Home Stretch

My colleague Howard Beckerman once wrote in one of his plays that sometimes, when artists are given a deadline, that's a tremendous motivator. In his play, "Life After Life," and artist is encouraged to just set up a showing of his work. That's supposed to motivate him to finally finish these pieces and get them ready for the event.

I threw down the gauntlet recently. I set a deadline for myself. Memorial Day. On Memorial day, I'm having friends over to read through the first very rough draft of "Love Is..." This, of course, means that I need to finish the first very rough draft of "Love Is..." by then.

Since my last post, I finished the mega-scene that opens Act 2; Wrote the big final scene for Brian and Lena's plotline; was inspired for a song for Brian to sing in that scene; and today, a MAJOR hurdle for me, FINALLY wrote the rape scene.

Only thing to do now, is wrap up the final plotlines in a wicked finale, write the finale; then I want to go back and RE-WRITE the scnee where Brian gets fired into a scene where he tells Lena that he's been fired. There needs to be more about the two of them, and this allows me to bring that out. It also reduces the cast. We're a cast of 10, which is what I want. Add the Boss, and other characters, and this simple little love story becomes an epic musical extravaganza.

One week to go.... Then I get to hear others' opinions.