Write After Labor Day

With the final applause for Friday night's Hamlet, so too our summer subscription to The Old Globe came to an end. This year's summer season also included Two Gentlemen of Verona and Measure for Measure, as well as the non-Shakespeare offerings of Hay Fever, Avenue Q, and Bell, Book, and Candle -- but it was Hamlet I was eager to see staged. I was not disappointed. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for never being in San Diego on your ticketed dates. Orrick and I enjoyed our evenings out immensely. Now our attentions turn to other shows, ones we are directing and ones we are in.

Rehearsals have begun for both of the short shows I am directing. Blocking has been given and now it is a matter of repetition and memorization for the actors who, even rehearsing only once a week, will probably tire of their scripts well before the shows open.

The North Park Playwrights Festival opens October 12. The opening weekend includes A Terminal Affair, directed by Orrick. He and I are playing the two roles: a married couple attempting to spice up their relationship with role-play at the airport. Of the four plays we're directing, this is the only one that "self-contained" -- limited to the two of us.

The second weekend will bring Among the Missing (directed by me) to the stage. Weekend three will feature the Orrick-directed Cut, for which Orrick's friend Dave and I will supply voiceovers. Weekend four will see The Last Supper produced, with Les Payne in the lead role and Orrick in one of the two supporting roles.

Now you'd think this would be enough for October, but no; it doesn't stop there.

I believe I've mentioned some time ago that a local writer contacted me to offer "the role of a lifetime!" I read Kish's script and prepared myself, scheduling my North Park rehearsals in the daytime so that I would be available for evening performances of that 20-page monologue on off-nights at 6th@Penn Theatre. As it happens, though, the theatre does not allow the writer to direct his own piece. My name has been forwarded to the woman who will direct the piece, but so far I have heard nothing official regarding the part and have begun to book other auditions.

This afternoon I will audition for another 6th@Penn production, Jane Martin's Anton in Show Business. Interestingly, this piece is to be directed by the same woman who, last I heard, would be directing Kish's Challenge Theatre piece. As it happens, I know Carla from my recent stint as Stage Manager to her production of George Soete's Nest, but whether this helps or hurts I do not know. She likes me but has never seen me on stage; her first taste of my acting will be the dread monologue I deliver today. I may know my fate regarding both pieces -- Kish's and Martin's -- very soon.

Tomorrow I will audition for a show at Scripps Ranch, Kate Forgette's The O'Conner Girls. Given my already full plate, I had no intention of pursuing this piece until the theatre's Artistic Director called me at home to invite me to the audition. Rather than dismiss myself, I decided to let the director decide whether my four consecutive Thursday tech rehearsals at North Park prove too great a conflict.

Both 6th@Penn and Scripps Ranch pay small stipends.

With consideration up in the air for three shows, two shows confirmed, and another two I'm directing, October will prove a busy month. And that's without mention so far of the progress we're making to mount a new Actors Festival.

The AASD lost money (despite a $20,000 income) on the Actors Festival this year and "temporarily suspended" the program. After 17 years, there will be no AASD Festival in 2008. Baffled, a group of a dozen or so of us decided that we would put on next year's festival ourselves and have made strides toward that end. Next week we will be meeting first with AASD (as members) to find out where the money went. If we can't secure their endorsement, we can at least avoid making their mistakes. Then we will meet with Vantage/New Works theatre, which is interested in producing our new venture.

And finally, I have been a busy bee online as well. You can now find me on MySpace (which doesn't allow links back to Blogger, we've discovered!), on another Blogger site (a John From Cincinnati photo tour of Imperial Beach), and as a self-named dot com!

Perhaps soon I should begin looking at some lines.... ;)