A little free time is great

I haven't posted for a bit because my wife and I were busy planning and packing for our 30th wedding anniversary trip -- eight chiefly dry days in Ireland, including Dublin, Waterford, Galway and the Connemara peninsula. Fun trip, didn't hit anybody in the rental car, lots of pints of ale and a few good pub visits. Though Ireland has less by way of pubs and more that are like a pub but presented as a bar/restaurant.

And as I have found before, sometimes a few days away from a computer and other chores is good for the brain. By the time I got on the plane back from Dublin to Philadelphia (7.25 hours flight time), I had an idea for a 10-minute play, and by the time I got off the plane, the first draft was completed. It got typed in once back at home, and read/timed, and added to slightly. Now it is more or less finished. Love it when things go easily!

I had determined already that no script was doing me any good gathering dust -- and then once everything I had "finished" was sent out somewhere, I quickly decided that I needed MORE material to take advantage of the various contests/competitions out there in playwright world. So now working on getting that reading moving on "The Good Life," and have a new 10-minute script I can get in the works somewhere. It almost feels like progress!

And we move on

Well, as I've probably already stated, writing is a challenge in itself, and then there's the joy of trying to do something with it when it's done. Unfortunately, I received the news yesterday that the county Arts Council once again decided not to give me a grant to produce my first play. Too bad. I'm going to be interested in seeing who DID get the grants, after all the glad-talk that encouraged me to submit again and, in effect, put that script in limbo for another very long six months. If once again, there was no literary grant at all, I might just be, um, lightly perturbed. [Addendum: as it turns out, I was not the only literary grant request, but once again, the "panel" failed to give ANY support to a literary project.]

But if nothing else, it put me in action to research and continue pushing the finished scripts out the door to other potential readings/productions/reviews locations and gather from online sources additional possible future outlets. I had actually mailed "Conversations" to one new play contest several days ago, and "Faith" went in the mail to another location late last night. Even negative responses can, I guess, be a form of inspiration.

Meanwhile, I started working towards a private reading of "The Good Life" and maybe, after other work gets done, I'll be back to the new play as well. There seem to be a fair number of theater company new play-reading ops out there. Now I just need additional material if this concept is ever going to become a reality.

Don't fight the muse

If there's anything I've learned in some 35-plus years of writing, it's that I should try my best not to fight the muse if and when it shows up to inspire some piece of a project.

Lately, though, I wish it could be better at timing itself.

Although just a ghost in the mist had started to form itself in my head last Tuesday while in D.C. regarding the topic, theme and setting for my next play, it actually began to jell right in the middle of watching a fine first preview of a brand new play at Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Md. last Wednesday night. Why? I have no idea. But we certainly enjoyed "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents," based on a book of the same name -- yet I walked out of it able to articulate to my wife how I saw the next play shaping up. It's hard to maintain full attention to "A" when your head is also shaping up "B" at the same time.

So though I have done a little bit of thinking on that play since last Wednesday, it wasn't until we were in the final half-hour of "The Night of the Iguana" at Triad Stage on Saturday night that one complete line that will fit into the new play popped into my head. I then had to fight between watching the play and not forgetting the line until the play ended and I could get back to the car, find a notepad and write down the line. I really, really didn't want to lose it.

So it's upbeat that I'm getting inspiration at any time, any place. But as I commented to a correspondent recently, couldn't it be during a shopping trip to WalMart instead of during a play I really want to watch undisturbed? Ah, well, beggars can't be choosers.

Pretty good week so far

I have to say that it has been a pretty productive play-related week since we arrived in Washington DC on Saturday afternoon. First, we were able to take in a dynamic production of "1984" at Catalyst Theater, at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (where Andy works his "day job" and also designed lights for this show). Last night (Wed.), we saw the first preview of a new play, "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" (which was a book first), and really enjoyed it, too -- and again, Andy was involved, as ALD to Beverly Emmons.

In the meantime, I have had time in fits and starts to wrap up the second draft of "The Good Life," and passed it along to a few of my trusted readers for thoughts and commentary. Then starting sometime (often, it's hard to track down and remember the precise time), the basic concept, at least, of a possible play #4 began to form in my head and by last night after the play, I could actually articulate it to Kathy. This is always an exciting moment for me, since my usual assumption is that I'll never have another play- or book- or story-worthy idea.

And then I do. Thank goodness.

Also along the way, first at "1984" and then at Tunnicliff's, a popular bar at Eastern Market that is esp. popular on Wednesday nights late for the area theater crowd, I had a chance to chat with the artistic director of the Source Festival -- and now have submitted my 10-minute play script to the Festival for possible consideration for 2009. In 2008, they got 700 submissions, so I know the odds are formidable. But as I've no doubt written here before, if you don't submit, you got nothin'. So off it went earlier this afternoon.

Progress! Gotta love it.

Creeping up on them

Not really much to report at this moment, except that I am creeping up on a couple of developments. First, I am partway through a review and update of the third play script ("The Good Life"), hoping to add a little length to it and make some adjustments (a character's name just changed, for instance, and one first reader made a wise formatting suggestion). Anyway, it's coming along and may be completed by week's end.

Second, it's now in the second half of September, which means I have only two weeks or so before getting the good or the bad news about the Arts Project Grant. This could mean disappointment, or a good tightening of focus between October 1 and the end of April. And a first production on stage. That could be cool.

On a personal note, my son and fiance Sarah cooked dinner for us last night in Washington, D.C., and we had a truly pleasant meeting with her parents as well. There's a fun wedding gathering coming down the pike in October of next year. We look forward to it!!

Growing some patience

As a person not overwhelmed by in-depth patience, I find sometimes that the process of writing and trying to get published or produced seems like an eternity. Which is why I've been trying to grow some patience and understanding that the gap between finishing a piece and hoping to see it on stage can be a long thing indeed.

But I am also learning that, every bit as much as full-length fiction writing, it is just the nature of the beast. Send it out and forget about it, and move on to something else. That's just the way it has to be.

Case in point: I just mailed a copy of "All About Faith" to a New Play Festival in Greenville, SC, which I discovered thanks to the invaluable aid of Kelly Wallace. I'm quite well ahead of the deadline for the 2009 event (final due date is Feb. 1, 2009). But it might as well go now; I'm not planning to change it anytime soon. But when does the decision get made about what will be read during the Festival? August of next year. Ayiiee. That should wear me out, waiting to hear about that!

But it's not really much different for the festival of 10-minute plays in Louisville, to which I submitted my 10-minute script not too long ago. That's going to be a wait, too.

And I have moaned here before about the formerly long-seeming wait from May, when I submitted a grant request, to end of September when grant recipients are announced. At least that one's growing closer to a yes or no answer. It's that not-knowing status that can be so tiring. But again, gotta get used to it. Somehow.

Meanwhile, steps are being taken towards a more-finished script of the latest play. I should have a goodly amount of time next week to give it some undivided attention. And then maybe show it to a few more readers, see what they think. I hope.

A matter of length

It's difficult, for me anyway, when I am drafting a play to have anything more than a general idea of how long the text will "play" on stage. So when I finished up my first draft of "The Good Life," I figured I was pretty much there. Not. What I determined after giving it an out-loud read-through -- usually my first step after the first draft -- is that it isn't as long as I want it to be.

So now, in addition to making all the fixes I determined in the process of hearing it out loud AND timing it, I'm better prepared to understand that it needs more new writing work to better explain the story and make it longer at the same time. Kathy, my intrepid first reader, also had some very useful thoughts on some additional concepts and extensions that she perceived.

End result: it's going to be a little while longer now before I'll be ready to show this to anyone else. But that's the way it is with writing some times. As I well know.