Archive for the ‘Theater’ Category

Yikes. Had a long couple of days and feel pretty wiped out. Can’t believe we’re only halfway through this week.

So, I’m all but there – at the finish line. My play was initially due today; but because I wasn’t getting read, Hanay graciously told me to bring a hard copy by his office tomorrow, late afternoon. So, I will drop that off and have my 434 one on one with John Sweet. At that point, I will be absolutely done.

The extra day came in quite handy. I spent all of day, rewriting the piece. Let me just say, it was a much more tedious rewrite than I initially envisioned. There’s still a bunch of work to be done, but it’s finally in a cohesive place that hangs together well and makes sense. So, onward and upward.

Time now for sleep. More tomorrow.

It SEEEMS to slow down.

The pressure appears to lift.

The too much to do crunch-crunch-crunch of sleeplessness, constant doing, phone vibrating, emails flooding in quiets.

But, you know. You just know that it’s just the eye that we’ve slipped into. A lull, if you will, before the next wave. In the corner with the Cut Man and Trainer, shaking off the last round, getting ready for the bell.

At least that’s how I feel today, which was an unexpected lost day. Sure, I pushed my play around like a young tyke pushes his carrots and peas around his plate, hoping they’ll just eat themselves.

Part of this stemmed from the late news today that I won’t be getting read on Tuesday with the actual MFA Playwrights in the final class. That was the current in the final push – to not be embarrassed in front of the Playwrights and the Theater Faculty as my full-length is read out loud. The stakes would’ve noticeably higher, basically. I’m actually good with not getting read. I feel strong about the play and I know its in an early developmental phase, still incubating essentially, subjecting it to the rigors of a harried workshop read with non-performers reading and no prep. This definitely encourage notes and opinions which most certainly would’ve clouded the forward progress of future rewrites. Instead, I’ll polish for clarity and continuity tomorrow and hand it in on Tuesday, or possibly before. Hanay will be happy with the effort throughout and the quality of the work. I will launch into a true rewrite later in the week.

With SKEET in the bag after Jason’s quick, excellent work with tightening the new version and emphasizing some key emotional turns I only glanced at in my draft, we now are looking at a TV pilot we’ve had to wait on a bit (for me to clear some head space and time) which we can attack and Jason’s take on a script of mine SUNGATE, which I’m really excited about and am trying real hard to remain patient for! From there we have the Serial Killer/Procedural and a rewrite of the CHINATOWN/INDIAN CASINO script and then….whatever we dream up next.

To be certain, we have quite a back catalog of scripts and ideas that need to be addressed, so there’s no real shortage here. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but we’re both writers who don’t really heal to the idea of writer’s block. We’re sit down, roll up the sleeves, and chisel away until it starts working writers. Which adds to the strength of the partnership. I don’t believe writer’s block exists. I just don’t. You have to give yourself permission to fail (ah, there’s that word again.) You have to encourage yourself to write poorly, as much as you encourage yourself to write well.

And with that, I realize I’m getting off topic. Which means I’ll take this opportunity to reign it in a bit, and get to what I initially wanted to hit upon, which is we are entering a period where we’ll be writing for ourselves You always are to some degree, but the deadlines hovering over from the projects worked on will all be of our own making and policing. It’s a different sort of pressure, for sure. One that I’ve been five years removed from. Should be fun. Might actually get back to a more sane work load of only tackling one or two projects at a time.

Ahhh, who am I kidding?

So much to gab about, so little time tonight to gab about it. So, without further ado, let’s hit it:

-I’m hesitant to say anything about the Cardinals at the moment. (Did you see tonight’s box score, Dad? Not bad. Not bad at all.) Let’s just simply say: YAY! And leave it at that.

- Mouth? Still sore. But, starting to settle in. Body? Still discombobulated. Though I think that’s more from the 48 hour write-a-thon I found myself in, before the final 434 on Thursday. BTW, that script is looking quite sharp. It was a rewrite of one of Jason’s – a spare, dark psychological thriller. Near my sweet spot, so to speak. He did a pass, after I wrapped up on Thursday and the script sparkles in my opinion. Truly sparkles. I want to see this movie. See what a director could do with it.

- The delightful Ms. Antone is in town for the weekend from Prescott, AZ. Always a major league treat! We hustled out to see a play at the Pasadena Playhouse. It’s called boom by Furious Theater Company. It was not the best thing we’ve seen. A little annoying. Tough to say if it was the direction, though, or just the play itself. Overall, I’d say the production was quite well done – acting and set design. But the story turned on a rather trivial and tired joke at the end, with far too much wackiness before that to really hinge on something so – plain. One notable to the evening is that this production featured Julia Duffy, mostly known for her work as a series regular on the funny and endearing sitcom, Newhart .

-Tonight, my niece, Ellen, had her high school graduation party. I wish I could’ve been there, or, more importantly, there on Sunday when she graduates. She’ll be off to Saint Mary’s of Notre Dame, in South Bend, next fall. Congrats, Ellen!

- I’m just glad Ellen made it home, safe and sound from her senior trip – a mission trip to Guatemala that some students do as their senior project. All the students do some sort of aid work as their senior project. This particular trip took place this past week. Which meant that they were trapped in Guatemala after the volcanic eruption and then tropical storm. You can read about it here.

-Always makes me a little melancholy when someone I love, who’s heart is still full of wonder and isn’t hardened to the roughness and inexplicably tragic in the world quite only to get a random glimpse of it before they should. I made choices that I’m not so proud of when I was quite young, lead an extremely reckless and self-destructive life when I was in high school, college, and my 20s. This life brought me out into that rough and inexplicably tragic world far sooner than I should’ve been. When I look back on some of those things, string them together in their proper context, and look at them again in clear eyes, I wouldn’t wish that for anyone’s teenage years. Not what I saw. Not what I did. Not what I learned – about myself, about others, and about the world.

-I have three days to rewrite the play. Should actually be a mellow experience. A nice victory lap on my MFA career.

-I’ve made the decision to search for a 2bd/2ba apartment with my buddy Jacob Bursten-Stern, a fine playwright, former HS basketball star, and good guy. I’ve known Jacob for the full three years of school. We both worked together, as well, at the UCLA Film Archive during our first year. We go to lunch every few weeks, talk shop, etc.. He’s also a very good friend of Tiffany’s, a playwrights who plays poker, has good taste in TV shows and – with Tiffany – kept me in it to win it with playwriting this year. We’ve been discussing this, after Tiffany suggested it, for a couple of weeks. Kind of amiably considering it. Bottom line came down for both of us, at different times, this week and the fact of the matter is that we can find a place in Culver City that’s big and will go for $1300 to $1500. Split that in two, plus split the bills and all of a sudden, I cut my monthly by a third, which is nothing to sneeze at. So, for July 1st as the target date. I hate to give up living alone. But, I’ll have plenty of time for that later. Need to stay in the hunt and this will help that – tremendously.

-Been a frustrating week on the business side of things. That’s all I’ll say for now. It is what it is. Suffice to say, this business is not a very above board, say what you mean style of business. Deciphering the different layers of “I said this, but really meant this.” Or, “I agree to this, but what I really wanted was this.” Is a major pain, most all the time. But, it’s also par for the course, unfortunately, and you just have to grin and bear it. Best advice? Keep writing.

- YAY REDBIRDS!

-Coach John Wooden, The Wizard Of Westwood, passed today. He was considered not only one of, if not the, greatest basketball coach/es. More than that, though, he was a teacher, a mentor, a molder of men. As Vin Scully said: “He is a genius in his ability to inspire There are a few giants who walk among us. He was truly one of them.” Coach Wooden’s spirit pervades all of Westwood. Not just in a basketball sense, but in an inspirational success. One of my favorite Wooden quotes:

“Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”

Below is an brief video from UCLA’s tribute page for Coach Wooden. In it he talks further about failure:

“In life there will be peaks and valleys. The strength of a person’s character depends on their ability to accept both success and failure. Gonna have both.”

That is a lesson former Sony Pictures Head and famed Producer, Peter Guber, who will speak at graduation on Friday, taught quite eloquently in his opening lecture for his class ‘Navigating A Narrative World.” I believe he mentioned that he had learned it from Coach Wooden, but I’m not sure. It is, I feel, the core lesson that UCLA teaches and a resounding truth to life that is all too often overlooked. In all things and in all lives there will be peaks and valleys, you must reconcile that in your heart, have faith and learn to grow from both.

At the end of the tribute, Coach Wooden intones a beautiful poem on letting go of the fear of dying.

God Bless and Good Night.

Didn’t get over here to Guided By Wire,  last night. As the world is aware, it was the LOST finale. Which clocked in at a whopping, and captivating 4 and a half hours. Right after, I sat down for what I thought would be a quick turn on the boards with the climatic scene for my play, KEPT. Alas, it was not a quick turn at all. Which meant another late, late night as I hammered and chiseled my way through the eleven page scene.

I will make this observation regarding writing for the screen versus writing for the stage, or at least how I write for them. When it’s for the screen, the drafting is primarily about execution. You are constructing something. It has a plan, intrinsic principles, mitigated by the intended medium, that must for all intents and purposes be adhered to, in some degree. You can subvert them, but you can’t completely ignore them. So, the oft used analogy of building a house becomes quite appropriate. You are constructing and at every turn is the question as to how you execute the plan and how you alter it to better construct, always working towards the intended final piece.

In playwriting, at least for me – playwrights if you’re out there, pipe up and join the discussion, or if you have a thought, one and all, please speak your mind – I find the its much more of a discovery. So, when writing for the stage, I find I am on a excavation. An archaeology dig of character, plot, theme and its understanding. I know what I hope will be there, or, let me amend that, what should be there; then I dig – slowly, methodically, always parsing the same patch. Eventually, I reveal and remove, then clean up, polish and present to the world what I’ve been fortunate through my diligence to recover. Where am I excavating? In my experience, not necessarily always my life, but rather my experience of the world and what I come into contact with. Does that make sense? I can extend beyond my immediate place, if I’m willing to do the brain work and legwork (even) to travel there. I don’t mean just to go there, but, rather, to inhabit it – to know it as if it were my own immediate place right now. This can be done for either stage or screen. It’s what “write what you know” means to me. You can know anything, if your willing and driven and daring enough to learn.

So, I was excavating last night. Moving back and forth of the lines. Teasing out points of view and reactions, truths and lies, in the space of a dinner. There’s a different magnetic pull to that kind of work. It’s much more sneaky and circular to me, than drafting on a screenplay or TV pilot, which always feels like forward momentum. Building it up, harnessing it, then driving on the power of it to FADE OUT.

Wow. This isn’t so much a brief update is it?! Ha! (Welcome to what I spend far too many of my days contemplating!)

What I had intended was to let you know, with thanks to quotes that Jason pulled  and posted on his blog, that the junior producer that we did the desert feature screenplay with/for read the first draft and responded in a series of texts:

“Holy f@ck the first 35 pages rock! Gallo is very very cool and shady.”

“You guys did a phenomenal job.”

“You boys write fantastically.  The language is loaded with image and expression yet its lean and my eyes blow down the page with ease. You guys did a beautiful job so far and I really believe this could play.”

“F%cking brilliant. Mother f%cking brilliant. Bravo. I loved it.”

Not bad, huh? Means, in the first of three steps, we’re doing pretty good. Always a huge relief to connect that first time up to the plate, makes the rest of the game seem so much smoother. We’ll meet with this producer Wednesday night. Those comments are over several reads that he did, not just one. So, that’s good as well. We’ll get his notes. Hopefully they won’t be involved. Then, we’ll go to his boss, the director of development who worked on the developing the story with us. If he’s on board, then we go up the ladder to the head of the company to see if it’s a go or no go. It’d be great if we sell the script at that juncture, but most likely it won’t quite go that way. At some point though, I’d say we have a decent shot at getting this one across, at least in terms of a sale. Well, actually, I always think that at this stage. We’ll see where it heads from here, after Wednesday.

Have A Beautiful Day….

Thought I’d say hi. That I didn’t really “feel” the Lost episode tonight (just watched it off the DVR.) And just check in. I have a mega-ton of work to do. I spent most of today attacking it. Wasn’t my best day. Wasn’t my worst. Tomorrow, I get another shot at it. Four weeks left. Well, less than four weeks actually (three weeks and six days.) In that time, I am looking at my 434 feature, the feature Jason and I are tackling for Alan @ Right Brain (almost done, cross your fingers/say some prayers – we hope to get paid something for this one), rewriting my play (which needs serious work, not a light pushing about of punctuation,) an original one-hour pilot, and a spec one-hour pilot, as well as anything needed for Clipped when we start actively developing and pitching that. That is a lot. It’s, in fact, a little excessive. I’m sure I’m forgetting something important in there, as well. What can you do? It will get done. It always gets done. That’s what it’s there for – to get done and done well.

Did I mention I still haven’t watched The Lovely Bones? Netflix loves me. Still thinking, way back in the oven, about my next play. I want it to be a two-hander. On the fence about that, though. That’s a lot of heavy lifting, you know? Two characters. Ninety or so pages (or am I crazy, Tiff?) Also, thinking about that first novel – about 10,000 words/300 pages, right? I think so.I have it written down somewhere. First one would be in the vein of Elmore Leonard/Michael Connelly/Dennis Lehane/John Sanford/James Ellroy. Genre/Chicago/Crime/Gritty, but some fun to read. Still circling the seed of that. More to follow when the time is right.

On time and even a little early this week! Let’s get right down to it. We had a sunny, upper seventies day today and hopefully it means summer is underway here in SoCal. Not that we have rough weather, but we’ve definitely had a funky run this winter. Lots of hot-cold, rapid switches. It would be nice to settle in. (I’m not complaining, just making conversation here, jeez! I’m thankful for what we’ve got!)

-Went to dinner tonight with my good friends, JJ and Cheyna, who are back from a Guatemala trip/adventure. They took me to a Santa Monica, low key trattoria called Fritto Misto. In a word? Fabulous. It’s a real simple, store front pasta joint. A good go to, italian dinner. Not too expensive, fresh food. So, along with the always good conversation and stories from their trip, they introduced me to a great new restaurant right down the road. And they brought back Guatemalan coffee for me, which I’m cold brewing as we speak.

-We went to dinner at six. When we walked up to the restaurant, which is on the corner of 6th and Colorado, near the Promenade, their were about ten or so simple plastic chairs – like lawn chairs – you’d find in a patio or around a dinner table in a frat house – on the sidewalk. In a perfect neat row, empty and waiting. We all cast a glance at them as we strolled into a mostly empty restaurant, grabbed a table, and commenced with dinner and catching up. When we left near 8:00 o’clock, the restaurant was full and had that storefront clatter to a busy night; but when we hit the sidewalk I did a double take – all the chairs were full up with people waiting and their were an additional ten or so in little clusters waiting as well. That’s usually the mark of a great restaurant. If nothing else, the manager or owner is smart and prepared.

-Did anyone catch the Cardinals-Pirates game tonight? I didn’t either. But, true to form, I checked the Cardinals box score upon arriving home from dinner. (What? You didn’t? I know my Father did. Anyone else?) In the top of the ninth, with the score tied 3 a piece, Joe Mather (a.k.a. Joey Bombs), came in as a pinch runner at first with two out. Joey got the steal sign from TLR or The Secret Weapon (Jose Oquendo, Current Third Base Coach, Former Utility Player Extraordinaire) and took off from first. Risky call, but you gotta push it – even in May. What transpired next was a thing of absolute hardball beauty. You see, Joey Bombs was dead to rights, out by about two steps, but being the bench player he is (A young Tony LaRussa bench player) who doesn’t want to head back to Memphis if he can help it, dove for the bag. BUT, as the Shortstop swept his glove for the tag, Joey Bombs – in mid-leap, outstretched, all his kinetic energy committed forward to the bag, arms outstretched – raised his arm AND then tilted his body a half-turn UP, completely avoiding the tag in an improbable moment of gravity defying, split-second baseball physics. Joey Bombs barreled into the bag, slid over it, but had the presence of mind to clutch the bag with his right toes to kind of brake his runaway forward momentum. SAFE! Even on the replay, in slo-mo. Yadier Molina doubled Joey Bombs in for the winning run five minutes later. That’s how you play May baseball, people!

- I gotta finish my play this weekend. At least the first draft. Plays evolve. Kind of like novels. So, this is more a just do it thing. Though, I’ll have to do a quick burst of serious rewriting because it will be read by actors in a workshop table read the Tuesday before graduation.

-I think I mentioned that I went to a series (three) of the one-acts from my classmates in the playwriting class. They were all really well done. That’s not meant as a polite bit of propaganda. That’s an honest critical statement. You don’t always see that in your peers in grad school. I was completely enthralled with each piece. I did notice in the course of the night, that I have successfully immersed myself in the theater side this year. Even the professors I haven’t taken know me now and were saying hello and I was there with one of the playwrights. It made me think, this year has been – in terms of school – all about theater. Even though I’m in a Screenwriting 434, I don’t feel of the screenwriting side, like you normally do when that’s your main focus. Part of that’s because my 434 is on a Thursday, which is opposite most everyone elses (which are normally on Monday’s and Tuesday’s.) I’m pretty thrilled that I have had the experience I’ve had in my playwriting classes. It’s the one part of graduating that I’m sad to leave behind. I’d love to keep taking classes – some theater history, more playwriting. It has had a fantastic effect on me.

-Been knocked off the new sleep regimen lately. I have this current determination to see a movie or some TV and read before I turn out the lights. It’s one of those rituals to end the night. Three hours is the usual block, though sometimes it’s two. (I know. That’s a serious chunk of time.) It’s hard for me to give up or get around the drive for it in my head, even when it doesn’t make sense; which with the new sleep schedule is anytime (like last night) that I go out and I’m out past 11. I have the strangest time coming home and just going right to bed. For some reason, I can’t do just that. That’s gonna have to change.

-May go to AZ next weekend to see Big Daddy and Aunt Ginger. I’m planning on it. Hopefully nothing will crop up and disrupt my plans. I have a great time to go over. They’re the absolute best. I’m pretty fortunate to have them relatively close. Plus, I should be able to swing through Prescott and see Tiff, which is an extra added bonus!

-Figured out finances for June, which is good. We’re at the one month at a time point. It’s a tough spot – not the lack of cash flow or uncertainty, though. That I’m used to. I’ve been there plenty of times before and am decidedly non-phased about it right now. It’s more so the in-betweeness careerwise that the option puts us in. It’s not all that unlikely that we could make some money sooner rather than later. When that is (as JJ and I talked about tonight) is anybody’s guess? Is it next month? Is it in six months? Just saying six months is a fantastic thing. Heck, even saying we should make some money in the next year (which I would say, yes, we will almost certainly right now. Like ninety percent certain and rising fast to a hundred,) is a major accomplishment as far as I’m concerned. But, can I hang out for a year until that happens? That becomes the question. And a rather slippery one. Of course, at first blush, I can’t. But the financial space between no and yes for an answer to that question is shorter than one would think, so how do I traverse it, if I have to? Don’t know that yet. Not even close.

- Consider this a part two to the above. You see the trick is momentum and really that’s the core of the dilemma. Sure I could pick up a variety of jobs, patch together a means to make rent, and gut it out. BUT, I can’t stop writing. You have to keep that forward momentum. You have to keep taking meetings, keep pushing, be ready to redirect your efforts on a moments notice, all in, all the time. So, taking on that barista gig is dangerous, because it’s not as flexible as it appears. Momentum must be maintained, now more than ever. In fact, I’d go so far as to say, it has to be pushed harder to make the final summit to paid, working writer. It’s a hustle and if you’re not focused on the hustle, it can pass you right by and getting back becomes a difficult proposition.

-Still haven’t watched The Lovely Bones yet.

That’s all I’ve got tonight, folks. Be good to yourself and do something nice for your Mother or a Mother! Nine months is a long time!

Well, I was going to write about how much I enjoy cover songs, or get into the Cardinals a bit because they’ve been playing some pretty strong baseball lately. It really appears the bats are waking up and stabilizing a bit, so they’re not relying solely on the long ball, which can be dangerous because in baseball slumps happen and in St. Louis, in particular, small ball (or as the faithful still refer to the speedier version of it as “Whiteyball” after the great St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog a.k.a. The White Rat) is the only true way to play baseball. More on that and all things Whitey some other day. As far as the cover songs that’ll have to wait, too. I’ve recently plundered the internet and amassed a war chest of great versions of hits by a fascinating constellation of unique interpreters which have crafted some truly wonderful variations on these standards. I’ll simply say, it’s always captivating for me when you take a song, strip it of its expectations and recast it in a very different light. Often times what occurs for me is that the lyrics (what can I say I’m writer, even if I pine to be a musician deep in my heart of hearts?) often take on a whole new shine and power – revealing the subtlety of their story much more clearly. Someday, as an addendum I will get into just how much song lyrics, and in particular my sister Caroline, influenced me heavily at a very young age – or rather her musical tastes did – and really played an incredibly key role in making me a writer and the kind of writer I am today.

But alas, what I had intended to get into a paragraph ago (Hey, I’m sorry. I’m tired. Still a bit scattered and well, would like to go watch The Pacific and Breaking Bad before bed, which comes really early now) is the new play idea I danced around last night a bit. I of course had playwriting today, which is always grand. Turns out the playwright Sheila Callaghan, of the play Tiffany and I loved on Thursday night – Lascivious Something – was my professor, Hanay’s T.A. when she was at UCLA (His best T.A., according to Hanay.) So we got some brief stories and Hanay remembrances about the playwright. In the context of this afternoon discussing playwriting and reading pages by some of the other playwrights, I believe I cracked how I would handle this new idea – the second one – which is all dependent on how I frame it and approach the physicality of the story. It again would largely happen in one space, or at least there would be one set on the stage, another physcial space, and even time, would be indicated by two chairs down front left or right in a separate pool of light. Now the next decision is whether I’m going to go all August: Osage County on the set and make two or three levels. That’s asking a lot. This one would be set in Chicago as well, would be faintly autobiographical, not involving any of the time I lived there though – which I’m sure sounds odd. You’ll see when I write it. Anways, I think I may very well be in the midst of a Chicago trilogy of plays. Very interesting. I didn’t think of it quite like that, but it all makes sense. Even number three….might just have another new idea for another play.

Have an excellent day out there!

Thought, why not? Though I’m a few days behind, I do like to write this particular post, most of all in the week. Not completely sure why, though it probably has to do with the lighter, rapid-fire nature of  the writing of it. Without further ado:

-Did a lot of reading today. A lot. Sometimes you just have to do that. It’s all part of the package, just like the meetings and attending a fair number of events to network. I tend to forget really quickly that it is part of the work load, so I’ve been trying to work on that a bit. Give myself a slight break. Realize, maybe, that I can’t do it all at once in the course of a day.

-I was mostly reading scripts for the UCLA Professional Program Screenwriting Contest, which my score sheets are due tomorrow. I was also reading and giving notes on a script for an alumna Bruin Scribe. The Professional Program is, of course, what I attended online that was a key factor in my eventual acceptance into UCLA. This is my third year reading for the contest. Always an interesting experience, I will say that. The Professional Program is a mixed bag, basically. I love it to death, and am grateful for what I experienced and learned while in it. But, and I saw this in my PP classes, some people are serious and others aren’t, or lack the wherewithal to actually write a script. That being said, this year the six scripts I read were, unfortunately, average. Decidedly average. Which struck me as strange. I mean average in a contest way, not a professional way. These are all usually first or second drafts, at best. So they’re rough to begin with. But usually you have that dazzling script that leaps out at you, amid a few that you can’t believe you have to read. In the end it is a great reminder that I was just there three years ago and in three years, I may look back on my UCLA work and think, “How was that ever any good?” In other words, keep learning. Keep growing. Keep reaching.

- Okay, that one wasn’t so random, or light or quick.

- Upon recommendation of a few trusted fellow screenwriters, I finally checked out the Zac Effron/Matthew Perry comedy 17Again, last night. I have to say they were spot on. It was good, fun entertainment. Better than expected, even. Definitely a solid film. Also, I’ve come to realize I’m a Leslie Mann fan. She probably made the movie for me. That is one funny lady.

- I finally have The Lovely Bones to watch from Netflix. This is one of my most favorite, if not tied for most favorite novels of all time. Truly a stunning, heart breaking, and ultimately, uplifting story. the movie didn’t fare to well. I wanted to catch it in the theater, but it slipped away from me in the holiday season onslaught last year. I’m a little hesitant to watch it. I want to love it, like I loved the book, but I know that’s going to be one tall order because of the way the story unfolds.

- I am in the final stages of the first, rough, get it down draft of my play. I have to say, I’m very happy that I’ve taken this journey. Luckily, it’s just begun – with this play and with other plays. I’m already circling two different ideas for my next play. I won’t be able to leap into it right away, but sometime over the summer. One idea would involve a fair amount of research. One would require me to really ponder how I would use the stage to tell the story, what the tone would be, and what the frame of the story would be (a weekend, a lifetime, one day, a night, etc…) And right now has only two people in it, but would need more. Hmmmm. My instincts are twitching towards the second already…..

-Then there’s the idea of fiction and two novels I’ve dwelt on forever. Well, actually three. But, that’s getting a bit ahead of myself, probably. I keep thinking I should return to trying my hand at short stories, first. To just test the medium a bit, find my rhythm in it. That’s a tall order, though. Not sure it’s quite feasible, yet.

-Our friend and fellow UCLA Screenwriter, David is doing better. So if you’ve been saying a few prayers, thank you, and if you could say some more, I’m sure he would appreciate it.

I think that’ll do it for this late edition. Thanks for playing. Have a Happy Monday. Go Redbirds!

Tomorrow is hump day, of course, and I don’t know about anyone else; but I’m looking forward to getting through it. Seems like there’s been a ton of meetings, lots of development stuff on various projects, which while quite a bit of fun, is also pretty exhausting overall. Though, I can happily report, we are fast approaching a time when – at least for the better part of two months – it will just be writing time.

Lots of good, positive stuff happening on the feature side with Right Brain. We were in today for another story breaking section. A marathon four and a half hour session, on the magnetic whiteboard, 3X5 carding the plot/scenes of the screenplay (Chinatown in the Desert.) All four of us – Alan and his boss, Seth  - who’s head of development there – Jason, and myself. I’ll say this – we’ve been firing on all cylinders and it’s been feeling excellent every step of the way. Today was a lot of fun. We’ve been through the plot of the story several times. I’d say we have three very different versions that we’ve worked through. But each time we’ve made it better and tighter and more exciting. I know that Seth and Alan are both very high on our work and our work ethic. Which should be a good thing for us going forward. We are at the outline stage, then we’ll have one more meeting in the first week of April. Once the outline checks out, we’ll go to pages and write the first draft. From there, if we do our job (and deep down I know we will, because we can deliver), we’ll hopefully be out to actors and directors early this summer. Which would be incredible. I don’t want to get ahead of the curve, there’s still a long road and a lot of work to do, but it’s nice to be working directly for the next stage; instead of the idea of the next stage. Does that make sense? Either Right Brain will make this or they won’t. It’s their decision. Which is refreshing and motivating. It just doesn’t always happen like that.

So, we’ll see what happens. Think happy thoughts and say some prayers. I can safely say we’ll take all the assistance we can get. Tomorrow we have a meeting with Tony on the John Doe feature. Our outline is in place and in excellent shape. We’re basically ready to go off and write that one. So, we should be underway on that one sooner than later. That one’s so close to reaching a cruising altitude. Can’t wait.

All right. I’m tired. After the long, but fruitful session, I went to play poker with the playwrights – which is always a blast – at Tiffany’s house. I came out ahead tonight, which was a first. It wasn’t looking good in the first half, but I bounced back. Always love poker night. Buy in is five bucks, so it’s not like we’re breaking the bank. And though we all act tough playing, if we didn’t have Adam’s gentle, but firm guiding hand, we’d probably slide into playing hearts or euchre or go fish or just gabbing away over the buffet of snacks we lay out on the table. Though tonight was special – Tiff made awesome chicken BBQ sandwiches for us. Gotta love it!

Good night.

It’s that time of the year again. We lose the hour we gained in the fall. I must confess, I believe Arizona does it right – let’s just leave time alone and quick shuffling it around. My thoughts are with all you bartenders and cocktail waitresses and doormen out there tonight. Especially in the Chicago 4 o’clock bars. You would think the city would pass some kind of ordinance or law regarding this particular evening in the Windy City. Alas, they don’t. So, as is the case on Saturday nights normally, bars are open an extra hour. So the 4 o’clock licenses are open until 5 a.m., and you would guess that because we spring forward, they get an hour back and a thrilled with the short night. Lord knows, in the fall, when you “fall” back, the Bar Owners force you to adhere to the time switch and add the extra hour to the night, milking it for all they can. But, they don’t give you that hour back. Instead, they claim it doesn’t kick in until after you close. Which, means you still grind it out for the full slot. Never, never, never a fun night in the late night bars. Especially this close to St. Patrick’s Day.

The Friday Night Random were a little short. I was a bit sleepy, so I had to pull the plug. Besides, seems like things are at a cruising altitude lately and not much newness is afoot. Besides, taking a peek beyond at post Spring Quarter a.k.a. the rest of my life, and seeing what might come next for a little bit, as I let several options play out. Not quite sure what that all looks like quite yet. You could say I’m taking a pretty thorough inventory of all that I have going in my life – as in what financially do I have to maintain in my day to day between the doctors and my rent and the loans and general bills, etc… There are a lot more moving parts to my life in L.A., than there ever was in Chicago. Lots of personal things that I started which I would strongly prefer to keep going, so it will take a bit more thinking and planing and, ultimately, good old fashioned faith. As long as I take action where and when I can, the rest will follow when it’s needed. Maybe not when I want, but it always does when it’s needed. This much I know is true. This much I’ve learned first hand over the past ten years.

So another wonderful play tonight out in Pasadena. It was MEN OF TORTUGA by the Furious Theater Company. The production was tightly directed and the actors were spot on. The play itself featured some hilariously wicked lines and the whole performance zipped along at a lightning fast pace. Overall the run time was just under two hours, but felt like forty-five minutes. Again, their was no intermission, but scenes were fairly contained and their were blackouts in between each; which is how I’m structuring my play, KEPT. Overall, I would say MEN OF TORTUGA was the play that is most similar, that I’ve seen or read,  to the actual rhythm/construction of mine. The scenes are not super short like some of Craig Lucas’ in RECKLESS, which we read for class. Neither are they epic long like Edward Albee’s THE GOAT or THREE TALL WOMEN.

In all honesty, I’ve really fallen in love with the theater all over again. It’s been a long time. Part of me wonders about the feasibility of getting a second MFA in Playwriting at some point, mostly to open up any teaching career down the road to more opportunities. One thing that’s been unique, and mesmerizing to me in a writer-geek way, during this excursion into this form is that I’ve slowly developed a completely different process to tackling the telling of a story in it. This is a process that is thoroughly the anti-thesis of my process for writing television pilots or screenplays. In film writing, I am a planner. I am a developer. I utilize a “platform” method and writing a script can take on the rhythm of building a house. There are steps, progressions, that must be met to ensure a strong story that will stand up to the elements. Things aren’t always as rigid as this sounds, but for the most part their is a methodology at play. Very specific tools are used to tackle problems and questions, to draw out the best solutions. In writing a play, I have settled into an early approach of complete investigation. I write a scene, step back and see what is going on, what emotions and thoughts are at play and proceed from their to the next scene that I feel I should write. Scenes are written out of order. Sometimes, in writing a scene for KEPT, I don’t even know where it will go or if it will stay in. Therefore, in the shaping of the play I slowly tease out what I would endeavor to plan out in a film script (The narrative throughline and the emotional arc.) I’ll have a sense, unformed even, of what I want it to be, but not the foggiest notion of what that will ultimately entail. It’s so freeform and I think if you polled most of my peers they would say I was definitely not a free form writer. So, in accomplishing this beautiful defeat of all my normal tendencies, I’ve really broaden my horizons and settled deeper into the process of writing, over the results. That is a stellar lesson to learn.