BOA in SF

I know. I know. It's been a while. Tonight I went into the city to watch a friend's play as it is featured in Bay One Acts Festival by Three Monkeys at the Eureka Theater. Not saying this because he's my friend, but his was the best play. It's called "Toss of the Hat" by Mike Ricca. It's kinda funny watching it because it totally sounds like him! And what's funnier is that when people hear my stuff, they say that they could totally hear me. I just never thought of it that way, I guess. But his play is about a guy who throws caution to the wind and steps up and asks a girl that he likes, and whom he know she likes him, to be together... despite the fact that she already has a boyfriend of two years. He used the device of breaking the fourth wall, something I love, and can't wait to be able to write that into a play ala Zoot Suit.

Luckily they were selling the play as compiled in a book in the lobby. It must be a sign when all the crumpled bills that emerged from my left front pocket was exactly the amount of the book. Hopefully I'll get him to sign it when I see him at the next random meeting.

Anyways, his play closed program two of the festival. the programs consisted of short 30 - 40 minute plays. on this night, there were 4 plays. The first rocked cuz it involved cutting off a person's finger and tongue... which eventually led to his death on stage. Creepy and disturbing... right up my alley! The third play was amazing because of the heart that the playwright displayed. I was about 20 minutes long and I wished it was longer because I loved the characters.

The one that I surprisingly didn't like was the second play. It was about a man and a woman who are at a theater in NYC to watch an Edward Albee play, but they get there 24 minutes early, so they just sit there talking about there relationship which try to answer the question of why don't they have a baby yet. I didn't like them and I was always trying to figure out where were they going with this. I understood why the playwright was trying to paint their differences, but in the end, I just didn't like and care for either of them. The only really going for it was the very witty banter between them. Snappy. Back and forth. Like a tennis match of heavy hitters - fast. And I realized that at one point, I really really liked this style of conversation. Smart. Quick. But, for some reason, that style started to feel that the lines were just there to make the characters seem witty and smart... instead of just being real. I wrote a whole paragraph on this play because I really learned a lot from it... and about what I like and don't like. Something I hope I can use and know what not to use in my plays.

the mightiest force known to exist

I've been thinking a lot lately about what being an artist means to me. This sprang up from watching AOTS (America is on the Stage) and watching the potential there. I say potential not in a belittling or condescending way, I admire them for what they are DOING, but potential in terms of being able to continue to pursue the creation of art/song/dance/jokes/graphic design/etcetera long after college is done.

For me and the people that I'm on the same spiritual vibration level on (spiritual speak), we're still and will always continue to be Artists. The ones who seek pleasure of getting away from the world of worry, pain, bills, politics, hollywood, by going into a place of rehearsal, being on stage or even putting a scrapbook together - the place where the hands of seconds, minutes, and hours fall in your presence because you are on a higher level that allows you the freedom to be what God/Vishnu/Bathala/Whomever you consider the Mighty Supreme Being to be, and has always intended for you to be - YOU.

If you consider yourself an artist, then you know it is so engrained into your soul that you couldn't erase it if you, or anyone or anything else, even tried. It's that something that won't allow itself to be killed. It's the one thing that even if your physical presence is no longer with us, that creative soul lives on through what you created for us to carry us through. (Shout out to our boy, BJ Alisago!) Something that powerful because at it's core is the mightiest force known to exist on ANY level - love.

Back in the Saddle

The last couple of days of writing has been amazing! I actually forgot what it feels like to get lost in writing the words that come out of my characters mouths. It's actually getting to the point where it feels like I have to "kill some of my babies" because of length. I have this one scene that was so thin before, but now that i've added so much meat to develop and push the story forward, I know that I have to cut some of it. Hopefully, I can find somewhere to put it back into.

But yeah. Just nice to lose total track of time and to see the action just appear in the consciousness.