Going National

Whew! That was a long nap.  Like the best of sleeps, there was truly unusual and inspiring things going on under the surface-- that looks so calm and relaxed.  I'll write more about that in a little bit, but we've leapt out of bed and into action, so I should cover a couple of immediate items first. 

Yes! We're gearing up an ambitious, raucous, and thought-provoking production of Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth.  For those unfamiliar with the play, it has nothing to do with the Middle East; it was, however, a major hit in London and New York, garnering rave reviews from every major newspaper.  Auditions are being held on August 9th and we're looking for a wide range of actors from 9-65 years of age.  For more info, visit Second Wind's website here.

Between then and now I'll be going national in North Carolina for the National Black Theatre Festival, a week-long bonanza of performances, workshops, and talks.  They'll be presenting a reading of my newest work, One Drop of Blood, which explores divisions within the black community in this pressurized environment of vigilantism and racial conflict.  It is a re-working of an earlier work, Vigilance, into the black community, that also asks the question of how Black and Whites deal differently when faced with similar threats to their way of live.  Given the time (racial relations today), the place (the South), and a majority African-American audience, I'm very curious to see what it evokes.

Opening Night in 57

Busy, busy, busy. Not much time to write even after a splendid Opening Night on Saturday. Watching the show come together over the past couple of weeks, I wasn't sure what I'd think of it. It's a puzzlingly difficult script to illuminate; it's very easy to blur over moments that are pivotal, making the story flat and difficult to relate to. Then the hecticness of tech wreaked havoc on my ability to watch the play. I was too busy watching the lights, or the set, or sound. The costumes were pretty marvelous right from the start so that wasn't an issue. But sure enough, coming first Preview the tech elements fell (mostly) into place, and the actors arose from the ashes of chaos.

Opening night of a World Premiere is truly a thing to behold. Usually, a play takes a big step forward on Opening, becoming richer and more fleshed out. Typically, you have a sense of what to expect/hope for. With a world premiere, you only have the "ideal" of it in your head; you have no idea of whether or not the play can reach that ideal. If it fails to reach the pinnacle of your imagination, it's impossible to know whether it's the fault of the production or the play. I'm very happy with this incarnation of The Tender King. I see my play. On Opening Night the performances were rich and lush, the story clear, and the emotion palpable. I've still no time to really focus on this blog, but here are some images from Opening Night, in 57 seconds. Pardon its hasty construction....

And We're Back... The Tender King

On Monday we started rehearsals for The Tender King... a sexy, provocative, and controversial thriller about secret politics at the end of World War Two. It's derived from hundreds of declassified documents from the Truman era, as well as biographies, memos, and letters. Join us for a peek behind the political curtain-- you can start with our promo clip and first rehearsal: