The power of good feedback.

I feel like the creative wheels are turning like a hamster on crack running feverishly in its cage. The show has yet to even begin rehearsals and the ideas are percolating. I'm trying to keep them at bay and not get too many preconceived notions in my head about the topic or the way the process is going to be. So, in the mean time, I'm putting my energy towards other creative endeavors. Or, at least, I should be.

One of them is this year's edition of NorthNorthwest. Trust me, it's coming. Slowly but surely it is coming. It will be here. By the end of summer, it will be here.

Otherwise, I'm working with a group of lovely ladies to try and put together a showcase of my work. Those lovely ladies are as follows: Anna Townes, Emily Kight, Amanda Woodard, and Shannon Erickson. They've been patient in waiting for me to get all the one-acts into workable form. In fact, it was (and still is to some extent) taking so long that I finally called them together regardless of the state of completion of these one-acts. In fact, I called them together because of the state of completion of (one of) the one-acts.  I was stuck, utterly stuck on my 9/11 one-act I'm working on. I was hoping for help.

Having the ladies together in one room reminded me of the power of good feedback. In a few short hours, a couple of readings, a lot of wine and cheese and some tangential conversation, they gave me enough jumping off points that I currently feel a little overwhelmed but in the good way. As a playwright, there is always a risk in asking for feedback. You have to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em so to speak. It may not be the advice you need to help you along, it may not be advice you even want but if you have the right group of people working with you, helping you, the advice/feedback/comments can make all the difference in your process (and give you a kick-ass title). These ladies are the right group of people.

So, we're getting closer. The original plan was to have Related Strangers (that's the kick-ass title) fully produced by the end of summer. Unfortunately, for some good reasons, that looks like an impossibility. However, I think we can get a full staged reading up by the end of the year and produced by spring...? Hopefully. But we are moving, in a forward direction even.

[Good] Things are Happening

I'm in a show.

I must admit that is a statement I didn't think I would get to utter for some time yet. Still, as of yesterday afternoon, this statement is all mine.

I'm in a show.

Excuse my excitement and almost disbelief. I'll get to the good stuff now. The show is called c. 1993 (you never step in the same river twice) and it will be at Annex Theatre on Capitol Hill in Seattle. (more info here) It's a collaboratively created show based on events in 1993 and the idea that men who are bad boys are often idolized while women who are the same are considered "hot messes."

This is the kind of work I crave, love, hope for. I think I'm made to be a "theatre cross-trainer" as Rich Brown would put it. I mean, in the last four(ish) years I have been in five collaboratively created shows. It'll be a great adventure as I don't know most of the people in the ensemble as I have in the past.

It'll just be good to be in the creative atmosphere again. And yes, there are more good things happening but that'll have to be for a different post.