“Everything at the end of the day when you’re making a movie starts with the material and how well written the script is.  I’ve never seen a silk purse made from a sow’s ear.  I’ve never seen it happen wherein a ‘crap’ script with ‘crap’ characters, a director somehow found a way to make a masterpiece out of it.  And that’s the constant struggle we all sort of have as actors…it’s finding those gems and that’s why people grab onto them like vultures…  When you find a great piece of material or a great script it’s like (motions with his hands in a vulture grip).  You should see what happens…it’s like a piranha feeding fest!”

Actor Leonardo Di Caprio recently said this in an interview to Charlie Rose.   To write a good script is not an easy thing.  Yes it takes talent/ability, whatever you want to call it, but more than anything else, it takes perseverance.   Over the years, I’ve had my plays and screenplays read and critiqued by many.  With each critique, I’ve tried my best to make the next draft of any given script better than the last.  I want to please anyone who reads my scripts but it takes a great deal of patience and time to understand where you should take that next draft.   At the end of the day, I have always found that if you put the work in and you get the right kind of direction, your last draft is usually your best one. 

Speaking of drafts, I’ve been working on my play Animal quite steadily this past year and have just about finished the latest draft.  A planned workshop with actors is in the works.  This will be the 4^th reading of Animal with this latest workshop involving a public reading with an audience.  It will be the first time, other than actors and a few friends, that Animal will be heard by others.  Animal is about mental illness and as I think back at the previous drafts, I realized that I first began writing this play as early as 2008 (when it was known as Circus).  Back then it was just an idea which I let sit for some time before I tackled subsequent drafts.   Today I feel Animal has a clearer voice and I am just about at the point where soon it will be time to stage a production of this play.