Dead Authors

Could writing in my blog be my way of avoiding working on my new piece? And if not avoiding, at least putting it off?

Maybe.

But this is something I've been thinking about doing anyway, so here it is. You may recall that when I began this thing, it was a way of having a diary for Old Hickory, from the beginning of the rehearsal process through whenever . . . and here I am still doing it . . . a bit more aimlessly perhaps, but I'm enjoying it. At any rate, one reason for doing this with Old Hickory was because I have often thought that's it's a shame that I didn't have that kind of record for some of my plays, what impulse started them and some of the changes that happened along the way. Those same synapses have been firing away vis a vis Dead Authors since I've been revving it up again recently (entered it into a competition and taking it to the Fringe).

DA, as I shall call it to conserve precious keystrokes, began with a convergence, sort of: I wanted to write a piece for Bette and two of her buddies (both women), and up to that point, fairly early in my writing career, must have been '98 or so as it's copyright reads '99, I hadn't written much in the way of women's roles; so while that was boiling around in my noggin, I was commuting with our neighbor, Janet, who told me on the bus one day that she didn't read any living authors, and as we talked the idea of a kind of 'Eating Raoul' thing popped into my head, where the lead character found a living author she wanted to read so she killed him (or her) so she could read the book, she found out she kind of liked it so she goes on a killing spree, killing contemporary authors so she could read their books and maintain her status.

Something else happened though when I started to write it, and I wish I could identify the moment when the current form of the play took hold. I do know that I never got very far with the original impulse, instead making it a story of a lonely woman who has her favorite authors come to her with little hints at what may happen in the play. Somewhere I have a 120 page version that preceded the current 84 page form; I'll have to read it some day to see if it holds up.

How did I decide on which authors to use? Part personal favorites and part opportunities for theatrics. The play opens with Hemingway and kind of spoofs his macho-ness but leading to a very dark place. Kerouac because it seemed like it could be fun, and it was. For the Kerouac scene I just 'let it rip' to quote the play and sat at the keyboard and tried to channel his energy; I think the scene is a lot of fun and can't wait to take it in. And of course Truman Capote . . . well . . . he ends the play on a note that is as light as Hemingway's is dark. A fun piece.

It was only after the first reading that I had of it, that I added the fourth title character. Mara Mills, the AD at the Newman Theater in Pleasantville, suggested during a discussion after, that maybe there should be a lady among the dead: hence, Dorothy Parker of course.

It really is one of my favorite pieces and we have had some adventures with it. It's a tad ironic that the three women I originally had in mind for the piece never got to read it together, they all did their parts in various combinations, but never all three at the same time. The one constant has been Bette reading the lead and myself as Kerouac and Capote (though I may let someone else read Kerouac at the Fringe).

At one reading one of the three leads called to say that her son was in the emergency room and she couldn't come; I took her script to the reading and crossed my fingers that someone would show who could read cold. Cheryl Pryzby came (she was Mara's assistant at the Newman) and as she walked in the door I said 'Here's a script, you're reading'. And she did, and she nailed it. That same reading was the first time I met the late Heather Duke. Heather was a producer who was a friend of Lewis Chambers at the Bethel Agency. After the reading she said, in front of the whole audience mind you 'I go to a lot of readings, and this is one of the best ones I have ever seen'. She became a real friend and supporter, producing a reading at TRU and another in Haverstraw . . . always a big supporter of mine.

Anyway, Dead Authors has spent a lot of time on the shelf and it's wonderful to brush it off and see how it flies. It's holding up quite well thank you.