This one was going to have my voice in it ...
I was going to try the podcast feature that Substack affords, but then I came down with something in the last few days and it’s shredded my voice, so I’ll not let your introduction to my voice be what it is today. (Tested negative for so far, so I hope that holds out.)
We’re slowly coming through the haze of Summer and I’m looking forward to cooler temperatures in the Fall. The next season of theatre is beginning to get rolling. I’ve been asked to stage manage a few shows in our area, but have thus far only committed to one. One of my favorite modern playwrights is Lynn Nottage. She’s been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her plays twice in her career: “Sweat” in 2017 and “Ruined” in 2009. I was stage managing a local production of “Sweat” in 2019/2020 when the pandemic shut down the production before we could get into performances. Everything was beginning to mature and coalesce in rehearsals at the time and I wish we’d been able to bring the show to the stage.
In the Winter, I’ll be stage managing another of Nottage’s plays: “Crumbs from the Table of Joy”. One of her earlier works, this is a memory play about two sisters who move to Brooklyn in 1950 with their father after their mother passes away. The play is seen through the eyes of the elder sister. Anytime our local theaters put up a Lynn Nottage play, I absolutely want to be a part of it. What makes this show special to me is that I’ll be stage managing for an old friend who’s directing the play. I say old friend, but I’ve known them since they were 14 and we’ve been friends for a little more than a decade. We’re both fully aware of the generational divide and even we’re not sure how we became friends in the first place or how we’ve endured, but here we are. They’re one of my very best. I’ve never stage managed for them either and we’ve been wanting to work together for a long time, so this is finally that opportunity.
I may be assistant stage managing and offering some mentorship on a Caryl Churchill play - another favorite playwright of mine - to kick off the season, but apart from those two shows I’m trying to keep my theatre commitments light so I can devote my free time to writing.
Writing
After the Uvalde shooting, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, and after a spate of states’ trigger laws went active as a result and others started writing more restrictive abortion laws … it was enraging to once again see many Conservative politicians, pundits, propagandists and Supreme Court justices defend a very extremist interpretation of the 2nd Amendment all the while claiming a victory for life when Roe was overturned.
I usually feel like I want to say something when events happen in the world that make me furious. But because I do not believe in or trust myself to be clever, witty and succinct all at the same time on social media platforms - and there are oftentimes people who have more interesting or relevant things to say than I do - I had to channel that anger through some other form of writing, so I did what I usually do: I started writing a play.
Honestly though after the first couple of weeks, and a brief writing spurt in the middle, I set it aside thinking I was done with it. It felt like it didn’t have a place to go. At least in a traditional sense. Neither character was going to change or experience growth. One of them wasn’t meant to and the one who I wish would change - the one inspired by a current politician - wouldn’t change, because it wouldn’t be in his nature. Ultimately in reconciling these points with myself, I picked it up again and carried on. Because the play had a place to go now. I had a place to go with it. It was less about character growth and more about the audience’s opportunity to connect with one of the characters and for what (I hope) an audience’s visceral experience of the play might be.
I finished the first draft the other day.
You hear people say all the time that finishing writing a story is the most important thing. Starting something is a victory too, but finishing it is huge. It’s especially critical for me. I never see the full scope of a story until I’m at the end. I always discover new things during the journey of writing a new play or comic. Even when I have the beginning, middle and end all in mind, I always make discoveries. And, of course, I made a few in this one.
It’s a short play, maybe about 20 minutes long. In the revision phase, I’ll look at how to utilize practical sound effects to make the play more unsettling. It’ll be the timing of the sound effects, but also the pitch of each, which will help the audience distinguish between them. Each sound effect essentially symbolizes the same event, but it will be the context of each - and their corresponding pitch - that will help the play achieve the desired effect.
(I’ve written a play I would not want to stage manage because the stage floor is going to be covered in debris and I wouldn’t want to clean that up every night.)
Apart from the play, I’m building a couple series bibles for comic books. I’ll begin developing a pitch for one of them this Fall as long as the artist’s schedule holds. The other needs more work before it’s ready, but it’s something I’m working on in the background.
As previously announced, the “Producing the End of the World” anthology was funded through Kickstarter. The update from our editor is that the final lettering pass is in progress and the anthology will be off to the printers in August, shipped out to backers in September.
As for things I am taking in, I started watching “The Bear” on Hulu and it’s been absolutely great so far. The writing is sharp. The ensemble is strong. The feeling of the show, the very close-quarters, chaotic flow of a kitchen is brilliant. There some beautifully juxtaposed quieter scenes between characters that help create create depth to the characters and their relationships. Loving it so far. I have a couple more episodes to go.
In the realm of comics, the 900th issue of the Amazing Spider-Man came out this week. Spider-Man was one of my two favorite characters growing up. (Batman was the other.) I haven’t actively been picking up the series, but I occasionally drop into the books - including those of Miles Morales - to revisit the webslingers. Such a momentous occasion felt like it warranted preordering a few of the covers. Marvel rolled out a brilliant lineup of cover artists for it too. I indulged in three of my favorite artists …
I’d pick up a Peach Momoko “Silk” book in a heartbeat.
Speaking of Batman, the other book I was excited for this week was the latest issue - and the first with a new creative team - of Detective Comics.
An incredible creative team featuring some of my favorite creators: Ram V, Rafael Albuquerque and Dave Stewart with Ariana Maher. Can’t wait to dive into this one and see where it goes.
Other things on the reading itinerary …
“You Want to Clean Up the House? Same Here” by Jamelle Bouie, dovetailing out of the responses he received from an opinion piece recently entitled “There Are 100 People in America with Way Too Much Power”. Also very much worth reading.
Kelly Thompson’s latest Substack newsletter …
Borrowed through the Libby app is Fire Power by Robert Kirkman and Chris Samnee with Matt Wilson and Rus Wooton.
And lastly a couple thing movies I’m excited about, the trailers of which were debuted at San Diego Comic Con last weekend: the incredible trailer for BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER
and the sequel to the very charming Shazam - best of the recent DC Comics movies - SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS
That’s all I can coherently write today. I’m gonna go take some medicine, sit on the couch with the goobers and watch a movie. A little something like this, which is how we were during the England/Germany final of the Women’s Euro Cup. (Go Lionesses!)
Good night, everybody.
Stay healthy, stay safe, stay creative.
Share this newsletter, if you please. I’d very much appreciate it. Hopefully next time, you’ll get to hear my voice.
All the best,
Scott