AWOL - A Brief Overview

It was a extremely difficult decision to move from California back to Georgia.  I was going to be leaving my young daughter behind and I wasn't sure when I would see her again.  I was going to a familiar place but that didn't mean that I knew all the same people and that those same people were the same from when I knew them. I was going through a difficult phase in my life and it was hard to find courage to do hard things that I knew, ultimately, would be better for me.



It took courage to respond to the ad AWOL put in the paper.  I didn't know anyone in the organization, which was weird for me and Savannah.  I sent Kesha my headshot and resume and, for some reason, why surprised when she called me in for an interview.  To say that I was uncomfortable at first would be a fair assessment.  I was the only white guy there.  The show that I was aiming at working with wasn't going to pay a lot (To quote Kesha from the interview "We can't pay what you're worth." with a sincere smile), and it was going to have a lot of hip-hop. I like the music and I'm familiar with the style but the most that I can boast is a Jay-Z station on my Pandora.  But I wanted to do it.  I wanted to be there.  I wanted to work with the kids, all of whom are blessings.  I think, with all of the students, it brought me a little closer to Scotland.  Corny though that may sound.

That's something nothing like art can provide.  Brought me a little closer to Scotland even though she was 3,000 miles away.

What's more, who I was and where I came from didn't matter so much.  It was more important what I was going to do with the kids.  I was greeted with nothing but love and respect from Tony Jordan, DaVena Jordan and Lakesha Green.  I was welcomed into a family without an audition or painful consideration.  Its one of the great honors of my life.

The rehearsal process was different.  No, it was bizarre.  It was going to go on for six months before any of the hard technical elements were going to be added.  The kids worked hard.  Harder than most adults I know and certainly harder than most kids their age.

"Situations" was such a beautiful experience.  We had worked on the project for so long that it was a surreal experience walking into the Trustees Theatre on Broughton Street to start pulling everything together.



One student stood out to me.  In the shortest period of time, she had the entire show memorized.  The whole thing.  And as actors dropped out for one reason or another, she moved up in the ranks.  She was brave, braver than most of the other kids.  She went from having no lines in the show, no significant role, to having the most crucial part in the entirety of the project.  In the first show, in the first moments of the show when she started to speaking, I had to fight back tears.  I was so proud of her.  I was so happy for her.

All of the children were impressive at one point or another.  I don't have the space to talk about all of them, but probably will talk about them as time wears on in other posts.

AWOL, Inc. is a phenomenal organization that changes the lives of all those involved.  It reaches out to at-risk youth and engages them creatively, stimulates them with positive energy and encourages them to take responsibility and empowers them with their own artistry.  If you have the time, visit their website at www.awolinc.org to learn more and find out how you can support them!

Theatre of the Poor and a New Intensity

For those of you that don't know, this is Jerzy Grotowski.  Ask me to spell it but don't ask me to pronounce it.  I'd have a very hard time with it.  He was a Polish theatre director in the 1960's that did something called Theatre of the Poor.  I'm going to be reading more about it, but conceptually, I'm intrigued and I want to do something with it.  Focus on text and acting, not so much about visual design, little set and props.  In some cases, the actors would use their bodies as an extension of props.  And given the economic conditions, it seems to have a practical element as well.

I was never one for big, huge fancy sets.  I remember writing a play in high school and deliberately writing that the costumes should look cheap.  There wasn't supposed to be a pretension as to the way that the story was being told.  I remember being called out on it, asked "Why did you make that choice?" and not being able to answer.  Grotowski would have had my back...

So, the idea of taking ancient scripts and plays and re-working them in true 1960's counter-culture fashion has a lot of appeal at present.  Also want to workshop a play at present but that would have to wait until AWOL is over with.  Just need to find the right body of work to play around with.  Don't really want to mess with the Bible or The Odyssey since I'm already working with that.  I'll keep positing on it.

In other news, "Situations" is in great shape and I can't begin to talk about how excited I am for the kids and for the show!  I'm really looking forward to spending that much time in a theatre.  There's something about being exhausted in a theatre and spending entirely too much time in one that feels at home.  Comfortable.  Right.

I got some writing to do.  Feels good to say that.

Writer's Block or Paperback Writer.

It's really easy for me to get down on myself as an artist.  Not in the funky dance way, but in the demeaning way.

I like writing.  I've always liked it.  It was the first thing that I did as a child that my parents (especially my mom) encouraged me to do.  Whether or not it has been worthwhile is something else, but the act of creating has always produced immense satisfaction.  It's why any of us do it.  But in thinking about what I have written, I can chalk it up to a one-act play that was produced in high school, two full-lengths that were written in college (one became a staged-reading at a festival; more on that later) and two ten-minute plays that are on sale at www.offbookmarket.com.  Seems like I should have more than that.  But I don't.

When I first started writing this, I had a couple of entries planned out and had a solid idea as to what I wanted to write about.  I was planning on making it an "about every week" thing as a kind of meditation among other things.  This past Sunday, I sat down and was going to write a blog about how I was finding it difficult to finish things (plays, screenplays, etc) when I couldn't finish that.  It's as if I can't begin to write something without being stopped about halfway through or near the end because I don't know how to end the story.

And, naturally, that begs the question, why did I start to tell the story to begin with?

The play that went to festival was called "How I Met You", which either came around the same time or immediately before "How I Met Your Mother".  It was a play about how I met my now ex-wife.  It was meant to be very honest and frank.  It was graphic in it's conversation and had plenty of embarrassment for me and for her along the way.  I was proud of it.  I was also very pleased that it was considered for production through the Essential Theatre's Playwrighting Competition in 2006 and that it got a reading at the Youth Playwright's Festival hosted by the Horizon Theatre (both companies in Atlanta).

However, especially with the divorce, it's hard to read the play even to critique it;  It's not just because the marriage didn't work out but also because I can't help but think it's bad.  Just... bad.  No through line, no structure, just a bunch of random ideas that I Scotch-taped together.

Maybe the problem is that I'm going back and I'm analyzing the thing like I'm reading Macbeth or Long Days Journey Into Night.  And it's not supposed to be like that.  None of them are supposed to be.  I certainly should give myself a little more slack than that.

Well, I'd call that a kind of breakthrough (obvious though it may be).

Nowadays, among other ventures, I'm considering Graduate School as an option.  I want to teach; I like it and working at AWOL has certainly reminded me of that.  It's kept me hungry for it.  Right now, I'm working on a portfolio for grad school applications and, hopefully, that will turn it something that I've been doing for a long time. Only in this case, someone will have the generosity to pay me for it.

In as far as writer's block is concerned, one of the things that have helped me are deadlines.  I noticed I got a lot done in school because I had due dates and requirements.  I've flourished in an institution setting.  Also, having a blog like this has helped a good deal already.

So, I will make this declaration here on this blog and those who read it will hold me accountable.  By the 1st of April, I will finish the first draft of the Odyssey Musical (the one set to the music of Journey)!

Decisive!!!