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.

Plugging along

The "Conversations" progress is moving along nicely. The two missing tables arrived on the same day as the tablecloths that will cover all three tables. Some of the other fine details are getting worked out (venue, electrical matters, lighting and sound decisions and such like). Still a few holes to fill in and volunteers to locate, but it gets closer to a complete picture each day. We had production discussions earlier this week, and we regroup for another read-through next week. Then after Labor Day, we get down to the "real" rehearsal schedule.

In the meantime, Labor Day Weekend will include some labor. It will be move-in time for the KLT "The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon," and time to start setting up lights and programming of same. Plus hoping to grab and transport at least some of the flats and related items we need for our show. Busy weekend coming up!!

We are underway!

In addition to roughly a million little details of minutiae, trying to pull together the various pieces for putting this play on stage, we've now had the excitement of having the whole cast together in a room reading the script. Out loud. With laughter. If I'd had more sleep recently, I would be TOTALLY excited. As it is, I'm pretty darned excited, anyway.

The real revelation to me continues to be finding out that this is a funnier script that I imagined. I'm sure putting it in the hands of a great set of actors makes a lot of difference. Not that there aren't still some peaceful moments (as there should be) and a couple of touching moments (or at least I hope so) -- but both at auditions and last night, there was laughter among us. And that, for me, is a very good thing. I never wanted it to be TOO heavy, but I think current audiences want some humor when they go out.

We have a cast. We have a director who has clearly been doing ALL her homework (thanks, Myla!) We have a rehearsal space that should be ready in time if all the pieces come together in a timely fashion. Jim Lehman, who is a wood-working man and has done a lot of set-building for KLT, has most politely agreed to build the window units we need. And we have other volunteers coming on board who will help out so much. Not to even suggest I was ever a non-believer, but as these items come along, I believe more and more that we can really pull this thing off. Whew! That's a relief.

The cast is set.

We were able to have our final auditions tonight, and were able, after more tough decisions, to settle on the last role. The cast is complete, and we're only two days away from our first read-through. The pulse is undeniably starting to pick up.

And so, the very exciting cast of "Conversations in a Cafe" will be:

Kathy Anne Cissna (Susan)

Carson Elizabeth Gregory (Meredith)

Rebecca Clark Mills (Jenny)

Brad Phillis (Brad)

Cheryl Ann Roberts (Ellie)

Michael Shapiro (Joshua)

Scott Terrill (Carl)

Cameron Williams (Don)

Mary Lea Williams (Gina).

Well, very exciting to me, at the very minimum.

And off we go!

Auditions seemingly successful

I am very excited to report that our two nights of auditions for "Conversations in a Cafe," just completed, went very well, maybe even better than expected. We had more folks, especially men, than we anticipated, which made for some very difficult decisions about who might be right for which part. But ultimately, we were able to cast four of the five remaining roles at the end of the second evening, and we hope to do callbacks for the remaining male role soon. First read-through is a week from today, so we gotta get that finished!

Anyway, we saw and cast a good Don, Joshua and Carl from the first night's attendees, and found (to my great relief because, even though this is an ensemble show and everybody's important, I think of her as the glue that holds it all together), a fine Meredith on the second night. So we only need to nail down Brad at this point.

What was a great revelation and a lot of fun for me was seeing our pre-cast ladies reading with the candidates and starting to figure out that there is more humor and laughter in the show than I ever imagined. I've always said that yes, there are some funny moments, but we were coming across more in the short side segments than I thought could be found in the whole script. Seeing these characters spring to life after living in my head for four years is just more exciting than I could imagine. And having such a great group of dedicated people -- especially Myla, our director, who has already done a ton of work and not only understands the show as I see it but is already bringing new thoughts I never had to it -- is making for a collaborative effort that just thrills. Playwrights who have had a production have probably already been there. For me, it is new food for inspiration.

We begin the rehearsal process next Wednesday, and then we're off and running. Should be a fascinating but also hopefully reasonably painless process if we can make it that way.

We've done a bunch of the shopping for set items and more -- now have a base to connect with a small round top for our "bar height" table, and an order has been placed for the other two tables we need. A magazine rack and a chalkboard to hang; lots of discussions on set design/construction, technical matters ... it's all good. And it's all moving along. We hope!

Not much time for playgoing lately, but we did catch Stained Glass Playhouse's "Evita" a few days back. It was a reasonably good production with some stand-out performances, but I fear the show itself is not one that's destined to become a favorite. On the ALW front, I'll say "yes" to "Joseph" and "Jesus Christ, Superstar" and "no thanks" to "Evita," "Cats" and "Phantom."