Play Trailers

I've seen some pretty good theatre lately. I took in Upstart Productions' THE MELANCHOLY PLAY by Sarah Ruhl a few weeks back and tonight I'm heading off to see my friend and colleague Larry Herold's World Premiere of his play THE SPORTS PAGE at Ft. Worth's Stage West. Having seen both a reading and had a chance to read through an earlier draft myself, I expect great things.

I bring up both of these productions, because they are both also represented by some wonderful trailers. It is interesting that using video trailers to market a production used to be sort of an "icing on the cake" affair. They are now de rigueur. And just as other forms of digital/online aspects of theatre marketing have evolved (is there any theatre out there now that doesn't have an accompanying website?), the video trailer has changed and become more intricate as - the very short - time has gone by. Production values and novelty count, it seems.

Anyway, both THE MELANCHOLY PLAY and THE SPORTS PAGE have had wonderful teams behind them, coming up with some great trailers.

Today I got back on it...

The desk of a working playwright... coffee, pen, paper and computer working in unison.

Trying to turn off the valve

Jeff Swearingen as Ellson, the kid who can't stand still in RASPBERRY FIZZ.

I am roughly a month out from my nuptials to the delightful Ms. Engel. I have had to curtail my theatre activities lately and I have found this difficult.

Difficult for two reasons... 1.) I didn't think I was really doing too much anyway and 2.) I have a bizarre need to say yes to opportunities.

As far as reason one went, I thought I was keeping below the radar (as evidenced in a recent article from the local theatre blog TheaterJones.com that highlighted the activity of local playwrights. An article I was not in). But when stepping back to look at things from a clearer perspective, I have been humming along with plenty of projects. I acted in, directed and facilitated a radio theatre project that recently saw fruition. My play RUDNICK THE CANDLE-HEADED BOY played in New York at a "best of..." holiday revue in December. I wrote an original spoken word poem about my first bike ride and performed with the excellent Rhianna Mack for some 5th graders last week. A one-shot spoken word performance that demanded memorization and four rehearsals. I also performed improv twice in December and once last weekend. I taught a solo improv workshop last week. I applied for a residency. I updated the Audacity website. I contacted solo performers around the country with some questions in order to put together a blog post for TheSoloPerformer.com. I did slight rewrites on RASPBERRY FIZZ as well as tracked down Swearingen to snag a quick PR pic and attended the tech meeting about the festival this play will be in (Andy, the director had a fever). Add to this acting in a short film lately and various commercial auditions, I'm knee-deep in theatre and performance activity.

As far as the second reason goes, I am coming to terms with a general itchiness to "do things." This is not necessarily bad, just ill-timed (remember that wedding). As funny as it is that I think I'm practically removed from all arts activities lately I am far from really ramped up on my theatre activities. I was reading Todd Henry's book The Accidental Creative lately and he guidelines that optimum sustainable creative output comes from being healthy, prolific and brilliant. I'm really restless to tackle the prolific part (actually, the healthy part is what I need to do the most, but is outside the realms of this blog post). I feel the need to "do" a lot.

In this vein, I have a hard time turning down any and all opportunities that come my way. I have gotten slightly more discerning over the years, but I still have that urge to go for everything that the universe shoves in my direction. This would normally be a good thing.

Right now, it is something making it hard for me to pare down one aspect of my life to make room for another aspect.

Striped shirt like Pud...

So the good news, first off, is that EndTime Productions' NAKED HOLIDAYS (which includes my short play RUDNICK: THE CANDLE-HEADED BOY) has totally sold out the first three performances! So, hazzah for those guys! Wish I could make up to NYC to see the show - I missed it the first time they did RUDNICK in 2009 - but no can do. I'm treading water grading papers this December since I've been a working man this past "semester."

In my tiny moments of creative productivity, I've been closing in on the next piece of my master opus... a new one-act I'm currently calling RASPBERRY FIZZ. And it is so fun.

I had a few images in my head: a kid dressed like a the little boy in old Dubble Bubble gum comics (his name was Pud) who never stands still. A sort of street corner con man dressed in a flamboyant vest. A girl who refuses to give up a newspaper. A mysterious cardboard box.

I spun all those together and placed the piece in 1949, right at the cusp of summer and autumn when the afternoons stretch on so magically long and imperceptibly turn into evening. A street in a small Maryland town. Two characters right on the edge of adolescence, with all the expectations of growing up right there at their feet, stretching out before them.

I wrote the never-still kid role for my friend Jeff Swearingen and he took it to Andy Baldwin, a good local director. We submitted it to a local theatre festival and will find out if it gets in in another week or two. If so, I'll show next March. If not, I'll find a way to mount it myself through Audacity in the future... maybe this summer or next fall. It is not quite done, but close and, wonderfully, it continues to be a really fun project to work on.

And that is always something to shoot for... fun.

UPDATE: [Dec. 19, 2011] Just got word a few days back that RASPBERRY FIZZ is officially accepted into the 2012 Out of the Loop Fringe Festival presented by the Water Tower Theatre of Addison, Texas. It will play in early March. I'll post more info as it comes in.

Rudnick at Naked Hoildays

My play RUDNICK: THE CANDLE-HEADED BOY plays in the "Best of..." version of Naked Holidays 2011from EndTime Productions in NYC. It was originally part of their 2009 show and they called me up to see if it could be included this year as well. If you're in New York this December, check it out.

NAKED HOLIDAYS is a darkly comic Yuletide bacchanalia, a gleeful pageant filled with indulgent tidings which climaxes in a scantily clad routine that looks a lot like Christmas. This boisterous holiday celebration puts a theatrical spin on some of our best-loved winter traditions. Highlights include:

• “The Annihilator” by Steve Strangio, about X-mas at a professional wrestler’s house.

• “Dead-Nosed” by Oliver Thrun, in which Santa’s reindeer plot the assassination of Rudolph.  A Samuel French short play festival finalist.

• “Fear the Nog” by Rebecca Jane Stokes, The North Pole meets Orwell’s 1984 with Santa as Big Brother.

• “A Very Special Hanukkah Special Hanukkah” by Mark Harvey Levine, a Jewish-themed spoof of It’s A Wonderful Life.

• “The Naked People Play” by Stacy Lane, the traditional Naked Holidays closer.

• “Rudnick the Candle-Headed Boy” , by Brad McEntire, A Brief and Cheeky Retelling of a Certain Reindeer Myth

Tickets and more info here.