New Play

So I finally typed in the first nine or so pages of this new play. I wrote it longhand on the train going into Manhattan last week, and then avoided working on it because . . . well . . . it promised to be work. Not that I don't enjoy writing; I do. It's just that sometimes things pile up and it seems like you can't start one because the other one is sitting there demanding attention, but you can't work on that one because the first one is pending. Sometimes you just have to sit down and do it. A little each day gets you in the mode. Before you know it you can't wait to get back to these people.

What were the two thing distracting me? Well three really. I need to revise Old Hickory some based on what we accomplished at last week's rehearsal; then there is my new piece that I finally got typed into the computer; and finally another solo piece I'm thinking about (if you count rewrites on the O'Neill solo piece that's four!).

This new play is gonna be fun. I'm envisioning it as kind of an absurdist attack on the defilers of the environment, specifically mountaintop removal and gas drilling. I think I'm gonna have fun with it . . . not sure if anyone else will. It's a new thing for me . . . haven't really tapped into the surrealist/absurdist thing before. (though Family Matters was openly a tip of the hat to Godot in that the old couple is waiting for their son's arrival. My goal with Family Matters was to write a play in which nothing happened. What did I hear from the AD at Penguin Rep when he read it? Nothing happened! Well . . . I guess it worked then. He wouldn't even give it a reading which I didn't think was the right choice on his part; audiences seem to love it, in past readings). No title for it yet, but I think Hillbilly Absurdist is a genre worth exploring.

The new solo piece I have been bapping about is a ghost story based on a short story I wrote almost thirty years ago! I think it would be a good candidate for solo theater. It's a creepy story about a guy who buys a house in the country, and the old lady that sells it to him asks him to take care of her long dead daughter, who in a family portrait is a stunning beauty. Turns out the old lady isn't totally bonkers and the stunning beauty is a presence in the house.

Add to that: The Red Hand of O'Neill just won't go away. I keep thinking about it, unbidden at times, and I think it has a ton of potential. For now I just have to keep my eyes on what is most immediate, which is of course, Old Hickory. I don't know what doors it will open up but I'm poised to dash through when they do.