Writing Anarchists: Diary #2

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This is the calm before the holy God how the hell do I write this play what the flying freak was I thinking storm hits. After I finish something, there's always a down time, a recovery period. I just finished my last play, January 2nd, a couple of weeks ago and so I've need to vege out, watch tv, hang out, refill the spiritual coffers. Also, since this project is a little different, I had to spend some theatre energy on putting together the cast. Which is awesome, might I add. I'm a member at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, one of the last membership companies in New York that develops new plays. I've always wanted to be a part of an ensemble and E.S.T.'s is a great one. This project, since it's being developed at E.S.T., is entirely cast with members, actually the first time I've been able to do it. And they've all jumped in, sight unseen, without a script, or even a full outline (though they'll have one by Friday). It's a nice feeling, especially since a couple of these folks I haven't worked with before. A couple of them I have and they're among my favorite people to work with. So, all kinds of yay.

A little bit about this project: it's a bit different from anything I've worked on, especially recently. A lot of my plays, for whatever reasons, have really been love stories about people my age. You write what you know, right? Well, I did spend a lot of time on one thriller about plagiarism, and my commissioned play was about a middle-aged couple, but, by and large, I've been working in a bit of a comfort zone. This one is heading outside of that a bit. And it's heading into something that's definitely outside of my comfort zone: politics. This will be a play about politics, radicalism, the effectiveness of protest and revolution. Which is interesting, given recent world events. But don't worry! It's a comedy. I swear. Just...a dark one. With bombs and such.

I'll have an outline ready in the next day or so and post it. Should be interesting.

That's my story. And I'm sticking to it.