Monday, January 12, 2009

Status Update: Writing Projects

It has been a while since I last updated my blog, so it's best to be brief.

As I have mentioned previously, I have submitted my now 104-page script, currently under the title of Total War, to a number of new play festivals, staged reading series, and development workshops. I've thus far submitted to well over a dozen such venues, and I'm expecting to start hearing back from some of them later this month. It's almost like applying to graduate school as so much is invested in the work so far, and there is such a long wait on finding out if others believe in my vision as much as I do.

I've also been submitting a short solo play, Arlecchino Am Ravenous (which I previously wrote about here when it had another title) to a number of ten-minute play festivals. There seem to be any number of them. It's a very different piece than Total War as it began life as a series of improvisations designed to give me reason to perform the commedia dell'arte lazzo of La Fame dello Zanni which I first read about in Dario Fo's book, The Tricks of the Trade. The improvisations eventually took a life of their own and a story developed. I have been amazed to discover that there are so many ten-minute play festivals in existence.

I started work on a short article for the Chhandika newsletter, which is a good thing for me because while I have continued with my kathak studies, I have written so little about kathak, and now I can begin to remedy that.

In the meantime, now that I have come to think of myself as a playwright, I am considering a couple of different piles of writing fragments as "my next project."

Happy New Year!