Even when I try to keep my Just Wrought posts short, they still end up longer-winded than I’d like. So I’m going to try something a little different with this series about my upcoming trip to Chicago.
Heather and I will be flying to the Windy City next Friday, ostensibly to see the Mid-West premiere of my play Louis Slotin Sonata at A Red Orchid Theatre, but if you think the fact that the Seahawks are playing the Bears at Soldier Field on Sunday has nothing to do with it, well, you obviously don’t know me and my wife very well.
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I feel like I can defend the choice to blog this trip by promising to share with you my singular experiences as a playwright traveling to see his plays. When you think about it, this is a particularly odd occurrence in the broad realm of artistic endeavor. We playwrights create these action/dialogue designs, send them out into the world for other people to work on– often, as in this case, with almost no input into the particulars of the production– and then, should we choose to and be lucky enough to have the means, we travel to the other cities to see the results.
Who else does this? Fiction writers can carry their finished product around in a bag or Kindle. Painters and sculptors have their hands on their handicraft until it goes up on some wall or pedestal. Performers– actors and dancers and musicians are their work themselves in a sense. But what other kind of artist does this weird dance of intimacy and distance– sending their kid off to boarding school and then showing up for the graduation ceremony? Composers maybe? I don’t know much about composers. More’s the pity.
I will try to keep these posts short, 500 words or less, unless I feel like I got something crucial to say about theatre. “Something crucial to say about theatre.” As soon as I typed those words I snorted a little.
*(A fun note: Gary Smoot has agreed to provide illustrations for these short posts, with the caveat that he will spend no more than 15 minutes on any given image. The above “f ing drama”, is the first. Going forward with this experiment, please understand that I have very little control over what Gary chooses to produce. I can make a initial few suggestions, but the ultimate product is purely his commentary on my commentary. Come to think of it, that’s not unlike what happens when he designs for one of my plays.)
