Saturday, February 07, 2009

Not Much To Blog

Tucker in the snow.
Same Old, Same Cold

Did I say it was cold? Did I say it was frozen?

I am awaiting the weekend's warmth. In the meantime, the Boys seem fine. Chance and Tucker were way out in the pasture when I went out for late feed. Don't know what was interesting out there but Toby wasn't too worried about their being so far away, so I guess all was well. They are well tucked in now with a feed and some nice piles of hay to keep them munching until I get up for breakfast.

Did I tell you my driving play is going to be presented again at school? This time the audience will be students from all over the County. Our theatre/auditorium seats over 600 and four performances are planned. I am still waiting for someone in administration to tell me the details since I first heard of this through one of the performing arts students and then through the teacher.

I, author and actor, have been left out of the loop. If I should strike it lucky and have the publisher buy my play before that, I am going to do my own publicity as a private citizen. The school will not be entirely delighted as they like to control such things, but when I was producer/publicist for the community theatre we used to operate in the school, I was able to get ten times the publicity the school ever managed. While I don't have all the contacts in the local papers I used to have, well-written news stories with appropriate grabbers will almost always get into the papers in some form or other.

And I do have contacts in at least two papers because of all my public activism on the environmental front. (The Park flooding issue.) I figure if I just focus the story on me with the school performances being incidental the school will have little problem. Then, with that as a kind of lead in to develop interest, I can get the papers into the building to do some more coverage.

Even if I don't get published, I can still do the advance publicity, but it would have a little less impact.

I had a call the other day from a woman who runs a teen program interested in its own safe driving initiative in a neighboring town. She wondered if her kids to "do" my play. While that's fine, in the future, I told her about the performances at the school. She was pretty excited at the prospect.

Which led me to think that we need to add at least one evening performance to the schedule. There might be a lot of people who work during the day, including parents, who would like to see this play. BUT, since no one in charge has spoken to me about this, I don't even know who to talk to at the school to see if this could be arranged.

NOR do I know if there is any money set aside for the production. The director would love to hire a lighting designer this time, and I agree with her. Not that her lighting was bad, but it would take a ton of stress off everyone if a pro did that work.

And AGAIN the time frame is really tight. Her production of A Midsummer Night's Dream--which is going to be terrific--will be up in early April, followed by the Freshman Showcase. Then my play, interrupted by the Honor Society's use of the theater. This is good and bad. Bad in that it puts a lot of stress on everyone, but exceedingly good in that this is exactly the kind of thing that happens in the real professional world of theatre.

The theatre teacher--Maria Aladren--is fantastic, and every time professional theatre people or workshop professionals meet and work with her students they are stunned. This month, two of her "kids" are going to be doing a reading in New York of a new film script along with professional actors. It is a really big deal. Some other students went into the City last week to participate in another shoot for a pro project. While the kids are talented for sure, Maria's training has elevated them far above most young actors their age.

Which is all the more reason to gather some extra publicity for my play. It will serve as a super showcase for the student actors.

Gotta go for it.

4 comments:

  1. still lots of rain and warm .. sorry we are between 8 and 13 degrees C.

    I find fascinating your writing about your play, and how it is taking life on its own.

    I hoep you get publish and get the credits you deserve!

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  2. Congrats on your play. It is rewarding that it might influence and save lives as well as getting professional recognition.
    You're right about press releases etc. News people are lazy. If you give them something with interesting "pull-quotes" and some spin it makes it easy for them to use.
    Funny that your play has taken on it's own social life, without you. Go 'splain it to them Lucy!

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  3. go do it - and send it off to an agent as well.....

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  4. Jean there are no ends to your talents...amazing!

    More lovely snowy pics:)

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