Catalyst

Right now, I'm importing the video from the recent production of All Grace onto the computer in preparation for editing and creating a DVD. I look over at the screen every so often and catch a glimpse of a moment and remember what it was like to see this play come to life in its new form. My mind fills with laughing at rehearsals and making tiny flicks with my pen, scratching out words and crossing out lines as the words hit my ears. "Save those changes for later," I thought. By the end of the four weeks of rehearsal, I had lines and notes on every page, symbols and markings to remind me how to move monologues, where there was a moment missing, where the play could take a breath, where I wasn't letting the characters just "be," where my words were getting in the way of the characters' words.

The Saturday before last, while my wife, Rachael, was in Scotland for a music/dance conference, I spent a good three hours at my office (Cup O Joe), putting those changes into the script, and finding new discoveries as I relived the play page by page. It was one of the best rewriting sessions I've had in a long time, mostly because it wasn't extreme. I had the form of the play; this was merely shaping and focusing. I surprised myself a few days later when I actually wrote letters and sent samples of the play to five different theatres. I felt so confident in the changes, in the experience the actors and audience had, that I just pushed myself to get the play out there. It wasn't until a couple of days later that I began to second guess myself. "Are the first fifteen pages of the play strong enough to make an impression?" "If I were them, would I ask to read the rest of the play?"

I sent mental messages to the literary departments: "It gets better! The good stuff is later in the play! Give it a chance! It's good! I swear! Just ask to read the rest of it and you'll see!"

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While All Grace continues to import, I've been passing the time away doing rewrites on the book for the musical The Conquest of Don Pedro. I'd been putting off rewrites because I wasn't in the right mindset or headspace to work on the play... Haven't been in the right headspace to do much of anything lately, but that's beside the point...

Yesterday, I was doing some thinking about projects that I had put on the back burner while I've been attempting to get my life in line (job, house, yard, etc.). One of those prrojects was, obviously, Don Pedro. Emotionally, I didn't want to jump into rewrites, but mentally I knew that I had to get it done otherwise the project would go on for another five years. Yes, I've been working on this musical for five years... At least... When I started working on the musical, I had just written my "first" play Dialogues with Lars. Now, after perhaps 7 years and 10 plays later, I'm still working on it. Part of what's been difficult has been the change in my voice as a writer. When I first started, I had only just begun to dig into defining my voice and just in the past two years of being out of graduate school, my writing has shifted and changed. What this has done is keep us focused on rewriting and rewriting the first act. Thankfully, we've moved on to the second act, though the first act could use some polishing... God, will it ever be done?

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