Available light [theatre]

Dave and I went back into rehearsal tonight after a bit of a break. We've got the first four scenes pretty well sketched out, and we have concepts for 3 or 4 others, including a bit of audience participation, which is always scary to think about. Hmm ...

Then we went to Stauf's coffee shop to work on the script. We've had about 7 drafts of the script already. Not all of them are radical departures, of course, the last 4 have just had minor adjustments to a few scenes at a time. Tonight I rewrote one scene completely, made major edits to one, and trimmed the fat from a couple of others. I also re-wrote the rap yesterday. (Did I mention there was a little hip-hop?)

A lot of the script-work at this stage, at least the way we've been working for the last year and a half, is just that - trimming the fat. We're always trying to clarify the thought, the logic, and at the same time cut-out as many unnecessary words as possible. One of the great challenges is to do both at the same time. But, I enjoy it. It feels good to look at the word-count and see that you've dropped 432 words or so. And then it's even better when you read the scene over and find that it makes more sense and moves better as well. There's definitely some satisfaction in that.

Well, more to come. We'll bring the videos back next week.

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I was in Indianapolis all weekend, working hard on that still-untitled play by Jennifer Fawcett. Jennifer and I convened in Indy because it's something of a half-way point between here and Iowa, where she's a grad student in their Playwrights' Workshop.

Friday and Saturday involved no-stop, all day, bang-your-head against the wall work on the script. It's hard to explain precisely what we were doing - some editting, some reworking, Jenn did a good bit of rewriting on some scenes. "Tightening it up" is an oft-used expression. Although I do believe in some cases we were loosening it.

At any rate, it's still an amazing and beautiful play and Jenn's a hell of a writer, and I can't wait until we produce this bad boy and share it with the world.

It seems the next stop will be a series of readings to workshop the play next month. Stay tuned, as this will probably culminate in a public performance of some type.

Wow, can you believe we're already at video number three? Time really flies. It really does.

Well ... anyhoo ... we rehearsed at my apartment tonight, which is just about the right size based on the spaces we'll be in. Dave started to cook up a little sound, and he gave me a beat to practice rapping to. I'm very excited.

Thanks to John Dranschak, who shot the video.

PS. Yes, John's okay.

Well, we had our first rehearsal for The Absurdity of Writing Poetry last night. We did some good work. Dave and I are trying to figure out how to go about creating a one-person show without a director in the room. It's actually made a little more complicated by the ViewPoints techniques and the ways we're used to using them. So, we soldiered on and we're learning as we go.

Of course someone (Brant Jones - thanx Bubba!) was in the room with a camera, and try as we might, that did make it a little different.

So ... here's 3 minutes of video. Enjoy.

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This is our first video weblog entry. It's not much, but here we go.

Click here to watch.

Quicktime required.

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Well, I've just confirmed that The Absurdity of Writing Poetry will be performed at the 2006 Cincinnati Fringe Festival, May 31-June 11. Guess we better get started.

(Matt dials the phone.) Dave? Whatcha doin tonight?