Quite a switch from last month. In January, we were forced to postpone our meeting for the first time due to a late-day snowstorm. Yesterday, on the other hand, we enjoyed unseasonably balmy weather, with a high of 64 degrees. We had a good turnout as well, with 13 people attending, even though three of our regulars couldn't make it due to rehearsals or teaching classes.
We opened with the beginning of Grant Swenson's relationship dramedy Cassiopeia. The play centers on a hard-working sister and her ne'er-do'well brother. After a brief scene between the two of them, they go their separate ways and the subsequent scenes in which they meet old flames are played simultaneously on opposite ends of the stage. Grant was concerned that this might be confusing, but the consensus is that it worked well, drawing an intriguing contrast between the ways the lead characters handle their romantic relationships.
Next up was Barbara's 10-minute entry into the FAC's Rough Writers contest Georgia and Beck. The play centers on Georgia O'Keeffe's relationship with Beck Strand, who followed O'Keeffe to New Mexico and was inspired by her famous friend to take up glass painting. This setup allowed the play to explore a lot of interesting ideas about art. Barbara said she weaved in many direct quotes from O'Keeffe, and everyone agreed this was particularly well-done as they did not stand out as quotes.
After that we read the beginning of Act II from Chuck Cabell's fable Jurgen the Pawnbroker. Here the wisecracking hero is allowed to go back in time to when he first met his formerly beloved wife Dorothy, leading to an hysterical sex scene in which his wife all too quickly returns to her aged, present-day state. As before, everybody loved the rich characters and witty dialogue.
We next read the beginning of my cocktail party farce, Butterfly Effect. I first brought the play a couple years ago but hit a wall when I reached the midpoint. I've rewritten it extensively since then, and am now determined to complete it this year. My main concern with this section was whether the main character was likable despite his faults. The consensus was that he isn't but could be if I cut out his berating of his wife and better sell his position as an underdog vs. his rival.
We wrapped up with Tim Phillips' entry, which will not be summarized here because it's going to be submitted to a playwriting contest that requires anonymous entries.
I'm glad to see people bringing their contest entries to our meetings and I'd like to encourage everyone to enter at least one of them. I keep up with playwriting opps around the country, and let me tell you, we're lucky to have three contests in a city our size.
Our next meeting is Monday, March 9. See you then!
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
FIVES Playwriting Competition returns to Black Box
Nancy Holaday has announced that Black Box Theatre is now taking submissions for their 2nd annual FIVES Playwriting Competition. This is an excellent contest that not produces the top five plays but also awards $100 to each of the winners. And if you saw last year's festival, you know what a great job they do with the plays.
Following the theme of fives, all entries must have five characters, the deadline is March 5 and an announcement of the winners will be made May 5. The submission fee is $10.
One note. This year, Drama Lab member Buck Buchanan is participating as one of the judges. In an effort to keep his evaluations unbiased, he has asked that if you bring a script to Drama Lab that you intend to submit to the contest, let me (Todd) know and I will make sure that your script is read at the end of the meeting so that Buck can leave before that.
For complete contest rules, click here.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Postponed
Due to the nasty weather last Monday, we postponed our January meeting to last night. I was worried we couldn't get many people, partly due to the change in date and partly due to the fact that a couple of our regular writers, Sue Bachman and Jess Weaver, had other, theatre-related gigs. But we actually had a healthy turnout, with 11 people attending. This included one new actor--Howard Kirstel--and one old friend--Bob Spiller, a successful novelist who was a regular attendee a couple of years ago. We look forward to both of them becoming more involved.
UCCS did not have class yesterday because of the MLK holiday, so we were free to meet in our favorite room--Room 132, the big, wide one near the building's entrance. I don't know if it was the room or the people who came, but the meeting was unusually animated, with lots of laughs and a very lively atmosphere.
We opened with the beginning of Chuck Cabell's full-length fable, Jurgen the Pawnbroker. Chuck explained that this is an adaptation of a novel published in the 1920's by his distant cousin James Branch Cabell. a highly respected novelist at that time. The story is about a pawnbroker/poet who loses both his wife and his livelihood on the same terrible Wednesday and goes on a quest to regain both. In the scenes we read last night, the hapless Jurgen meets a helpful centaur and a mischievous satyr. Everyone loved the rich language and clever wit, and many people commented that they can't wait to hear more.
After that we read a 10-minute comedy, Banana Split & Fruit Fly. which Tim wrote for 24SEVEN. He brought it last night because he was wondering if it was worth rewriting so that he could submit it to contests. The play is about a pair of goofy superheroes who are unable to fight crime because their capes are in the wash. The audience agree that it did not need rewriting, although some suggested that the chattier parts could be trimmed and that the copyrighted lyrics would need to be rmoved entirely.
Next up was Something, a 3-minute play that Tim Phillips wrote for the FAC's Georgia O'Keeffe contest. In it, two art critics argue about the sexual and feminist subtext in one of O'Keeffe's paintings, while the artist herself insists she meant nothing of the kind. Everyone agreed that the play had a lot of promise. The debate was an interesting one, getting to the heart of what art is, and the dialogue was quite funny. It was felt, however, that the play should be expanded to 10 minutes for maximum impact.
We wrapped up with the finale of my museum farce, I Want My Mummy. Here the robbers finally got their comeuppance, while Melvin the cowardly security guard not only proves his worth but wins the girl: Penny, the pushy reporter, who played the most important role in capturing the robbers. There were a lot of questions about motivations and set-ups, but I think I was able to show that everything fit together in the end. There were also a lot of suggestions for punching up the gags, and I'll be using many of these in the final draft.
If the weather allows, we'll be meeting next month at our regular time on the second Monday, which is February 9. However, it has become clear to me that more and more people are having to drop out due to conflicts on Monday. Therefore, I'll be sending out an email soon asking people if another day would work better. Look for that in your inbox soon!
UCCS did not have class yesterday because of the MLK holiday, so we were free to meet in our favorite room--Room 132, the big, wide one near the building's entrance. I don't know if it was the room or the people who came, but the meeting was unusually animated, with lots of laughs and a very lively atmosphere.
We opened with the beginning of Chuck Cabell's full-length fable, Jurgen the Pawnbroker. Chuck explained that this is an adaptation of a novel published in the 1920's by his distant cousin James Branch Cabell. a highly respected novelist at that time. The story is about a pawnbroker/poet who loses both his wife and his livelihood on the same terrible Wednesday and goes on a quest to regain both. In the scenes we read last night, the hapless Jurgen meets a helpful centaur and a mischievous satyr. Everyone loved the rich language and clever wit, and many people commented that they can't wait to hear more.
After that we read a 10-minute comedy, Banana Split & Fruit Fly. which Tim wrote for 24SEVEN. He brought it last night because he was wondering if it was worth rewriting so that he could submit it to contests. The play is about a pair of goofy superheroes who are unable to fight crime because their capes are in the wash. The audience agree that it did not need rewriting, although some suggested that the chattier parts could be trimmed and that the copyrighted lyrics would need to be rmoved entirely.
Next up was Something, a 3-minute play that Tim Phillips wrote for the FAC's Georgia O'Keeffe contest. In it, two art critics argue about the sexual and feminist subtext in one of O'Keeffe's paintings, while the artist herself insists she meant nothing of the kind. Everyone agreed that the play had a lot of promise. The debate was an interesting one, getting to the heart of what art is, and the dialogue was quite funny. It was felt, however, that the play should be expanded to 10 minutes for maximum impact.
We wrapped up with the finale of my museum farce, I Want My Mummy. Here the robbers finally got their comeuppance, while Melvin the cowardly security guard not only proves his worth but wins the girl: Penny, the pushy reporter, who played the most important role in capturing the robbers. There were a lot of questions about motivations and set-ups, but I think I was able to show that everything fit together in the end. There were also a lot of suggestions for punching up the gags, and I'll be using many of these in the final draft.
If the weather allows, we'll be meeting next month at our regular time on the second Monday, which is February 9. However, it has become clear to me that more and more people are having to drop out due to conflicts on Monday. Therefore, I'll be sending out an email soon asking people if another day would work better. Look for that in your inbox soon!
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Detroit opens next week at TheatreWorks
Detroit is one of the newest plays in TheatreWorks season this year, so if you want to know what kind of works contemporary playwrights are doing, you won't want to miss this comedy/drama about two suburban couples from different worlds.
The play runs January 22 through Feb 8. Showtimes are 7:30pm Wednesdays through Fridays, 2pm and 7:30 pm Saturdays (no matinee on January 24) and 4pm Sundays.
The associated Prologue Lecture features none other than the author herself, Lisa D'Amour. This is an exciting opportunity to hear one of this country's up-and-coming playwrights discuss playwriting and what she thinks about the state theatre today. The Prologue starts at 2;30pm on Sunday, January 25 in the Dusty Loo.
See you there!
Monday, January 12, 2015
January 12 meeting is cancelled
Due to deteriorating weather conditions, tonight's meeting is cancelled. We will meet next Monday, January 19, at our regular time and place (7pm in the TheatreWorks building).
Everybody stay safe out there!
Everybody stay safe out there!
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Lucky thirteen
Thanks to the unusually balmy weather, we had an excellent turnout last night despite the fact that six of our regulars were out with shows (a very nice problem to have!). Thirteen people attended the meeting, and that included three new actors: Robert, Elizabeth and Jonathan (Jonathan is also a writer and promises to bring one of his plays next time). And we ended unusually early--around 8:30pm--as we had only four plays.
We opened with August Mergelman's melodramatic adaptation of Dracula. This month he brought a couple of scenes centered around Van Helsing's investigation into the mysterious Count, culminating in a groundskeeper being killed by a wolf. There was some discussion about the best way to stage this attack, but overall there weren't a lot of comments as August continues to crank out some really strong, well-polished stuff.
After that we read two new scenes from Tim Phillips' religious drama Christian Death. The first scene featured three of Tim's hand puppets, comically brought to life by John Elwick, while the second scene centered around a manipulative elder planting suspicions in the head of the minister. The puppets were a nice, theatrical touch, and the audience offered several ideas for punching this part up even more.
Next up was a new scene from my museum farce I Want My Mummy. Here the hapless security guard develops a plan to defeat the robbers, but is unable to convince anyone to remove the rope those robbers tied him up with. The audience offered several suggestions for strengthening the dialogue. And while this scene got fewer laughs than the earlier ones, it relied more on physical humor, which is always hard to gauge in a reading environment.
We wrapped up with a rewrite of two scenes from Sue Bachman's mother-daughter drama Faith. This time we watched a touching scene unfold as the faithful Faith made soup for the lonely mother, only to be interrupted when the ungrateful daughter came home. Everyone found the mother very likable and sympathetic, but it seems that Sue wanted her to come across a little more bitter and may rewrite it further.
We'll see you all at our next meeting on January 12. Until then, have a safe and blessed holiday season.
We opened with August Mergelman's melodramatic adaptation of Dracula. This month he brought a couple of scenes centered around Van Helsing's investigation into the mysterious Count, culminating in a groundskeeper being killed by a wolf. There was some discussion about the best way to stage this attack, but overall there weren't a lot of comments as August continues to crank out some really strong, well-polished stuff.
After that we read two new scenes from Tim Phillips' religious drama Christian Death. The first scene featured three of Tim's hand puppets, comically brought to life by John Elwick, while the second scene centered around a manipulative elder planting suspicions in the head of the minister. The puppets were a nice, theatrical touch, and the audience offered several ideas for punching this part up even more.
Next up was a new scene from my museum farce I Want My Mummy. Here the hapless security guard develops a plan to defeat the robbers, but is unable to convince anyone to remove the rope those robbers tied him up with. The audience offered several suggestions for strengthening the dialogue. And while this scene got fewer laughs than the earlier ones, it relied more on physical humor, which is always hard to gauge in a reading environment.
We wrapped up with a rewrite of two scenes from Sue Bachman's mother-daughter drama Faith. This time we watched a touching scene unfold as the faithful Faith made soup for the lonely mother, only to be interrupted when the ungrateful daughter came home. Everyone found the mother very likable and sympathetic, but it seems that Sue wanted her to come across a little more bitter and may rewrite it further.
We'll see you all at our next meeting on January 12. Until then, have a safe and blessed holiday season.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
NT Live and TheatreWorks present Skylight on Nov 15-16
As you know, I've been pushing TheatreWorks a lot lately because I believe that we need to support them as much as they've been supporting us. I've heard back from some of you and it seems that cost is the main factor preventing you from seeing more shows.
I get it. Theatre isn't always cheap. And when it is cheap, it isn't always good.
Which is why I'm happy to promote this weekend's NT Live event through TheatreWorks. NT Live is this amazing program that broadcasts videotaped recordings of recent (read: this season's) productions from London's National Theatre.
It's the best of both worlds. The National Theatre is the official state-sponsored theatre of the UK and it's truly one of the great theatre companies in the world. But because it's a broadcast, the price is cheap: just $15 a pop.
I've been to several of these and I have yet to see a bad production. The plays often feature big name actors, and the camerawork is top-notch, giving you a better-than-front-row-seat view of the show.
This weekend, TheatreWorks will present the latest addition to the series: David Hare's Skylight, a romantic drama featuring Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy. For the full scoop, click here.
The broadcast is at Centennial Hall on the UCCS campus. Times are 7pm on Saturday, November 15 and 3pm on Sunday, November 16. And no, you don't need to buy tickets ahead of time. There will be plenty of room.
If you're serious about being a playwright, there's no better, cheaper way to know what kind of plays theatre companies are doing today.
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