A Busy Fall!

Hey, friends!  Hope you'll check out some of my fall events.

THE GUN SHOW - directed by Melissa Hillman​, now playing at Impact Theatre​ in Berkeley, CA.  Tickets here: www.impacttheatre.com

HEADS - directed by Laura Savia​, now playing at the Beckett Theatre​ on 42nd Street in New York City.  (Use discount code "TRCREATIVE" for $15 tickets here:  https://www.telechargeoffers.com/Off-Broadway/Heads/Overview )

NOW COMES THE NIGHT - directed by Alex Levy​, opening this weekend at 1st Stage​ in Tysons, VA as part of the Women's Voices Theater Festival​.  Tickets here:  www.1ststagetysons.org

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CASE OF THE FALLEN GIANT - American Lyric Theater​ Living Libretto event featuring this new opera in progress that I'm working on with composer Evan Meier will be at the National Opera Center on September 28th in New York City.  http://altnyc.org/new-operas-for-new-audiences/sherlock-holmes-and-the-case-of-the-fallen-giant/

TRUE STORY - directed by Kevin Christopher Fox​, at The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, coming up in October.

ASHLAND NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL - I'll be acting as host playwright for the sixth year in a row at my beloved ANPF in Ashland, Oregon in October.  http://www.ashlandnewplays.org

Go see a play!  (Or an opera!)

ANPF 2014!

I was delighted to be back in beautiful Ashland in late October for my fifth year as host playwright at the Ashland New Plays Festival.  I saw lots of old friends, and was able to welcome the four winning playwrights to town, moderate their talk-backs with the smart and articulate ANPF audiences, and teach a playwriting workshop entitled "All Our Histories."  They've asked me to come back again next year, and I couldn't resist saying yes.  See you then, friends!  Submit a play to them, friends!  I love these folks, and they are fabulous at celebrating new plays and the people who write them.

ANPF 2014!  Artistic Director Doug Rowe, me, and our four winning playwrights: Bob Clyman, James Harmon Brown, Jack Karp, and Michael Edan.

I caught two plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival while I was in Ashland, and really enjoyed them both.  The Great Society (about Lyndon Johnson's second term as president of the USA) was fascinating, and made me sorry I'd missed the first installment, All the Way.  I'm hoping to go up to Seattle later this winter, where they're both going to be playing in rep.  The other play I saw was an adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time.  This is a favorite, favorite, favorite childhood book for me, so it would be impossible for them to live up to my expectations... but they did a pretty darn good job!  It was very theatrical, and used a lot of the simple theater magic that I love so much.

ANPF 2012!

Having fun as Host Playwright of ANPF 2012!

The 2012 Ashland New Plays Festival kicked off with a beautiful gala at the Art Museum on October 22, celebrating the festival's 20th anniversary.  It was a fantastic week of play readings and talk-backs, theater talks, and playwriting workshops.  I was so glad to return for my third year as Host Playwright! The week was hosted by dozens of volunteers, led by the festival's Artistic Director, Doug Rowe, and Board President Gray McKee.

Three of this year's playwrights were from New York City, and one was from San Francisco.  We had a delightful time getting to know each other during our week in Ashland!  The directors and actors were fantastic.

"The God Game" - Written by Suzanne Bradbeer, directed by Kimberly Scott

"This Rough Magic"- Written by Richard Manley, directed by Michael J. Hume

"Omission" - Written by Joshua Rebell, directed by Liisa Ivary

"How It Works" - Written by Cary Pepper, directed by Cristofer Jean

Ashland audiences always provide the best talk-back conversations, and this year was no exception.  The playwrights had given us much to discuss, with plays on topics ranging from politics and religion and the implications of social media and technology to financial misdeeds and the perils of success in the art world.

I enjoyed teaching a three hour playwriting workshop on Friday with local writers.  On Saturday morning, Cary, Josh and Suzanne offered a second workshop, allowing local writers the opportunity to ask them questions about everything from the craft of writing plays to how to market your work.

Local Bed and Breakfasts hosted the playwrights, and other local businesses opened their doors to us as well, including local cafes that offered coffee and the official drinking establishment we attended each night, appropriately named "The Playwright."  I was also able to see several shows at the world-class Oregon Shakespeare Festival!  I cried at "Romeo and Juliet," and am still thinking about "Troilus & Cressida" and "Medea/MacBeth/Cinderella."

It's always so wonderful to see everyone who makes this festival happen each year.  Thanks for another great ANPF, my friends!

Me and playwright Josh Rebell at the ANPF 2012 Gala.

Carol, ANPF Board President Gray McKee and host playwright EM Lewis.

ANPF 2012 winning playwrights:
Richard Manley, Cary Pepper, Suzanne Bradbeer and Joshua Rebell.

All photos by ANPF's fantastic marketing director, Elizabeth von Radics!

Looking back at 2011; looking forward to 2012!

It's a nice tradition to take note of accomplishments at the end of the year, and make goals for the year ahead!  So on this first day of January, 2012, I'd like to do just that.

In 2010, I took a great leap into uncertainty when I quit my steady, reliable day job doing tech support at USC (which I'd held for nine years) to accept a year-long playwriting fellowship for the 2010-2011 academic year.  I was excited to be able to write full-time, and to live within a train ride of New York City for a while.  

"Song of Extinction" promo poster for the Guthrie production.

The timing was good.  "Song of Extinction" had done rather well, so 2011 became part follow-up on that success and part working on new projects, in good combination.  In February and March, 2011, "Song of Extinction" was produced at the Guthrie, in their Dowling black box theater, by Theater Latte Da.  It felt really lovely to have a production at a theater with so much history.  They brought me out for 24 very chilly hours in Minneapolis, so I got to see what they did with the play; I was very pleased!  Peter Rothstein did a wonderful job directing the play, and I loved seeing how they brought my little story to life.  This year also marked the first high school production of "Song," at Harmony High School in Florida.

"Song of Extinction" at the Guthrie, produced by Theater Latte Da.

I joined a playwriting workshop this year in Trenton, which has been lots of fun, and a weekly playwright/actor "workout" in New York City, where playwrights bring pages and the actors bring them to life.  I miss my old Los Angeles playwriting group, but it's great to be meeting some new folks to work with.  I do better when I have places to bring my pages on a regular basis.

I wrote a short play called "The War Museum" which was read in Flux Theater's "New World Iliads" show (supporting their mainstage production of Ellen McLaughlin's "Ajax in Iraq").  That was fun! I also had two readings of "Magellanica" at the Lark, both directed by my friend and fellow playwright David Hilder.  I'd like to continue to try to get to know New York theaters, and hopefully work with more of them in the new year.

"Strong Voice" premiered in Halcyon Theater's 2011 Alcyone Festival.

Questions of faith in "Strong Voice," directed by Margo Gray.

"Strong Voice," which I wrote for Halcyon Theater's Alcyone Festival in Chicago, had its premiere.  Ultimately, I felt like it was ready for a workshop production and some more rewriting, more than the festival production it received, but I was glad to have had the chance to try my hand at an adaptation for the first time.  It wasn't really an adaptation proper... but Halcyon had challenged five women writers, myself included, to either adapt or riff upon the themes of a woman playwright from 1850 or earlier.  I selected Hrosvitha of Gandersheim -- a woman who lived in a convent in the Dark Ages, and wrote some odd and interesting little plays and poems about Christian women who had their faith challenged.  My play was about a woman whose faith is challenged by the events of 9/11, and a murder investigation in her community which she and her neighbors are caught up in.  I hope to revisit the play at some point in the next few years, to see what it wants to become in its next iteration.

"Drop-Off Day" premiered in Moving Arts "The Car Plays" in the Radar Festival in Los Angeles.

My short play "Drop-Off Day" -- about a woman who is dropping her daughter off at the dorm, as her daughter leaves home for the first time to attend college -- was included in Moving Arts' "The Car Plays," which joined other fun and exciting productions from Los Angeles and around the world at this year's Radar Festival.  Moving Arts has been my Los Angeles theater home since I started writing plays, so it was great to have another project with them.  The Car Plays has been one of their most successful events.  (Short plays, produced inside actual cars, to an audience of two at a time!)  The Car Plays will be playing at two festivals in 2012, and I'm pleased to have a play in each -- "Bohemian. Like You." in the Off Center Festival at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA in January 2012and "Reveille" in the Without Walls Festival at San Diego Rep in La Jolla, CA in February 2012.

My wonderful actors and director for the SlamBOSTON production of "Partners."

Speaking of short plays, "Partners" was back at SlamBOSTON again, at Another Country Productions, and made the finals.  It's a comedy about a lesbian cop who brings her rednecked cop partner home to meet her life partner.  That play is headed to St. Louis next, for an appearance at Uppity Women Productions' "Briefs" Festival in February 2012.  Some ten minute plays just keep on giving!

I had two opportunities this year to mentor kids who were writing plays -- one with the Blank Theater's Young Playwrights Festival in Los Angeles, CA and one in Passage Theater's State Street Project in Trenton, NJ.  I love helping kids work on their plays!  I'm pleased that 2012 will bring a new chance to do so in an even more involved way: I'm going to be the Playwright-in-Residence at SPARC's New Voices for the Theater high school playwriting residency in Virginia in summer 2012.  A big thanks to my colleague Babs Lindsay for connecting me with this opportunity.

Ellen at Giverny.

The year has brought with it extraordinary opportunities for travel.  Over the summer, I made my first trip abroad and got the very first stamp in my little passport!  Through a friend of a theater friend, I was given the opportunity to stay in a flat in the middle of Paris for three weeks, with the only cost being the care of two cute French cats and the plane ticket.  It was an amazing trip!  Paris is so beautiful!  I walked everywhere, saw bridges and museums and monuments and gardens galore, and am absolutely sure that a play will come out of it at some point.  

In the fall, I took three theater trips in quick succession.

Here are the four winning playwrights from ANPF 2011, along with artistic director Doug Rowe and me.  This photo, taken by Elizabeth von Radics, was featured in American Theater Magazine.

I was host playwright for the Ashland New Plays Festival again, in Oregon (great fun!).  I love Ashland so much!  We had a very strong line up of challenging plays this year, and the readers did an extraordinary job in bringing them to life.  As always, I was able to sneak in a few shows at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and a quick trip to the farm while I was in my home state.

Our bold gang of theater makers, sitting out on the front porch in Independence, Kansas, after a wonderful week of hard work, good eats, and lots of fun.  Peter Ellenstein, who made it all happen, at the top, representing the Inge Center for the Arts.  Director Stephen Brackett and his playwright, Ken Urban.  Chuma Gault, Ben Corbett, and yours truly.  Heather Alicia Simms, Mark Pinter, Mina Kim, and my director, Laura Savia.

I flew from there to Independence, Kansas, where I stayed for two and a half weeks at a writing residency in William Inge's childhood home (along with my colleague Ken Urban).  I worked on and had a reading of "Magellanica" (parts one and two), and taught some playwriting classes at the local high schools and community college.  It was a wonderful experience, and I got some good writing done on the play.  I felt like William Inge's ghost was encouraging me along.

"Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday" was a finalist for the HotCity Greenhouse Festival in 2011, and will have its world premiere with them in St. Louis in September 2012.

HotCity Greenhouse Festival 2011 playwrights:  Christopher Wall (Shake and Be Saved), EM Lewis (Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday), and Gino Dilorio (Release Point).

I flew from Independence to St. Louis, Missouri -- changing gears to work on "Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday" -- a comedy about a woman who decides to leave her life behind to become a commercial fisher in Alaska, but whose family refuses to let her go.  This was really the first play I ever wrote, and I've been hoping to figure out a way to revisit, rework and fix it up.  The play was a finalist in HotCity Theater's Greenhouse Festival, and they brought me and two other playwrights -- Gino Dilorio and Christopher Wall -- out for a week of work on our plays.  I felt really good about the rewrites I was able to do with the help and support of my director, dramaturg and cast.  The reading went great!  And HotCity has selected "Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday" to have its world premiere on their stage in September 2012.  I'm absolutely delighted!  It's nice to have another full-length play finding its first staging to look forward to.

"Infinite Black Suitcase" is now available for purchase from Samuel French!

The year was capped by Samuel French's publication of my first produced play, "Infinite Black Suitcase."  It's now available for purchase from their website, and I hope you'll buy a copy!  It's also available from Amazon.com.  Only $8.95!  According to the website, "it's the story of one day in a small Oregon town and three families who are trying, in the most loving and human ways, to deal with death and dying."  I feel like I first became a playwright when this play was put up by Moving Arts in a workshop production at the Los Angeles Theater Center in 2005.  It had its premiere when it was produced by TheSpyAnts in 2007.  I'm so glad that it is moving forward into a new life in publication!

My fellowship ended in May of this year, but by living somewhat frugally and eating lots of homemade soup, I've been able to extend my happily jobless full-time writing for a bit longer.  It took me a little while to get into the rhythm, but now I'm really starting to get some good work done.  So I guess one of my main goals for 2012 is going to be to try to figure out a way to continue to live simply and happily while writing full-time, if I can swing it.  I would also like to finish the two full-length plays I'm working on now -- "If I Did This" (a sort of murder-mystery/psychological thriller) and "Magellanica" (my epic Antarctica play).  In February, I'm going to be workshopping "If I Did This" at Passage Theater in Trenton, NJ.  I'm hoping to have a reading of a bigger chunk (if not a completed draft) of "Magellanica" this spring.

In France, amongst the flowers.  May the coming year be as full of joyful adventures as the last one was!

A big thank you to all the theater companies, directors, dramaturgs, playwrights, actors, tech folks and other theater people who I was lucky enough to work with in 2011.  May 2012 bring peace, prosperity and great projects to your lives!  

Find me in print HERE!

Several of my plays, and scenes from my plays, recently became available in print.  You can find my work in the following places.  Buy a copy today!

 A scene from "Heads" -- my Iraq hostage drama -- is available in the new Smith & Kraus anthology, "The Best Men's Stage Monologues and Scenes 2009."

The scene is between journalist Michael Apres and photojournalist Jack Velazquez.  After a violently failed attempt to escape and a surprising revelation, things get very real between them.

My short play "The Edge of Ross Island" -- winner of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's IN10 competition -- is now available in Eleven Eleven, an online journal of literature and art, produced out of the California College of the Arts.  The play follows a Portland, Oregon cop as she tries to talk a jumper down from the Ross Island Bridge.  Sometimes you find something out about yourself when you try to help someone else...

In January, my full-length play "Song of Extinction" -- winner of the Steinberg Award from the American Theater Critics Association, the Ted Schmitt Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, University of Oregon's EcoDrama Festival, the Ashland New Plays Festival, and Production of the Year from the LA Weekly Awards -- was published in Dramatics Magazine.  They did a beautiful job, commissioning original artwork for the magazine cover to go with my play. 

Last, but not least...  "Song of Extinction" is now in print in a beautiful acting edition from Samuel French.  The cover artwork has been adapted from our original Moving Arts production art by designer Josh Worth.

I'm proud to see my work in print.  It's a lovely feeling to hold your own book in your hand, after all the love and work and sweat and tears that goes into the writing of it.  I'm about to have another birthday -- and I couldn't think of a present better than this.

ANPF Redux - October 26, 2009

I'm heading back to beautiful Ashland, Oregon at the end of October for another reading of "Song of Extinction," courtesy of the fabulous folks of the Ashland New Plays Festival. I'm so looking forward to returning there! I went last year with fellow 2008 ANPF winners Babs Lindsay, Tony Pasqualini and Steve Lyons, and loved this small town with a big theater festival (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) at it's heart.

The reading will feature a bunch of wonderful actors from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Returning actors from last year's reading include Cristofer Jean (as biology teacher Khim Phan), Liisa Ivary, Jeff King and Brad Whitmore. They'll be joined by Blaine Johnston (as young Max Forrestal) and Anil Margsahayam.

ANPF, continued...

So... From my last post, you might get the idea that these theater festivals are all about wandering around town, seeing theater, going in shops and meeting nice people. There certainly was a good bit of all that on my visit to the Ashland New Plays Festival last week, but my main reason for being there was to WORK ON MY PLAY with SMART, CAPABLE PEOPLE. I did a good bit of that, too.

Each festival and/or workshopping/reading opportunity works in its own way. I've been lucky enough to be part of a number of great festivals, including:

• hotINK International Festival of New Plays at NYU (New York, NY)
• HotCity Theater Festival (St. Louis, MO)
• Coe College New Works for the Stage - residency (Cedar Rapids, IA)
• Last Frontier Theater Conference (Valdez, AK)
• Great Plains Theater Conference (Omaha, NE)
• UMBC IN10 at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Baltimore County, MD)

In the Ashland New Plays Festival, four playwrights were selected as winners, and all of us were required to attend the festival. We were given housing and a stipend to help allow us to do that, wherever we were coming from. Four directors were asked to read the eight finalist plays, and select which one they'd like to direct. The directors then selected actors from the Ashland area, both Oregon Shakespeare Festival actors and other local thespians, to be in our readings. Each of us had two readings of our plays, and at least one rehearsal with our director and actors. Each of us playwrights also led a writing workshop, on a topic of our choice.

Christopher Acebo was my director, and I felt lucky to have him at the helm of my readings. He is the Associate Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and a top-notch designer.

On Monday the 6th, I was able to meet Christopher for the first time, at the opening festival party. We'd exchanged e-mails, but it was great to actually sit down and talk about the play a little, and about my goals for our time working together. I was in a slightly different place in the process than a person usually is when at a festival -- leaving rehearsals for my production, and coming to work on the play some more. But I assured him that I wanted to take this opportunity to take one more really hard look at the script, and that changes in the script could still be put into the production, and happily so. I told him about a couple problem areas I was planning to look at particularly.

On Tuesday afternoon, I attended our big rehearsal. The cast had already met once with Christopher before I arrived in Ashland, and did a table reading of the play, but this was my chance to meet everybody, and to give thoughts, feedback and suggestions about how they were doing the parts. (Those are given to the director, who then talks to the actors.) They could also ask me questions about things, if they wanted. What a wonderful cast Christopher had selected for me! I can't say enough about the actors. They were smart, bold and wonderful to watch. I felt like my "baby" was in good hands.

Cristofer Jean (left, in a picture from his role in the OSF play "The Clay Cart") played the role of Khim Phan -- the biology teacher who is a survivor of the Cambodian genocide.

Tasso Feldman (right) played the role of Max Forrestal -- the musically talented, but emotionally devastated high school student who Khim Phan reaches out to.

Rounding out the cast were Brad Whitmore and Liisa Ivary as Ellery and Lilly Forrestal, Max's parents, Jeffrey King as Gill Morris, the evil land developer, and Neil Shah, as the young doctor, Joshua. What a great group! I definitely hope I have the chance to work with each and every one of them again someday.

The rehearsal went great -- four hours of concentrated work on the script, and making the seating arrangements and the entrances and exits, and playing with the lights and sound -- all those details that make a reading look professional for the audience.

There were talk-backs after each reading -- an opportunity for the audience to respond to what they just heard. For both readings, response was mostly fabulous and positive and excited, which is... you know... good. There were two guys in the audience for the first talk-back who doubted that the play could work without someone reading the stage directions. This is a fair question, I'd say -- the play glides from hospital rooms into Bolivian jungles, from real bus stops and classrooms to dream boats on magical rivers. It combines music and science, story and existential debate, and three levels of engagement with the question of death -- cancer, the extinction of a species, and genocide (without any intention of collapsing the issues). That's a lot! But I have a strong belief in the power of theater to do magic. It's not just about the words. Action and music and light and sound can do amazing things to transport us from one place to another. The play is in the process of being tested now -- that's the beauty of production, is you get the chance to see what works and what doesn't. But I believe in the magic.

In all, the Ashland New Plays Festival was a wonderful experience. I loved spending time with my fellow playwrights, whose work I respected and whose company I enjoyed. I loved the AWE folks who put on the festival and hosted us, and the OSF folks who I got to work with on my reading. I appreciated enormously the fact that a bunch of my family members came to see my reading. Mom and Dad and Jason, Uncle Harold and Aunt Lori, and Aunt Donna all made the journey to Ashland to see my reading. What a gift of a family I have! I love them dearly, and it was very special to share my most intimate self -- my writing -- with them. Scary, but awesome. I was really glad to have them there.

Now -- back to work in Los Angeles on the production!

ANPF - the rest of the story!

Back I am, from beautiful Ashland, Oregon, where I've been participating in the Ashland New Plays Festival. What an amazing time I've had!

On Sunday, October 5th, I flew from Los Angeles into Medford to begin my adventure as one of the four playwrights selected as "winners" of this year's ANPF. Check out my last post for a review of day one -- which began with meeting and greeting the wonderful folks who made the ANPF happen (including Art Works Enterprises president John Lee) and culminated in attending a performance of "The Clay Cart" -- an Oregon Shakespeare Festival show that was designed by my ANPF director, Christopher Acebo. It was fabulous -- a 2,000 year old tale from India, well-told, with singing, dancing and lots of fun.

I intended to keep up with this blog throughout the week... but I was having too much fun to have any time to write about it! Here are a few highlights from the week.

ASHLAND

Just walking through the town of Ashland made me feel better about life. It's a beautiful small town that is infused through and through with theater. And deer. Herds of wild, roaming deer and actors. Is that cool or what?

Living in Los Angeles has made me very tired of driving, so I told John that if my lodgings (with the most generous Hollis and Mary Pat) were anywhere near town, he didn't need to rent me a car -- I'd prefer to walk. They live at the top of a good old hill, and I really got a work out going up and down. Which was good -- because the food in Ashland is awesome. I have to give a special shout out to Pangea, which has the best soup in the world, and Mix, which is in the running for the best coffee...

The ANPF folks had given us coupons to a number of the local eateries -- a free sandwich here, a $5 gift certificate there. It was a great perk, and encouraged us to visit a variety of places during our stay.

The town is full of fun shops, restaurants, bookstores and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival theaters -- the Elizabethan Stage, the Bowmer (where I saw "The Clay Cart," named after Angus Bowmer, festival founder) and the New Theater, where I was lucky enough to see "Coriolanus."

I especially liked their local independent bookstore, called Bloomsbury Books. I contributed to the local economy by buying a photo book on Antarctica (research for a new play) and a book called "River of Doubt" -- an utter astounding find -- about Teddy Roosevelt's voyage down the Rio da Duvida, which I talk about in "Song of Extinction." It has pictures and everything! I am so geeky and delighted... I found out about his Amazon expedition when I visited the Natural History Museum in New York.

Lithia Park is yet another reason to love this town. The park (and its walking paths) run along Lithia Creek, and it is a very peaceful, beautiful place.


I'll add more to this post later, because I haven't even gotten to the theater bits yet! But in the meantime, here's a picture of the four of us playwrights: Steve Lyons, me, Babs Lindsay and Tony Pasqualini. Do we look writerly to you?

ANPF Day 1 - In which I arrive and do a lot of cool stuff on very little sleep...

ANPF Day 1 -- Sunday, October 5

On Sunday morning at 8:55am, I flew north out of LAX, bound for Oregon and the Ashland New Plays Festival. My full-length play "Song of Extinction was selected as one of the four winners of the festival this year.

I hadn't really slept the night before -- a combination of lots to do before I left, and being too excited about the trip to quiet my mind. Also, I really, really, really didn't want to miss my flight. I get to be in Oregon for a whole week, and don't want to miss a minute of it.

Michael, one of the Art Works Enterprises folks, picked me and Los Angeles playwright/actor Tony Pasqualini up at Medford Airport. On our way to Ashland, he talked about how he and his wife love this area. He took us by John Lee's house; John is the president of AWE, and awfully nice. He and his partner, Steve, welcomed Tony and I to Ashland, and stocked us up with maps of the town, festival posters, ANPF t-shirts and gift bags that included gift certificates to half a dozen local eateries. It was great to meet John. Everything about the festival has seemed so well-organized and he's been great about communicating with us playwrights every step of the way.

Michael then took Tony and I to the places we'll be staying this week. Each of us is being hosted by local theater patrons, many of whom seem to have extra rooms or apartments in their homes, probably for renting out during the high theater season when Ashland fills with Oregon Shakespeare Festival lovers from all over the world. We got Tony situated in his place, near Lithia Park. Then we headed over to meet Hollis and Mary Pat, my kind hosts. They've been going to, and then participating, in the Ashland New Plays Festival for fifteen years, almost since its inception. Michael carried my suitcases in, and Mary Pat welcomed me to the guest apartment in their lovely home -- within walking distance of the theaters, the park and everything.

I unpacked and rested a little after that, but not for long. Hollis and Mary Pat had invited Tony and I and John and Steve to dinner, and Hollis had also arranged tickets for Tony and I to see "The Clay Cart" at OSF. It was a great evening, talking theater with a bunch of other people who love theater, then seeing a delightful show.

"The Clay Cart" is a 2,000 year old Indian classic which (according to the OSF website) is "bursting with music and dance, color, action, and romance... Jewels are stolen. A Brahmin faces execution. A beautiful courtesan is at the mercy of the King’s bad-boy brother. Journey through a world where gamblers, holy men, political fugitives and royal scoundrels intersect and good people triumph." It was directed by the OSF's new artistic director, Bill Rausch, and designed by Christopher Acebo -- who is directing my reading of "Song of Extinction." I thought it was just delightful -- like sitting on the floor when I was little, being told a wonderful story -- but with lights and costumes and singing and dancing and tons of fun.

After the play, Tony and I walked over to the little bar that all the actors go to after their shows to meet John and Steve. One of the actors who is going to be in my reading, Neil Shah, happened in and sat down to talk a while -- we'd just seen him in "The Clay Cart," and there we were having a drink together.

By the time the fellows dropped me off back at my apartment, I was well and truly exhausted -- but very happy. What a wonderful beginning to the ANPF! Do I really get to be here all week long? I'm a very lucky playwright.

Ashland New Plays Festival! And how I got there...

I leave on Sunday, ready or not, for a week in Oregon at the Ashland New Plays Festival. I am very excited about this opportunity to go do theater in my home state. (I live in southern California now, but I'll always be an Oregonian...)

So... how am I lucky enough to have my little play be part of this event? Many steps make up the journey. Here's what I did:

1. Write the play. It took me a good year and a half, minimum, to write Song of Extinction. The folks in Lee's workshop, which I've been taking on Saturday mornings, can attest to my hard work and inching along. It was a challenging 90 pages to write -- full of music and magic and ideas that occasionally felt like I was trying to push through peanut butter to figure out. The voice of Khim Phan, (the chain-smoking Cambodia-born biology teacher who narrates the play), was the only part that came easily. His monologues just flowed. The folks in my workshop were amazing help, keeping me honest all the way.

2. Send out the play. After I finished a draft of the play (July 2007 -- right when Heads was about to open at the Blank), I started sending it out. This is a very important part of the process. No one is going to come knocking on my door, asking if I happen to have written a play that they can produce. This is unfortunate, but true. So! For the last year, I've been sending the play out, primarily targeting the larger competitions. It's done pretty well for itself in the competitions -- which gives the play a bit of panache and history, which then helps to get it produced. (It's tough for theater companies to produce new plays. Would you rather see a play by someone you know, or someone you've never heard of? More people know Neil Simon than know me. A LOT more.)

Each opportunity required me to put together a submission package, often sent by mail, sometimes consisting of just the script, but often including biographical information on me, synopsis and character description for the play, cover letter, sample dialogue, and sometimes a personal statement of some kind. It's a time-consuming challenge -- but made easier with internet groups like The Binge List yahoogroup, which is kind of a marketing support group for playwrights who hate to send out their stuff, but know they have to. Which is, like, all of us...

So! Here's the history of Song of Extinction so far.

• WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION -- Moving Arts at [Inside] the Ford, through a special Winter Partnership Program with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission (November 7-December 14th, 2008!)
• Winner - 2008 Ashland New Plays Festival -- Ashland, OR (October 2008)
• Reading - Atlantic Theater's Next Page Reading Series - New York, NY (June 2008)
• Finalist - 2008 Sundance Institute Theater Lab
• Finalist/Reading - HotCity Theater's 2008 Greenhouse Festival - St. Louis, MO (June 2008)
• Reading – NYU’s 2008 hotINK International Festival of New Plays (sponsored by Atlantic Theater) – New York, NY (January 2008)
• Staged Reading in the 2007 Living Room Series at the Blank - Los Angeles, CA
• Reading at Moving Arts 2007 - Los Angeles, CA

3. Re-write the play. Each of the readings above (all but Sundance involved a reading and/or workshopping process) allowed me the opportunity to work with a director and actors on my play. I got to hear my work out loud, listen to a director working on it with actors, get notes from the director, the actors and sometimes from the audience. From all that, I changed lines, deleted lines, added lines, reworked portions of the play, tried to make confusing bits less confusing. The playwright OWNS his or her play, so all revisions were things that I thought could be made better, found through the generosity of all parties.

4. Get the play produced. Hopefully, steps 1, 2 and 3 are leading to this step 4: PRODUCTION. It's easy to find yourself on a merry-go-round of sending out and getting readings. I think a year of this, after finishing a play, is helpful. Much more than that, and you're treading water (to mix my metaphors). I'm feeling very positive about the fact that Moving Arts is producing my play just a little over a year since I finished writing it.


Okay... taking a half-step back, how did Song of Extinction get into the ANPF? Well, I finished the play, saw their submission opportunity on one of my playwrights lists, and sent it in -- and they began their assessment of my script and all the others they received. According to their website, the Ashland New Plays Festival has been running since 1992. It benefits, I'm sure, from the theater-friendly atmosphere of Ashland, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for many decades now.

The 2008 ANPF Readers Committee began its work in mid-February with scripts from 180 playwrights, (a 5% increase over 2007). The committee guarantees a minimum of three readings and evaluations per script, meaning that they will finish the selection process with more than 100,000 pages read during three rounds and more than than 1,000 feedback evaluations written. The second round of reading started in April and included about 50 of the original 180 scripts. These were evaluated by an additional eight readers. In the third round, about 15 remaining scripts were read by nearly 30 people, resulting in the final six selections. As a last step, a group of professional directors read and selected the four winners, which became the scripts for the October festival. The final four "winners" are Barbara Lindsay with A Death Defying Act (Seattle, WA), Tony Pasqualini with Loyalties (Los Angeles, CA), Steven Lyons with Mystery Spot (Berkely, CA) and EM Lewis with Song of Extinction (Santa Monica, CA).

What do the four of us who were chosen as this year's winners receive? (Again, according to the website)

• $500 honorarium
• One week of lodging at an Ashland bed-and-breakfast inn (this year, hosting by local theater patrons instead)
• A reception
• Professional director
• Professional cast (as available)
• At least eight hours of rehearsal
• Two public readings
• Feedback and written critique

Frequently they also provide:

• Complimentary tickets to local theaters
• One or two hosted dinners
• Coupons for local restaurants and shops
• A nifty AWE t-shirt
• Good conversation and excellent coffee

My reading is going to be directed by Christopher Acebo, who is the Associate Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. My cast includes a bunch of folks from the OSF: Brad Whitmore, Liisa Ivary, Tasso Feldman, Cristofer Jean, Jeffrey King and Neil Shah. I'm looking forward to meeting them at our rehearsals, and to working with them.

It looks like I'm going to be able to meet up for coffee with two "sister listers" from the International Center for Women Playwrights while I'm in Ashland. Organizations like this one have made the world a warmer place, travel more fun, and friends and fellow playwrights everywhere.

From Sunday the 5th through Sunday the 12th, I'm going to be happily immersed in the world of playwriting in Ashland, Oregon. I couldn't be more pleased, and appreciate all the people who have made my trip possible.

Now I just have to figure out who's going to feed my cat while I'm gone...

Catching up with the Necessities

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday have ended up being catch up days-- trying to get all the little life necessities taken care of so I can concentrate on THEATER.

On Monday, my kind co-worker Holly schlepped down to Lawndale (yes! Lawndale!) with me, so I could leave my little Toyota Tercel with her mechanic during the work day. After twice failing its smog check, I decided that going all the way down there to her long-time, trusted mechanic would be worth the time. It was! Not only did he get my car up to passing, he also replaced some burned out brake lights -- which might be vaguely important. Not too expensive, straight-talking -- I liked him. On Tuesday, I zipped over to AAA on my lunch hour and got my registration tags. (Uncle Harold -- I'm street legal now!! No more red tag on the back window. Yay!) Getting this done is a big weight off my mind.

On Tuesday night, I washed dishes, and did laundry with a little help from Joe. We watched "Law & Order: SVU" while we worked. Joe and I think that Christopher Meloni is a splendidly brooding hunk who makes the dishwashing go much faster.

Tonight, I plan to drop books off at the Santa Monica Library, before they become overdue, then go home and water my garden. The poor plants have been very neglected lately.

A couple other little things on my to-do list for the rest of the week:

• Contact potential participants for October, November and December War Plays Project events
• Update War Plays Project website and facebook pages with WPP7 pictures. We got some good ones! Always include actors in your pictures. They are fabulously photogenic.
• Send WPP pictures to LA Stage Magazine, for possible inclusion in their inside spread of local theater events. Thanks to our associate producer Meropi Peponides for letting me know about this opportunity!
• Update my web page with upcoming events
• Send out a fall bulletin to my entire e-mail list about upcoming events
• Buy ticket to Ashland, for my October trip to the Ashland New Plays Festival
• Do some submissions that are long overdue
• Clean out my work satchel(s). I'm starting to look like a bag lady, with everything I carry around.

Well! That's a lot. Enough blogging for now, I've got to get back to work.