Wednesday, January 04, 2006
SOULS GROWN DEEP
...an evocative title. Elyzabth W. has always had a wonderful way with titles. Her titles intrigue. Her titles barely hint at what the play is really about, and yet, after knowing the play, you realize how the title adds to the resonance of the play itself. Clever. From a dramaturgical point of view, and I will discuss this with Elyzabeth at our first meeting, I am not sure why this play has this title yet, but am willing to trust her on it. One of the many things we will talk about as we enter into the next few weeks of work on it, heading into the Alabama Shakespeare Theater's Southern Playwriting Conference....or is it a Festival? Hmmmm...
Spoke with Nancy Rominger ,Artistic Associate at Alabama Shakes, and they will fly me down after my class on Wednesday February 1st, and I'll spend the remainder of that week in rehearsal with Elyzabeth, the actors, and director Janet Cleveland, doing whatever needs doing in a dramaturgical way....nighttime discussions of the work's development...a reading performance of it on that Saturday....then fly home again on the following day, ready for my Monday morning class...
A new adventure for me. A new sort of creative output, with an entirely new bunch of artists, except for E.W.,,,I think she is glad to be having me, someone she knows and trusts, there to talk to...and I'm looking forward to it.
Lunch with Mark Lamos tomorrow...figuring it out, I realize Mark and I have known each other for 30 years. Well...hmmm..I don't know what to say...30 years...and it feels about that long since I've sat across a table from him and caught up on life...i have always loved him so much...he is one of the brilliant ones, and I 've admired his artistry almost as much as I've loved him personally. He's just had both hips replaced, so that after years of pain, he is finally happily pain-free...walking with a cane, which can only add to his mystique...he's one of those with a mystique, at least as far as i have always been concerned...but soon he will toss thoses away and walk easily. Tomorrow at Sarabth's Kitchen...lunch with Mark.
Then a weekend of visitors: Wendy Mathis Parker arrives, for discussions with peter about the music he will write for her Jamestown piece for the Barter Players...we will dine with her on Friday night...Wendy's one of those wonderful dividends from barter: the BACKSTAGE stringer critic who i finally convinced to come to Barter (which is on the other side of the state she generally covers) and in so doing, we all became great friends. She is a funny, sweet and gifted woman, and oddly, we warmed to each other as soon as we met...I look forward very much to seeing her.
THEN: John Hedges and Melissa Owens, also from Barter, will be here and spend some of the week in our Guest Room....that will be nights of endless staying up, drinking, talking and talking and talking....really can hardly wait....seeing how their lives have come together after both spouses split on them...well, it's a true love story in the flesh and it makes me happy to think of seeing them together...I will buy tequila and we shall do shots in their honor! Yipee! Ole (with the funny little accent over the "e")!!!
My private classes will start up again on the 17th...seems everyone wants to come back and keep working...especially the actors who went away on jobs and want to get their feet back on NYC ground...we will all first meet here at home, around our piano,discussing each goal for 2006...focusing...and relaxing into the absolute possibility that each goal can be accomplished. These are talented people. There are no reasons to expect otherwise for each and every one of them. And i look forward to seeing them all. I will make it like a party, but we will get work done.
SOULS GROWN DEEP....that may be a lyric from a spiritual...in any event, it is a nice gathering of words...SOULS GROWN DEEP.
Spoke with Nancy Rominger ,Artistic Associate at Alabama Shakes, and they will fly me down after my class on Wednesday February 1st, and I'll spend the remainder of that week in rehearsal with Elyzabeth, the actors, and director Janet Cleveland, doing whatever needs doing in a dramaturgical way....nighttime discussions of the work's development...a reading performance of it on that Saturday....then fly home again on the following day, ready for my Monday morning class...
A new adventure for me. A new sort of creative output, with an entirely new bunch of artists, except for E.W.,,,I think she is glad to be having me, someone she knows and trusts, there to talk to...and I'm looking forward to it.
Lunch with Mark Lamos tomorrow...figuring it out, I realize Mark and I have known each other for 30 years. Well...hmmm..I don't know what to say...30 years...and it feels about that long since I've sat across a table from him and caught up on life...i have always loved him so much...he is one of the brilliant ones, and I 've admired his artistry almost as much as I've loved him personally. He's just had both hips replaced, so that after years of pain, he is finally happily pain-free...walking with a cane, which can only add to his mystique...he's one of those with a mystique, at least as far as i have always been concerned...but soon he will toss thoses away and walk easily. Tomorrow at Sarabth's Kitchen...lunch with Mark.
Then a weekend of visitors: Wendy Mathis Parker arrives, for discussions with peter about the music he will write for her Jamestown piece for the Barter Players...we will dine with her on Friday night...Wendy's one of those wonderful dividends from barter: the BACKSTAGE stringer critic who i finally convinced to come to Barter (which is on the other side of the state she generally covers) and in so doing, we all became great friends. She is a funny, sweet and gifted woman, and oddly, we warmed to each other as soon as we met...I look forward very much to seeing her.
THEN: John Hedges and Melissa Owens, also from Barter, will be here and spend some of the week in our Guest Room....that will be nights of endless staying up, drinking, talking and talking and talking....really can hardly wait....seeing how their lives have come together after both spouses split on them...well, it's a true love story in the flesh and it makes me happy to think of seeing them together...I will buy tequila and we shall do shots in their honor! Yipee! Ole (with the funny little accent over the "e")!!!
My private classes will start up again on the 17th...seems everyone wants to come back and keep working...especially the actors who went away on jobs and want to get their feet back on NYC ground...we will all first meet here at home, around our piano,discussing each goal for 2006...focusing...and relaxing into the absolute possibility that each goal can be accomplished. These are talented people. There are no reasons to expect otherwise for each and every one of them. And i look forward to seeing them all. I will make it like a party, but we will get work done.
SOULS GROWN DEEP....that may be a lyric from a spiritual...in any event, it is a nice gathering of words...SOULS GROWN DEEP.
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