Archive for April, 2009
Many readers know I love to cook and bake, and food analogies are common around here.
Food is a language we all speak, and so I find it most easy to explain things in terms of food.
In all the years I’ve been cooking/baking, the most important ingredient isn’t anything you can buy off the shelves, grow, or make… The most important ingredient is TIME. Time to let the flavors marry, time to let dough rise and bake…
I spent a lot of time of today combing over the final draft of my play “Disillusioned.” I’m submitting it to a festival, and before I submit anything anywhere, I make sure I read through it… just to make sure it’s the best I can get it.
It’s been a few months since the reading… From what I heard (from the reading of the script, and the comments the actors gave me afterward), I wasn’t far off — I just needed to expand on a few small things.
I was so inspired after the reading, and came up with four pages of new material. (Those who’ve read my plays know that I don’t waste a word. Four pages for me is fourteen for someone else.)
But I was stumped with the ending… And so I left it to sit a little bit… and it sat, and it sat a bit more…
I was doing other things, but it was in the back of my mind. Every now and then, I’d open the oven door just to check on it…
Today, the oven bell rang. Because I gave myself the time to sit with it, I realized that I’d already added just enough of what I needed. It was ready… and I’m finally ready to serve it.
Care for a piece?
–Sue
April 30th, 2009
Last night, Scott and I attended a benefit gala. It was a lovely black tie affair.
There were quite a few young women in the crowd, and I heard from many, including the honoree, that he likes women. A LOT.
You’d expect a lady’s man who’s world renowned to be dapper… even debonaire perhaps? When I saw him, the man of the hour, I couldn’t help smiling… a little crooked smile began forming at the corner of my mouth and slid right across my face.
His crooked bow tie brought about the crooked smile. His rumpled shirt and jacket exaggerated things…and all in all, he seemed very average — you’d never think he was a titan of anything worldly, though he is.
And the girls, the rumpled tux, the shyness…especially against a backdrop of acclaim and a touch of genius, makes this guy who he is.
I was glad to be there last night, if for nothing else, to see the man, and understand why those close to him love him.
Beyond being just a character, I got to see the real person… it’s always the details — the little quirks that transform a character into a person.
–Sue
April 29th, 2009
Perfect Crime celebrated a milestone performance, its 9,000th — yes, you read that correctly, NINE THOUSAND performances. THE SHOW HAS BEEN RUNNING FOR TWENTY-TWO (yes, 22) YEARS!!!
It’s a low budget show, written by an unknown… There are no Broadway or Hollywood stars. It sometimes gets mixed reviews… But there’s an energy (in the form of wonder woman Catherine Russell) that keeps it going, and it seems that’s what people are coming to see.
According to the Off-Broadway League:
Since its premiere, the show has been seen by 1.5 million theatre-goers, 80,478 onstage gunshots have been fired, 4,862 prop coffee cakes have been consumed, hundreds of actors have been employed by the show and Catherine Russell [the leading lady and general manager at the Snapple Theatre] has spent the equivalent of two years of her life onstage – over 16,000 hours!
Though there’s a lot of gloom and doom you’ll read out there about how theatre is hurting, (and there’s no doubt business is hurting), it’s the energy that people want to be close to, and it seems someone’s figured that out — thereby keeping a show running through anything!
–Sue
April 28th, 2009
This weekend, we went to see “Adventureland,” a coming of age movie that sidesteps the normal cheesiness or gross one liners for something more subtle, and more real.
The movie was loaded with charm… and every detail, right down to Kristen Wiig’s jacket were on the money. Besides the capable direction and effortless acting, what stood out most was the writing… Which while watching, I didn’t have to think much about at all.
I even found myself missing a piece of information that was so subtly slipped in there, I only realized it when Dina pointed it out after we were already walking in the warm night air.
Adventureland harkened back to a more innocent time, reminding me of the times and amusement parks I grew up in. Both visually, and emotionally, this movie was a wonderful respite. Cognitively it was a wonderful distraction…because I didn’t have to think, or anticipate what was coming. I knew I was in capable hands, and was able to sit back and enjoy the ride.
–Sue
April 27th, 2009
I spent much of yesterday running around, getting three big projects further along in their development.
One of which is theatre related, and it’s this that makes me most happy.
I spent some of my time on the phone with my hubby, telling him that I’m know whom I’d like to play the male lead, what we can do for some of the props, and what our postcard can be inspired by once our show gets accepted into the festival we just applied to.
You’re probably scratching your head saying, “How do you know you’re getting in, Sue?”
Nothing is 100%, but I do know that I saw this very clearly. I also know that seeing is believing.
I believe it can happen, and I think it will.
My belief made someone else believe.
And that will make someone else beilieve.
And soon it will happen.
Because I was able to really see it, and feel it.
When our show is on its feet, we’ll see you there too.
–Sue
April 24th, 2009
April showers might bring May flowers, but after a few days, it starts getting a little dull.
So I’m putting up a link that my friend Noel sent. It’s a YouTube clip that made me, and the audience in Antwerp’s Central Station smile. It features a classic song you all know from Mary Poppins, modernized.
Enjoy!
–Sue
April 22nd, 2009
“A wise {wo}man will make more opportunities than {s}he finds.” -Bacon
I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. My parents must have gone through more businesses than I can remember… some even well before I was born.
I heard the stories about my dad’s furniture making business, and the cafe/frozen yogurt place my parents owned. They had a clothing company, did real estate…
And just as they say a writer needs to “write what she knows”, this writer also needs to work how she knows.
For years, I’ve spent so much time sending my work around, hoping someone will just “give me my big break”… but I see (and maybe have known for a while) that it won’t work that way.
(It sounds like a lot of off-Broadway non-profit houses wish someone would cut them a break right now… Despite packed houses, many are suffering from donations drying up.)
I have the products, now I need to produce my works. And soon, I will attract the attention of bigger fish who can help me mount bigger productions.
–Sue
April 21st, 2009
We’re making the big leap!
Check out our new website and production company at: www.twofromtheaisleproductions.com
See you at the theatre!
–Sue
April 20th, 2009
Last night, Scott and I spent part of the evening at the Paley Center with Kristin Chenoweth and some of her fans, to celebrate her multifaceted career and new autobiography.
We saw some amazing clips of her work on stage and screen and heard some great stories about her life.
A pattern came to light early on in the evening: Kristin took on some of her biggest roles to date without any guarantees, without anything fully fleshed out — she just went with her inner voice.
She was offered Glinda in Wicked when that role had barely a few scenes and helped develop it. The same was true for Pushing Daisies. She agreed to do Charlie Brown without even having a scripted role at all — she helped the creative team come up with Sally from newspaper comic snippets.
To do Charlie Brown, for which she won the Tony, she turned down a role in Annie Get Your Gun with Bernadette Peters!
At the end of the night, when she signed my book, I told Kristin how much I respected what she said about listening to her inner voice and following through on risks. She rolled her eyes and said, “Everrryyybody told me to do “Annie Get Your Gun”…Everybody.”
Her inner voice was louder than the din, and she followed what she knew to be right, even if she wasn’t sure why… and look how far that little voice has taken her.
Bravo! Bravo!
–Sue
April 17th, 2009
I mentioned a possible family connection in France this week. We’ve been emailing one another, and are very excited at the possibility of connecting the dots to see if we are related.
Ironically, we just visited Paris a few weeks ago on our trip… and I would have loved to have met my French last-name-doppleganger.
I asked Phil what his inspiration for writing plays was, and two things surfaced: His mother was quite a character, and a teacher from his grade school days inspired him to write.
I’ve known many characters and wonderful teachers (and often, they were one in the same) in my life… and thought back to the moment I had the realization that I’ve always been a playwright.
I had that realization in a moment of desperation — when I thought I wouldn’t get my thesis done and graduate. When I did realize it, and decided to pull myself out of my funk and push through, there was one friend who helped me get to the finish line.
That friend is named Phil.
I know what you’re thinking… I’m not making it up. I don’t even know that I could…
I’ve had these kinds of things happen to me before… and it’s usually a sign that things have come full circle…
I’ll keep you posted…
–Sue
April 16th, 2009
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