Leapfrog
Just got back a little while ago from a meeting of the artistic board of Edward Einhorn's Untitled Theatre Co. #61, where we continued plans for the Havel Festival coming up in the Fall. Follow those links for more information -- I'll have plenty more to say in the coming months as I put together my production of Temptation for the fest.
Otherwise, trying to get my show in the $ellout Festival together. Now 13 days from opening. Yeeesh. And only today did I finish the script for Act I -- I'm in the middle of working on Act II now, but I needed a break already, or my brain would lock. Luckily, Act II is less than half the length of Act I, at least on paper, I think. Well I'll know when I get the damned thing done, won't I?
At least I'm really proud of Act I as written, and of the work we've done so far. I didn't expect this to be as much of a real "play" as it turned out to be; I was expecting more of a movement/dance-theatre piece with some dialogue and multimedia elements, no real full script needed, but it went a bit more in an other direction, and now I had to sit and write it. Glad I did, the writing's turned out well, I think. I wrote a rather painfully uncomfortable scene for the family at dinner today that I'm proud of, and ashamed of being proud of (it's just dark, mean, quiet, and nasty, hooray). I also had to write some lines for Roger and Maggie leading into the Beatnik bar scene, and I'm fairly happy with the horribly stilted, attempting-to-be-hip dialogue I gave them. I was having some trouble with the 50s-style slang -- I used up all I had that was appropriate, and didn't want to repeat myself -- but as chance would have it, right next to me, I had left out my big oversized box set of the original Harvey Kurtzman 1950s MAD comic books, which I remembered included a silly piece on "Bop Jokes" including a "Bop Slang" glossary, so I got a couple of other good dated expressions from there. Berit thinks I may have gone too far, and the scene is too stilted and hit-you-over-the-head obvious (or at least, one line is maybe "going too far"), but I like it as it is, and I'll see how it plays . . .
Good individual meetings with about half of the cast so far. Everything becoming clearer. The play really seems to be about -- if it can be "about" any one thing at all -- lack of communication first and foremost. Didn't realize that, plan it, or expect it. Just happened.
Good show here. Just wish I had the time and resources to do it without struggling so much. Oh well, I don't. So, just have to get through a hellish next 13 days of figuring out how to make the show perfect with no time and money and space.
Back to work. More tomorrow.
Otherwise, trying to get my show in the $ellout Festival together. Now 13 days from opening. Yeeesh. And only today did I finish the script for Act I -- I'm in the middle of working on Act II now, but I needed a break already, or my brain would lock. Luckily, Act II is less than half the length of Act I, at least on paper, I think. Well I'll know when I get the damned thing done, won't I?
At least I'm really proud of Act I as written, and of the work we've done so far. I didn't expect this to be as much of a real "play" as it turned out to be; I was expecting more of a movement/dance-theatre piece with some dialogue and multimedia elements, no real full script needed, but it went a bit more in an other direction, and now I had to sit and write it. Glad I did, the writing's turned out well, I think. I wrote a rather painfully uncomfortable scene for the family at dinner today that I'm proud of, and ashamed of being proud of (it's just dark, mean, quiet, and nasty, hooray). I also had to write some lines for Roger and Maggie leading into the Beatnik bar scene, and I'm fairly happy with the horribly stilted, attempting-to-be-hip dialogue I gave them. I was having some trouble with the 50s-style slang -- I used up all I had that was appropriate, and didn't want to repeat myself -- but as chance would have it, right next to me, I had left out my big oversized box set of the original Harvey Kurtzman 1950s MAD comic books, which I remembered included a silly piece on "Bop Jokes" including a "Bop Slang" glossary, so I got a couple of other good dated expressions from there. Berit thinks I may have gone too far, and the scene is too stilted and hit-you-over-the-head obvious (or at least, one line is maybe "going too far"), but I like it as it is, and I'll see how it plays . . .
Good individual meetings with about half of the cast so far. Everything becoming clearer. The play really seems to be about -- if it can be "about" any one thing at all -- lack of communication first and foremost. Didn't realize that, plan it, or expect it. Just happened.
Good show here. Just wish I had the time and resources to do it without struggling so much. Oh well, I don't. So, just have to get through a hellish next 13 days of figuring out how to make the show perfect with no time and money and space.
Back to work. More tomorrow.