Wily West is in the thick of our pre-production for 2014.  This means auditions, scheduling, readings, and a dozen or more emails flying back and forth on four or five different projects on any given day.

Sheherezade 14

A couple of weeks ago we had auditions for Sheherezade 14.  The day before the auditions we had a developmental reading of the selected plays, so that we could get a sense of the whole show before casting, get a chance for the directors and playwrights to synch up about possible revisions, and etc.   The show is going to have a great rhythm, the stories are engaging and interesting, and I start to feel some threads tying them together emerge.  But I’ll write more about all of that on the Wily West blog soon.

The auditions were something of a mind-blowing display of talent.  It’s rare to get a turn-out where nearly everyone who walked through the doors was that talented, confident, comfortable, and nice.  Seriously, nicest group I’ve ever auditioned.  Don’t ever underestimate what nice does for an audition experience.

It’s thrilling that we’ve got such an amazing cast to bring this terrific set of plays to life.  The directors too. I keep pinching myself I’m so pleased with everyone.

Season Auditions

Auditions for the rest of the season will be at the end of the month and it’s exciting to see the list of people coming in for that as well.

Collage Cabaret

I’ve been trying to keep up with the writing for Collage Cabaret, and am a little disappointed in the volume of what I’ve written so far, but happy with the quality.  I’ve had a lot of business travel, which has eaten into writing time … and I find as many procrastinations as possible each week up until just before deadline.  For those who don’t know the Collage is a temporary title.  We have eight playwrights and we’re writing as many plays as we can (3-8 pages) in six weeks.  There is a central topic – we can write as many as we want on the central topic.  Each week we also have to write at least one play to a sub-topic.  At the end of the six weeks the lead writer (Jennifer Roberts), director (Alicia Coombes), and producing director (Quinn Cayabyab) will select a dozen or so pieces from the pool to create a coherent show.  This is how LAWFULLY WEDDED came about (which was included in our 2013 season with much enthusiasm).  So I’ve written more than one play a week, but hoping to catch up a bit next week — which will be the last week, so planning to go out with a bang!

Readings

We’re doing some private (no audience) readings of all the plays for the season in order to do some internal work-shopping.  I can’t wait to see these.  It’s like a mini-preview of the season for the company.

Other Projects

In other non-Wily West activities, I’m also auditioning for the first time in I don’t know how long.  I’ve added my name for possible inclusion as a playwright in PCSFs 24-Hour Fest again.  I hope I am chosen (it’s a random selection), but I have also committed to acting, if not selected.

My mind keeps turning to my little murder mystery PITCHFORK AND LIGHT.  I need to incorporate some additional soliloquy moments (I know some people hate those, but really it works in this one) and figure out the closing reconciliation.

I’m circling around an idea for an essay, but need to do some research and don’t want to say too much lest someone jump on it first.

All I can do is hope that I manage to stave off the cold everyone’s been getting – my throat is a little sore today – and stop playing around with FB videos and pictures when I should be writing.