Tangles In Your Teeth
Good Things Coming |
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Good Things Coming |
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Contemporary Park Shorts is languidly embarking on a new Fall show, my comedy TANGLES IN YOUR TEETH. Amy and I are spending time with our families this summer, vacationing, enjoying the company of loved ones. But, the long, luscious days of summer do not last forever. We have decided that rehearsals for our show must begin soon. We hope to start auditions at the end of July. Then, the fun will begin!
Rehearsals are, indeed, fun. For me. I'm the playwright. I get to sit back, lone-cowboy-like, and watch Amy and the actors work. I ask questions and answer questions. When prodded, I offer an opinion. Mostly, I squint a lot, working on my Clint Eastwood impersonation, because, male or female, who doesn't want to be Clint Eastwood? Theme song from "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly," wah-wah-wah, shoving open a saloon door, walking through the swing-creak, wearing spurs, big hat, pistol, cigar, squinting away-- you understand. I'm being facetious. I am not trying to belittle the rehearsal process. Honestly, I love being a part of rehearsals. I do. It's truly magic watching my words on the page grow into a piece for the stage! It's an incredible feeling for a writer to hear her words take on life. And, I sincerely feel blessed to have found our director Amy. But, as the playwright, I am a bit like a cowboy in a Spaghetti Western. I'm quiet, but I'm watching, real hard, absorbing the scene. I collaborate with my gang. But, as the writer, I'm the dude in the poncho who answers the questions that need to be answered when they need to be answered, offer my advice when advice is asked, then, I slink away into sweltering heat, swatting flies from my sombrero, whilst the gang shovels dirt and searches for hidden gold. We rehearse mostly indoors, so, I don't swat too many flies. But, a portion of our rehearsals are in the space where the show takes place. So, I swat some flies. TANGLES IN YOUR TEETH is my first foray into comedy. I've never written a full-length comedy before. It is difficult for me to write comedy, for it doesn't come naturally to me, as does drama. I have to lose sleep and work through many nights. I tend to over-write/create too much tension in scenes that are supposed to be comical. I am accustomed to writing intense drama where I build tension. After 2016, though, a year of tough politics, nasty presidential campaigns, and, for many women, great disappointment that America can not accept a strong woman as leader, I decided that I wanted to create a fun piece for our audience at Contemporary Park Shorts. TANGLES...is interactive, and, with the actor's help, comical. So much relies on delivery, pace, and timing with comedy. It's not always a concentration on the dialogue, itself, but how the dialogue is expressed, if that makes any sense. And, that's the extent of my knowledge about the genre. I know that through work and rewrite and rehearsal, TANGLES... will be quite funny. As always, I have total faith in Amy, and the cast we shall choose. I adored our presentation last year of my OCTOBER! I'm still speechless over all the terrific performances put forth from our actors. Amy is a wizard at collaboration, and staging. TANGLES IN YOUR TEETH is a completely different play than our show last year. Yet, I know that our cast and crew will put forth just as much time, energy, and work as they did last year. Developing TANGLES IN YOUR TEETH is a challenge I wholeheartedly look forward to. My sombrero and I, I should say.
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June 2018
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