Directing and Acting and Cops, Oh My! (Part II)

Anyone care to explain to me how it's already the 12th of September? Was there a freak slip-stream event or perhaps I was abducted by otherwordly beings and "jumped" forward in time (very "Flight of the Navigator" style—only without the 80s haircuts)... or maybe Ferris Beuller had it right.

This past week has been spent mostly working on "A Few Good Men". But I'm not posting about that one yet. Today's blog needs to take us back a ways to the week BEFORE auditions. And even before that.

Ages ago now, it seems, I had set my heart on bringing THE LION IN WINTER to the stage at my theater. It's one of those plays that nobody liked when it premiered and yet it has mystically endured the decades to become a great show (if done well). I bought it on a whim at Barnes & Noble because I was in the market for a play and it had a completely irrelevant, yet beautiful and sexy cover. I am a marketers pawn. Or so I've been told. Actually what I am to a marketer isn't polite to say in mixed-company, but let's just say it's a good thing for the marketer. Anyhow, I read it, and loved it from page one. Or maybe page two. Liked it on one. Loved it on two. Wanted to direct it on three.

So imagine my surprise and immeasurable envy when I learned that another theatre company in town had already booked it on their upcoming slate. I was shocked... nearly livid that they would dare... that... it... it... flam - flames. Flames, on the side of my face, heathing... breathless, heathing breaths. Heathing breath...

Then I got over it and decided I would just apply to direct it at THAT theater (which happens to be the theater producing "A Few Good Men"). But WAIT... the story got a new twist. You see, there is, in the small world of community theatre that is Ohio, a director that is very wise and very much in demand. He's got the decades of experience on me. And he was also applying to direct. Lucky for me, however, he was chomping at the bit to direct a more recent show—fresh from Broadway—RABBIT HOLE.

And then another twist happened (well, the first real twist... that last one wasn't more than a tease really). He decided he was moving. And he withdrew his application.

And RABBIT HOLE was up for grabs.
So I read it. And decided that it had to be mine.

Okay, I'm not really so fickle.

It's interesting, the things in a script that draw a director to a project. I often wonder if my own writing will ever have that magnetic pull that some scripts have on me. For here were two shows which I thoroughly enjoyed and wanted to helm. "Enjoy" is probably not the best term. While LION is witty and clever and full of family secrets, backstabbing, and soap opera, RABBIT is raw, quietly soul-wrenching, and about family played out with stark reality. No shiny melodrama. No real soap opera. Hints of affairs, betrayals, and all that "family stuff" sure, but all played out under the shadow of grief rather than greed.

So, to make a long story short (too late), I applied for both.

And since I started this blog ages ago and need to catch everyone up on SO much, I'll just let you know that there were some interviews and in the end I ended up getting tapped to direct "Rabbit Hole".

That was entirely too anticlimactic.

But here's what you need to know: I AM PUMPED FOR THIS! "Rabbit Hole" will be a challenge and I'm so excited for it. It was my number one pick of the two. As a good friend pointed out, when will I get the chance to direct this show again. The smoking gun's got a point. "Lion" will make a return sooner than "Rabbit", I'm pretty sure.

This one's coming on the heels of "A Few Good Men" so no rest for the weary. But then that's me and theatre. Some nights I sit and wonder if I do too much. And other nights I say, "Nah... worry is a sign of weakness... and besides, I'm directing 'Rabbit Hole' and it will rock."

Yes, my little pep talks to myself are rather lame sometimes. "...it will rock" just doesn't have that classic orator feel to it. I mean, let's reimagine the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America—and it will rock.

See? They were smart to leave out that last bit. Kinda ruins the gravitas of the whole thing.

Anyway, looking forward to getting to work on "Rabbit Hole", though getting my lines down for Jack Ross is pretty much front and center at the moment. But I digress...

And I'm tired... so before I tell you the story of me, Keaton, and our run in with the law, I'll leave you tonight with another unfinished blog. This was something I typed up while on a writing retreat that I took at the end of July.

I spent the weekend writing/finishing a play and plowing through Harry Potter VII. And there was no internet. And no cell service. And it was heaven. So here it is... as much as I "blogged" that weekend; for the rest was spent doing what I set out to do... writing my play, reading the concluding chapters of a magical saga, and sleeping whenever I wanted. Actually, heaven was never so good.

Writing in an Offline World...

Since the point of this trip is to work on some of my creative writing, this won't be too involved... I don't even have the internet here. That was on purpose. However, I wanted to briefly catalogue the moments of my retreat—the ones that stand out anyhow—as they happen, rather than trying in vain to recall fleeting experiences that by Sunday will have lost their zest in my mind.

Observation #1: I should have left on time...

Last minute chores, my overt hated of packing, and Harry Potter caused me to wait around until about 9pm to leave for this trip. No good excuse for that. And it wasn't even the 'Deathly Hallows' that held me up... no, it was the fourth movie. On HBO. I hang my head in shame. I mean, I've see it. Loads of times. Have it on DVD (which, to be fair, my mom borrowed last week to prep for the 5th film); yet there I sat, watching it in full screen (FULL SCREEN—oh, the humanity), when I should have been on my merry.

Leaving late did two things. It caused me to be around, still within cell phone reception, so I could receive a phone call that only presidents of theatre companies receive. Or the president of anything. One those minor "crises" that will be soothed out by Monday and not something to lose sleep over. At least, that's my interpretation. I'm also stupidly optimistic and mellow about most crises. So there you go. On the flip, the other thing being late did was get me free pie from a cute girl. Wasn't going to stop for food—I'd been to the grocery and stocked up on the essentials to feed and water myself for the weekend. Since I'm essentially "camping"— well, camping for this place, which means I'm in a solid wooden structure (thank the good lord since it's POURING RAIN today) that has electricity, a fridge, and a microwave. Yeah... camping. Though compared to the people staying in the castle, this is really roughing it (though I don't think they get a microwave...).

Anyhow... it was almost 11 p.m. as I got just outside of the city. Lots of lights behind me and nothing but the black in front. And then I saw McDonalds. And I caved. And yes, Keaton, that's what a 'Marine' would eat at 11 o'clock at night. Sure it is. So I ordered my food, waited forever to get it (I was the only one there and I think they closed at 11:00 p.m., so I was that annoying traveler who orders his value meal at 10:59 p.m. and then they have to cook it fresh (which made it some of the better McD's I've had in a while).

And as I'm driving away doing the obligatory food check (since I'm used to the mindless teens in the city who routinely forget something in your order so often that I've actually thought about making it a game to guess which item they'll forget), I notice there are not one, but two cherry pies. Two FREE cherry pies. How oh so nice of the cute drive-thru girl. While I like to think she stocked my order with sweets because she thought I was cute or deep or whatever was floating her boat that night, logic dictates that she was trying to get rid of them as they would've gone to waste... or maybe she felt bad that I had to wait for my fastfood to the point where "fast" was legally removed from the term. Yeah, probably that one.

Observation #2: You can see lightening when your eyes are closed.

Holy Mary, Mother of God. This storm is passing over the castle ground today. Wicked rains (and not wicked excellent mind you) and claps of thunder so loud that you think a tree fell on the gypsy wagon in which you're trying (horribly in vain) to sleep. Now, me, I love storms. They are actually one of those things in nature that I hold up into the status of awesome. So when I awoke this morning (after a ridiculously wonderful amount of sleep, I might add), I was pleasantly surprised to hear the rain falling and the rolling thunder in the distance.

But then it shifted. And was right on top of me. I was drifitng in an out of sleep (and oh, wow... the dreams you have after free cherry pies --- I think I was "in" Jurassic Park: the Next Generation for this one... I'll get to that). Eyes closed. Listening to the storm getting closer.

And then I saw a flash. Seriously, a bright, searing, rapid fire explosion of light. Followed immediately by one of those deafening, wagon-rocking thunderclaps. I think the lightening hit a nearby tree. It must have. It was one of the few times where the sound was practically on top of the light. It was that close.

But yeah, I didn't know you could see lightening with your eyes closed. That was pretty cool.