So my reading date is set for the Woodstock Fringe Voices of the Fringe series. Thursday May 16 is the date. I had some uncertainty about which piece to do then, I originally wanted to do this piece I started on about posing for a portrait and what goes on in your head while you're posing, but I couldn't seem to crack it. I did a couple of drafts, but it seemed kind of rote, so I put it aside and decided to go with a more straight narrative piece that I banged out a few months ago. It's not perfect, but I'll work on it between now and then and hopefully it'll be closer to where it needs to be by that time. The reading is a 7pm (there are four pieces total the whole thing is 90 minutes or so) and it's in the Community Room at Westbeth 155 Bank Street Greenwhich Village, NYC. Oh and it's free.
You know I still pinch myself when I think about doing my stuff in the city. I think about all the time I spent wishing and hoping before I actually made the move . . . it really has worked out well. It is a rich and rewarding place to be in life to be creating and having people respond so well to the work. Yes, it would be great to be able to support myself with my writing, but it's nice to have the kind of job that doesn't get in the way so one thing doesn't get in the way of the other too much. Not only that but I was thinking the other day about the hustle of working in the arts . . . the jobs are fleeting and there aren't that many people who can make a sustainable living doing it, certainly not with mortgages and kids in college and eating something other than cans of beans. At any rate, I like where I am right now. But I digress.
I basically need to have more fun with the posing piece . . . I'll get it right one of these days. The wonderful thing about doing these solo pieces that I write for myself, is that most of them I'll never get too old to do!
Still waiting to hear from the NY Fringe people. I think they said they announce in late April. Then in June the All For One Festival makes their announcement. All very exciting. Both of those are in the city and they would both be multiple performances. Since they aren't at the same time it would not be inconceivable to do both if they both chose me . . . but let's not put the cart before the horse here! For the Fringe I submitted as a two piece evening under the title 'Hillbilly Gothic'(Old Hickory and Like a Sack of Potatoes) and for AFO I just submitted Old Hickory.
I'll miss the Woodstock Fringe Festival this summer. I am happy and proud to be part of that family and to have contributed in the last four of the ten years that it existed. There are many wonderful magical memories.
Going to see Kafka's Ape on Wednesday, which is a solo piece in which a woman plays an ape who learned to adapt to survive by taking on the speech and habits of men. It got a rave in the Times this week, but happily we had already gotten our tix before that. There was a profile of the actress in the Times the week before and it sounds very interesting. The running time is 50 minutes so it avoids the pitfall that Ann didn't which is trying to make it a full 2 hour evening . . . as my friend Norman Marshall says: 'I've never seen a play that was too short'.
