From the Editor’s Perch

At a Live Reading, the Playwright is Often a Ball of Worries.

The Fun of Live Theater

 

We had a reading of several small plays last night.  A piece was read which a friend and I had collaborated on.  Then a piece of each of ours was read.  The evening went well.   It’s fun to write.  It’s fun to imagine.  But the payoff of sitting in an audience who are clearly enjoying your theater work is hard to acquire any other way that by just putting it up there.  The warmth and the fun of it are something to bathe in quietly for at least several days.  And the memory can well be enjoyed for years.

Usually, it’s just a few select scenes which are so cherished; scenes where the acting and script seemed to speak and live so naturally, that you treasure the memory as if it were a relation, or a wife.   The play, as a whole entity, is usually cumbersomely remembered as part of the whole package of production materials: a concretion of crisis’s, breakdowns, adjustments, grit and slog, insights, fear and loathing, people who fail you, people who save you, etc. – rather like a life, out of which these special scenes surface like a State of Grace.  These are what we work for.

There’s nothing like having it breathing in front of you.  Statistical hits on the website don’t do it.  Comments are fine.  But after falling on your ass in front of people so many times, (which all playwrights do) a live success is something cherished. The whole room is happy.  The actors are happy.  The audience is happy.  You’re happy.  It’s the best sort of party.

Photo by Carl Nelson of model/playwright John Ruoff

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NEW PLAYS

INTO THE WILD BLUE YONDER

Bernice Rebuking Claude at Her Funeral

In the Psychiatrist’s Office

BERT and CLAUDE have planned an 85^th birthday party for their man-crazy mother, BERNICE.  But BERNICE supplies the surprise by bringing HERB BOTTLEMAN, an elderly womanizer she picked up at the airport.  When HERB ends up preferring BERT’S trophy wife JACKIE to BERNICE, the raging BERNICE suffers a heart attack and dies.

In the second act, JACKIE’S insistence that BERNICE be buried in her cream outfit, forces BERNICE to come down from heaven to make sure she is buried in her “red dress with happy hooker heels”.  HERB, all the while, continues to pursue JACKIE.  And BERT gets so angry he decides to bury BERNICE in her underwear.  It takes all CLAUDE’S gumption and his psychiatrist’s (DR. PERHL) wisdom to get this family back together again – and BERNICE packed off to heaven where she belongs.  

To read the first 10 pages of the play, click on INTO THE WILD BLUE YONDER, under “Pages” to the right…  – the Editor

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Editor’s Note:  Theater is about Everybody.  And no theater group in this town is as open to ‘everybody’ as WARP.  You walk in the door, and you’re a member.  You bring something in to read, and it’s read.  You want to act – or may not intend to act – and you very well may end up on stage anyway because WARP probably hosts more productions of original work that any other theater group in Seattle. You can present anything you want and say anything you want.  And it’s all accomplished without any officers, board, special member classifications, budget, fundraisers, or government grants.  They’re just a collection of any odd person who likes the idea of doing theater. 

Here’s an Upcoming Show, Now!

 

Personal Testimonial for WARP Experience

“I was very impressed by the tale of a 1000 and one nights, and, feeling rather insecure about my appearance, I decided subconsciously at some point that I liked Sheherezade, and I chose her path. I figured, it didn’t matter what I looked like, it didn’t matter if I had money, if I could tell a story after story until those stories became wanted, important, indispensable, until people or a person wanted to hear what I have to say, then I was home free.
I choose writing as a primary art, with visual art, painting, drawing, as a back up. Writing has more power, I think. I have spent many nights curled in bed with a book, I couldn’t have gotten the same enjoyment if I had Mona Lisa on my bedroom wall. The comfort of words goes way beyond an image. Perhaps that was why worshiping the idols was a no-no. When you read a story you subconsciously embellish it with your own personal visions, and a picture – so desired by a 4 y. o. is not at all when you are over 13.
Of course, my big problem with that choice was that I couldn’t write worth a damn.
So, about the year 2000 I started writing a completely made up and a fictional book called The Asylum Of The Gods. I went about it by getting a bottle of Burgundy wine and writing whatever, and then talked about it to my current boyfriend. Worked great for him: by the time we broke up he wrote two books (never occurred to him before).
All I know is I kept getting better. I got a job at a hotel in Kent and became friends with Vira there. She wanted a boyfriend, so I suggested Craigslist. Guess what happened – she met Eric. Since he was a member of DAMN he invited her there, and she invited me. And we stuck with it.
Having one’s plays read is an awesome experience. Being able to see something I wrote on the stage broke some sort of a wall of resistance I had nurtured for a very long time. I started writing like possessed. I had my first short play performed in the fall of 2005. And I was in it too! It was such a rush! I fell in love with the theater. Everything about it: the adrenaline rush when being up on the stage, the writing, working a piece, hearing real feedback. All of it. I calmed down a bit with time, but I still can think of nothing better than making my dream come true. And that is what DAMN/WARP was/is for me. Just because there were people who would get up on a stage and read my play made me believe in myself and made me realize that I could write. Something I wasn’t so sure about. DAMN/WARP made it happen. Even though I finished my first novel by the time I got there, I needed an audience. All artists do. Having a place to go to have something read is an answer to my prayer. No matter what the world does, no matter what stupid things I have to do to pay rent, nothing compares to what WARP does, graciously allowing people from all walks of life to come in and present their labors of love.”  – Rita Andreeva