Summer is nearly over and I’ve nearly completed the re-write of my most recent script.  Born For This is the title of the Christmas production in which I begin rehearsals in less than a month.  My first rehearsal with the cast will be a sit down reading of the play.  First readings and the beginning of any rehearsal process is always somewhat nerve-raking, but always exciting.  I finally get to move beyond the page and words, and begin to piece this puzzle together on the stage.   I’ve written four songs for the production and three composers will add music. 

I don’t normally get writer’s block, but when re-writing Born For This, I found myself fighting the page.  It’s the worst feeling for a writer when the words aren’t flowing and every idea seems to die a slow death.   Scripts can take months if not years to refine.  Some writers are obsessive about ever letting a script go.  Because these seasonal productions I produce are done in a condensed period of time with a cast and crew of volunteers, the pressure to come up with something unique is always a challenge.    More details will follow in the weeks to come regarding Born For This including a poster and short synopsis of the play.

The New Ideas Festival is run by the Alumnae Theatre Company in Toronto and every March they hold a theatre festival of new plays, mostly one-acts.  I’ve been looking for places to submit my one-act play Not With a Bang But a Whimper.   This is the play I wrote for the 24-Hour Playwriting Contest through the Fringe Festival back in early July.   The deadline for submitting to this year’s New Ideas Festival is September 10.   That gives me a little less than two weeks to re-look at Not With a Bang But a Whimper, before submitting and seeing if I can make what I consider a strong play even better.

In looking back at this past month, I leave you with quotes by writers that aptly sum up what I’ve been feeling:

“Every writer I know has trouble writing.”
- Joseph Heller

“Writing is a struggle against silence.”
- Carlos Fuentes

These last two days I have stepped back from a script I just completed to get some perspective.  I’ll be directing this play come the fall and it involves a cast of 10 actors.  It is a play centered on the Christmas season and will be performed on Dec 11 and 12 at the Stone Church in Toronto.  This is one of two seasonal productions that I spearhead and everything from acting to tech is done by a group of volunteers.  There is no title to the script as I am about to re-write it. 

August is turning into a re-write month.  I will be revisiting my screenplay Twig and hope to send a draft out to various competitions and get more feed back to further improve the script.  My two-act playCircus waits patiently for a 3^rd re-write.  I had planned to get to Circus at the beginning of summer, but between finishing Twig and entering the 24-Hour Playwriting Competition, I had to put Circus on hold.

Speaking of the 24-Hour Playwriting Competition, I unfortunately missed the reading of the winning script The Tempest and the Birch Tree. However playwright, Jonathan Kline, was kind enough to send me his winning script.  Jonathan weaved a complex tale involving the divorce proceedings of a couple.  Jonathan has a great knack for naturalistic dialogue; his writing flows beautifully from scene to scene.  I particularly enjoyed how he cleverly incorporated the 4 concepts that had to be included in the script.  I hope to re-write parts of my one act Not With a Bang But a Whimper and submit it to play festivals.

I leave you with a quote from Ernest Hemingway – advice I often follow when writing because it gives me hope for the next day:

“I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.”

Congratulations to the following participants from the 24 Hour Playwriting Competition run by the Fringe of Toronto Theatre Festival:

1. The Tempest and the Birch Tree by Jonathan Kline
2. That’s Just Gas Escaping by Jerry Schaefer
3. Outside Heaven by Simon Paluck

As you can see by the above results, my name was not included, but that’s okay.  As I said in the previous blog, the experience of writing this play under such extreme circumstances was well worth it.  And the bottom line is, a writer writes.  That’s what we do.  Period. 

The top script by Jonathan Kline is having a live reading on Sunday July 11 and I will be attending.  I’m curious to know how the winning script incorporated the four concepts.   I also like to hear another writer’s voice.  I write and re-write and re-read so much of my own writing that I often live in this bubble.  In fact most writers live in bubbles.   Writing is an isolating act with the loneliness being combated by the characters created.  Their lives fill yours and catharsis happens when the characters…the plot…take on a life of their own.

That is what it was like for me when I wrote Not With a Bang But a Whimper – the title of the play I wrote for the 24-Hour Playwriting Competition.   The play has much potential outside this play competition and I look forward to revisiting the writing and possibly mounting the play one day.

My next project is to write one of my seasonal productions for Christmas which will be staged December 11 and 12.  Many ideas are brewing and I look forward to seeing where this next script takes me.

So there I was on June 30, 6pm, at the Fringe Club behind Honest Ed’s in downtown Toronto waiting to begin a contest that the Toronto Fringe Festival was running.  The task:  write a play in 24 hours (no longer then 45 minutes) which must include 4 concepts given by the Fringe.  The play had to be handed in by July 1 6pm sharp – no exceptions.

The following were the 4 concepts:
-  T.S. Eliot’s lesser known brother
-  You’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’
-  Jungle Red Lipstick
-  A drunken embalmer

Once the concepts were given, all the writers scattered to their own homes and began writing.  On the subway ride home, my mind was working overtime trying to figure out exactly how I would bring the 4 concepts into one coherent play.  My two biggest worries however were:  Would I be able to stay up?  Would I be able to write straight onto the computer? (given that I write first drafts long hand)

 Once I got home, I did some research, began feverishly writing down a setting and characters and incorporating the 4 concepts.  There is no second guessing.  You just go.  I wrote out in long hand a couple pages of notes and by 10pm I began writing.  Well, I am happy to report that not only did I not fall asleep, I wrote the entire script and finished a rough draft on the computer by 5am in the morning.   I then crashed for a little under 3 hours, and by 8am, I was wide awake and back on the computer. 

 I spent the rest of the day re-working the script and refining the concepts.  I wanted to make sure that the way I incorporated the concepts didn’t feel forced.  By 4:45pm I had the finished script in my hand and I was on my way out the door.  I still felt I wasn’t quite done until the actual play was delivered and out of my hands.  The minute I dropped the script off, this incredible weight literally lifted off my shoulders. 

 I will tell you more about the play once the results of the contest are revealed which will probably happen within the week.  The winner’s script will get a live reading on the last day of the Fringe Festival, July 11.   

 Here’s what I learned during this short but intensely fulfilling journey:

 There is no substitute for adrenaline.  I thought I would not be able to stay up, but I was so intensely focused that sleep was the furthest thought from my mind.  At around 3:30am, I got stuck on a section of the script and for about half an hour, I feared my body would betray me.  But once I was able to get passed this rough patch, I could see the finish line and my focus became even more intense.

 Challenge yourself.   Get out of your comfort zone.  Given how meticulous I am with first drafts, I did not think I would be able to write an entire script on the computer and skip the long hand.  

 Focus.  For me personally, I need to find a way to shut out distractions when I write.  This contest forced me to focus.  Discipline is a key to success.  I know this of course, it’s common sense, but it became crystallized for me after I handed in the script.

 Win or lose – it doesn’t matter.  This was well worth the time spent.  And on top of that, I like the play.  Stay tuned for results…

The Toronto Fringe Festival is a Theatre Festival that runs June 30 till July 11.  This year I decided to enter the 24-hour Playwriting Contest which is exactly what it sounds like.  All participants are given 24 hours to come up with a play incorporating four objects/concepts given by the Fringe Festival.  The contest begins on June 30 at 6pm and the complete play is to be handed in the next day, July 1 at 6pm.  The play can be no longer then a running time of 45 minutes.

The idea of writing a play in 24 hours is a daunting task as I tend to spend a couple weeks mapping out characters and storylines before even attempting to write one word of dialogue.  I’m meticulous when it comes to brainstorming the entire script.  I also struggle writing anything productive into the late night, early mornings.   So given all that, I thought I would take up the challenge and stretch myself.  My sense is I’ll still map things out, but in a much reduced time period.  And I certainly won’t be writing long hand, but go straight to the keyboard.  This should be interesting.

Speaking of playwriting, a few things on the go; I applied for a grant through the Toronto Arts Council for my play Circus.  Decisions are made in September.  Circus is in the mid-stage of its creation and I feel the next draft will take it to another level.  I am also planning to write a one-act play for the New Ideas Festival run by the Alumnae Theatre.  I hope to get to that soon – the deadline is mid September.  Finally, it’s Christmas in June as I will soon begin writing one of my seasonal productions that will be staged in December.

I’m beginning to send out my screenplay Twig to some trusted readers.  I will be submitting the script to various competitions to receive further critiques for the next re-write.

“Ink on paper is as beautiful to me as flowers on the mountains; God composes, why shouldn’t we?”
- Terri Guillemets

There is a point in the writing process where the characters begin to write the story for you.  When you enter that zone, writing becomes a pleasure.  Not that the leading up to that point is not enjoyable; it’s just harder work.  Lots of writers like starting.  They like the blank page.  I like to start, but then I get really nervous, followed by frustrated, even angry. Although ideas are always in abundance, bringing the different elements together is a monumental task.  I find the process daunting and wonder why I put myself through it. 

A quote comes to mind spoken by writer Beth Mende Conny:   

 “No one is asking, let alone demanding, that you write. The world is not waiting with bated breath for your article or book. Whether or not you get a single word on paper, the sun will rise, the earth will spin, the universe will expand. Writing is forever and always a choice — your choice.”

 And that’s why I write.  It’s a choice.  It happens to be a choice I enjoy choosing – a choice that is filled (and fills me) with mystery.    Every time I produce a new script/draft, it is a mystery to me how I get to that point.   There are days that go by when not one single word is written and every idea is hackneyed….yet I keep at it.

Which brings to mind another quote from writer Benjamin Cavell:

“The drudgery of being a professional writer comes in trying to make good days out of bad days and in squeezing out the words when they won’t just flow.”

Let’s get back to my original thought which was that the writing process is a pleasure when the characters begin to write for you.  And that is when the writing really flows.  That is the mystery of creation.  Twig is in that sunny place right now.  I have just completed draft three of my screenplay Twig and after writing draft one, I didn’t feel anything special about the script.  Draft two was mildly better.  And then something happened as I began re-working each of the scenes in draft three.  The characters started speaking to me, the plot became more intriguing and I began to believe in this world I created.

 Not sure where draft four will take me.  It’s a mystery.

The following is an exchange from the movie City Slickers…

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? (holds up one finger).  This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that…

Finding that “one thing” is the trick of life.  I knew from a young age I loved to pretend.  Whether it was acting in school productions, writing plays or filming super 8 films, I was always pretending.

Recently, I returned to my old high school to see a production of Les Misérables.  It was very strange sitting in the very auditorium I had spent many, many hours during my teens and performing countless plays.  As I watched the play, it became very clear to me how this “one thing” I have pursued most of my life has driven me to be the person I am today.  I love an audience.  I love sitting in a room listening to actors reading a script of mine.  The energy that is exchanged between the artist and whoever he/she is sharing the work with is what keeps me going back to the page, back to the stage, back to the screen.

It’s been said about life that you should have a back-up plan in case the path you actually care about doesn’t work out.  I always thought this was an odd way to live your life.   You either do something with 100% certainty or you don’t.  And if you don’t, then you have to ask yourself why; which is the most difficult of questions.  There really is no middle ground (okay maybe there is, but I prefer not to put doubt in your minds – there’s enough there already).  If you do something with a half heart, how do you expect to succeed?  And what is success?  I can only tell you what it’s not – money (but that never hurts).  Success is doing that “one thing” and somehow making it work for you.  I’m still trying to figure that part out…the “making it work” part.  I probably will never really figure it out.  The only real thing I know is that “one thing”.   And I’m going to keep doing it.

I’m going to keep working on my screenplay Twig as I am almost done the 3^rd draft and I am excited to see where it is taking me.  I’m going to keep sending Blue out as I have sent it to a dozen different theatre companies this past month and whole heartedly believe it deserves to live on.  I’m going to keep Circus on the radar as it is a play about mental illness that needs re-working and needs to find a life on the stage.    I’m just going to keep going, despite the doubts that haunt me…all because of that “one thing”.

I finished typing my new screenplay Twig today.  It’s a rough draft, but the blue print is on the page (or more specfically, screen).  It took me a while to complete the typing and I think that’s because, among other things, I was preoccupied with Close, but also not feeling confident with where the script was heading.   After reviewing the entire script and reading some of the dialogue, I’ve changed my opinion.  For a 2^nd draft, it’s where it should be.  In the next couple of weeks, I will be re-reading and re-writing.  I’m not sure where to take Twig at this point, but I do feel the plot and characters need more fleshing out. 

A couple pieces of dialogue from the script sum up what the story is about and each could be used as taglines for the film.  Here’s the dialogue:

“The more we keep, the more we  lose”.

“It’s the secrets that break us”.

Once Twig is a wrap, the long awaited re-write of Circus will begin.  Back in October, I had a reading of Circus and from that meeting, many notes were taken.   I’ve yet to crack open those notes which can be intimidating, but I know that the play is well worth the time and effort.  I don’t feel a major re-write is needed, but as any writer knows, even small tweaks end up as big ones.   Writing is rarely simple.

I’ve been sending Blue out to various theatre companies.  I’ve had a renewed sense of energy toward this play.   I believe there’s a company out there who will be interested in this tight two-act drama with three characters and a simple setting.   I will also be submitting Picture This to more short film festivals come this summer.

Close was an extremely rewarding experience.   It’s been two weeks since the production wrapped and I am grateful for every volunteer who sacrificed an ounce of their time and energy towards the play.  It was both a challenge and joy to work with the actors, many of whom have very limited experience on the stage.   For all three performances, I sat in the audience and watched not only the play, but the audience watch the play.   Many times, I wanted to jump out of my skin.  When you know every line, every gesture and movement, every lighting que and sound bite, by performance end, you are spent like a runner after a marathon (okay, maybe not that spent, but you get my drift).

The creation process is one of endurance.  It not only keeps you sharp and focused, but it wills you to keep fighting for the best possible outcome.  And then, when you think you’ve got it, it’s time then to let it go and share it with others.  These two synergetic forces coming together (art and spectator) creates a bond that is unpredictable yet wholly satisfying.   For the most part, I have a sense of what an audience feels, but I certainly do not know the pulse of every person.  So please, tell me what you think of Close.  I am all ears.

The week following the play, I was not motivated much to write as I felt emotionally drained.  However, I did get back to my screenplay Twig and began typing my hand-written copy.  It’s been a slow process, but I hope to have a 2^nd draft by months end and then onto the re-write of Circus.

Picture This played at the Ozark Foothills FilmFest back on March 27 (same day Close opened).  My screenplay Home was  in competition there, but it did not place.  It was disappointing but part of wherever this journey is taking me.  I continue to send out Home (to a producer in New York recently) and also shop around my plays Blue and Circus.

In the meantime…back to writing or is it re-writing – one in the same.  John Updike puts it best:

“Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying.”

Two rehearsals left and Close is ready to go.  The cast is gelling and in this past week as they have grown more comfortable with their lines and character, I’m seeing new things flourish.  I’m really happy about how the set turned out and I have to give a big shout out to Arthur Wrigglesworth and Nolan Bentley who have put in a lot of their time and energy into their already busy schedule.  It’s in this last week where the cast is a little tired, yet the focus is intense as we near the end of the journey.  I’ve been working on lights, sound and tightening ques for several days now and tomorrow night we will have a final dress rehearsal before we open on the weekend.

Close has been a volunteer effort and I am extremely thankful for every individual who has put in the time and effort.  It’s no easy task putting a show together.  The details are enormous, and the cliché is very true:  the devil is in the details.  But for me, there is nothing more gratifying when everything comes together – the synergy is electric.

I finally got around to finishing a rough draft of my screenplay Twig.  Though I think the ending comes too quickly and possibly too easily, it’s a relief to have a working rough draft done.  I’ve begun the process of typing all my long-hand into the computer.  Once this script is complete, I will move onto the long awaited re-write of my play Circus about mental illness and how it plays havoc on a family.

Picture This plays this weekend at the Ozark Foothills FilmFest.  I am hoping for some great news regarding my screenplay Home which is in competition at this same festival.