Monday, November 29, 2010

Odd props

A few months ago I noted that I had a script in progress that had been stuck at a certain point for months and months. I am happy to report that that play, and two others, got themselves finished by October and had their first reading at a playwrights' crit group in November. I am a slower writer than I would wish to be, dawdling and delaying for weeks and then turning out page after page in unexpected writing surges. If I could harness them...I guess I would be a different person than I am.

One of these new plays takes place on a stalled Ferris wheel, with a couple rocking in each of the cars we can see and a repair man clambering over the structure of the wheel. Another is the famous police-lineup play, in a town too small to have enough people for a lineup. I tend to put ordinary people in proximity to odd props or odd situations, and often good plays come out of it.

For the next couple of months I am concentrating on some software projects I am building, little apps for tiny niche audiences. But if they work out they will make nice additions to my resume. For sure, I am learning all the ways in which Flex 4 is different from Flex 3...

But rustling at the back of my mind there are a couple more script ideas. I have the idea backlog of a member of the leisure class, and at the end of a long day of not-leisure work I can barely stand the sight of all those little nuggets of inspiration. Until I can't stand not to work on them, and we are off to the races again.