My play ANIMAL is receiving a workshop public reading at the New Ideas Festival at the Alumnae Theatre,  Sat. March 24 @ Noon.  The New Ideas Festival runs a festival of plays over a 3 week period.  Short plays are performed, while longer plays (like Animal) are given a live reading for the public.

Director – Liz Best

The festival gives me another opportunity to work on the play with a director and actors as I continue to sharpen the scripts focus.  For the last couple weeks my director (Liz Best) and I have been auditioning actors and calling many of them back to make our final choices for each of the four parts.  Actors who audition for the New Ideas Festival aren’t auditioning for a specific show but for the entire festival of plays.  Each writer/directer team must then choose their top 3 choices for each part.  The festival committee then finalizes casting  for all of the 15 shows which is where we are at now.  Once I know the cast of Animal I’ll be sharing the news here.  And then we will be in rehearsals, workshopping the material, tightening the script which will culminate to the live reading on March 24.

In the meantime, I am awaiting results to a Canadian Fellowship in Screenwriting called The Daryl Duke Prize.  Back in the summer, I wrote a screenplay called Break Away and submitted to the fellowship in September.  The winner of this $25,000 fellowship will be announced in the next couple months so stayed tuned for results.

I’ve been in rewrites for another screenplay of mine called Let It Shine.  So many notes, so many changes and I find myself literally starting over.  Rewriting is a house of cards…the minute you start tinkering with the cards, the house begins to wobble…and probably collapse.  This where I’m at with Let It Shine.  Although the whole structure has not collapsed, it’s pretty flimsy and it’s going to require some heavy lifting.  When it comes to rewrites, you can’t be shy.  Bold strokes are required.   Take chances.   And power through.

The quote below is attributed to Laurie Jean Sennottt (I could not find anything about her on the net).  It’s a metaphor that simply sums up the potential rewards of powering through the creative process if you stick with it: