Open Wardrobes

Yesterday afternoon I went with Kelly and my family to see Stuart Little at Lakeshore Players. After doing the holiday show the last two years it was difficult to forgo auditions this year in order to audition for Doubt (which did work out well, to be fair), and so I was certainly not going to miss the show. Claudia directed for the third year in a row, and I knew a good number of the cast, nearly half, which included many of the Greenies from last year plus a few others that I've worked with before. My two little nieces (5 and 3) came, it was the younger's first play, and they loved it! It is a cute, sweet story (though more episodic than I expected having only seen the movie) and the young actor playing Stuart did a fine job. It was a large cast, over 20, of mostly young performers and it is always fun to see kids on stage for the first time. Anne Westcott, one of the handful of adults, was a highlight as the devious cat Snowbell out to get both Stuart the mouse and the bird Margalo. Justin Baker, one of the kids in the cast, also had nice moments as the dog that Stuart keeps having to run from, and his older sister Jenna Baker was perfect as Margalo. The pacing of the play suffered a little from the episodic nature of the script, but on the whole it kept the attention of the mostly young audience (and from what I heard was loved by the school groups who came last week). Stuart Little closes this afternoon (the holiday show always has a short run) but Lakeshore always picks fun, family-friendly shows for this slot and so I recommend hitting the holiday show this time next year (rumor is it will be A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which should be fun). And of course Doubt is coming up next at Lakeshore which will be a show not to be missed (shameless plug). 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

In the past week, with NaNoWriMo over, I've been in the midst of my own personal submission binge. Last Monday I finally sent off my submission to the STAGE Script Competition for plays about science and/or technology, which was an achievement in and of itself due to all the additional materials required. I also sent off a few submissions by email to various competitions and festivals. But mostly I have been engaged in a new wave of queries and submissions for The Princess and the Moon. Last fall I sent out a wave of submissions to theaters and contests. I took second place in East Valley Children's Theatre's Aspiring Playwrights contest so it was not without its success, but on the production front I received not a nibble. And it has been my goal to find a first production before really hitting the publishers.


And so a week or so ago I had an idea. Why not look up all the community and smaller children's theaters in Minnesota I could find and send them an email? No script, just a "letter" and synopsis, and offer to send the full script in they're interested. So I started scouring the web to find appropriate theaters, ones which put on family-friendly shows, and started sending emails. When I exhausted Minnesota, as best I could tell, I moved on to Wisconsin. The result? In the past week I have sent out around 80 emails plus about a dozen letters (for those with no email address). And already I have had a number of theaters respond. Several said that the show wouldn't work for them, based on the length or cast size they normally look for in a children's theater production, but a handful of others wanted to see the whole script. One theater even mentioned they would be looking at the one-acts on my website as well to see if any of those might work for their annual evening of one-acts.


So while it's too early to tell if any full-fledged productions come out of this (I'd be happy even with a staged reading!) so far the approach seems to be working. And it feels good to get more submissions out there. I try to participate in the submission binges in March and September through the Playwrights Binge mailing list, though often due to other things going on in life I've only reached the 30 submissions in 30 days a couple of times. But now, in less than a week and a half, I'm pushing 100 submissions! In the end a lot of it comes down to statistics: send out enough submissions and you will eventually find that one person who falls in love with your script and wants to put it on stage.

After taking a bit of a break on the novel following the official finish of NaNoWriMo on Monday. I've been working this week on putting together my application for the STAGE Script Competition which I'm submitting my one-man show to. I finished putting all that together today, so I decided to chip away a bit at the story of Red Foxx. After about 1100 words I wrapped it up, so here is the final chapter of Red Foxx and the Heart of Destiny:




"You are a fool!" she exclaimed.
"I could not take your life," Lemuel breathed, "and so for our oaths to be fulfilled you must then take mine." Lemuel tried to laugh but found it too painful. "I only swore death to the name of Foxx to avenge your death, Amarantha."
"Perhaps that was my name once," Red said, "but no longer. I am a pirate."
"I know," Lemuel answered and closed his eyes. After a moment he added, "Grant me one last boon, Captain Foxx."
"What is it?"
"Now that you have the Heart, now that your oath upon me is fulfilled, grant my people peace."
Red nodded. "It shall be done."
Lemuel smiled. "I may not have served my people as long as my father, but at least I have accomplished one thing the old Admiral could not."
"Go in peace, Captain Drake," Red said to him. "You have been a worthy adversary."
And so Lemuel Drake, captain of the Ruined Fleet, died by the hand of Captain Red Foxx.
The fight continued with the Sorcerer's men, though once the Ruined folk saw their captain's fall they lost heart. It was Red Foxx who rallied them to now fight the Sorcerer and so be pardoned by the Island Kingdom.
"It is he who with his 'magic' is enemy to us both," she proclaimed to them and they took up the fight on the side of the pirates, if only for this short time.
When most of the Sorcerer's minions had been dispatched the rest threw themselves upon the pirate king's mercy. Red Foxx was not much inclined to give it, but gave orders that they be taken prisoner. She wanted the Sorcerer himself. She led a small contingent of her crew back towards the ships and each took in their hands their opal. Before long they were nothing but a wind passing through the trees, unseen by all.
Along with Jat and the others, Red Foxx reached the beach to see all of their landing craft wrecked upon the shores. The Sorcerer had been spiteful on his exit as he returned to his ship. Several booms echoed across the water and Red Foxx could see the ships of the scarlet and silver trying to make their escape. The pirates had them mostly surrounded and did their best to close the net, but the Sorcerer's vessel (surely it could be only he on the run while he left the rest of his vessels at the mercy of the pirates) made good time towards a stretch of open water.
"Captain!"
Red turned to look and saw Bluefoot Bill, her helmsman, with a few others in a small boat. After the Sorcerer had wrecked the others boats Bluefoot had brought another so as to be ready for the Captain's return. Red and her crew climbed on board and they made for the Black Arrow, though Red feared the fight would be over by the time she could reach it. Indeed, by that time the Sorcerer's ship was ahead of the pirates who still gave chase. The Arrow had lagged behind to pick up its captain, but not they went ahead at full sail to see the Sorcerer captured or dead. Many a cannon was exchanged between the pirates and the Sorcerer's ships, but after an hour's hard sail the Sorcerer's ship had increased the distance between them ten-fold. It was indeed built first for speed. Red cursed her luck and brought her fleet back to the island to pick up the remainder of the pirates.
They were met by those same sailors on the beach who brought with them many a prisoner from the Sorcerer. Red Foxx did not expect he would simply return to cower his tower. No, he would be out for revenge and for the Heart again as well. But she in her turn would see that much was learned from her prisoners of war.
The Ruined folk had brought Lemuel Drake's body with them out of the forest and Tom Flint requested the pirate king's permission to see him safely back to ship. Red agreed and parted with Flint in honor. She passed along to him Drake's last request and promised it would be done.
The pirates now set their course back for the Sacred Isle. It seemed an age since Red Foxx had there been crowned and began this journey. But she had fulfilled all she had promised her father, even if in the doing she had learned things not much to her liking.
When they reached the Sacred Isle Red Foxx met again with all of the pirate captains who renewed to her their pledges of loyalty. It had been a double blow to learned first of Red's true nature and then her parentage, but she had in the finding of the Heart of Destiny proved herself to many. Tradition kept many others silent, even if they found these things strange and unsettling, and the rest bowed to the will of their brothers. Red Foxx herself placed the Heart of Destiny back in its sacred place where it had been laid so many years ago, in the hands of the first Captain Foxx's effigy. It blazed for a moment in joy of this reunion and then grew still. Red Foxx left it for now safe in those hands. She had seen enough in its depths for the time being.
With the Heart of Destiny restored, the pirates built the Sacred Isle up again once more and many guards sailed around it in its protection at all times, for Red Foxx guessed that the Sorcerer now knew of its location. What plans he had for them Red Foxx vowed to uncover and prevent. The pirates remained on the Sacred Isle for a time to celebrate their victory and Red Foxx gave orders that the Ruined folk were to be pursued and harried no longer.
"The wrongs they have done to us have been righted," Red told her people, "and the line of the old Admiral has ended. Let them live in peace now so long as they trouble us no more."
This was agreed to, for while the pirates shall wreak their vengeance terribly when wronged, they will let a matter rest once the score has been settled. When all that needed to be done on the Sacred Isle was done, Red Foxx left behind many a pirate behind but she and her crew boarded the Black Arrow and unfurled their sails, letting the wind catch them. Red stood at the prow of the ship with Jat at her side.
"A fine day to be takin' to the sea, Captain," Jat observed.
"So it is indeed," Red agreed.
And so they sailed on to many a new adventure.

On Monday night I went to see Corleone at Gremlin Theatre. I had missed this show at the MN Fringe a few years ago, due to its extreme popularity, and so I wanted to make sure to catch it this time around. The general premise of the script is "What if Shakespeare had written 'The Godfather'?" The script, written (and here directed) by David Mann, is certainly a fun romp through such a possibility. It has a very Shakespearean feel to the language, throwing in many a Shakespeare reference for good measure (i.e. "Michael, remember me!" says the ghost of his brother Sonnie). Mann also changes elements to better fit Shakespeare's era, using daggers rather than guns, and the result is a piece that you could well believe came from Shakespeare's time if it were not the reference to modern-day places such as Hollywood and New Jersey. For the most part I didn't feel left out not having actually seen The Godfather, although I thought the play could have been more streamlined. It was sometimes difficult to keep track of the many minor characters (not helped by most actors portraying several roles) and some episodes felt unconnected to the rest of the plot. But on the whole the adaptation was nicely done and good fun.


The show had a solid cast all around. One of highlights for me in the cast was Ryan Lindberg (who I've seen in multiple Walking Shadow productions), who nicely carried Michael's arc from being disconnected with the family business to taking over as the new Godfather. I also enjoyed Garry Geikan's charming performance as the villain Sollozzo and Peter Christian Hansen's energetic and fun-loving Sonny, the roguish son of the Godfather. I was also impressed by Tamatha Miller's set design which I thought both simple and elegant. All in all it was a fun show and a good time. The show runs through December 13th, so plenty of opportunities to catch it (and a good reason to stop by Gremlin's space if you haven't seen it yet). Four out of five stars.