Now that I've had a few days to reflect on the sojourn to Scotland, I can only say that the glow has not faded, anything but . . . it has been burnished to a shine!
We saw a lot of theater; from South Africa, New Zealand (the Modern Maori Quartet!), China, Canada, Ireland and even one from the US! The South African adaptation of Miss Julie, into Mies Julie was probably the best, a real stunner; but a very close second was the solo piece, Pike St., by a lady from NYC.
We stepped outside the Fringe to see a couple of productions in the Edinburgh International Festival, Krapp's Last Tape, with Barry McGovern and Don Giovanni (coming soon to NYC, you might not want to miss it if you're in the area!).
We even checked out one of the comedians, who was a lot of fun. And then there were street performers everywhere.
On Sunday morning before flying out, Bette and I got one more chance to spend a few hours in the city and went to the National Gallery, which was an eye opener as well.
All in all it's an exciting time to be in a beautiful city.
As if that weren't enough we had three days sprinkled throughout to see a bit of the country side with one day trip up to the highlands.
No . . . I didn't drive! That was all Scott and Wallace. The opposite side thing I could get used to, the left hand gear shift would have been harder!
We ate great food (but no haggis) and downed a few pints . . . and walked . . . a lot!
All in all an unforgettable experience.
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Best Edinburgh day yet
Yesterday we saw a South African adaptation of Strindberg, called Mies Julie. It was a devastating look at issues raised by Strindberg but with the added ingredient of apartheid. It was a mind-blowing and devastating work. The actors were all magnificent and the production on the whole was in the pantheon of best theatrical moments that I have encountered.
Then we went to see Don Giovanni as part of the Edinburgh International Festival (Beckett was too). It was nothing short of magnificent. Then the train home and collapse into bed.
It has been a truly exceptional experience so far in Scotland and two days left!!!
Then we went to see Don Giovanni as part of the Edinburgh International Festival (Beckett was too). It was nothing short of magnificent. Then the train home and collapse into bed.
It has been a truly exceptional experience so far in Scotland and two days left!!!
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Edinburgh part 2
So on Monday we did take a day for some driving around the countryside, going to Loch Earn and a bit of the highlands. It was magical! Too gorgeous for any description to do it justice, but I certainly will never forget it!
Yesterday back to the Fringe for All Quiet on the Western Front and Nina . . . The Story of Me and Nina Simone. All Quiet would have been served by a different space, but you could see that it had its merits, a bit of a disappointment though since it was hard to see much of what happened . . . a spirited bunch of young performers however.
Nina was more polished, but not perfect. The actress never attempted to 'be' Nina Simone, she told her story of being influenced by Nina and went in some pretty radical directions, the music, when she finally got around to singing it, was sublime.
Today is Mies Julie, by a South African company and Don Giovanni conceived by Ivan Fischer, who Scott speaks very highly of.
More later.
What a great time!
Yesterday back to the Fringe for All Quiet on the Western Front and Nina . . . The Story of Me and Nina Simone. All Quiet would have been served by a different space, but you could see that it had its merits, a bit of a disappointment though since it was hard to see much of what happened . . . a spirited bunch of young performers however.
Nina was more polished, but not perfect. The actress never attempted to 'be' Nina Simone, she told her story of being influenced by Nina and went in some pretty radical directions, the music, when she finally got around to singing it, was sublime.
Today is Mies Julie, by a South African company and Don Giovanni conceived by Ivan Fischer, who Scott speaks very highly of.
More later.
What a great time!
Monday, August 7, 2017
Edinburgh
We are in Edinburgh and was thinking I should make notes of some of the stuff we've done and seen, and then remembered the blog!! We had a nice uneventful flight in and were met at the airport by Wallace and Scott, who have been here for two weeks before us in a home swap situation in Braco.
That first day we tooled around the area some and adjusted to the jet lag. What a beautiful area.
Then the next day off to the races and the Edinburgh Fringe! It's about an hour from Dunblane to Edinburgh via train. And that day we walked . . . a lot. Saw the city, and three shows a Canadian offering, Kafka and Son; the second show, based on a flyer handed to Bette on the street was a charming concert by the Modern Maori Quartet, who brought elements of their heritage to popular songs and some originals with glorious harmonies. The final show of the day was Louacha Land from China, a stunning movement oriented piece that was in Chinese without translation so you weren't distracted.
I guess we were more jet lagged than we knew because I slept ten hours the next day and then back in to Edinburgh for a two shows that blew all our minds: a solo piece called Pike St. and then Krapp's Last Tape with my favorite Beckett actor Barry McGovern. Both were stunners.
More on all this later. We might take today for some sight seeing.
That first day we tooled around the area some and adjusted to the jet lag. What a beautiful area.
Then the next day off to the races and the Edinburgh Fringe! It's about an hour from Dunblane to Edinburgh via train. And that day we walked . . . a lot. Saw the city, and three shows a Canadian offering, Kafka and Son; the second show, based on a flyer handed to Bette on the street was a charming concert by the Modern Maori Quartet, who brought elements of their heritage to popular songs and some originals with glorious harmonies. The final show of the day was Louacha Land from China, a stunning movement oriented piece that was in Chinese without translation so you weren't distracted.
I guess we were more jet lagged than we knew because I slept ten hours the next day and then back in to Edinburgh for a two shows that blew all our minds: a solo piece called Pike St. and then Krapp's Last Tape with my favorite Beckett actor Barry McGovern. Both were stunners.
More on all this later. We might take today for some sight seeing.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Not so Emma
I got on my blog to post again without really knowing what I was going to write about, but I saw the title of my most recent post (May? I gotta get better at this!) and figured I should address this Emma phenomenon with an update: to wit: I didn't make the finals of the free speech competition. Oh well. Who knew there were so many plays laying around in people's drawers about free speech! They got fifty one submissions and narrowed it down to a handful of finalists (six I think) and I wasn't one of them . . . on to the next thing.
One thing about having a pipeline of unproduced plays at my disposal: I have something for nearly any occasion!
On the topic of new plays yet to be written: nothing boiling inside that makes me want to drop everything and start writing. I was playing around with a series of vignettes about blind dates . . .and wrote several, but it hasn't really caught fire just yet.
Of course there is always Self Inflicted Wounds, my most recent. It needs some work and I should go back to it to smooth out some rough edges . . . this weekend is a nice long weekend, maybe I can get to it then. We'll see.
Bette and I took part in a farewell event at Shades Rep. They are moving to a new space. It was fun. First off I love Sam Harps, so when he asks 'Do you want to' I figure 'why not?'. I just read a couple of monologues from my plays, the Buffalo Creek story from Where the Rain Never Falls and the Kerouac scene from Dead Authors. It went over very well. I really connected emotionally in the Rain monologue, always nice when that happens; and the Kerouac monologue was a hit as well. Bette read a new solo piece of hers, nice reaction from the audience. It's a challenging piece, but she pulled it off beautifully.
We're holding off on theater excursions right now because of Edinburg. We'll be seeing some nice stuff there so we're hoarding our shekels for now. Too bad. Would have liked to have seen Sweat and Indecent. Oslo and Dolls House part 2 as well, for that matter . . . but timing is everything.
We did see the controversial Julius Ceasar. Loved John Douglas Thompson (as always) and the guy who plays JC was great as well . . . the direction and technical aspects were good as well, a lot of nice touches. When we left I predicted they'd get some push back for the depiction of JC as Trump . . . and they did . . . but since JC's team wins in the end, everyone should just chill out . . . of course with Trumpy as president things are pretty f'n chilly as it is.
Onward.
One thing about having a pipeline of unproduced plays at my disposal: I have something for nearly any occasion!
On the topic of new plays yet to be written: nothing boiling inside that makes me want to drop everything and start writing. I was playing around with a series of vignettes about blind dates . . .and wrote several, but it hasn't really caught fire just yet.
Of course there is always Self Inflicted Wounds, my most recent. It needs some work and I should go back to it to smooth out some rough edges . . . this weekend is a nice long weekend, maybe I can get to it then. We'll see.
Bette and I took part in a farewell event at Shades Rep. They are moving to a new space. It was fun. First off I love Sam Harps, so when he asks 'Do you want to' I figure 'why not?'. I just read a couple of monologues from my plays, the Buffalo Creek story from Where the Rain Never Falls and the Kerouac scene from Dead Authors. It went over very well. I really connected emotionally in the Rain monologue, always nice when that happens; and the Kerouac monologue was a hit as well. Bette read a new solo piece of hers, nice reaction from the audience. It's a challenging piece, but she pulled it off beautifully.
We're holding off on theater excursions right now because of Edinburg. We'll be seeing some nice stuff there so we're hoarding our shekels for now. Too bad. Would have liked to have seen Sweat and Indecent. Oslo and Dolls House part 2 as well, for that matter . . . but timing is everything.
We did see the controversial Julius Ceasar. Loved John Douglas Thompson (as always) and the guy who plays JC was great as well . . . the direction and technical aspects were good as well, a lot of nice touches. When we left I predicted they'd get some push back for the depiction of JC as Trump . . . and they did . . . but since JC's team wins in the end, everyone should just chill out . . . of course with Trumpy as president things are pretty f'n chilly as it is.
Onward.
Sunday, May 28, 2017
Everything's coming up Emma!
I saw in the Dramatists Guild publication an ad for plays related to free speech issues. I immediately thought of my play about Emma Goldman, Words of Fire, and started compiling a character breakdown in preparation to send it in. Then I put on the brakes for a second and decided to have a look at my second Emma Goldman play, The Nature of the Beast. Turns out it is specifically related to free speech issues as Emma and Alexander Berkman were being persecuted for speaking out against the war effort in WWI.
Well . . .that was a surprise . . . so I figured I should read the play and much to my surprise and delight, it worked pretty well. So guess what, I decided it was the one to send. Yesterday I spent about four hours on reformatting the play, writing the bio, history of the play and how it relates to first amendment issues and sent it in.
Now, this is a play I haven't looked at or thought about much in oh maybe at least ten years (though more likely twelve since that is when I applied for the copyright). This play is one of the few that I've written that I have never had a reading of and never worked on in workshop (that I can remember). So what made me think of it now?
No clue.
This was the second of a planned trilogy, but I have not yet gotten around to play three . . . so I guess it's a duology. I did have something of a false start on a third play at one point but couldn't sustain it.
There was a moment in time when I was deeply immersed in all things Goldman/Berkman. I read her two volume autobiography, read other books about her and wrote a fairly massive first play, which had a successful reading or two way back when. But I never could crack the nut on play three. Perhaps part of that is that I never got any nibbles on Words of Fire . . . it is quite an effort to write a play, and even harder when you have to adhere to the facts of someone's life. I may get around to it one day or may not, but either way I am happy with the two plays as they stand right now.
Interestingly enough, I recently entered Words of Fire into a competition for plays about a famous woman. Maybe it's the year of Emma - it has been 100 years since the events that kick off The Nature of the Beast, which is another interesting note.
So onward.
Well . . .that was a surprise . . . so I figured I should read the play and much to my surprise and delight, it worked pretty well. So guess what, I decided it was the one to send. Yesterday I spent about four hours on reformatting the play, writing the bio, history of the play and how it relates to first amendment issues and sent it in.
Now, this is a play I haven't looked at or thought about much in oh maybe at least ten years (though more likely twelve since that is when I applied for the copyright). This play is one of the few that I've written that I have never had a reading of and never worked on in workshop (that I can remember). So what made me think of it now?
No clue.
This was the second of a planned trilogy, but I have not yet gotten around to play three . . . so I guess it's a duology. I did have something of a false start on a third play at one point but couldn't sustain it.
There was a moment in time when I was deeply immersed in all things Goldman/Berkman. I read her two volume autobiography, read other books about her and wrote a fairly massive first play, which had a successful reading or two way back when. But I never could crack the nut on play three. Perhaps part of that is that I never got any nibbles on Words of Fire . . . it is quite an effort to write a play, and even harder when you have to adhere to the facts of someone's life. I may get around to it one day or may not, but either way I am happy with the two plays as they stand right now.
Interestingly enough, I recently entered Words of Fire into a competition for plays about a famous woman. Maybe it's the year of Emma - it has been 100 years since the events that kick off The Nature of the Beast, which is another interesting note.
So onward.
Saturday, May 13, 2017
Post reading thoughts
I guess I owe myself some reflection after the reading of Self-Inflicted Wounds the other night.
It was nice to hear it read and to experience it from beginning to end. Especially nice in that there weren't any glaring bits that got in the way. Yeah there's some repetition, things could be condensed a bit, but overall I wasn't unhappy with the results.
I worked very hard on this play for a long time, and I'm not exactly sure what to do with it next, but one thing I do plan to do is let it rest for a bit. Give it time to breathe and come back to it in a few weeks with fresh eyes and see what I make of it. (I say that but damn it, when you're working on something it just keep muscling its way into your life at the oddest times - I had a thought about the piece while walking the dogs yesterday ... and it might not be a horrible idea . . . ok I'll tell you . . . the thought came to me of starting at the end and working backward, or if not strictly backward, then in a sort of shuffled idiosyncratic trajectory . . . might be more work than I want to do, but once planted seeds sometimes grow!)
It's also kind of an awkward length - too short for a full length (maybe) and too long for a one act (maybe). It's 35 pages and I wanted to get a running time on it the other night but I forgot to look at my watch at the end so I don't know. If you figure a minute and a half a page 35 pages would be in the neighborhood of 55 minute to an hour . . .
A little early for those considerations anyway. I need to work on it. Mostly the aforementioned redundancies. But it's funny . . . most of the time when I work on cutting a play it ends up longer ... the great work continues!
I've also been noodling around with a new idea . . . a series of vignettes under the organizing principle of 'Blind Dates'. Little two character scenes wherein I explore people exploring each other . . . it's a fun break from the intensity of Self-Inflicted Wounds.
What's really fun about Blind Dates is that I've been sitting down to write without a plan and just coming up with these things. The characters do the talking and I just write down what they say. It's fun. Nice little writing exercises and who knows . . . maybe it'll end up becoming something.
Coming up to the final meeting for the year of the Fringe, and the week after that the final reading night. I'll miss the Fringe this summer (but not the shlepping) but we have our scouting trip to the Edinburg Fringe Festival in August and work on Breaking the Code starting soon with a November production date . . . so all ahead full!!!!
Keep writing!
It was nice to hear it read and to experience it from beginning to end. Especially nice in that there weren't any glaring bits that got in the way. Yeah there's some repetition, things could be condensed a bit, but overall I wasn't unhappy with the results.
I worked very hard on this play for a long time, and I'm not exactly sure what to do with it next, but one thing I do plan to do is let it rest for a bit. Give it time to breathe and come back to it in a few weeks with fresh eyes and see what I make of it. (I say that but damn it, when you're working on something it just keep muscling its way into your life at the oddest times - I had a thought about the piece while walking the dogs yesterday ... and it might not be a horrible idea . . . ok I'll tell you . . . the thought came to me of starting at the end and working backward, or if not strictly backward, then in a sort of shuffled idiosyncratic trajectory . . . might be more work than I want to do, but once planted seeds sometimes grow!)
It's also kind of an awkward length - too short for a full length (maybe) and too long for a one act (maybe). It's 35 pages and I wanted to get a running time on it the other night but I forgot to look at my watch at the end so I don't know. If you figure a minute and a half a page 35 pages would be in the neighborhood of 55 minute to an hour . . .
A little early for those considerations anyway. I need to work on it. Mostly the aforementioned redundancies. But it's funny . . . most of the time when I work on cutting a play it ends up longer ... the great work continues!
I've also been noodling around with a new idea . . . a series of vignettes under the organizing principle of 'Blind Dates'. Little two character scenes wherein I explore people exploring each other . . . it's a fun break from the intensity of Self-Inflicted Wounds.
What's really fun about Blind Dates is that I've been sitting down to write without a plan and just coming up with these things. The characters do the talking and I just write down what they say. It's fun. Nice little writing exercises and who knows . . . maybe it'll end up becoming something.
Coming up to the final meeting for the year of the Fringe, and the week after that the final reading night. I'll miss the Fringe this summer (but not the shlepping) but we have our scouting trip to the Edinburg Fringe Festival in August and work on Breaking the Code starting soon with a November production date . . . so all ahead full!!!!
Keep writing!
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Reading tomorrow
So my new play, as blogged about two months ago, now has a name: Self-Inflicted Wounds. And it's being read tomorrow night. Nice.
I started work on this piece right after we finished up with Happy Days last August . . . it started out as one thing and then over the course of the last seven or eight months has become something distinctly different.
It will be interesting to hear it read tomorrow night and maybe to see what folks think about it, if anything!
A lot of work and major changes . . . it doesn't look much like it started out . . . but that's par for the course. You get your ideas down and then you start to refine them . . . this started out as a 60+ page piece and now it's at about 35 . . . and not much in that 35 was part of the original piece.
Sure looks easy when it's up there on stage . . . sure ain't easy to get it there!
When I was doing that audition a few weeks back I had occasion to look at an early version of Old Hickory . . . amazing how different it was from the piece I've performed so many times.
But that's the journey . . . and it never stops.
Speaking of which . . . I'm bapping around ideas for a new piece . . . I took a brief bit into the workshop last week to see how it went . . . it was encouraging.
So now? The reading tomorrow and then I can chill a bit. Write when I want to, read the Power Broker . . . and generally kick back (well. . . working for a living figures in there as well)
I started work on this piece right after we finished up with Happy Days last August . . . it started out as one thing and then over the course of the last seven or eight months has become something distinctly different.
It will be interesting to hear it read tomorrow night and maybe to see what folks think about it, if anything!
A lot of work and major changes . . . it doesn't look much like it started out . . . but that's par for the course. You get your ideas down and then you start to refine them . . . this started out as a 60+ page piece and now it's at about 35 . . . and not much in that 35 was part of the original piece.
Sure looks easy when it's up there on stage . . . sure ain't easy to get it there!
When I was doing that audition a few weeks back I had occasion to look at an early version of Old Hickory . . . amazing how different it was from the piece I've performed so many times.
But that's the journey . . . and it never stops.
Speaking of which . . . I'm bapping around ideas for a new piece . . . I took a brief bit into the workshop last week to see how it went . . . it was encouraging.
So now? The reading tomorrow and then I can chill a bit. Write when I want to, read the Power Broker . . . and generally kick back (well. . . working for a living figures in there as well)
Thursday, March 23, 2017
A new post about a new play
I have a new play that I've been working on for the past five or six months, though it's been in my head a bit longer than that. I got the idea, or at least the germ of the idea while reading The Brothers Karamazov last summer. There was a chapter in which a wealthy businessman confesses to a crime that someone else was blamed for and no one believes him. That got me thinking. And then I read an oral history of the sixties called Witness to the Revolution and the two just sort of came together. While I was working on this piece last fall with the idea that the crime these guys had committed was a bombing in which innocent people were killed, I read about one of the people who robbed the Brinks truck in Nyack in the early 80's and how she was trying to get out of prison, but not everyone is happy about that.
At any rate all those elements lead me over the last months to what I have now. It's not in finished form right now but it's at least has a beginning and an ending. I have asked for a May 25 reading slot so that gives me plenty of time to get it ready. We'll see. I had originally thought of it as two acts but right now I'm settling in on a long one act . . . it's 37 pages right now so we'll see where it ends up. With the political upheaval that we are living through right now the timing might be right!
The play involves two guys who were involved with a robbery like the Brinks one, and they haven't been found out. One is living off the grid and the other is successful, with a wife and kids and a business. The successful one finds his old friend and tells him he wants to speak on behalf of their imprisoned cohort.
I have been through the ringer with this one. It went from the bombing idea to the armored car theft idea and I'm hoping it's something I'll be happy with when all is said and done. Right now I'm at about medium on the happiness scale, but I plan to get back at it this weekend and see if I can tip the scales in the happier direction!
At any rate all those elements lead me over the last months to what I have now. It's not in finished form right now but it's at least has a beginning and an ending. I have asked for a May 25 reading slot so that gives me plenty of time to get it ready. We'll see. I had originally thought of it as two acts but right now I'm settling in on a long one act . . . it's 37 pages right now so we'll see where it ends up. With the political upheaval that we are living through right now the timing might be right!
The play involves two guys who were involved with a robbery like the Brinks one, and they haven't been found out. One is living off the grid and the other is successful, with a wife and kids and a business. The successful one finds his old friend and tells him he wants to speak on behalf of their imprisoned cohort.
I have been through the ringer with this one. It went from the bombing idea to the armored car theft idea and I'm hoping it's something I'll be happy with when all is said and done. Right now I'm at about medium on the happiness scale, but I plan to get back at it this weekend and see if I can tip the scales in the happier direction!
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