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