Delayed Arrival

Wow. I feel like the past two weeks have kind of blown by. Part of that is because of my Dad's continual trips to the hospital. He's home now. As of tonight. And all of the work I started doing two weeks ago, getting my shit together and planning have taken a bit of a backseat. I have been dealing with very important stuff, but now I feel like I need to take back some of that energy and get working on this new play rewrite again.

I had lunch with a friend last week who decided that he would offer me a hard dose of reality about trying to have success in the play world in Los Angeles. This is someone who had been working in LA trying to make it as a playwright, then got into Julliard and has now been drinking the NYC Kool Aid. And I get it, I went to NYU for playwriting. That is where things happen in the theatre world. And he made some good points: decide what you want to do and do it. And that's part of the journey I'm on. My life is going to change direction based on what I want to be doing. And I'm in the process of figuring that out. This guy is totally on the inside of the theatre scene and it feels very cliqueish. The good thing is that I also know these people and they're friends of mine and people I can share my work with. Fortunately, they're not as snobby as this guy is portraying them to be. Maybe he thought I was more of an outsider. I don't know. But it seemed to be coming from a real place of insecurity from someone who needs a lot of validation. We all need validation, we're creative people. But the advice didn't completely come from a place of spirit in my opinion. That being said, he's right about a few things. I do need to be a more active presence because otherwise it comes off as disinterest. But I don't agree that I can't totally do it from here. I'm part of a playwrights group out here and I'm building community. I believe my best work will come out from a place of community. And that can be here in Los Angeles.

I also talked to my friend Dave a few days ago, who had better advice. He thinks its great that I'm taking the rest of the year off to do my work. He gave me advice that someone gave him once when he was on retreat: "Only do what you want to do. Even if it's as an exercise." And that's what I'm planning to take on as my mantra. Only do what you want to do. This time is a real game changer because I am deciding it's a game changer. I only want to work on this new play right now. Then I want to submit it for the two opportunities that have deadlines at the end of the month.

Then I can do some thinking and writing on my TV stuff.

But then I've got that trip to Portland where I'm going to become immersed in theatre and art and dance for the week. And I'll be immersed in my brother and his family as well. And my extended family of friends up there. It's my time to just absorb all of that art for the week and see where it takes me in terms of the next play I'm rewriting, which is my MEDEA adaptation. I want to work on that so that I can send it off to Santa Clara and see if there's a chance we can workshop it with some students in the Winter.

One thing my cynical friend did say is that sometimes you need to go away for a bit and then come back. And from now until the end of the year is my chance to go away and get involved in the work that I'm doing.

This week is all about getting back on the horse and continuing with a forward momentum.