I'm pretty excited for tonight. I haven't been to a scene night in over a month, and tonight I'm heading into the city for a scene night with the Playwright's Center of SF. Italy was great and all, but it's time to go back to work! Tonight I'm bringing in the second half of the first scene opening ACT II of “The Fantasy Club.” I've reworked nearly all of Act II (I combined Act II and III), and I'm jazzed about where it is now. I've mapped out my month in scene nights, going back and forth from PCSF and the Play Cafe and between the two, I can get through all of my new scenes in just three weeks. Scene nights were really the only thing missing from Italy. I thought about making my husband's family act things out for me, but considering all the crazy sex involved with “The Fantasy Club” I decided not to. My master plan is after these three scene nights I'll (hopefully) put together one final read through of the entire piece before I start submitting it like crazy.
I'm also in the middle of tinkering with my other full length “My Sister's Baby.” I had some fresh eyes on it, and I'm hoping to iron out a few trouble spots, but it's surprisingly in good shape. I'm hoping to submit it to Aurora for their GAP project. And, because one can never do too much, I'm writing something new. It's tentatively called “Mother's Day” and it's an all female cast! I'm hoping to keep it as a one act under thirty pages so I can submit it to BOA this fall, and I hope to have it ready to read for next month's scene nights.
Curious about these scene nights? Come on down! PCSF's scene nights are the first and third Thursday of each month from 7:30-10. $10 for non-members, free if you belong. The address is: Theatre 250, 965 Mission, Fl. 2, San Francisco. And for the Play Cafe meetings, you'll want to come the second Thursday of each month from 7-10. $10 for everyone, and they're at Berkeley Rep's rehearsal space, 2055 Center Street, Berkeley.
Even if you aren't a playwright, I think scene nights are pretty awesome. You get to hear fresh new work, and the actors typically do phenomenal jobs at cold reading the scripts. If you're around, check it out!