An untaxing evening

It seems that everyone got their taxes done early, because we had an excellent turn-out last night, the night before tax day. Seventeen people showed up and it was an especially rambunctious bunch. We read five plays, ate lots of cookies, and witnessed some of the most moving performances we've seen all year.

We opened with the climactic scene from Grant Swenson's take on The Wizard of Oz, titled And Your Little Dog, Too. The pacing was excellent, keeping the action moving swiftly from the heroes' entrance into the castle to the final demise of the Green One.

Next came the finale of Tim Phillips' teenage relationship drama, Never Said. The interplay among Seth's three spiritual guides--Eros, Loki and Saint Augustine--was lively and fun, though some people felt there should have been more of a blow-up between Seth and the girl that he loves.

After that we read a couple of scenes from my restaurant farce Million Dollar Meatballs, which I'd first brought to the group two years ago. Several people wondered why the owner kept her addition of the ketchup secret and gave me some excellent suggestions for providing a stronger rationale.

Next up was a rewrite of the last two scenes from Sue Bachman's family drama Torn. The dialogue was very realistic and bristled with conflict. Roy Kieffer gave an electrifying performance as the troubled alcoholic, and much of the discussion centered around how to provide a stronger motivation for his seeking treatment at the end.

We finished up with Jess Weaver's 10-minute drama, If Stars Should Change, about an elderly couple reminiscing on their front porch. Jess had entered it in the Six Women Playwriting Festival but did not win, and the feedback she received suggested that the play may be too static and predictable. The group last night disagreed wholeheartedly, saying that they didn't see the twist coming and some of the attendees said they were brought near tears by it.

Our next meeting is Monday, May 12. See you then!

A full night

Last night, we returned to our old new home in the TheatreWorks building on the UCCS campus. A whopping 21 people attended, which is the most we've had in over a year and a half.

We had a lot of plays as well, managing to squeeze in seven before we called it quits at 10pm. The writers included Marisa Hebert and Maria Yost, both of whom have read for us before but never brought their own writing. Their plays were very good, and I look forward to hearing more from them in the future.

Unfortunately, this was the first time we had to leave a play unread  (I told the playwright ahead of time that their play would be on the waiting list). As I've mentioned before, this is an issue we're going to have to address as we continue to grow. Once we get 9 or 10 plays per meeting, I'm going to talk to Drew Martorella about getting us a second room.

I know that some people don't like the idea of splitting the group, and I understand their concerns. But I think it's the only fair way to handle it. It will enable me to achieve my main goal, which is guaranteeing that every writer who wants to bring something will get their work read. Plus splitting the group will even out reading opportunities for the actors.

We started the evening with a punchy 2-minute play by Charlie Ammen titled Clean Slate. In it a bitter young coke addict decides to turn his life around after getting fired from his job at a head shop. The characters were very well-drawn, and the protaganist was (surprise!) likable despite his faults.

That was followed by the first scene from Maria Yost's full-length comedy Illusions to Ashes. The play takes place at a doomsday expo and the audience loved her quirky characters and the wacky dialogue between them.

Next up was a rewrite of a scene from Tim Phillip's teenage elationship drama Never Said. This tim ehe experimented with giving the protaganist Seth three spiritual guides: Eros, Loki and St. Augustine. People preferred to the earlier incarnations, with one person commenting that this keeps getting better and better with each rewrite.

We followed that with the first three scenes of Maria Hebert's gritty prison drama At the End of Me. The dialogue was often very raw, and the gradual revealing of who the two main characters seemed to suck everyone in.

After that, we read the next couple scenes from Grant Swenson's Toto-centered twist on The Wizard of Oz titled And Your Little Dog, Too. Here the well-loved characters begin their campaign against the Wicked Witch of the East, sneaking into her castle with the help of Brains, Heart and Courage. The comcial bickering between Brains and Coruage was especially well-done.

Next we read a short relationship drama from Jess Weaver titled Just a Game. She said it was inspired by one of Sue Bachman's short plays, but Jess took it in an entirely different direction as an dissatisfied wife introduces her husband to the man she's going out on a date with. This very unusual and awkward situation led to a lot of great gags.

We finished up with the last scene of my full-lentgh comedy Rumpelstilitskin, Private Eye. In this scene, Ugly Duckling takes the reins, solving the series of crimes right from under the crusty old detective. Beofre the reading, I told the group that I hate writing these scenes as there is so much exposition to get through, but the consensus was that I threw in enough humor to keep it light and deasily igestible.

Our next meeting is Monday, April 14. And please, get your taxes done early. We don't want to miss you!

A new home

Last night, we met for the first time in our new home: University Hall on the UCCS campus. TheatreWorks arranged for us to use a classroom just outside the Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theatre, where the theatre company performs all of their shows.

The space worked out amazingly well. With a minimum of effort, we were able to rearrange the desks to give us an open space for our actors. It was warm, well-lit and quiet. Most importantly, the acoustics were excellent, making both the readings and the discussions easy to hear. And I don't know if it was the novelty of the space or the college atmosphere, but our discussions seemed especially animated and constructive last night.

We had 20 people attend the meeting, including one new actor, Deirdre Gilbert, who decided to join our merry band, and two other people who sat in for the first time: Karen Hamer, director of Tin Roof Productions, and a teenage friend of Victoria who got drafted into one of the plays.

Playwright Jeff Keele made a welcome return after an absence of more than a year, and although he didn't have new writings to share, he did read with us for the first time and did a great job in a couple of oddly dark roles.

We opened with a short monologue by Charlie Ammen titled So Long, Bobby. Set at a gravesite, this touching monologue was performed to great emotional effect by Roy Kieffer.

Then we read a rewrite of the first two scenes of Sue Bachman's one-act family drama Torn. Several people liked the realism of the dialogue and relationships while others thought the goals and conflicts needed to be heightened.

After that, we read the end of the first act and beginning of the second act of Grant Swenson's twist on The Wizard of Oz titled And Your Little Dog, Too. Here we saw the group plan their assault on the Witch. People really enjoyed the interplay between the well-known figures of the story (The Tin Man, The Scarecrow) and the brand new characters Grant introduced in his version (Heart, Brain).

Next we read a short comedy that Jeff Schmoyer wrote for Black Box Theatre's FIVES contest. It was very well-received, getting a ton of laughs for the quirky characters and the unexpected twists of the plot.

That was followed by a short comedy that Tim Phillips wrote for the same contest. This also got a lot of laughs, especially for the over-the-top attitudes of the characters in the beginning.

We wrapped up with a couple of scenes from my twisted fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin, Private Eye, with our hapless detective finishing his interrogation of Snow White and moving on to Cinderella. The audience thought the pace moved briskly and they seemed to like the gags.

Due to our new relationship with TheatreWorks, we've been able to drop our dues to just $15 per year. If you haven't paid yet, please bring a check or cash to the next meeting. If you don't know when your renewal date is, email me and I'll let you know. Thanks.

And we'll be seeing you at our new home on Monday, March 10!

TheatreWorks to sponsor the Drama Lab

As you all know, the Drama Lab has been trying out different venues to figure out where we'd like to meet on a long-term basis. Over the last couple months, we've met at the Manitou Art Center and Springs Ensemble Theatre, and while both venues were functional, neither one was perfect.

Well, now we have one more venue to consider. And I think it's a no-brainer. TheatreWorks (yes, that TheatreWorks) has agreed to sponsor us, which will provide us with a whole host of benefits.

First, we'll be able to meet in University Hall for free. Our only cost is $30 per month for parking (paid to UCCS, TheatreWorks gets nothing). This is $20 a month less than we paid for rent at the MAT and SET and will allow us to drop our dues to $15 per year.

We won't be able to meet in either the Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theatre or the Osbourne Theatre (downstairs) because they're both almost constantly in use. Instead, we'll be meeting in the classrooms, which are quiet, well-lit and warm. Most importantly, the acoustics in the rooms are excellent, so we should have no problem hearing the actors.

Over the last year, we've been growing slowly but steadily. This is a wonderful thing, but it does mean that we'll soon hit a wall in terms of the number of plays we can get through in one night. We've considered several options (lengthen the meeting to 3+ hours, meet twice a month, limit writers to 10 pages per meeting, limit the number of writers to six per month), none of which were acceptable.

The only way to deal with this fairly is to split into two groups which meet in different rooms at the same time. Not only will this guarantee that all writers get their scripts read, but it'll give more actors an opportunity to perform. The great thing about TheatreWorks is that they can get us an extra room or two at no additional cost. This is something no other venue has been able to provide.

And here's the kicker. TheatreWorks will include all Drama Lab members in their Industry Night discount, allowing each of us to buy a ticket to the first Thursday performance of each show for a measly $20. Take advantage of this benefit just once and you'll pay for your annual dues.

Finally, it's just a good thing in general to be associated with one of the two professional theatre companies in the region.

I think this is a fabulous offer and I'm grateful to Drew Martorella and the rest of the TheatreWorks crew for supporting us in this way.

See you at TheatreWorks on Monday, February 10!

Say hello to The Goodbye Project

Drama Lab member Jess Weaver is seeking monologues and 2-3 character plays exploring the idea of "goodbye". She plans to take everything submitted and turn it all into a performance piece. If this is something that gets your creative motor revving, please like her Facebook page, The Goodbye Project.

New blood

Last night's meeting was our first one of the New Year and our first at Springs Ensemble Theatre. As the theater was being used for rehearsal (Paul Vogel's Desdemona opens there February 6), we met in their lobby. The room has a comfy assortment of sofas and armchairs and was a lot warmer than the space at the Manitou Art Center. But we had so many attendees, there wasn't enough room to arrange the chairs as we normally do (one long line of chairs for the actors facing several rows of chairs for the audience), so I decided to have us read in a circle.

It soon became clear that this posed both advantages and disadvantages. The after-reading discussions were especially lively and high-spirited last night, but the readings themselves seemed less effective. The actors sat far apart from each other, resulting in little interplay. Also, following the dialogue was, in the words of one attendee, like "watching a tennis game". And while the noise from the rehearsal was quieter than I expected, it was still somewhat distracting (I suspect we were even more distracting to them).

After the meeting, I expressed these concerns to SET President Steve Emily and he said said they should be able to get us into the theater next time (if that's how the vote goes) although he can't make any permanent commitment.

I think the average age of our group dropped by about 20 years last night. We had 18 people show up, and that included one new writer, the illustrious August Mergelman, as well as three new actors, each of whom were quite talented and ridiculously young. These included Adam Blancas, Caroline Carr and my daughter Ashley.

We started the evening with Jess Weaver's new 10-minute pet comedy The Addition, which she wrote for Black Box's FIVES contest. It had some cute humor, and the characterizations were especially well-done. Although the various species involved were left unmentioned in the play, it was easily to tell who was what by their behavior and dialogue.

We followed that with a cutting from August's play Isabella and the Duke, a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. He did a great job updating the language while maintaining Shakespeare's famous wordplay and wit.

After that we read more scenes from Tim Phillip's teenage relationship drama Never Said. His rewriting has paid off as everyone agreed that the narrative flows much better now.

Next we read the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs scene from my full-length comedy Rumpelstiltsking, Private Eye. Most of the gags worked, but I need to tighten some of the dialogue and rethink a couple of my characters, especially Hungry and Nerdy.

We followed that with a rewrite of Sue Bachman's short drama Out of the Cold. Although quite dark , people liked it for its realistic dialogue and unflinching depiction of a disintegrating marriage.

We ended the evening with Grant Swenson's short baseball drama My Life in Right Field. This one was quite unique as it gave us three parallel viewpoints of a key moment in a young boy's life, one from his 20-year old self, one from his middle-aged self and one from his elderly self.

Our next meeting is on Monday, Feburary 10, but the location is up to you. If you haven't emailed me your vote as to where you'd like to meet (Manitou Art Center or Springs Ensemble Theatre), please do so over the next few days. I'll share those results as soon as I hear from everybody (or at least a quorum).

Black Box launches new playwriting contest

Nancy Holaday has announced a brand new playwriting contest called FIVES. Submissions must be 10-20 minutes with a cast of 5. Deadline is March 5. Five winners will earn $100 and be produced at Black Box Theatre in June. Sounds like a great excuse to start writing!