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!
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