Heaven & Earth is deep into rehearsals.   I have just finished blocking the play and now move onto acting.  We are just about at the half-way point of this production which is a challenge for the actors as we begin to take away the safety of their scripts and work more specifically on acting choices.  In the weeks to come, aside from acting, I will be focusing on music, technical aspects of light and sound and working closely with the set designer on how he will realize the play.   My designer always elevates what I have on paper to something better on the stage.  Seeing his sets come to life is very much like a 5 year old unwrapping a present on Christmas morning – full of excitement and surprise.

Heaven & Earth plays 3 performances on Saturday November 30 @ 7pm and Sunday Dec. 1 @ 11am & 6pm.   To learn more about the play and see the poster click here.

I’m in the midst of writing 2 screenplays at the same time.   One script is a new one tentatively titled The Porch about a 14 year-old boy who finds solace creating comic books when his father won’t allow this fragile son to visit his sick mother in the hospital.  His mother is receiving heavy doses of chemo treatments and she and her husband think it’s best for their son to stay away until she is able to come home.  The question is will she ever come home?    In order to cope, the boy spends his early waking hours praying for his mother’s health and drawing comic books while sitting on his porch.  Along the way he meets the new girl across the street who has just moved in.  These two oddballs strike up an quirky relationship and they discover in the process that they share similar fears.  When the boy’s comic book hero comes to life, his world is turned upside and he (along with his new “girl-friend”) are given the kind of hope that they both desperately seek.

Writers work in very different ways.   I like to brainstorm a lot and map everything out before I write one word of dialogue.  I thought with The Porch, I’d try something a little different and work a little less with a net.  I’ve still written several pages of notes and have plotted out most of the story and characters, but not nearly in as much detail that I am used to.  I’m planning to write the script right onto the computer (rather than write in long-hand first).

Finally, I’m re-writing my script Twig.  The rough draft of the re-write is nearly complete and more than half the script has been re-written which is a bit of a surprise to me as I liked the previous draft.  But the minute you start re-writing one area (or in this case, an entire character), it affects another area and the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.  It’s crushing but necessary and in the end a much better script has emerged.

I’m still shopping my screenplay Play Ball around.  I recently sent it off to a director who is looking for his next project.  Maybe Play Ball will be just the script he’s looking for

So writing and rehearsing are on the agenda right now and suffice to say, it is a bit of a juggling act.