Whew!

What a month and a bit it's been!

Busy on several projects, very exciting, very motivating, affirming, hopeful...Who was it that said, "I can deal with the despair; it's the hope that's killing me"?

I've had so many ups and downs that I've learned not to get too excited on the ups, but...

FINGERS CROSSED AND NIPPLES CLAMPED!

....is that just me? You all do the nipple clamp thingy too, right?

And, in other news, we have bunnies. Yes, Mrs P's free-range rabbit evidently responded well to the visit from her lop-eared lover. We don't know how many she had, or how many survived, but one little bunny was seen at tea-time today, hopping along from one corner of the garden and disappearing under the compost-heap. I suppose we will have to tame it and bring it to the vets and find out if there are any bunny siblings.

Exciting times, my Spherical friends.

Script Frenzy

I've signed up for Script Frenzy. Which is a little bit silly, since I also have an essay and a treatment and a couple other things to do as well. Still, I thought I'd give it a go. I have this wacky idea that won't go away, so I thought...why not do it in a frenzy?

CAVEAT: the other projects take priority, so I will only FRENZY if they're going well and I have time to spare. But, 30 days, 100 pages? That's 3 and 1/3 pages a day on average. Easy-peasy. Just need to keep the frenzy in its place. I'll be fine.

The Reading

Yay! The reading went really well. I kept wanting to jump in and say "No, it goes like this..." and correct the way they read the lines, but I restrained myself. The main thing is, it reads well, even by people coming to it cold. Several laughs! A bit of pathos! It was entertaining, I felt.

Went out for a few pints of Guiness afterwards. There was an Irish band playing. I danced and sang. It felt like a celebration. G'night.

Copies, nibbles and drinks

The reading is all set for this Tuesday. The theatre group even advertised it in the local paper, so there might possibly be a small audience turning up. I woke in sweat early Friday morning, when I thought I'd remembered a conflicting meeting at work - me giving a presentation to parents. But it's the following Tuesday.

I'm going to bring along 10 copies of the script. There are six characters; I think the spares might be welcome for anyone who wants to follow along. It's a lot of paper, but I figure I'll probably only tinker with it, so most of it will used for eventual cast copies anyway.

What should I provide, in the way of nibbles and drinks? I heard that salty food makes people happy, so maybe I'll go with crisps and peanuts. But that doesn't really go with tea and coffee. Hm. Biscuits?

Well...

One thing I can blog a bit about is staging my one act play. I've got the performance dates (July 30th, 30st and Aug. 1st) and the date for the initial read-through, and the theatre booked for 12 rehearsals. That's pretty cool. My first production is going to be a reality this summer! Writer-director, ME!

Okay, it's am-dram, so doesn't really count in some quarters. That doesn't bother me at this point in my career. The audience is real. They really pay for their tickets, and will really want to be entertained. I look forward to finding a dark place to sit and watch, not the play so much as the audience's reaction. If they're entertained, I'll know. If they're bored, I'll know. That's the point of the exercise: entertain an audience with 30 minutes of my words, through the medium of amateur, but hopefully passionate and committed actors.

Another thing to blog: I'm waiting to hear back on a submission I made to the Exeter Pheonix, along with a friend of mine. If successful, we'll get a budget of a few hundred pounds, use of cameras and other kit, as well as advice, mentoring and post-production facilities. This is for a short film script set here in Teignmouth, on the river to be precise. So, fingers crossed on that.

Tomorrow night, I'll have the first tutorial on my TV episode for the MA at Bournemouth. Looking forward to that, as once again, I have a really good tutor. I'm happy with the outline I've submitted and look forward to writing the treatment.

Also have a couple of spec projects on the go, new-writing-wise, but really can't blog about them.

Is that better?

PS: Caught a typo: "entertainted." What was my subconscious do there? I wonder.

A Blog Post

This is a blog post. Andy is still alive and writing, busy on several promising but secretive projects. He hopes to be in a position to post details soon.

Snow Day!

To Whom It May Concern,

I regret to inform you that the the only roads in or out of town are closed. That means I...CAN'T GET TO WORK!!! Even if I could get there, the school's officially closed for the day.

I have done the right thing, and left a message, offering my services to the nearest school, just on the off chance it's open. There may be a grit shortage in this area, but it's not a shortage of true grit, I assure you.

However, in the absence of my phone ringing... I'm not sure how to put this. What about...WOO HOO!!