Further reflections

My previous post was a tad light on the reflection, and contemplation of the horizon. Looking forward is always tricky, because there is what you hope will happen and then everything else that gets in the way. I do look forward to doing a play at the Fringe this summer (acting in one of Wallace's plays, not my own); and in the fall a few more performances of OH and maybe even performances of my newer pieces as well. We'll see. Old Hickory is tentatively scheduled for some time around Halloween with Blue Horse Rep; and I spent yesterday morning getting an application together for the United Solo festival in the city . . . And of course there is the writing . . . it's always there lurking under the surface waiting to give me a nibble to remind me I'm not spending enough time with it . . .I am working up to something . . . making notes here and there . . . might spend a bit of time with it today. And there is still the corner I've painted myself into with my hillbilly-gothic-environmental-disaster-comedy . . . So far the first half of 2012 has been pretty darned amazing so far, a hard act to follow.

A tad of reflection . . .

2012 is shaping up to be quite a year theatrically. Already I have performed three of my solo pieces (one of those performances was a reading but still) and fall promises more performances of Old Hickory . . . and who knows what else is to come. The activity already so far has been quite gratifying and nearly enough to keep me happy for the entire year . . . and it's only April . . . well May for all intents and purposes . . . so more to come and all I can say is bring 'em on! Need to get out and see some plays though . . . I miss that!

Letter of Resignation reading!

Looks like LOR is ready for its big night. Bette and I read our plays to each other on Saturday night and they both seem to be in good shape. And we're both reading on the same night, April 26th in the city; that's a pretty special thing to share. Bette has been getting very good response to her piece at the Fringe workshop and is nervous about unveiling it but she'll be fine. one thing is for sure, you never really know what you have until you put it up in front of people.

For my part, I have been distilling and tweaking LOR for a while now and it seems to be right about where it needs to be, maybe some modest adjustment here and there, but according to Bette it seemed to work quite well. One of the bonus points for LOR is that it is sufficiently different from both Like a Sack of Potatoes and Old Hickory that it could make a nice opener for either one of them.

I'd have to go back a ways to see when I started LOR, but the earliest version I took to workshop last year I think; and it was received ok, but it didn't have the focus it does now. It started as this guy with an employment agency talking about some of the weirdos who come to see him, but it didn't really have an arc; it was more of a this happened then this happened and only after I had let it sit for a while and I came back to it did I see what the real story is . . . it was all in there, I just had to find it.

So a lot of stuff I really liked got jettisoned, but I ended up with a very nice piece. We'll see what everyone else thinks on April 26!

A good writing weekend

I got some work done on two fronts this weekend: the hillbilly-absurd-environmental-disaster-comedy and the new solo piece. In the former I got caught up with the new stuff, typing it in from long-hand to computer; with Letter of Resignation progress on a couple of fronts, including a major breakthrough.

LOR had started as a comedy about a guy with an employment agency and the weirdos who come to see him. There was a dog-whisperer type and a deranged vet . . . it had its moments but I wasn't sure what it added up to and it sort of was all over the place. Then I did a lot of cutting (out with the dog-whisperer and the deranged vet) and started getting to a more focused story about the guy and how he got where he is and his dealings with a problematic mother and women in general.

But it wasn't really kicking it for me . . . it was a character I liked and the story was humorous . . . but there wasn't a real arc to it, sort of ambled along . . . and in the rewrites I started to get somewhere, in that it wasn't a story about how to deal with his mother . . . but specifically what happened to make him want to tell this story now/today.

Then something of an ah-ha moment this weekend. I was getting close when I came up with the Letter of Resignation conseit, but this weekend I sort of closed the deal. For now. I think. Instead of starting all light an general and autobiographical (of the character that is) I started with a hint of what is to come, that maybe this guy is saying what he is saying in the form of a 'letter of resignation' rather than getting to it on the last page or so. And the mother is less of a character and more of a problem, if that makes sense.

We'll see. I still have to type it in and do the reconstructive surgery, as it were, but it was a huge relief to get there. The reading is coming on up . . .

He who hesitates is lunch

So I got a tad bogged down and didn't get the environmental disaster play done in time for the competitions I mentioned in my last post. But I figured that there are plays I can enter into these competitions on my metaphorical shelf . . . and I look at the resource directory again to confirm the March 31 deadline today then check the web site of the Barter Theatre . . . guess what: according to the web site the deadline for their contest was March 1!

I sent an email to the theatre to see what's up but I don't anticipate much in the way of flexibility . . . maybe . . . we'll see. Had I entered sooner this wouldn't have been an issue, but now that I think of it I was hoping to have the new piece ready . . . alas . . .

All else is going just fine . . . not writing that much but I did ask Wallace about doing Sack of Potatoes in Woodstock this summer . . .and I need to get the word out there about OH. I now have the dvd of the Nyack performances and I can say I have a version that is something I can send out and be proud of (unlike the Woodstock version that was on a very stormy day complete with banging doors and all!)

This weekend I need to get the new stuff typed into Hillbilly Absurd and get cracking on the new solo piece for the reading . . . it's less than a month away now!

Funny how these things come together . . .

Sometimes you just get pointed in a direction . . . bit by bit things fall into place . . . I heard a news story recently that got me thinking about my hillbilly-gothic-aburdist-environmental-disaster play again. So I started looking at it yesterday and enjoyed it . . . so figured . . . what the heck? (Working title is Hillbilly Absurd, but that could change)

Today I looked at the Dramatists Guild Resource Directory and there are two Appalachian play competitions with entry deadlines of March 31.

So guess what: my plans of placidly taking a month or so to work on my solo piece for my April reading are shelved for a mad dash for the finish line for these two competitions, one at the Barter and the other is the Appalachian play festival in Ashville, NC. I've entered them both before but with kind of straight ahead dramas . . . this one is a bit off center so maybe it'll get some traction . . . either way . . . the gauntlet is down and I'm off to the races . . .

Were I starting a new play from scratch there would be no way of getting it done in the time alotted, but since I have the characters and basic structure in place . . . it ain't impossible. More on this later.

Also, I entered the WV Writers Conference competition for the first time. Sent in 'Where the Rain Never Falls'. We'll see.

This 'n that

Looks like end of May for the next performances of Old Hickory. That isn't a definite, as there are still 'issues with the space' but that is the latest as of yesterday. Whenever it is, I'll be there with bells on; and knives sharpened!

I spent a little time with my next project, the reading of Letter of Resignation (not 100% sure about that title). It will be interesting to see where it is in a month and a half; I could read it now and it would be fine, but there are some things that occur to me that might be ways to give it more oomph. It's about a lonely guy who owns a successful employment agency, who has just crossed a line/breached a trust and in telling his story is sort of coming to some self-awareness as to how to deal with the disappointment . . .that description may or not do it justice, but he does have life-long issues with his mother . . . and he has had lifelong issues with women as well . . . at any rate . . . it is what it is, but not yet what it will be. So that is my assignment, should I choose to accept it . . .