APRIL 15

IN A BIG COUNTRY: Not only does this headline show my age--I mean, I can recall thinking how very cool it was that these guys had guitars that sounded like bagpipes--but it's also an absolutely terrible stretch to make a bad pun work. And yet, here we are. All this to say that I was contacted by Another Country Productions today to be advised that they've selected "First Time for Everything" to perform at the Marathon. I am told by founder Lyralen Kaye that the show was their first choice. For those not in the area, Another Country is a very well-known troupe normally given to producing edgy works with a healthy dollop of social responsibility and deep meaning, which does make me wonder how they settled on my very silly 8-minute comedy. Not that I'm arguing the point. Because on the other hand these folks have the 10-minute thang down, being as they are the hosting company of SLAMBoston, a fest now in its fifth year. (And one I've yet to submit any work to. Hmm...got to rectify that.) As I noted before, directors (yes, plural) Krista D'Agostino and Foster Johns have a good premiere to live up to--but in all honesty, I just hope everyone involved has a good time with it.

APRIL 5

FOR MY THIRD TIME, FIRST TIME: No clever preamble here--"First Time for Everything" has been accepted into the Boston Theater Marathon. This is my third consecutive year making the rolls for this wonderful (and insanely ambitious) event. In my mind the company that picks this show has some sizeable shoes to fill--I thought the version we just offered up at Curtain Call Theater, its premiere production, was absolutely spot-on and deadly funny. I'm not sure I'll get out to see the 'Thon this year. The last two years I managed to make it for my slot. (Last year this came after my driving six and a half hours back from Philly, stopping at home for a couple hours, and heading out again.) Matters of relative importance may preclude my being able to attend. And kudos to a few folks I know (or am at least familiar with) who've also made it in--Christopher Lockheardt, Patrick Gabridge, William Donnelly, Jack Neary and Monica Raymond. Ten hours, fifty playwrights...and I'm blessed enough to be one of them once again.

PASSING THOUGHTS. . .

MARCH 28

LET'S TRY THAT ONE MORE TIME: While I wait to hear from Heuer on whether or not "Waiting for the End of the World" will be joining "Bob's Date" on their roster (and a fine addition it would be), I've decided to also throw Dinner for Several at them. I have had absolutely no luck marketing it on my own, Jim Sunwall Award or no. And I think a show that can pack a 250-seat house five times (and near-fill it two more times) makes a pretty good choice for any publisher! So here's hoping, right?

MARCH 18

IT FEELS GOOD WHEN I GOOGLE MYSELF: Now and then a solid case of bordeom sets in followed closely by a chaser of ego and I decide to go do a little self-surfing. This time through I wondered if anyone had a chance to write about Flint City's Short Play Fest--or, more to the point, about my play. And sonuvagun, they did. As posted to the web site mlive.com, Kathleen Kirby of the Flint Journal wrote: "In 'The Worst Possible Time For Writer's Block,' David Lindsay is pajama-clad Peter, a dying man who wants to leave a poetry legacy but who has hit a creative wall. Death's Minion (M. Ryan Szukhent) is waiting patiently for Peter to be inspired so he can get on with his duty. Peter's sister Elaine (Persephone Kruszewski) arrives to bid her brother goodbye and is dismayed by his predicament. This John Shanahan script makes a major, if comedic, statement about perception and value and treasure versus trash." And here I just thought it was a funny play.

HOW VERY COOL....: ...is the name "Persephone Kruszewski." I'm just sayin'.

AND YES: I am adding that quote to "Block's" little chunk of real estate over there to the right.... It is, as the kids are wont to say, how I roll.

MARCH 10

BREAK A LEG, FLINT CITY: Thursday night "The Worst Possible Time for Writer's Block" goes up in Flint City, MI, as part of the Flint City Theatre's Short Play Fest '08. My thanks to the good folks at FCT for picking "Block" and to the director and cast for their time and talent. Break a leg and enjoy your run.

MARCH 9

WEREN'T THAT A TIME: And so the whirlwind logistical exercise that was "If the Shorts Fit" comes to a close. In under a month and just five rehearsals we slammed together eleven very well-received shows utilizing twenty-six actors, crunching many of them into rooms 10x12 or smaller just to keep them out of sight of the audience. While I greatly enjoyed sharing the stage with so many of my theater friends, I do hope it's a long time before I have to enjoy their company in such very close quarters again! "Shorts" went very, very well. It raised two grand for Curtain Call in just three nights. The shows ran quite smoothly. The Thursday and Saturday crowds were a little more subdued, reaction-wise, than we might have liked, but then again maybe the Friday crowd, who laughed at pretty much anything that happened on stage, spoiled us. But by all accounts and judging by the endless stream of compliments, folks quite enjoyed it. My sincere, sincere thanks to Lisa Burdick, Mark Harvey Levine, Chris Lockheardt, Jack Neary and Kristyn Leigh Robinson for so kindly lending us these plays. People loved them, and I hope we the actors did well by you. (Time and the DVD will tell!) The crazy people at CCT were already murmuring about doing it again some time...

MARCH 4

HEUER TO PUBLISH "BOB'S DATE"!: As you might guess from the enlarged font, I'm a little excited about this bit of news. Just got word today that Heuer Publishing wants to publish and license "Bob's Date." If you're not theater folk, Heuer is a large and respected house that carries a lot of plays. The e-mail I received called BD a "highly captivating, 'cognitive' short play." More on this as it goes forward, but I hope for the script to be available later this year.

WHY IT FEELS SO GOOD: "Bob's Date" was the second play I ever started writing and the first I finished. It was the first of my plays to hit the stage in finished form and now it's the first to be picked up by a major publisher. ("Waiting..." and "Owen & George" were briefly printed by a small publisher.) So it's like the circle closes for the first time as the train pulls into Validation Station. And I'm in the club car having a beer.

NO, SERIOUSLY: Toasting success, even as I sit here typing, with a cool glass of the very delicious Abita Turbo Dog beer. Go find it. You'll like it.

LET ME EXPLAIN ONCE MORE HOW THE ZEN THING WORKS: This will come off either as me being a man of particular wisdom or me being old and forgetful. But this hit is a prime example of my philosophy with regard to writing: expect nothing, accept everything. I honestly don't remember sending "Bob's Date" to Heuer. I do sort of remember sending off "Waiting for the End of the World," and maybe I sent both. But the point is, "Bob's Date" getting published was the furthest thing from my mind. Hadn't given it any thought, wasn't agonizing over no reply, hadn't attached any weight or importance to it. Meanwhile, it was out there being allowed to do whatever it was going to do, whether that was to get accepted, get rejected, or just be used as a scratch pad. I had nothing banking on this. I didn't need it to happen in the deepest psychological sense of the word. I knew I would like to have it published and that in order to effect that I would have to send it out, so I did. A while ago, apparently. I can't even find reference to it in the archives. (Probably didn't look hard enough.) Off it went, while I prepared to expect nothing, accept everything. And in allowing things to progress as they would with or without my worrying about them, we come to a very nice point in my "career"--my first professional play publication. And for that, I give blessings as I always do. Om namah Shivaya. Blessed be.