Plotting It Out

So there's a play in rehearsals (Bright Ideas)

And a play in auditions (A Few Good Men)

And then there's the play in development (Leave)

Leave (or The Surface of the World) is moving ahead on two fronts.

Matt Greseth and I sat down over the weekend and mapped out some key dates on the calendar between now and the opening of Season 2011 in February.

April 22, once Matt has auditions and casting for A Few Good Men behind him, the two of us will get together and pick the script apart scene by scene - get an idea where the strengths and weaknesses are in the script as a one act, and where the potential expansions lie, further explorations of character, situation and subject matter.

May 20, once Bright Ideas is open, we'll touch base once again. My writing group will have had its last three meetings before its summer break, so whatever hacking away I've been able to do in the interim will be ready to dig into. It'll also be good to touch base one more time before I head off to Omaha for

The Great Plains Theatre Conference, May 29 to June 5

My reading is first thing, 9am on Monday morning May 31. So, death slot, basically. I'm contenting myself with the thought that

1) I'll get getting out of town and just having the chance to be a writer and nothing else for a week

2) They're paying all my registration fees, putting me up (in a dorm - ah, nostalgia), and feeding me

3) The workshops look interesting - might jumpstart this, or other, ideas for future use.

4) It's not wall to wall events. There's breathing room around the edges and I'll just be able to kick back and scribble, bat Leave around a bit

5) It's an opportunity to work again with my pal Marty Marchitto, a director who's done three of my scripts, and whose instincts about new work I trust implicitly. He'll have a lot of insights to share.

6) Marty works with good actors, so I'll be able to pick their brains, too.

7) Whoever shows up to see the thing (there's gotta be *some*one, right?) will no doubt have their opinions and won't be shy about sharing them.

8) Seeing the script in another context, between the incubator it grew up in during 2008, and the next level it will be entering during 2010/2011, can only be a good thing.

9) Since networking and socializing terrify me, this will be a learning experience. Like auditioning, you only get better by doing. There will be plenty of other scripts being read and writers to meet, and (gasp) gatherings where mingling is kind of the point.

10) Again, I get to be a writer for a week and get the heck out of town.

June 10, a debriefing session with Matt about what I learned about the script at the conference

After the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Matt goes into A Few Good Men mode in earnest.

October 10, A Few Good Men and Season 2010 closes

November 7, a reading of whatever the new version of Leave exists with the company, and of course, more feedback

Early December - auditions, by which time, the bulk of the rewrites should be done, the new structure in place

Of course, in the process of auditioning and other actors getting their hands on the thing, we'll all see things we didn't before, and the tweaking begins.

Early January, rehearsals begin, and the last of the tweaking.

February, Season 2011 and the new version of Leave arrive in front of an audience.

All of which, when I lay it out like that, seems like no time at all.

Tick tock.

Matthew A. Everett
www.matthewaeverett.com
USP Board Member, Resident Playwright

Bright Ideas opens in 28 days
Great Plains Theatre Conference starts in 51 days
Minnesota Fringe Festival arrives in 118 days
Leave, via Urban Samurai, 10 months off