The Novel Workshop Series or "My brief time spent with the UW School of Drama and a British accent."

Right before the new year, I walked into the office to get some end of the year work done. The first person I saw as our Director of Touring, Annie Lareau. She greeted me with "Did you get my email?" That phrase usually stops me in my tracks because it makes me think I forgot to do something that I should have done. I fumbled out an answer that was something like "I haven't checked my email yet." Turns out, she was asking me to be a reader for Book-It's Third Annual Novel Workshop Series.

Okay, let me explain what the Novel Workshop Series is:
Book-It produces only world premiere theatre. Their trademark style takes novels and adapt them from the page to the stage. To act in the Book-It style can be tricky for some actors but when done seamlessly, watching a play at Book-It is like reading a book: all of your sense are stimulated. (Okay okay, I've drank the Book-It kool-aide. But c'mon, literacy and theatre? How can that not be amazing?!) In order for them to produce all these world premieres there has to be a lot of workshopping. That is exactly what the Novel Workshop Series is. It is two weeks of workshopping roughly four new scripts with staged readings at the end. If they go well, the scripts presented as part of the Novel Workshop Series have the potential to be added to an upcoming season. Border Songs and the upcoming Prairie Nocturne are two examples of that.

To say I was excited is a bit of an understatement. It's the first acting I get to do for a Book-It and it worked out just right (mostly just right) with my work schedule. Well, it made my last two weeks hectic but I like this sort of hectic. I'm busy and being artistic and happy.

This year the Novel Workshop Series launched into a partnership with the University of Washington PATP. So I spent the week at UW with acting grad students. It was definitely a good experience but even after one hour on the first day reminded me that when I go to grad school, I want it to be for dramatic writing, not acting. I was discouraged when I couldn't feel the joy in the room, the excitement at getting to do this work...any work really. To me, it seemed that some of the grad students felt like this was a chore. I don't ever want to lose the joy I have when I am lucky enough to be on stage as an actor. As a writer, I always feel lucky to have my work workshopped or performed, but it is such a different feeling the adrenaline I experience as an actor. They are two different and equally delightful feelings. I can't imagine wanting to continue a career in theatre when it feels like a chore. When I lose this feeling, it may be time to throw in the towel.

So in the end I learned two things from this experience:
1. The place I happily spend my work week still has so much to teach me.
2. My fake British accent isn't too bad.
Yes, the second thing was going to be horribly mushy but I figured I had enough of that in the previous paragraph so...yeah.

2012: Apocalypse Plays Redux?

The end of the year is approaching. And a faction of people think the Mayan's predicted 2012 to be the end of the world. While I don't personally believe that (I have far too much stuff to do) this idea overall may provide an interesting opportunity. And opportunity to bring back the Apocalypse Plays cycle.

Now, if you've been following my blog from the beginning (although that seems unlikely) you'll know this blog actually started out as an account of my senior project: Apocalypse Plays. Apocalypse Plays consists of three pieces that make up one evening of theatre: Bathtub Safety (a ten-minute play), The Button (a fifteen to twenty minute solo piece), and Regarding Eden (a one-act). While none of them connect fully, they all center around what happens during/after the end of the world and/or in the rebuilding of the world.

Recently, the thought hit me. What if I bring them back? Sure, my senior project wasn't that long ago (2010 to be exact [boy I like parenthesis today]) but the world is different now. I'm different now. My aesthetic as a writer and a performer is different now. Not only does the cosmic moment seem right but the personal moment seems right.

The idea is in no-way solidified but I'm certainly considering it. I should work harder on getting my other cycle off the ground.

Yet, the thought continues to linger in my brain.

A Holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving arts community.

Today, I am especially thankful for the theatrical and artistic community that is Seattle. I'm learning so much and meeting so many amazing and talented people. Thank you.

Enjoy the day.

For the Love

It's over.

I can't believe it. The show has concluded. I'm so ridiculously proud of the show and my fellow collaborators. An experience like c. 1993 (you never step in the same river twice) just reaffirms my love of collaboratively created/devised/generative work (or whatever you want to call it). With some time and distance I'll be able to be more articulate about the ins-and-outs of the experience and the reasons why I think collaborative theatre is exactly what the modern theatrical world needs. But for now, I can only muster sappy thoughts.

Out of everything that was great about this particular show and is great about generative theatre in general is the people the art form draws to it. You tend to get an eclectic, unconventional, ridiculously talented group of people who all have something unique to bring to the table. This group:

Photo by Ian Johnston

is no exception.

I love you guys.

50/50

Just in time for our closing weekend, we get one more review on the City Arts blog.

It's a pretty good one if you ask me. So far, this makes our reviews half in the positive direction and half in the more negative direction.

Doesn't matter to me though. I'm in love with this show.

Split Focus

Reason number eighty billion in the "Why I need to go to grad school" category: split focus.
(Okay, there probably aren't that many reasons but there definitely are reasons and good ones too.I will now outline this reason for you.)

I have had a phenomenal time working on c.1993 (you never step in the same river twice) at Annex Theatre. The reactions have been mixed (view reviews here: The Stranger, Seattlest, The Seattle Weekly) but I'm really proud of the work we have done and how we work together as an ensemble. I've had a place for my creative energy. It finally became so I wasn't living a life that consisted of work, my apartment, eating, drinking, sleeping and doing it all over again. As corny as it is (not even may sound, is), I feel somehow more complete when I have a creative endeavor and especially when I get to present that creative endeavor to the world.

And yet, in all this happy creative fulfillment, I'm not doing one thing: writing. I can not seem to split my focus fully between acting and writing. Now the two are definitely not mutually exclusive; often one goes with the other. However, I have been pouring my creative energy only into the show which is good for the show but bad for all the copious amounts of scripts that need editing, finishing, or starting. This is why I think I need to go to grad school. It's not that I can't split my focus and work on two creative endeavors at one time. It's that I don't yet seem to have the discipline to force myself to sit down and write every single day. I am disciplined in so many areas of my life but the consistency of daily writing is not one of them. I always refer to myself as an "inspiration writer," someone who writes almost exclusively when the lightning strikes. Recently, after participating as a playwright for the Double Shot Theatre Festival in Tacoma, I learned that the label of "inspiration writer" that I had placed on myself could actually be false. I wrote of script in five hours because I had to, not because the lightning struck.

More and more everyday, I am thinking about grad school. It is on the near horizon. I think I can almost see it.

Time to get crackin'. 

Second Weekends

Second weekends are difficult.

There's an emotional/physical/mental high you reach as an actor during the first weekend, especially on opening night. You've spent weeks (in our case) months putting together something to be really proud of and you believe, well maybe hope is a better word, you hope that other people will enjoy. The energy in the room on opening night cannot be compared to any other feeling. Nervousness spreads through the cast like wildfire whereas excitement runs rampant through an opening night audience. Everyone feels it. And if they don't when they arrive at the theatre they do by the time they leave. It's catching.

So.
Second weekends are a bit of let down, usually in audience size and energy. Despite audience size being relatively small, I do think the cast of c.1993 gave a solid weekend of performances. I will admit, I felt a bit of a let down after the high energy of the first weekend. And then I remembered, here's where the skill sets in. The job of the actor is to keep the energy, quality, devotion at 100% no matter what. I thank this amazing cast for helping me to do that.

On a completely different note, I'm excited to have free time again. I need to get back into writing. It (and time) has gotten away from me. But somehow I don't feel entirely complete when I'm not writing.

(Have you seen c.1993 yet? Whether you like it or not, spread the word. Haven't see it? It would mean so much to me if you did.)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.