May 4. . . Trio in Austin, Duck and Burlesque

Trio closed in Austin this week, with a good amount of press coverage and a wealth of lovely photos by photographer Steve Rogers.

The cast wound up making masks on Austin TV, which everyone enjoyed.

Trio made the cover of the Austin-American Statesman’s arts section, in a lovely article about The Filigree Theatre’s first season by reporter Andrew Friedenthal, who also reviewed the play.

In St Pete, I make a start on our fall Madness workshop with choreographer Paula Kramer, and we arrange a time for us to talk with director Dan Granke next week.

I also talk with City Theatre director Gail Garrisan, who’s directing my short play Duck in Miami’s Summer Shorts Festival. She directed Flowers a few years ago at Miami’s Pigs Do Fly Productions, and is a lovely person we got to know through the CityWrights playwriting conference.

We go over the script on the phone and Gail has a lot of good questions. I make notes on where I need to clarify some lines, and send her a new draft.

City Theatre asked all the playwrights to film a short promotional video talking about their play. Thankfully, I can rely on film actor and on-camera acting teacher Eugenie Bondurant, since I have no idea what to do and she’s a pro.

I write up a script, Eugenie looks it over and I show up wearing a shirt she chose for my headshots a couple years ago, thankfully taken by the amazing dance photographer Tom Kramer. We do a few takes of each section on her porch in the breeze, then move inside to her studio.

I’m not a fan of being on camera, but Eugenie is wonderfully encouraging and knows how to bring out the best in people on film. She sends me a list of shots to choose from, and knows full well which ones came out best. Eugenie kindly lets me weigh in on which takes to use, and edits them together to send to City Theatre.

Closing in on a new draft of The Burlesque Astronomy Play, using Dana Lynn Formby’s wonderfully helpful mapping technique. She taught us to draw up a chart of recurring themes and actions in a play, so you can see where you need more or less of something – or where you set up an idea but didn’t keep it up throughout the script.

I now make sure to create colorful and complex charts of what is happening when, using her very helpful tool to keep track of all the many threads woven through a full-length play.