Update: Almost There

So I haven't been posting because I've been spending my time writing the play. Which is exactly what I should be doing. So I'm 95% there - just one more scene to go. The Ghost Building is turning out to be about coming to Los Angeles/United States to pursue one's career aspirations. It's also about how, in certain situations, one must necessarily reinvention oneself to make it happen. Maybe. Anyway, I'm glad there's something there. And no, this is clearly no longer David Lynch meets Paul Thomas Anderson (laughably impossible, in many ways); it has hints of Tennessee Williams (how unlikely of me!) and Hitchcock, and in any case it is clearly a mystery/drama with some surreal (ghostly?) elements.

My favorite character is turning out to be Cha-Cha Mangabay, not just the lead character, but a resourceful, ambitious young woman who is ready to grab the world by its throat. I like her drive, but I'm also appalled (at times) by her methods. She fascinates me; so this is a very good thing. Will she be successful? I don't know.

I also like 1940s-styled gumshoe detective Vernon St. Vicks, who is something like Fred McMurray meets Fox Mulder (note both have initials F.M.). Anyway that's all I'm going to say for now. Just need to finish this baby.

Update: The New Ghost Building

Okay, I've chucked all of what I have written so far (approx. 70 pages of this baby) and started AFRESH. Not that I didn't have fun with these 70 pages - I love the Victorian Lady, the Naked Girl, the Songwriter and all the other weird and wonderful characters but now they are nothing but ghosts. Yes, I've killed off all of them and retired them into the old Ghost Building. Things just weren't gelling, and when that happens, you gotta kill your babies. Literally.

It is quite a relief, actually. The Old Ghost Building was too ambitious, too grandiose in scope, too complex, and ultimately, too experimental. David Lynch meets Paul Thomas Anderson. Yeah, sure. Who's going to understand that?

So now these are the NEW characters:
1) Daisy, a starlet from 1920s silent era Hollywood;
2) Mr. Kipp, her personal valet;
3) Cha-Cha, an Asian tourist (present day);
4) Lino, a current resident of the Alexandria Hotel;
5) Sabine, his elderly neighbor, another resident of the Hotel; and finally
6) Vernon St. Vicks, a fictitious character that comes alive.

So there you go. I'll tell you more about all these characters another time. So watch this space.

Update: Back in LA

It's good to be back after being away for almost two months. Lots of things to catch up on, and time to begin writing again. I have gathered many new ideas while I've been away, and I think the play is certainly going to benefit from this hiatus.

News: I'm in Alaska

So I'm here at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference which is one of the best theater conferences I've ever been to. Apart from workshops and lectures given by theater practitioners from all over, I get to see play readings every day. These readings start at 9am in the morning and don't let up till about 11pm at night. Many of them take place simultaneously, so even if you wanted to catch every show, it is not possible. The strategy then is to pick and choose carefully. The fact is, I saw some great plays, and I also saw more than a couple of duds.

But that's what so fascinating about this week so far. There is no way to predict whether a show will turn out good or bad. Some promo blurbs got me really excited about the play, which turned out to be less than scintillating. Then there are these pieces that I sat in because I happened to be there, and they were amazing.

What is even better, I am interacting with these playwrights all the time, whether over lunch exchanging notes and opinions, gossiping about Edward Albee (who used to be the figurehead for this conference), or just having a beer during the so-called "Fringe" that happens at a bar here.

I forget to mention that the setting of the conference is Valdez, Alaska, which is one of the most remote and beautiful places I've ever been to in this country. When I get sick of watching plays, I would go hiking in the surrounding countryside, where there are eagles, hawks, Alaskan ducks, and more dogs than I care to count. I love dogs, and these dogs love this part of the world.

It is easy to see why. Valdez is unspoilt - there are lots of trees, grass and water, the air is clean, and the landscape quite astonishing. What more can one ask? Well, perhaps a positive reaction to my ten-minute play DOGS ARE EVIL which will go up this Saturday?

News: Staged Reading of FILM CHINOIS

Just in case you don't know, the reason why I'm in NYC is for a staged reading of my play FILM CHINOIS, which won Best World Premiere Play at the 2007 Ovation Award. The reading is part of the 10th TRU Voices New Play Reading Series, to be produced by Jack Batman (producer of Enchanted April on Broadway). The best thing about this reading series is that TRU (Theatre Resources Unlimited) invite Broadway and off-Broadway producers to come to the reading, to gauge their interest in perhaps putting it up in NYC. FILM CHINOIS is a noirish mystery and love story that is set in 1940s China.

Producers who are confirmed coming include David Black (George M!), Elysabeth Kleinhans (owner of 59E59), Pam Koslow (Jane Eyre), Jennifer Manocherian (August: Osage County, Spring Awakening, Sunday in the Park with George, Caroline or Change) and Tom Smedes (Naked Boys Singing, pictured above). As you can imagine, I'm very excited, but also very apprehensive. The reading will be on Monday, June 9th, so wish me luck.

I'm back to LA on 6/12 and then I'm off to Alaska for the Last Frontier Theater Conference in Valdez, Alaska, where two of my plays will be read - AZIZA and the ten-minute play DOGS ARE EVIL. Am really looking forward to that.

Progress Update: More NYC Shows

It's great to be in New York City in spring. The weather has been wonderful, sunny cloudless skies, with the temperature nudging the 80 degree mark on certain days. And I've been inhaling in one off-Broadway show after another. First, there was "Betrayal" at Culture Project in Soho, based on true stories of Iraqis who worked in the Green Zone in Baghdad, and how one by one they realized these people they were working for still treated them like terrorists.


Then I saw "Spill the Wine" at the Barrow Group (part of Gayfest), which was an entertaining Lesbian play and has a brilliant revolving set. Less successful was a reading I saw last night, which was, at best, inoffensive and mildly entertaining.

The Ghost Building continues to bubble in my mind's eyes, and I know now it begins with a blindfolded woman at a dinner table, perhaps the Victorian Lady, who wants to know why she is blindfolded and why she has been invited to the dinner party. But it is not a dinner party of course. In fact, there is no clear time or place for this "dinner" event, the mystery of which will slowly fall into place as we learn of Pig Face's story.

There is a twist to this of course. You'll have to watch this space to find out more.

Progress Update: From New York

I've been in New York for over a week now, for the staged reading of my play FILM CHINOIS which will be done on June 9th at the Players Theater in West Village. I am very fortunate to have on board (as one of my producers) Jack Batman. He is currently the Executive Producer of White Plains Performing Arts Center and was the producer of Enchanted April on Broadway.

Additionally, serving as the "judges" will be several major NYC producers, including the producers for Tracy Letts' Tony-nominated (and Pulitzer winning) August: Osage County, Spring Awakening, Naked Boys Singing and the owner/producer attached to 59th East 59st or 59E59. Casting is complete and rehearsals begin tomorrow.

Some distance from The Ghost Building itself is actually doing wonders. As is watching various (good and bad) off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway shows. Now, as I embark on a complete rewrite of the play (I hated the first draft), I have a very good idea how I am going to approach this. The fact is, I'm going to start the play off with a banquet attended by all the various historical (and some not so famous) figures associated with the hotel. There will be a butler who will announce everyone as they join the long dinner table. These people will include the famous silent stars from 1910s all the way to the present day.

The banquet will be hosted by Pig Face (of course), who has invited everyone to come because he has a mystery to solve - i.e. he wants to know who CREATED him. Has he been there since the very beginning? Or is he a more recent creation? Pig Face, as my regular blog readers know, is a simple red painting found on the wall of the real Ghost Building. It appears to be a recent creation. But perhaps that artist merely copied something that he/she saw? Is Pig Face a ghost? One really wonders.