Tech Week

Marjorie Prime opened on Friday, which means we made it through our tech week. For those who don’t know, tech week for a production is the last few days before a performance begins where all of the technical elements are added in: lights, set, sound, costumes, etc. As an actor, I always find this week exciting. All of the elements come together and you get to see what your show is going to become. As a director, this is a stressful week. Will everything come together? (yes, it always does) Will there be any major disasters that require changing a whole bunch of stuff we’ve been rehearsing for the past five weeks? (sometimes, but it’s not the end of the world) During performances, I often find myself pacing the back of the theater, worrying about the production, wanting everything to be great, wanting the entire team to show what they can do.

Two weeks ago, I recorded my first bonus episode for the podcast. I was lucky enough to get all four cast members of Marjorie Prime together for an interview. It was great fun, and it was nice to talk about everyone’s backgrounds and how they began in theatre. I look forward to many more interviews, as I want that to be a part of my podcast in the future.

Now that the show is open, I’m returning to focusing on my own writing. I’m currently sitting at a small table in a lovely coffee shop in Clemmons, off the beaten path, but with a great vibe. I’m jumping back into my play about the climate crisis, Taurus-19. I’ve been working on this play on and off for years now. I get stuck, I put it on a shelf, then pick it up a few months later. Repeat. Repeat. This is a play in which I don’t know the ending yet. In my writing, I almost always know how the play is going to end before I start writing. With this one, I have no idea. I still have no idea. It’s a scary feeling, not knowing where I’m going. I’ve worked on this play in a number of writing workshops, including my second residency in grad school. Creating a play is hard, especially when you get stuck. It becomes too easy to just put it away and “come back to it later”. I’m tired of doing that with this play. It’s important. It’s timely. It’s begging to be completed. I’m giving myself the goal of finishing a really shitty draft by the end of this week. If you’ve ever read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, you know about her wonderful chapter on shitty first drafts. I task myself with reading it again before I finish this draft.

Back to the writing…