My Latest Crazy Idea

What's on the menu today?  Running

Last fall, one afternoon as I was heading home from my knitting group, I decided to get off the highway for awhile.  There was a back-up and I was in no hurry to get home, so I took an exit with a Route number that looked familiar and kept heading roughly south.  How lost could I get, really?  On this gorgeous autumn day I passed many runners out on the backroads of the North Shore.  And that's when I wondered if that town had an annual 5K race.  If it did, I'd sure like to run in it.  You know what might be fun - running a 5K race in every town in Massachusetts.

Yes, that right there, is my latest crazy idea.  I'm planning to run at least a 5K in every city and town in Massachusetts.  There are 351.  It's going to take awhile.

I have set up some rules.

1) I get credit for any town I've already run in.*
2) If a race starts in one town and ends in another or even just passes through another, I get credit for both.
3) Races must be official races - I can't just take a jog through and count it.
4) If I cannot find an official race in a town, I get credit if I run in a town that borders it.

* Undecided on what to do about towns on the Marathon route.  If I run another one, which I plan to do in 2014, I will count Hopkinton since the start is there.  I already have Wellesley, Newton, and Boston through other races.  We shall see.  If I'm still working on it 20 years from now and I haven't done Ashland?  I'll count it.

Since I had the idea I have run in Boston - Tufts Health Plan 10K, Cambridge - also the Tufts Health Plan 10K, Newton - Paddy's Road Race (on my birthday!)

Wellesley

The Turkey 5 on Thanksgiving Day

Somverville

The Jingle Bell Jaunt - the finisher's medal is a bottle opener.

and Salisbury

The 32nd Annual Hangover Classic

One thing I'm sure of, by the end of all this I will have a lot of t-shirts.  Quick review, Wellesley - hilly, Somerville - hilly, Salisbury - nice and flat.  No, I did not jump in the water in Salisbury.  I had an hour drive home, I wasn't doing that wet.  But I did finish every race with a cartwheel.  Someday I'll get a picture to prove it.

Unsolicited Advice for Playwrights

What's on the menu today?  Writing.

There are a few things I've learned along the way about writing plays.  So recently when a friend asked me if I had any advice for a newbie I gave him my standard answers as well as some new ones.

First, write that angst-filled autobiographical first play, get it out of your system, and put it in a drawer.  It sucks and nobody wants to have to read it.  Your coming of age story is probably not unique and even if it is, it is still true that nobody wants to read it, let alone produce it.  And let's be frank, who could ever possible play you on stage?

Second, if you really do have to show that autobiographical first play to other people or if you really do want to try to get it produced, do not make yourself the protagonist. If you must tell the story, tell it from somebody else's point of view.  Typically the protagonists in autobiographical coming of age first plays are just a bit too good to be true.  Often it's more than just a bit.  It's what makes those autobiographical first plays so easy to spot and so hard to read.  Also, anytime you catch yourself defending the script with "but that's what really happened!", that's also probably the part where I would say "but that's not good drama". 

Third, do not be discouraged if nobody wants to read it or produce it.  Try to get a staged reading, listen, really listen, and find the scenes which work.  There will probably be some moments that do.  Save them for another play.  Now, finally, put that autobiographical first play with the good parts ripped out into a drawer and really, leave it there.  By all means, keep it.  It's your first baby and it deserves to be kept safe.  Just don't ever let it out of the drawer again.

Lastly, know your exposition.  Anytime characters have a conversation purely for the audience's benefit, it's exposition.  Anytime you find your characters speaking for page after page in the past tense "Remember when . . . ", it's exposition.  Anytime one character tells another something the second character already knows, it's exposition.  It's boring.  Get rid of it.  You say, "But the audience needs that information to understand what's going on in the play."  If the audience needs that much exposition, write a novel.  In plays, the here and the now are what matter, not what happened yesterday or last week or 30 years ago.  Audiences are amazingly good at filling in the holes.  If you find you must have a two page monologue telling the story of how the characters met, put it in the present tense.  (I don't believe you but I love "The forgeries of jealousy" speech in Shakespeare, so, go for it.  Just be that good when you do.)

  

Self-Producing

What's on the menu? Theater, running, and the U2 report

Happy Leap Year! Happy Leap Day? Either way a fitting day to start this up again.

Tonight I rehearsed with Tommy, Rosa, and Whitney for the world premiere of Middle School Fairy Tale. Tommy was both a grumpy old man and a game actor. He comes through but he's gonna complain. It's all part of the package. Elsewhere, Patrick rehearsed with the fabulous and fabulously diverse cast of Heartbreak Hill. He even posted a rehearsal picture on Facebook so, triple win. I've been in touch with the Exquisite Corps folks so that's done. I just need a stage manager and somebody to run the lights. Oh, and find the baton. Getting there but still stressed.

Running? I ran 10 miles on Sunday in a reasonable time and now I seem to be resting on my laurels. I need a kick in the ass, again. Rehearsals and kid stuff, cutting into my running time. Not good. But, as always, there is tomorrow.

What is the U2 report? I maintain that it is always possible to find U2 on the radio in Boston. Everyday that I spend time in the car, I flip around until I hear a U2. Today I didn't really spend time in the car, alas, so instead I'll sum up for February. The only two days where I didn't hear a U2 song on the radio were Super Bowl Sunday and Valentine's Day. Only love and football can supercede U2? Nah, but TPTB of local radio were distracted. Yesterday's U2 song of the day? We scored a double - 'With or Without You' and 'Mysterious Ways'.