Open Wardrobes

You write a play, toil over every word, send hours putting together submission packages, and finally one day it finds a home with a publisher who sends it out into the world. I was curious the other day at just what sort of a reach my plays have had, published and otherwise, and so I decided to pull together all the information I have about where my plays have so far been produced. Fortunately all of the publishers I work with give me this information in some way the basic information, plus I've kept all those details for productions I've licensed as well.

What I learned is that so far I have had plays performed in over 30 US states, in 5 Canadian provinces, and an additional 8 countries around the world across a total of 5 continents. The majority of the productions have been thanks to Illinois Jane and the Pyramid of Peril which has done well so far with Pioneer Drama Service. I have at least one more US state coming up (North Dakota with the premiere of The Princess and the Moon at the Shade Tree Players this summer), and possibly my first South American production as well, hitting continent #6.

It's exciting to see how far my plays have traveled so far and I hope that their reach will continue to grow, as my existing plays travel further and new ones join them in their travels.

After working on the commedia and the Adaptation over the past couple of months, I've come up with a new goal for myself for this year:

To write five rough drafts.

It's an ambitious goal, but I'm well on my way with two rough drafts down already in about a month and a half, which made me realize the virtue of setting a goal towards which you have already made significant progress. Part of this goal is that at least two of these rough drafts be brand new (such as the commedia) while the rest can either be new or be finishing up a draft that I've started but haven't yet finished (such as the Adaptation). Right now as I work on some revisions to the commedia I'm also sketching out some ideas for a new play, a comedy. I have a few other ideas that I've been meaning to work on, plus a couple of other pieces that have been gathering dust, and this seemed like a good way to motivate myself to get at least a full draft down on paper. The idea isn't that all of these plays will be finished and polished by the end of the year, but at least I should end the year with a lot of raw material down and ready for the next stage.

Yesterday afternoon Kelly and I went to the Tea Source and I wrapped up the very rough draft of the Adaptation. It is indeed VERY rough, my goal with this first pass mostly being to start laying out the structure and figure out what parts from the book I want to keep and what definitely needs to be cut. So far I don't feel like I've had to cut too much (it's not an extremely long book). The next pass will, I think, be focused on streamlining the structure so that I can keep scene changes and technical needs to a minimum. In the rough draft I was also pulling out the dialogue from the book I think I want to keep, plus starting to add in my own dialogue where it's clear that some sort of bridge is needed. For the moment though I'm going to set it aside as I start to work on revisions to the commedia piece. But it's exciting to think that since January 1st I've written an entire rough draft (the commedia) and picked up and completed a second draft (the Adaptation).

Over the past couple of months I've been sending out emails to community and children's theaters in Minnesota and neighboring states, searching for an initial production for The Princess and the Moon. I've had some nibbles and several companies interested in reading the script and others who weren't. And then, a couple days ago, finally, a bite. I had an email from the program manager at Shade Tree Players Children's Theatre in Bismark, ND saying that they wanted to do The Princess and the Moon as one of their productions this summer. Shade Tree does a number of shows over the summer and their focus is plays performed by kids and teens (similar to Lakeshore's Summer Youth Project). I'm planning to drive out there for a few days to catch the show. So, it's exciting to finally have someone interested in doing this play and I look forward to seeing it!

On Sunday morning, before I had to head off for my Sunday matinee of Doubt, Kelly and I decided to go sit at a coffee shop for a bit. We tried a new place here in Saint Paul, on Payne Avenue, called Polly's Coffee Cove. We soon realized this was the neighborhood spot - everyone else seemed to know everyone else. It was a nice spot. Kelly did some reading while I continued and finished the first draft of my commedia piece (still needs a good title, hmmmm...). I'm shooting for something around an hour and this looks so far to be more, so that gives me some room to trim (or perhaps shoot for a 75-minute piece?). I was surprised at how quickly the draft went (23 days), but it helped a great deal that I had a detailed outline drawn up before I sat down and started writing. I mentioned in an earlier post that I did this to try and more closely follow the style of the true commedia, where the actors would post a detailed scenario (showing the scenes and entrances and exits) and improv the show from there. I don't normally do an outline when starting a new play and so it made for a fun change of pace for me. And seeing how quickly the draft went once I had the outline, I see the benefit of it! The Playwright Purge (i.e. write something everyday for 30 days) I'm participating in finishes up next week, and so I've started chipping away again at an Adaptation I'm working on to round out the Purge, and then will start looking at revisions of the commedia piece once I've typed the rest of it up. On the Adaptation I'm in the middle of a bit with an interesting technical challenge - how do you portray giants on stage when they need to interact with normal-sized characters?

With the first weekend of Doubt over, I've had several days off which has given me time to work on the commedia dell'arte piece. Kelly and I spent Monday afternoon (off from work for Martin Luther King Day) at the Tea Source, as usual one of our favorite writing hangouts (with some great baked goods from La Patisserie in addition to the wonderful tea). I spent several hours working on the commedia piece which is nearing its climax. Commedia scenarios were often very complex, and so I've been trying to work in as many different threads as I can. The challenge of course is to get them to all come together in the end. I went on for several pages with one false start on Monday before I found the right direction for the scene I'm working on. Sometimes seeing a few wrong ways for a scene to go helps me identify the right way. It's been interesting working on a piece like this where the characters, after a fashion, are pre-exisiting. I want to give them my own flavor, but the general outlines have been around for centuries, I'm just coloring them in a little as I'm sure the actors of the original commedia all did. It's a good example of how sometimes having set factors in a piece can help. Staying as true to commedia conventions as I can has actually helped spur this piece along. Having certain parameters to work within has freed me to focus on the story. I've been participating this month in the Playwrights' Purge, a companion to the Binge, where you write something, anything, every day for 30 days. This has been my project and having that extra impetus to be writing every day has been helpful. We're about halfway through the Purge right now and I have a rough draft nearly complete! At this point my only concern about the Purge is what to work on once the rough draft of the commedia is done. That's a good feeling.

The writing life is filled with them. At last night's wonderful opening for Doubt I was talking with our director Kevin T. Houle about the 10-minute play festival that Lakeshore does each spring and that I had a script entered. If it made it in, he wanted to direct it, sight unseen. That was incredibly flattering and made me want all the more for Circus of Fate to make it. Today they announced the semi-finalists: I was not one of them. Both of the other times I've submitted I at least made it that far. This script is better than either of them, and it didn't make it. Why? Who can say. The scripts are blind for this first round and so it had to stand on its own. Why they didn't like it, I don't know, but I find it incredibly disappointing. Maybe next year.

I am been very remiss in blogging about Doubt rehearsals (which you should of course come and see; details here). We started rehearsals nearly a month ago, which has flown by! We did have a week break in there for Christmas which gave us all a nice chunk of time to work on lines. It's a tough show, no doubt about it (no pun intended), but that's what makes it so satisfying as an actor. With just a cast of four the show will ultimately rise or fall on us. We have a fantastic director (Kevin T. Houle) who is helping us all dig deeper and deeper into this piece, not to mention one of the best stage managers I've worked with (Sue Kuta) who I know will keep things running extremely smoothly, but in the end we four actors have to sustain an hour and a half of thought-provoking drama on our own. It has been a daunting task, as least I've found it to be so, and a ton of work. When so many people have at least seen the movie version, how do you break people's preconceived notions of this play? How do you keep the characters interesting and dynamic above and beyond the concepts being wrestled with? If they are not, the show becomes merely pedantic and the characters two-dimensional mouthpieces.


This at least is a taste of what I've been wrestling with. As Kevin has pointed out many times, this plays is most definitely NOT about whether or not Father Flynn did it. One of my challenges has been to not make that question too easy, to give the audience doubt about what my character may or may not be capable of. We have just under two weeks to go and we are definitely getting there. We have a great cast and I've been enjoying working with them on this. I'm excited for performances and to see what the audiences have to say.


But a New Year would not be complete without a new writing project. November of course was spent in NaNoWriMo, and December brought with it the start of rehearsals and Christmas, but during my break I've finally found some traction on a new project. My friend Brian teaches middle school theater in Georgia and awhile back we had talked about the idea of me writing a short show that he could use as scenes in class. Brian has build a small stage in his classroom (beyond acting he is an accomplished designer) and a flexible set comprised of many doors. We talked about writing something in the commedia dell'arte style, as we both though it would work well with minimal set and the stock characters would give his students s starting place. At the time I was knee-deep in writing the Fringe show, and so while I loved the idea it had to sit on the back burner for awhile.


But over the past few weeks I finally started doing some research on the commedia characters and over the last week started writing a scenario. As the original commedia was all improvised, the actors would choose a scenario for a performance that detailed the entrances and exits and gave the general gist of the plot. From there the performers, who each specialized in one stock character, would create the show on the fly. Later on playwrights such as Goldoni wrote full plays using the commedia characters and style and this was my goal as well. I don't normally start plays with a detailed outline, but in this case I wanted to create such a scenario first in order to replicate the commedia process as much as possible. And so, now having such a scenario in hand I have now started in on the writing process and shall see where it goes.

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 going into detail on the process for the festival, I thought I should post my play here as well. I still want to do some additional work on it before sending it out anywhere else, but for the time being here is the festival version of Circus of Fate.


(Lights up. CASSANDRA, wearing a jester's hat, winds up a music box and starts it playing. She then starts to juggle.)

CASSANDRA
Fate's a funny thing. It takes so little for our lives to change course, a chance word, a momentary whim, being in the right place... or the wrong one. How much do we really choose, and how much do we simply act upon the circumstances of the moment?

(DIANA enters, upset. CASSANDRA stops juggling and catches two balls, letting the third fall to the ground. DIANA looks up and sees her.)

DIANA
Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you. I suppose I shouldn't be back here.

CASSANDRA
If you're here, then you're supposed to be.

DIANA
Are you with the circus?

CASSANDRA
Name's Cassandra. Juggler, clown, and prophet.

DIANA
Prophet? Funny.

CASSANDRA
Not really.
(She picks up the music box.)

DIANA
What's with the music box?

CASSANDRA
It tells the future. Care to give it a try?

DIANA
I get it, you're the fortune teller. I suppose every circus has one.

CASSANDRA
Fortune telling? That's just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo for the superstitious. I'm the real deal.

DIANA
Sure.
(She starts to walk away.)

CASSANDRA
What's the hurry, Diana?

DIANA
Should I be creeped out you know my name?

CASSANDRA
Does fate creep you out?

DIANA
I don't believe in fate.

CASSANDRA
Why did you walk this way?

DIANA
What?

CASSANDRA
Why did you go left behind the tents instead of right, towards the bearded lady?

DIANA
I don't know. Why not? Why were you back here juggling?

CASSANDRA
Because you went left.

DIANA
I don't get it.

CASSANDRA
If you had gone right, where do you think I'd be?

DIANA
I don't know, over by the bearded lady?

CASSANDRA
No, actually I'd still be right here, because then we weren't fated to meet.

DIANA
So I'm here...

CASSANDRA
...because you need help. Because you went left, and found the two of them together.

DIANA
Troy and Minerva, I'm going to kill them both. She broke up with him, you know, but now that we're dating she can't keep her hands off him.

CASSANDRA
Is that what you saw?

DIANA
Her giggling and his goofy smile was all I needed to see. If she thinks I'm giving him up without a fight... What do I do?
(CASSANDRA offers her the music box.)
The fortune-telling music box?
(CASSANDRA nods.)
All right, why not.

CASSANDRA
Just one catch.

DIANA
How much?

CASSANDRA
Not that. You see, I'll tell you your fate, but you won't believe me.

DIANA
Why not?

CASSANDRA
You just won't.

DIANA
Then what's the point?

CASSANDRA
Do you want to know or not?

DIANA
Fine. Sure. Whatever. I don't believe in this stuff anyway.

CASSANDRA
Then wind it up.
(DIANA takes the music box and CASSANDRA starts juggling.)

DIANA
Why do I have to do it?

CASSANDRA
It's your future.
(DIANA winds up the music box. She lets it play and CASSANDRA begins her prophecy.)
What you now think, the opposite is true. Trust them both and it'll be just him and you. But if you become her enemy, you'll lose them both through your jealousy.
(CASSANDRA catches two balls and lets the third drop. Pause)

DIANA
That's it?

CASSANDRA
That's it.

DIANA
That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

CASSANDRA
Told you so.

DIANA
Of course I don't believe you. I saw them together, and now I'm supposed to pretend nothing happened?

CASSANDRA
What did happen?

DIANA
Oh knowing Minerva I can imagine. And you want me to believe that if I let it go Troy and I will live happily ever after?

CASSANDRA
That's the gist of it.

DIANA
But if I make a big deal of it, then I'll lose him.

CASSANDRA
That's right.

DIANA
I don't know why I'm even talking to you. I just need some time to figure this out, OK?

CASSANDRA
OK.

DIANA
I'm really confused right now and I don't want to lose him, but...

CASSANDRA
Right.

DIANA
But he cheated on me! And... and... and you're not a very funny clown!
(DIANA goes off to think while CASSANDRA practices some prat falls or something else clownish. MINERVA enters, talking to someone offstage.)

MINERVA
No, I'll be right back. I've got a craving for some cotton candy, that's all.
(Slight pause)
Because I don't want her to see me, what would she think?
(MINERVA starts to cross the stage and stops when she sees DIANA.)
Oh. Hi, Diana.

DIANA
You.

CASSANDRA
(Still practicing)
I'm telling you, Diana, walk away, and leave it for another day.

MINERVA
Diana, look, it's not what you think.
(DIANA grabs MINERVA by the hair.)
Ow! Stop it!

DIANA
You little flirt!

MINERVA
You're hurting me!

DIANA
Give me one reason why I shouldn't rearrange that pretty little face of yours.

MINERVA
Nothing happened!

DIANA
You expect me to believe that? How many has it been, Minerva? How many guys have you stolen from me?

MINERVA
I... I don't know.

DIANA
Too many to count, huh? I could never have a boyfriend without you flirting with him. Next thing I know he's run off with you.
(MINEVERA pushes DIANA away.)

MINERVA
Look, I know I've been stupid before, but I would never try to take Troy away from you. We were just talking.

DIANA
You with a guy is never just talk.

MINERVA
Is that what you think of me? Diana, please, we've been friends since the fourth grade.

DIANA
And why's that? You couldn't get enough guys on your own?

MINERVA
Troy and I broke up. In fact, I broke up with him, remember? He wants to be with you.
(DIANA pushes MINERVA.)

DIANA
What, losing your touch?

MINERVA
Are you even going to hear me out?

DIANA
I'm not in the mood for your excuses, Minerva. This is the last straw.
(She pushes MINERVA again.)

MINERVA
Stop it.

DIANA
What's the matter? Don't have the guts to stand up to me on your own? You can only go behind my back, is that it?
(MINERVA slaps DIANA.)
I hate you.

MINERVA
You know what? If you weren't so crazy jealous all the time your boyfriends wouldn't keep running to me looking for a little sympathy.

DIANA
Is that what Troy did? Run to you for sympathy?

MINERVA
Sort of... I mean, no... Look, if you'll just let me explain...

DIANA
Ahhh!!!
(DIANA goes after MINERVA and they struggle. CASSANDRA starts the music box playing and then juggles again.)

CASSANDRA
Stop!
（They do.)
What did she do to earn this hate? Make peace, Diana, it's not too late. Or else your fate may lead to blood, and you'll lose them both. Perhaps you should.
(She catches two balls and lets the third one fall.)

MINERVA
What?

DIANA
The music box tells the future.

MINERVA
What?

DIANA
She's a prophet... juggler... clown-person.

MINERVA
What?

CASSANDRA
You can still make it right, Diana. Be happy ever after, be best friends for life.

DIANA
With her? I don't think so.

MINERVA
It wasn't what you think! Troy just needed a friend.

DIANA
How convenient.

MINERVA
He's sick of your stupid jealousy. But you're good together, most of the time. I told him how much you care about him. I was trying to help you both.

DIANA
Are you kidding me? After all the times you've gone after my boyfriends you think that I –

CASSANDRA
Who wants to hear a joke?

MINERVA
Yes! Let's all just calm down and hear a joke from the clown.
(CASSANDRA starts juggling again.)

CASSANDRA
There was this guy. He married a woman who was beautiful but crazy jealous. So one day when he went out without telling her she followed him. When he secretly met her best friend she was convinced he was unfaithful and in a fit of rage she stabbed them both. Turns out they were just planning her birthday party.
(Pause)

MINERVA
How is that funny?

CASSANDRA
I guess it's not. I never was a very good clown.

DIANA
You're not much of a juggler either. What's the point, Cassandra?

CASSANDRA
Fate likes to test us, make us show our true colors. Will you trust your best friend, or assume the worst? Right or left?

DIANA
Why don't you tell me, O Instrument of Fate? Or do I need to wind up the music box of destiny again?

CASSANDRA
Trust me, this'll all look better in the morning.

DIANA
So I should just walk away and let her run off with my boyfriend?

MINERVA
Just because we used to date doesn't mean –

DIANA
I know you want him back.

MINERVA
That's all over, Diana. But I couldn't blame him for leaving you after the way you've treated him.
(DIANA slaps MINERVA. MINEVERA shoves DIANA.)
I am so sick of you! You're so jealous of everyone you don't see what a great thing you've already got.

DIANA
I saw you with him. I saw the two of you... I saw...
(DIANA unconsciously reaches for a weapon and CASSANDRA tosses an umbrella into her hand.)
I'm not letting you steal Troy away from me!
(DIANA prepares to use the umbrella like a sword and stab MINERVA, but CASSANDRA has a second umbrella and blocks the blow.)

CASSANDRA
It's too late now. You've lost him. He'll go back to her now.

DIANA
I knew it. The two of you, behind my back. I'll bet you never really left him. You've been making a fool of me this whole time.

CASSANDRA
(To MINERVA)
You should go now. You and Troy will be very happy together.

MINERVA
But why?

CASSANDRA
Because she went left.

DIANA
This is all your fault. You and your stupid fate.
(She attacks CASSANDRA and they "sword" fight with the umbrellas.)

MINERVA
Diana, stop, we can work this out. We'll go back to Troy and –

DIANA
Shut up! I don't ever want to see you again!

MINERVA
Diana, we're best friends, please...
(MINERVA gets in the way of the fight as DIANA lunges with her "sword." CASSANDRA takes the blow instead and is stabbed by DIANA.)

DIANA
Oh my God...

MINERVA
What did you do? You killed a clown. Troy's right, you are nuts!
(She runs off and exits.)

DIANA
Minerva, please... I'm sorry...

CASSANDRA
You know, I saw this coming.

DIANA
Go right, and everything would have been fine...

CASSANDRA
...go left and... Fate's a funny thing.

DIANA
I didn't believe you.

CASSANDRA
Yeah.

DIANA
Now what?

CASSANDRA
It's funny, I don't know.
(DIANA picks up the music box, winds it, and lets it play. Blackout.)