Time Is Tight
Cripes.
The short answer is that no, I have not progressed on writing my Fringe show. There are reasons for this beyond laziness, although I can't deny the presence of some significant laziness.
I was surprised to be cast in Theater Arlo's chunk of Five-Fifths of the Fringe, which required three nights of rehearsal before performing on Monday night. What is Five-Fifths? It's a fundraiser show in which five different companies are given one-fifth of a famous story, and are supposed to produce their version of that fifth. This year, the story was The Sound of Music. Arlo had the last fifth, with the music concert and the escape from the Nazis, so naturally we did it as a heavy metal rock musical. Why didn't I plug this? For one thing, time was too short. For another, it's a fundraiser aimed at people with some significant money, so tickets were expensive. For yet another, it sold out really early. So good news for the Fringe Festival there.
As far as improv goes, there's been rehearsals and performances at Six Ring Circus, plus an audition for HUGE Theater to be in an improvised Star Trek show. Improv and Star Trek?! How could I not do this? Regrettably, I wound up stinking up the stage, and I'm not expecting anything to happen there.
I also had to mow the lawn, which had started to resemble Jordy Verrill's farm from Creepshow due to all the rain we'd been having. Finding free time, plus a window in all the rain, took a while.
But my Fringe show... argh. I have a concept, but I keep getting derailed by creative problems. Things that made sense as a two or three-person play feel wrong when translated into one-man show terms. It's a lot harder to contrive a justification for the whole scenario. I've set myself a goal of having the show be one consistent thing, with a beginning, middle and end. I don't want to do some sort of anthology, or... ugh... the cliche storyteller thing of just standing there on stage and reading. But I don't know how I can fill 45 minutes to an hour on my own.
Plus most of the big production deadlines are June 1, less than two weeks away. And my next two weekends are sewn up with other commitments. I need to have promotional pictures done, a solid show description... Maybe I should be worrying about all that producer crap first. But I don't like the idea of having to write something to fit promotional material. Ugh.
I need to hire someone to wire my brain to a car battery. Whenever I get on the Internet or do housework, they have to shock the shit out of me. I can't afford any more distractions.
The short answer is that no, I have not progressed on writing my Fringe show. There are reasons for this beyond laziness, although I can't deny the presence of some significant laziness.
I was surprised to be cast in Theater Arlo's chunk of Five-Fifths of the Fringe, which required three nights of rehearsal before performing on Monday night. What is Five-Fifths? It's a fundraiser show in which five different companies are given one-fifth of a famous story, and are supposed to produce their version of that fifth. This year, the story was The Sound of Music. Arlo had the last fifth, with the music concert and the escape from the Nazis, so naturally we did it as a heavy metal rock musical. Why didn't I plug this? For one thing, time was too short. For another, it's a fundraiser aimed at people with some significant money, so tickets were expensive. For yet another, it sold out really early. So good news for the Fringe Festival there.
As far as improv goes, there's been rehearsals and performances at Six Ring Circus, plus an audition for HUGE Theater to be in an improvised Star Trek show. Improv and Star Trek?! How could I not do this? Regrettably, I wound up stinking up the stage, and I'm not expecting anything to happen there.
I also had to mow the lawn, which had started to resemble Jordy Verrill's farm from Creepshow due to all the rain we'd been having. Finding free time, plus a window in all the rain, took a while.
But my Fringe show... argh. I have a concept, but I keep getting derailed by creative problems. Things that made sense as a two or three-person play feel wrong when translated into one-man show terms. It's a lot harder to contrive a justification for the whole scenario. I've set myself a goal of having the show be one consistent thing, with a beginning, middle and end. I don't want to do some sort of anthology, or... ugh... the cliche storyteller thing of just standing there on stage and reading. But I don't know how I can fill 45 minutes to an hour on my own.
Plus most of the big production deadlines are June 1, less than two weeks away. And my next two weekends are sewn up with other commitments. I need to have promotional pictures done, a solid show description... Maybe I should be worrying about all that producer crap first. But I don't like the idea of having to write something to fit promotional material. Ugh.
I need to hire someone to wire my brain to a car battery. Whenever I get on the Internet or do housework, they have to shock the shit out of me. I can't afford any more distractions.