It’s easy to act in the cast of a show you like. You can revel in the role while feeling free to let the director’s vision dictate the tone. You can relax and enjoy the process and stretch and do all those things that makes being onstage such a joy, while knowing the show itself is quality, and the audience will dig it.
It’s much trickier to be in a show you love. There is nothing like a show (particularly a musical) that occupies a special place in your heart, because you get caught up in the romance of it all. But when you’re in the show, you see all the seams, you see how it’s constructed…you see the pieces of the puzzle. It’s demystified. Even worse, when the puzzle is put together, it’s easy to disagree, to think that piece should be over there, that one should be here, and that one’s a corner piece – what the hell’s it doing in the middle? The more you love a show, the bigger the fall if it doesn’t meet your expectations.
All of this is by way of introduction to say that Bat Boy, the Musical, which has almost completed its run at City Theater, has turned out to be one of the most joyful experiences of my life. I always have fun onstage, but I haven’t been with a group that’s this giddy, energetic, and downright hilarious since The Wizard of Oz. It’s a riot. We feed off each other (sometimes literally), onstage and off. And every single person involved, onstage or backstage, is not only a wonderful human being, but they all make me want to rise to their levels of talent and professionalism onstage. I don’t have room to name names of those who have moved me the most, because then I’d have to name everybody! I’ll just say that those of us onstage owe our lives to those offstage, and being in this show reminds me that theatre is essential, for the audience, cast and crew.
Enough gushing. What else is up? Well, about a month ago I held the first public staged reading of Eddie. Carol directed, and the actresses – Ruth Brown, Kathy Buterbaugh, and Susan Boudreaux – all did beautiful jobs of bringing the characters to life. The play needs a little work – I’ve cut 5 or 6 pages, and clarified a few things – but on the whole it was a success, and the feedback was very positive. Soon I’ll be sending it places – I’d love to see it take off! Next up will be the couldn’t-be-more-different The PornoZombies, which isn’t finished yet but will be by the end of the year, I think. I can’t wait for the read on that one. It’s part satire, part Troma homage, part cautionary tale, part anarchy, part slapstick…and hopefully funny. “Gosh, Matt,” you’re thinking. “That sounds…well…horrible.” I agree. So hopefully the only adjective that really matters is “funny.” We’ll see.
This summer saw a couple debuts of my plays. Kathy Buterbaugh an amazing job staging Smoker’s Hill, a drama for teenagers, for the Chrysalis Players One-Act Festival. Kelly Buterbaugh, Jason Stump, and Eric Austin starred, and I could not have been prouder of the production. A little later in the summer, my good friends at Silver Spring Stage included it in their Summer One-Act festival. I wasn’t able to make it, but I hear it went really well. Also making a world premiere was The Key to the Mystic Halls of Time, which is quickly becoming mighty popular – it’s been produced by Chicago’s Brown Couch Theatre and San Juan Capistrano’s Camino Real Playhouse (where it finished 3rd in audience votes for Best Play), and will be produced at Shelterbelt Theatre in January, along with Something Went Wrong and two plays by Kristyn Leigh Robinson! I love it when Delaware represents, don’t you?
Finally, I’ve unleashed my most diabolical plan yet to meet my favorite writer Aoise Stratford – my wife is directing one of her plays at the Wilmington Drama League for their Annual One-Act Festival! It’s a great play (obviously) called Three Horseshoes, and Carol has a fantastic cast, and Aoise is even going to try to come see the production. I cannot wait to buy this lady a drink – she’s not only a true artist, but a wonderful person, and as long as she doesn’t zap me with a laser from her watch we are gonna have a great time. The pleasures of bringing a show to life are equal only to the pleasures of meeting (and drinking) with your fellow writers, and everyone I’ve met, either face-to-face (Jay Hanagan, Felice Fenwick-Smith, John Yearley) or via email (Aoise, Rich Orloff, Mark Harvey Levine) has been wonderful and supportive. Thanks, guys, for letting me be one of you.
Gotta go. Y’all be good. Hold your Bat Boys, okay?
Peace,
Matt
---What's up from End of Summer, 2004