Rambles

I've been taking the Beulah piece into the Fringe this fall and it is being well received. This is always good but then the part that is perhaps hardest: going back to it and ruthlessly rewriting. That's what separates the hacks from the rest of us. I really like the characters in the piece and spending time with them is fun, so it actually might be fun! I also recently read my new solo piece, the one about posing for a painting and such, for Bette and she liked it with reservations; her reservations were actually insights that were very helpful regarding structure and focus . . . I knew it wasn't ready to roll, first drafts seldom are, but I am intrigued by the idea and what I can maybe do with it. Heck, the first draft of Old Hickory had our hero talking about how many women he had killed, he was a serial killer! There was some wonderful imagery at the end of it, but it lacked the impact that it eventually achieved by sticking with a more simple story of one guy and his problems dealing with one woman ...it's come a long way, and I can only assume that the new piece, as yet untitled, is at the initial step or two of a very long journey. Of my solo pieces I think Like a Sack of Potatoes had the shortest gestation period, with the fewest rewrites . . . would that they all just sprang into existance so readily! I also keep coming back to an idea for a suspence piece about people waiting out a storm (it tends to come to mind while I'm waiting out a storm). Don't know if I can or will pull it off or even attempt to, but I haven't written a Damage Control kind of thing for a while.

Marketing

It occurred to me the other day, that if I put the same effort into selling my plays as I do selling in my job, it would be an amazing thing. Now not necessarily eight hour a day effort, but consistent sending stuff out and follow through on that. Gotta get revved up to do that.

Chipping away

Progress is being made on my new solo piece. After my final session posing for the painting I took Bette to see it. She told Diego and Emma and Victor that I had the idea to write a solo piece of someone sitting posing and what goes on in their head. I hadn't mentioned it, but her putting it out in the world sort of made it so. I had taken my camera to get a picture of the painting and we actually took one of me in the chair posed, with the painting in the foreground .. . I said 'Ah, there's the postcard for the solo piece' . . . so there you have it. the die is cast. I have been working on it and it seems to be taking shape in my head and I hope to be able to pull off what I intend . . . which is really honest writing, not camoflaged by a make believe story. I'm not sure that conveys what I'm thinking and I'm not even sure how to express it, but I hope the piece gets to where I think it can go. We shall see. I also took a few more pages of my newest play into the Woodstock Fringe this week. That place seems like family to me . . . it's so comforting to be there among friends, working on theater. the piece was well received, though writing in a kind of appalachian patois doesn't make it any easier for the people reading it. The people there were split between the 'something has to happen' and the 'something is happening under the surface'; in fact, Wallace even invoked Chekov, which was a real shot in the arm . . . more on everything soon.