Dates!!!

So now I have the dates, and it's off to the races! We have a little less than two months before lift off . . . how could I be more excited? So now I have to spread myself between getting the word out to industry types, in hopes someone may come, look for a job and get the show ready. It's in pretty good shape right now but it'll take some work, but that is what rehearsals are for!!!!

Oh! And the dates! Open August 12 and run for two weekends, closing on the 22nd (which is the day Laurette reports to Bennington! That should make for an emotional performance!)

This is gonna rock!

I was thinking this morning about last year's festival. I was talking to Mark Farnen, who wrote a play Bette and I read, and he asked me what I was working on. I told him I was plunging into the abyss by working on a solo piece and that I'd bring pages of it to workshop in the fall . . . yes, that was Old Hickory. I also told him that a solo show was one of the great daunting things that I had always managed to avoid, though I wanted to do one 'some day'. Well sir . . . someday came didn't it? Funny how this stuff works out. I had been working on the piece prior to that, but other than Bette I don't think I had mentioned actually working on a piece to anyone before that . . . it's sort of opening the cage and letting the tiger out when you proclaim something like that to someone. Whether it's love for someone or taking action in your life that you've only dared to dream about, when you declare yourself outloud to someone, it sort of changes the energy and you start to see things differently. You start to feel/see possibilities and doors start to open . . . and here we are, less than a year after my conversation with Mark staring down the barrel of an honest-to-god run!!! Amazing.

Actually I think Bette got the ball rolling. She had been toying with the idea of a solo show and had taken a class from someone; and she imparted some of this lady's wisdom to me . . . notably: if you want to do it, do it. Write the piece, rent the space and then you're committed. After her class that's when I started reapplying myself to Old Hickory (I had previously written my O'Neill piece, but sort of left it sitting there). Looking back it seems like one thing naturally lead to another, and in one way I suppose that's the case; but I sure never expected what has happened to happen, hoped for? Yes. Expected? Naw. I just wanted to write a piece that I could perform and then see what happens . . . there's a lot to be said for the law of attraction I suppose, if that's what this is. I put the energy out there and it was received and responded to, I can't wait to see how far this play will take me. The Fringe Festival is stop number two on the Old Hickory railroad . . . here's hoping there are more stops along the way!