More on stuff

I sat down and read The Craftsman yesterday. I think it holds up pretty well . . . but it's still hard to be objective. You get close to these things and sometimes can't see the woods for the trees (last cliche of the day I hope). The proof will be in the pudding of putting it in front of an audience. Folks in the workshop have responded very well over the weeks. But they are hearing scenes out of context. I can't wait to hear it read and see how people like it as a whole.

Maybe this spring?! We'll see.

I did a little poking around at some of the short pieces I worked on before starting on The Craftsman. Bette and I are going to do a reading for the Welsh women's club and I'm going to do a couple of those, and Bette is going to do her most recent piece. Should be a good program.

My scenes are funny and will loosen things up and then Bette's piece will lay them right out.

Two years ago Wallace, Bette and I went and read the first act of Happy Days for them. It was a big hit. We actually went expecting to do the whole play but then found out they wanted an hour max . . . so act one it was. They really got it and we had a great time doing it so when Patience asked us to do it again we jumped all over it.

That is on the 7th of April. We're going to time things out today and get an idea of what we want to do. I went over my short pieces this morning and I think there are two, we'll call them CIA and Audition. Just two people talking, both are short and sweet, and, I think, funny. People in the workshop thought so anyway. They are part of what might eventually be a whole play that is sort of an omnibus of several short pieces. How many and what order . . . the form of the whole thing is yet to be determined . . . but it's something that is out there. Any time I am between projects and feel like writing something I can add to it, and then take the best of the bunch and include them in the piece.

If there is a theme I haven't found it, but it might be something like loneliness or just dealing with other people in the world. Which I suppose every play ever written is about these things at core. Or maybe not.

Submissions

I spent the last week not paying much attention to the old writing side of things. I finished my draft of The Craftsman last week and set it aside for a while. I may opt to read it this weekend but not sure about that.

I did submit it in its current form to Penguin Rep due to time issues so we'll see what happens with that. I want to have it sort of polished by the time the Relentless Award deadlines in May.

I spent a little time today submitting The Brother of the End of the World to a couple of places; one in Florida (Theater Conspiracy) and one in London (Theatre503).

We'll see. I do really love that play and it'll be interesting to have it back out there. I've submitted it dozens of places with no real interest . . . but the past is prelude! Maybe the hillbilly aspect of the piece will hit someone in England the right way. Best to forget all that now.

Assuming we can go in on Tuesday I plan to go to the Workshop with more pages from The Craftsman. The only 'if' is the weather which seems to be threatening but may not get that way until later in the evening.

We've been binging a bit on The Americans . . . really well written and acted . . . some real surprises as the story progresses.

I'm excited to see the new documentary about Arthur Miller on HBO. It was done by his daughter and includes never before seen stuff . . . at least from what I've read about it.

Anywho. Nothing much else to report. I did find a book that is exciting: an oral history of Angels in America. I bought it but have two other books demanding my attention right now so once I'm done with them I will see to Angels.

See you soon!

End of play!

I typed those words this morning as I reached the end of this initial draft of The Craftsman! Wow . . . it really is something special I think.

This week I wrote an email to the good folks at Penguin Rep to tell them as much and that I would love to have a slot in their reading schedule this summer. I got back a response from Joe Brancato that they needed to get it 'yesterday' as they are finalizing their choices. So I sent it to them unfinished, but I did take the time to clean it up for page breaks and such. Cobbled together a character breakdown.

Today I dove in and finished the play, working to those words: end of play.

I think it's a special piece. I don't know what anyone else will think, but the addition of Wallace playing Martha and the response I've been getting in workshop has been better than encouraging!

So now I'm going to let it sit for a moment and see how I feel when I come back to it fresh in a few days.