One of the greatest helps to any playwright (or writer, for that matter) is peer feedback during the development process. Now, we could debate until the cows come home as to whether new plays are being workshopped to death in this county (and some are). I'm not talking about some endless cycle of readings and workshops that can plague a script into obscurity---that happens, unfortunately. This isn't that. Thank God. No, I'm speaking of one of the positive versions of new play development. A small, intense, lab setting where ideas are fostered, played with, supported, bounced around, and heard. Where the time in the workshop isn't weeks, but months. Where you don't come in with a script that needs "fixed" but with an idea that needs nurturing. Sounds awesome, right? To good to be true? Perhaps in some places. But not in Nashville, Tennessee. I've been wildly lucky, fortunate, and blessed (all three of those times a ba-jillion) to be working with Tennessee Repertory Theatre's annual Ingram New Works Lab this season. And on my most recent trip to Nashville---they took it to a-whole-nother level.
The Ingram New Works Lab is simple and elegant in its design. I've blogged about it before, but now, half a season in, I feel like I have a better handle on what actually happens there. A small group of writers are invited to write plays. Those plays stem from an idea. Not a script. This workshop is first and foremost a lab. A place to experiment and grow your idea into the script you will later put into something called workshop. So you come into this process with your soul ready to be laid bare upon the table---bringing in the rawest of pages and words to share with your fellow writers. And once you get over the absolute fear that comes with the prospect of artistically (and potentially emotionally) humiliating yourself by letting professional actors read 1st draft stuff, you learn that it's incredibly rewarding. Incredibly exciting. And liberating to an insane degree. You come to learn quickly that every person in that room wants the same thing: for everyone to succeed. There's no competition. No hedging bets. Everyone is in the same boat and we all want to survive this voyage together. So together we write. We read. We share. We become friends. We become brothers in arms. In pens. In keyboards. We meet up once a month like some playwright support group. "Hi. My name is Jeremy. And I have no clue how to write this scene." With a level of trust normally reserved for family and lifelong friends, you invite each other in to the earliest stages of your play's development. And it works. I'm not suggesting you randomly pull together some random bunch of writers and try this at home. The artistic staff at Tennessee Rep, led by the insightful Rene Copeland, takes great care when crafting the room of writers who will share the lab each season. But if you have a group of writers and supportive actors that you trust with new material, I'm telling you---there's nothing better than having freedom to create within a group of fellow artists. Especially when these artists are Nate Eppler, Andrew Kramer, and Dean Poynor. After months of meeting and writing and sharing and rewriting and inspiring each other, the entire lab gets a jolt of awesome at the mid-point when we're brought together for a week to work with an establish playwright, otherwise known as the Ingram New Work Fellow. The Fellows of yesteryear include Theresa Rebeck, David Auburn, Steven Dietz, and other nationally acclaimed writers. This year, we were treated to a week with Doug Wright, the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of I Am My Own Wife, Quills, and a new play that (trust me) is a keeper. He's worked on dozens of projects and has a bio that rocks. Oh, and he's the kindest man and tells the best stories. Of all time. Ever. True story. The week was a whirlwind of activity. From Saturday night to Tuesday afternoon we saw a staging of Doug's musical Grey Gardens, heard readings of plays from all four lab writers, and got a sneak peek at Doug's new play (coming soon to the Tennessee Rep Ingram New Works Festival in May---what? I'm gonna plug that). There were master classes with Doug, one-on-one meetings, loads of rewriting, more readings, nights out to cocktail receptions to meet the generous people who serve on TNRep's Board, and some fun dinners with Rene and Doug where the aforementioned stories were told late into the night. Somewhere, in between all the events and readings and listening to Doug tell stories, I made huge strides on my new play. In between reading one and reading two, there spanned perhaps 96 hours. And in that time, I managed to crank out another draft of my play. A rough, raw, still bleeding, draft---but a new draft. The week was there to give me writing time, and space, to work, to think, to draw upon the notes I gleaned from the lab and the wisdom I siphoned from Doug, in order to figure out my play. To understand it. To wrestle it down and make sense of it. And lo and behold, it worked. Doug offered up a lovely analogy to the TNRep board when we all met them (p.s. that's where that awesome photo above was taken). He spoke of plays like recipes. We write them down and send them out to theaters and hope that what each theater creates resembles the original. So this lab is like our test kitchen. Working out the kinks in the recipe, smoothing out the issues, and creating a recipe, a blueprint, that is clear and easy to follow for any theater that picks up the script. I like that thought. Not in that I expect every production of my plays to be identical (there's going to be differing interpretations from production to production), but I want the recipe to be clear. I want the play to come through in the script and not get buried in a muddy mess of confusion. Taking time in the TNRep kitchen...er, lab... is giving me the time and resources to create that clarity and tell the story I'm trying to tell. Playwriting is often about discovery, at least for me. My lab mate Andrew is crafting a lovely play that mentioned at one point this idea of how sculptors chisel away at the stone, working to release the statue that's already inside. I'm paraphrasing and mixing some images, but the concept still holds (and Andrew says it way better in his new play). When I look my computer screen, at the pixels coming together to form words, there's a play somewhere in those pages. It's in my head. It's already there. Only it's surrounded by paraphrased scenes, alternate reality versions of itself, and pages and pages of dialogue that may or may not survive until the festival in May---all this stuff I'm trying to sift through, sort out, and chisel away in the hopes of revealing the play I know is buried in there. When all this started in the Fall, I remember having to let go---having to release the anxiety that can boil up when facing the blank page. Of course, sometimes that anxiety creeps back in, builds up, settles in the nooks and crannies of the mind even when the pages are full. That week with Doug and the lab reminded me once again why I love this story and these characters and helped me discover some insights into the play. In the end, that's what a great writers group does---it works with you to support your vision for a play, helps you sort through the clutter, and in the best cases, it inspires you. To learn more about Tennessee Rep and the Ingram New Works Lab, make sure to visit their website. We have a festival of new plays coming up in May. Until then, keep reading my blog for an inside look. Preface: I like tradition. I like my literature. I like stories that I can recall from childhood and pull up over myself like a warm blanket against the cold, harsh realities of adulthood. That being said, the plot twists and gutting of some of my favorite childhood stories this week by ONCE UPON A TIME and SLEEPY HOLLOW has me doing the Numfar dance of joy. Seriously, it might end up on YouTube.
FAIR WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD for the ONCE UPON A TIME episode "Think Lovely Thoughts" (11/17) and SLEEPY HOLLOW "Necromancer" (11/18). Serious huge SPOILERS, I'm not kidding. I'm talking about origin stories for major characters in these shows, the kinds of origin stories that you want to experience in the episodes, not on my blog. Okay, so you've seen them both (or you don't care). Let the SPOILERS commence. It's a good thing I'm into the revisions that these shows are taking on. I hope everyone is. It's creative and exciting and mind blowing (in those figurative ways in which we love having our mind blown). I didn't think anyone this week was going to top ONCE UPON A TIME telling me that Peter's evil shadow is not his, it's the original inhabitant of Neverland and that Peter Pan is Rumple's dad. How do you top that? When that green smoke swirled away, I expected a kid to be standing there --- but not Peter "Rumple, I am your Father" Pan. Seriously. Mind. Blown. Beautiful twist. And honestly, for anyone who saw that coming and feels wildly superior to me right now, I hope that when Henry took his perfect little gold-lined heart and shoved it into Peter's chest and promptly dropped dead --- I hope, at least, that got you. So here I am thinking "Well, nothing's topping that this week." And then Sleepy Hollow raised a hand and said, "I'd like to test that theory." I actually feel wildly brain dead over Sleepy Hollow's story this week. HOW, HOW, HOW, did I not see this coming? They made Ichabod a British defector. They made Katrina Van Tassel his wife --- and a witch. They made the Headless Horseman the personification of Death itself, a horseman of the Biblical apocalypse. So HOW IN THE NAME OF ALL THINGS TOM MISON did I not figure out the moment they said the words "Abraham Van Brunt" that Brom Bones would turn out to be the headless horseman. HOW? It's so good. It makes me smile in my soul. No, seriously. I loved that twist. I love that they made Ichabod's biggest rival from literature his biggest rival for the end of days. Because why the hell not? I love that ONCE UPON A TIME has made Peter Pan --- the immortal youth who, while puckish and always done as the lonely hero whose only crime is not wanting to grow up --- into a heart stealing monster who would kill a child to hold onto that immortality and youth. Brilliant. Why I love these two origin updates so much is that they complement the re-imaginings that these two shows have already established. They feel natural to their world orders. They seem right at home in their respective worlds. Washington Irving and J.M. Barrie might be rolling in their graves, but I hope they're sitting up in literary heaven with a plasma TV enjoying the hell out of these fresh interpretations. The other reason I love the twists is because they both ask "WHY?"---they both step back and analyze a situation and draw on their source materials. In Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, it's Brom who tells Ichabod of the horseman. It's intimated that it's Brom who takes on the guise of the midnight rider and chases Ichabod's schoolteacher into oblivion. So to say that the horseman in TV's new Sleepy Hollow IS Brom Bones---Irving already laid that groundwork. It makes great sense and it's elegant in its simplicity. And much like the new Ichabod, we're getting a whole new Peter Pan that is the villain of ONCE UPON A TIME, that is ruthless, and the writers there are flat-out questioning the rules of Neverland and questioning what keeps Peter young. Why would we ask that? Because it's a brilliant question and it pains me that I didn't think to ever ask before now. All magic comes with a price --- how I never figured out that the base rule of magic on that show would play so fully into this storyarc about Peter and Neverland blows... yep, my mind. On one hand, these TV show writers are pulling from source material and manipulating it to their hearts' content. On the other hand, they're pulling from source material and finding ways to surprise and shock us while still holding to some underlying theme or story point (like a rivalry over Katrina or the want to never grow up). Taking a work of literature and putting it on television takes adaptation---that is a given---but these two shows, especially this week (thank you November sweeps), took it up a notch and showed us that it's not simply about adapting, but about re-envisioning. I can't wait to see what they re-envision next. FAIR WARNING, this post is going to talk about the recent mini-sode THE NIGHT OF THE DOCTOR posted by the BBC (embedded at the end of this post). ***SPOILERS AHEAD *** The mini-sode, written by DOCTOR WHO's current reigning king, Steven Moffat, is a prequel to the forthcoming 50th Anniversary special, THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR (clever, right, with the day and night title wordplay?). Moffat isn't new to creating mini-sodes to be devoured by Whovians --- but I'm gonna say right now, this one actually works. And I'm going to tell you why. SPOILERS AHEAD. STARTING NOW. (Of course, I assume that if you're a Doctor Who fan, you've already seen it. More than once.) I heard about the prequel going up from one of my pals on Facebook and I admit, I didn't actually realize what he meant at first because the title threw me. I thought he was getting excited over the Matt Smith minisodes NIGHT AND THE DOCTOR (a five-part romp that did some lovely things for Amelia Pond and simultaneously didn't satisfy my need for continuity in the life and times of River Song----but then I don't think anything ever will). One thing I do love about Doctor Who these days is the embracing of the web to create and disseminate bonus material for the fans. These minisodes are fun, they're quick, and they give us something, like an appetizer or snack between meals (the meal being the Doctor... yeah, you're already ahead of the metaphor). So after I realized this friend would never get retroactively that excited, I read it again. And I saw the "of" instead of the "and" and I too became instantly gleeful. New stuff! And then I watched it and that glee soared when Paul frikkin number eight McGann strolled into frame like he'd always been there. And he kinda has. Just, ya know, for a movie. Seventeen years ago. As he once said in an interview, he was only in the TARDIS for six weeks. I know he's been up to audio stuff and so not divorced from Doctor Who, but it was a total and happy shock that they worked him into the 50th with this little prequel. My mind reeled as it tried to reconcile the final moment of THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR ("The Name of", "The Night of", "The Day of" --- I'm half expecting the Christmas special to be "The Christmas of" or "The Life of" or some iteration). I'd just said goodbye to River Song. Matt Smith jumped into the Doctor's timestream. John Hurt showed up. And now here's Paul McGann. If you're kinda new to the series and only joined in with the reboot in 2005, Paul played number eight (i.e. the one before Eccleston). There's always been that question of how did Paul McGann become Christopher Eccleston. Seems the anniversary special might just explain that for us. At least that's what I was hoping when the season ended. I've been counting down with my Whovian pals to November 23rd to see what happens to the Doctor and his Impossible Girl. Before next week, however, Moffat decided to blow our minds a bit with this little gem. First of all, it worked because it set everything up for next week. All in six minutes (man, Paul McGann, you're a good sport, sir---never getting much time in the TARDIS, if any, but owning your incarnation superbly). Six minutes to jump in to a crashing ship, meet a pilot name Cass, bring back the eighth Doctor, establish that the Time Lords and Daleks are destroying the universe and we're in the midst of the Time War that we're heard so much about since Nine started brooding over it; then there's still time to crash the ship and kill everyone on board. Yes, KILL, as in dead --- the Doctor (I'll get to that), and meet up with the Sisters of Karn. Okay --- confession, I didn't know what Karn was. While my wife started watching back when Tom Baker was running around with Sarah Jane Smith, I started with David Tennant (and side note, experienced Sarah Jane later in her journey first and only now have been going back to watch her original adventures) --- I'm like the Doctor, I watch Doctor Who in a wibbly wobbly timey wimey kind of way. So, back to the minisode: they crashed on Karn (and if you want to really get in on the backstory there, you're gonna want to track down The Brain of Morbius, from the Fourth Doctor's travels) and the sisters go and revive McGann and we get some wicked fast exposition about some off the charts Time Lord science on Karn and then like the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, there are all these cups and they tell our dying Doctor (short term revival) that he should drink from one and that he gets to CHOOSE what happens next. YES. He can choose the next result of his regeneration. At this point, we all know what he's gonna do --- he's going to pick the John Hurt cup. Why? Because we saw THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR and we've seen Moffat's earlier show, COUPLING, and thus know that Moffat has been waiting his entire life to have a John Hurt Moment in his own shows. I was pretty certain when John Hurt turned about at the end of the season that somewhere, Moffat either won a bet or wet his pants. Either way, he was happy about it. And this is where I have all these questions. Is John Hurt's War Doctor (there is a clear distinction now in the credit sequence applying the aggressive adjective to Hurt), is he one of the official regenerations? Is he Nine? Does it bump them all back? Part of me says no because he didn't go all human torch in what is now the acceptable kind of regeneration --- unless they're actually going to say the visual of regenerating has nothing to do TV budgets and technology and everything to do with actual plot and character age / development in the series (they could). My money is on the theory that he is NOT a Doctor --- he says he wants a "warrior" and he says there's no time for Doctors... so.... that tells me that he's a pause in the chain. He's there, but he's not. When he cedes to Eccleston, the chain resumes. And honestly, I wouldn't care so much if the ENTIRE SECOND HALF OF THE LAST SEASON hadn't been about the "Fall of the 11th" and this whole business of Matt's Doctor possibly dying. Matt's the 11th. He just is. Though there are plenty of iffy bits in the finale and the whole TARDIS tomb and why it looked like Matt's TARDIS inside if there's gonna be a Peter Capaldi Doctor... so yeah. On that note... I'll say it now. Matt Smith's Doctor will regenerate into Capaldi for the 50th. I hope I'm wrong. I don't think he gets a Christmas special... or if he does, it's not a long one. I think they had Peter WAY TOO SOON and ready to go. They wrapped up River and Matt out of nowhere (that "Goodbye, Sweetie" breaks my heart). He could still get to Christmas ---- but it's the 50th. It would be an epic exit. EP. IC. Yeah, they've leaked photos of Matt and Jenna filming the Christmas special.... but were they really? I mean, really? Moving on! What I loved about this minisode is how much it crammed in and how many questions it raised. John Hurts reflection looked young when we see it at the end ---- but he's all older in the flesh, so how long was he fighting in that war? Does the War Doctor count in the line-up of the regenerations? Was he more of a transformation, not a full on change? Can the sisters redefine it anyway because of all the awesome TimeLord science floating around that place? Let's all just admit right now that Moffat is really brilliant at setting up all the pretty dominoes; except sometimes, right near the end, one just falls over and misses the rest. And then Moffat jumps in like we didn't see the crashing stop and he just nudges another domino with his finger like "What? They were completely in line" and the rest fall. But we know that somewhere between set-up and the final domino, something is off. So while this minisode works in the tradition that it's exciting, fun, intriguing, and sets up next week's 50th anniversary special like nobody's business... it's still possibly just a huge brilliant set-up that could crash and burn. I think back to River's statement in A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR. "He'll rise higher than ever before and then fall so much further." I worry for the 50th that this will be true of Moffat. I like this six minute jammed packed minisode. It raises questions. It's got me thinking. It's on the way up. I'm hoping that we don't fall, that it keeps its trajectory, and that the episode on the 23rd is just fantastic. There's hope. Most of the minisodes to date, while fun, are just that --- they are fun. They are snippets, snapshots, moments in the Doctor Who-niverse (yeah, went there) that don't connect or build or even feel cohesive. They feel like after thoughts. This one, however, felt very much a thought. And that's why it works so well. It's actually telling a story, and setting up a bigger one. This mini-sode essentially exists to brace us for impact for the 50th and to pass the reigns from McGann to his successors, something we lost along the way. It's exciting to see where the 50th is taking us. Both forward and back. Very wibbly wobbly. As it should be.
My response (a.k.a. what I shared on my facebook wall)Fancy words and complex grammar do not great literature make; complexity has more to do with the cognitive reasoning it requires to understand, digest, and articulate the meaning beneath those words and sentences. I was supposed to be writing already, but I was distracted by the insanity put forth in this article. Why do we live in a world where we have to measure EVERYTHING onto a scale to decide whether it's worth doing (or reading, in this case)? The headline down there* is wrong; while "The Invisible Man" is (slightly) more complex than its comparison, it meant to say that "The Department of Education Thinks 'Mr. Popper's Penguins' is More Complex Than 'The Grapes of Wrath'" ---- because, seriously? Ranking books based on vocabulary words and sentence length alone, while not taking into account actual meaning and subtext, is confounding to me. I know books are subjective and people argue over them all the time, so I'm simply adding fuel to that fire; but all this list tells me is that when I write my first book, I will make sure to use the correct vocabulary and sentence length to achieve a highest possible placement on the Lexile, thus ensuring that every school in the country orders my book because their parents will feel confident knowing their little darlings are reading only the highest caliber according to the Lexile. Or.... I could write a book based on actual depth of meaning, full of subtext and commentary, and use whatever vocabulary I like to tell it. But hey, maybe I should stop complaining and appreciate the fact that they're recommending Hemingway and Steinbeck to 3rd graders.
On my most recent trip to Nashville, I took Laila to see Tennessee Repertory Theatre's The Importance of Being Earnest. And by "took Laila to see," I mean we were fortunate to be guests of the theatre for the final preview as part of my taking part in the Ingram New Works playlab. Rather than blogging here about it, I'm going to direct you to hop over to the The Rep's blog where you can read my response to Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, or as I call it "Wait, That's the One with the Hedge Mazes and the Hunting Party, Right?" For each of The Rep's mainstage shows, one of us Ingram New Works lab playwrights is penning a creative response to the play. Previously, Andrew Kramer responded to Nate Eppler's Larries. By the end of the season, there will be four responses, for Larries, The Importance of Being Earnest, Red, and Company. The point of the guest blogging is to create discussion and help The Rep's regular patrons get to know the Ingram playwrights over the course of the year as we build up to the new works festival in the Spring. Bonus, it gives us a chance to engage with the online audience and create more awareness for theatre. Would love for you to read my Earnest response, share it on social media, and comment if you're so inclined. Thanks! It's here! Tonight's the night --- the curtain rises on the premiere of my new play ICHABOD: MISSING IN SLEEPY HOLLOW at Street Theatre Company in Nashville, TN. While The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is considered one of early America's most enduring fictions (remember, it was published before the United States turned 50), the way that it has endured has evolved over the years. Washington Irving attributed the story to the papers of (fictional) historian Diedrich Knickerbocker, and I have to wonder what he would think of all the adaptations that have befallen his work over the last 193 years. And I kind of have to think that, because I took I upon myself to create one of those adaptations. Why did I decide to do that? Well... That's me, in the photo to the left, headless at eight years old. It's one of my favorite Halloween costumes (and yes, I could totally see where I was going). Clearly, even in the late 1980s, I was already enamored by the spooky tale. Twenty-six years after that photo was taken, 2013 is fast becoming the year of the headless horseman. At least, it is in my experience. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has been around in print since 1820, but the the legends that inspired Irving to craft the tale of lonely school teacher Ichabod Crane are far older. Whether in Ireland (where the fairie dullahan marked people for death), or in Germany, tales of headless riders existed in Europe long before Sleepy Hollow. In fact, it's said that it was on a trip across the globe that Mr. Irving was inspired to write one of his most long-standing stories. Since the Knickerbocker account is basically an adaptation, he's probably okay with creative liberty.
Right now, they're airing a Snickers commercial featuring both the Headless Horseman and maybe my new favorite Halloween costume ever, the Horseless Headsman. And even the Smurfs are getting in on the action this year, releasing their own take with The Legend of Smurfy Hollow.
Smurfs. Candy bars. Cartoons. It doesn't stop there. And the thing is, everyone tells it a little differently. Disney was pretty faithful to the original (you know, except for turning it into a Bing Crosby sing-a-long) and if you'd only seen Tim Burton's version and picked up the Irving tale on your e-reader, you'd be pretty surprised. And yet, even with these (and many) versions still in pop culture, there seems to be a renewal of interest in this old story. If you follow me on twitter or Like my Facebook page, then you know that as much as I have been touting my own version of Sleepy Hollow, I have been gushing over the new FOX drama of the same name. There's something oddly affirming to be working on a project that pulls its inspiration from the same source as a big budget TV drama that, yesterday, got a pick-up for a second season. Hearing that stories set in Sleepy Hollow can pull ratings warms my heart a bit (and reassures this artist that his version could find its own life beyond this initial stage run). What is awesome to me is that while my play "Ichabod" might be cut from the same cloth as "Sleepy Hollow", we cut from wildly different sides of that cloth. Both are re-imaginings, both have an Ichabod, and both have a female lead (with a strikingly similar name by pure coincidence). Otherwise, the team at Fox and myself have written completely different stories. Mine's a lot less apocalyptic. And while I cannot speak for those writers, the fact that we came up with incredibly differing stories speaks to one of the main reasons I decided to write this play. There was a story in the story that I thought hadn't been told yet. My tale is closer to the original, in that it's set in 1790 Sleepy Hollow, though I still like to call mine a "re-imagining" of Washington Irving's classic tale because it's not a play-by-play of the original. Sure, the traditional characters are there: Katrina, Brom, Baltus, Van Ripper, the Hessian, and of course ol' Ichabod; but there are also several NEW characters and a new adventure waiting to be had in that sleepy little hollow north of Tarry Town. Here's the run-down on my play:
When Street Theatre Company and Playhouse Nashville announced they were looking for a new adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, I knew right away that I didn't want to write a direct page to stage version. Many people have done that and they've done it well. However, I also didn't want to negate the original legend; so Ichabod would remain a school teacher. It would take place in 1790. The original characters would be left intact. And I asked myself, why do I like this story? The parts of the original tale that intrigued me the most centered around what really happened to Ichabod. Irving's tale is more about life in the Dutch communities in the countryside of 1790s New York more than scary tales. The horseman story pops up throughout, but mainly is only featured in the last few pages of the story. Ichabod's life in Sleepy Hollow is the predominant part of the tale, and yet what has endured is the mystery of his disappearance. Anyone who knows the story knows that it was never quite clear if the horseman took him, or if he simply ran away. There was also the matter of what he and Katrina spoke about at the Van Tassel party just before he took off into the night never to be seen again. Those two things tugged at me. So I thought, why start at the beginning when I'm so enamored with the end. That's why I decided to write this story. We are intrigued by the unknown. Those things that haunt the woods and create the basis for our nightmares. We like to tell each other stories about these mysteries. We like to explore. We like to imagine. Sometimes we write books, sometimes we write plays or make films or TV shows. Sometimes we still sit around in the dark and share legends with strangers. To the left there, that's a picture a a headless rider who will be featured at the South Jersey Pumpkin Show this year. My aunt runs that show and they're doing a reading of the classic tale with the rider slated to appear at the appropriate scary moment. We were delighted when we discovered we were working on separate Sleepy Hollow projects. So if you're in Nashville, you can see my tale. If you're in New Jersey, check out hers. That's why I love storytelling; there are so many ways to go about it and so much fun to be had with it. And while we're only two of many people tackling tales of the headless horseman this Halloween, it's clear we won't be the last. At some point long before me or my aunt or those guys from Star Trek or the Smurfs or Washington Irving (and his various pseudonyms) told this story, people talked about headless specters wandering the woods. Over campfires. Around the dinner table. In countries all over the world. Irving simply wrote down his version of the tale, adapted from the legends and stories he was told. He figured out what about that tale intrigued him and wrote a story about a man named Ichabod. I did the same thing. And I wrote about Ichabod too, and a woman named Abigail, and a girl named Hanna. And one day, two hundred years from now, if I'm very lucky, someone will build from my story and make it their own. In two hundred years... you know, far from now, after my version has been seen and enjoyed by generations. After all, that's why we tell stories... so people will hear them and share them. I'm glad to have the opportunity to share this one with you. Ichabod: Missing in Sleepy Hollow runs October 4-12 at Street Theatre Company in Nashville, TN. Directed by Elaina McKnight Shaver. Tickets are $7 and this show is spooky fun for the whole family. You can find more information at STC's website or by calling 615.554.7414.
I posted this on Facebook and Twitter the other day, but it should be added here because of how awesome it is. A teaser trailer for the my play, Ichabod: Missing in Sleepy Hollow! The young lady in the video is Quinn Cooke, who plays Abigail Seymour, Sleepy Hollow school's new Headmistress, who arrives shortly after the strange disappearance of Ichabod Crane. She's quick to dismiss talk of the Headless Horseman as stories, but soon discovers that the Horseman isn't done claiming heads, and her's might be next! Ichabod: Missing in Sleepy Hollow runs October 4-12 at Street Theatre Company in Nashville, TN. Directed by Elaina McKnight Shaver. Tickets are $7 and this show is spooky fun for the whole family. You can find more information at STC's website or by calling 615.554.7414.
The poster is here! Earlier today, STC posted the Facebook event for the show and released the AMAZING poster that I absolutely love in every way. I get more excited about this show every single day. Ichabod: Missing in Sleepy Hollow runs October 4-12 at Street Theatre Company in Nashville, TN. Directed by Elaina McKnight Shaver. Tickets are $7 and this show is spooky fun for the whole family. You can find more information at STC's website or by calling 615.554.7414.
Earlier this summer, I posted some exciting news; that I was selected as one of four playwrights for this year's Ingram New Works Lab at Tennessee Repertory Theatre. The basic version, for those who don't what playwrights labs actually are, is that once a month we gather in Nashville and their actors read scenes from the plays we're each working on. Throughout the nine-month program, the plays shift and grow based on the feedback and inspiration we gain at TNRep. While I could make a joke here about the nine-month term and equate the gestation and birth of a new play to a human baby, I'll remind myself that I don't know what being pregnant feel like and, barring some scientific feat only seen in sci-fi and Hollywood, I never actually will. But I will spend from now until May working on a brand new play with the support of TNRep, and THAT feels pretty damn good.
Yesterday, we had our first meeting. I can already tell that I'm gonna enjoy this. I mean, of course I am --- I get to write a play, have actors read it, and get feed back from a crackerjack artistic staff and top-notch group of fellow playwrights. What's not to love? The bonus points come from the fact that the writers I'm working with are great guys. I won't go into a play-by-play of our first day, but I will say that when we all sat down after lunch for a podcast interview, the journalist asked how long we'd known each other. Not long, we said. Today, really. And she said that surprised her because we seemed comfortable with each other and there was a good chemistry in the room. And she was right. Nate, Andrew, and Dean feel like old friends. And at the same time, we have incredibly different voices, experience, and are working on wildly different stories. The day felt like the coolest first day of school. While that image isn't pleasing to some, to a nerd like me, it made everything feel just right (it probably didn't hurt that lots of my OU pals just went back to school and I was having some severe post-graduate feels hit me lately). We did introductions with the full staff of TNRep. And that reminds me, I didn't properly introduce you to my fellow writers. I'm horrible like that. Anyone will tell you that I assume that everyone already knows each other and I forget that crucial and socially acceptable step of taking two friends who are standing in front of me as strangers and doing proper introductions. Emily Post weeps (remind me later to tell you about the time, earlier this year, when I said Emily Post's name in a room full of 19-20 year olds and they had no clue about whom I was speaking---I wasn't sure whether to feel old or disappointed). So, to save Ms. Post some teardrops, let me introduce you to Dean Poyner, Andrew Kramer, and Nate Eppler. All three are talented writers that I cannot wait to work with this year. Just listening to their ideas was pretty exciting and I feel like I hit the collaborator lotto on this one. I plan to absorb as much of their genius as I can and unleash it upon the world as my own. I'm pretty sure they're planning to do the same. If you'd like to know more (ah, see now I need to watch Starship Troopers), then I suggest you visit TNRep's webpage where they have our bios all nice and neatly featured. Before I sign off, I have to commend Nate. We wrapped up our "first day of school" by seeing TNRep's newest show, LARRIES, which was penned by Mr. Eppler and received its world premiere here in Nashville. A funny, smart, and emotional play about multi-verses, marriage, family, and finding happiness (that's how I describe it, not sure how Nate describes it), this play was an enjoyable night at the theater. Nate created this play in the lab a couple year's ago (as TNRep's Playwright in Residence, he's pretty much a full-time member of the lab, while the remainder of the line-up rotates from year to year). I'm thrilled that TNRep has embraced a brand new play that was born in their workshop and nurtured it all the way up to a full production and premiere. I hope to see this play picked up by other theaters and get published; it deserves it. If you see LARRIES pop up on your area theater's season list, buy a ticket. Buy two. Take a friend and enjoy. With that, I must go. You might remember I mentioned earlier that Nashville is almost seven hours away and in another time-zone, which means I lost an hour on the long drive home. I am spent and tired from the first steps in an exciting journey. I cannot wait to share my play with you and share the adventure of writing it in this amazing play lab. New play development isn't always a theater's priority. There are some, but this is one of the few that makes it an ongoing, season-long event. For TNRep to put forth that kind of commitment and generosity, I am humbled, grateful, and impressed. Next time on the Lab Report (I just made up that title for this series... it could change next month): Meeting the actors! Had the complete joy to visit Street Theatre Company tonight, meet my director, Elaina McKnight Shaver, and sit in on a rehearsal of ICHABOD. What a treat! While the show is going up in Nashville, I'm from central Ohio. About seven hours and one time-zone away, it's hard for me to get down to Nashville with any frequency. Happily, as you may have read in my August 17, 2013 post, I'm also working with Tennessee Rep this season and that opportunity has provided me with the chance to visit Nashville while ICHABOD is in rehearsals.
Visiting STC tonight, I watched as they worked through the end of Act I and top of Act II. They're still early in the process, but already, these kids are working hard (and props to Elaina for directing such a large cast with finesse and ease). They're asking question about their characters and showing the professionalism one comes to expect from grown actors. I'm even more excited to see the show next month than I already was now that I've stepped foot in the space. That whole "putting your trust in a creative team" is paying off. It really is finally setting in that this production is happening. Awesome feeling. Ichabod: Missing in Sleepy Hollow runs October 4-12 at Street Theatre Company in Nashville, TN. Directed by Elaina McKnight Shaver. Tickets are $7 and this show is spooky fun for the whole family. You can find more information at STC's website or by calling 615.554.7414. |
Jeremy's blog
Thoughts. From my brain. Anything to do with how we tell stories and the stories we tell each other. Literally and figuratively. About JeremyWriter. Husband. Father. Effulgent dreamer. A Fightin' Irishman (@NDdotEDU '01). A playwriting Bobcat (MFA in Playwriting, @OhioU '13). I write plays. I'm a geek. I wanted to be an astronaut. I go places in my head.
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