July 2011
1 post
The work goes on
July 9, 2011.
And the work goes on. I’ve been thinking that one of the main structural ideas within the play just isn’t working. No details please. Take my word for it. I can sense that, as much as the “idea” is an interesting one, audiences don’t know what to look for. Never do anything “too new” or “strange” or “fundamentally...
June 2011
1 post
WatchThis is no longer Act I, Scene 1—but here it is. From the Workshop Production of April 2011.
April 2011
2 posts
WatchIce House Tech Load In Sunday Night. The Space is ours! (Tip of the hat to Gary Minyard and PYT.) JP Jordan lords over the management of Load In and Lisa Jordan and Emma Chong discuss light placement.
March 2011
4 posts
Anonymous asked: did you get an actor?
Sincerely,
Ron Heneghan
Sincerely,
Ron Heneghan
February 2011
4 posts
The end of writing...kind of.
I’ve just finished version 4.1 of the Whitman Piece having worked on it for well over a year now. It’s amazing, frustrating, and downright weird how a script can evolve and evolve and evolve. Endlessly. You just run out of time, that’s all. That’s not entirely true. Progress is made. One does get to a point where things aren’t better, they’re just...
“DANNY
I am the adroit and sure-footed God of all things ballish!
BEAU
Oh,...”
– The Whitman Piece Act I, Scene 1
American Dream
Bill,
First, break a leg with this ambitious project. I certainly hope to get a chance to see it, despite the fact that my nest show opens on the same night this one does…
My sense of how I’m working toward that national dream is by keeping up with the news of current events, and by voting, signing petitions, writing letters to congresspeople and corporations and cabinet members...
I have a question for anyone who might pass by....
January 2011
2 posts
Tonight and Tomorrow Night--The Whitman Piece...
Dear Friends, As you may or may not be aware, I am writing a play to open in the first week of April about group creation of art, the United States of America, and the “Spirit of the Age”. This play will have interesting implications for any who might see it, but certainly for those interested in “America’s Destiny” and the struggle of creating “art”. ...
December 2010
2 posts
Winnie-the-Pooh
Spent over eight hours working on the script today, working all of Act I. Five scenes, each scene three, four times. The work goes on and on.
When I was in Third Grade, I think it was, my teacher had us take a “nom de plume”. I chose, forgive me, Winnie-the-Pooh. I thought that that was a particularly clever, aristocratic and sophisticated name of which I was quite...
November 2010
2 posts
WatchYury, Christopher, Cathleen and the gang working the Finale of The Whitman Piece with Workshop participants from the Moravian College/Touchstone Theatre Collaboration.—Moravian College, November 7 (Russian Independence Day) 2010.
October 2010
3 posts
Thanks
Bill,
Came by your blog. And am grateful. Writing, rambling, rumbling, through the first draft of Diabetes of Democracy, too. Great to see someone else’s process. Love the tape. :)
Best wishes.
Un abrazo,
Karimi, Robert
Not So Late Night Ramblings on Squishiness and Bad...
I’m somewhere in the midst of draft three, and it feels like the play is squishy. Push it in here, it pushes out there; work on this section to get definition and texture, turn around and it’s all melted together into a glob. Advance this character, these other three diminish.
In the beginning of the writing process, I included everything plus the kitchen sink—it was all...
September 2010
9 posts
The evolution of the text...
Below is a primitive example of how my writing evolves. I’m a great believer in letting lines be worked over a long period of time, eroded by the forces of ever varying consciousness, nervousness, and a kind of soaking or tasting. Eventually, one stops tweeking (a lot), and things are sort of done. Zak, an apprentice in the Concord Theatre Company has a closing line at the end of Act I,...
WatchSo. First reading with friends—down. One more public reading to go. I am deeply grateful for all of the help in this work. Still many loose ends to pick up and communications to take place. Work on the third draft begins in two weeks.
“With dirges through the night, with the thousand voices rising strong and...”
– The Whitman Piece (Draft 2.2) Act III, Scene 1 The Graveyard Scene
Anonymous asked: Are there parts open? How would someone audition?
Anonymous asked: Will there be a performance during school hours that our English class can see after we follow your progress on this work?
August 2010
10 posts
Separate but One--The Idea of the Play
The Civil War was a struggle between the collective will (the Union) and what was deemed the greater good for all (no slavery, no succession) vs the individual will (freedom for states to continue with slavery, to succeed from the Union) as a means to get to the greater good. The struggle between these two principles will always go on, and they go on today. In 1861, when the Civil...
“To have great poets there must be great audiences too.”
– Walt Whitman
This is an excerpt from Whitman’s When...
Touchstone Theatre →
August 15, 2010--Initial Ramblings
In the beginning, there’s always a bit of groping, bumping, and knocking over of things (hopefully not to a painful degree) until one finds the lights. I haven’t quite found the light yet.
If you’re interested in art, if you’re interested in theatre, this may prove to be a rewarding journey; this blog, at least this initial part of it, is to let people in, to be a part...