Friday, January 9, 2009

And so it begins...

We are officially underway on all fronts.

Big[BOX] series opens tonight at CPT: the first of seven weekends of new original works, and I am week seven. Rehearsals for "Unethical" begin Monday.

And I just got asked to give an interview on "Unethical"... to my own paper. Which is so weird. Usually I make the theater-related assignments. But this time, my editor assigned our reviewer, Fran, to interview me. Fran joked that it will be like meeting each other for the first time. She requested a copy of the script and my bio so she could be prepared. It's so weird to be on this side of the process. Part of me feels like it's kind of insider-y and possibly inappropriate (dare I say, unethical?). But then I think, if I received a story pitch from a playwright just like me who was writing this play for this series, I'd think it was story-worthy and assign it to someone. I guess, what's the point of working at a newspaper if you can't occasionally use it to promote yourself and your friends?

Also - "Optimus Prime for President" will be auditioning Jan. 20 and Jan. 21 from 7-9:30 with rehearsals starting in February. So in a few weeks, I'll have two plays cast and in rehearsal at the same time. Craziness.

And I received a request to submit another piece to another showcase that would take place this summer. (No details until I know for sure it's something that I'm really going to do. So, mind your own business!) I dusted off an old children's play I wrote several years ago called "Quench." (It's so old, it's on a PC disc in Word, before I became eternally devoted to Macs and Final Draft.) It was meant to be a short play, so it feels rushed to squeeze it into the 10-minute time frame, but it's not bad. So, I'm trying to fix it up a little and expand it so it can breathe and unfold at a more natural pace. If it works, I finish it in time, and it gets accepted, I might actually pull off a playwriting hat trick this year. I wonder if I can finish "Danger Road" in time for Little Box in October/November ... that would make me tetra-fast and quadro-furious. Take that Sholiton and Coble! You aren't the only games in town anymore, suckers!

If you want to audition for Prime, contact Justin at 216-258-1318 or justin@fourthwallproductions.com. Auditions are cold readings at the Fourth Wall theater, 540 E. 105th St. in Cleveland.

2 comments:

stevefromcleve said...

I think it'd be better if you interviewed yourself, got into a heated argument and had to have yourself escorted from the newspaper's office by security. It would add to your mystique as an artist.

pengo said...

Hey, interview me about my play! I'm not Jewish, but I did an awesome Arthur Miller in the outreach tour last year!