Journal, 10/26

DRUNCLE (To the audience) Well, that was enough for me. If that world planned on ending I might as well step into the next. I didn’t know how much of my niece was left even if I had the courage to bring her home. I knew if I left my sister’s girl behind, she’d have mine; but you know, my sister isn’t really, you know.

I mean, she’s just dead, the way a lot good people are, the way all good people will be, and the way I’ll be, too, only not as soon as I thought. Because in this world, this world I step into so far from the one I started you couldn’t skip a thousand stones to hit it; in this world, my old thirst is gone. I look at bottles like trying to remember some old girlfriend’s name, and it will not come to me. In this world, my new thirst, my only thirst, is water.

I drink water, and in this world, they take care of their water, serve it like wine, tell you where it’s from and you swirl it around in your fancy glass, and say “oh yes, mmm hmm, I do taste it.” I move near the ocean, down where it’s so warm you got to spend some of your day floating, I learn to scuba dive and spend my days teaching rich people how to do it. I got to tell you, there is a whole world down there! I mean there are fishes that look like clowns and rocks that breathe and jellies like jungles only these jungles got colors to make green lonely, and in that world, can I tell you this? In that world, there’s not a damn thing that cares one bit about all your troubles. I like that world. I don’t deserve it, but I plan on living there anyway.

And I wish that for you, all of you, a better world than any of us deserve.

Much has happened since my last journal post, but as I’m about to jump into an intense rehearsal process for Flux’s Hearts Like Fists, I wanted to share some quick updates. Since 8/14, I have:

• Finished a first draft of the sci-fi pilot Upgrade. My next steps are to clean up this first draft and finish plotting out the first season.
• Wrote a short monologue about the 1920’sfor Retro Productions called So We Beat On, winningly directed by old bud John Hurley and featuring Casandera Lollar and a wee bit of Matt Trumbull. I’ll post the script and more info on this as soon as I can.
• At the Flux retreat, we workshopped Jane the Plain, The Fields of Blue and Glow, Encryption and Tidal Devices. Only one of those four needs significant rewrites, I think, but all could use some tinkering. I’ve posted some pictures from TD, and will do so for the rest soon (the JTP pictures are amazing).
• Denny and Lila was workshopped at the Lark as part of Playwrights’ Week. It was a truly wonderful experience – my cast was awesome and my director Shelley and I are already planning our next adventure. Also, the staff at the Lark are so warm, generous and dedicated it can be pinch-me overwhelming at times.
• We shot the flashback scene of Old Maid, Sol Crespo’s haunting short that I am super-psyched to be directing. More on this anon.
• Also directing-wise, Flux’s production of Ajax in Iraq that I directed back in 2011 won Outstanding Remount from the blessed folks at the IT Awards…and yes, I really need to update my director stuff on this website.
• I’ve written four scenes for a new sci-fi pilot called Earth Rise, plotted out another pilot called Bleeders, and begun revising a very old play tentatively called Down.
• Finally (I think), I finished a first draft of Stepping, which is featured in the quote above. At the moment, I am slightly mad for the play, and it feels like I pushed myself to my absolute limits in writing it. We staged a scene from it at the Stampede Lab in September, and I can’t wait to find time and place to really dig into this big, messy, scary, magical play.

So, yeah, it’s been a busy two months since last I wrote, and I don’t know how much writing I’ll be able to do once rehearsals start, but I have dreams of finishing another pilot and play before 2012 is over…