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.
Sunday, May 28, 2017
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)
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