Closing night is over, but the work continues...

More on all that here...

"Matthew A. Everett is a fiscal year 2007 recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts."

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Love's Prick - One Week Out

... more or less

This is actually the first time I've had to catch my breath.

Since I knew I was going to have the 4th off from the main day job, I made sure to schedule myself off from the second job as well.

My first full day off in quite some time.

Probably won't even leave the apartment.

Big project to be managed - the finances.

Need to pull together all the receipts so I have an accurate accounting of how we all spent the Minnesota State Arts Board's money mounting the workshop of Love's Prick.

The final report is due July 23 - one month after the close of the project. 19 days to go. And I'd like to get it in early, move on to the next phase.

Also have to give some feedback to the wonderful Center for Independent Artists on the experience of using their facility. I highly recommend them to pretty much anyone thinking of mounting a production. They're great.

Still getting emails from people who came to see the production with their feedback. Need to follow up with a handful of others who couldn't stay for discussion, thank them for coming, pick their brains.

I'll be parsing over the general areas of feedback in the coming weeks here. Everything seemed to fall for the most part into a handful of really clear, common categories. Each night had its wild suggestions and aberrations, but mostly everyone agreed - on the things that really worked, and the things that needed some work.

Can't tell you how nice it is to regularly hear from people that saw it, "I was thinking and talking about it for days afterward." Nice to give people something to chew on.

The final night's crowd was the biggest ever. It got so full we thought we might have to remove the video camera and tripod from the back row and forgo taping to make room. Good problem to have.

Since our set was only five black wooden cubes, and our props fit neatly into a couple of brown paper grocery bags with ample room to spare, our strike was very swift.

I am now the owner of a fake police badge, and two green felt "Forester" hats (Robin Hood-style) with big white feathers in the brim.

Most of us made our way over to the nearby home of a cast member who wanted to let us all have a chance to let our hair down, and hang out one last time before we went our separate ways.

I stayed pretty late, zoning out, seeing the game Guitar Hero played for the first time. Happy to just sit lazily and watch the spectacle of the backs and rear ends of our attractive cast hopping about, intent on their game.

Forced myself out of bed the next morning by allowing myself to be scheduled opening up at the Guthrie box office. It was a sedate Sunday morning, so that was a nice way to ease back into the day, and real life, and not lay about wallowing.

The tapes need to be transferred to DVD and copied (so the family can see it). I need to review them, to see what I can learn from watching it all again - feedback sessions, too.

Review my written notes.

I spent much of my lunch breaks last week pulling all the rewrites and tweaks into the formal document of the script. Time to get that off to the copyright office, as a marker of this stage of development. Also get some copies to others.

Did have one actual lunch date, someone new, who I met because they came to the play. Think I've made a new friend. An unexpected bonus to the whole process.

Of course there was also Fringe-For-All to throw me headlong into Fringe season and a flurry of blogging about something other than myself and my play for a change as well, so that helped push things forward.

After that it was a night out with the American Revolution and the musical 1776 - one of my favorites. Nice to see it on stage again. Doesn't happen often.

The cross-section of theater outings in a overstuffed week concluded with a visit to the latest Bedlam Theater Ten Minute Play Festival, in which my pal (and recent cast member) Dan O'Neil had a great short called "The Swiss Invasion." My first visit to Bedlam's new space. A wildly eclectic evening - some great stuff, some odd stuff, some just... stuff. A good introduction to Bedlam for the Fringe season to come. Glad to see they've landed so well on their feet in their new home.

And then there was this other opportunity that reared its head...

category: Incubator
Wednesday, July 4, 2007 at 11:40 AM