Kathy George Indie Artist Residency

An ambience conducive to creativity

A few weeks back (August 12-19), I served as the first theatre-artist-in-residence at the Kathy George Indie Artist Residency in Ashford, Washington. Sponsored by Seattle's Minion Productions, this week-long retreat offered me a chance to get away from my regular routine and concentrate on my writing in the isolated and idyllic setting of Ashford, Washington, right next to Mount Rainier National Park.

Grant Knutson of Minion Productions offered me a great cabin. Tucked a bit off an access road in dense woods, it was a perfect place to focus. Just me, alone, with the work that needed to be done. I went up specifically to finish a full-length play. The play in question is a reboot of the first play I ever wrote, Arsenic & Roses.

I wrote the one-act Arsenic & Roses in 1996 while I was in college studying acting. It had its first production at the College of Santa Fe in the tiny Weckesser Studio black box. I directed it myself. Over the years the play has been presented a number of times. With every production I tweaked it and tried to make it better.

As the 20 year mark approached (geez, I've been writing plays now for 20 years!), I wanted to stop fiddling with Arsenic and Roses. But I was not happy with it. Like most early works, it falls so far short of the current work I do. So, I figured I'd just rewrite the thing. From scratch.

Sitting down in the tiny A-frame cabin the first full day I was there was so difficult. After staring at the void for nearly forty minutes, I gradually began to put words to page, then to keyboard and screen. I wrote the first few pages and then let the piece take me forward. Everyday, I would tally the page count. Some days I only created 7 pages. On one particulalrly prolific day during the week, I completed 15 pages.

I would alternate two roughly two or three hour work sessions each day with walks outdoors, or the occassional cigar on the deck out front. It was really kinda nice once I settled into a routine.

Afternoon walk

The goal wasn't perfection, only completion. And it worked. After a full week, I had a 62 page, full-length reboot. I might rename it Que Sera, Giant Monster. I will, of course, keep working on it.

This was the first arts residency/retreat I have been a part of. It was hugely beneficial. Much gratitude to Grant at Minion. I will be taking a second pass at the first draft I completed at the cabin later in the month and then begin the arduous task of play development readings and workshops, submissions and then eventual productions. I will rename this new version of the play (I just don't know what yet).

My 1MPF plays at KDT

I was one of 30 local(ish) playwrights commissioned to create two plays in the first ever Dallas One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF). It is playing  in conjunction with Kitchen Dog Theater, Sat Aug 16^th, Sun Aug 17^th, and Mon Aug 18^th at 8PM.

My pieces are called I HATE IT HERE and CHUPACABRA RIGHTS.

I'll put the rest of the info below, but if you can't make it out to pay the $20 ticket price, it is also being livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday, August 17 at 6pm PDT/ 8pm CDT/ 9pm EDT. 

Check it out here: http://www.livestream.com/newplay/ . In Twitter use #1MPF to participate in the conversation.

At Kitchen Dog Theater @ The McKinney Avenue Contemporary (The MAC), 3120 McKinney Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204 [Directions: http://the-mac.org/visit/], Tickets are $20 and available at: 214-953-1055 or at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/782940

Featuring Brand New One-Minute Plays By Robin Armstrong, Robert Askins, Vicki Caroline Cheatwood, Bruce R. Coleman, Michael Federico, John M. Flores, Lina Gallegos, Blake Hackler, William Jackson Harper, Isabella Russell Ides, Crystal Jackson, Jason Johnson-Spinos, Tim Johnson, Jim Kuenzer, Joshua Kumler, Jenny Ledel, Cody Lucas, Matt Lyle, Nico Martini, Brad McEntire, Jonathan Norton, Samantha Rios, Marco Antonio Rodriguez, Tom Sime, Jared Strange, Jeff Swearingen, Alia Tavakolian, Lee Trull, Angela Wilson and more.

Directed by Spencer Driggers, Tim Johnson, Nico Martini, & Lee Trull as well as Dylan Key and Kelsey Head, who directed my pieces.

Curated By #1MPF Producing Artistic Director, Dominic D’Andrea

Jeff Swearingen, Me, Will Harper... last three members of Mild Dementia

FUN FACT: The three final members of the Mild Dementia Continuous Play Variety Hour: Will Harper, Jeff Swearingen and myself all are playwrights in this event.

update of Solo Performer ebook now available

An update of my little ebook 7 Considerations for the Solo Performer is now available on Scribd. It was originally posted in 2011 and now I have updated it a bit. Feel free to download or read. It is under a non-commercial Creative Commons license. Feel fee to share (as long as you give proper attribution to moi).

The book is a short introduction targeted at those putting together their own solo show. Covers things like developing the "why" of a project, different kinds of historical solo performance, framing devices, using the language of theatre and more.

Take a look... HERE

Method in Madness panel discussion

Denton Community Theatre is running its third annual playwriting competition and this year they are holding a panel discussion with several area playwrights. I have been one of the invited participants in the panel. Info below. Also, I'll point out, I'm in pretty good company amongst fellow playwrights.

 

"Method in Madness" Playwrights Panel

Denton Community Theatre is thrilled to announce four local playwrights will be joining us for a playwrights panel during the festival. The panel, "Method in Madness,"  is scheduled for 10:00am on Saturday, May 31st, at the POINTBank Black Box Theatre as part of the Method and Madness Playwriting Festival.This panel is FREE, so please spread the word!

Brad McEntire

Brad McEntire is native-born Texan and works predominantly as a playwright, director, solo performer and improviser. He is the co-founding Artistic Director of Audacity Theatre Lab (formerly Audacity Productions) based in Dallas, Texas. His works have been produced/developed by Austin’s FronteraFest at Hyde Park Theatre, Expanded Arts NYC, Audacity Theatre Lab, Rover Dramawerks, DEER Theatre of Hong Kong, New York’s Cry Havoc Theatre, Theatre In My Basement, Le Rideau Theatre Café, Our Endeavor’s Theatre Collective, Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre, San Antonio’s Overtime Theatre, The Outsider’s Inn Collective of Seattle, Sundown Collaboarative Theatre and Plano Children’s Theatre among many other venues and festivals around the country.

McEntire's work has been described as "kitsch with resonance" and often employs things like rocket packs, dinosaurs, fetishists, magical goldfish, robots, time travel, Tiki gods, adventure, love, and sex. McEntire often blends these elements into taunt narratives with universal themes.

His plays include CHOP, FOR THE LOVE OF AN ANESTHESIOLOGIST, RUDNICK: THE CANDLE-HEADED BOY, A TALL TALE OF TEXAS, CYRANO A-GO-GO, I HAVE ANGERED A GREAT GOD, RASPBERRY FIZZ, CARTER STUBBS TAKES FLIGHT, ROBERT’S ETERNAL GOLDFISH, I BROUGHT HOME A CHUPACABRA, DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN and ARSENIC & ROSES among others. Mr. McEntire served as the Literary Manager of Dallas’ Undermain Theatre (2007-2010) and is an on-again-off-again member of the DFW Playwrights’ Alliance, UNIMA-USA and The Playwright’s Center (MN). He is the artist behind the webcomic Donnie Rocket Toaster-Face as well as the creator of the original longform solo improvisational story format Dribble Funk. He currently teaches film and theatre classes at Tarrant County College.

For more information visit www.bradmcentire.com

Joining me on the panel will be area playwrights Steve Young, Elle Verneé and Laura Lundgren Smith.

Thinking about the big/little

"That’s the thing you have to understand about the whole process of art (or the work that we do) – you’re only half of the equation. It’s an interaction between you and the person who’s going to experience the work. The person who’s going to experience the work is bringing just as much to it and is just as important as you are."

- Austin Kleon in an interview with ChaseJarvis

I listened to a great interview today with writer/artist Austin Kleon. The quote above is a great reminder. I am struggling lately getting the work done. Nothing drastic. Just the usual reach into the recesses of my soul and imagination to see if I can cobble together an original idea. Driving home from my teaching gig just earlier today a whole bunch of thoughts on my theatre activities whirled through my mind. I was thinking about why I do my theatre work, how I want to share it and the connections I hope it makes.

Actually, I've been thinking about my theatre work a lot lately. Part of this is because I've been doing a great deal of theatre lately.

Travis Stuebing and Tashina Richardson in RASPBERRY FIZZ

I've been rehearsing RASPBERRY FIZZ with some kick-ass actors. I'm taking it to the Houston Fringe Festival at the end of the week. As I am directing the play I am reminded by the process that it has been a long time since I have been in a sort of traditional rehearsal process. My eyes go to the details of the performances and I'm torn between what I did a lot in my earlier days (shaping and molding a performance out of an actor) and more recent interests in multiple approaches to acting decisions and an emphasis on spontaneity. It is definitely a workout for some mental muscles I haven't flexed in a while.

RASPBERRY FIZZ is a small play. It is a one-act that times in at under an hour. The process of working on it has emboldened two ideas in me... 1.) I love the size of the play. It is small, close, and intimate. It is not a play to run in a large amphitheatre, but instead would work well in front of a few dozen audience members in a cozy venue. 2.) The size also makes me want to work on something large in scope.  This play is like having an appetizer, and I now want to move on to the main course of a mighty feast.

I realize these are two somewhat opposing ideas... the small and the large. I think, though, this can be reconciled. I think I can create a piece that is truly significant working in weighty, important thematic territory, yet at the same time still keep it very intimate. I think of small-cast heavy-hitters like Beckett's WAITING FOR GODOT, Frayn's COPENHAGEN or Stindberg's MISS JULIE. I big/little play. This is what I want to share with audiences. 

I think I know what I'll be doing in 2014...

DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN keeps on chugging...

Brad McEntire as Robot and Jeff Swearingen as Dinosaur in
Audacity Theatre Lab's DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN

My show DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN has opened at the Bath House Cultural Center as part of the Festival of Independent Theatres. We have performed two shows of a six show run. The audiences seem to be digging it and the press has been positive so far. 

I am extremely proud of this show. On many fronts, for me as a theatre artist, it is the most difficult show I've done in a long while. I'm acting, designing, directing and marketing a play I wrote myself. It has been a tremendous amount of work and occupied that space several notches outside my comfort zone (which is the space I normally strive to be in my work). It is both the most fun I've had in a while on stage as well as the single biggest cause of stress. I'll post more on the process as it finishes up the run. For now, I wanna encourage any and all to come out and see the show. 

The show is funny and weird and charming and harsh and tender and layered. Above all, it is - in a very undiluted way - the kind of theatre I'm proud of creating right now, the kind I believe in and the kind I would want to experience myself if I were sitting in the audience.

Info on the show, including performance schedule, HERE.

Interview with Adam Szymkowicz

Playwright Adam Szymkowicz interviews playwrights and here's an interview he just did with me.http://aszym.blogspot.com/2013/05/i-interview-playwrights-part-585.html

A bunch of my friends, colleagues and betters had been interviewed previously. Now that I've been interviewed too, I feel so legit, like the weird little world of theatre I'm creating out here in Dallas is slowly making its way onto the national scene!

Adam is a pretty accomplished playwright in his own right. One of the things he's recently been involved in is a web series called Compulsive Love. Check it out on YouTube. Funny stuff.

So that's where that comes from...

I never really know how these things start. This is because I am usually well into the process by the time it occurs to me that this idea had to come from somewhere originally. I'm talking about getting ideas for plays and this weekend I'm just sitting down to start a new one, from scratch. And I know exactly where the idea is coming from this time... my wife.

Ruth was telling me about an assignment she gives to her students in one of the college English classes she teaches. The students have to imagine themselves in the future travelling back in time to interview an important writer. They also have the option of bringing the writer through time to the future to be interviewed. Either way, Ruth asks them to give a short, creative explanation of how and why they or the writer time travel.

And time travel has been in my brain lately. And how time stops. And how celebrity works. And what exactly is "selling out?" And what is the future going to be like. And a bunch of other things.

I'm on a roll lately with the plays. Just this year I've rolled out CARTER STUBBS TAKES FLIGHT, SHARK BITES AND SIDE EFFECTS (granted, for a 24 hour play thing, but...) and DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN.

I'm hoping to bang out at least two more plays this summer and fall... a solo piece about a haunted goldfish and now this next bold full-length idea that may be chock-a-block full of big ideas. Both are in the "notes" stage of progress for now. But...

HELLS YEAH PLAYWRITING!

Interesting things are afoot...

ODO! XX follow-up

As I wrote before, I did Rover Dramawerk's One Day Only! XX 24 -Hour Play event last weekend. I had mixed feelings about the project given my history with the One Day Only! format. I won't go into serious detail about a lot of my reservations about the event. Though I discovered some wonderful stream-linings to the format by Rover, overall the experience left me cold and a little unsatisfied.

Let me 'splain....

On the plus side, the schedule, facilities and operations mostly went really smooth. The organizers had made some great strides over the years to make the whole thing a more well-oiled operation. From check-in to artist photos to intro games to an off-site rehearsal hall used by the playwrights for writing the pieces. Most of the participants seemed friendly and enthusiastic*. And I came out of the event with the foundations of a really fun one-act that I can use in other quarters.

On the not-so-plus side, the organizers were just a little too snarky. I remember them being a bit sarcastic and chip-on-the-shoulder types the decade or so ago when I last worked with them, but there was a definite cynicism in the air. Don't get me wrong, I actually like all the people that organized the event. They are driven, capable and really decent, warm folks. Not bad theatre-makers, either. Back in the day we all managed to do some really neat projects together. But my experience over the weekend was, I suppose, as an outsider showing up to a really "inside" group and being treated as... well, an outsider.

The general vibe was that they were doing the participants a favor by letting them be involved rather than the other way around. After all, this was a financially profitable affair for Rover. But none of the participants were paid at all. Besides the overall attitude of the folks running the event, the biggest beef I have with ODO! XX was the production of my play.

I understood the nature of the event. But I didn't expect what I got. The director seemed to be doing the best he could and half of the actors were pretty good. The others were horrible. One lady, in particular, was just awful. Listen, I hate to say it so bluntly and I seldom just straight out lay into a single person, but this lady... OMG! And she was playing the character with the best lines and funniest part. Complete waste. I was really really embarrassed by the whole thing.

Maybe the folks doing it didn't understand it. But I figured someone would have called if they had had questions. I also realize I don't write "easy" parts or "easy" scenes. The other plays that I saw were pretty standard community theatre style scenes... a suburban dinner party, a wacky customer service phone call, etc. Maybe they were more accessible. Not better, just easier.

My play took place after a plane crash. The survivors were on a life raft in the middle of the ocean. There was a mad scientist and three test subjects from his genetic experiments. I called it SHARK BITES AND SIDE EFFECTS. Definitely not my best work, but pretty decent for a script written overnight. I figured it would be a fun little project to set the play in a big life boat. I figured they could create the space with a few cubes, chairs, maybe some orange or yellow ribbon or some cardboard bits (I think I put in the script a suggestion that they could make little 2-D wave crests out of cardboard to signify the ocean around the boat). I guess it came off too complicated.

I guess I'm at a point that I need really capable comedic actors for my stuff. In fact, that might be the crux of the whole thing... I may have grown past the ODO! format. It is a nice thing for people that are new to theatre or less experienced artists trying to build networks or practice. Over the last decade (plus) I've gradually become a professional. For me, at this personal point in my development as a theatre artist, it felt like a step backwards in time. It was like going back to a high school reunion and realizing you aren't the same guy everyone remembers you as from back in the day.

Jason of Rover Dramawerks giving the schedule to the participants

The stage and what there was to work with at the Courtyard Theatre

Rover supplied laptops to help insure no one brought in any pre-made works... pretty smart actually.

SHARK BITES AND SIDE EFFECTS in performance... doesn't look like a lifeboat.

SHARK BITES AND SIDE EFFECTS in performance.
The older lady with the best lines also was the one furthest from being off-book.

There was also a confusing use of props and costumes.
This guy was dressed like Gilligan for some reason.
And despite there being no mention of whales in the piece, an inflatable one made it's way into the show.

* some of the participants were overly prideful that they had done several ODOs before. Wore it like a little metaphoric badge or honor. I didn't tell anyone that I was the one who had started these over a decade ago and oversaw the first 4 of 'em. It was amusing. Jason Rice finally pointed me out to the participants with a weird sorta backhanded intro "This is Brad. He started these things. But we've made them better..." Truthful... yes. Tactful... no.

NOTE: (2/22/2017) I wandered onto the Rover Dramawerks website and found that they scan the actual playbills from these ODO events and was able to look up the director and cast. Here's who was in this. Director: Clint Prentice, Actors: Alasdair Seth, Jessica Smoot, Ryan Lakich and Carolyn Stalder. 

CARTER STUBBS poster

The good folks at Sundown Collaborative Theatre just released their poster design as well as a few promo pics for my play CARTER STUBBS TAKES FLIGHT. I saw a rehearsal last week and it is totally coming along. Should be an awesomely fun evening of theatre! Ticket info available on their website ( HERE ). Opens April 11th!

[...as always, click on image to see it larger ]

DINOSAUR AND ROBOT this summer at the FIT

So, I wrote this play a few weeks ago (back when I had a laptop to, you know, write plays on) about a dinosaur and a robot who get sucked through time and space and wind up saving a little girl from a speeding train. It is appropriately called DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN. I wrote it for my friend Jeff Swearingen and I to perform. He's always wanted to play a dinosaur and I totally don't mind being a robot.

Anyway, I submitted it for a local theatre festival here in Dallas and I just got news before the weekend that is was accepted. So, stay tuned, 'cause there's going to be a kick-ass play about a time-traveling dinosaur and robot in this summer's 2013 Festival of Independent Theatres.

More details to come...

Free Playwriting Workshop

I'm teaching a free playwriting workshop for high schoolers in conjunction with Junior Players and Kitchen Dog Theater's PUP Fest program. Info below. More info HERE.

Citywide Workshop (Lakewood) - PUP Fest 2013 by

STAPLE! Expo approaches...

This is just a smattering of the inventory...

Hernandez, Ruth and I are headed down to Austin next weekend to the STAPLE! Independent Media Expo. I'm taking a bunch of Donnie Rocket books, collections of plays, some zine-like RASPBERRY FIZZ copies, postcards and art prints. This will be my first time to have a table at any kind of convention and I am super-excited. If you are in Austin and want to either get your hands on some tasty McEntire -made media or just stop and say hello, we'll be set up at table 51.

Saturday, March 2 from 11AM-6PM and Sunday, March 3 from noon to 6PM at the Marchesa Hall and Theatre, 6406 N. IH-35, Suite 3100, Austin TX 78752 in the Lincoln Village Shopping Center. Ticket info HERE.

My Samuel Beckett play series postcards will be for sell!

CARTER STUBBS is on the way...

I have a new play premiering in a few months. It is called CARTER STUBBS TAKES FLIGHT. A small, but scrappy theatre group in Denton, Texas commissioned it and I had a good time collaborating with them. They just announced the project on their website. It will play April 18-28, 2013. Here's a blurb:

Carter Stubbs is unhappy. His wife is unhappy. If his job could feel, it would also be unhappy. Suddenly besieged by a series of unfortunate occurrences he is driven to escape. On a strange Pacific island Carter is offered a chance to face his true nature and maybe, just maybe, chart a new direction for his future.

In addition, they asked me to put together a poster for the production. I sketched out a mock-up and then came out with a final product.

[click on images to see 'em bigger]



Sketchbook mock-up of CARTER STUBBS poster

 

 

And in full color...

 

 

outline

So, I like stumbled onto Emma Coat's Story Shots blog at the beginning of the summer and referencing it in the last post, I was prompted to scroll a bit. In a post she put up called "Writing as a Drawing Tool" I came across this little snippet of awesome...
 

 A general guideline I use for writing out an outline is that each of the following gets a paragraph:

• the concept of the story
• who the main character is
• what is her place in the world
• what goes wrong (inciting incident)
• how does she try to fix it (act 1 break)
• brief description of complications (act 2)
• what really goes wrong (midpoint)
• low point
• resolution (act 3)

CARTER STUBBS makes progress

I met with the Sundown last night to go over the first draft of the play I've been commissioned to write for them. We had our "creative meeting" at a bar, which I think bodes well for our whimsical, absurd project about a man given a rocket pack who fights a tiger on a Micronesian island. Look for the finished beast next spring.

Playwriting 101 Top Ten

Jonathan Dorf has put together a sort of 'Top Ten List' about story development on his website Playwriting 101. The site has been up for years, but I just stumbled across it while looking for something else earlier today. It is still good playwriting advice.

1. Create a world that's true to real life or fantastical or that mixes the mundane with the magical. But whatever set of rules you create for that world, make sure you follow them.
2. Write a conflict that builds as the play progresses. As you structure the conflict, think in terms of your play having a beginning, a middle and an end.
3. Write characters that want something (which puts them in conflict with other characters) and try to get what they want at every moment.
4. Make sure that each character has something at stake, a consequence if he doesn't get what he wants.
5. Create a "ticking clock" that puts the characters under pressure to get what they want right away.
6. Make sure there is a good reason, an "event," for your play. It's not enough for two characters to sit around and talk for a while and then leave. There needs to be some important reason why we're watching them now, at this particular moment.
7. Write dialogue that illuminates your characters and advances the plot at the same time.
8. Make each character speak in a distinctive voice. If you have trouble with that, try imagining a specific actor you know - even if it's someone who will never play the part - in the role.
9. Do not have a character tell us something she can show us instead. For example, it's much more effective to hide under the bed than to say "I'm afraid."
10. Give each character a "moment," something that justifies the character's existence in your play and that makes him attractive for an actor to play. 
 

This reminds me a bit of Emma Coats' list of 22 story basics she picked up working at Pixar.

 

My 2009-2012 sketchbook

I just finished another sketchbook. This one lasted me from 2009 to 2012. I snapped a few select pages of my sketchbook. It is interesting to look back on the unfiltered ideas just jotted across the page. Some turned into things, some didn't.


sk009, a photo by dribblefunk on Flickr.
 

Looking for Structure

“A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order.”

~ Jean-Luc Godard

I have what might be called a passionate, perhaps even militant, belief in the art of narration. The narrative is everything. I'm reminded of this as I work on my new play CARTER STUBBS TAKES FLIGHT. It has a straight ahead narrative structure to present an eccentric little fable, but as I laid the thing out, it seemed both kinda boring and predictable in chronological order. So, I started playing with the order of events.

As my progress continues on the play, I stumbled across this video the other day. Writer Rebecca Skloot was attempting to find a working structure for her multi-narrative book, so she wrote the different plots out on color-coded index cards. She then spread them all out where she could look at them, and then went searching for stories with multi-threaded narratives that she could borrow from. She ended up storyboarding the story lines from the film The Hurricane (great movie, BTW) on the same color-coded index cards, and then laying out her book material over the movie’s structure. Totally interesting stuff!

  
Rebecca Skloot: How Fried Green Tomatoes and Hurricane Carter Shaped The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks