Two plays are on my mind these days.  One is called Animal.  The other has not yet been written.  I have just completed the 3^rd draft of my play Animal.  On July 6^th I will be having a reading of Animal with actors.   I’m looking forward to finally hearing this dialogue read aloud by other voices other than my own.   I’ve spent the last couple weeks refining the dialogue, the characters and reading the play over and over.  Animal is a story that centers on protagonist Raina Shepherd, a mentally unbalanced woman who finds herself in a psych ward talking to psychiatrist Dr. Cranshaw.   Their sessions become the catalyst for Raina to discuss her hard life.  Animal plays with timelines flashing back as much as 20 years.  Over the course of the play we discover how Raina has tormented her family throughout the years and why she has been forced out of her house 2 weeks earlier.  My hope for Animal is that it will get a professional staging next spring.

The second play on my mind is one that I will begin writing shortly and it will be staged at the end of November.  It’s a community effort – a seasonal production around the themes of Christmas.   I have been involved in these productions the last few years and I write them a little differently than my other works.   I cast the play first and then do the writing.   Actors are all volunteers and I am able to control the quality of their performances by writing to their strengths.  It is a cast of 9 actors and many of them I’ve worked with before, while others it will be their first time.   I also include original music in these productions which again are created by volunteers.   So for the next 2 months I’ll write the play and then begin rehearsals in September.  I have no idea what I will be writing but know come Nov. 30 and Dec 1 it will be staged.

I enjoy putting these productions together because they happen so fast.  You are forced to be creative and the rewards are immediate.   One week I’m writing and the next, actors are reading my dialogue and we’re blocking the play.   I look forward to the challenge despite the stress that accompanies the effort.   Once I finish writing this play, it will be time to switch gears and pen a new screenplay.