First rehearsal in the theater!

Wallace came up to Nyack today and we spent a couple of hours on OH. It was great to get back at it! It's a tad of an adjustment getting used to a much smaller space (about a third the size of Byrdcliff)but it was such fun! Actually, I think the intimacy of the smaller space works in the play's favor; the communication is much more immediate, I hope so anyway. It was getting frustrating just running and running and running the lines, but the work paid off because I was ready to rip! Tues. and Thurs. in the city then back up here for Sunday through the run . . . I'm so looking forward to this.

New things coming up all the time, and that is pretty amazing considering how much we worked on it before! I guess that's what taking a fresh look will do for all concerned . . . a total blast! And with an audience there? Oh boy, this should rock!

Got notification this week on a couple of the competitions I have entered. The New Works Project at T. Schreiber Studio said nyet, as did the Jewish Play Competition.

The New Works was a disappointment, but then 'Dead Authors' did make the top seven out of a hundred and thirty some entries, which is nice affirmation. I always thought that 'Words of Fire' was a stretch for a contest looking for Jewish plays, but you never know. Anarchist Russian Jews plotting murder might just hit someone's switch!

There are a few others out there still pending . . . we shall see.

Can't get hung up on this stuff . . . you do what you can and then do it again!

I have plenty on my plate from now through mid-March anyway, with four performances of 'Old Hickory' and learning and performing 'Like a Sack of Potatoes'!

Back to back solo performances . . . interesting year so far!

Letter of Resignation

No I'm not quitting anything, that's the title, at least for now, of my newest solo piece. We'll see if it sticks. I got it to the point where I can let it sit for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes. My goal is to have it ready for a reading in May for Voices of the Fringe.

I was in a quandry for a while with it because I really like the character and couldn't really figure out the piece . . . I think it's in a semi good place right now, and when I come back to it I can sand off the rough edges. For right now I can concentrate on OH and learning the lines for Like a Sack of Potatoes (read it last night for Bette, Laurette and Billy, Laurette's boyfriend, first thing out of his mouth was . . . does this predate me? I guess threatening daughter's boyfriends with shotguns and killing son's in law is a touchy subject . . . for a daughter's boyfriend).

OMT 3

Got word yesterday that Like a Sack of Potatoes is invited into the One Man Talking fest. This should be fun. It's a good deal earlier this year, which could have been a problem . . . but I requested the latest possible dates in March, which are the weekend of the 16th. That will give me plenty of time to get OH done and out of the way and then I will have a month to focus on LSP.

I'm looking forward to it. The piece was well received in readings last year and I'm sure it'll go over well for this . . . it will be a slop learning the lines but hey, no one is making me write these things!

So 2012 is off to a good start. There is also the possibility of two more perfs of OH of course in Kent, originally scheduled for last March, and then my mom died ... hopefully that will be this spring some time as well.

My new piece I want to have ready for the Voices of the Fringe readings, so that's another thing, but it's in decent shape and I think I know where I'm going with it . . . we shall see.

All in all pretty sweet stuff.

A month from tomorrow . . .

A month from tomorrow is the next opening of Old Hickory. Looking forward to it. Should have a few rehearsals in the intervening weeks and I'm looking forward to that as well.

The lines are in good shape, and as an added benefit it's also getting me back up to four mile runs as that is almost perfect as far as running the show - though people might wonder what the deal is with this maniac running around talking to himself. At least I don't carry the knife!

Still no word from Schreiber or OMT. Have to just chill on that, I just hope the Schreiber reading isn't the same weekend as Old Hickory! But if it were Sunday night or Monday night of that weekend it would be manageable.

I have now landed on which of the three new solo pieces I want to focus on. No title yet, but I started it last year and even read it for the Fringe folks. It was a bit all over the place but I think I have figured how to focus it . . . at any rate, it's the guy who owns an employment agency . . . sort of a milk-toast with woman issues . . . I was looking at it this weekend and came to a rather startling moment of clarity: it is the one piece of the three that was distinctly different from Old Hickory. Not the guy-from-a-holler-bent-on-murder/revenge, but a troubled soul looking for . . . what . . . that is the question I have to answer for myself now . . . this is the fun part . . . peeling back the onion to see what's in there.

On a completely different topic: saw Matewan yesterday, boy did I look young! I guess that's what happens in twenty five years! I should blog about that soon . . .

Choices

So to further complicate things: I started a new play the other day, a multi character thing. Don't know for sure where it will go but it just gives me one more thing to have to deal with in the morning. So now I have three monologues in various stages of development and a new piece that is only about three pages in AND working lines for OH .. . a full plate that's for sure.

I better get stuff done though because if I get the opportunity to do the One Man Talking this year then that will mean spending time learning lines . . . Ah yes the artists life! I wouldn't trade it for anything.

2012: Looking ahead

Now that we're here, 2012 that is, it might be a good idea to look ahead and see what lurks in the bushes.

In the immediate term, I have kind of heated up with a new solo piece, it has caught fire and I'm having fun figuring it out . . . we'll see what happens with it but after several weeks of indecision it's nice to be working on something; I have another idea as well, for a two or three hander, that is intriquing me. I also have umpteen unfinished pieces to come back to so my plate is heaping to say the least.

Out there but unresolved? In the near term: One Man Talking is pending with Like a Sack of Potatoes and Terry Schrieber is pending with Dead Authors. Longer term (meaning probably hear in spring ie April/May): Not So Much to Ask is in the running for the Yale Drama Series, Playwrights First at the National Arts Club and Abingdon Theatre; Words of Fire is in the Jewish Play Series competition, as I have said before, though the principal characters (Emma Goldman/Alexander Berkman et al) were Russian Jews, I will be pleasantly surprised if anarchists plotting murder will win over some kitchen sink dramedy; perhaps a better chance for Where the Rain Never Falls for the John Gassner Award at Stony Brook University; and there are a couple of companies I've submitted Damage Control and That Lonesome Valley to . . .

I also plan to be much more on the ball as far as submitting my work this year . . . I have been remiss lately and want to keep balls in the air . . . nothing can happen if you don't let it.

Of course I have Old Hickory at the Nyack Village Theatre in my back pocket too. There are four performances in February, and it may be the start of a wonderful theatrical relationship between Richard and I and Woodstock Fringe. It's certainly off to a good start. Also on the OH radar is the possible reschedule of the two performance for Blue Horse Rep.

Then of course there is the continued involvement with Woodstock Fringe, which has been and continues to be very fulfilling in many ways, both in performance and workshop. Whatever form the festival takes this year, I plan to be part of it.

So much to look forward to and much to work toward, and as always I'm open to being surprised!