Damage Control through the years

The upcoming reading of Damage Control has brought back a lot of memories of the life of the play, not all of them pleasant. So I thought it was worth a post. I don't remember exactly what set me off on the path of writing this play, but in its infancy it was originally a solo piece. A guy alone in a room with a phone awaiting a call that he could let his victim (a young lady) go,or otherwise. He'd get a call on the hour, which was a signal: one ring everything was ok, two rings the ransom had been paid and he could let her go . . . or three rings . . .which wasn't good. Needless to say with each ring of the phone he got a little crazier. For whatever reason (shame I wasn't blogging at the time)I decided to make it two characters, and then it morphed to three when I added the victim bound to a chair. The two main characters are an inexperienced kidnapper working off a gambling debt, and a more seasoned enforcer who is there to see things through to the end and to clean up any messes that might ensue, or as he says, he is damage control.

The play came to life pretty quickly, as I remember it. Aside from my usual theater influences, this one owes a lot to good ole Sam Peckinpah, whose films, while flawed, held nothing back. (The director of this reading likened it to Tarantino, which I can see as well).

Damage Control was my second full length play, coming on the heels of Last Request.

At any rate, I entered into competitions and eventually sent it to Jerry Davis at Burning Coal Theater in Raleigh, NC. He and I had met while working on The Trip to Bountiful with Ellen Burstyn.

Jerry offered to have a staged reading and flew me down there for the weekend. It was a wonderful experience, complete with interview for the local paper and I got a lot out of it. Most notably I saw the impact that the play could have on an audience.

After that a pause in the action for this one . . . I was writing other plays and sending this one out I suppose, at any rate the next action came in 2002, with a reading as part of the TRU Voices series, this time in NYC. The director was Jules Ochoa, and Jules found the actors. The guy who played the inexperienced kidnapper was amazing. Great energy. A real high tension wire. The young lady who played the girl was funny because she, though she had no lines to speak of, was so into it . . . ah actors!

This reading was in a 99 seat theater that was packed and round two for this play showed yet again the kind of reaction you could achieve . . . everybody was glued to their seats.

Very nice feedback as well.

Then things went to a place . . . well lets just say it's a great example of what working with friends can cost you. The producer of the TRU reading was a very good friend of mine. He wanted to produce the play god-bless-him and we had another reading for the artistic director at the Rattlestick Theater (with the same cast and director as TRU) . . . then things went off the rails . . . my friend started listening to a guy who was involved in film, and what a wonderful film this would make (it would, I had even written a screenplay already and entered into the Project Greenlight competition). To make a long story short: the film guy was a tad duplicitous, my friend and I ended up with a very damaged relationship, and the whole thing culminated in a rare explosion on my part over what the film guy wanted to do with my play.

Not a happy story, but as my friend Angelo Parra said not long after this debacle: better the script is gathering dust on a shelf than you have a film you're not embarrassed by.

Since then I have entered the piece from time to time in various competitions, but not much play until the Monsterpiece Theater Collective opted to present it. So away we go. It'll be interesting to see what they do with it. I've yet to meet anyone involved and am not able to get to rehearsals, so this will be the least engaged I've been with one of my readings, and we'll just see what happens.

The director of this reading, Kate Tenetko, speaks highly of it. It'll be interesting to see how having a woman directing will influence the piece. The inexperienced kidnapper is a bit of a cad, with a very unhealthy view of women. Should make for an interesting perspective.

The least that could happen is that a suspenseful good time will be had by all!

I'm attaching the photo I took for the flyer for the reading. I think it is very evocative. I took it in the basement on a sunny day, the noonday sun blasting through the window above the chair. Nice image and perfect for the piece.

The final weekend

It's Thursday morning. This evening is the first performance of our final weekend at Byrdcliffe. There isn't a person among us (us being Bette, Wallace and I) that wouldn't like more life for this production, but for now we will kill it four more times and then move on.

It may be redundant to express what a thrill ride this has been. Two weeks in Woodstock rehearsing leading up to the opening . . . the feedback we got referring our production to the top of the heap (and comparing Bette's performance to Billie Whitelaw!) . . . then the night the lights went out and we persevered anyway . . . amazing stuff.

As Winnie would say: 'And now?'

So here we go. There will be much to cherish forever with this production. Much that will linger on. A new frame of reference for what theater can be and how it can communicate. It's what we all strive for. As another Beckett heroine says: 'More!'

Opening night of Happy Days

We have one performance under our belts now. It went very well indeed. I thought Willie would get more in the way of laughs, and there were some, but a) I didn't push for them and b)the audience was into it and very moved by the entire thing. So it accomplished what we hoped to. I had one small line glitch, but no one noticed it I think . . . I'll have to on my toes, not enough lines to screw one up, but having said that the glitch involved adding to, not taking away.

There is so much love and commitment in the air, it's just an amazing event for all concerned . . . and when we can pass that along to the audience it's magic.

Building the mound

Well I thought that building the mound for Happy Days was gonna be a long drawn out process . . . but the wizard Bob McBroom is amazing. He had the entire thing figured out so he could just put the pieces together when he got to the theater. It was like building an erector set. From getting to the theater to leaving with a fully assembled mound was about two hours (and that involved some ooh and ahh time as well). So today we will start rehearing on the set and after rehearsal McB will come in with Chester, his helper and start to shape it and paint it . . . this is going to really be something else!

The home stretch for Happy Days!

We had our last rehearsal at Wallace's studio today and on Monday we move into the theater! Pretty f'n exciting! We've been in Woodstock for the last week rehearsing every day and it has paid off in spades. This is going to be a pretty amazing event and I can't wait to get it up and running. Which of course is bitter sweet because we have been working on this for over a year now, and seriously rehearsing since October, so it has been a most intense ride . . . but I wouldn't trade it for anything. This has been a profound experience and, while it will be an intense next few days, this production should kinda blow people's minds.

This is the third time I've worked with Wallace in Woodstock and I'd say the third time is the charm, but they have ALL been charmed experiences. This collaboration is something that you can't just create, it happens through a series of events that lead one to another and then . . . magic happens . . . I could write a book . . . maybe some day I will!!!

Heating up!

The last couple of weekends have been great up in Woodstock. We got to see the house we will be staying in while there week before last, and we have had great rehearsals with other folks dropping by from time to time. Victoria Sullivan who will be hosting an event on Beckett on the 23rd came last week to sit in, and this week we were interviewed by the local paper, which is very nice.

All is moving in a wonderful direction, and both Bette and I are very happy with the love and support we are getting. We added stage managers to the mix this weekend, my old buddy Richard Ralph (?) and Lena, who's last name I don't remember. Both sweet people. Richard and I got back about six years, he was the house manager for Old Hickory and has been around the Fringe for as long as I am aware. A sweet guy and money in the bank level responsibility . . . I would trust him with anything.

So the team is all in place and we are ready to rock it out . . . can't wait. The only sad part is that this time next month it will be nearing the end of the Happy Day trail . . . but what an experience it has been . . . and we're just getting to the sweetest of the sweet spots!

AWOL for a bit

It's not like I've not had anything to report . . . it's just that who has time for updates . . . sorry to anyone looking to follow.

Happy Days is going very well. It's a lot of work especially for Bette, but it's gonna pay off in spades. The tech team is all in place; and they are all people who worked on Old Hickory six years ago! How cool is that. The set designer is going to have much more to do this time around that's for sure. We met with him after rehearsal on Sunday and talked about his ideas .. . he owns a lovely place in the Catskills and we met in a room with windows on three sides all overlooking mountains . . . it was the most striking room I've ever been in . . . absolutely beautiful.

We're doing full weekends every weekend up in Woodstock and then on August 1 we move up there for two weeks. It won't be play time but it is going to be an unforgettable experience . . . and how do I know that? Because it already has been!
It's almost exactly a year since we started this baby and we're kind of at that stage where it seems like it'll never end, but it's going to get real crazy now as time accelerates and we get there before you even blink . . . or that's how it will seem.

Can't wait.

I sent something off to a competition in Chicago. They wanted plays under the theme 'Killer Instinct' so I sent my solo piece (which until yesterday didn't have a name) about the guy who leaves his love in bed while he goes to buy bread and wine . . . only we find out she is chained there . . . and when he gets home she has escaped! Anyway, I called it The Rumpled Man and sent it off. We'll see what happens.

Still thinking about new pieces . . . things are starting to fall into place, but more on that later (possibly much later).

Ciao for niao.

June update

Here we are in early June. Hard to believe that in two months we'll be rehearsing in Woodstock full time, leading up to an August 11th opening!

Pretty exciting stuff indeed. Wallace worked his ass off last weekend on posters and mailers, and they look phenomenal. Tickets are on sale and people are buying them so, while we have a ways to go yet I'm sure it'll be here before you know it.

I called the props master at Yale Rep the other day to pick her brain about some of the technical aspects of the show. She was incredibly helpful and would have stayed on the phone as long as I wanted to talk . . . very nice lady. I asked about what they were doing with the props, but they are boxed up awaiting word on a possible move into the city. I'm guessing that if they weren't spoken for Jen (the props master) would have let me borrow what I needed, but so much for that! That production deserves the move. Diane Wiest was excellent and the overall production values were top notch, which I guess is what you'd expect from one of our better regional theaters. It would be interesting to know if they were planning/hoping for a move; that's a big expectation for the play, but with Wiest playing Winnie that sure don't hurt. Good for her if they do it. It's first class all the way.

Last year's production with Tony Shaloub and Brook Adams was a travesty so maybe NYC is hungry for a good production.

I don't see how that'll impact our production. People who don't want to shlep into the city to see it won't have to, and our production will rock on its own merits.

Ideas are popping for me from a writing standpoint. I now have landed on one of my older, unfinished plays that I liked the idea of but could never really pull off . . . I had an idea for it today that might add something pretty stunning to the mix . . . so it's something I'm gonna have to start working on in the coming days/weeks.

This weekend we are going to Woodstock for an early rehearsal on Sunday, and the weekend after that we are starting to go up for overnight weekend long rehearsals. Then August 1 off we go!

It is going to be a dynamite summer! And the doggies are gonna love Woodstock (and Wallace and Scott are gonna love our mutts!)

uh-oh . . . a new idea

Don't hate me for this: a new idea for a play fell into my lap this morning . . . but I won't tell you what it is! I know I know, why even bring it up . . . and I'll tell you why: that's what this blog is for! It's as much for me as for you, to track progress of things. I started it in the first place when I was working on Old Hickory in 2010, as sort of a production diary . . . so now we can track this new piece together and see what comes of it. It may be nothing but it may be something wonderful . . . who knows. I have had ideas in the past that went nowhere. I go back to them occasionally and find a way to make them work (Brother of the End of the World is a prime example of that), so who knows. I have at least a half dozen plays that were really good ideas that I couldn't end up bringing to fruition . . . a couple of them keep raising their hands and saying 'Hey what about me', and at least one of them I'm very interested in exploring again . . . but for now I've gotten the first breath of a breeze of a new piece . . . wrote down some ideas/impressions/thoughts, and it may come to something . . . or maybe not.

One thing that I find endlessly interesting: in the couple of periods when I have been unemployed in the last ten or so years, when I have had all the time in the world to write, very little has come of it . . . I've written plays but they aren't even the ones that I'm at all interested in revisiting . . . my best work is when I'm cramming writing into whatever little time I have between running and work and flopping in the evening . . . wonder why that is.

Happy Days and Last Request

What a pleasure to see Happy Days at Yale Rep yesterday! Dianne Weist was fabulous as Winnie. And it completely wipes the slate of the abysmal Tony Shaloub/Brook Adams version we suffered through last year. The trap with Happy Days is to make it a cartoon; but where the play really lives is in reality. It could be people sitting at the kitchen table talking, or the wife chattering away while the husband sits with coffee and his newspaper, it just so happens that in the play Winnie is buried up to her waist in Act One and up to her neck in Act Two . . . it's a stunning play visually and a real tour de force for the actress playing Winnie.

I think it is the fourth production of the play that Bette and I have seen; and easily the best. While the Gate Theater's production at Lincoln Center may have been its equal in a lot of ways, it was in a space way too large for it. You need intimacy, and Yale Rep had that. It also had Ms. Weist who was nothing short of stunning. The fellow playing Willie was fine. But he didn't really do so much to make it his own. He did what Willie is supposed to do in the script, but I can't say he brought anything special to the part.

I had never been to Yale Rep before, and enjoyed it thoroughly, and also enjoyed what little we saw of New Haven as well.

In other news I had occasion to dust off Last Request and submit it to someone today. The piece is nearly twenty years old and I had a hard time actually finding an electronic file of it! I was able to, finally though and did some cleaning up of it from a layout perspective. Didn't spend a lot of time with rewriting it, didn't want to go down that rabbit hole just yet. If the people I submitted it to have an interest then I can have a closer look.

Last Request was my first full length play, in about 1998 or so! I saw a posting the other day for two handers, and wrote to see about whether they'd consider a three character piece, since there is a ghost character in act two. They said they would so I sent it. My other two handers either are older characters or aren't a man and a woman.

We'll see. I think it's a good piece and the reading we did of it in '99 was very well received so hope springs eternal!

No morning pages

So much for morning pages. Since I wrote my last post nearly a week has gone by with nothing from the likes of me . . . ah well . . . best intentions and all that.

I have been bapping around some ideas for a new play . . . we'll see if anything comes of it, but stuff has been occurring to me and I write it down . . . and try to remember not to toss it . . . therein lies the challenge!

We had a very nice rehearsal yesterday and came up with a schedule for the rest of the rehearsal period . . . most weekends will be multi-day affairs up in Lake Hill, taking the dogs and all . . . should be a lot of work but should also be a lot of fun.

The majority of the burden of this play, for those who know the play, is on Bette. It's heavy lifting but she is absolutely going to rock in this.

So onward. This is a short note because I'm pretty f'n tired . . . but while hanging with the bunny it's a nice way to turn it inward a bit.

This weekend, in addition to rehearsal on Sunday is a trip to New Haven, on Saturday, to see Happy Days at Yale Rep, with Diane Weist. Should be interesting. Wallace said Weist would be his second choice for Winnie, with Bette being number one . . . the love and warmth that fills the room when we rehearse is really something else . . . what an experience this whole endeavor is . . . and if we can pull it off . . .

Here's a hint: we can.

Morning pages

It just entered my brain pan that I could use my blog for morning pages, when I'm not hot on the trail of a play that is.

For the uninitiated, morning pages were a suggestion of Julia Cameron in A Writers Way as a way of working your way out of being blocked, sort of a way to keep writing when you don't feel the impulse necessarily. Her thing is ninety minutes, but since that's not going to happen anything at all is a way to work those muscles a bit. So who knows maybe I'm going to get regular with this stuff . . . which might or might not be a good thing.

So no particular topic for today. We took a few days off from rehearsing Happy Days because we were feeling a bit under the weather. Actually we were planning to rehearse on Sunday, but since it was Mother's Day and Laurette came out and surprised Bette by showing up . . . we haven't done it for a while. But now that we're back on track we should be able to get with the program.

We're all set for the summer, have our places to stay and are really looking forward to this. It is gonna be work, and it is going to be living on the edge to do Beckett, but this should be a really nice production. It sure feels good I'll tell you that.

Can't imagine what we'd rather be doing . . . 'cause there isn't anything we'd rather be doing.

Ok, off for breakfast and spending a few minutes with the Karamazov brothers . . . then . . . to work!

The only updates regarding Writer's Block are that, I finally registered it with the Library of Congress and now I'm sending it around . . . so far to Penguin Rep and Playwrights Horizons . . . maybe a couple of other people as well . . . then some competitions . . . and then . . . who knows . . . maybe I'll get an idea for another play!

Puttin' it out there

After taking my new pages into the workshop on Tuesday night, I feel like Writer's Block is ready to meet the world. With any luck the world is ready for it as well!

I took Playwrights Horizons up on their offer to submit it to them! Nice opportunity to have them see the work. I had invited them to the reading, they responded in the negative but offered to read it when it's ready. So I sent it. Also have sent it to Penguin Rep and Burning Coal as well. Both of these I have relationships with so we'll see what happens. Right now I'm angling for readings, but I just want to get it out there. Feedback is good too.

I'm going to continue to submit the piece as much as I can . . . all the usual places . . . and hope for the best. I like the piece a lot and hope that the twist of it being sort of insider look at creating a play might get some traction.

This is a short post . . . more later . . . stay tuned!

Post Reading Post

The reading of Writer's Block on Thursday went well. I waited until now to post something because I wanted to give it a little space to sort of matriculate before I did.

The turn out was good. Nice mix of members of the Fringe Playwrights Unit and other folks unrelated to that but who are good friends who keep coming out for stuff.

Thanks to Peter and Victor and James, the cast. They have pretty much been the only ones reading this piece over the last year or so that I've been taking it in to the Fringe. It was really valuable to hear it read. Though I have to say, it generally got better laughs in the workshop . . . it sort of makes me wonder if too much of the humor is theater-centric, but y'know what? That's ok because so am I!

I got great feedback . . . and confirmation for some things I kind of already felt about the piece. There were some clunky and problematic things about the script that I looked at very closely today and sort of think I solved most of them.

We'll see. I'm taking the new pages in on Tuesday so hopefully all will go well. There is a build to the end of the piece that felt a little abrupt before, but I worked to fix that today . . . and I think I did.

It had been a very long time since I had heard one of my full length plays read all the way through and it was refreshing to say the least. You can really get a better sense of the arc and how it works . . . I think this one does. But then I think all my plays do! Surprise!

So the next step is getting it out into the world. We'll see how it goes. It has been incredible fun to work on this piece and it's a real good example of how our lives intersect with our art. One of the key elements of the play, for example, is a play called The Conversation of Death. In the early days of working on this idea I read H is for Hawk . . . and one of the things she talked about in the book was the interaction between prey and hunter . . . well . . . that was too juicy to pass up so that influenced the play. There are other, smaller things as well . . .but it all goes into the baggy and gets mixed up until it comes out as this play . . . the title of which, by the by, I didn't put all that much thought into. Actually, when I was writing the program for Like a Sack of Potatoes, I wanted an announcement of this reading and I needed a title, which it did not have at the time . . . so I said what do I call it and the first words that bubbled up were Writer's Block . . . and it fit so beautifully . . . it kind of tells you that the piece is about the creative process without really rubbing your nose in it, so I think it's perfect for the piece . . .we'll see what kind of traction I get with it!

So . . . register with the Library of Congress and away we go . . . onto the next one!

Writers Block around the corner

I took the first ten pages of the second act of Writers Block to the Fringe last night. It went very well . . . my cuts proved to be timely . . . I mentioned in a previous post that the 80 page play is now around 55,and most of that cutting is in act two. Specifically, the first twenty pages of the act. What is now the first page of act two was 23 pages in before . . . a lot of stuff I kind of like got lopped out, but it doesn't really matter whether I like it or not, what matters is if it serves the play . . . and in this case the play is better for the cuts.

So it'll be nice to have the whole thing read in one fell swoop. Last year we only read the first act of Brother of the End of the World, and I really missed not hearing the entire thing . . . but this play is significantly shorter and moves more spryly I think. It got nice feedback last night and some nice laughs (which is the best feedback of all if its in the right places, and it was). So I feel like we're ready. The three actors reading it have pretty much been doing so for the entire time . . . all last fall when I was bringing the piece into the workshop ten - fifteen pages at a time, so they know the parts pretty well and it's fairly ideal. It would be nice to have time for a run through, but I doubt that is gonna be possible.

So we'll see what happens. I'm gonna read stage directions since sitting and listening to a reading of my work is hard, there aren't that many directions and I can make notes in the script real time if something is awry.

I'm ready to start submitting this one now . . . I think it might have a shot at some interest since it's: 1) small cast, 2) one set and 3) a tip of the hat to the creative process.

But we'll see.

Beckett

It was, I guess, unavoidable in this year of Beckett, that we would go see the evening of three pieces performed by Lisa Dwan. The three solo pieces, Not I, Rockabye and Footfalls were at the Skirball Center at NYU.

Traffic was bad news (not unusually bad in Manhattan, but really really bad on the Sawmill Parkway), but after we got there everything settled down. We went to Dojo on Mercer St. which is a couple of blocks from the theater. I've always been fond of that place and it didn't disappoint; food is good and prices are extremely reasonable. The one downer about Dojo is it's across the street from what used to be The Bottom Line . . . ah memories!

The first thing out of Wallace's mouth when he saw the space was 'This is not the right theater for these plays'. And he was right. Especially for Not I. The disembodied mouth was a tiny speck elevated 10 feet or more and way upstage. You could barely see it. I guess for a lone voice screaming into the void it was an interesting choice, but I think the piece would have been better served in a more intimate space.

I didn't have a similar problem with Rockabye and Footfalls. I guess with virtually any play the more intimate the better, and Bette had seen and been knocked out by these two plays with Billie Whitelaw when she originally performed them in the early '80s in NY in one of those smaller spaces on Theater Row. In the case of last night's performance, I think haunting is the best adjective. Beckett had a real sense of not only the poetry of the words but of the stage pictures themselves. In these two pieces an actress alone in the world, with the exception of the recorded voice. In the case of Footfalls the voice is the mother of the character and in Rockabye it is the internal monologue of the lone figure rocking her way through life 'alone in a window'.

Technically these pieces were amazing. The lighting in footfalls was ghostly and evocative, and in Rockabye it was stark white, from the side as she rocked and we hear the voice, providing an image of one side of her face lit and the other as dark as the far side of the moon, then the lighting would change when the voice and rocking stopped . . . and the woman in the chair would say simply: More. And the lighting would change back and the rocking start again.


Lisa Dwan was very good; in fact, Bette said she surpassed Whitelaw in Footfalls. At any rate, I'm glad we made the effort and went . . . a rare opportunity to experience Beckett on a very high level of performance and production. The director was Walter Asmus, who also directed the amazing Godot I saw a few years back. He is also a direct link to Beckett, having worked with him extensively.

Good stuff. I'll sure never forget it.

Next up in Beckettland: Happy Days with Diana Weist at Yale Rep! And you know what comes after that!

A moment for my poor ignored blog

Time flies don't it? You get up look around and a couple of weeks have gone by without a blog post! So anyway, lots of stuff happening in this most amazing of years. Now we have Like a Sack of Potatoes behind us, next up is the reading of my new piece Writers Block. It's Thursday, May 28th at 7 pm at the Westbeth Community Center. Then there are no other encumbrances to distract from Happy Days (except perhaps working for a living of course!).

I'm pretty happy with where Writers Block is now. Still working on it of course but it will be very nice to see how it goes over with folks. We read the first fifteen pages in the workshop last week and lots of laughs; it seems my surgery on the piece has worked its magic. And the real reconstruction has been in the second act. Vast swaths of the second act are gone now . . . to the extent that what was once an 80 page play is now under 60.

My process involves finding the story a little at a time . . . and then when I finally figure out how to end the piece I have to go back and make sure all the little bits that were written piece-meal fit together into a satisfying whole. A lot of work, but that what it's all about . . . so this is a fun piece. I like the characters, and I like the resolution of the piece . . . swinging for the bleachers . . . and if it works . . . what a rush . . . if it doesn't? Back to the drawing board.

So anyway, lots going on right now and couldn't be happier . . . one thing that does suffer though is this bit of navel gazing . . . but that's ok . . . you can't do everything!

Post Mortem

Maybe should have done this sooner, but it has been a pretty crazed week and I sort of wanted to take a bit of a breath after the run up to and the performances of Like a Sack of Potatoes.

It was a pleasure to do. A ton of work, but that's what it takes if you expect to be operating on any kind of professional level. All three performances were amazing from my perspective. As often happens they had their distinctly different aspects, including audience response. The first night there was more laughter the second more listening . . . the third was the smallest of the bunch (Sunday evening after all), so it was hard to track the tenor but they all really really liked the experience.

The challenge from an actors point of view, is to avoid the trap of trying to please an audience based upon what they are or aren't giving you. Just because they are quiet doesn't mean they aren't engaged, and pushing the performance to compensate is deadly. You dance with them that brung you; you trust the work that you've done and carry on . . . and spin your web.

So. Onward.

Spent the week working on Happy Days with Bette and my new play . . . with a title now: Writers Block. We're presenting a reading of it in May so I have work to do . . . but it's a pleasure to be thinking like a writer again, not just an actor.

I had to take Tuesday evening off as far as shlepping in for the Fringe Playwrights Unit. Three trips into the city is enough for the week and I needed to kick back a bit.

As to Writers Block: total reconstruction mode. The first draft got it down on paper/screen; figured out the story and how it ended . . . but as often is the case, since I tend to write in bursts, there were things that were redundant or that completely contradicted something earlier in the play . . . what I start off with evolves in the process and by the time I get to the end of draft one I look back at the beginning and have to figure out how to make it work to get to what I came up with for an ending.

So that's where I am now . . . going through it line by line, deleting, rewriting. And when I get to the end I'll have another look and see how it holds up . . . take some pages into the workshop and hear it read. By late May I will be ready.

An interview

Review Fix Midtown International Theatre Festival Coverage: Ric Siler Talks ‘Like a Sack of Potatoes’
Posted by Patrick Hickey Jr. on 3/12/16 • Categorized as Theatre

Review Fix chats with playwright Ric Siler, who discusses his production, “Like a Sack of Potatoes” at this year’s Midtown International Theatre Festival.

About “Like a Sack of Potatoes”:

LIKE A SACK OF POTATOES by Ric Siler, directed by Bette Siler; starring Ric Siler. The ‘shotgun and rock salt talk’ usually was enough to keep boyfriends in line, but when one of his daughters marries an abusive husband, a farmer finds more drastic measures may be called for. (Hillbilly Gothic) *AEA Performance Schedule: Tues 3/15, 7:15pm; Sat 3/19, 7:45pm; Sun 3/20, 5:45pm

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?

Ric Siler: Like a Sack of Potatoes began with an image, a cloud of dust raised by something falling in a dusty barn. After that it was figuring out the story, which was inspired in part by my grandfather who was a farmer in Kentucky and grew tobacco, tomatoes and much more. He would sit under the walnut trees in front of his house and sell his tomatoes.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Siler: I discover the piece as I’m writing it. I didn’t know where Like a Sack of Potatoes was going when I started it, but as the story grew it took on a life of its own. It came pretty quickly and didn’t require much in the way of rewriting.

Review Fix: What makes this different or special?

Siler: Being from Appalachia informs my writing in not only my ‘voice’ but also the stories I tell. I like to think there is an authenticity which gives people a window into people they don’t normally get to meet, except as stereotypes. I refer to some of my pieces as ‘hillbilly gothic’ with a sense of pride.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?

Siler: It’s funny how much autobiography leeches into these pieces. As I said my grandfather was a farmer, and some of my fondest childhood memories involve being in the tobacco fields with him. Many of my character’s traits come straight from him (he really did eat the fat of the meat and he really did go blasting moles in his yard).

Review Fix: How does it feel to be a part of something like this?

Siler: I cherish any opportunity to perform my work. And having three performances in the city is nothing short of a delight.

Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this production and for the future?

Siler: For this production: to take people on a ride they will never forget. For the future: More.

Review Fix: What do you think your audiences will enjoy the most?

Siler: The storytelling. This is, I hope, an engaging character. He’s a charmer at first, who takes action when he has to. With any luck people will be on the edge of their seats by the end of it.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Siler: Beckett’s Happy Day’s in August at the Byrdcliffe Theater in Woodstock, with my wife, Bette playing Winnie (Bette directed Sack of Potatoes), directed by Wallace Norman.

An interview

This is a series of questions that was sent to me (and all the writers it seems) and then I forgot about. I happened upon it by accident on the publicist's Facebook page! Seems as if it were posted a week ago . . . wish I'd known, but I do now.

At any rate, here's the link:

Final two performances . . . for now

This evening we'll be hitting the boards with Like a Sack of Potatoes, with one more performance tomorrow. I was a touch worried about tomorrow weather-wise but it looks like it's gonna be ok, wet - yes, snowy-yes, but not a blizzard at any rate (we have to wait for the first day of spring to have snow?).

My daughter, Laurette is coming tonight. It will be interesting to see just how much of this piece embarrasses her. My guess is probably a lot! While the two daughters in the piece aren't really based on her, a lot of it sort of is . . . she thinks she has seen this piece before but I'm not so sure . . . she's bringing friends so I hope they don't end up forever referring to her as the one from Mars or Midget . . . which are the two nicknames my character gives his daughters.

Anyway, it should be fun . . . again. I so totally enjoyed the first performance, and the feedback was amazing, but then to have the second one four nights later is a tad strange. We took off Wednesday. After the intensity of the rehearsals leading up to it, it was nice to stop and recharge a bit. When we rehearsed Thursday night it seemed like it had been a week off! So we rehearsed Thursday and Friday . . . and now here we are, coming to the end for this flight of performances.

It's funny how stuff happens. When we put the wraps on this last October in Haverstraw, I didn't know if I'd ever do it again, then, a couple of weeks later I got the email from MITF inviting me along. So who knows what happens next. None of the industry folks I reached out to responded to me, so if they are gonna show up it'll be a surprise. Well one did, Stephen Bishop Seeley, who was the Artistic Director of the Genesius Guild and the moderator of the Revolutionary Writers Workshop there, said he is coming tonight. And Jerry Davis from Burning Coal in Raleigh put it out to his 'peeps' in the area . . . who knows. The one thing I know for sure is that I'm gonna be there with guns blazing . . . telling my story and blowing people's minds just a tad.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: special kudos and love and thanks to Bette, who directed this while working on Happy Days . . .what? Oh yeah, in all her spare time! And directing to her is not a passive thing. She really gets into the weeds and digs and digs and digs . . . the results speak for themselves. She has helped me wring the best out of all the pieces we've worked on together . . . it's an incredible collaboration.

Next up? Readings of my new piece in May (which means really next up will be writing like a demon). And all the while visiting Beckett-land. Happy Days is gonna get the focus for the next few months. And rightfully so. It's an privilege to have the opportunity to do this piece and in the Byrdcliffe Theater no less. Really really cool.

Reflections on opening night

I thought the opening went very well indeed. Aside from a somewhat exploding tomato all was well. The audience was responsive, and full of people I know . . . and they were very attuned to what was being presented. The space was a warm little spot, seating 33 or so . . . perfect for this intimate piece. Good comments from people who were there, genuine positive feedback (which you can tell from the faux sort of 'gee that was nice'). It was all I could have hoped for as an opening salvo. Now a night off . . . some touch up work the next couple of nights to keep it fresh, and then a barnstorming last weekend with performances on Saturday and Sunday. I'm still working the industry types to try to get them in, but we'll see. It's doing it that matters, results be damned (though it would be nice to get a little traction here).

On that note a friend asked me yesterday what I hope to achieve with all this (not someone in the arts). My answer was somewhat boiler plate, industry etc. But that question stuck with me for a long time, in fact here I am the next day still thinking about it. It's sort of one of those questions that if you have to ask there's no way to answer. You do it because you can, or must. You do it because that's what drives you. Because there is something inside that has to get out. HAS to get out. Whether it's visual art, writing, acting . . . any form of expression is just that, a form of expression. You want to say something to the world. To make something that wasn't there, and make it as good as it can possibly be. You want to tell stories or enlighten people, or both. But what you really know is that without that means of expression nothing else matters at all.

I have a great deal of respect for the guy that asked me that question, and it wasn't a judgmental question from him at all . . . he really wanted to know. In the moment I couldn't answer him coherently because it was one of those questions you can't be prepared for, or that since it was sincere you don't want to give some half assed answer to. He came to the show last night (drove from Nyack for a 7:15 show - that's a friend). I think after the performance maybe he had a somewhat clearer idea of why I do this . . . I know I did.

Opening Eve

Tomorrow we open in the city with Like a Sack of Potatoes. I picked up the programs today and they look great. We rehearsed tonight and it went acceptably well . . . as often happens though, the 'dress rehearsal' was a little soft, which doesn't concern me, and will no doubt feed me for tomorrow night. You just get to the point where you want to get this in front of people again.

The piece works, that much I know. In the readings and previous performances over the years, the response has always been very good. And in all honesty, the writing is so good that as long as I don't trip over the furniture it should hit the mark.

Aside from the fact that I wrote it and act in it, a lot of me is in the story. I spent time in the tobacco fields when I was a kid, I know the smell and the feel of that . . . I rode on top of the tobacco piled high on a flatbed wagon pulled by tractor to the barn . . . in fact the monologue that I wrote twenty some years ago, that got me into the show with Ellen Burstyn, that got me into Equity and led me to Nyack, was about my grandfather and experiences in the fields . . . it's in my DNA, it's who I am . . . so I really have to work to screw this up!

And I have no intention of screwing this up!

My only job is to go out there and leave nothing for later. I get the opportunity to perform one of my pieces in New York City. How cool is that. I guess you could take that for granted if you're from the area . . . but coming from where I come from, and harboring the dreams I harbored for so many years . . . it's a real gas to actually get to do this . . . it never ever gets old . . . I'm honored to represent for the hillbillies of the world . . .

Stop Acting!

I was working on a play once with a cast that included a recent graduate from some acting program somewhere, and one day the director told him: 'You've had 125 hours of acting class and we're seeing every one of them up on that stage! Stop! Acting!'

That is some sage advise if you ask me. And it came to mind as we're rehearsing 'Like a Sack of Potatoes'. It's a strong piece, one of my strongest, and sometimes, when the writer isn't watching, the actor really wants to invest all the feeling and experience and know-how into getting the points across . . . and it just doesn't work. Then my wonderful, insightful and painfully honest director (also wife: Bette) calls me on it.

Moments that are powerful tend to be more so without unneeded actorly punctuation. Of course, the advise to the players in Hamlet springs to mind as I write this . . . it's really all you need to know about acting. Well that and how to peel back the layers that we all resist peeling to really get at the truth and power and depth of a character.

Of course, study is important . . . how else to learn timing, vocal control and movement; how else to exorcise those bad habits . . . but once you are on that stage, everything you know and have done leading up to that moment is behind you . . . all you have is now . . . and now is better if it's emotionally honest and truthful, not some facade you construct with a big all caps WATCH ME ACT on your forehead.

Part of the problem with pieces that are text heavy (a solo piece perhaps?) is that you learn the lines and run them and run them and run them just to get from the beginning to the end without screwing up . . . and then when you start to rehearse some of the bad habits you've developed in running the lines seep into performance. Once you're working on the moment to moment stuff . . . well that's when the magic starts to happen and the discoveries. It's an incredible process.

Anyway . . .

Simple is better.

Makes it sound easy but it's not.

Reminds me of a quote I read somewhere from George Burns (I paraphrase): The hardest part about acting is honesty. If you can fake that you got it made.

Working away

The upcoming performances of 'Like a Sack of Potatoes' will be the fifth time I've put it on its feet. That included two readings (one in NYC and one in Woodstock) one performance at the One Man Talking Festival in NYC and then last fall's performances in Haverstraw. I've learned a lot about the piece along the way, and it has deepened with time . . . each time I think it is as good as it can be and then . . . what do you know . . . when coming back to it, it only gets better.

It is a very good thing I couldn't do it in the fall version of the MITF because of the Equity thing, it would have been right on the heels of the Haverstraw performances and we would have probably just kept it as is. Now, coming back to it after a few months away from it, we're finding a lot of new elements to the play; new colors and textures . .. and the ending, which is pretty devastating when it works . . . is going to be even more powerful now.

The difference isn't in the script. Except for an insignificant trim here and there, it is virtually unchanged. The difference is in the exploration of character and motivation . . . why you're telling this story . . . and why it's hard to tell . . . I don't want to say too much but it is sufficient to say it feels very very good and I can't wait to get it before an audience.

I love this character. He's a tough old bird who loves and is tormented by his wife and two daughters. The big challenge is balancing the love for his family and his irascibility toward them (and in the case of his wife, 'the old lady', her irascibility toward him!). . . but I'm having fun figuring it out.

I'm not doing it alone of course. Bette is an excellent director. Insightful and with exquisite theatrical instincts . . . we have worked on all five of my solo pieces (though Wallace Norman directed the first production of Old Hickory, Bette has seen to subsequent productions). She is very adept at helping me burrow into the pieces and find what is down there, deeper down every time . . . discovery is what makes rehearsal so rewarding . . . and we've been discovering a lot.

We were supposed to go see the theater on Tuesday night but the crap weather made me decide to skip it. It's a pretty small space and you get a good idea of what it's like on the website, so we decided to use the time rehearsing instead. We'll see it soon enough. We have a couple of hours tech time on the afternoon of opening and that should be fine. There isn't much tech involved with the piece, basically lights up and lights down . . . with a little music on both ends. Other than that it's the magic in the words . . . and whatever I can bring to them in performance. Audiences have been very responsive to it at every step of the way, and I'm really excited to get to do multiple performances in the city.

What else is there.

The thick of it

So we're hitting our stride with rehearsals. It's pretty incredible to return to a piece you've done before and work on it as if for the first time. We're finding all kinds of moments that we didn't before, but I guess that's what putting a piece under the microscope of rehearsal can do for it. We've been progressing slowly through the piece moment by moment, beat by beat and really digging into it. It's amazing to look at a clock after rehearsing for what seems like twenty minutes and hour and a half has gone by.

I do have to say I love this piece and am really looking forward to bringing it back into New York. My first experience with long form monologues was doing The Zoo Story all those years ago; the story of Jerry and the dog is the moment when you can feel the audience start to squirm a little bit . . . when you tighten the screw and make people wonder: wait a minute what is this? I think Like a Sack of Potatoes has that element to it, it begins a little lighter and then spirals into a much darker story. It's awesome to be on stage and experience those moments when you feel the audience turn from laughing-happy to 'uh-oh'.

I think all of my pieces have that to some extent, maybe the piece about O'Neil's father less so, but certainly the other four pieces do.

Getting the postcards ready, should have a proof back today. And then we'll see who we can get out for this. It's always nice to have an audience!

Of course . . .

Now that I decided to blog about activities theatrical this year, for the first time Wallace had to cancel our rehearsal yesterday because he was unwell. So Bette and I ran lines for a large chunk of Act One of Happy Days. The poetry of this play knocks me out every time I read it. The rhythms of the writing are very specific, which makes Bette's job that much harder, but add to the beauty. I'm having fun with the slightly off kilter Willie, he adds much to the piece and it's a blast to be working with these two on this masterpiece.

It's great to have this kind of artistic collaboration in my life. Bette and I work very well together and Wallace just means so much to me, and it's a gift for him to seek out my/our company. This is the third play I've worked on with Wallace since 2010. First was Old Hickory, which was a life changing/affirming experience, opening the Fringe festival in Woodstock that year; then came Wallace's play It Can't Happen Here, also with Bette and now Happy Days . . . it's a thrill ride no doubt about it.

In other news of the week, I finally friended Jerome Davis at Burning Coal. I don't know why I hadn't thought to do that before. I met Jerry doing The Trip to Bountiful years ago, and at the time he was scouting around for places to start a theater . . . and he found it in the Raleigh/Durham area. In 1999 he gave me a heck of a lift in producing a staged reading of my play Damage Control. It was my first public reading of the play (or of any of my full length plays) and it meant a lot to me. Kind of lost touch with him over the years, emailing on occasion but otherwise everybody living their lives.

More as it happens.

I'm Baaaccck

Decided this might be a pretty good year to take to the blog again. It looks to be a busy one on the theater side of things: I have a performance of 'Like a Sack of Potatoes' in the city in March (pending seeing the actual agreement I am expected to sign) and Samuel Beckett's 'Happy Days' in the beautiful Byrdcliffe Theatre in Woodstock in August! Add to that returning to my new play, which scares me a bit because of the ambition of it, but that's reason enough to stick with it I think. I'm hoping to present some or all of it as a reading this spring in NYC at the Voices of the Fringe. So all in all 2016 is shaping up to be a busy and fulfilling year!

Y'know . . . all these people dying too young (Bowie, Alan Rickman) is enough to slap a person around and wake them up. But I don't have to go that far afield to be reminded of that; my brother's fourteen year fight with ALS was wake up call enough.

I love a column I read today by David Brooks. In it he quoted Van Gogh: "I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart." Those are words to live by.

I've written a bunch of plays in the last few years, (I have twelve full length on my resume but that doesn't count ones I haven't had readings or some level of activity with) none of them have been produced but that's ok. You do it because you do it. Every step of the way leads to the next one. So here's to an exciting year . . . and I hope to post on a semi regular basis!