On my first day of blogging. . .

. . .; it was March the 23rd, I believe, I made the following statement:  "In this blog, I plan on chronicling, among other things, the progress of my writing and my attempts to get published.  I have decided that maybe if I blog about it, I will actually send some of my work to some real publishing houses and see just what the heck might occur.  Perhaps, a few people, will enjoy following my efforts.  (I'd call them struggles, but they really aren't, because I am really loving writing these days.)"  Then sometime in April or early May, I announced that I was sending THE LAUGHING MAN to Dramatic Publishing. Yesterday I got a letter from the Acquisitions Editor Linda Habjan who has developed a nice way of saying "NO!" Still it is a bit of a kick in the stomach.  Kind of like being told your kid, who you created and nourished and brought to adulthood, isn't quite good enough.  The letter contained this sweet

(?) sentence:  "Although your work has much to offer, we do not feel we can market it advantageously at this time."  Of course!  Now I understand! I  mean what is marketable about a play that requires a single set, has a cast of 22, is suitable for high school or community theatre, was tremendously received, and made people laugh hysterically while scaring the hell out of them as well? Am I sounding, bitter? Shame on me.  Let it be known that I have already sent THE LAUGHING MANoff to Baker Plays in Boston.  We'll just see what happens there.

Riding home from the Y provides me with some thinking time.  At 9:00 this morning as I headed back to Chitt, I started thinking about next year's SUMMERPLAY.  I couldn't believe as I rode, that three weeks had passed since ARTHUR and the cast trod the boards.  Anyway, there are a few things I think I know for sure about SUMMERPLAY 2010. For one thing it's going to be a little deeper and a little darker.  I hope that we'll be in the aud, where I plan on limiting seating to say the first 12 row, push the scene forward as far as possible, use furniture and platforms but no walls, and have a somewhat smaller cast.  The last play I wrote that had fewer than 20 people was STACEY FOXX in  2001.  The theme I hope to explore is the idea of how often falsehood plays a role in people's daily lives.  I hope to explore some other stuff, too.

I had another bit to blog about today, but I will save it.  My mother-in-law and sister-in-law are here, and Linda just summoned me to cocktail hour!!