The past few months have been an awakening of sorts to a sense of creative fulfillment I haven't felt in a very long time. Perhaps "fulfillment' hasn't been reached as of yet, but the beginnings of it are most certainly there. Producing & directing 3 shows at the same time gets the mind working faster and sharper than almost anything else; being busy is ALWAYS a good thing. It was during this period that the seed was planted for my next project, a musical based centered around an urban legend of sorts. I hate to be so vague, but until work begins on the actual script, I'll probably be keeping details close to the chest on this one. What I will say is that the inspiration came from the most unlikely of places (as inspiration often does): a toss-off joke at a bar. Perhaps this doesn't seem terribly odd to some, but for someone like me who doesn't drink, finding myself in a bar is an uncommon thing. The rare occasions I do end up in one involves either sports or meetings with a group of friends and colleagues. Such was the case on this particular night: having just had a rehearsal for our FringeNYC show, we began to joke about how any word could be inserted into the music and what it would mean for the rest of the plot line. The urban legend in question popped up and we all had a great laugh. On the way home, however, I couldn't get the idea out of my head. Taking out my trusty notebook, I wrote like a madman, cranking out a rough full-length synopsis while on the 20 min. train ride home. Rarely had I felt such a passion and drive for something that it simply flowed out of me and onto the page. It was...refreshing! When I finally arrived back home, I typed up what I wrote and sent it off to my friend Christian. Being the hard-working, proactive type that he is, his immediate response was: "I love it. We're doing this in the spring. Start writing." And that is how I found my way to where I am now, making a more detailed outline of my future script, molding events and relationships and finding the beginnings of the story and drama held within. Things have slowed some what with other shows opening within the next couple of weeks, but still I find time to chip away at it piece by piece. Like any piece of writing, it has its good days and its bad - or rather its easy and its hard. But it's exciting to feel so passionate about a piece of my writing again after feeling so down about it for so long. To underscore this, my wife and I attended the New York Innovative Theater awards tonight, there to support a friend and a colleague who was receiving a lifetime achievement award. Sitting through the ceremony, I found myself overwhelmed by the sense of community in that large auditorium. It is something that I realize I have been missing out on for the past decade or so, locking myself away and trying to live a lonely writer's/actor's life. But the inspiration, I find, can't come solely from within. It comes from without, from the people you surround yourself with and the communities and events you are involved in through your life. Sitting in the dark of that awards hall, I feel like I found something that had been lost so long ago that I questioned whether it had ever actually existed...a need to create and to be around my peers. Again, no doubt this is something most people have figured out a long time ago, but at a certain point for me, I tried a different path and it has taken a long time to realize that it probably wasn't the best I could have chosen. So, as I work on this new piece, I aim to ride this feeling into a new era for myself, one of creativity and production. No matter whether they're good or bad, it's time to get these ideas that have been in my head for so long and send them loose upon the world.
