A few years ago I wrote about the fickle allure of the fringe festival. I was thinking about that this Saturday at the closing night party after our comic farce didn’t make it past the first night’s performance.
It was a lot of work this year with a talented cast and a number of rewrites. It’s easy to feel bitter about the whole thing and point fingers about why we didn’t move forward.
I definitely wanted a few days to digest the experience. It was nice to have my dad around too who gave me constructive criticism about how I’d put the play together (even if it was a bit tough to swallow).
I asked a lot of the actors to hone the project, so I guess more than anything I feel a little embarrassed that we spent so much time trying to get it right without another opportunity to go onstage.
All that said, it was a good experience; and a lot of other, really talented acts moved forward from our week. A couple of my favorites were Coven and Please Stay, both born from the slam poetry scene about racism and mental health, respectively. Both were moving and important and very well-performed.
There were very few actual plays this festival, which is maybe a reminder to me that confrontational pieces often seem to have the most impact.
I’ve jotted down a few notes for possible shows next year, including:
- An Open Letter to my Teenage Son (a piece initially based on real experiences with my kids, which then continues forward several years and ends comically/tragically; I gotta make sure it’s something the guys can laugh at)
- An Over-Reliance on Data (a piece which breaks down the use of numbers for everything under the sun, causing us as a society to remove emotionality from daily life, instead focusing on how likely or unlikely something is to happen)
- A monologue from a longer piece which may get done at the Long Fringe
- A collaboration with the Possum Posse guys (something we talked about at the after-party)
I like all these ideas and am going to just let them simmer for a while as I try to focus on a longer prose work when I’ve got some spare time.
Or maybe I’ll just have a glass of wine.
Over and out.
