Last night was my second time making it to the Democracy Center for the fantastic event "Have You Read? An Evening of New Plays" hosted by the play writing collective (co founded by my friend and collaborator on "The Muse" Cassie Seinuk) Interim Writers. Basically, local writers submit their work to be read aloud in front of an audience, then there is a talk back with said audience, and it's all for free (with suggested donations and muffins!) Once again I was astounded by the variety and quality of the four pieces presented and for an added bonus, this time I was able to participate as a reader! These are always extra enjoyable because I get to meet new people and be reunited with friends I already have made but don't always see across the Boston theatre community. For those readers who may be aspiring to get on Boston stages, these kinds of events are super essential for getting yourself out there and... *ahem* networking.
A slight segway about networking, I feel slightly dirty saying it. I guess because the subtext is "hi I'm interacting with you for the purpose of my own advancement" but at the same time, the only way anybody ever makes it in this business is by helping other people out, you know what I mean? And to do that, you have to introduce yourself and put out the image "Hi, I'm a worthwhile and intelligent person who has their shit together, so the next time a potential project comes up that I would be a good fit for, think of me!" you know what I'm saying? I guess it's not the aspect of putting yourself out that's difficult for me, but more the point where you need to say "hi, now that we've known each other and possibly there has been some sort of transactional aspect of our relationship, I need something!" which will be especially essential to my success in New York/LA/The Outside World. Anyway this has been a segway on networking.
Which you should do at the next Interim Writers event! Seriously, the material is always really top notch, and never what you expect to hear at one of these events. It's really cool. But make sure you get there early, because the Democracy Center is a small building and the Nelson Mandela room fills up fast.
Last night there was a piece I found particularly surprising, "Four Riffs For A Sailor" by Monica Raymond. It was a monologue from the perspective of Calypso in the Odyssey, you know the really hot nymph who holds him captive and has hot beach sex with him before he can get back to Ithaca (sorry gender studies major I know there is more to her character than that, as articulated by this piece). It's not obvious at first that it's about the Odyssey, but as the language rides the line between prose and poetry over time you come to that realization. My friend James compared it profoundly to getting a Boloco burrito but knowing what's inside except that it's delicious. Anyway, seeing the piece performed, I realized "Hey I used to write stuff like this, what's stopping me from taking one of those pieces and adapting it for performance?"
When I used to write poetry I was always hesitant about reading it aloud or performing it, despite the irony of my aspirations to act, I felt like it worked better as words on a page which is valid for many of the post modern poets who I aspired to in those heady days of teenage pretension. But frankly, I'm a much more capable performer then I was then, and the time is coming that I should really be working on my own stuff. Dramatic conflict has never been my forte as a writer, and up till now I viewed that as a barrier. But what the hell, I have all this material (I probably wrote hundreds if not thousands of poems as a teenager, most of them not very good, but some of them were passable) why not try to do something with it?
I was going to then cut and paste the first piece I had in mind... but my imagined judgement of me and my work by you and your anonymity has caused me to chicken out. Also, I should probably revise it, there a few things that popped out at me as being worth adjusting when I last looked at it. However, I may be trotting out to some open mics and or poetry nights in the near future to see how this goes down, and when I do, wish me luck!
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