377 Days - Blog #76 List item #9 or excellent, I smell a device

9. Submit a play to direct

This probably doesn’t come as any great shock to anyone who has been reading this blog or having any sort of conversation with me in the last month or two.  But one thing I intend to do this year – indeed, this calendar year – is to hand in a proposal to direct at my theater alma mater in Barre.

If you’ve really been paying attention, you probably can guess the play already. 

Of course, submitting a proposal isn’t a foregone conclusion that it is going to happen.  There is a (much appreciated) process of selection.  I am proposing something out of a usual context, but also within a specific and often misunderstood niche.

But it’s still fun to think about.   Actually, it’s really fun to think about.  And I like to think the fact that I have this amount of energy and enthusiasm in the abstract notion means that the actuality will be fun.

Tonight I had my first test run.  A reading of my cutting as of this point.  A group of seven gathered around my living room, with wine and cheese and delicious desserts… and a fire.  We read through the entire script and laughed and made pretty impressive timing for a Shakespeare play.  I heard the lines from actors who don’t live in my head and heard some new life in the dialogue as well as a contemplation of some staging I hadn’t thought of before.

I really want to do this play. 

I want to do it as a Christmas play.  I want to have music.  I want people to leave the show after the bows with a giant grin on their faces, happy to have spent a few hours in the theater, infected with enough joy to go home and not be stressed out about the season.  I want it to be an entertaining show so the actors and crew aren’t stressed out about doing a show during the holiday season.   

There are still a lot of shapes that have yet to mold into plan… but enthusiasm is a great way to start.

And I’ve definitely got that.

But now I think some sleep for my brain would be a good thing.