Monday, July 23, 2012

Tough Week

And it's only just begun... The workshop went really well on Friday, did I mention that already? I have some good feedback to put into my next (and what I think will largely be my final) draft. I have some time off from the play until September, when we're going to be doing a more intensive workshop, with blocking and design elements. Then a public reading in October, and... who knows? Possibly production next season, but I don't want to get my hopes too high on that one.

J's mom had a bad fall and broke her hip yesterday, so she's in the hospital recovering from emergency surgery. It was a bit of a long night for J, and he's been at the hospital with his parents today. I'm alone at work, who knows when my request for higher compensation will be dealt with, since I'm swamped and my boss is not around that much. It's the first day of 2 weeks of being in charge of the department, and it's been a long day. Coupled with a tornado watch for the area (a tornado is really all I need at this point, I can't wait for this day to be over! Anyone who tells me I've got a case of the Mondays will receive a swift punch to the face, or a kick to the nether regions...

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Work vs Workshop

Howdy friends, Just thought I'd pop in for a quick update. Sadly, I got laid off from my part-time (also fun and well-paying and related to my actual career) gig this week. I'm going to miss the extra money! (Not to mention I'm fretting about finding a new second job to replace the old one in our budget!)

My day job is still pretty terrible--just overloaded with work, my request for a salary increase is being ignored (if they don't acknowledge the request, it never happened, right?). I'm trying to stick it out till the end of the year, at least for the health coverage and the stability, but these are trying times. The real trial by fire will be two whole weeks being the only supervisor here... yes, I'm going to be the big (wo)man on campus! Thinking about it makes my stomach churn, so I'm trying not to think about it.

But in good news, not only did I finish the next draft of my play, but I'm hearing it read tomorrow! And I will most likely be PAID for my efforts, which is thrilling. A theatre company here in town got some money to develop my play, so we've got regular workshops planned, culminating in some sort of public reading in the fall. So I think I get my paycheque for the whole thing tomorrow... oh, as well as hearing my play read. I haven't really touched this play in many moons (like, probably coming up on a couple of years), so it was both nerve-racking and exciting to make some changes. Although there's always that nagging thought "What if I ruin the play?" I know, I know, I can always change it back.

Friday, July 06, 2012

Act One - Done

I finished my rewrite of Act One today, which puts me squarely in the middle of the play--41 pages done, 41 pages left to go. As always, the trick is to wrap everything up in Act Two that you introduced in Act One... apparently these "plot points" and "character journeys" have to "pay off" by the time you get to the end of your "play". Today is the first normal-ish day at work since all the mayhem started, which I attribute to the lack of contact with other departments, including my own supervisors. Amazing how much work you can accomplish when you don't have to answer the phone 20 times an hour, or respond to a million emails.

I am thinking that I'm still going to try to stick it out till Christmas... another bonus of leaving at Christmas is that there's NO ONE AROUND to make a big deal. Or talk you into staying. I don't know if I can make it that long, so I'm not going to think about it for the moment. It's supposed to get murderously hot here over the weekend--water-the-garden-twice kind of weather, it seems. I will likely not want to do anything at all, except I have 2 rehearsals and a bunch of house cleaning to do for some guests who're staying here next week. Not to mention start tackling Act Two.

Monday, July 02, 2012

The Perfect Day

If I do say so myself, I had what I would consider a perfect weekday today. Being located in the Great White North, my job was closed today in observance of Canada Day. My husband was working, however, but I got to sleep in exactly the right amount (9:30 am), get up and go to the non-busy gym, ran a couple of errands, came home and did some rewrites (Scenes 1 & 2 to be exact), and then did a wee bit of (NERD ALERT!) Christmas knitting. To be fair, the knitting is actually for a Christmas present that didn't get started at all last year, and is so frustratingly complex that I can only knit 7 rows at a time. Oh, and put love into it, of course.

I was kind of dreading rewrites--I always think that I'm not very good at them, but I've started to get more comfortable. For this particular play, I hadn't touched it in a couple of years, so it was daunting to think about getting back into the mindset of the play. But I also realized that it's very cool to know your way around the world of the play. To be able to poke around the edges, or look at things you haven't looked at before. To know, as it were, which columns are load-bearing, and which can be knocked down and rebuilt.

I'm not sure if the changes are big enough, or if more of a shift is what's required this time out--I guess I'll find out at the next reading, which is scheduled for the end of July. If I had any editing to do this week, I suppose that would have been included in my perfect day, but there isn't any to be had. But having a beautiful day to spend working on my own stuff was amazing. As J points out, I guess every day could become like that soon, depending on how work goes. I'm already getting that dread-y feeling about going back in tomorrow. The other supervisor will be back from holiday, and there's a fairly good chance that she will also quit, or go on stress leave. I'm trying not to think about it. Instead I'm going to watch stupid television and eat curly fries and egg salad sandwiches.