Another Weekend

Another weekend, another draft of "Holy Schmidt!" Well, at least the second act of Schmidt... I've been engrossed and buried in "Schmidt" for the past couple of weeks as I try to get the draft ready for the reading on May 2. It's been so exhausting that I've only managed to sketchily work on my other plays. Though when I do find a scene or two in another play, I feel that it's my strongest work to date. I feel like it's easier to get into these scenes. Scenes I can do apparently, but crafting those scenes into a full play... That's another story.

And speaking of another story, it's amazing how projects that I've left behind resurface when the time is right. For example, my play "The Drowning Dance" that I started writing in undergrad was rewritten last year to a point where I considered it unsalvagable. I didn't know what the play was about anymore and couldn't find my way back into the characters that I was writing. The play lost its soul and the fangs. No more power was left in the play... But this past week, I started to think about a friend of mine and the way she functions in the world-- always making herself out to be the victim, even when a situation doesn't involve her! This was the mindset in which I was writing the play. I couldn't get into the characters because I had moved past that point in my life and had become aware of that particular mechanism in my past personality. So, now, I can see where the play rests and put myself back into it. Also, a somewhat chance meeting with a college friend this weekend, helped to concretize several of the characters ever further. I guess there is some merit in going to places where I wouldn't normally find myself...

I was also inspired by this friend to find a new pocket-sized journal to carry around everywhere. I've become much too dependent on my laptop... Which is interesting as I sit here and type... But I need to have something with me always for those thoughts, those wonderful ideas and observations that hit in life. I need to have this with me. I hope to God this isn't just a fad or a phase I'm going through. I want this to be something to carry on as I move ahead in my career. It's something I've left behind and miss terribly.