Maturity

I'm about to head to Spokane (well Cheney) for the holidays. Yes, ten days of "relaxation." I put quotes around this because relaxation in Cheney really means boredom after so long. However, I am hoping to use this opportunity of little to do and no access to friends as prime time to do something I have been neglecting for far too long: writing.

I have a lot of excuses for why I haven't been writing. They are, in no particular order: writer's block, too much work, not the right environment, too much work, no enough ideas, too much work. Convinced?

No? Well good, you shouldn't be. Regardless, over the past few months (since the last time I've posted), I've gotten very little to no writing done. I have ideas, inspirations I could call them but nothing much has come of it. A poem here or there, a lot of journaling but that's about it. So it is time...ahem...as I have said before...to sit down and just do the writing.

I have this notion, this fact really, that writers set aside time to write daily. When I speak of this idea, I always manage to stammer out something about how I am a writer of inspiration and sitting down to write doesn't work for me if I don't have any inspiration. At this point, I'm going to call bullshit on myself. I think what really kept me from setting and keeping a schedule is immaturity. It is time I grow up and remember, it doesn't matter what I sit down and write every day, I just need to do it.

Yes, I do fancy myself a writer and an actor. A theatre artist really. But I still have a lot of growing in my art to do. I'm forcing myself to use this time at my parent's house as an opportunity not to be really bored, but to be really smart. I'm going to enjoy the holiday and get back on the horse so to say. Or the keyboard.

I'm gonna write.

P.S. A reading of that previously completed one-act to come after the new year. Probably in my apartment. I'll keep you updated.

Trying Something New

I feel like I run into the same problem with every script I write. I start out with one idea or sometimes a line. I can get six or seven pages into the play and then blamo! I get stuck with the plot. I think the main reason for this block is my overall lack of foresight. An idea or a line is a good way to start, really the only way to start, but it doesn't write a whole play...unless you only want it to be four pages long. Maybe with some scripts I need to start planning a trajectory.

When I moved to Seattle, I set up a space next to my desk as my "writing center." It has a white board and cork board. The white board for exactly the thing I mentioned above and the cork board for potential inspiration photos. While the cork board hasn't been used yet, I think the white board is getting a good start:This is my first attempt at really planning before I start writing. Usually I just write and go back and rework the plot later.

Let's see how this goes. Every new writing day is an adventure.

And then...

A draft!

Finally, after months of struggling to get some sort of inspiration, months of pulling up blank word documents and eventually closing them after many exasperated breaths, I finally have completed a draft of The Last Tree. I can feel the creativity coming back into my finger tips, surging through my body. I think the draft is the proof.

When I closed the word document yesterday, I must admit I felt a sense of accomplishment. Usually, this is considered contrary to how theatre works. My college costume design professor always used to say "Theatre artists don't finish, they just stop." I do believe that's true. Plays go through draft after draft after draft and even after the play is in performance or published it can and will change. Of course, the same is true of acting.

But the point is, I have a draft of something that I can take to a reading, to have read. I feel connected to my art once again which is something I have been lacking. Maybe it is the inspiration of meeting with other people. Whatever it is, it's working.

Speaking of connecting, a group of friends and I are trying to get together to read and act and all that good stuff. Professors always told us we were going to have to create our own opportunities for theatre. We always believed them but I don't think we knew what that meant.

I think we're starting to.

An Opening Night

Over this summer I have been lucky enough to intern at Book-It Repertory Theatre. While my official title is "Management Intern," I really have taken on a variety of tasks. No matter how you slice it, I love Book-It and what they do.

Saturday night was the official opening of The Cider House Rules: Part Two. This was my first official opening night as an attendee. (I did work the opening night for A Doctor in Spite of Himself but I didn't get to attend.) I always love the feeling of an opening night. While most professional shows do at least a week of previews, there is always something very special about the official opening. The heart beat in the room is palpable both for the performers and the audience. Everything feels so new and exciting.

Cider House is a special show for Book-It because it was one of their first shows as a company. They brought it back for the 20th Anniversary and I don't think they could have made a better choice. If you want a crash course in the Book-It style, which is a whole language in and of itself, Cider House is the show to see. Here's a little glimpse into the night (photo, of course, by Cassandra Gallagher):

For a more complete glimpse into the opening night party, visit Cassi Gallagher's photo blog. You can at least see the free food we were able to indulge in.

I will admit, as I have been for months, watching the show made me miss doing the creative part of theatre. I know I'm only a few months out of college and I've found myself in a very good position: to be working at all in theatre. Now, I'm just searching for a creative venture. And it's becoming a very active search.

It's time...

to put this degree to good use. I am craving craving creative interaction. Everyone always says to create your own theatre. And that is exactly what it is time to do.

So.
Be on the look-out for that.

Stalled

My writing is a bit stalled these days. The ideas are constantly going through my head but so far nothing is find it's way to paper. I wonder if my missing acting has anything to do with my supposed "writer's block." I think writer's block is a bad term for what I'm experiencing but it is the only thing I can think to call it. (Funny, right? A writer with a lack for words.)

Although, I was just asked to write a monologue and a scene for someone. Hopefully, it will be a good exercise in writing towards a specific person and working towards an end goal. Right now, everything I write has an eventual goal (to be produced) but not necessarily a goal for a specific person to use. This will change that.

If anyone else would like to commission me to work on something with them in mind...I could do that. :)

The Last Tree

The play is not working for me. All I want is for it to work for me. Maybe it's time to go back and start over?

Also make sure to see Ruined and Spelling Bee if you are in and around Seattle. Both promise to be very good.

That is all.

Working with a degree.

I have to say I almost don't believe it. About a month after graduation and I am working in two different theatres in Seattle. And *gasp,* that's what my degree is in. Okay, I have to modify that statement: I'm interning in a theatre (Book-it) and working at another (the Intiman). At this point I am no great professional. I am an intern and a ticket representative. But we all have to start somewhere right? Well, this is where I'm starting.

Yet, in all the hubbub, the moving and all that, I have yet to work on anything new. I haven't acted in awhile (since Miracle Worker) and none of my scripts have seen any great work since two weeks ago up in Bellingham. I am almost constantly thinking about my writing. The script that continues to plague me is "The Last Tree" - the one about the adopted girl and her birth mother. It has stalled. I know what I want to say and where I want to go but I can't figure out the right words to say it in. I'm hoping showing the beginnings of the script to a few people will help me work that out. I think my friend Emily and I plan to read it out loud together to work on it at some point. Until then, it is always on my mind.

Other writing updates (these are mostly for the future):
Dawn - a few more edits are to be had although I do think it is in a really stable place at this point.
Car Parts - good right now. Yikes! I need to remember to email the Annex this week. (Thanks again E. Ray for the introduction!)
Bathtub Safety - probably another to email the Annex.
Regarding Eden (part of the Apocalypse Plays series in case you forgot) - I think I'm finally ready to revisit this one. It is time to look at the conversation between Eden and the boys right after she is introduced. I'm sure there is more character interactions to mine there. (Christy Denny, I think you'll like this one.)
War and Cigarettes - an oldie but a goodie. I definitely need to go back and work on this one. I think the last year and a half of experience as a playwright will inform the way it moves. Plus I can get rid of the superfluous secret fiance. Silly me.

That is all for tonight. Nothing too terribly exciting. I did finish my thank-you notes to the Seattle Rep-ers finally and emailed and sent those off. It made me miss that week up in Bellingham. I'm so glad that got to be my final good-bye to my home of the last five years. It was a good closure and push towards my life in Seattle.

Hello Seattle.

Photo Evidence

Here is the photo evidence of the great week we had with the Seattle Rep-ers in Bellingham. Look at all our lovely, smiling faces. (And thanks to Sarah Petty for the photo!)
Now to send a lot of thank you letters, emails, and general good feelings.

Expect a post about my writing soon. (This statement is mostly for myself so that I actually do it.)

Seattle Rep Wrap-Up

Once again...over a month since I last updated. I know, I know. Shame on me. But this brings up my new goal. As new young urban professional (without a job), the plan is to update this thing more often. I'm hoping the blog will keep me motivated to write, act, create art so that the passion, the drive, and the necessity doesn't die out. Not that I think it would...but something to hold me accountable as well couldn't hurt.

This Sunday (June 27th) I officially moved to Seattle. I packed up (almost all) of the rest of my stuff in a friend's car, turned in the keys to my Bellingham apartment and changed my address. It is very exciting but I haven't really had any time to think about it. I spent my first day in Seattle unpacking and watching the Pride Parade and on Monday (well, yesterday) I began my internship at Book-It Repertory Theatre. Although I'm only on my second day in the office, I know I'm really going to like it here. You can expect many more blogs to come about my experience but that is not the purpose of this here blog post. The purpose is to wrap of my experience last week at-

The Seattle Rep New Play Program at Western Washington University
Yes, last week I had the pleasure of observing, mingling, playing kickball, karaoking, and creating art with a group of 20 professional Seattle theatre types. What a great week it was too. I feel like I have so much to say about my experience but my words are stalled. (That doesn't happen very often.) In short, the people we met, the plays that were read, our own work was all fantastic and I am so happy I slept on an air mattress for a week in an empty apartment to participate in this program. The hours were long but the reward was well worth it.

I had the joy of serving as the student playwright for the week, shadowing Stephanie Timm as she worked on her play Asleep in the Mouth of a Crocodile: An American Dream. It was interesting to watch someone else's process as a playwright. Since the play was in the early stages, we really saw how she went about developing the plot, the characters, basically the entire thing. I think I picked up some tools for the future, some that I may use on a play I started recently called (for now) The Last Tree. That play has stalled and I need it to get moving again.

We watched the professional process during the day and spent the evenings working on student work. We did staged readings for two of my plays: a completed one act called Dawn and a ten minute play called Car Parts. Dawn is a play that I have been wrestling with for a year now. It all started with a short scene that contained only a slap and has morphed into something, I feel, could be really great. I had a fantastic director and readers (thanks to Danny Kam, Ashley Johnson, Jessica Young, and Miguel Vila) who staged a very good reading. I think, in my naivete, that it is nearly ready for a production. So the question now is "how?"

This move/change/new chapter of my life is the start of a process of questions. My explorations through Seattle which consist mostly of "how?" I'm ready to navigate the river but I must admit I am ever so slightly frightened. (I think it is good to acknowledge fear, accept it, use it, and move on.) Mostly about this whole nonsense of finding a day job and what not.

Through all of this, however, I need to remember that I am a theatre artist - not just a writer. I am an actor, playwright, writer. I have capabilities to work in all sides of theatre. (These are my affirmations for the day. You may steal them if you like.)

Here we go.

And once again, thank you so much to everyone who participated in the Seattle Rep Program. It was invaluable experience for me and I only have gratitude for it.

F-ing Miracle at Book-It and the Seattle Rep

This blog title is a combination of everything theatre that is going on in my life currently. Clever, right? Well, regardless, it's a lot. I find that I am falling behind a bit in school work but what I lack in motivation in that area, I make up for in busyness in theatre. Let's start with the beginning.

The F Word
We perform next week, ah! We officially put the script together on Sunday night so now it is a scramble to make sure everything is performance worthy by Wednesday (when we preview). It'll be a rush, especially at the end but the exquisite pressure (as Rich Brown would say) is on us.

I think we have a provocative and thoughtful show that will hopefully effect the audience in many ways. I think there are some new ideas about feminism that many have not thought about before. Furthermore, it is personal and relevant to our lives.

Miracle Worker
We're going into our second week of performances. Six performances starting tonight with a double feature on Friday (one performance for area school children). It'll be a rough week but luckily I have some time backstage to work on homework and other things that are lacking. Now, my challenge is to stay motivated in that way.

Last week's performances went pretty well; Saturday's audience was definitely the biggest and the most responsive. I'm hoping that Ev is coming off as more caring than she is written in the script. Patrick Dizney at one point challenged me to play her as a "caring, doting aunt." I'm taking inspiration from my own aunt and I sincerely hope it is reading. To a certain extent, there does still have to be an edge to Ev; she can basically say and do whatever she wants. She has a luxury that not many other characters in the play have. I'm looking forward to the rest of the week's performances and also to being finished with the show. It is time to put the miracles to rest.

Book-It Repertory Theatre
I am officially an intern for the summer at Book-It Repertory Theatre. I am very excited. My position is something like "assistant to the managing director" which, in my opinion is very Office-esque. My job will encompass many things but mostly working on getting some of their scripts published. I can't wait...the internship starts June 28th. Yikes. In the meantime, I also need to be looking for a job, as I will need some income to...well, I don't know. Live.

Seattle Rep New Play Program at WWU
Very exciting news! I have been selected to be one of the playwrights for this new program at Western. It is a week long intensive were the college students (mostly recent graduates) will work along side professional theatre artists from the Seattle Repertory Theatre. They'll be putting up professional readings of new plays by Stephanie Timm and Bryan Willis. We'll then mirror that process with new plays of our own. This means, I need to be writing...a lot and quickly. More information on this to come.

Broken Promises

Okay, let's face it. I never did the wrap up post that I promised and thought I would do. The transition between Apocalypse Plays and the next projects was brief, so I took the time for myself. I will conclude the project just a bit, in case anyone is still reading and wants to know what is going on in my head:
I am so proud of the work that we did. Theatre is never easy, and doing theatre that is produced by strictly students, especially ones learning how a production team and producing body works is a challenge in and of itself. I know things I would do different for sure. I still struggle with finding my voice in the rehearsal process, figuring out when and how to say things. I do, however, understand my writing voice so much better and how to further develop my plots and characters. You can bet those pieces, especially Regarding Eden, will be getting rewrites and will hopefully be remounted in a future date.

Enough of that.
As you can see, I changed the name of the blog. Although the url will stay the same (apocalypseplays.blogspot.com), the focus of the blog will move to my life as a theatre artist (hopefully, I can add "working" to that title some day) and the projects I'm working on. Speaking of which, I'm currently working on two shows.

The Miracle Worker
Character: Aunt Ev
My last major show at Western is on the mainstage and faculty directed. It will be a nice way to end my career at WWU, by doing what I came here to do: act. My part is not very big but that does not matter. When I enter, I am to be mighty: a sweeping Southern woman who often oversteps her bounds. Right now, I'm struggling with trying not to make her a stereotype. She was a real person after all.
Oh and guess what? I think I'm getting a bustle. Yes!

The F Word
Returning to my love: devising. The F Word is the brain child of Amanda Woodard, and her senior project to boot but I am only too happy to oblige. The concept of the show is based on feminism but who knows how it will go from there. We are in the research phase and I think we're all feeling a bit overwhelmed. I considered myself to be knowledgeable about feminism, at least the history of feminism, before but we're all finding that there is so much to know. Research is a good start but what will really effect the work is our personal stories. I hope the research does not stall us as we move forward. Currently, I'm having a hard time coming up with moments myself because I have so many things behind me. I have ideas but nothing is coming to fruition quite yet. We're having our first movement rehearsal tonight so I'm hoping that sparks something inside me.

In the meantime, I am writing too but I think I'll save that for a future post.

Finished but not complete.

We opened. We closed.

I think the show went very well. I'm getting some positive feedback.

We just closed yesterday and I miss the show already. More debrief to come later.

Opening Night!

It is finally time for opening night. And we're ready.

We had a successful preview last night. It was really good that we had an audience first though. There were a lot more about the plays that are funny apparently than we anticipated. Nearly everyone had a moment where they just about broke, including myself. I didn't think "What if something doesn't work exactly right" was so humorous. Inherently, I know that I write humor in my pieces but I didn't expect the humor to be so apparent. It is a new challenge for all of our actors to work with. In some cases it adds a lot to the pieces, as in Eden because it creates a much stronger connection for the Eden character (Ashely) and the Devin character (Brian). In other cases, it was a wee bit distracting for our actors as in Bathtub Safety. The seriousness and finality of the piece was lost amid a sea of laughter. In my case, I enjoyed the laughter. Since, it is a solo piece, I'm glad I finally had somewhere to pull some more energy from.

The opening of the show tonight means the ending of the show tomorrow. I'll be sad to see it go but I know the work is never done. After the show closes, there is of course, all sorts of senior project work to finish and then, as always, more rewrites to do.

Thanks for reading about the journey.

Tech Rehearsal

I applaud my designers and director. Paper tech, dry tech, and wet tech all in one day? It is a feat. Yes, we have a total of roughly seven light cues but still, wonderful work. We've had some issues with the set here and there, and we still don't know exactly where we are getting chairs for seating but it'll come together. Our actors were dismissed after just an hour and a half tonight. Now that's efficiency.

I will say this: ah, the perils of a found space. I think the cast is really getting settled in nicely to finally being in the performance space but set up and tear down is quite the process. According to our contract through our producing body Student Theatre Productions (STP), we have to be able to tear down and store our set every night so as not to be in the way of any thing else that might be in that space (usually classes or other productions). That is true of all levels of productions through STP because we simply do not have a space of our own to use. The College of Fine and Preforming Arts (CFPA) is kind enough to let us use this weird space, but, of course that means some extra interesting challenges to work through.

Behind our playing space are three massive mirrors that need to be covered. If we do not cover them, the light will reflect off the mirrors and interrupt the actors and distract the audience. So there is a necessity to cover the mirrors. The challenge is not really how to cover the mirrors or what to cover them with (black paper, if you are curious) but coordinating the schedule of set up and take down. Danielle is prepared with jobs and we have sufficient time. Then the issue becomes storage. Being, once again, in this weird space we don't have any storage at all. We will be storing props and set pieces in our stage manager's (Kayley) car.

Today, all of it seemed to come together. We're moving into dress rehearsals tomorrow. We have a preview scheduled for Wednesday night, and our shows are Thursday and Friday.

(I've decided) The tagline for the shows:
The apocalypse is coming...
But don't worry. It's a good thing.

tech weekend

We ran a whole she-bang last night for the first time and Danielle and I realized something:

We have a show!

And now, we have some big issues to deal with. Tomorrow begins tech. You'll have an update by the end of the weekend.

I got lucky.

Over two weeks since my last post but that doesn't mean things haven't happened. Final edits have come and gone. Our challenge right now is making sure our actors are off book. They no longer have scripts in hand and they're last day (ahem...my last day too) to call line is on Saturday. That means our first dress is Sunday. Everything is moving so fast.

On this day next week, we open. (I guess, technically, we're doing a preview on Wednesday so it's like we open Wednesday...but officially, this day next week, WE OPEN.)

The last two weeks have been a bit rocky, to be honest. With everyone so busy the commitment hasn't always been 100% from anyone, which is entirely understandable. Winter quarter is awful that way. Especially considering that in the last two weeks Iceman has opened and closed, midterms have come and gone, we're about to head into dead week and finals week, and our tech is in two days. I can't believe we haven't gone off the deep end at this point. We are starting to see amazing work from our actors. Some of them are very committed and some, I just can't tell. But I've been very lucky - I have an amazing director to work with. She's hit all these challenges with stride all while having to deal with a playwright.

I think the edits turned out pretty well. Originally, I thought they were probably going to be much more extensive but I find that the dialogue at least, was in pretty good shape. What really needed tweaking were certain plot points to better clarify the themes of the shows. I think in many ways, the themes could still be clearer but I think I need an audience to help me figure out where those places are. Seeing these plays in production just makes me hope that part or all of them will be produced again one day.

My major obstacle before the show opens is the solo piece. I knew when we proposed the show that this was going to be the biggest challenge for me (after being a silent partner playwright, that is). It is hard to step outside of yourself as a writer to become an actor, especially on something that you wrote yourself. That, however, is not my biggest challenge. My biggest challenge is overcoming some fear and blocks that I have from previous events in theatre over the past couple of years. I'm trying to be comfortable as an actor again, and I'm finding it really difficult. As I mentioned before, I have an amazing director and we're working really hard to create a character that is different from "Samantha," so hopefully that will alleviate some of the pressure. I have faith in my work; I'm just hoping I can get it to the caliber I want it to be by preview.

We're at the point in the process where it feels like it isn't going to happen. But it is. No matter the obstacles we come across (and trust me, there have been plenty so far), we're going to make it. Whew. We're going to make it

more than one

final edits due: tomorrow, february 12, 2010.

I was going to work on edits now before I head off to see The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill here at good ole Western Washington University, but I think I need more time to sit on them. I feeling pretty confident about the rewrites now but of course they need more work. (Rewrites always always happen.) I'm surprised how important the little things are to me. I spend hours agonizing over ellipsis and whether I should use "and" or "but" in a particular line of dialogue. From rehearsal to rehearsal, what I want goes back and forth. It is the little things that make the dialogue sound the way I want them too. One word often changes the tone of the line, the scene, and sometimes the play.

We haven't been in rehearsal for a couple of days so I'm trying to think back as to how everything sounds. It is time to be done with major rewrites and let the actors go to town with the work. They are already making some amazing discoveries. Of course, not everything goes how you expect it will but what ever does? I'm just trying to absorb all I can.

Danielle met with the boys from Regarding Eden on Tuesday and it was probably one of the most enlightening rehearsals we've had the entire process. She focused on character work interview style. This is something I always do as an actor and rarely do as a writer: ask every question I can possibly think about. Danielle had them all, all of the right questions to make me smile, to make me learn how my work comes out in other people's heads. I think the greatest moment of the night was between Danielle (DP) and Brian Toews (BT) who plays Devin:
DP: Based on that [all previous questions], do you think Devin believes in God?
BT: (after a moment) I don't think he knows.

THAT'S IT! Director helping actor learn character. Actor learning character. Actor helping writer learn what she has written. Writer learning about what she thinks.

I just hope I can do this whole process justice. With rewrites almost completed I step into ultra-silent mode. No more rewrites means just absorption. Of course, I also step into actor shoes. It's been awhile and since the writing is my baby, I expect a bit of struggle. But I'm still a performer. Everyone needs to know that. I still perform and will always.

Because you don't have to be just one thing.

time keeps melting away

We've decided that the final date for major script changes will be before ACTF week. So before February 15th. That is coming up quickly.

The solo piece (The Button) is looking good. As I mentioned in my last post, I shaved a whole page of unnecessary dialogue off the piece which, in turn, probably took at least five minutes off the running time. Until I read it out loud, I didn't realize that most of the beginning part was me just trying to get started. The pacing the first time we read it was very slow. Now the challenge will be to mine for character. They may mean adding more to the script. Or it may mean that now is the time the work of the actor really begins.

The ten minute (Bathtub Safety) is also looking pretty good. I did some minor edits of that script over the weekend to fix a plot point at the end and it seems to be flowing better than it was before. Bathtub Safety was the script that I had worked on the most before the project even began. I've been living with this script the longest and editing it the most, the work load with it started as significantly less. I doubt much more will change with the script but there are some repetitive parts, especially in the middle, that need to be smoothed out.

The one-act (Regarding Eden) is the script that requires the most attention at this point. While the major theme of the show is not religious (on my end) there is a lot of stuff about various religions and historical events that really need to be hashed out. Right now, I feel like it is slowing the progress of the show down because I don't yet have a clear grasp on what I want the purpose of the religious elements to be (well some of them, some of them I know.).

It seems that my major issue when writing is my repetitive nature. When I first write it, being repetitive helps me find a character voice. But by the second draft, it isn't character, it is too many words. I am slowly but surely discovering the depths of my process. More to come...

ch-ch-changes

It has been a little while since a blog update but that does not mean nothing has happened. After a lot of hemming and ha-ing about the schedule, we finally have a rehearsal schedule that is close enough to finalized to begin rehearsals. Rehearsals began on Monday and have been moving ever since. We're using these first few rehearsals to look closely at the scripts and start big rewrites. It is really inspiring what happens when you get your words into the hands of a passionate design team, a thoughtful director, and a very talented cast. Issues in the script appear that you've never seen before, lines become funny that were once just lines, and the rewriting process seems much more doable. It's hard to hear interpretation in your head as you write. Of course, I know exactly how everything would sound if I always read it but that is never the way an actor will take the words. And thank god for that.

I wish it were as easy to edit the solo piece. In the past three days I've been through four edits of the piece and have probably shaved 10 minutes from it's run time (roughly a page of words). That many edits in so few days is a bit excessive so as per Danielle's nudging, I'm going to sit on it for a few days. We'll block the piece tonight (or begin anyway) and I can focus on being an actor and developing a character rather than being a playwright rewriting a script. I thought it would be much easier to separate these dual roles but as it turns out, they work together very closely. It is a challenging area for me that I expect to work on very diligently.

What I'm running into now is the delicate balance in rewrites. I want to make the shows make more sense, to flush out ideas and dialogue and to still remain artistically happy. As we discuss interpretation and sticky spots in the process, I see where the weak spots of the script are; I know where plot points are vague. Now, I have to decide what is purposely vague, what is to be left up to audience interpretation and what really needs to be written to simply make a better script. I think the tendency for playwrights (especially young playwrights, like myself) is to take the input of everyone and try to implement every idea into the script. I find myself leaning towards this. However, in the end it has to be a script I am happy with, that I feel like is still my own.

Someone reminded me of the dates of our show the other day (March 4th and 5th) and I realized we are just about a month from performance. The process is moving very quickly. We still keep running into little obstacles, most of which are taken care of very quickly but sometimes not without a little heartache. For awhile, our big issue to be taken care of was the start times of our show. Apocalypse Plays is on the same weekend as two other shows. But after a little fanagling we have finalized start times that will hopefully work for everyone. The show on the 4th will begin at 9pm while the two shows on the 5th will be at 7:30pm and 10pm. I'm hoping the varying times will make it easier to get more people to the theatre.

Sleeping hours are few and far between these day. The mind of the artist never ceases.

cast

And...we have a cast! Now the show seems very real. I think I have been living in a world where this wasn't really happening. All of the talk seemed nice about the show but in my head it seemed like just that, talk. But now, with real people willing to do my work, it does seem real. We're all working toward the goal: final production. Starting this week is a race to March 4th and 5th. I don't want to take this production too fast but at the same time, I know the time will fly.

The cast is meeting for the first time tonight. Originally, the plan was to have a read-thru but at least one of our cast members won't be there and another one has to leave early. So we'll talk about the process, thank everyone sincerely and send them on their way.

The idea is that the first week will consist of just work-shopping the plays. It has been awhile since I have taken a red pen to these plays and edited them. I'll looking forward to seeing them on their feet. The plan is to give the actors the scripts, set up an approximate set and let them naturally block the shows themselves. Then change the set and let them try it again. I need to see what they can do with the script the way it is now and then hopefully, the inspiration will strike me to change them/edit them/generally make them better. I'm working for a polished finish product and I only have two months to do so. While the pretty long rehearsal process will be helpful, I wish I was getting more performances of the work. As a playwright, audiences tell you a lot about the work. There are some things you can only learn from watching an audience watch your work. Maybe I'll have to bring some people in throughout the process to get their feedback.

Auditions Tomorrow!

Happy New Year blogosphere. There has been a lag in posts seeing as how school just resumed session for winter quarter. The production (and these blogs) should pick up now that school has started moving again.

Yes, we audition tomorrow! My only concern at this moment is the lack of people. Winter quarter is a hard time. We try and cram so much into just ten weeks. Students are occupied with the American College Theatre Festival (ACTF), main stage shows, classes, other STP shows and other performance classes. It is a trial to get students this quarter but I am hopeful. It is helpful that I will be playing one of the parts myself but that still leaves six parts to be filled (five more substantial parts).

I've never been on the other side of the audition table before; I have to say I'm pretty excited. As an actor you spend so much time attempting to be exactly what other people want for your production. This time I get to decide what I want. Well, Danielle and I get to decide what we want. It seems to me to be a scary prospect. Well, here we go.

We had our first production meeting last week. It went well. We are definitely at the beginning of our process. The beginning of the process is not without its difficulties though. Our dates (March 4th and 5th) overlap with not one but two other shows, our set designer will only be here for half of the production and we have a lot of hoops to jump through. We're not changing our dates but we may be moving our start times to try and be accommodating to other productions. It'll be a full weekend but we want as many people to be able to see the show and we want to see other shows as well. All in all I'm determined to make this work. It has to now especially because Apocalypse Plays is my senior project. I am currently getting credit for this production (which is also a new exciting development).

We sign contracts tomorrow. And we audition. We're only days away from being a full blown production.