Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Horror

I'm in that horrible place.

It's muddy and dark.

You somehow find yourself there even though there is never a map. You somehow find yourself there but there is no map and so you can't find your way out.

I'm about two-thirds into this redraft and I'm starting to think that I'm fucking with what I had to start with. Fucking with what was alright and have now made it terrible instead of making it better. Making it good.

This is horrible, and I'm struggling hard to make it stop.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Bye Bye

Had my last rehearsal today and no one seemed very concerned that I was not coming back – probably a good sign that it was time to leave. So leave I have and now my focus turns to getting the word out there. I've got about 200 postcards to get out there so getting out is what I will have to do this week and next in between doing the rewrite for Good World. God, it all seems so much and all I want to do is go to bed.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

What’s up pussycat?

Finished at cash job and it looks like I'll be doing my real job next week which is quite an exciting prospect. So much so I had way too many glasses of wine last night and woke up this morning feeling like crap that had been fermented in a wine cask. AKA not pretty. Anyway I trudged up the road and got myself a plate of bacon and eggs and started a slow recovery.

Have been working feverishly on the new draft of Good World which I am hoping to get done and dusted in the next week. I am going to have to put the wine glass down in order to do it but people have made larger sacrifices in the name of art. In the new draft I haven't screwed with the structure too much but enough for it to be much cleaner and (hopefully shorter). I would like it to be around the 90 minute mark which is about 80 pages à in the current draft it's just over 100 pages. I have also got rid of one of the playing stages which was a bare space that served as various outside locations. I never liked it as it looked like a device I had just thrown in (which basically it was) so I've got rid of it and given the characters one space in which they don't leave until the end. That's all they get so they are just going to have to make do with that! I think it's going to give much more of a claustrophobic air to the whole thing which is exactly what it needs.

There's three characters in it - two sisters and a stranger. I'm going to keep the stranger outside for a lot longer – until the end of Act One. I think (hope) that it is going to build the tension of the whole piece.

So that's what I'm working on at the moment, as well as writing answers to email interview questions and baking brownies for my actors.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Update

Am back at the day job for a few days with nothing much to do all day so working on all the admin stuff I need to do which is cumulating at an alarming rate. Emails here, lists there, blah, blah, blah. But a real office environment seems to suit this except when I have to suddenly shut it all down and do real work. Thankfully, that doesn't happen much.

Things are progressing nicely with the epic which opens in three weeks exactly. This is both an exciting and terrifying prospect. I think the time when we all muck around and try stuff in rehearsals is quickly about to be replaced with "Nice. Now do it like this. Exactly like this." I'm off to my last rehearsal on Sunday where all questions will be answered, the script will be locked down, and then I can go and you know, continue with the emails and the lists. I say this like I hate it. I don't. This is exciting. This is very, very exciting.

Monday, October 20, 2008

What the fuck?

For some reason Blogger won't publish photos when I am writing this without signing in. Whatever. Let me tell you if you read the post about the postcard, trust me it is awesome. If you live in Melbourne, you will probably see them around. Come. Come and say hello. Come and buy me a drink. You know I want it, and perhaps even deserve it. Writing plays is hard.

Read this too

I'm also reading this and feeling very unproductive. I'm off to buy some of her plays. If her blog is anything to go by, this is one woman than needs to be read, produced, loved and adored. And her kid is the cutest thing in the world.

Go now and read

In case you haven't got to it yet, you should all go out and read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's one of my fave reads of this year.

What’s with the no-show?

Oh, where have I been? I promise myself to be so good about this blogging thing. And when I'm doing it, I actually really like it. But then I don't do it. And I read blogs fanatically so I'm so into the whole blogging thing but just can't get into gear for my own. I'm sure that means something. I'm sure that shows insight into who I am and why I'm ridiculously unproductive but let's leave the psychology for someone else. This is supposed to be a theatre blog for fucks sake.

On that note, rehearsals for the epic are well under way and while there have been a few tough moments, it's actually going rather smoothly. The cast are fantastic – smart, good, hard-working and jumping into this with an enthusiasm I only expect from cult members. I'm so excited I could bust a lung. Seriously. I think it's going to be great. Either way it's happening and that's the most exciting thing in the world. I should stop praising myself … really, I should … anytime … soon. Promise.

I have spent the last couple of days getting the postcards done which look like this:


And I did it all myself. I know. I totally rock. I have a thing for doing my own images for plays. I didn't take the picture. That was the wonderful Marg Horwell who did all these amazing images. That's the lead, Kylie Trounson, in the picture. She's equally amazing. We are all amazing. Even the chocolate brownies I baked for rehearsals were amazing.

In other theatre news, I have been thinking about the other play, Good World, and have decided that while I thought I was done, I'm really not and there is a better play waiting for me to freakin write it. I spent three hours this morning just writing notes for it all and now I have to go write an outline. I have to go back to the cash job later this week so I'm going to write a plan of the new scenes so when I get home I can go "Right … scene blah blah and scene what the fuck tonight. Go!". I want to get it written rather quickly … because I want to enter it in this and win some money and get to New York. I really want to get to New York next year. And not just for a week. I want to go for like two months and just hang out. Be in New York. It's time. It's way past time. And I'm so going to win it … And there goes the praising myself. Little voice just piped up … Get your hand off it Murdoch. As if.

Perhaps we should turn this into a psychology blog.

Monday, October 13, 2008

I’m am so cool with what you are doing I’m practically an popsicle

Had another rehearsal yesterday and things are progressing very nicely. Only minor cuts to the script but there is still one scene that is bothering me. I'm starting to really enjoy these rehearsals. The actors are top-notch brilliant and they do all this weird stuff with my characters that for once don't make me think "Stop that. Stop that right now. You are physically hurting me with that crap you're going on with." Instead I'm all like you're cool, that is very cool, that not so cool but keep going. Director creature told me about what she's planning for the set and that is way, way cool and I'm so excited I could seriously bust a lung.

I still have one scene that is problematic and really should be taken out the back for a good spanking – which is what I'm going to do today. I also have a press release to fix up and then I'm off to see Tim Crouch's An Oak Tree tonight. Busy, busy, busy.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

What else?

Because of rehearsals there hasn't been a lot of time for anything else at the moment … or the desire to do anything else. But I'm hoping to change that today. I want to get a few more monologues done today, I want to bake some stuff for rehearsals tomorrow, and I want to get the mock-up of the flyer for One Cloud done. Oh, and I've got to get some research notes together for the actors because apparently I said I would. I also have to get the papers, do some washing, and clean my bathtub. I just looked it and it's gross.

Rehearsals

One Cloud kicked off its rehearsals on Wednesday in the most charming church hall I have ever seen. Only 5 out of the 7 actors could make it as well as the set designer. We had our first read through of the entire script and it was the first time I had heard this draft. It stood up remarkably well. So much so I went home and spent Thursday cutting 11 pages from the script. Yesterday we did 6 hours on two scenes which left my head hurting by the end of it. I'm really not a fan of rehearsals. I do really like sitting in a room writing these things. But, I soldier on. As I haven't spent a lot of time in rehearsal rooms I'm finding that the hardest thing is to just sit there and let them figure it out on their own and not saying, well, if you just read it right you will see that it's so completely different from what you are doing now and right now you are baby raping my poor play. I haven't done that. I've thought about doing that but I've swallowed the urge. Good little playwright.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Degrees of Slackness

Have not managed to get much writing done in the last few days … she says despairingly and with deep, heavy sighs. But as we all know this is rarely the case. Let's see.

Friday

Friday I wrote 17 pages on the children's play which is of course turning it into a children's epic and any poor child that was made to sit through it in its present form would see their childhood quietly slip away. However, am starting to actually get a grip on the story and while most of what I have written will get tossed to the gutter never to see the light of day, I do think I am getting very close to actually nailing this thing into place. First draft people. First draft.

Friday night I started a new short youth play which I got a couple of pages done on and am feeling quite happy about myself. It's a cute little piece, and while I promised to do a post on what is with all this youth stuff, I don't think I will. Let's just say that I am trying to diversify. Or make money. Or both.

I also made fabulous lists of all the things I have to do marketing wise for One Cloud. It made me feel all important and grown-up. Yet to cross anything off the list.

Saturday

Friday night best friend creature who has (we hope) temporarily moved interstate texted that she was flying down for the weekend and so Saturday morning had to clean up the house a bit so she didn't gasp in horror and run for the hills. But she was late and while I should have used the 45 minutes to write, I actually used it to read which was fab because I am trying to get the reading stats up. So slack. So very, very slack.

Late breakfast turned into shopping trip which then turned into me writing birthday invitations for best friend creature's mother and then it was six o'clock and then dinner had to happen and only managed to get out one youth monologue last night. Also slack.

Sunday

Slept in. Read papers, finished youth book, had bath, started new youth book, now it's half past three. Football final in a couple of hours (yes, another one) and then hopefully, some writing because after all, that's what I'm here to do. I'm going to try and finish the first draft of the grown-up play because you know, enough already. It's starting to circle for a landing. It's time to get out the mower and clear a strip for it.

I don't know what all this means. Slack, kind of slack, way too harsh on myself … you be the judge.

Onwards and upwards people … and go Melbourne Storm. I love you even if no one else does.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

While I’ve been gone

Have been a touch absent in the last few days but that does not mean that things have not been progressing nicely.

Monday

Have had quite the productive day … for a Monday. 16 more pages on the grown-up full length which is phenomenal in anyone's book and if it's not, then there is something severely wrong with you and we've always thought it. I did other things as well but that was the high point.

Tuesday

Had to be up and in the city by 8.15 to meet with the publicist that is doing publicity things for the play that's going up in November. She was remarkably pleasant, in fact down right lovely, which is unheard of in a publicist and I only embarrassed myself once when I had to try and EXPLAIN my play at 8.15 in the morning. The worst strangulation of the English language did of course ensue. However, I soldiered on and after our meeting and seriously the best raison toast I've ever had at this place, I went to the City Library and stocked up on youth novels – oh yeah, I was going to do a blog post on that wasn't I? Anyway, decided books were the message of the day and headed off to Dymocks and Borders and bought way too much but they were bargains so it's all evened itself out … that's the way it works right? Came home and finished The Biographer by Virginia Duigan which is very good and everyone should go out and buy a copy right now and then almost finished Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer which is great, great fun … so much so, I promptly fell asleep and napped for the next two hours. Bliss!

Wednesday

Up and at it quite early this morning which makes me feel tired and productive all at the same time. Have rewritten short play to send across the ocean where they will find me brilliant and earth-shattering and want to love me forever.

Other things to do today … cancel a wedding invitation – have been putting it off for two day, bad, bad, bad … get together some information for aforementioned publicist … send plays off across the ocean … other stuff. Best get to it.