We interrupt this Series…
…to bring you this. Apart from all the politics of the war in Iraq, Garry Trudeau in yesterday’s Doonesbury offered this link called “The Sandbox.” It’s described as a “command-wide milblog, featuring comments, anecdotes, and observations from service members currently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.” I think it will prove interesting reading, and if any playwrights out there have any interest, eventually there will be enough interesting human stories on this site to create a remarkable piece of theatre which focuses on the human struggles of soldiers in battle apart from the politics. -twl
What it Took – Part II
It is a beautiful Friday afternoon, with loads of sunshine and a temperature of 51 degrees. Having just packed away my camper trailer for another season (a camper trailer which has never really gone anywhere, but in which my youngest son loves to spend summer evenings in the backyard), I’ve brewed myself a fresh cup of coffee and decided to sit and write on my back porch. The lawn is asking to be mowed, but I am betting that there will be no rain tonight and it can wait until tomorrow. Continue Reading »
What It Took – Part I
Prologue – This is a dream I had several years ago. I’ve never recorded it anywhere else. I’ve never forgotten it:
I am sitting in a theatre awaiting a performance. The main curtain is down. It is made of a velvety red material, like so many main curtains I’ve seen through the years. It is not a large theatre, seating maybe 200 or so, but it has the feel and look of a Broadway house just a bit beyond its prime, something that was no doubt elegant in the 40s and 50s. The instruments I can see hanging in the alcove have the wooden stage pin connections before everything was converted to Edison. The house is full, anxiously awaiting the performance. I have an aisle seat house left. Continue Reading »
Writers Block
It seems I cannot move fast enough to keep up with the ever-active blogosphere. How do they do it, I wonder? By the time I finish reading the 48 or so posts which await me at the end or beginning of the day, my time seems to vanished. Add to this the amount of time I spend ruminating and digesting all I’ve read, and more time is eaten up. Right now, with a full day of classes, rehearsals for Carmen beginning, Forum still running for two more weeks, and the baseball playoffs about to start (Go Yankees!), where I will ever get the time to say anything meaningful or of substance I cannot guess. I tend to be a slow, careful writer, always looking for the right word, the right phrase, the right way to say precisely as possible what I mean. I have learned over the years that electronic forums such as listservs and blogs (and probably just the act of writing itself) lack the normal body language and nonverbal cues which accompany F2F conversation, and thus are so easy to misinterpret. Language itself is so imprecise a tool of communication that without the extra layer of nonverbal cues, finding accurate phrasing is even that much more difficult. Perhaps I am too self-censorious, too fearful of offending. Continue Reading »
