Seven Deadly Plays

(Love this picture, but can't take credit for it. Lifted it from the lovely and wonderful The Rant.)

Hello, Friends,

I haven't posted in so long because I'm a dork. I changed the template and in the process somehow eliminated a sign-in link. I locked myself out of my own blog! I'm not exactly sure how I got in, so I figure I better post something while I can.

What's happening?

I recently wrapped up participating in a playwrighting competition for Fine Print Theatre Company. Didn't win, but we made it to the finals. It's a rock musical called Senioritis that I am writing with Pete Ficht, a friend of mine from college. The competition turned out to be a great way to kick us into gear.

For July, I will continue to work on that and today I am going to take a crack at a script for Deathscribe. I love horror, but I find it very difficult to write. The problems I run into are similar to problems many people run into with writing comedy. Everything's already been done. How can I make this interesting and scary? It also must be written for radio, which comes with its own set of challenges. A common mistake people make is creating a dialogue heavy piece. As in stage and film, a ton of dialogue and little action runs the risk of being very boring. Radio is a visual medium. It's about painting vivid pictures in people's heads that tell a story. I have half a kernel of an idea that I will see if I still like by the end of the day.

The next big thing is... Seven Deadly Plays. Don Hall and I have had many conversation about how to follow-up 365 Sketches and 50 Plays. I have fallen in love with tight deadlines and wanted to emulate many of the 24-Hour projects I have participated in. I also wanted to challenge myself on where I write and see how environment can affect content. Thus, Seven Deadly Plays. Each ten minute play will be written in a day by me on my iPad in a potentially dangerous location. Some spots we've tossed around are the ferris wheel at Navy Pier, a sewage treatment plant, the shark tank at Shedd, on a street corner in Englewood, observation deck at Sears Tower. If you have any suggestions, please post them in the comments section. Would love to have a bigger list to whittle down. Each short play will also use that location for its setting.

We open Thursday, August 23rd on the mainstage (air conditioned!) of The Strawdog Theatre. Eight days out, I will start writing the first play. That means the first group will have a week to put their play together and the last brave group will have the day of opening night. As in many of the 50 Plays, the director and cast for each play will be predetermined and I will be writing a piece for them.

We also might be doing a latenight series that week in Hugen Hall. If we're able to do something, it will either be drawing from monologues from 365 and 50 or more workshopping of Seniroitis. Or both.

I'll keep you updated, assuming I don't lock myself out of my blog, again. Hope you can make it to the shows.