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!