And 2011 is (nearly) a wrap!

It has been 10 plays since I last updated the blog, so it is well past time to get caught up.

First, on the writing front, I last reported nearing completion of the first draft of "Rehearsals," a full-length comedy. That first draft did get done; two of my favorite first readers gave it a once-over; suggestions led to a fairly significant re-thinking of act two; and that work was completed not long ago. We are casting a hopefully fun "den reading" of the script for mid-January, and that's going well. So I'm printing out reading copies and looking forward to seeing how my actor friends and acquaintances react to the show. Let the fun (I hope) begin!

Meanwhile, I need to get focus moved on to a shorter play (one act, most likely) that I've been fiddling with on and off for a while now. Hopefully the year will not end without a full draft of "Patent" completed. I don't have a one-act in my repertoire, and this seems like the right length for this particular story.

My wife and I meanwhile continued a lively schedule of playgoing since the last report. We started with a trip west to Abingdon, Virginia - a favored destination of Barter Theatre there -- to see the second play they've done this year by the playwriting team of Duke Ernsberger and Virginia Cate. This one was "Dracula Bites," a comedy based around one of Duke's early acting experiences in community theater -- with the crazed director, actors coming and going, stagecraft issues and so on. There were moments that I was very glad I had put the finished first draft of "Rehearsals" in Kathy's hands literally the day before we went. There are, let's say, some similarities though the specifics are measurably different. A fun, and funny, experience, especially since we got to speak with Duke in person again, some time after our "Margaret Mitchell" experience in Kernersville.

We then saw a fine production of A Doll House at Triad Stage, and over at UNCG, a powerful "Self Defense, or The Death of Some Salesmen," based on the Aileen Wuornos story. Our friend Mike Shapiro from "Conversations" and the "All About Faith" reading was in it. A young woman playing the character based on Wuornos gave a brave and strong performance along with an excellent ensemble.

We also saw Clemmons Community Theatre's "Red Velvet Cake Wars," which I didn't find as strong a script as some of that writing team's other works; and took in readings of three new plays up in Asheville at the SART New Play gathering. We particularly liked one called "The Vanishing Point," about a family in Louisiana.

A week later, we saw a production of Lanford Wilson's "The Rimers of Eldritch" at Theatre Alliance. Awesome ensemble, and both interesting and challenging to watch. Which is what made it so good.

On November 15th, after a variety of "challenges," KLT put on a 5-minute skit to help kick off the Kernersville Chamber of Commerce's annual banquet. They had chosen a Back to the Future theme for the overall event, so I got to write the skit and Kathy chose to direct it. I couldn't be there, but despite all the challenges, the cast of five pulled it off quite well -- and to my great pleasure (we just got a copy of the video), the laugh lines all worked and people seemed to enjoy it. Kind of fun to be part of something like that.

After some time off theater for a fun family Thanksgiving, we started the month of December with Kernersville Little Theatre's Doris Baizley adaptation of "A Christmas Carol," very ably and creatively directed by Adam Sullivan -- who also ended up stepping into a lead role late in the process. We found it very enjoyable. As we did No Rules Theatre Company's production of the inventive musical, "The Last Five Years," just last night. A very pleasing production indeed.

And with that, believe it as you may, we have probably reached the end of our theater-going for 2011. I could be forgetting something, or something else could crop up, but I think we are over and out until January. I think I'll survive.

Time in the theater

The last post has proven to be quite accurate -- the last month has been very busy, and a lot of that time has been time in a theater. No complaints here, of course!

I wound up September by catching Greensboro-based playwright Tommy Trull's "Wake-Walking" at Greensboro College, which I found quite interesting and well-done for a college production. A planned staged reading of another play of his, however, was postponed, so I'll just have to wait and see when that one comes back to (workshopping) life.

Then Kathy and I went up to Korner's Folly for another Triad-based playwright's "The Service at Rocky Bluff," written by Scott Icenhower and done by Kernersville Little Theatre. It was a laugh-out-loud, family-friendly play with music, and the cast included Brad Phillis, who we first got to know through our own production of "Conversations in a Cafe." Truly a fun night in Cupid's Park.

We followed that in October with Scott and Katie Jo Icenhower's production of "The Piety Variety Gospel Show" at the Paramount in Burlington. While there were many good parts of the show and the cast was chiefly strong, with this one I could see a few areas for editing. Unlike "Rocky Bluff," where I felt you got to know each of the characters, this one gave some characters a fair amount of time and several, not very much. I'd have like to have known more about some of them.

We caught "The Mystery of Irma Vep" at the UpStage Cabaret at Triad Stage, and laughed a lot there, too. Multiple characters in a gothic mystery-styled show, all played by two men. A hoot, for sure.

Recently, because Kathy had a prior event one night, I went to Mount Tabor High to catch an evening of one-acts directed by Chad Edwards. To my delight, Cheryl Ann Roberts was there that evening, too, so we watched a one-act very much in the "Laramie Project" mode about a high school's reaction to the events of September 11th (the school was two blocks away from Ground Zero). And then - not exactly a one-act -- a truncated version of the play "Proof" (one of my favorites of recent years). For the state high school theater conference, presentations must be one hour or less. I thought not only did the four students do a nice job with the abbreviated version, but it was nicely edited and still held up decently despite the cuts. It was a reassuring evening that there is at least still SOME art in the schools even as budgets are decimated.

Finally for this go-round, we saw the hilarious and spirited Theatre Alliance production of "Evil Dead: The Musical." Hard to describe in a few words, but a lot of fun if you've ever seen horror movies and enjoy parodies.

As for my own playing with plays, I'm pleased to be within two or three pages of wrapping up a first draft of the comedy called "Rehearsals." I've had a lot of fun with it so far, and hope to yuk it up some more while reading and editing it. Then maybe some outside readers and a group reading early in the new year? It could happen. Progress!

Into the busy season

While there still hasn't been much writing time put into plays, I have been organizing myself on the marketing of Conversations in a Cafe and All About Faith -- so that perhaps I will know what HAS been done, and what has NOT. That organization is completed, so now I can move forward.

In the meantime, after the dregs of August, we've moved back into a time period when play productions are coming along hot and heavy. That's certainly not a complaint, because I almost always enjoy seeing something new or old favorites in the dark. But sometimes it's an embarrassment of riches that becomes a challenge to fit onto the calendar! We'll just have to do the best we can.

The first two stops in the busy season were made last week. We both very much enjoyed a show we had not seen before: Kander and Ebb's Kiss of the Spider Woman, done by Theatre Alliance with Gray Smith and Heather Hamby in the leads. It's not done a lot, apparently, and to some extent one can understand -- it's not a laugh fest and has a somber ending, not unlike Cabaret. But the production was very well done, and of course many dark-themed shows work just fine for me.

We also saw the Evening of Short Plays fall 2011 in Greensboro last Thursday night. Naturally (though it's true that I heard earlier read-throughs of three of them) they were new to us. Most of them were pretty good.

High points, low points

The "nice" thing about the writing biz is that it's a bell-curve kind of existence, or maybe roller-coaster is better, since there's more horror and nausea involved with roller coasters. The last couple of months have not only included some repeat paying business and a new project that went well. But also, I e-published a detective novel in June and a general novel just recently (on Kindle and Nook), and got to see a short script produced in Virginia, which was a writer's and audience member (natural) high for me. I even got the script for Reunions fine-tuned and shipped off to a couple of contests.

Right on the heels of that, I found out that other short scripts were NOT accepted for two different short-play contests and, as a continuing theme, I have found no theater company (yet) interested in producing any of my long scripts. So -- up one day, down the next. Which to be honest I feel is certainly the way with a number of playwright hopefuls, or at least there's ample evidence to suggest that's true.

Which makes it no easier to stomach when it happens.

Nevertheless, I've learned also that writing stuff and doing NOTHING with it absolutely assures nothing will happen with it -- so one keeps on plugging away. Some days turn out well; the others remain depressing.

Perhaps I'm also going through theater-going withdrawal -- August seems to be a very slow month for theater productions, while September and October go nuts. Starting Thursday night, we have quite a bit of theater to take in, just to try to keep up. In short, things could be worse ... and I keep trying to remember to un-cross my fingers every now and then. Something will happen sometime. And I hope that's not just wishful thinking.

A novel distraction

I mentioned in a recent post that we drove north to see my short script, At The Shrine, done in a 10-minute play fest in Purcellville, Va. On the return trip, my wife mentioned that one of her favorite pieces of writing by me was a novel I first created in (we figured) roughly 1983-1986. As I thought on it, I tended to agree.

So upon our return home, I sought out that novel, only to find that I had no digital version of the text -- but I did have a typewritten manuscript of 342 double-spaced pages.

This is all by way of saying I haven't written a word on any play project since that day, because I undertook to scan each of those 342 pages, convert them to a digital document (which took a learning curve, of course), then update, edit, fix and generally try to create a "clean" Word document that could be converted to my second eBook on Kindle and Nook.

To be polite, it took longer than originally anticipated.

However, I'm pleased that one of OUR favorite pieces of writing, a novel called Fictionography of a Mental Coward, is now e-published and back off my desk. Hopefully this means some kind of writing -- new writing -- looms somewhere in the future. It's about time.

Plugging along

The theatrical life has certainly been continuing in fits and spurts since the last post. We've seen quite a fair bit of it; and during a week-long vacation, the long play Reunions was essentially wrapped and readied for submission, while further progress was made on newer full-length work-in-progress Rehearsals. While I have been diverted lately by converting another older novel manuscript into a digital version, I feel reasonably good about play progress at the moment.

On the play-going front, we saw a very delightful The King and I done at the Weaver Academy in Greensboro, starring Carlos Nieto, Mara Norris and her daughter Skye. A very nice production throughout. Two days later, we saw The Sound of Music done in Winston-Salem at Stained Glass, with Cameron Williams and Mary Lea Williams. Overall, also very pleasing, though we wished that they could have found two young men for the "family" who could also sing.

We were unfortunately crunched for time when the National Black Theatre Festival got to town, as it does every other year. We only got to two productions, but Knock Me a Kiss was quite good. We also saw two shows paired, one about singer Lena Horne and the other about Harriet Tubman. The Lena Horne show was just so-so. But Spirit of Harriet Tubman was a knock-out. The one-woman show was deeply impressive and moving -- what an actress! It deserved wider exposure than it got.

I mentioned a couple of blogs back that my short script, "At The Shrine," was accepted for production as part of the first-time "The Top :10" at the Franklin Park Arts Center, up in Virginia. We drove up on August 5 and caught the opening of three performances on Friday night. What fun. I honestly believe I had the best director and the best cast and, well, by popular vote, nearly the best script. We came away thinking there were three contenders for the Best Script -- and one of them won. I fell short by two votes, apparently. Pretty good!

But more excitingly from my standpoint is that the short play won Best Overall Production and one of two Best Actor awards, for the woman who played Grandma Clemmons in the play. It would have been a travesty, IMHO, if she had NOT won. Our friend Lissa and son Andy were with us, so all in all, quite a wonderful theatrical excursion!

And the following night, my beloved wife and trusted first reader, Kathy, was given a Lifetime Honorary Member award from Kernersville Little Theatre. Delicious icing on our cake!

What's happening with my plays

I haven't written for a while about my writing, but it is still happening, if sporadically.

A while back, I took time to write a short (10-minute play range) script called "At the Shrine." Our good friend Lissa Cobetto "requested" (read: more or less demanded) that I submit something for HER friend's newly-created 10-minute play event at the Franklin Park Arts Center in Loudoun County, Virginia. It was one of the events that had a fixed something that had to be part of the script -- not necessarily my favorite thing -- but I eventually came up with something that I thought worked decently in that format.

It was fun to learn sometime later that the script had been accepted for this inaugural event, and it was well enough received by the various directors that more than one of them wanted to do it. I'm pleased that another friend of Lissa's, Heather Stillings, is casting and directing the script. It will call for another whirlwind driving trip, but we will get to see it (and for me, equally fun to see how other writers incorporated the requirements into their stories!) with Lissa, and hopefully our son and D-I-L as well on August 5.

Another short script was written, read, went to Directors' Workshop and was submitted for the fall E.O.S.P. event -- for which the submission deadline just passed. We'll see sometime later whether or not it makes the cut.

And finally right now, I have two short scripts in the pile at the Future 10 short plays event in Pittsburgh. Hope to know sometime in late August or early September if either of them gets chosen.

As far as writing is concerned, still working towards some final tweaks on the "Reunions" full-length script in preparation for submitting it somewhere soon-ish. And my progress on the next full-length, "Rehearsals," has moved along to the point that the "plan" for the play from beginning to end is pretty much in place; the first of two scenes of the first act is completed; and the beginning of act two is also written. So now it's filling in the holes. That's something like progress!

I continue to send out the "Conversations in a Cafe" and "All About Faith" scripts to selected theater companies, hoping to find a production. So far, no nibbles. But we keep trying.

More recent play-going

We have been staying pretty much at full-speed-ahead with our playgoing since visiting Spoleto. In early June, I very much enjoyed the upbeat "Hairspray" as produced by the West Side Civic Theatre in Lewisville; the interesting and well-done "Duck Hunter Shoots Angel" at Twin City Stage; and chiefly very entertained by Kernersville Little Theatre's musical "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," which chewed up a lot of Kathy's life as she was the stage manager (in addition to her KLT presidential duties.)

In the midst of that production, we raced up to Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va., and back, catching the new show "Elvis Has Left the Building" in the middle of that whirlwind. The comedy is the latest show by Duke Ernsberger and V. Cate, who first wrote "Don't Cry for Me, Margaret Mitchell," with which we have a long and enjoyable relationship. Speaking of which, I also caught a very pleasing production of that show in Burlington that involved Katie Jo Icenhower (director) and actors Scott Icenhower and John Collier.

We also snuck out to see the movie presentation of the "Company" concert that starred Neil Patrick Harris. And very much enjoyed and were amused by Triad Stage's "Masquerade."

Speaking of whirlwind trips, we were able to sneak up and surprise Carson Gregory, who had acted in both "Conversations in a Cafe" and "All About Faith," seeing her perform in "Hello, Dolly" and a new musical interpretation of the "Little Mermaid" story at the Allenberry Playhouse in Boiling Springs, Pa. That was a great deal of fun.

Last but not least, we were just in Charlotte to see the musical "Next to Normal" on tour. Kathy had seen it in New York, and the much-vaunted Alice Ripley was touring with it, so we bought tickets as soon as we could, some time back. Sadly, Alice's performance was a disappointment to me, though I really liked the show, the set, the effects, the music and the performances of the rest of the cast. The young woman who sang and acted the Natalie part was especially good. Alice, however, often sang weakly and occasionally off-tune, which affects me almost physically when I hear it. Kathy and I both agreed that we'd like to see this show with a different actor in the lead female role, just to see if it's actually better than the much-hyped current lead.

More to come soon!

Our 2011 Spoleto jaunt

Since our son started working as a crew member at the Charleston SC Spoleto Festival while attending UNCSA, we have been heading to Charleston each late May or early June to take in some of the wonderful range of offerings at this event. We usually try to cram in as much as possible, which with Spoleto and the parallel Piccolo Spoleto schedules usually can mean A LOT. This year, I think, we set a new record with nine events in four days.

The first year we went, Andy was on a mobile crew of troubleshooters and we never saw him at all. This year, he was overseeing the lighting requirements of all Spoleto venues, and we were able to see him three times. Nice!

As for our shows, in addition to a jazz concert done outdoors at College of Charleston's Cistern and a dance concert done to the music of Duke Ellington, we saw a wide range of plays that were at a high level of enjoyment and quality (some past years, to be fair, there has been some variation in quality. Not so in 2011!)

First and among the foremost was the Druid Theatre Company (Ireland)'s production of "The Cripple of Inishmaan," presented in the historic Dock Street Theater. A strong, touching, flawless production, with nary a faulty performance from the cast.

We then saw a variety of shows from the very touching "The Guys" in a tiny but effective space used by Threshold Repertory Theatre; the amusing and well-acted "The Understudy" and Sartre's "No Exit" by groups grown out of or directly affiliated with College of Charleston's theater program; the one-man show "The Banana Monologues"; and a well-done production of Tracy Letts' most recent play, "Superior Donuts," by PURE Theatre.

Finally and fittingly, we saw the awe-inspiring "The Red Shoes," the third production we've caught at Spoleto by the rule-bending Kneehigh Theatre company from Cornwall, England. Their main focus is interpreting classic folk tales such as the first one we saw, "Tristan and Iseult," perhaps still my favorite, though this entry was strong competition. We also liked "Don John," two years ago, but not quite as much. But still, in nearly all moments, sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat and wait-to-see-what-they'll-do-next theater. Awesome.

Time to start catching up again -- busy, busy!

Since I last wrote - and yes, it has been a while - someone DID raise their hand, and I understand that Steppenwolf's Virginia Woolf may indeed make it to Broadway for an anniversary-year production in October '12. Yes!

We also had a lot of fun with the reading of Reunions. I've made brush-up changes since the reading, and hope to do some additional work on Act I, Scene II before long -- then see if I can submit it somewhere.

And while I intended to return to Patent when I last wrote, instead - coming out of a show I saw in Charleston and an earlier suggestion - I am working as time permits now on a full-length tentatively called Rehearsals. It's based in a small community theatre and is entirely meant to be a comedy, as a group of the regular suspects (to any theater person) try to stage a production of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband. Hopefully, hilarity will ensue.

I have to note that some of the time that might have been given over to playwriting in April and May instead went to editing and uploading my first e-Book, a private-eye detective novel based on my Jack Larson character based in Pittsburgh. It's been kind of fun finally having that story "published" and some people reading it.

Naturally, we also saw some plays since that last update: Kitchen Witches at Open Space was fun; the New Play Workshop at GTCC was, once again, quite interesting; Brad Phillis (who was in our production of Conversations in a Cafe) wrote and helped coordinate The Other Minos at the school where he teaches; and we saw Disco Inferno at Theatre Alliance. The latter, I fear, will not make my list of favorites.

Then, in late May, we made our seventh-year-in-a-row trek to Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston. I will report in detail on the various shows we saw there next.

Writing and viewing

Just a check-in report to let the readers know that I've completed my brush-up revision of "All About Faith"; am partway through editing the new short script for a 10-minute alternative version; and hoping to return to working on "Patent" soon. In other words, the writing work is moving ahead at a healthy pace, which is exciting.

I'm also looking forward very much to having some of my favorite actors and friends in the house this coming Sunday to give "Reunions" an out-loud read-through. Always fun, and always informative about a script-in-progress.

In the meantime, we got to travel northwards to D.C. and see two plays on this immediate past Thursday and Saturday.

First, our son Andy worked as associate lighting designer on a brand-new musical being presented at Ford's Theatre, called "Liberty Smith." First, I will say I enjoyed the concept: a young man in the time of the Revolutionary War -- and the "what if" proposition was, what if some of the events credited to certain well-known individuals by history were actually suggested, or aided, or done by an uncredited individual. What if Paul Revere, for instance, was too inebriated to make his famous ride -- and Liberty Smith did it in his place? I'll give no more away, but it's a fun idea.

Anyhow, the voices and the music generally were quite excellent; sets, costumes, lighting, sound, ditto. Concept generally well presented, though some of the silliness could have been cut to make the show 15 minutes shorter, and a distance better. We enjoyed, though.

Secondly, we made our long-awaited trek to the newly-renovated Arena Stage and saw Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." I thought it was awesome -- all four actors strong, and especially the leads Amy Morton (Martha) and Tracy Letts (George). Very well done. And absorbing. It's a bit confusing to me, and to critics in D.C. and NYC, why no one raised their hand and took this production to New York. But right now, anyway, it doesn't seem to be happening. Curious.

The writing goes on!

I am pleased to report that I did complete a first draft of another short play, though I may go back and do another version of it that fits in the 10-minute category. This one fits in the 16.5 minute category currently.

I'm also doing some revision of "All About Faith," with a little bit of addition to the third and fourth scenes. Nothing too major, just adding a few points that have occurred since the January reading, and hoping to address one comment that I thought was valid after due consideration. Continuing to try to find a home for that script and for "Conversations." Speaking of which, also considering working up an alternative version of that to reduce by one the number of scenes in the first act. We'll see ....

So anyway, seems to be primarily a time of revision. Plus working on "Patent" again, which I have concluded will probably wind up as a one-act script. I don't have any one acts, so that should be fine.

We have a variety of theater going excursions coming up, plus Kathy has committed to stage managing KLT's upcoming musical, so we should be able to stay pretty busy for the next few months!

Onward and sideways

I would have said onward and upwards, but things seem to be going along sideways at the moment, so ....

Anyway, as previewed in the last blog, we did go to the Broach Theatre for the first time ever, to see "Crimes of the Heart." After all, we've only been in the Triad since 1986. It seemed like time.

More recently, we caught the Sondheim musical "Assassins" at Theatre Alliance, which I found more entertaining overall. I had a quibble or two with the structuring of the play itself -- which builds nicely to a rousing choral number and suddenly shifts one character to a lead one and kind of brings the show to a screeching slowdown for a time before rebuilding itself to the finale. An odd show overall, as I'm sure many audiences would feel, but as one who enjoys looking at the dark side of the American psyche as well as the brighter side, I found it just fine. And several of our friends and acquaintances were in it and did well, too, so even better!

The writing continues to plug along - though I've not found a home for anything recently, so hence the "sideways" comment above. I did, however, finish up a draft of something to submit to the Evening of Short Plays (which is going to have a common set again, which is roughly the same as having a theme). And I am partway through another short play script -- an idea cropped up in my head while I was working on the EOSP submission, so I will write this out while it's fresh in my head. Then, perhaps, back to "Patent" to see if I can finish that one. Progress is good! (You can borrow that sentiment if you'd like.)

While the muse is speaking ....

I have come to the conclusion over the past four-plus years of "trying my hand at playwriting" that only a total idiot would ignore the muse when she (or they, in the case of multiple characters) is speaking to you. And I have to say that the past few months, the muse and/or the characters have been talking a lot, and that is a very good thing.

Both the boys and girls of "Reunions," my new full-length play, were good enough to keep chattering away until I reached a point I thought I could cut them off. They may be now changing a few of their words here and there (an inevitable part of re-reading and editing the first draft), but that's fine. They came up with things to talk about, insults to toss and revelations to share, often with little or no help from me. That's one of the little miracles of writing I enjoy so much! They take on characteristics and minds of their own, and sometimes surprise even me.

Anyway, "Reunions" is now nearly completed in preparation for a first full reading in mid-April. I still need to do the out-loud read and edit of the two men's scenes, but the women's scenes are completed and mailed to the appointed actors. I also got to hear the first four pages of scene one at Forum last Wednesday night, and hope to have enough woman actors at next Forum to hear part of scene two also. I'm enjoying the process!

Furthermore, I had a good writing exercise and experience last week. A good friend highly recommended (not that I'm saying she's pushy or anything) that I write and submit something to a new 10-minute play contest up in Virginia. And so I did.

The challenges involved were: 1). it was writing to a set theme, which is not a favorite thing of mine; 2). it had to be a play that could be considered family friendly. So there goes sex, swearing and too heavy a theme. All of the things that snuck into "Reunions" in one way or another.

Nevertheless, "At The Shrine" came off the computer by the end of the week, and with some slight revisions and Kathy's reading (she called it "cute," which is probably a good thing given the particular contest), off it went. We'll see if it strikes anyone's fancy. The event's in August, so it shouldn't be an endless wait one way or the other.

And then my other "need," in my opinion, was to get something going on a 10-minute play for the next (September) Evening of Short Plays submission. While not exactly a theme, the fall EOSP is once again going to have a common set. But to my pleasure, an idea finally floated into my head and the two characters started talking to me again this morning. (Sometimes, I feel like I'm just a transcriber of these peoples' babbling away). So there's a chance, anyway, that I'll have something to submit. Not due until the May 15-July 15 submission window, so I feel good about the odds.

And then I should start writing on prior projects again!

Meanwhile, we did finally, after all these years, make our way to our first show at Broach Theatre in Greensboro on Saturday night. It was a production of "Crimes of the Heart," directed by Stephen Gee, who also directed that show for KLT way back in 1991 (which starred, among others, Kathy Cissna and Myla Tucker, now Myla O'Brien).

I think I would choose the word "disappointed" to describe my overall reaction. The theater itself reminded me a little bit of some of those slightly iffy off-Broadway theaters in New York where you see stuff like "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" or "The Fantasticks," which is not entirely a compliment. And while there were some good actors in the group, the production was not destined to make it to my list of best shows I've seen in the Triad in 2011, even though it's early in the year. Just not that awesome, I fear. The ensemble never quite gelled.

But there's plenty of additional theater-going coming soon, so ... always a chance of awesome right around the corner.

Playing right along

I'm pleased to report that, in addition to playgoing, I have been keeping busy working on one full-length script while doing the necessary research for a short or one-act play I hope to create soon.

The full-length play is called "Reunions," and it deals with five men and five women talking in the aftermath of their 10-year, and then their 20-year high school reunions. These characters have been pretty good about continuing to "talk" to me over the past couple of months, and I am within viewing range of the end of the two-act show. First draft, anyway.

Meanwhile, I have been reading a lot of history books, on both sides of the "issue," and last week paid a visit in person to the historic site of the Civil War-era Andersonville (Camp Sumter) prisoner of war camp. A sobering visit to be sure. Lots of the men who died fighting the war on both sides didn't die on the battlefield. They died in prison camps of which Andersonville just happened to be the most outstandingly awful example. I hope to write something interesting about that piece of man's-inhumanity-to-man history.

The Andersonville visit was tied to a stop in Atlanta, Ga. to attend two days of the Southeastern Theatre Conference. I may not have found it terrifically helpful to me as a playwright, but it certainly was heartening to see a strong interest in the theater continuing among the young and supported by the organization, and the interest is both on and off stage. Some of us worry about where the next generation of theater actives and theater attendees will come from, especially as certain political figures seem hell-bent on destroying any fiscal support of arts of all kinds from various levels of the government. They should -- but they never are -- be ashamed.

We have also continued to be sitting often in a theater watching something. Most recently, a fine production and an enjoyable "talk back" of "The Sunset Limited" at Triad Stage; a fun, family-friendly "Headin' for the Hills" at Kernersville Little Theatre; and a road trip to see new friend Mike Elliott perform in "The Importance of Being Earnest" at the Oak Ridge, Tn. Playhouse. One of our favorite plays, it was also updated to a 1960s Manhattan/Connecticut setting, which had us worried - but it worked out fine.

And soon, another show: we attended the fundraiser for the City Arts Drama Center in Greensboro recently, and won a silent auction item with two free tickets for the Broach Theatre -- which we had just been saying we had never visited. So next: "Crimes of the Heart" at the Broach!

And more theatrical experiences.

We've been maintaining our active theatre-involved lives since the "All About Faith" reading wrapped up on Jan. 28th. Greensboro Fringe Festival 2011 had us back and forth to the GSO Cultural Center several times. We saw both "The Couch" and "Silent Pictures" there -- and then a very fun production of "Dearly Departed" at Twin City Stage.

I also was involved with the Evening of Short Plays #24, which occurs at the end of the Fringe Festival (this year, on the second weekend of February.) My short play "Communication Gap" was chosen as one of the 10 short plays. So I got to be involved in auditions/casting with Randy Morris, my director, and attended the first full rehearsal of the two-actor script. I was able to discern at that first rehearsal that Randy and both actors (Artemis Jameson, also one of the playwrights, and Skyler Whitfield) "got" the concept and the show just fine. I didn't feel any need to bother them further!

So on the 10th (Kathy and I) and the 11th (just me), we took in all 10 shows -- mine was the production opener each night. A lot of fun, and certain plays (as is usually the case) impressed us more than others. It was also fun to see Myla acting in one of our favorites.

It has been an intriguing and delightful five months since "Conversations" opened -- two full length and two short scripts found their way onto a stage. Exciting!

All About Faith reading -- success!

I'm pleased to report that our staged reading -- OK, somewhere between a stage reading and a staged reading -- went well at Theatre Alliance on Jan. 28. We had a decent sized audience, who were very attentive indeed. And virtually everyone stuck around for the talkback afterwards, which was a surprise. Good comments, good feedback and everyone seemed to take something away from the play. I couldn't have asked for more!

We then reconvened at the Village Tavern with cast, crew, friends and a couple of special guests from the "Conversations" cast as well. What an excellent group of people to work with!

So, where thanks are due (so many of them): Myla for directing, Kathy for stage managing, Mallorie for lights and sound. Cast: Cheryl Ann Roberts, Carson Elizabeth Gregory, Michael Shapiro, Cameron Williams, Kenny Gaylord and Angie Barnes. Plus all the help from Theatre Alliance, too. You are all the greatest! Now, we'll see if we can find someone who wants to produce it ....

Anyway, it was a great learning experience again -- and of course, working it out in rehearsal and on stage helped the script, too. So glad we were able to work this project out.

Time to hit the stage

OK. Basic rehearsals behind us: check. Figure out the basic props: check. Arrangements made with the theater space at Theatre Alliance, tickets prepared: check. Time for our one tech rehearsal before tomorrow night's stage/staged reading: yep. We're there.

I'm very pleased with the preparations for our reading of All About Faith, which starts at 8 p.m. tomorrow (Friday, Jan. 28th) night at Theatre Alliance. It's running at just about the length I expected; the actors are doing well with the fine direction of Myla O'Brien; and whatever edges we need to sand, well, I'm just confident we will do it.

The bottom line is that, though it's a little hard to judge before it's in front of an audience, the script seems to be having the kind of impact I hoped it would. That's very reassuring, too.

Then we get to see another new play on Saturday night, followed on February 10 with the first night of the Evening of Short Plays #24 - ten short shows, including one of mine. Exciting times!

Regarding EOSP #24

Treading right along

And now we've jumped to the middle of the month, but that's a significant time in the projects mentioned earlier. Tonight, we gather for the first time to read through and begin to rehearse All About Faith for the stage reading that will happen at Theatre Alliance on Friday, Jan. 28th. Myla is directing again, and we have a fine cast gathered -- four of whom were part of Conversations, too. I'm really excited about this opportunity!

Speaking of Theatre Alliance, we were there this past Saturday night to see Ken Ashford, Neil Shepherd and others in Looking for Normal, which was quite a good production. And as is often the case with T.A., not necessarily an easy or safe subject. Well done!

A few days before that, we saw our first show in the new Hanesbrands Theatre space in Winston-Salem -- and hope to see a lot more in that theater! We saw the No Rules Theatre Company's production of Touch, which was an intriguing play and generally, despite a carp or two here and there, a well-presented show, too. Well worth the time to catch that one.

I also was able to attend the first read-through/rehearsal of my short play, Communication Gap, which will be offered along with nine other plays at the Evening of Short Plays, Drama Center Theatre, Greensboro Cultural Center (on Davie Street), on February 10-12 (8 p.m.) and 13 (2 p.m.) It's part of the Greensboro Fringe Festival, and I will write more about that and other Fringe plays later on.

But the rehearsal was very reassuring -- the two young actors, and Randy Morris, director and long-time acquaintance, clearly "get" the show. I look forward to seeing the finished product!!

There's a LOT of theater going on for us between now and the end of March. But we are not complaining!!

Looking ahead

OK, now that we've wrapped up 2010 (see below), let's take a look ahead at 2011!

I'm very excited that the year will start with a bang from a developing-playwright's standpoint. After having been discussed and kicked around for a while, Jamie Lawson, artistic director of Winston-Salem's Theatre Alliance has agreed to put our cast on stage at his place for a one-night stage reading of All About Faith, my second full-length play script. We've put together an excellent cast, and the excellent Myla O'Brien has once again agreed to direct the reading. Brilliant!

Since it is just a one-night event with limited set, costumes, scripts in hand as needed, it will be much less labor-intensive than Conversations, but I'm equally excited. Just as with children, one should be careful not to name any favorites among one's scripts, but Faith is a totally different kind of script, and one of which I am quite proud. It's time to find out if anyone else agrees! Though I think the potential market for it is much narrower than Conversations, I've already identified a number of places to send it after the reading is over. We keep plugging away!

And then, because so far things seem to happen in clumps, another of my short scripts, Communication Gap -- which I also like quite a bit -- will be performed in Greensboro in mid-February as part of the Playwrights Forum's Evening of Short Plays #24. Randy Morris is going to direct it, and I look forward to finding out soon who will play the young man and woman in the script. Not to mention seeing all the other shows -- in my experience, the Short Plays are always interesting!!

The other good news from my viewpoint is that, in addition to starting a play called Patent which has been temporarily set aside in favor of a lighter script, I have written about half of a new show called Reunions, which I am really enjoying. It's not meant to be a laugh riot or anything but, like Conversations, it is certainly lighter than what I've been writing for a while. It is about five men and five women who gather and chat after their tenth high school reunion -- and then again after their twentieth. So far, so fun!

So that's where I am right now. Working and looking forward to seeing a couple of scripts brought to life between now and mid-February. That, for me, is fun!!

Catching up

Wow. It seems as if it has been a month of Sundays since I last wrote here -- and it nearly has. I was last reporting on the progress of the production of Conversations in a Cafe. And then that production happened, and there was no time.

I think it is safe to say that the production went quite well indeed given all considerations. I really, really enjoyed the process and learned so much along the way. I felt that our cast got along quite well especially given how I have seen other casts/crews go in productions. I've never been so intimately involved with all aspects of a production before, so maybe I'm kidding myself, but I thought we created a supportive environment for everyone to do their best -- and I think they did.

There were of course a few challenges here and there -- lights not quite working the way they should, a door that didn't always want to stay shut, a challenge with the flooring in one particular spot (though overall, the flooring idea really worked quite well). And one audience that should have been declared dead on arrival. But generally speaking, we had decent audiences who had nice things to say when the shows were over, a lot of really helpful volunteers, some fun gatherings and all in all, I thought a very positive experience. And now I am working to uncover theater companies out there who might be interested in reading and/or doing the show, and getting the script out there.

The end of strike and a couple of weeks of figuring out what to do with everything from the show led directly into seeing a short script of mine done as part of the second Horror Anthology in Greensboro (part of the Playwrights Forum projects). So, in short, October was a heck of a good month from a playwriting standpoint! But it was all very time-consuming, so very little writing got done, really, from August until mid-December.

Somehow, despite the schedule, we also managed to see quite a bit of theater during this time period. At Triad Stage, we caught a very good Glass Menagerie and a favorite of ours, Educating Rita, along with a good if not totally great Christmas Carol. Theatre Alliance offered a very good Cabaret and a fun Winter Wonderettes. Open Space hosted Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, featuring one of our fave actresses.

Clemmons Community Theatre presented Never Too Late; Stained Glass Playhouse featured Cameron Williams and others we knew in And Then There Were None; and we got to see Tommy Trull's new The Immersibles at GTCC.

Perhaps of the greatest personal interest in the late fall was the latest work-up of Harry Connick, Jr.'s musical version of The Happy Elf, worked out in Maryland with hopes of a Broadway future. Wonderful and creative lighting design: Andrew R. Cissna. We of course had to go and see it.

And that brings us up-to-date, here just into the new year with more playwriting stuff coming up soon! And I'll write about that in a short time.