A good experience

I am currently on my annual week-away timeshare writer's retreat to the Outer Banks, where it has been cooler than most years, and breezy, but mostly sunny. I guess it's good that the weather has kept me indoors and more concentrated than some of these trips in the past!

The writing portion so far has included the adaptation of an old short story to a very short play, which was fun and might become a submission to the Playwrights' Forum's Horror Anthology, which occurs in October (going to be a busy month). Maybe I'll get it accepted!

But speaking of the Playwrights' Forum, I volunteered for, and then ran the lighting board for two tech rehearsals and three of the four performances of the Evening of Short Plays. It happens that the studio theater lighting board there is identical to KLT's larger board, so I wasn't too technologically challenged to be able to figure out the running and the cues. Unfortunately, the cues were programmed for a certain order of shows, then the order was changed, so there was some jumping around involved. But I don't feel I screwed it up too badly; it was fun to see the various shows and how the process works; and I certainly got to be comfortable with the board again. Maybe next time I can learn more about the actual programming, etc. Certainly a fun learning experience, anyway!

Many more shows to come over the next few weeks, starting on Sunday -- going to stop on the way back to K'vegas to catch "Margaret Mitchell" at Theatre in the Park in Raleigh (Kathy will hopefully get to see it on Friday evening) -- just for the fun of it, to see how they handle the show.

And then a fair # of Triad shows after that. And hoping to get some serious work done on the next full-length play script, "Patent" -- starting ... right now!

Weather or not

Lately, central North Carolina has been pushed around by somewhat uncommon wintry weather -- a 6" snowfall over last weekend; uncommon cold; freezing rain/rain today; more wintry stuff threatened for the coming weekend.

It has wreaked havoc with all kinds of events schedules, including the play we had scheduled to see this past Saturday. We've been lucky enough to reschedule it for Thursday night -- hopefully before the next snow attack -- so will report on that soon.

However, that means we've only been in the theater a couple of times lately, as well as a special event, so looking forward to clearing roads and more shows before long.

We got over to UNCSA for a special performance of "The Compleat Works of Wm. Shakespeare, Abridged" that helped raise funds for senior drama students to get to L.A. for auditions (and part of the proceeds went to the Haitian relief effort). It was a lot of fun, if a little sloppy here and there. We sat with Macon Shirley and Paul and Myla O'Brien, so a good theater night!

More recently, we caught "Oscar & Felix" over at Open Space, with Ken Ashford and Scott Stevens in the title roles, and Michael Carter and Chuck Powers among the poker players. Pretty good too, I thought. A few line drops here and there, but good energy and it held my attention.

We also ran over to Greensboro for the season-announcement event at Triad Stage. A good collection of shows, but a particular favorite included -- they'll be doing "Educating Rita" as their second show, in the fall. Can't wait!

Since last writing, I have managed to discover that a lot of the in-depth research I had been doing on individual songs, writers and publishers may not have been necessary. I have yet to confirm with ASCAP, but BMI definitely offers a "promoter" license that, for a fee (of course) allows basically unlimited use of all BMI songs for music backdrops -- at least for the limited run of our "Conversations" production. This is VERY good news!

Plunging ahead

We haven't done much playgoing lately, but that's about to change -- quite a few shows in the region looming on the calendar. I'll try to remember to report on them as we take them in.

In the meantime, the work on the "Conversations in a Cafe" project for October continues rapidly. I am in the middle of a number of searches for proper licensing techniques in order to use certain popular songs as part of the soundtrack, legally. This is a one-time production; the venue doesn't have any kind of musical license (nor does it need one); and the use of a recording in a performing-arts environment falls into a kinky area of music licensing anyway. The easiest ones, I have found, have one performer, the same writer and one publisher. Get much beyond that, and boy howdy, does it get complex.

The soundtrack I had in my head at the beginning, back in 2006, is going to change somewhat, both for simplicity and for financial reasons. I originally had 11 songs I wanted to use, but if you have to pay upwards of $70 per song to use 'em, well, public domain songs sound better and better.

Then we're starting discussions about set, set pieces, furniture, lighting, window designs, and of course, casting. A lot to think about, but oddly enough, we open in nine months, and that doesn't sound like a long time away any more. I actually ordered the first piece of the prop furniture yesterday.

I'd quote a Steve Miller song about time keeping ticking, ticking ... but they'd probably want a fee to quote it. So let's just say I'm trying to keep up with show prep along with everything else.

But we have filled in a lot of blanks in terms of casting the show, and with each commitment (well, tentative commitment - we'll ask for firm commitments on July 1), I get a little more excited about the show being something special. Most of the time, I'm glad we made this decision to jump off the cliff. And as I told someone the other day, we'll see how we feel about that when the run ends!

Nearing the new year

There hasn't been any theater-going since the last blog post (believe that if you will!) but a lot of thinking about and planning for future theater. 2010 is going to be an interesting year, with at least one production of a play I've written happening in October. Lots of planning going on right now about set pieces, music, lighting and such. But there are a few other possibilities floating around, too. We'll see how that goes.

Though they are tentative commitments until July 1, we also have five of the nine roles in "Conversations" cast and feelers out to four other actors regarding the four remaining roles. I continue to be quietly excited that it could all work out with a relatively low level of "drama" instead of just "good" drama.

Slowly but surely, furthermore, I continue to create bits and pieces of a new full-length script that, at least tentatively, is called "Patent." It's going to be set in three small towns in central Iowa in 1858. The opening and part of the closing, as well as a couple of pages of dialogue from somewhere in the middle, have been created already, and I know what happens at the end, even if it has not been written yet. It's far enough along that I have a pretty good feeling it will turn into something.

I don't think there's a whole lot on the play-going front for January, but after that, I can tell it's going to get busy again. And that's a good thing!

And the fun begins!

It has been busy times since I last posted, including a Thanksgiving weekend trip to D.C. (see comments on Woolly Mammoth's "Full Circle" in a moment) and a host of other activities. But equally exciting, the momentum already seems to be building for the "Conversations" production, and thoughts on casting are moving forward at a healthy pace. I'm already starting to feel that exhilarating combination of excitement and dread that will no doubt last through the end of the run next October.

As mentioned, while in D.C., we got over to Woolly Mammoth to see our second production there. Sarah, our new daughter-in-law, works there now, but they also do some fascinating stuff, and "Full Circle" was no exception. For this show, rather than just sit in a seat and watch, the show "moved" to various places around the company's building. The story itself was semi-absurdist and built at first around the fall of the Berlin Wall, then followed the fates of a young woman, an American society lady and others as they tried to protect the baby of the mistress of the former Communist leader of East Berlin.

Did you follow that?

Well, anyway, it was a pretty neat "moving" experience, going from point to point to follow the story. And even if the ending left me a little at loose ends, I thought it was a lot of fun and certainly "out of the box," if you will.

We also saw "Daughters of the Lone Star State" at Theatre Alliance in Winston-Salem. While there were certainly some good performances, I fear this won't make it to my "favorite Del Shores scripts" list. I'm sure it was part of the purpose of the play to expose several women characters as being despicable in their bigotry and snobbish attitudes, but it was a little too close to the truth for me. I've met those women, and I really didn't want to be reminded that they exist. Cheryl Ann Roberts, of course, got to play the alternative opinion, and did a fine job of it, along with Reba Birdsall as the long-standing victim who finally breaks free of these women's offensive treatment.

But you still wanted to wash your hands afterwards, hoping you didn't get any on you.

And then, on Friday night, we took in the latest KLT production, "The Littlest Angel." Again, maybe not going to be my favorite play ever, but I still took away a large smile because the show, as ridiculously difficult the music was for a community theater production, did exactly what I perceive KLT's mission should as often as possible: it brought a lot of young people and other adults, too, onto the stage to perform, in a lot of cases for the first time. So perfect from that standpoint!

Kathy and I saw it especially closely because a young woman we have known for some time as a next-door neighbor and our cat sitter, now age 13, just bubbled all the way home about how much fun she was having and enjoying the chance to perform. Our community theater may not be a lot of things, but it also IS a lot of things -- and this, I believe, is what it should be all about. Yay, KLT!

Not one for the disengaged

If all you're looking for is light entertainment or comedy, I highly recommend you stay clear of David Mamet's play "Oleanna," currently being offered at Triad Stage in Greensboro. It's another of the recent pattern of 90-minute, no-intermission shows (though this one dates back to 1992), with a pair of characters in an escalating confrontation.

If you like your plays with some thinking included, and maybe even some controversy, though, I recommend it. Good set, good lighting, good acting -- and for the first time in Triad Stage history, done in the round. Intriguing and certainly one to raise as many questions as it answers.

OK, it's gonna happen

All the contracts are signed and the first details nailed down, so I can officially say it -- barring catastrophes as yet unseen, we are going to produce the world premiere of my play, "Conversations in a Cafe," at Kernersville's Korner's Folly in October 2010. There's a whole lot of work and planning to do before then, including set pieces, lighting plans, sound and music rights gathering and a whole lot more, but it's exciting to contemplate the very real possibility of it happening. I've got a great director on board, and I hope she can stay there. Two of the roles are pre-cast (so far), and we're gathering names and possibilities to entice to auditions for the remaining seven roles. And a lot of good ideas floating around.

I know it seems early, but the clock is already ticking and time will fly. I just know it. There will be some challenges, no doubt -- but hopefully, a much greater quotient of fun and satisfaction.