So I got a tad bogged down and didn't get the environmental disaster play done in time for the competitions I mentioned in my last post. But I figured that there are plays I can enter into these competitions on my metaphorical shelf . . . and I look at the resource directory again to confirm the March 31 deadline today then check the web site of the Barter Theatre . . . guess what: according to the web site the deadline for their contest was March 1!
I sent an email to the theatre to see what's up but I don't anticipate much in the way of flexibility . . . maybe . . . we'll see. Had I entered sooner this wouldn't have been an issue, but now that I think of it I was hoping to have the new piece ready . . . alas . . .
All else is going just fine . . . not writing that much but I did ask Wallace about doing Sack of Potatoes in Woodstock this summer . . .and I need to get the word out there about OH. I now have the dvd of the Nyack performances and I can say I have a version that is something I can send out and be proud of (unlike the Woodstock version that was on a very stormy day complete with banging doors and all!)
This weekend I need to get the new stuff typed into Hillbilly Absurd and get cracking on the new solo piece for the reading . . . it's less than a month away now!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Funny how these things come together . . .
Sometimes you just get pointed in a direction . . . bit by bit things fall into place . . . I heard a news story recently that got me thinking about my hillbilly-gothic-aburdist-environmental-disaster play again. So I started looking at it yesterday and enjoyed it . . . so figured . . . what the heck? (Working title is Hillbilly Absurd, but that could change)
Today I looked at the Dramatists Guild Resource Directory and there are two Appalachian play competitions with entry deadlines of March 31.
So guess what: my plans of placidly taking a month or so to work on my solo piece for my April reading are shelved for a mad dash for the finish line for these two competitions, one at the Barter and the other is the Appalachian play festival in Ashville, NC. I've entered them both before but with kind of straight ahead dramas . . . this one is a bit off center so maybe it'll get some traction . . . either way . . . the gauntlet is down and I'm off to the races . . .
Were I starting a new play from scratch there would be no way of getting it done in the time alotted, but since I have the characters and basic structure in place . . . it ain't impossible. More on this later.
Also, I entered the WV Writers Conference competition for the first time. Sent in 'Where the Rain Never Falls'. We'll see.
Today I looked at the Dramatists Guild Resource Directory and there are two Appalachian play competitions with entry deadlines of March 31.
So guess what: my plans of placidly taking a month or so to work on my solo piece for my April reading are shelved for a mad dash for the finish line for these two competitions, one at the Barter and the other is the Appalachian play festival in Ashville, NC. I've entered them both before but with kind of straight ahead dramas . . . this one is a bit off center so maybe it'll get some traction . . . either way . . . the gauntlet is down and I'm off to the races . . .
Were I starting a new play from scratch there would be no way of getting it done in the time alotted, but since I have the characters and basic structure in place . . . it ain't impossible. More on this later.
Also, I entered the WV Writers Conference competition for the first time. Sent in 'Where the Rain Never Falls'. We'll see.
Monday, March 12, 2012
This 'n that
Looks like end of May for the next performances of Old Hickory. That isn't a definite, as there are still 'issues with the space' but that is the latest as of yesterday. Whenever it is, I'll be there with bells on; and knives sharpened!
I spent a little time with my next project, the reading of Letter of Resignation (not 100% sure about that title). It will be interesting to see where it is in a month and a half; I could read it now and it would be fine, but there are some things that occur to me that might be ways to give it more oomph. It's about a lonely guy who owns a successful employment agency, who has just crossed a line/breached a trust and in telling his story is sort of coming to some self-awareness as to how to deal with the disappointment . . .that description may or not do it justice, but he does have life-long issues with his mother . . . and he has had lifelong issues with women as well . . . at any rate . . . it is what it is, but not yet what it will be. So that is my assignment, should I choose to accept it . . .
I spent a little time with my next project, the reading of Letter of Resignation (not 100% sure about that title). It will be interesting to see where it is in a month and a half; I could read it now and it would be fine, but there are some things that occur to me that might be ways to give it more oomph. It's about a lonely guy who owns a successful employment agency, who has just crossed a line/breached a trust and in telling his story is sort of coming to some self-awareness as to how to deal with the disappointment . . .that description may or not do it justice, but he does have life-long issues with his mother . . . and he has had lifelong issues with women as well . . . at any rate . . . it is what it is, but not yet what it will be. So that is my assignment, should I choose to accept it . . .
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
2012 so far . . .
I feel like reflecting a bit about what has happened so far this year. It's been a bit of a blur, things moving fast and gaining momentum and then . . . stopping.
That stopping is the big adjustment. You get so revved and work so hard for so long, or in the case of Like a Sack of Potatoes, not so long but so intensely, that it sort of takes your breath away. It was predictable though. You can't keep up that pace forever and once a show is up and running you get into a rhythm . . . or again, in the case of LSP: it's up on its feet and then you're done.
At any rate, the sudden stop can give you whiplash!
It has been a wonderful year so far, I have to say! Working on Old Hickory again to present it in Nyack was a joy (though I still don't know why some of the people that didn't show didn't show) and the fact that it was better and richer than before was a real surprise . . . felt like an old friend who you haven't seen in a while, but when you do you pick up right where you left off. Jumping right from that to LSP was daunting, especially since we had a bit over two weeks to get it done! Well we got it done and the result was very satisfying . . . but I do want more life for both of these pieces. Well, one of the beautiful things about both of these pieces is that I will never necessarily get too old to play them; especially LSP, so as long as I can be propped on a stage and remember the lines I'm there!
Oh, remembering the lines brings up an interesting point about Sunday's performance: I left out almost a whole page early in the piece. I knew I had done it the minute I did it, but there was no way to go back and recover without screwing up everything else, so I just kept going. No one knew the difference. Funny how many things you can process: I'm on stage in front of twenty or so people, saying the lines, creating the character and all the while trying to figure out a way of salvaging what was left out . . . it was a flash of a moment but while that was going on I was still in the moment. Couldn't be happier with the audience response. No one knew where it was going, they thought it was gonna be a family comedy, but then the screw turns and you have them right where you want them . . . you could have heard a pin drop in there . . . magic.
So a pretty good start for the year. And next? A reading of a new piece in April. Old Hickory again in May, no dates yet however. And in August is the Woodstock Fringe Festival, which I hope to be part of again this year. And who knows what is out there that I don't even know is coming . . . one thing I do know . . . after however many weeks away from writing (you can only do so much as I do have a job on top of everything else) I need to get those muscles in shape again . . . looking forward to it all!
That stopping is the big adjustment. You get so revved and work so hard for so long, or in the case of Like a Sack of Potatoes, not so long but so intensely, that it sort of takes your breath away. It was predictable though. You can't keep up that pace forever and once a show is up and running you get into a rhythm . . . or again, in the case of LSP: it's up on its feet and then you're done.
At any rate, the sudden stop can give you whiplash!
It has been a wonderful year so far, I have to say! Working on Old Hickory again to present it in Nyack was a joy (though I still don't know why some of the people that didn't show didn't show) and the fact that it was better and richer than before was a real surprise . . . felt like an old friend who you haven't seen in a while, but when you do you pick up right where you left off. Jumping right from that to LSP was daunting, especially since we had a bit over two weeks to get it done! Well we got it done and the result was very satisfying . . . but I do want more life for both of these pieces. Well, one of the beautiful things about both of these pieces is that I will never necessarily get too old to play them; especially LSP, so as long as I can be propped on a stage and remember the lines I'm there!
Oh, remembering the lines brings up an interesting point about Sunday's performance: I left out almost a whole page early in the piece. I knew I had done it the minute I did it, but there was no way to go back and recover without screwing up everything else, so I just kept going. No one knew the difference. Funny how many things you can process: I'm on stage in front of twenty or so people, saying the lines, creating the character and all the while trying to figure out a way of salvaging what was left out . . . it was a flash of a moment but while that was going on I was still in the moment. Couldn't be happier with the audience response. No one knew where it was going, they thought it was gonna be a family comedy, but then the screw turns and you have them right where you want them . . . you could have heard a pin drop in there . . . magic.
So a pretty good start for the year. And next? A reading of a new piece in April. Old Hickory again in May, no dates yet however. And in August is the Woodstock Fringe Festival, which I hope to be part of again this year. And who knows what is out there that I don't even know is coming . . . one thing I do know . . . after however many weeks away from writing (you can only do so much as I do have a job on top of everything else) I need to get those muscles in shape again . . . looking forward to it all!
Saturday, March 3, 2012
One more day!
I guess you could call this 'Like a Sack of Potatoes' eve! At any rate tomorrow we put it up in front of people, come what may. We have been working this thing and working it hard. Now it's to the point where it's starting to feel like a real good fit. No more little demons lurking in the back of your head saying - you don't really know what comes next do you?
It's starting to feel organic, like something that should look easy. The only bummer is one performance and out, but this is gonna be a spring board to other things I think. I do think LSP and Old Hickory would make a satisfying evening of theater. After the reading of LSP last spring people thought the two characters were too close but after working on the piece this guy has grown into his own person. He's smarter than Jimmy in Old Hickory, for one thing. Also, Jimmy is acting out of a sense of desperation kind of, seeing only one way out of his problem; where this guy is much more intelligent, in an intuitive kind of way.
I think an evening opening with LSP and then following with OH would have a good trajectory too. LSP ends with a certain level of intensity and the OH opens with humor . . . before the worm turns . . . it would be a great one-two punch. That's what I was hoping for, to find something to have as a curtain-raiser for Old Hickory . . .
But ... we have to get through tomorrow's performance first!
May I say something about my director on this piece? Bette (my wife of course) has really taken what I thought would be a guy sitting in a chair telling a story and helped me give it more life in many ways. We have found some physical life that I think adds so much to the piece and we've basically treated rehearsals as a laboratory for exploration, for seeing what works and what doesn't. Almost all of her ideas have been good ones, and while I may have been resistant to some, I usually came around to seeing the wisdom in most of them. No surprise in any of this of course; she is a theater person and knows if as well as anyone I know. I'm in good hands and trust her . . . otherwise I'd have never asked her to do this. She has directed me before of course, so I knew what to expect . . . I'm going to go on that stage with a very strong foundation.
Would I have liked more than two weeks to learn the piece and work on it? Yes. But we put the hammer down and have gotten it done!
I've been very very lucky with these solo pieces. Wallace and Bette are very different in many ways; but they both share a love of theater, more than that really, a reverence for theater; and it means more than I can say to have people like that in my corner. Theater is a temple for all of us, the place we feel most ourselves and at home.
One of the images from the rehearsals up in Woodstock when we were working on Old Hickory, was the first day in the Byrdcliffe Theatre, when Wallace just wanted to take a moment to sit quietly in the space. You gotta love someone who loves this stuff as much as that.
That love of theater is one of the first bits of glue that bound Bette and I in the first place, way back when . . . it's a wonderful thing to be able to share, and to carry on stage with me.
It's starting to feel organic, like something that should look easy. The only bummer is one performance and out, but this is gonna be a spring board to other things I think. I do think LSP and Old Hickory would make a satisfying evening of theater. After the reading of LSP last spring people thought the two characters were too close but after working on the piece this guy has grown into his own person. He's smarter than Jimmy in Old Hickory, for one thing. Also, Jimmy is acting out of a sense of desperation kind of, seeing only one way out of his problem; where this guy is much more intelligent, in an intuitive kind of way.
I think an evening opening with LSP and then following with OH would have a good trajectory too. LSP ends with a certain level of intensity and the OH opens with humor . . . before the worm turns . . . it would be a great one-two punch. That's what I was hoping for, to find something to have as a curtain-raiser for Old Hickory . . .
But ... we have to get through tomorrow's performance first!
May I say something about my director on this piece? Bette (my wife of course) has really taken what I thought would be a guy sitting in a chair telling a story and helped me give it more life in many ways. We have found some physical life that I think adds so much to the piece and we've basically treated rehearsals as a laboratory for exploration, for seeing what works and what doesn't. Almost all of her ideas have been good ones, and while I may have been resistant to some, I usually came around to seeing the wisdom in most of them. No surprise in any of this of course; she is a theater person and knows if as well as anyone I know. I'm in good hands and trust her . . . otherwise I'd have never asked her to do this. She has directed me before of course, so I knew what to expect . . . I'm going to go on that stage with a very strong foundation.
Would I have liked more than two weeks to learn the piece and work on it? Yes. But we put the hammer down and have gotten it done!
I've been very very lucky with these solo pieces. Wallace and Bette are very different in many ways; but they both share a love of theater, more than that really, a reverence for theater; and it means more than I can say to have people like that in my corner. Theater is a temple for all of us, the place we feel most ourselves and at home.
One of the images from the rehearsals up in Woodstock when we were working on Old Hickory, was the first day in the Byrdcliffe Theatre, when Wallace just wanted to take a moment to sit quietly in the space. You gotta love someone who loves this stuff as much as that.
That love of theater is one of the first bits of glue that bound Bette and I in the first place, way back when . . . it's a wonderful thing to be able to share, and to carry on stage with me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)