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.

2nd Annual Monologue Jam

Below I launch into an improvised story based off a single word suggested by the audience at the 2012 Monologue Jam at the Cafe Bohemia Coffee Shop (Plano, TX). The event was sponsored by the Alternative Comedy Theatre. Performed January 14, 2012. Event created by yours truly.

RUDNICK mentioned in Naked Holidays 2011 review

The Holidays Are Coming – Better Get Naked First: Naked Holidays 2011

by Karen Tortora-Lee of The Happiest Medium on December 20, 2011

Nothing says “Happy Holidays” like naked people running around.  (At least not where I come from.  Your experience may vary.)  If you like naked people (and who doesn’t?) and you like jokes about Santa, Hanukkah, Rudolph, Elves, and wrestlers (not necessarily in that order) then End Time Productions Naked Holidays is the show for you.  Not only will you get skits, musical production numbers, wry commentary on the holidays and parodies of old favorites but you’ll get full frontal nudity that is both essential to the plot as well as completely gratuitous.  It’s enough to jingle anyone’s bells, and then some.

Unlike prior productions this 5th year anniversary of Naked Holidays, which features “best of” skits as well as new material, has moved uptown for the momentous occasion; a fact which the cast gleefully acknowledges as they survey their surroundings with astonishment: “You guys!  There’s no herpes on this floor!” After a bit of back and forth where they decide if it makes sense to get naked again this year the cast agrees that of course it does!  And so it’s on with the show which is sponsored, in part, by GOD … who’s been bringing you naked people since the very beginning.

What follows is, I expect, an experience akin to being in the audience of a Saturday Night Live taping where some things are hilarious, some things are worth a giggle or two, some things last a bit too long and there are a few musical numbers.  What makes this show different is (if I haven’t said it enough) the full nudity that is sprinkled throughout and then takes up the entire last ten minutes of the show.

Keep in mind – not all of the show is nude.  But while you’re waiting for them to take it all off this talented group of folks will have you chuckling with some great holiday comedy skits.

. . .

Everyone knows the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, right?  It takes a funny (and deeply disturbing) turn when Rudolph becomes Rudnick (written by Brad McEntire) who is not a very special reindeer but rather a very misunderstood unicorn who has a candle where his horn should be.  Poor Rudnick — he’s not allowed to play twister (or any other Unicorn Games) with the other unicorn gals (who come off like a pack of Heathers).  So how does Rudnick save the day?  Not by guiding Santa’s sleigh, but by leading his three one-horned bitches into an ambush where his reindeer friends  are ready to tear them to pieces while a cloaked chorus intones O Fortuna with rabid intensity.  It’s how I picture the Tarantino remake, should he ever choose to fix his eyes on movies for the young ones.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays, everyone. In celebration, I'm posting a little video.

In 2008, I was commissioned by Plano Childrens Theatre to put together a puppet show. I wrote, designed and directed a charming little piece called THE ANGEL IN THE BARN. I worked with a wonderful group of performer/puppeteers. The show was about an old man with wings that crashes into the barn of a poor and struggling married couple. This causes strife in the household. And a "Christmas miracle" happens to set all that is wrong right.

I really enjoyed working on this little table-top puppetry show. I post the highlights video for your enjoyment.

All the best, this holiday season, friends!

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.