No winners!

So I found out yesterday that I did not make the cut for Playwrights First. Alas. So of the three competitions I thought possible I come up with . . . well not quite a blank, I did make the top ten in PF. When they originally notified me they said 'finalist', when they notified me yesterday they said 'semi-finalist'.

It was interesting to hear that they got 250 submissions and picked 10 semi finalists and 3 finalists. So that's some cold comfort I suppose.

I'm finally gearing up to start learning the new stuff in Old Hickory. I've put it off long enough and the time is upon us I'd say . . . I also want to have about ten new pages by Tuesday for the Playwrights Unit . . . I better put down Steig Larsson and get cracking!

More on everything later.

Just checking in

Nothing special going on right now, but since it's been a week since the previous posting I thought I should stay in touch.

I ran OH lines again today, this time during my run, it went well, but I have been putting off learning the new stuff. I don't know if it's being lazy or wanting Wallace's feedback before I commit . . . my sense is that it's a tad of laziness; I really should get to work on it.

But not today.

Today I'm feeling a bit . . . well how to put it . . .euphoric in one way, sad in another. We went to Laurette's final concert with the high school jazz band last night. It was really wonderful and she played beautifully. She's so talented. I hope she really finds what she's looking for in the world . . . she's on the cusp and she knows it. Everything is possible and that's a beautiful place to be. I don't think I felt that way when I went to college. I know I felt that it was something new, but I don't think I really felt like the world was mine . . . I guess that's the difference between growing up in a very small town in West Virginia with a high school with no real creative outlet, as opposed to Nyack HS, which has every conceivable creative outlet. It's amazing. There are some exceptionally talented kids in her class and she's one of them . . . it'll be interesting to see where they go . . . I hope no one steps on their dreams and tells them they're crazy for dreaming.

So big changes are in the air and it's good to see; but it'll be way different in casa Siler when she goes away. That's what happens when you have kids though, you give them the best you can to make sure they feel good about themselves and then step out of the way.

I guess that lump in my throat is natural . . . back when I'd walk in the woods in West Virginia I'd dream about moving to New York and having . . . well . . . what I have now basically . . . I always told myself I'd like to bring one reasonable person into the world . . . and I've exceeded that by monster steps . . . so you can get what you want after all . . . and the work continues.

"Play well or play badly, but play truly"

The above quote is attributed to Stanislavski by David Mamet in one of the essays in his book 'Writing in Restaurants'. Many of the essays in the book are thought provoking and worthwhile, but 'Stanislavski and the American Bicentennial' really struck a chord: it absolutely said in concrete terms what I have always felt about theater and why I write plays.

Theater isn't, to paraphrase Mamet, a place to go to forget anything, but a place to go to remember. To remember that we're gonna die and have problems and are not perfect. That is why I have always endeavored to write about big things even if the package is a comedy; to include something of the spiritual or universal, so people can leave having seen a little of themselves and recognized that, and have something to chew on when they go home.


I hope all this doesn't sound precious, but it's how I feel. I don't want to write plays that only entertain and have no solid foundation of something greater. Why bother?

When I read this essay I knew I had to post on my trusty old blog about it, because it was so right on. When you leave a great play, an Our Town, or Angels in America,or Waiting for Godot or Uncle Vanya, you leave exhilarated, not just because the acting or writing were wonderful, or that the play was full realized blahblahblah, but because it struck a chord deep inside you and told you something, no not told but shared something that you already know and you leave floating on a cloud of recognition that yes, life is not gonna last forever, but it is a beautiful thing.

There is another quote by Stanislavski that I have kept close to my heart (and I keep it taped to a bookshelf in my room, and is actually quoted by Mamet in an earlier essay) "the purpose of theater is to bring to the stage the life of the soul". Bingo. Otherwise, why bother?

Theater isn't like an animal in the zoo. The audience doesn't, or shouldn't, go to watch the cute little actors act . . . the audience is part of the whole thing and what's up on the stage is a mirror that the audience doesn't just look at but steps through and we all take the trip together.

I'll quote Mamet to close: "Theater is not an imitation of anything, it is real theater".

Pass it on.

Hillbilly absurd

Last night at the Playwrights Unit I took the remaining pages of my hillbilly-gothic- environmental-disaster-absurdist-comedy; someday I may actually come up with a name for it! It was fun. I'm not sure where to go with it, but the characters are rich and the potential is there for a lot of fun . . . and it is timely . . . I have to decide which environmental disasters to include or maybe it can be all of them; I don't know why oil wells can't crop up in Appalachia . . . I don't think, they do, but why can't they . . . hell it's an alternative universe after all, I can do anything I want!!!!

Not sure when, but I do want to revisit this piece.

I think I can safely now say that my goose is cooked for the two remaining competitions that announce in May. One of them, the history competition, announces at their event this Sunday, so I'd think that if you were getting an award there you'd know by now. The other one, I don't know . . . I even emailed to ask about when they'd announce, but got no response to that . . . I hate being in limbo, but that's sort of where the playwright spends a lot of time. Better to keep writing and stop worrying!

There is only one more session left for Woodstock Fringe Playwrights Unit this spring, and then its off until fall. Too bad. I really do enjoy the people. It's a fun group and totally non-bullshit. I guess the upside is that I can return to the Hudson Valley Professional Playwrights Lab! Last year the meetings didn't conflict, for some reason they did this year . . . HVPPL is also good people, and I've been a member for over ten years! The down side is the absence of actors and not all playwrights are good readers, but the feedback rocks and has always been very helpful, and as I said the folks are friends of long standing .. . it's a nice group. Try as I might though I just can't perfect the being-two-places-at-once thing.

Today I'm getting the folders to send the marketing pieces out in. I addressed the envelopes yesterday and then it's cast to the fates. Not sure how much good it will do if any, but it'll remind the folks that I'm stroking away and making progress. I'm sending it to: Abingdon Theatre, Hudson Stage Company, Penguin Rep and Actors Theatre of Louisville. I have this nagging feeling I'm missing someone I should be sending to, but for the life of me I can't think who. Maybe Barter. I reached out to Nick Piper about Damage Control years ago (saw him in a one act along with one of mine at the Pulse Theater and was impressed) and now he's AD at Barter. Again, can't hurt.

So that's a speed date!

That speed dating thing was really pretty amazing. Meeting and talking to eleven producers in an hour was intense to say the least. I was really amazed that I had a voice left after the last pitch, but I really felt like I could keep on going; I guess that's adrenalin for you. All the producers were nice and seemed to take an interest in what I had to say, some more so than others perhaps, but that's to be expected. You really wouldn't expect someone who participates in these things to be a total ass. some gave me some good feedback: one person quizzed me about my acting experience and said that should be a bigger part of the pitch, since I have some good credits; one guy said that I set the scene for the play, which no one else had done; several asked about my view of where I thought this play could be expected to go, my first answer to this was that I didn't want to limit the play's prospects by pigeonholing it as off-off or off or whatever, but by later in the evening I was just saying that I thought off-b'way is a good fit (funny how the pitch adjusted itself as the evening went on); of course one person looked at my handout, which has pictures on every page from the play, and asked me if the picture on the cover was of me . . . well duh!

I don't know what to expect from the gathered producing brethren, but I do think it was worthwhile . . . you learn from this stuff I think and who can say what the end result may be!

I have some left over presentations so I'm gonna send them to some theaters I have connections with: Hudson Stage, Penguin Rep, Abingdon, Burning Coal, Actors Theater of Louisville to start. I think it's that good a piece. I ran it by my buddy Heather Duke, who has producing and marketing experience, and she liked it.

So now I have to finalize whatever changes I'm making to the piece and then spend June learning it so when we start rehearsing (I suppose July) it'll be solid . . . did I mention that I can't wait to do it again?

The lady I met last night who was my coach for the pitching event said she was interested in maybe coming to Woodstock to see it and asked me to be sure to give her dates and the like, she is a teacher and writer and is currently directing something at Stella Adler, so she must have some connections; even if not she was very nice, very supportive . . .

I'm taking the next ten pages or so of my hillbilly-environmental-disaster-comedy to the playwrights unit tomorrow night . . . that should be fun . . . I haven't looked at in so long it'll be like seeing it for the first time!

So what is a speed date?

Glad you asked. I didn't know what to expect, but as it happens, it sounds like a lot of fun, if a bit manic. Here's how it works. We first get an hour with our coach, then eleven writers go in and meet eleven producers, a bell or whistle or something goes off and you pitch the first one; then there is time for a response, questions or what have you, then there is another bell or whistle or whatever and you move to the next one . . . it sounds like a blast, like it will be rather tiring, but possibly worthwhile . . . if I were one of the producers I'd have to be wondering just what I got myself into right about now!

I reworked all my pitch stuff and came up with a much better attention grabber, which leads naturally into the next thing . . . I just hope I can do it ten or eleven times in a row in an hour!! On the other hand, how cool would it be to have a mess of producers fighting over my play!!! At the very least they should come upstate and see it. I think having that in front of me and having the One Man Talking in the recent past is going to put me in a very strong position.

I did something I don't normally do today: I emailed the person who had told me At Death's Door was a finalist in their competition over a month ago and asked when they expect the decision to be made . . . if I'm not mistaken this same competition wasn't so good at following up on one other occasion, I might be wrong . . . but we'll see. My guess is that the decision has been made, but they just haven't announced it yet.

More on that later.

specifics

I sent the first draft of my ideas for the pitch fest this weekend to the folks at TRU and their responses were very helpful. Seems I was trying to sell it too much perhaps, not being specific enough with the details of what the piece is about or what people may take from it, or what I want them to take from it. I came up with some good ideas for jacket covers, but for a pitch I need to make it much more about what I feel people should take from the show . . . or not.

Anyway, I have some time (tomorrow and Sat. to be precise) to get it together, so I kind of have to get with it. I did pick up the thirty presentations I created and I'm very happy with them. The photos could have been lighter, and Laurette told me she could have tweaked them on her computer, but I'll take them as they are. I think it's very compelling.

I guess my confusion with this whole pitch thing is that I thought I was trying to sell them, but there's a fine line between selling them and getting them interested . . . so I have to sell the steak, not the sizzle this time out . . . sort of the inverse to what I have always done with sales jobs.

Ran lines again today and got them all pretty well . . . at some point I know I'm gonna have to work in my changes, but for now I'm happy to remember what I had, then I can work on learning the new stuff.

It's hard to overstate how excited I am about Woodstock Fringe this summer; I think I mentioned in a previous post that it was hard to work so much on one performance . . . this will be the opportunity to really flex the piece and see how it fits . . . should be fun.

Still no word on a couple of the competitions . . . probably doesn't bode well.

Too irregular

I just noticed I hadn't posted anything since Saturday. Well there isn't much news anyway. I have been working on my presentation for the Writers/Producers Speed Dating event. That should/might be fun. I'm hoping to come away with a nibble from that. I have a killer 'leave behind' piece for them. I did a Powerpoint presentation with a photo from the tech night run through on each page, it really looks great. I just have to polish that up and get a bunch of copies made then it's off to the races!

Oh, there is news by the way, of the ungood sort: I once again did not get an NYFA grant this year. It's always a long shot as they get thousands of entries for about 115 grants . . . but hope springs eternal. I keep slugging away at it.

As to the other competitions: still no word. I'm assuming the best, but expecting the worst. How's that for the old Libra way of approaching things!

I haven't really done anything else with Old Hickory. I need to keep it stirred up a bit, so I'll probably run the lines today, and at some point I have to think about learning the new stuff I'm adding . . . sheesh!

New stuff

I read my new stuff for Old Hickory to Bette today and she loved it. That's a good sign. She's always first to get stuff run by her and she doesn't shy away from critiquing when appropriate. She didn't critique much in these pages. So that should put me up to around thirty pages, which should be close to an hour, which was the unofficial target ... if something else screams for it I'll add it, but other than that I don't want to mess around with the piece too much. I wouldn't want to mess it up.

I sent the new stuff to Wallace and haven't heard anything yet from him.

I found out yesterday that I was accepted into the Writers/Producers Speeddate event put on by TRU. I'm looking forward to it. There are ten or so producers you get in front of to try to sell them . . . my years in sales may come in handy here! I'll spend some time this week preparing and see what happens: it sure can't hurt to get it in front of producer types.

Every day I get a little less hopeful about these damn competitions. I figure if they were gonna announce the winners this month then the winners already know they won. A letter in the mail ain't a good sign. But we'll see.

But I have Old Hickory to keep me warm for now . . . and that is a delicious feeling.

I missed you too!

An inadvertent few days away from the blogoshpere! Things just happen, you know? Unfortunately, none of it theater related. Still waiting to hear from the Playwrights First (a finalist, remember?); and that history play contest (which, if I haven't heard from by now I guess I have my answer) and then there's the biggy, the NYFA grant . . . that could be literally any day now . . . I'm watching the mail about like my daughter did when she was waiting to hear from Bennington College . . . I hope my news is as good as hers was!

I went to the Fringe Playwrights Unit on Tuesday night. It was good to see everyone, though very few showed up; smallest turn out I can remember, only about 13 or so. I still enjoyed it though. Nice people; good friends, very warm atmosphere. A lot of comments and questions about the show.

I started this morning with writing new stuff about the 'ex' in OH. Actually it's exploration more than writing and I enjoyed it a lot. I just have to take the time to do more of it. I also need to run lines on a regular basis . . . I don't want to have to relearn stuff when the time comes, y'know?

Now then . . .

I've taken a few days away from things, just to sort of bask in the glow as it were. Not to step away from it, because with any luck, Old Hickory and I will be joined at the hip for some time to come. Of course there's the Woodstock Fringe gig to look forward to, and I can't wait, but who knows what after that?

I sent an application to Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) the other day for their Writers/Producers Speed Dating event. They bring in a certain number of producers and a certain number of writers and see how they match up. It intrigues me. I had already been working on a powerpoint presentation, just to play around with ppt some by way of refreshing it for myself. I had put together a presentation about Old Hickory and now, with the pictures Laurette took at our tech night and some quotes from people who were at the show (sorry guys, you've been blurbed! thank you very much by the way) I think it'll add up to a very nice piece to lay on these people. but first I have to get accepted, I have a long history with TRU, they have done readings of two of my plays over the years, so hopefully that helps. One of the things they asked is who was attached to the piece and I said myself and Wallace. He has earned it (if he wants it). I could not imagine working with someone else on this piece. I know he ain't the only director in the universe, but we are simpatico and that means a lot. he never pushed in any direction I didn't want to go in and he was always supportive and just . . . well loving. I think he had as much fun with this thing as I did . . . I suppose that's not really possible though, because I got to go up on stage and do it.

I've also been, during my 'few days off', almost non-stop thinking about how to beef up the piece. There are a lot of things to work on: more about his grandmother, how he met his future ex wife, how she went from someone he actually married to someone he wants to kill . . . the challenge will be to add new stuff without messing up the tone of the original . . . actually the version we presented on Thursday isn't really the original, we cut it down to forty minutes (and in doing so I think I really found the essence of the piece; there's a lesson there). I have to go back to the previous version and see what needs to be back in there and what doesn't. I have ideas for my lovely 'ex wife' that weren't even in any previous version.

Speaking of previous versions: Scott Klavan, the curator of the One Man Standing Festival, approached me as we were leaving the stage after the talk back on Thurs. and said: didn't she kill herself in the version I read? then I told him that after having sent it in I had changed it and it was before he had confirmed that I was in the festival. I think (actually Bette was the first one to point it out) that after the story of the 'ex' the original piece sort of became a different play, with a couple of more girlfriend stories, the last of which was someone who sort of stalked our boy and ended up taking Old Hickory out into the woods and killing herself. The imagery in the woods was really nice, and if there's a way to use some of it in the next version I'd like to, but I will have to be cutthroat (no pun intended) about what stays and what goes.

More on everything later: stay tuned. Still waiting to hear from various competitions and the NYFA grant!