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We’re in the thick of it with THE END OF THE WORLD (WITH PROM TO FOLLOW) at West High School in Torrance, CA. I always do a lot of rewriting during the first production, and this play is no exception. I love how changing one word in a sentence will make all the difference. Of course, when you’re changing an “it” to a “that”, you’re frequently met with puzzled expressions from the actors (and occasionally the director). Why in the world would you need to make that small change? But putting together the puzzle that is the final draft of a play is one of my favorite parts of the process.

Phew! I was a bit behind on my commission for Esparta High School. I’m writing a holiday show called CHRISTMAS REUNITED for them, based on an idea from their drama coach. He gave me a fairly detailed idea, and then let me run with it. This is the kind of play I excel at, and I actually thought I would breeze through this first draft in about two weeks. Ha! All the best intentions, blah blah blah… Sometimes it just doesn’t come out, and you have to give yourself time to stare at the blank page, and more importantly, NOT stare at the blank page, and just wait for inspiration to hit.

For this play, I was stuck on, literally, the last five pages. I knew what I wanted to do, but every time I started, it just seemed so…ordinary. Blah. So I put it aside for what I assumed would be the entire trip to Chicago I started last week. (Working on a show here). But then, on the last day of the trip, inspiration struck and I locked myself in the house of a friend and three hours later – done! Again – phew! Childbirth is always such a struggle…

So it’s off to the drama coach for notes, and then we’re back for the second draft. For now I’m hoping he’ll be cool with me changing the title to WE WISH YOU A MERRY SPENDMAS! (Which will make more sense after you read the play. You’re going to read the play, right?)

Today was the first rehearsal for THE END OF THE WORLD (WITH PROM TO FOLLOW). Around 40+ student actors in this large cast, two-act play. Miss O (as she’s called by her students) has her work cut out for her, as some of the early scenes in the play require the entire cast to be onstage together.

Rehearsal is sort of my favorite part of being a playwright. I love the process of workshopping a show, finding out what works, cutting what doesn’t, and adding scenes to fill out the narrative. I actually don’t mind editing – I’m not a precious writer, as some are (although they rarely realize that about themselves.) I like the process of refining a piece of work. Not sure why…maybe because I hate clutter? And extraneous dialogue feels like clutter? Hmmm…

There isn’t much more humbling than a high school actor laughing at dialogue you’ve written…in a drama. Ouch!

THE END OF THE WORLD (WITH PROM TO FOLLOW) is finished, and the students at West High School in Torrance, CA have been auditioning this week. Normally when I finish a commission, I send it off and the school mounts a production and I’m lucky if I get to see a video of the show. But END OF THE WORLD… is being done at a school close to where I live, so I have the privilege of being much more hands on during the rehearsal process.

Mrs. Orabuena (aka Miss O), the drama teacher at West High School, invited me to attend auditions, and I jumped at the chance. In the previous week the class had read the first draft of the script and, while it went over fairly well, they had some very specific notes. The biggie – “Hate the ending.” Ouch! So I spent three days, sometimes writing from 10 AM until midnight, on a second draft. Thankfully this new version went over well, and there were only minor tweaks for the 3rd draft (including changing a character I’d come to hate in the first two drafts…)

So, auditions. This is a large cast show, with about 40 speaking roles of varying sizes. Nightmare to cast, right? But Miss O has it down, and put the kids thru their paces in a remarkably orderly fashion.

I’m not sure about other playwrights, but sitting thru the first reading is torture for me. I keep my head down, arms crossed, eyes on the page. I sweat. And every mediocre line sounds like it’s the WORST DIALOGUE IN THE WORLD! WHO AM I FOOLING?! By the end my face is so close to the page, my nose is almost touching it. I usually workshop new scripts during the rehearsal process, so I know things will change, but still, that first impression…

Listening to the kids audition wasn’t quite that bad, mainly because they did the same one or two pages over and over again. But overhearing them chuckle about certain lines, or outright laugh during the audition when they had to say something they felt was lame…Ah, the artistic process…

The good, actually great, news is Miss O has some really talented kids in her group, so this production will be the perfect opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t with actors that understand what they’re doing. I’ll be there during the entire rehearsal process, rewriting on the fly as necessary. This is the first two-act drama I’ve written in over a decade, and I’m really happy with where it is now, and where it will (hopefully) end up…

I’m currently in Palm Springs at a friend’s house on a self-enforced writer’s retreat. Away from pretty much all distractions – and the noise of the city – I’m here to write for four days! So far, so good – I’ve made some great progress on Act Two of THE END OF THE WORLD (WITH PROM TO FOLLOW). This is a large cast show, so keeping all the storylines and characters straight is a challenge! But by the end of the week I hope to have a solid first draft of the whole show…

CHRISTMAS REUNITED is up later this afternoon – I’m bouncing back and forth between the two, and they couldn’t be more different! End of the world drama/comedy in the morning, wacky holiday comedy in the afternoon! I’m sure this is strengthening my brainpower in some way… 🙂