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.