Psst...you''ll find the 2006 archives through here.
The 2007 restrospective is here.

DECEMBER 29

THE SECOND ORDER: I am finally at liberty to disclose that for the third year in a row I'm on the roster for Acme Theater's New Works Winter Festival. This is honestly one of the top fests on my lists and one that I hope to be in each year not just because they're close but because the folks at Acme do an amazing job. The shows are always good, the fest runs like clockwork (from an observer's standpoint, anyway) and it's not every day that you get to work on a stage with a huge pole in the middle of it unless your job happens to involve pasties and a G-string. This year we're bringing "Tall Order" to Acme--and by we I mean me, the missus, and our good friend Richard Carey. Yes, I have cast myself and the wife in this show, but only because it seemed like good fun. And it has been. The New Works Winter Fest is split into two tracks as always, but this year it's male playwrights and female playwrights. If you're local, the fest goes on the weekends of Jan. 11 and 18. We'll be there on the 12th and 18th.

DECEMBER 22

BECAUSE IT'S NOT LIKELY ANYTHING ELSE WILL HAPPEN: I've posted the 2007 retrospective.

DECEMBER 19

COMING SOON: The annual end-of-year, interesting-mostly-to-me writeup of 2007 in retrospect. In other words, it's me going through the archives and condensing what productions I had. And I take a crack at getting all pithy 'n shit about playwriting. Plus--soon, if I can get the okay from the director-wife, early set and rehearsal shots from next year's Dinner for Several.

THE LAST SHOW OF '07: Speaking of productions, it finally became official recently. TheatreRats in NYC will be hosting Curtain Up: 2008, a New Year's Eve fundraiser. The short evening features the premiere of my newest 10-minute play, "Tall Order," plus work from the very talented Mark Harvey Levine, Mary Steelsmith and Robert Daria. If you're in the Big Apple, get more info on the night here.

DECEMBER 16

NEXT YEAR'S MODEL: If you've hung around here long enough--and why would you?--then you know the drill: New year, new look. And I'm just bored enough to have done the overhaul this weekend and decided to roll it out of the garage early. No big changes here. Menu to the top, counter to the bottom, no quotes, more space to show off the plays. I have one other idea regarding the plays, but it will take a bit of writing so it may not happen. Time will tell.

DECEMBER 10

THANK YOU, PPVP: Little gift in the mail today, the DVD of Paw Paw Village Players' premiere rendition of "Dance in Venice." I'm pleased. The piece looks good and the actors got it. What more can I really ask? Looking at it, though, and listening to it, I do think I could go back in and find a way to make Rachel's concerns stronger. Really find a way to add more bone to what makes her not want to go back to her old life. Time will tell... For now I think I may go watch it again.

NOVEMBER 20

GO! GIT! SCRAM!: Having absolutely nothing to do today, I've just dusted up "Bob's Date" and "Waiting for the End of the World" and submitted them to Heuer Publishing. It's really about time to take this route. Having the plays on my site doesn't exactly get them productions. And Bob, at 40 minutes, Waiting, at 20, aren't exactly festival-perfect. But they're both great plays. Bob's still remains my number-one most-produced play (with "Writer's Block" coming up fast) and "Waiting" is simply my favorite short piece, hands down. Time to get more exposure via someone else's catalog. It'll likely be months before I hear anything, but....off they go.

THE INTERNET IS FOR LAZY PEOPLE: One of the reasons I chose Heuer, outside of their being a well-known publisher, is that I could just send them the plays electronically. I have my standards.

NOVEMBER 18

WELL WHADDAYA KNOW: Last I heard, "Brushstroke" was in the running to be in Circus Theatricals' Festival of One-Acts. Their artistic director had called to ask about casting. I guess I took that as too much of a yes. Turns out our friend the 'Stroke wasn't chosen after all. The worst part is having to find out about it in a roundabout way. Oh, well. Look for "Brushstroke" in the S&K anthology this winter. Meanwhile, I'm off to the links page to remove Circus Theatricals. Wait, not in a spiteful way! That sounded bad. No, just because I only link to the places where my work's gone up. I'll try Circus again sometime, if only because Jack Stehlin bothered to call me before casting alternatively. That won serious points in my book!

OCTOBER 28

AH, VENICE: Got word this morning that the good and kindly audiences in Paw Paw Village voted "Dance in Venice" as their favorite play in the Paw Paw Village Players' One-Act Fest, which ran these past two weekends. My thanks to Jane Starr and her cast, Roger Henderson and Marianna Poggione, for giving this piece its auspicious, vote-winning premiere!

OCTOBER 26

EXPECT NOTHING, ACCEPT EVERYTHING: If you've been here before you may know that "expect nothing, accept everything" is a mantra of mine. I try to live by it across the board, and manage to do so a reasonable amount of the time, but it's more something that I apply to my playwriting. I genuinely feel that because I've never expected to wring this thing for riches untold or even a simple production in a musty church basement, it's treated me kindly. I have not in fact amassed riches untold, but I've had a fair amount of productions. Maybe that's why the audition turnout for Dinner for Several was...well, let's go with "disappointing." Before I go on let me note that another adage applies here: Quality, not quantity. We ended up with a lovely cast, which I will name in a later post so as not to jinx anything, and I'm pleased with that result. What stung a bit was to watch over the last two weeks as more than 100 people stopped in here and accessed the page with the Dinner excerpt on it, and then to have a grand total of (ready for it?) 20 people turn out for it.

Let's be blunt: John Shanahan is not a draw. Dinner for Several is not a draw. Community theater actors want what they know, or they want shows that have proven themselves elsewhere...a lot. They don't necessarily see a new script as a draw or a challenge the way, for example, a small troupe in Boston might. I am truly glad that even these 20 people did see the allure and that some--not all--took the time to investigate the script and saw something in it that pulled them in.

So I admit it: I expected more of a response and I got less, and that disappointed me. I started to quantify the experience in terms of how "few" people came out. The universe, however, took it upon itself--as it do often does--to show me that despite what I began to see as a problem, what I was getting was precisely what I and this show needed.

Because it is what it is.

Our cast is wonderful. Our play is very good. And our show is going to kick ass. I may not be a draw, but this show is going to delight its audiences come February. I dffon't expect that--I know it.

OCTOBER 19

IN MICHIGAN, VENICE LOOKS LIKE THIS: My thanks to the Paw Paw Village Players for shooting over a couple of photos from the final dress for the premiere production of "Dance in Venice."

And, bad person that I am, I forgot to get the actors' names. By the by, it's worth mentioning that when I wrote DiV, I didn't specify ages in the script. In my head, I'd say that Gary and Rachel are mid to late 30s. Old enough to be doubting their life choices (have you read the excerpt?) but not old enough to have it seem like a sort of cliche mid-life crisis. Which is to say, no offense to these actors, I pictured them maybe younger. But when I saw these shots, I realized that not defining the age is a good thing. Because "older" doesn't immediately scream mid-life crisis; it can be people at a crossroads, at a point where a little self-examination, removed from the usual, can stir up the kind of feelings Rachel has. At the same time, play it with 30somethings, and perhaps it becomes "I don't like where I'm headed, is it too late to change direction?" All of which is to say I think that DiV carries a little bit of universality with it. It's adaptable. And yes, I still need to look at it to be sure that it's not just a case of "Gosh, life would be better here"/"Oh, wait, not it wouldn't" but for now, I'm intrigued to see how it plays. I hope they like it in Michigan tonight.

I NEVER BELIEVED: That my shows would ever leave Massachusetts. Honestly. By virtue of having a piece seen in little Paw Paw Village, MI, tonight, I'm struck all over again by the blessing of it all.

SOMEONE WANTS TO SEE MY THING: Is that enough with the non-veiled pecker jokes already? Okay. Today I get an e-mail from Jerry Bisantz of Image Theater in Lowell, MA. Jerry is the guy who picked "That Thing" to perform at the Boston Theater Marathon last May. Well let me tell you something about Jerry. He's got this one-night stand of plays called the "Naughty Readings"--it's a night of plays that simply shouldn't be seen my the kiddies. It happens November 17 at the Old Court Tavern in Lowell, and "That Thing" will be on the roster. Glad to have my Thing back in Jerry's hands.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

OCTOBER 16

THE LAST PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR: Nothing's in stone yet, but should a planned New Years' Eve fundraiser at TheatreRats come to fruition, "Tall Order" will be part of it. The quite wonderful Michael Ruby wrote to me to say, "Love it. Truly. The ending is a nice surprise and is absurdly funny." Yay, me. And I owe this one to Michael himself for giving me the impetus and the starting point for the thing when ideas were playing hard to get.

OCTOBER 15

GETTING READY FOR DINNER: A week from tonight, auditions open for the Walpole Footlighters' version the slimmer, trimmer and hopefully still engaging Dinner for Several. It's an odd sensation. I love the play, obviously. I loved the Medway Players version of it--back in 2004. It amazes me that it's been that long. In the meantime I've never been able to get a theater to look at it. It made, I believe, three past appearances in front of the Walpole playreading committee. Someone from another theater that has produced other pieces of mine called it "wordy." I mean, it's an award-winning show. It did great in Medway--people loved it. Why does it gather dust on my hard drive? (We can all chorus "Lack of strong marketing effort!" here if you like. The question stands.) This, though...this production I have very high hopes for. An award-winning director (yes, she's my wife but she was popping off the kudos before I met her). A great space. A good friggin' play that is, I hope, at least 15-20 minutes shorter than it was. Go read the first act. Tell me you didn't laugh. And to everyone who may turn out to audition, thank you for your interest. Have fun. See you next week.

THERE'S DANCING IN PAW PAW THIS WEEKEND: Lest I forget, let me toss a "break a leg" out to my friends at the Paw Paw Village Players, who will perform the premiere version of "Dance in Venice" this weekend. Break a leg, have fun, send me pictures. And, of course, thank you.

OCTOBER 7

PURE DRECK: Last night I sat in a church basement with thirty or so friends and watched the premiere of The Dungeon of Dr. Dreck, the latest offering from my insane friend, Mike Legge. This was a special treat for me because my son, Jack, has a cameo in the film, appearing as a young version of me. On the day he filmed he had all six of his three-word-max lines down pat and proved to be the kind of actor who takes direction and immediately makes it happen. He got a kick out of seeing the movie, and seeing his name in the credits. And yes, so did I.

SEPTEMBER 30

I CONSIDER MYSELF WELL STROKED: When you decide, as a playwright, that you will hop in your car and drive two and a half hours and then add a two-hour train ride to that just so you can see--and not for the first time--one of your ten-minute plays, you generally do so hoping that it won't suck. And it's always a crapshoot. So today I did just that by going to see "Brushstroke" at TheatreRats in NYC. Fourteen hours, 300 miles, one order of falafel, a corned beef sandwich and six very good plays later, I'm pleased to say that Bill Brown and Patrick Michael Wickham turned in a very solid rendition. Very few issues from the playwright on this one. I would have prefered they'd gone the route where the actual painting doesn't appear on stage (I have to remember to pull that entirely out of the script, it may have been my bad) but it didn't detract. Solid actors clearly enjoying the script. Which, as you may know if you've been here, is really all I ask for. Thank you again to the actors, Michael Ruby, and the whole TheatreRats crew.

OH, THAT OTHER STUFF: Stacey and I agreed that this was the first time in recent memory where a short play fest (the part we saw, anyway) didn't have a single show where you applauded at the end because the torture was over. Folks, there are ten-minute plays that take a lifetime to get through. But not here. The opener, "Child's Play" by the unstoppably brilliant Ry Herman and collaborator Kolby Granville, is my idea of the perfect short play: it's unique and funny and right when you've laughed about as much as you can, it delivers a near-fatal heartpunch. You can see the message creeping in and maybe you know what's coming but when it lands, it bowls over everything in a ten-mile radius. Top-notch performances from Craig Hutchison and C. L. Weatherstone bolstered an already excellent script. Latrisse Goffigan's "The Edge" was, by turns, funny and touching as two suicide jumpers bicker over space on a ledge. James Sutton and Joe Gioco took us through a great arc in their brief time on the stage. It can't be entirely easy to write a good ten-minute musical, but Justin Warner succeeded admirably with "Follow." Strong acting and vocals from Alex Covington and David Arthur Bachrach gave the feel of a full-fledged, fleshed out musical. I don't know if Mr. Warner intended it to be a sort of spoof on musicals, but musically it seemed al most too perfectly Broadway-esque for Broadway. It was like you knew these songs from somewhere, but it was all strikingly original. Speaking of striking....a tour de force monologue, Pamela Turner's "Male Man" put the eminently watchable Francis Mateo center stage. With gripping intensity, Mateo delivered the story of a Viet Nam vet whose job it was to deliver the mail to troops in wartime....wherever they were. I was riveted. Great staging and Mateo never let the audience's attention lag. Superb work. The day closed with "The M Word" from Mary Steelsmith and Steven Lee. If you've ever wondered what happens to actors who say Mac-you-know-what, here it is. Broad physical joy and frenetic energy from Cara S. Liander, Mike Lesser and Elizabeth Palin (who I remember from last year's Chester Horn) had the audience rolling. Kudos to everyone--you made my eight-hour round trip worth it!

AND FOR THE RECORD: The Stage Deli is okay, but it just doesn't hold a candle to the Carnegie Deli. Next year it's the Carnegie again. I shouldn't have strayed.

SEPTEMBER 29

THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT IS, BABY: First off, as always you get points for naming the reference. (No Googling!) Holland Productions, who were going to do a shorts fest at the Devanaughn Theater in Boston next month, had to pull up stakes on it. For reasons undetermind the show could not go on. Which leaves "First Time for Everything" unproduced. Waah. I'm hoping it might get picked up by Acme for the winter fest, but we shall see.

SEPTEMBER 28

BIG CITY OF DREAMS: Tonight, away down there in the Big Apple, the 3rd Annual Chester Horn Short Play Festival kicks off at 8 pm and "Brushstroke" gets its Off-Off Broadway showing. Director Bill Brown, bless his heart, has chosen to do the play as written--which is to say, no alternative casting which has been the bane of its existence. He's also cast himself in one of the two roles. The other is being played by a gentleman who received a best actor nomination for his performance at last year's Chester Fest. So that pleases me quite a bit! Sunday I'll be driving down for what I would love to become an annual event for me. Wife and I drive to New Haven, hop the train to Penn Station, grab a cab, hit a deli, see the show, then head home. It's a whirlwind day and a shitload of driving, but last year certainly proved worth it when "One Last Thing" (which I need to send out more) was selected as Outstanding Play for its track--thereby gaining me entrance into this year's fest. Tonight I thank the TheaterRats people and Mr. Brown and his cohort. Break a leg. Enjoy the ride. See you Sunday.

SEPTEMBER 25

SOON...: This site becomes johnshanahan.net. Finally decided to pony up for the domain name. You'll want to reset your bookmarks, of course. (Wow...I almost wrote that with a straight face.)
UPDATE: And now...it has. You can reach the site either through shanahan.netfirms.com or the snappier, easier-to-remember, more chocolate-and-habanero-flavored johnshanahan.net.

SEPTEMBER 24

BINGERS TAKE FLORIDA: Just got word that Studio 400 at the Pensacola Little Theater have made their final selections for the 2008 Short Attention Span fest, and I'm pleased to say they've accepted "That Thing." This theater was caught a little off guard by the swirling maelstrom of submissions they recieved after their call was posted on playwrightbinge. But our collective efforts paid off: every one of the eight shows selected is from a Binger. (The ever-damnable Mark Harvey Levine, who is one of the best playwrights you may never have heard of, is represented twice.) I am joined by the lovely and talented Kristyn Leigh Robinson, Lia Romeo, John Davenport, Isabella Russel-Ides and Barbara "Call Me Babs" Lindsay. Yeah, I have to admit...I run with a pretty talented crowd. Congrats to all the Bingers, thank you to PLT, and...onward!

THROW THE NET WIDER: I decided the other day to do something I told myself I had no intention of doing--ever. I have set up a myspace page for my playwriting. I have been of the opinion, which I still hold somewhat, that myspace is the domain of 14-year-olds masquerading as 20somethings and people who write things like "Kewl" well into their thirties. However, having looked at the myspace of Mr. Edward Crosby Wells, a wonderful playwright who has probably never used the term "Kewl," and seeing how many theater companies he has listed as friends, I decided to set one up and use it the way I use the myspace for my side gig as an ambient and electronic music reviewer. It exists to drive traffic here and to expose more people to the plays. Will it work? I dunno. Can't win if you don't play, though. So if you're an actor (particularly those I know and love), a theater local or far, far away, regardless of whether or not you've had the good sense to produce one of my fine delicacies for the stage, or just a regular or semi-regular visitor with a myspace of your own, head on over to www.myspace.com/goodplaywriter and add yourself to my friends list. If you do, you can even find out what the hell I was thinking by picking the monker "goodplaywriter."

SEPTEMBER 12

AND THEN THE UNIVERSE PUNCHED ME IN THE JUNK AND TOLD ME I HAD NO DOGS: I owe "Dance in Venice" an apology for refering to it as a dog yesterday. As is often the case, when I think A, the universe shows me B. This is why, after I called DiV a dog, I got an e-mail from the Paw Paw Village Players in--I swear to you--Paw Paw Village, MI, stating they'll be performing the play as part of their One Acts 10.5 fest next month. I can't honestly tell you when I subbed this. It had to have been last year because I don't have it on the 2007 tracker. I sent it out twice in '06--once to Paw Paw, apparently--so for that year the show's got a 50% success rate. (See? You make the most. That's how you stay sane.) The thing that amazes me is that today--literally today, 5 o'clock this afternoon as I was leavign work--I was thinking about DiV and whether I should take a look at it, see if I could tweak it and make it better or more interesting or give it a stronger conflict. Another theater looked at it and said, perhaps rightly, that it comes down to "the grass is greener...no, wait, maybe it isn't...." But then, when you go second guessing, suddenly someone likes it for what it is. As the mighty director-wife has said many times, and as I have repeated an equal number of times, "Theater is opinion." And out in Paw Paw Village, the opinion is that DiV has something worth putting on stage. So mazel tov, y'know?

SEPTEMBER 11

LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD: The playwrightbinge can be a very good thing. It can also be frustrating as hell as you sit back and chuck out scripts for 30 days then wait to hear and often hear either nothing or no. But then there's the hits. And after six tries "First Time For Everything" finally made a hit. A small group in Boston, Holland Productions, will be putting on a 10-minute fest at the Devanaughn Theater early next month, and my little play will be a part of it--a premiere!

WHICH MEANS: "Dance in Venice" is my only dog thus far.

NOT TO JINX: But I got something going. Something longer than 10 minutes. Early yet. Shhh....

AUGUST 30

THAT'S WHAT I LIKE TO SEE:

CONVERSELY: It is always full disclosure time here, and I neglected to mention that the production of "Bob's Date" that was supposed to go up in November won't be. The director didn't elaborate, but said that she wanted to do it at a time and under conditions that would allow her to do it as well as possible. Which I, naturally, appreciate very much. So, later for "Bob's."

POST-GRIEVANCE FOLLOW-UP: What can I say about this? It was four of the best shows I've personally done in a long time. It was "Grievance" as it was written, done with a fuller understanding and played to appreciative audiences. Yes, Bill and I learned that it's apparently a lot funnier of a play than we thought--or as I'd thought when I'd written it. I mean, I know there are funny lines scattered through the play, but...more laughs in unimagined places. And it was on a per-audience basis. The second Friday's crowd practically laughed when we inhaled and elbowed each other with glee when we exhaled. It was a superb ride. Once more, my public thanks to Bill Houldcroft for coming in on short notice and making Dennis Kavanaugh his own. It was very much the show I'd hoped it would be.

AUGUST 22

SOMETIMES I FORGET TO TRACK: Woke up to an e-mail from the very lovely Paddy Gillard-Bentley up at Asphalt Jungle Shorts in Canada. They gave a no to "First Time for Everything." which I'd sent in June and promptly fogotten about. More grey on the tracker. Or, to be more HTML-precise, more #999999.

AUGUST 18

GOOD GRIEV: Well, that felt nice. "Grievance" opened last night with the Medway Players and I have to say I thought it went pretty well. Yes, we jumped a page but we kept going smoothly onward and the audience ate it up. Houldcroft was suitably Dennis-y and almost got to me with his money-shot speech at the end of the play. And I think I did a dang fine job as the Almighty. I'm pleased, and I'm looking forward to hitting it well again tonight--and next weekend! This time maybe we'll do the whole show. ;-)

AUGUST 13

THE UNFORTUNATE AND EGO-DISSOLVING ACT OF UPDATING THE PLAY TRACKER: It's not that I think the party's over, but boy, is that Play Tracker filling up with gray spaces fast! Gray spaces that say "Not Selected" in them. Appetite Theater in Chicago took a pass on both "One Last Thing" and "Writer's Block." MadLab in Cincinnatti gave a no thanks to "One Before Forty." The batting average is dropping faster than a cheerleader's panties lately. There are only three theaters left out of the seventeen I've subbed to so far. But the ostensibly good news is...

I'M ABOUT TO BINGE AGAIN!: Yes, the fall Binge is just around the corner. If I can hunt up enough "no previous production" opps, or if I limit myself to chucking "Dance in Venice" and "First Time for Everything" at every theater running a 10-minute fest, I should be able to up my numbers. A Binge this late in the year, however, is more about getting '08 productions. But the hits still count! So let's see how many days out of 30 I actually get off my duff and send things.

IF IT'S FRIDAY, I MUST BE GOD: Four more days til we open "Grievance" as part of the Medway Players' Night of Short Plays. It's been interesting exploring this role and working out my own words. And for a guy who came into the show eleven days before it opens, the estimable Mr. Houldcroft is creating a very good Dennis. It's a pleasire to work opposite him. Can't wait to unleash this thing. It's good to stretch the acting muscles again.

I SAW DEATH: My thanks to Kristyn Leigh Robinson, playwright of note and esteemed director with the Wilmington Drama League, for sending over the DVD of her production of "Waiting for the End of the World." Superb stuff, honestly. I'd say it's easily my favorite version since the bar-setting premiere performance with the Original Horsies. Man, do I love this play.

AUGUST 2

STROKE IT TO THE WEST: That's a Clarence Carter reference for all y'all. Got a call this evening from Circus Theatricals out in LA. They like "Brushstroke" and it's a semi-finalist to be included in an upcoming short play fest. Actually, they called me about the play because they had a question. About casting. Now, if you've hung around here long enough, you know exactly what the question was. If you're new here, well...you've got some reading to do. The short version is: sigh, smile, explain, allow. Maybe this time they get it right--if, as the director-wife says, I am so blessed as to be chosen.

JULY 28

THE GRUNT OF CREATIVE EFFORT: The good news is that apparently it only took a suggestion to help me push (albeit briefly) past my wall of non-writing. A few weeks ago I was asked if I would contribute a 10-minute play with a New Years' theme to it as part of a potential fundraiser in NYC. Two idea leapt to mind, and one of them, once I got it moving, pretty much slid out onto the paper. A fellow playwright, bless her little heart, deemed it one of the funniest things she's read in a while, which the pessismistic side of me suggests only means she doesn't read much. But I do like it. The bad news is that it's all of a whopping six pages, which means the full-length which I am certain is lodged somewhere within me has not been knocked loose yet. But then, on the other good side...okay, it's really a pretty funny piece. And I will warn members of Acme Theater (who I know stop by sometimes) that this one will likely land on their doorstep for the New Works Winter Fest if they're holding it. SO yeah...I wrote something. About fuckin' time.

BY THE WAY: It's called "Tall Order" and it takes place in a diner. That's all you get for now.

JULY 10

WE'LL GET ALONG FINE AS SOON AS YOU REALIZE I'M GOD: You know, I actually had a button that had that on it when I was a kid. In this instance, however, we're talking about me playing God in my short piece, "Grievance" next month with the Medway Players. I've been waiting to see it done the way it ought to. Don't get me wrong--the previous two incarnations were fine. Unfortunately in the first one the director saw fit to have God done in voiceover, thereby rendering null (that is, "ignoring") my intent to humanize the Creator, and in the second God came off a bit too much like a snide and awful bitch. So, tucked away in tiny li'l Medway, I will present what will hopefully be a farily definitive version of the thing, abetted by Bill Houldcroft. That evening will also feature short offerings from the very talented Lorna Noguiera ("The Lucifer I Know") and Mr. BJ McCoy ("Plans for the Weekend"). I urge you to locate Medway on a map, program it into a GPS, and come see it, Aug. 17-18 and 23-24.

JULY 3

AND THEN THE UNIVERSE PUNCHED ME IN THE JUNK AND TOLD ME TO STOP WHINING: I'm trying not to look at this as a case of "gripe and you shall receive," but today I got an e-mail from someone I'd had a conversation with about a year ago about producing "Bob's Date." Seems she has a chance to direct it as part of an evening of one-acts this November in New Hampshire. It's flattering to have someone keep one of my shows in mind for a year. I happily granted permission for the production and hope to make it up there for the show. (We have friends in the general area.) So I go waah waah waah about rejections and over the next two days pick up two shows. Shaddup, Johnny.

JULY 2

WHOLE BIG BUCKETS OF NO: If nothing else, let this post serve as information on How Things Work. One week you're talking about how your play is being included in a "Best Of" anthology, and the next you couldn't get a show into a theatre if you ran up and hurled yourself through the window with it clutched in your grimy playwright paws. I've hit a spate of rejections lately--Phare Play in New York, Ashland New Plays in Oregon, Brown Couch in Chicago... Two of them were "That Thing" which, since its well-received debut at the Marathon, has gone 0-for-6 in the outside world. Ashland turned down "Brushstroke." (See? Gold to one, garbage to another. Theater is opinion.) Fact is, I've received just one yes so far this year, and I had to pull that one back due to a difference of vision. Oh well, oh well.

GARBAGE . . . GOLD: Let us now continue the lesson, literally 11 hours later. Just heard from TheatreRats in NYC that they'll be producing "Brushstroke" as part of the 3rd Annual Chester Horn Short Play fest in September. This is the group that did a lovely and memorable version of "One Last Thing" last fall. For those keeping score via the Tracker, I'm not counting this one toward my batting average for the year. This wasn't a submission, per se--it was like a bye. Because the audiences voted for OLT as one of the two best shows last year, I was automatically in. I just gave Michael Ruby & Co. two to choose from (and I think the second was Owen & George, maybe? Or Venice, which has yet to find a glimmer love.) But it's a production, and a cheap reason to make another day trip down to NYC--perhaps this year without screaming back pain. And so the lesson goes like this: Theater is opinion. Dry spells happen. Proven work will continue to prove itself eventually. Wait it out, keep submitting, believe in the stuff.

JUNE 8

MAKING A STOP AT THE VALIDATION STATION: It's hours after I got the news, and I'm still a little high over it. I am pleased almost beyond words to announce that "Brushstroke" will be published this winter in the Smith and Kraus anthology The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2007, 2 Actors. After the show premiered at last year's Boston Theater Maraton, Kate Snodgrass, the Marathon's honcho and head of the Boston Playwrights Theater, suggested that I needed to submit it to S&K for consideration. I did, then sat back and didn't think much of it for several months. I knew a few months back that I was shortlisted, but today's news came as a blessed surprise. When I wrote "Brushstroke," I knew that I liked it, but I doubted it would hit and stick on an audience. But it's been produced four times since I released it into the wild, and it's always interesting, after it's done, to have people --artists--tell me how close it hits to home. How I "got it exactly right" as one of them put it. So for a piece I didn't have ultimate faith in, I'd say the little fella's done okay for hisself. Print. The next step toward having people know that I'm out here, and I'm writing...

KEEP ALL GOOD COMPANY: Technically speaking, that's a reference to a Queen song. (You know, since no one jumped at the "Back in the states" reference a while back.) But more to the point, it's to mention that fellow Playwrightbingers Barbara Lindsay, Claudia Haas, Patrick Gabridge, and Mark Harvey Levine will be sharing space with me in the S&K anthology. Them's good people, and damn fine writers as well. Congrats to us all.

JUNE 1

I AM REMISS: I neglected to mention that tonight, for the second year in a row, the Theater One students at Peabody Veteran's Memorial High are presenting their production of "Bob's Date," along with another play by a local playwright. One year is a pleasure; two is an honor; if they do this again next year I'm going to have to call it a tradition. Familial obligations prevented me from attending this year, but I did want to thank the cast--whose names I confess I do not know--for their time and talent, and to also thank my good friend Richard Carey for believing in the show once again. Thank you, kids, and I hope you all enjoyed the ride.

SPEAKING OF RIDES: Still having a grand old time with Mr. Lockheardt's stuff at Curtain Call. Last night we went up before an audience of about 30 and I was able to firmly prove to myself that I am a die-hard, rock-solid, unrepentant laughter whore. EMACT is next weekend. Can't wait.

MAY 23

DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT: It's quick and it's mostly a synopsis, but here's what Larry Stark, Boston theater maven and host of theatermirror.com, had to say about "That Thing": "Here Dale Place and Kippy Goldfarb were Carl and Linda, discussing that 'thing' they used to do (with little squeezy-motions of his hands and a knowing smirk), discussing a little hotly who enjoyed what and how much and who didn't, reflecting on how long it's been, and rushing upstairs to Do Something about it! And so we had age and sex, lovingly and wittily discussed!"

Thank you, Larry!

MAY 22

THANK YOU, IMAGE: I managed to close out a hectic Sunday this past weekend by getting to the Boston Theater Marathon to see the premiere of "That Thing." Luckily it was being staged in the very last slot. And it played very nicely, thank you. Kippy Goldfarb and Dale Place brought a wonderful chemistry to the roles of Linda and Carl, and they played beautifully with the innuendo-laden journey they take. I have one or two extremely minor quibbles with the production, but since I was invited to attend rehearsals and couldn't, I shall keep my mouth shut. (Let us say that the quibs are certainly not along the lines of Death in Blue Slacks. Just more the way one or two things could have been said.) What matters most is the audience reaction--they were eating it up. Lots of great laughs, and Kippy and Dale rode them out like the pros they are. This production also had a lovely set suggesting Linda & Carl's porch with just two low fence segments and a door. Very pleased. My thanks to director Fran Weinberg for getting it, and to Jerry Bisantz and Image Theater for choosing it. Now my goal is to go 3-for-3 by getting into next year's Marathon!

MAY 2

THAT MIGHT DO IT FOR CANADA: For the record, I have never been one to turn down a production based on a difference of vision with a director. I'm not one to balk. Theater is opinion. I get that. Changes happen accordingly. In the past I've allowed, with a mild amount of displeasure, a "Grievance" without God onstage. I've endured two female versions of "Brushstroke." I have even (inside joke here with the wife) allowed someone to tag a prologue onto "Bob's Date." All with only the slightest hesitation. However, I was recently advised that the director of "Owen & George Play Chess" up in Kitchener wanted to "shorten it." Now, O&G runs maybe 15 minutes, 20 if you really hang the pauses. But okay, take a couple lines out, sure. I repeat stuff often. Call it a style.

When the director contacts me, I'm told that each director in this fest is doing two shows: a 1-5 minute show and a 10-15 minute show. And he "has to" do O&G....as the short piece. I was going to paste a link to a clip of what exactly would have to be removed to effect this transformation, but let me take the quicker route and tell you it involves yanking four pages--four entire pages, part and parcel--from the middle of the play. The actual moment of conflict--gone. The odd little pause before the conflict, where O&G talk fishing--gone. (Said moment being needed in order to place one of the biggest laughs in the show, which is also...gone.) No, it now jumps from a discussion of how a ninja can kill a man with his thumb to our boys losing track of whose turn it is. (And why do they lose track in the unmauled version? Because they were caught up in the conflict, the only burst of action in the play, the only point where their odd little acceptance of their bizarre talk of one killing the other is actually responded to as you might respond if someone kept telling you they were going to kill you.)

Thus, the suggestion is to tear the actual point out of the play and make it a 5-minute skit about a couple of old guys who babble for three minutes about weird shit and then forget whose turn it is for the last two. This is not the play that was accepted for the fest. It's not the play I wrote. It's not the play I intended to be done. It's a different play, but it's still got my name on it.

Which is to say, "Owen & George Play Chess" unfortunately will not be part of the show. For once, I'm being that playwright--and I think you'd agree that it's justified. I must note that the folks at Asphalt Jungle appear to understand my position, and will either end up doing the full version of shelf it for possible inclusion at another time--and for that, I thank them.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE STATES: I was contacted the other day by the good folks who've decided to produce "That Thing" for the Boston Theater Marathon. I'm in the capable hands of Image Theater in Lowell, MA. I feel good about that. Image has a very good name in the Boston area, and head honcho Jerry Bisantz is a well-known quantity. I had a nice talk with my director, Fran Weinberg, who's very much on the same page with me as far as what the show's about. (Let me state here that this is NOT a compare/contrast thing with the entry above.) I found this interesting: she said that some folks she talked with, when she mentioned having chosen "That Thing," said something to the effect of, "Isn't that just about two old people sitting around talking about sex?" And Fran, blessed be, had the good sense to see that it isn't. Looking forward to this, and hoping I can make the marathon. (I'll be in Philadelphia the day before.)

BY THE WAY: You get points for recognizing the "Meanwhile...." reference. Feel free to e-mail me with answers.

APRIL 25

AND JOHN SHANAHAN AS TIMOTHY PARSONS: So this was fairly cool... Thanks to the kindness of my fine young friend Mr. Lockheardt, I ended up getting invited to be part of a day-long seminar for young playwrights at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre. (Er...it was for playwrights younger than I; I am not, myself, counted as a young playwright.) As part of the day, three 10-minute plays were held as readings, one of which was "Brushstroke." The idea was to have the actors who recently performed the shows as part of "Ten" to come back and do them, but one of my actors couldn't make it. So, bold fellow that I am, I offered to step up and read the part of Timothy. Truth be told, it's one of the roles I've wanted to be able to do. To get up and try to knock it out cold was interesting. I have always been a very good cold reader--but let me tell you, I now and from here forward forgive any actor who paraphrases during the "Blue" speech as long as they get the gist of it. Because to be honest, your friend the playwright, who knows better than anyone was mindset and energy needs to be there, got totally lost in the emotion of those words as he was hammering through that speech. I'm glad to now understand firsthand what it's like to be in that piece. And I'll drop one more bit of probably too much info on you here: I almost lost it at Tim's last line, "What color is the last piece of my soul?" Lost in the potency of the moment.

MORE COOL FOR THE EGO: So we're doing the Q&A after the readings, and I'm trying to say that any well-written play will by its very nature steer away from the direction the playwright initially intended it to go. (If you can write a straight storyline from A to B on the first pass, then you've effectively tossed a stranglehold on a play's potential to explore itself and become something more. Too esoteric for you? I'm open to discussion.) Point being, I started to talk about "Bob's Date" and how initially the character of Memory didn't exist. And as I'm talking, I see some of the kids' faces sort of light up, and they're whispering to themselves. Then it occurs to me: these are high school kids. High school drama club kids. "Have you seen 'Bob's Date'?" I ask. And a good 15-20 of them say yes. Apparently they must have seen it at the Mass High School Drama Guild Festival two years ago--the Peabody High version. And yeah, my head swelled just a li'l bit on that one.

DAMN YOU, WILLIAM DONNELLY: It's a lock. I'm going to get choked up every time that friggin' transition moment happens at the end of your piece "Their Life in the Car." What a gorgeous bit of writing, my friend. Fabulous play.

APRIL 23

PATIENCE, THE VIRTUE: Let me paraphrase the call slightly.

"Hi, John. Ed Star from Cedar Lane Stage. Did you get my e-mail?"

"I...don't think so."

"You sent us 'Worst Possible Time for Writer's Block.' We'd like to produce it in our short play fest."

"..........Okay."

That pause, which didn't really happen, was the long, vapid moment where I tried to remember why I couldn't remember sending the play. But I apparently had, and they liked it, so there you go. The show's only acceptance in 2006 out of ten tries! When I got home tonight I jumped onto the computer, and there was the answer why I didn't remember sending it--it was a submission made during the March 2006 playwriting binge.You never know, fellow playwrights. Sometimes you just never know. So Bethesda, MD, July.

RE-DOING THE STATS: 6 for 32 straight up for a batting average of .187. On the per-theater side, 6 for 22, an average of .272.

THE "TEN" FOLKS WERE RIGHT: I do hope this doesn't make me come off looking like an ingrate, but this weekend I received the DVD of the "Ten" show taping. Having watched the "Brushstroke" part, I have to agree with what I was told--visually speaking, it doesn't look great. The acting is wonderful. It's truly the benchmark performance of the piece right now. But sometimes the camera loses track of one of the actors when he's speaking. At another point, Vince stands up and, being a good 6-foot-6, ends up with his head out of the frame while he's talking. So, as good as the overall production appears to be, "Brushstroke" doesn't look entirely professionally shot. Thus, I understand why it got left in the editing room. But I'm greatful to have this performance on disk--even if the audience did laugh a little more than I might have liked.

APRIL 17

I SHOULD KEEP TRACK OF THESE THINGS/THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN: Because I don't do this often, I didn't note it, but I apparently recently sent a query about One Before Forty to Falcon Theatre in Burbank, CA. I imagine it was an opportunity I picked up off the Binge. Wherever it came from, they say OBF doesn't sound like their kind of show. Onward!

APRIL 16

LIKE NORTH NEW HAMPSHIRE, BUT WITH FRENCH: Afficianados of Shanahanian theater (come on, humor me, I'm in a good mood!) will recognize that title as a line from One Before Forty wherein Kevin describes Canada. I bring this up because on May 17, "Owen & George Play Chess" will be the first of my plays to go international, crossing the border--with a quick stop at a duty-free shop--to appear in the Asphalt Jungle Shorts in downtown Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. This is a site-specific fest where the audience moves to various locations to see the plays done in an appropriate setting. O&G will be done in a park or plaza where they have chessboards set up. I'm very pleased to be sharing the bill with the lovely and talented Mr. Lockheardt (coincidentally, "Luke Meets Charlene," which I'm currently rehearsing!), along with fellow playwrightbingers Peter Snoad (who's a local boy), Isabella Russell-Ides, and the very talented Jamie Pachino.

YEAH: It's been a nice week.

PS: Happy second anniversary, baby.

APRIL 13

THAT THING GOES TO THE MARATHON!: Just got word today that "That Thing" has been chosen for the Boston Theater Marathon, May 20. This will be my second consecutive Marathon, and I'm thrilled. This will be the show's premiere--I had hoped to debut it with Curtain Call late last year, but that didn't work out. So instead, it'll hopefully find a home with a theater company that loves it. (In the Marathon, it's a free-for-all between 50 theater companies to get the play they want. Hard to explain quickly.) More on this as it comes along.

AND SO WE CLOSE THE 2006 BOOKS: The BTM was the last submission I was waiting to hear on. So here's what we ended up with for number in '06. The big overall number was 5 acceptances out of 32 total subs for a batting average of .156. The picky by-theater number was 5 acceptances out of 22 theaters subbed to (with one being removed for being presumed dead) for an overall batting average of .227. Technically, my subs and acceptances were lower than they were in 2005, but I'm quite pleased with the acceptances that came in this year. Doin' all right, thank you.

BORED OF THE BOARD: Yes, the message base has been re-nuked. It was a pain and no one used it. Need to reach me? Nice e-mail link over there to your left.

BY THE BY: The re-edited version of the first act of Dinner for Several is now available over there to your right. It's not substantially changed from the last edit, but I figured I'd be a nice guy and keep you up to date. Comments always welcome. Requests to produce the show, even more so.

APRIL 9

CUTTIN' ROOM FLOOR: File under, "Ah, well." Suspicions risen by the teaser for "Ten" have been confirmed: "Brushstroke" didn't make the final product. I knew there was a chance, of course. Despite the obvious math, you can't cram six 10-minute plays into an hour television show; you've only got (if memory serves) 44 minutes. (22 per half-hour, to make room for commercials.) I was told that the camera didn't like my play as well as one might have hoped. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I'll find out soon--a DVD copy is on its way. And that's a big perk for me. Of the four productions of the play so far, this was far and away the best. So at least I'll have that for the collection. And don't cry for me, Argentina or wherever you're visiting from. I still stand to make out okay from this, and the exposure just from the Newburyport show was very good. And at the end of the day, the audience loved the show--and there, as always, is the true payoff.

APRIL 5

WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?: I really need to pony up the cash to be able to see who visits the site, what I get for unique hits, how people get here, and what files they open. I know I'm responsible for 3-5 hits on any given day, depending on my level of boredom, but I just noticed that I've gotten almost 900 hits since the beginning of the year. Are these all theater-related hits? Are they stray porn searchers who think "First Time for Everything" is a new "barely legal" DVD? Is anyone reading excerpts? I know the message board is a frustrating waste of effort, but...who's coming to the site? My mother can't have this much free time on her hands. If you drop by in the next week or so, just e-mail me and let me know. Satisfy the playwright's curiosity, would you? Thanks!

NOT ENTIRELY SURE, BUT...: I may have less-than-great news regarding that reality show that was taped in February. The good news is that the teaser for it looks great. You can probably do the math from there. When I have confirmation, I'll add more.

MARCH 28

QUALITY TIME WITH THE WIFE: I guess this one falls under the header of "the family that plays together." I'll be returning to the stage in May for the first time since 2005 in Let's Pretend: Three Tales of Fidelity, a night of three short, thematically connected works by my good friend, the very talented Christopher Lockheardt, with Stacey at the helm. Curtain Call Theatre will be bringing this suite of shows to the 2007 EMACT festival in June, and I'm excited to be playing the role of the guy in "Luke and Charlene Meet in a Really Nice Bar." The other plays in the show are "Lie to Me" and "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas." I'm also pleased to be working with some very good friends--Richard Carey, Margaret Cyr, Heather Jacques, and David Edge. (There's one more actress, but, bad person that I am, I don't know her name. I'll have it after next Monday when we do a read-thru.) If you're local, there will be a preview at CCT prior to the fest--watch this space for info. Lockheardt's writing is something you don't want to miss.

Also, I am extremely pleased to say that Stacey has been chosen to direct the Walpole Footlighters' production of Dinner for Several. For the record, the group did not consult with me on the selection. The wife went in with impressive resume in hand and simply sold the goods. Considering what Stacey has done with my work in the past, including "Bob's Date" and One Before Forty, I'd say the Footlighters chose wisely--and I'm glad they did.

MARCH 19

THE CONTINUING SAGA OF "THEATER IS OPINION": Regular visitors here, if there really are any, know that the director-wife and I live by the truism, "Theater is opinion." It genuinely is. Some people watch a certain play and see existentialism and the pointless trajectory of man's journey through life; others see two dipshits waiting for someone who clearly isn't coming. Which may go a ways toward explaining the comments the Wilmington Drama Guild received last weekend when they took "Waiting for the End of the World" to their regional competition. Apparently, I must note here, the audience enjoyed it. I'm hoping that Kristyn Robinson & co. taped this version. But then it came time for the judges to offer their criticism.

Let me note that I have sat through adjudications of my work before at EMACT and AACT. Some of it is quite valid. Some of it is a big bag of blather and piss, neither of which are particularly palatable. Most of the time you end up with lots of "What I would have done..." which isn't of help to anyone since a) they didn't do it and b) if someone had wanted them to direct in the first place, they would have called.

And this, sadly, is sort of what the good folks at Wilmington got in their adjudication. My ego has to give the judges points because apparently they liked the script. But some of the notes that Kristyn related to me.... First, we have the judge who felt that War's pink tracksuit was not appropriate, and that something "sexier" was in order. Like a red sheath dress. Well, let's take a moment here and peek at the beginning of the script and the description of War: "She’s an athletically built woman, wearing loose-fitting slacks and a tight T-shirt." Granted, it doesn't say "pink tracksuit," but it's not a wild choice for an athletic woman, right? I've seen her played in camouflage weightlifting pants and a sleeveless tee. But loose-fitting slacks and a tight T-shirt... Gosh, I'm trying real hard, but I can't get that to sound like "red sheath dress." I'm thinking that answer is by far a worse choice than a pink tracksuit. Did I get it wrong when I wrote it, sir or madam adjudicator?

As an aside: I've been asked in the past why War is a woman. Couple of reasons. First, I love to play with standard images. (And we'll come back to this.) So I say War, you picture Ares in all his Roman glory (or is that Greek?), all decked out in battle gear and heavily muscled, and I give you a good-looking woman laughing at Gandhi. That's how I do it. The other reason for War to be a woman is that men will go to war over them. I picture War as the embodiment of Helen, whose beauty did cause the topless towers of Ilium to burn.

So: the red sheath dress is a no. But then came the other comment.

Let's play a game, shall we? I want you to think of a reason to not like this play. Whether you've seen it, read it, read the excerpt, or are just coming to know of it from reading this, come up with what you think might be the flimsiest reason to dislike it. I'll give you a moment, and then we'll reveal the adjudicator's comment. Ready?

They don't look ready to ride horses.

Skippy say what? That's an actual comment from an adjudicator. Let's backtrack a moment here, sir or madam adjudicator. You've just watched a play where three of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse meeet in a park. You buy that. They're eating chicken fingers--which, unless I am mistaken, are not all that likely to appear on the menu under "Mana of the Gods" (although, if I may so opine, General Gao's chicken is). You buy that. Death is in a three-piece suit. Cool with it. Famine has a cell phone. Still with me... But your quibble with the staging and direction is that they're not in riding breeches and jodphurs? No worries that Death isn't, say, skeletal and packing a scythe? They don't look ready to ride horses?

Oh, dear. Theater is very truly opinion.

ONE VERY COOL BIT OF TRIVIA: The theater in which those regionals were held is the theater where they shot the performance of "Midsummer Night's Dream" in Dead Poet's Society. Fun fact! Share it with the kids!

AND KUDOS: Despite inappropriate equestrian dress, Andrew "Death" Chambless walked off with the Best Actor award at the competiton. Well done, my good Reaper! And thank you.

MARCH 10

EDIT, AT FIRST: If you're curious, I've replaced the old version of the first act of Dinner for Several with the (slightly) shorter edti for the 2008 show. You can read it here. (Or click the link way down there on the right where the info about the play is.)

FEBRUARY 28

AND NOW THE DINNER NEWS: Sorry to lead you on like that. I really was quite tired, but was very excited about the news and wanted to say something. On the other hand, I always get edgy about announcing shows more than a few months beforehand because they're usually still fairly vaporous. Take for example, the version of Dinner for Several that was supposed to happen this spring. Here one day, gone the next. But I feel reasonably confident about letting this story out, because I'm reasonaly sure (he said, finding the nearst wood upon which to knock) that it won't fall through.

But let's backstory a bit, shall we?

The year was 2004... Seriously, it was. February 2004 is when I got my first taste of what it was like to have a piece be seen before an audience. I had arranged a staged reading of an early version of Dinner for Several. The script was practically still warm off the printer when we presented it before about 75 people at the Walpole Footlighters' theater. That first version ran about three days too long, but it got a great reaction, the jokes hit, no one ran screaming from the theater as we passed the two-hours-and-fifteen-minutes mark, and despite my being about as nervous and edgy as I've ever been before or since about a play, I got that first addicting taste of audience response. I got the sense, if I can just take a moment here to sound horribly self-serving, that yes--I could write a play people would like.

Later that sense would be validated when the play--edited, of course--won the 2004 James Sunwall New Play award. I thought certainly this would help the thing more productions.

Cue sound effect of cold, hell-born wind blowing across the arid plains of me not being produced.

Dinner for Several's only full production came courtesy of my beloved Medway Players in 2005. Great version, loved it to death. Became very fearful, as another production-free year passed, that it would remain my favorite by virtue of never heaving anything to compare it to. Here I was, sitting on an award-winning, audience-tested comedy, sending out promotional flyers to little theaters around the country and getting nothing by way of response. Had the promise of one production but it slipped away.

All this time, however, I had a friend who very much believed in the show and kept pitching it to her theater group. At a community level there is quite understandably a bit of apprehension about presenting unknown work. Community theater lives and dies by the tried and true. But now and then....something new can't hurt. (Case in point, Curtain Call and One Before Forty.) She finally got the script in front of their playreading committee and whaddaya know--they liked it.

So now we get to the fun part.

Four years after it was first staged there, Dinner for Several will get a full presentation with the Walpole Footlighters. I'm thrilled. I love that stage, I love the whole "come full circle" aspect of it, and I know audiences will love it--especially since I'm now in the process of trimming it down even further. (Medway ran about 2:15, not counting intermission.) I'm enjoying revisiting the script and sharpening it up for production. I'm finally filing away the rough edges that were left over when the story quite naturally deviated from its original course. (Most notably, the character of Liz initially had no interest in getting back with the main character, Carter, and though that changed in the produced version, glimpses of were still there. Well, not no more!)

So this makes me happy: February 2008, barring madness or unforeseen yuckiness, Dinner for Several rides again at Walpole.

And thank you, CG.

LITTLE BIT O'TRIVIA FOR YA: The first time anything of mine was done as a reading, it was the first act of Dinner, staged on an abandoned tennis court outside of the apartment building where I lived. We dragged furniture out of the basement for the set.

FEBRUARY 25

NEWS, SOON: Just a bit too tired to go into detail now, but I will say that I'm currently editing Dinner for Several, trying to tighten it up a bit, and for a good reason. More later.

FEBRUARY 22

THEATER IS OPINION: It's true, you know. The director-wife tells me so all the time. I was reminded of this the other day when I received a package from TheatreOne. It included a program from the "Slice of Life" fest and a batch of audience response forms. Audiences were given a couple of minutes after each show to rate the plays on a number of apparently playwright-chosen criteria. (I contributed none of these, as I recall...) Things like "Was it believable," "Do people talk this way," "Would you watch it again." That sort of stuff. And, as expected, the scores, which were a 1-5 rating, were all over the map. I got a lot of 4s and 5s, but plenty of 2s and 3s, too. And on a few there were handwritten comments, and these were the bits I found...well, amusing, to be honest. The first one I read gave me a smile. It read, "This play touched me to my core. A very important work." How about that? And then I came to, "Frankly, I was bored. Why should I care about this artist's dilemma?" And then there was the admonition that "Short plays ["short" being underlined twice] need to be funny or have a strong moral [somethingorother]." Theater is opinion. The following night, 200 people sat in rapt silence watching the same play. A man came up to me and told me how he'd worked in an art gallery and knew a Haitian painter who had become paralyzed with the fear of not being good enough, and so he stopped. (The same person who said it needed to be funny, etc., also noted that the artist's dilemma was "unrealistic." Go figure.)

Theater is opinion. And my opinion is, "Brushstroke" is a hell of a short play. And I only say that because other people have told me so. But that's just their opinion.

FEBRUARY 18

IN DELAWARE, I AM LIKED: I'm pretty sure I didn't mention this, but the Delware showing of "Waiting for the End of the World" was part of a night of one-acts wherein audiences vote on which show the Wilmington Drama League should take to a statewide competition. (Like EMACT, if you're of the Massachusettsian persuasion.) Well, they chose Kristyn Leigh Robinson's production of "Waiting," and so they'll do it one more time next month in hopes of moving on to the regional competition. Kudos, thank yous, and break a legs to Kristyn and her cast: Heather Ferrel (War), Kevin Barrett (Pestilence) and Andrew Chambless (Death). (See, I told you I'd get the names...)

FEBRUARY 17

KUDOS, MMAS: Just a brief entry to say congrats and thank you to the folks at MMAS for a fine evening of short pieces. The audience was eating it up. And major congrats and respect to 10-year-old Mickey White, who stepped into the role of Confidence just two weeks before the show and knocked the living bejeezus out of it.

HOLY @&$#, BATMAN! A REVIEW!: First off, if you're wondering why I didn't just type that word over there, I started writing this with my 9-year-old peering over my shoulder. Discretion, and all that. If you know me or if for some unfathomable reason you frequent this site on the off chance I might say something interesting, you may know that despite a fair number of productions, I have somehow managed to remain The Amazing Unreviewable Man. The closest I've come was on my first production of "Bob's Date" when a writer was given a whopping two column inches, which was basically enough to synopsize the play.

Well, the streak's over. Local theater maven Tony Annicone was in the house in Mansfield last night, and he saw fit to--oh, my heart---review the show. So let's read it, shall we? (And yeah, I'm excerpting it slightly. And editing just a tad. It's what I do.)

John has written well-crafted scripts. The comic moments in "Writer's Block" and "Bob's Date" elicit much laughter from the audience while "Brushstroke" is a wonderful dramatic piece that delivers the heartfelt ending to an appreciative audience. The talented performers in "Writer's Block" are Jim Martin as Peter, Jon Warriner as the Minion of Death and Jennifer Mischley as Peter's sister. Jon has some of the best one liners and makes each of them count. Jim and Jen have some funny moments, too in a show about death which you think is going to be serious but is a hoot--especially the surprise ending. Alice Springer is Anna, the artist in "Brushstroke." She delivers the goods with an impassioned plea to her friend, Kelly Warriner, on how to finish her painting. If so, where can she go as an artist after producing such a painting? It is the earnest delivery at the end of the show by Alice that makes you empathize with her dilemma and tug at your heartstrings while doing so. The last show, "Bob's Date" is a laugh riot with all [Bob's] mental attributes fighting to control how his date will be. Ten-year-old Mickey White is a hoot as Confidence. He bosses the others around and threatens them with his wonderful delivery of the lines. Kevin Mischley as Bull and Jay Silvi as Libidio have some deliciously funny and naughty lines which they deliver perfectly. Jim Martin is hilarious as Nerves, doing some topnotch pratfalls as he flails around the stage nervously. He even sticks his head in a filing cabinet at one point, which elicits many laughs. Bob Emery is properly authoritative as Logic, who wants to control everyone else while Rachel Fisher-Parkman is demure as Emotions who needs to step up and control the date. Kelly Warriner plays the bitchy Memory, who bosses and bullies everyone around by telling them of their past failures. So for a fun filled night of comedy with a little drama thrown in the mix, be sure to catch John Shanahan's clever and witty plays at the Black Box theatre at MMAS.

And thank you, Tony.

HEY, GLAD YOU WERE PAYING ATTENTION: My favorite compliment from last night: "I have to tell you, Dan's Date was excellent!"

FEBRUARY 16

MEANWHILE, IN DELAWARE: I'll be a the MMAS show tonight, but in Wilmington, DE, theatergoers will (hopefully) enjoy a production of "Waiting for the End of the World" that looks like this:

And I am a bad person who didn't take note of the actors' names. But I promise to get them!

FEBRUARY 13

DULY IMPRESSED: Last night was the taping of the TEN pilot at Firehouse Performing Arts Center in Newburyport--a gorgeous space, by the way. What we were treated to were six very strong plays performed by superb actors in front of an appreciative and appreciably large audience. I run the risk of becoming quite gushy here, but taken simply as a short-play festival, this was the best thing I've seen in some time--and not just because I was in it! The evening opened with Robert Mattson's sharp, fast and intelligent "Martinis, Dry and Bitter." I've always liked Rob's work, and I think this is easily one of his best. Stephanie Clayman had a certain Christine Baranski charm in her bestotted loser, and Kathy St. George kept pace and complemented Clayman beautifully. Next up was my boy Chris Lockheardt's "What Happens in Vegas"--title shorted to "What Happens" presumably to avoid the onslaught of lawsuits. Derek Stone Nelson and Elizabeth Hayes rode the roller coaster of Chris' words wonderfully .I'm a big fan of Chris' dialogue--it's tight and real and makes you pay attention. Vincent Ernest Siders and Peter Haydu forged on through more laughter than I've ever heard "Brushstroke" garner (I blame Rob and Chris for setting the mood) until Vincent came to The Speech. And folks, at that point the place went so reverent you could have heard an ant fart. My personal thanks to Vince and Peter for their art and efforts and the life they brought to the play. Next up, William Donnely's "Their Life in the Car." Vignette-driven and elegant, this play featured one of the most effective under-the-radar transitions moments I've ever seen. With a simple one-line callback Bill drives home what has just happened in the play without having to be direct about it--it's flawless, and it's breathtakingly effective. Kudos there to Cathleen Caar and Kevin LaVelle for their smooth journey through time. Jami Brandli's "Normal" was the hardest-hitting piece of the night, bolstered by great performances from Andrew Rhodes and young Joseph Del Ponte. And closing the night was Jack Neary's "Oral Report," a piece that threatened to ruin sex for me forever. Bobbie Steinbach, Cheryl McMahon and Ellen Colton, as three elderly ladies discussing "that thing Clinton done with that Polish girl" were non-stop, cringe-out-loud funny. Great physical work to go along with the dialogue. Thanks to Jack also for directing all six plays.

Yeah, it was a damn fine night of theater.

FEBRUARY 6

VROOM, VROOM: Next week I'm going to be a busy fellow. Sunday it's "Brushstroke" in Middleboro. Friday through the following Sunday it's "Block," "Brushstroke" and "Bob's Date" in Mansfield. And then there's the one on Monday that I haven't said anything about until now (because I wasn't sure I could!). A few months ago I was contacted by Jack Welch, who used to run Baker's Plays. He and some partners were producing a reality show based on the performance of several 10-minute plays. He had seen "Brushstroke" at the Boston Theater Marathon and wanted to include it with plays by several other local playwrights: Christopher Lockheardt, Robert Mattson, William Donnelly, Jami Brandli and Jack Neary. Well, when you tell me that one of my plays stuck out enough out of a batch of 50 that you remember it six months later, you've got my attention--and my permission! So on Monday, February 12, as part of a fundraiser for Firehouse Theater in Newburyport, MA, "Brushstroke" will get the second of its three separate performances that week. Much to my delight, Vincent Ernest Siders, who directed and co-starred in the BTM production, will reprise his role as Timothy opposite Peter Haydu. (This version is directed by Mr. Neary.) More details on this and the future of the reality show itself as things develop.

FEBRUARY 2

BECAUSE I KNOW THE WAIT HAS BEEN KILLING YOU: One computer upgrade later, and I once again have the ability to produce PDFs. Yay, me. That being said, if you will look to your right you'll notice that excerpts are now available for "First Time for Everything," "Still Life with Elephant," "Dance in Venice" and "That Thing." Open 'em up, read and enjoy, and if you're affiliated with a theater company, they're yours for the asking. Well, you know, with royalties and all that... Comments welcome, as always.

JANUARY 20

YEAH, I KNEW THAT: I do wish I could be surprised by what I'm going to write here, but ... I'm not, because it boils down to one of the basic tenets of comedic theater: If it's funny on Friday, it bombs on Saturday, and vice-versa. All of which is to say that the second performance of "Elephant" went much, much better than the first. And the only thing that appeared to change was the audience. I do think that the actors slowed the pace a bit, which was good, but with the exception of the movement of one line to cure a very awkward moment, last night's show was the same as last Saturday's. But the audience ate it up. They couldn't get enough of Richard Carey's Elephant--especially when he flicked back his ears like he was getting hair out of his eyes--and they enjoyed Chris and Kelley Tilden's uncomfortable pauses. Lots of laughs, and John's faith in his play gets restored a bit. (I do still feel there were several stronger scripts in our track.)

AND THANK YOU, ACME: For yet another superb, diverse and professionally run fest. I'll be gunning for my third appearance next year.

AND A NO...: Fellow playwrights have started hearing from the Stratton Players on short play submissions. I sent them "Block" and "Brushstroke" and haven't gotten an e-mail today, so I'm guessing it's a pass. This brings the per-sub batting average down to .125 for 2006, and the by-theater average to .200. Still not a year I can really gripe about!

JANUARY 16

THE UPS, THE DOWNS: Last night I stopped in at an early rehearsal for the MMAS show mentioned in the last posting. In two different rooms they were going over "Writer's Block" and "Brushstroke." I didn't sit in much on "Brushstroke," as they were in a very intense line reading, but I watched two runs of "Block," and I'm glad I did. Jim Martin, Jon Warriner and Jennifer Mischley have already got a good sense of the comedy. "Block" is one of my favorite pieces, and I know I'm going to like this production. I hope to stop in at a "Bob's Date" rehearsal this week as well.

And on the downside... Let me make sure this comes out right. I was disappointed in my script at Acme this past weekend. I was NOT disappointed with the production. Compared with some of the other eight pieces staged, I felt that "Elephant" as a script didn't hold up well. The audience didn't seem to invest in it, and it was nearly devoid of laughs--which is the real death knell for me. Any number of factors could have contributed to it. It goes up again this coming Friday. I'm interested to see how it goes over the second time out. I made one minor line tweak--because, again, I like the production. Now I just have to see if the issue is the script.

T'OTHER STUFF: Fests are always a mixed bag of "I wish I wrote that" and "Who wrote that?" The cool thing about my track in Acme this year is that of the nine plays presented, about half were written by playwrightbinge members. And I saw some good stuff. For my money the show of the track is Philana Gnatowski's "Patrick & Gwen," which had Christine Wolfskehl doing a picture-perfect drunk girl act--not cartoonishly over the line, just convincing enough to make you nod and go, "Yeah... been there." Mark Harvey Levine's "The Rental" was a perfect vehicle for two of my favorite local actors, Tom Berry and Gail Bishop Nessman. Gordon Ellis, who was kind enough to play Kevin in One Before Forty, was a great foil for Patti Hughes in Kristyn Leigh Robinson's "Catharsis." And Aoise Stratford's charming piece, "Elephants and Coffee," was played out nicely, with Karen Dervin bringing the right mix of vulnerability and just a touch of crazy to the lead.

JANUARY 13

I OUGHT TO MENTION THIS!: If you're in my general area, you should set aside an evening between Feb. 16 and 23 (or the afternoon of the 18th). The Mansfield Music and Arts Society is presenting three of my short plays as a fundraiser. They'll be doing "Worst Possible Time for Writer's Block," "Brushstroke" and the always crowd-pleasing "Bob's Date." MMAS was recently given a new space in town that they hope to renovate and move into next year, and some of the proceeds from this show will go to the troupe's building fund. Opening night may or may not include a Q&A session with me--that part's not finalized. But the lineup of shows is, the talent's in place, and all you need to do is show up and contribute to a good cause. For ticket info, click that MMAS link up there.

I LIKE THIS QUOTE: So I'm killing a little time on a rainy Saturday morning up in the office, prodding gently at a full-length play that doesn't know quite what it's about, listening to my beloved ambient music (stillstream.com, people--you'll thank me) and drinking coffee by the burbling waters of the Buddha fountain (there's a little glistening insight into your playwright host) and, naturally, ego-surfing. More to the point, checking on any writeups for upcoming productions. Over on the Wilmington Drama League web site, director and fellow playwright Kristyn Leigh Robinson had this to say about taking on "Waiting for the End of the World," and it gave me a nice chuckle: "It's really about interpersonal politics. During the course of this short piece, these characters have to deal with issues like tradition, expectation, tolerance and handling co-workers with difficult personalities. It tackles all those themes with an intelligent wit, but you have to admire a playwright who isn't afraid to reach out and grab that groan-inducing line either." (I have to guess this includes the "handful of dirt and a beetle" line.)

JANUARY 5, 2007

IT'S VERY ALMOST TIME: Next weekend I kick off 2007's productions with "Still Life with Elephant" at Acme Theater's New Works Winter Festival. Quite excited. I sat in on a rehearsal the other night and I liked what I saw. If you're in the general area, the show runs on January 13 and 19--though I highly recommend going to catch both tracks (we're on the "B" track). I think Acme does a great job of pulling together solid scripts for the fest. And like they say about 10-minute shows...if you don't like one, it'll be over soon. I also want you to go to support the many playwrightbinge members who are represented in this fest--Alexa Mavromatis, Adam Szymkowicz, John Davenport, Steven Bergman, Mark Harvey Levine, Kristyn Leigh Robinson, Aoise Stratford, and Claudia Haas. Yes, we the Bingers make up half the roster. And we're poised to take over the rest of the free world as well.

JANUARY 1, 2007

AND A HAPPY ONE TO YA: And away we go with a fresh new year. As promised, my year-end retrospective--which you really don't need if you've been following along--is now online here. It was a good year and I owe many thanks to many people. And I'm keyed up about '07. As I've mentioned, there are productions of short work coming in the first three months of the year, and I'm hoping that a production of one of the full-lengths might be a 2007 reality as well. (Let's hope I can talk more about that later.) And speaking of full-lengths, I'm keeping my eyes wide open for the kernel of my next full-length piece this year. This past year was the first since I started writing plays that I didn't churn out something with two acts. For the record, that did not please me overmuch.

You ready for 2007? Onward and upward.