Monday, November 10, 2008

The Beginning.

Recently, I was offered financial assistance for a play that I have been working on, 'The Gospel According to Irony', after a friend of mine saw me do a staged  reading of it in a small amphitheater in Boulder, Utah. After accepting this generous offer, I decided I wanted to journal through the project, from its genesis through the manifestation of the production, and if necessary, continue on  writing about it as I establish a tour of  it through the United States.

I hope to accomplish several things by writing about the project. The first, would be to establish a foundation of support and interest. I have been creating theatre projects for a good twenty years, and have learned much about the process and the result of creating something from the ground up.  Several of these projects I managed through establishing a communication not only with the players of the project, but also establishing a dialogue with the audience of the project as well. Although like a play, I expect it to be a little unsteady until I find the structure this blog will manifest, I believe it will gradually find a footing that could prove to be interesting. I think for those who love to learn as well as love the 'creative process' it will prove to be relatively interesting, and to those who just love writing my challenge will be to make it an interesting to read.  

These are some of the facts of the play.
The play is a one man show, I am also the performer.
The play is approximately an hour and a half long. 
The play is biographical, but told in a theatrical way, which means I will take plenty of liberty. 
This play is somewhere around the thirtieth play I've written, if you count the one act plays. 
All of my plays have had production somewhere and somehow. Many of them I produced myself. 
I have three plays that are published, I mention this because I'm proud of that fact, because it is difficult for plays to get published, and no, they are not 'self published'. I have a fourth play that is pending publication, which really means that the publisher of (Anchorage Press) is still trying to decide whether to publish it or not, (its a musical, which means its more difficult to publish) and the other company I have a play published with is Samuel French, which is the largest play publisher in the world. For many years, I rarely mentioned my accomplishments, but as I get older and a little more confident, I'm not as modest anymore... (I hope you are chuckling) 
I love the play writing form. I also write songs, poems, stories and screenplays, but 'the play is my favorite form. I love it because of the way a play must use language to keep the audience awake and alive. 

I'll write more later, but am so happy to get started! I am also looking forward to getting to know many of you! 
The play has a seven part structure, or, one act with fourteen scenes, (I will explain this as we go along...) 



4 comments:

Gerry said...

I think this is a great start of a blog to share your experience producing your play in Los Angeles. I will send an e-mail to many journalists to come and have a look see. I think you have covered very well the origins of this play and others you have written, and hey, do you want some photos? So they can put your blog together with a photo? Oh by the way the word verification is to cut down on spam and later you can go to dashboard and layout and managing comments and delete that feature if you like, making it simpler to comment Love Mom

annk said...

The play has begun! I will be fascinated to hear how it goes.
I know from experience, the play is nothing like writing about the play! We can be excited for both..and those songs you can write. Nice to have you get started and letting us all share...
Annk

DB said...

Raymond, Linda in Washington suggested your journal to me. I'm glad she did. I am an actor, forced into reirement by ill health. But I spent my life in show business and what you have written here goes right to my heart.

DB Vagabond Journeys

Pamela said...

Years ago I saw a one man play. The man was Donald Sutherland. I cannot recall the name of it but I do recall how entertaining he was. I was disappointed when I heard it was just one man acting....but I surely was NOT disappointed in the play. I will look forward to seeing yours someday.
Pam