Grab bag

Another great meeting on Monday. We had eleven attendees, all regulars.

We started with a pitch by Nancy Holaday for her decidedly non-Disney version of The Beauty and the Beast, to be performed at the Louisa Performing Arts Center on June 8 and 9. The show is produced by BlackBoxTheatre and Nancy's students at the University School of Colorado Springs and is recommended for ages 11 and up. All funds raised will go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

After that, we dived into the readings. We had a real grab bag this month: the finale of my comedy/mystery The Butler Did It!, the first part of Jeff Keele's adaptation of Paradise Lost (which he's working as an independent study project at UCCS) and Maureen Brady Johnson's children's eco-play A Skinks Tale.

Maureen is the Ohio playwright whose 10-minute play All Things Shall Pass was performed as part of the Six Women Playwriting Festival at the MAT last month. She doesn't have a regular playwriting group and asked if we would read it. I just emailed her the feedback and she wanted to make sure I thank everyone. She really appreciated all the comments. Next month, we'll read her Christmas play The Singular Tree.

I have already talked to some of you about doing a full staged reading of The Butler Did It! The purpose of this is two-fold.

One purpose is to read it all the way through in order to check for continuity, pacing and--horror of horrors!--plot holes. That's almost impossible to do when you read it in 20-page sections over 5 months. The other purpose is to gauge audience reaction.

Actors will be able to read off the scripts, and all rehearsals and performances will be done over one weekend to keep the time commitment down.

I'm just waiting for a date when the MAT will be free. Right now, it looks like it'll be in August or September. I'll let you know when we pin it down.

And I'm happy to announce that the Drama Lab will continue meeting through the summer. Our next meeting is Monday, June 11. See you then!