming sound to it. It's a bit of an everyman name but you also don't hear it much anymore. It's hard to picture someone with the name Claire being mean unless you've met a mean Claire. There's another reason why that name was chosen however that I haven't even told James yet. When I first wrote the script for the one act, Claire actually had a different name. I can't remember for the life of me what it was but I changed it when I was halfway through the script. Why? I was working on the "Memories" parody and I needed her name to rhyme with air.

Addison was one of those open ended names. James suggested it and I went with it because that was one of the characters I kind of wanted to be a guy and it does sound kind of boyish.. I've never actually met a girl named Addison but I have heard tale they exist.

Assistant is without a name because of a young man named Will Norris. Actually, he's pushing 30 now. Anyway, he was the assistant stage manager in a play I was in once and we all treated him like dirt. One actor referred to him as banana boy. We would ask him to do weird things. And ignored most of what he told us. I figured I'd keep with that idea and not even really acknowledge the position as a person.

Barrett just sounds tough. It's also one of those wonderful names that you can't be sure if it's a last name or a first name. That'll make more sense when you see the show.

Brown just sounded very coppish.

Christoph is very similar to Helena namewise. It sounds snooty, like it probably isn't actually the person's real name, and like someone trying to appear French. It's also almost never read correctly at first glance which makes me happy.