It's the Intermission
A Creative Coffee Break

I’ve been finishing up a play that I began around May 2006. Nearly two years seems like an abnormally long time to me, yet I know it was begun while finishing up a different play, and another project or two was introduced along the way which distracted me from it.

I’ve been examining the play scene by scene, watching out for an absence of conflict, of wanting, of tension. (At first I typed "dramatic tension." Well, duh, redundo-me.) I know I’m at the end of writing this play because I’m already missing the characters who’ve been living inside me. Mostly, I hate saying good-bye to characters. We’ve spent a lot of time together, and it feels lonely at first. Sometimes I can’t wait to be done with them. Those times usually fade away, reflecting the play isn’t engaging even to me, and pages must be trashed.

Of course, the end means the play moves into revision stage. MBH will give me notes. I’ll bring actors together to hear the whole of it out loud. It’s at the revision stage I become more detached, more distant, more ruthless (please let that be so) about what is working and what is not.

I’ve been worrying the play is too "heavy with message." It is a heavy story about reconciliation. All my plays are funny, yet they are still dramas. On some level, my plays are political if only because the characters are often outside the mainstream of society. All my plays explore the consequence of choice made by each of the characters.

Well, I won’t know if the story’s "too much" until I let go and finish it.

Along side the play, I’ve been working on the television project MBH and I are creating. Since I left California, I’ve been a negligent writing partner, and I’ve been trying to pick up my slack. Besides, it’s a fun project with no pressure. MBH, along with his wife, will be here soon to visit, work on our project, and take in the Humana Festival.

A year ago, we were on the precipice, deciding between living in Chicago or Louisville.

The aforementioned play has changed, some new bold elements introduced, because of the choice we made.