Under three weeks

Just a under three weeks til the next two perfs. of Old Hickory. Looking forward to it. I get to see the space and meet anyone I haven't already met next Sat. morning at a production meeting. I've been working the lines and things are in good shape. As we get closer we'll look at doing some rehearsing, probably only one or two of them in the city. Have to find out from the producers if they will spring for any part of it. It would be a big help if they did.

We'll see.

I'm thinking of taking in pages from my new piece to the Fringe on Tues. instead of more of Family Values. I like FV and it was wonderful to hear it read by Nicola and Norman; I might take it in once more just in the event both Nicola and Victor are there. I really want to hear what he does with the part, so maybe I'll go in with pages from both of them and decide there which to present. Oh, the choices!

Did a little more tweaking on the new piece yesterday, that felt good. Also have some ideas for other plays, but more on them later.

Tonight is the Oscars, and while part of me says "don't bother" another part says "it's only once a year, go for it". I think that the conventional wisdom as far as winners is accurate, as for the major categories . . . no big surprises there, but it'll still be fun anyway.

More on everything later.

So where've I been?

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted anything; and in the midst of all this activity!

So I'll play catch up: Old Hickory is moving right along. The dates are set and we're all meeting on March 5 to see the space and the like. I'm really looking forward to it. I can't get enough of this piece. I've been running it on my own just to make sure the lines are solid, now I'm also starting to rework some of the blocking, but I won't know what to do about that until the meeting when I'll find out more about the space and tech capabilities. I don't care. I could do this in your living room. It's just such a pleasure to do . . . and it's a rush . . . I know I've said it before but performing in your own piece is truly the ultimate creative experience in theater. Yes you can act in other people's plays and really touch people; you can write plays that other people act in and really touch people; you can direct plays written by others and acted by others and touch people . . . but nothing comes close to holding the stage . . . alone . . . saying words, telling a story, that you created. Nothing. Comes. Close. It'll live with me forever.

I'm also waiting to hear from the One Man Talking Festival about my O'Neil play. We'll see what happens with that. I did get an email from them the other day, they had a problem opening the file of my script . . . seems it was embedded somehow in the whatever . . . well . . . I warned them in my cover letter that I was technically challenged. So to their credit they didn't disqualify me, but asked to see the script . . . don't know for sure when I'll hear, but it could be soon.

I also took the first 15 pages of Family Matters to the Fringe workshop. That was fun. It was the first time I had heard it read by others. Bette and I had done several readings of it before, but I hadn't heard it. Nicola Sheara and Norman Marshall (my buddy from Rain) read the two parts. It was lovely. They really got it. I knew they would. Might have to take in the rest over the next few meetings.

My other new piece I have been letting sit for a while now. In fact, it may be about time to look at it again, on the other hand, my plate is kind of fullish so it can wait in line. From a triage standpoint it may not be the most pressing thing right now. I have been having some ideas burbling around about new pieces . . . uh . . . oh.

It's happening . . .

So it's a done deal. OH is being performed again and I can't wait! Only two performances, but . . . hey . . . that's two more performances! I been tweaking it ever so slightly, as you know from my previous posts . . . and I feel like it's ready to go. I ran the show this morning and it was in damn good shape . . . the new stuff isn't 100% integrated yet, but it soon will be. Of course, the new stuff doesn't make it or break it, but I feel that it adds something . . . like adding a pinch of spice to a pot of soup . . . you may not notice it, but it does add something.

At any rate, it will be fun to have this up and running again. I spoke to Wallace last night, and he doesn't think he'll be able to be around that much because of work and such. I completely understand. We'll do a touch up rehearsal or something and that will suffice. He said he'd make it up for the tech if he can, but we'll see. I sure don't want to pressure him, he has done plenty for this show and I am proud to carry the tradition.

This time around there will be another solo piece as part of the evening. It's a piece by Ken Jenkins. I love his work. There are some real connections sprouting up in this event: apparently Lora Lee Ecobelli, who is co-artistic director of Blue Horse Rep and is producing the show, is a friend of Deni Bonet, who I knew before moving to NY, back in West Virginia. AND Lora Lee is trying to raise money for a film with Ellen Burstyn attached, who I was in the Trip to Bountiful with AND the Ken Jenkins thing, I met Ken when we worked on Matewan. Not only that, but Lora Lee says her brother in law, Chris Burmeister worked on Matewan . . . one big happy family!

I'm ready to rock this baby again. I wish Laurette was gonna be around to see it, but she'll be off in school . . . too bad . . . but she has seen it twice . . . I just want more more more . . . so sue me. I should take notes from my friend Norman Marshall, who has been doing his John Brown piece all over the place for years . . . I have to figure out how he does that . . . as Prior Walter says in Angels in America: More life! That's what I want for Old Hickory.

Getting serious . . . a bit at a time

I've been spending more time with the script for Old Hickory lately. Just want to make sure it's solid line-wise, because if that ain't happening, not much else is. I ran the lines while running yesterday and there were some sloppy places, mostly transitions, and I took the script this morning and sat down with it, running lines with the script in front of me so I could catch places where I was getting into bad habits. I'm in decent shape, but that isn't where I ultimately need to be.

Looking forward to doing it again that's for sure; and as it's now Feb. 5 and the projected dates are March 18 and 19, there is no time like the present for ramping it up . . . one thing for sure: no one is gonna do it for me . . . so off the lazy duff and dive in . . . and oh,yeah, I better think about learning that new stuff too, don't you think?

More winter . . .

So the first posting of the second year of the blog . . . and there's more Old Hickory news . . . well . . . only in that I have added a page or so to the piece. I wanted to take a look at it with an eye toward filling in holes. There seemed to be something missing in there between the main character (Jimmy) and the Ex-wife. So I was able to come up with something that I think works.

It won't take the piece from forty five minutes to an hour, but it does add a little something, I think. I read through OH this morning because as I have run the lines recently there were a couple of transitions that I stumbled on; there was one sequence in particular that, when I read it this morning and saw what I was leaving out, I couldn't believe it! One of my favorite lines!

Now I have to spend more time with it so when we get to rehearsals I'll be ready to rock. This time last year I was spending three hours a day learning lines . . . it may look easy, but it ain't!