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.)