Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Neil and Martha - 49? I think that's technically right, although if we
add a row of folding chairs we can fit more like 70 in there... of
course, we averaged something like 40 people a night for our last show,
so I haven't really had the chance to see a truly full house... I
don't know the exact number of chairs. I could count the them for you
on Saturday.

Ugh... I hate the business side of things... 

The Next Stage is housed inside of Trinity Episcopal Church, and while
it has been a venue for some 40 years or so, it's San Francisco's best
kept secret... or was... as with the space crunch it's becoming more
well known. It's a small venue, to be sure, although not much smaller
than most of the other independent venues out here. I'm not very good
spatially, though. I know that we can add a row of chairs to expand the
capacity by 15-20 people for a popular show. (we only have three rows
of set chairs, but the space is very wide.)

C.A.F.E. (the company I'm working with, and have for the last five
shows) is the theatre's resident theatre company, although lots of
nomadic troupes use the space. C.A.F.E. the shows I've done with them
have focused on bringing multiple forms of storytelling together to
reconceptualize what is perhaps the oldest form of theatre. Many pieces
are told "word for word" style, in which the actors literally narrate
their own actions as they perform... like someone acting out a story at
a campfire. We've also used improvisation, multimedia, live music, and
mask work on various pieces. Each show has had an adaptation of a
published work, and this is the first show that is composed entirely of
pre-existing pieces. (past shows have had adaptations of "The Man" by
Ray Bradbury, "Troll Bridge" by some brit, "The Giving Tree" by Shel
Silverstein, "Cyberpunk" by ... oh shoot, I forgot his name, and then
"Darkness Box" by Ursula K. LeGuin. Normally we take myths and folk
tales from a variety of cultures and create pieces based on them (Baba
Yaga, Waloo the Sun Goddess, Surya, various greek myths, etc.) We've
also done improvisational folk tales (how holidays came into
existance), myths, and did a trio of improvisations based on A
MidSummer Night's Dream. We've occasionally done movement pieces to
poetry as well. It's quite eclectic and fun, really. Hard to describe
until you actually see a show, though.

Hope this helps, and I'll count chairs for you on Saturday!

Pamela - thank you! I really need to go back to doing more of my own
writing after I finish the adaptation of Arbitrary Placement...

Martha - Would you like to look at the adaptation as soon as I finish
it? 

Neil - The same offer goes to you for the adaptation of Wholesale (of
course), but I haven't wanted to offer you *more* things to read,
knowing how enormous your stack must be.
  

    
Do you pronounce that "cafe" or "see ay eff ee"?

I'll look at the script if you like, but probably the best thing is for me
to be very hands-off about everything you're doing....
  

    
I usually pronounce it Cafe, but that's because spelling out the
acronym for Combined Art Form Entertainment is just too much of a
hassle. *grin*

I understand about the hands off thing... i went back and read your
interview a little while ago and noted how you got very possessive
about your first script... It's a fine line, because I want you to be
happy with it, but also don't want to stress us both out to an
unpleasant degree. It's your call. 

I think I'm being more hyper than usual about wanting everyone to be
happy, because not only to I respect you and Neil so much... but also
kind of sort of know you in that really odd sort of online kind of way.
I was really wiggy when I was doing Troll Bridge and thought that he
knew about it, and then had a show the same weekend Tori was doing a
gig in San Francisco. I had convinced myself that he was going to swing
by, see the show, and then go see Tori's show. Make a weekend out of
it. I managed to completely freak myself out, with no evidence that
such a thing was remotely likely than my own imagination and a calendar
of events.
  

    
It's your show.  I was hands-off when Danny Glover directed an adapted story
by me, too--of course, it's not that I had any choice at all there!  They
bought the story and I never heard from them.
  

    
Pamela -- I didn't quote from Roger, but from Gene Wolfe, and I
thought I said somewhere here what that was...?  Unless I misunderstood
what you were asking.
  

    <scribbled>
  

    
Hey, y'all

Busier than ever lately, so I just wanted to stop by & say, "Hey!" 
(This is what real Southerners say.  Not Hi!, but Hey!.  Or Hey,
y'all!)

That review is .........amazing.  Always makes me proud when a
Southerner opens up his big mouth & puts his foot right in.  I take
consolation in the fact that he's a Texan, and not, therefore,
technically a Southerner.  Texans are a breed apart.  <<winks broadly
at all Texans in the room>>

I saw "Mama Mia" this week.  And as hard as I tried to remain Jaded
Theatrical Girl, I liked it.  *Cute* choreography, snappy direction,
great costumes, good performances.......and I hate ABBA. Awfully hard
to resist, though.  I have tickets for "Hamlet, the Musical" tomorrow
night.  I'll keep you posted.

Going to Renfaire this weekend (Bristol).  Will be trying hard not to
look for Hob.  Then I leave for a week on the beach in Santo Domingo. 
This vacation has arrived just in the nick of time.  A few more days,
and I'd have opened fire.  And I don't even have a gun..........

So have a good week, and have fun & be safe at Burning Man, Kelly,
Squeaks & the rest of ya.  (Y'all will be gone when I get back, I
think.)

JaNell--I hope things are going better.  I'll have a banana daquiri
for you  :-)  Hugs!

Neil--get some more rest.  May you be terribly productive & still have
plenty of time to play with Alien Maddy.

Mary (rereading Bullfinch for the first time since junior high)
  

    
Mary Roane - meet me on 115.
  

    

Me too.
  

    
Neil:  Sorry about the crossed wires.  I'll go look and try to
recreate where I got the Zelazny confusion from.

A couple of questions about writing, if you're game.

-Have you ever been afraid to write, of writing?
-Has writing ever made you angry?

(Martha: I'd love to hear what you have to say about this, too.)

-P
"Wearing our uniform, black and black."
-Shawn Colvin
  

    <scribbled>
  

    
P.S.  Seen on a vanity plate in Burbank yesterday evening.

Plate holder: "So long, farewell"
Plate:         OW VDRSN
Plate holder: "Goodbye."
  

    

Cute!
  

    
And, Linda, then I thought of you, because Kurt hit his high note in
my head.
  

    
Neil said on his blog today:
"...And I have to stop typing now to be interviewed by Smeg Radio in
Sydney, Australia. Honest."
Did *not* realize you were an expert in this area, Neil.

I can just hear the conversation with your mother:
"What did you do today, dear?"
"I was interveiwed on Smeg, ma."

*Why* do you have to tempt me?
Why, Neil?
We both probably regret it after...
  

    
Neil, Cameron wants to know if it's going to be broadcast *uncut*...
  

    
I'm just wondering if the Cat gets a guest appearance.
  

    
Eeewww. Too much personal information already. : >
  

    
I'm so glad someone else thought of the Dwarf.

Neil--does this make you a smeghead  (smeeeee--heeeee)?

<<goes off giggling>>
  

    
Mary -- I've always liked Texans... and, for that matter, Texas,
although I'd love to visit the alternate universe in which it really is
officially a country in its own right.

Pamela -- scared to write? Occasionally, yes. But not often. Sandman
69, for example.

Does writing ever make me angry? Not mine, although I've read writing
that angered me. 

JaNell -- it's actually a reference to an English comedic SF show
called Red Dwarf, in which SMEG is used as an all-purpose swear word.
It has a hyper-evolved cat in it, which is what Mike is referring to.
Hope this helps.
  

    
Neil, look up smegma in the dictionary. Hope *that* helps.
  

    
JaNell  -- yes, I know what smegma is. I assume that Rob Grant and
Doug Naylor did as well. That was why they made Smeg their all purpose
swear word joke in Red Dwarf.  It's a series that's about 15 years old,
so the joke is pretty old too, but it's nice to find someone who still
finds it funny.
  

    

http://www.zip.com.au/~peterb/smeg/

is the link that just arrived in my e-mail.
  

    
Neil, if you hadn't said "Honest." at the end of your blogger entry,
I'd not have said a dern thing.
That one word just screamed, "Come play with me!".
So I obligingly did.
  

    
Pamela & Neil-- I'll check on this further, but I think that
Slaughter' was written for the Rodgers and Hart musical, _On Your
Toes_.  

Stagewalker-- Have you read Keith Johnstone's book Impro?