skill set or what have you

On Tuesday night I read the first eight or so pages of my new solo piece. It was received well . . . some people had problems with which character was speaking at times, but that's more of an acting thing than a writing thing. Some good feedback though along those lines as well: who am I talking to (always the biggy) why am I talking . . . that kind of thing. It was valuable just to hear laughs. It was nice to get it out there at last. I went hoping to read the whole thing, but then thought better of it, I didn't want to hog the evening and I wanted to get a general idea of which track I was on the right one or the wrong one. I left thinking I'm on the right track, but I want to let this piece settle for a while. For a couple of reasons: 1) I'm on to something else and 2) I have a draft complete, some time to let it settle will do it and me some good . . . I can come back to it with fresh eyes then. It's pretty amazing the amount of stuff that I've cut from it though . . . I've been pretty damn brutal with it, but you have to be; you can't hold on to stuff for dear life just because you have a soft spot for it. practically every play I've worked on for the last ten years (a tad of an exaggeration, but not much of one)has the story of being in the woods and watching a leaf fall . . . which I finally put to good use in Old Hickory!

So now I feel freed from this particular solo piece and can return to it later. I want to work the new two hander, but I'm going to do something for the next workshop meeting that I've wanted to do for a long time: I'm having two of my favorite actors there read Family Matters. they should rock on this. It's the two hander based on my parents, and I haven't heard it read since we did it as a larger cast piece up in Haverstraw, however many years ago that was. I've had readings of it, but always with Bette and I in it, so it'll be fun to get some perspective on it.