My new play OverTime will have its première at the Toronto Fringe Festival beginning July 2 and ending July 12.   There will be 7 performances of OverTime during the festival run.  Details to come on specific dates.

I’ve been working on this play since January and it has been through several drafts since then.  The play has been cast, a director has been chosen and last night we had a 2^nd reading of the script before the cast and director enter the rehearsal process.  It’s always a lot of fun and extremely daunting sitting in a room full of people and listening to the words you have been working on over many months.  When I listened to this latest version read aloud, I felt the tone of the overall story had changed and had become more focused and the characters’ relationships, their arcs, were stronger and made more sense.

OverTime is about many things.   The theme of time is a running metaphor throughout the play and how in just a few seconds, your life can change.  The play also deals with choices we make in life, whether we made these choices consciously or unconsciously and how these choices, good or bad, reverberate throughout an entire life.   OverTime looks at the lives of individuals who are somewhat trapped and need to break out of the shackles that have held them back.  It asks the question:  Is hope allowed to live in the light of harsh truths and second chances?

When I was writing OverTime, I came across a quote from composer and lyricist,  Adam Gutettel who wrote the Tony-awarding winning play The Light in the Piazza.  Adam says this about the kinds of plays he writes:

“I don’t write about perfect people or winners.’

This very much describes not only OverTime but most of what I write.  I find it far more interesting and I learn more about others and myself when I write about those who are damaged and looking for a way out, then those who are already out the door and on their way.   I think the key is to find the humor or lighter moments with characters who carry a lot of baggage.  That will be the challenge facing the director and cast of OverTime.

In the weeks to come, I’ll introduce them to you, but for now, I leave you with an anonymous quote a friend of mine recently sent me:

“The only whole heart is one with a crack in it.  It’s the only one that will let the light in”.

Again, this quote aptly describes how I approach my scripts and what I write about.  It is in those cracks where we must chisel our way toward hope, happiness, peace and contentment.