These last two days I have stepped back from a script I just completed to get some perspective. I’ll be directing this play come the fall and it involves a cast of 10 actors. It is a play centered on the Christmas season and will be performed on Dec 11 and 12 at the Stone Church in Toronto. This is one of two seasonal productions that I spearhead and everything from acting to tech is done by a group of volunteers. There is no title to the script as I am about to re-write it.
August is turning into a re-write month. I will be revisiting my screenplay Twig and hope to send a draft out to various competitions and get more feed back to further improve the script. My two-act playCircus waits patiently for a 3rd re-write. I had planned to get to Circus at the beginning of summer, but between finishing Twig and entering the 24-Hour Playwriting Competition, I had to put Circus on hold.
Speaking of the 24-Hour Playwriting Competition, I unfortunately missed the reading of the winning script The Tempest and the Birch Tree. However playwright, Jonathan Kline, was kind enough to send me his winning script. Jonathan weaved a complex tale involving the divorce proceedings of a couple. Jonathan has a great knack for naturalistic dialogue; his writing flows beautifully from scene to scene. I particularly enjoyed how he cleverly incorporated the 4 concepts that had to be included in the script. I hope to re-write parts of my one act Not With a Bang But a Whimper and submit it to play festivals.
I leave you with a quote from Ernest Hemingway – advice I often follow when writing because it gives me hope for the next day:
“I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.”
Hi Romeo, I’m sorry to hear that your play wasn’t one of the top 3 – however – your previous blog indicates that as always, you found the positive in the experience. I hate re-doing work but I’m such a perfectionist that I’ve rewritten this email 3 times already .. no just 2.5 times! It must be challenging to find the place when you can say “that’s good enough!” because each play you create/write is like the birth of a child – and labour can’t go on forever. (As all women will tell you!)
Looking forward to the Christmas production and wishing you well on Twig and Circus!