Success

I wish all my readers a joyous Thanksgiving Day.

To celebrate this occasion, I offer you a one-minute, online film from Dove.  Trust me.  You don't want to miss this little number.

Enjoy. 

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The Hollywood Repertory Theatre's production of A Tale of Two Cities is finishing its second week of a five-week run tonight in North Hollywood, CA. 

Ivy Snitzer, my stage manager, reports that the audiences "really like" the show.  Well, there hasn't been a review posted yet, so I can't give you an unbiased perspective.

The show continues to run at the Whitmore-Lindley Theatre during the first two weekends in December.  Both the LA Times and the LA Weekly list the show and its times.

If you'd like to reserve seats, please go to The Charlens Company and click on the Ticket Reservations.

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I've seen the show twice since it began its run:  Friday, November 10, and Saturday, November 11. 

Although opening night felt like a dress rehearsal, Opening Saturday was incredible.  As I sat there amidst a good-sized audience, I felt as if I were seeing it for the first time.  I was on the edge of my seat.  The cast was dynamite, the set was beautiful and well lit, and the story grabbed me and held me all the way through to the end. 

Apparently, audiences since then have felt the same way.

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NEWS FLASH:  Myron Fink, the composer of my new opera Bloody Ground just informed me that he has finished composing the music.

He completed the entire piece in 2.5 months.

"The script made it easy to write the music," he said.  Myron knows how to make a writer feel good.  

Actually, I credit the process.  Starting in July 2003, Myron and I spent three years creating the story, talking about it on the weekends. 

In March 2006, I wrote an extended treatment at Myron's home in San Diego during my spring break -- Myron and his wife were incredible, supportive hosts.

Then in July 2006 I wrote the first draft of the script at the same place -- it only took me eight days. 

In August 2006, the cast members of Hartland Theatre Company spent two weeks developing and producing a staged reading of the show in Green, Ohio -- including four of the musical pieces. 

After that, Myron and I spent another two weeks of work revising it, and then I handed Myron the finished libretto on August 25, 2006. 

Now it's November 18, and Myron has finished composing the piece.

Congratulations, Myron!  You're an incredible collaborator!

Next step:  to plan an investors meeting -- during which we will present some of the music and the story.  Hopefully, an opera company will take on the piece and develop it as a production.

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As director of A Tale of Two Cities, the bulk of my work is complete.  As is traditional, I'll see the show during the first weekend in December to see how it has developed, to see where I can make cuts in the script next time around, and to make sure it's stayed true to my vision.

My co-writer, Steven Huey, reports that he will be going to see it as well.  I'll be especially interested in what he has to say -- since he'll have the most objective point of view.

It's funny.  Because Steven has stayed out of the rehearsal process, some of my cast members genuinely believe that I've simply invented my co-writer -- pulled a Charlie Kauffman, so to speak.

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Over Thanksgiving week, the theatre will be dark.  The actors get a break.  Theydeserve it.

I dropped over yesterday evening before the show to chat with the actors and take cast pictures (I'll post them when they come in).  I also took them peach cobbler -- homemade, more or less. 

After the cast photo, I told this community of talent how appreciative I am for what they have given to the play that Steven Huey and I adapted.  How grateful I am for the way they have loved Dickens' story -- and brought it to life.

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Tomorrow, I continue to write grades.

On Tuesday, I fly into Cleveland, where a good friend will pick me up at the airport.  During Thanksgiving week, I will spend time with friends and family .  I return to Los Angeles on Saturday morning.

I'll spend part of my week working with the board of directors I am choosing for Hartland Theatre Company.  We will begin shaping our new annual theatre festival -- to be held each summer in Northeastern Ohio. 

Hartland Theatre plans to produce three shows in 2007:  Romeo and Juliet, My Fair Lady, and a new untitled piece on the Amish Shooter that I am currently writing.  Auditions will take place during the last two weeks of December.

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I'll also spend a day with my three brothers, working on the old house of my parents.  They've already moved into their new house which the family built for them.  It's a nice retirement home.

Going up

Our stage adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities opens tomorrow at 8 PM and runs until December 10 at the Whitmore-Lindley Theatre.  Tonight is dress rehearsal.

 

You can purchase tickets at the company's website:  www.thecharlenscompany.com.

 

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From my director's notes ...

 

Family (n):  a collection of apparently disparate individuals linked by one unifying factor – for example, blood.

 

The Charlens Company prides itself in its feeling of family – in a city like Los Angeles, this thespian group takes the time to care about each other, to spend time with each other, to love and protect each other.  Unique individuals linked by a common love for dramatic story.

 

It is for this reason significant that our first play this season is one that explores the meaning of community versus alienation – through the device of narration. 

 

The lives of two women dominate this play.  Both women have endured teen traumas of death and sexuality.  But Madame DeFarge chooses the alienating embrace of Vengeance, while Lucy Manette creates a Golden Thread from her life – one that unifies her extended family.

 

The story of A Tale of Two Cities was both historical and personal for Charles Dickens.  At 41, he was going through the trauma of a collapsed marriage within a Victorian society that revered stability.  It was the darkest period of his life – relieved only by his meeting a 17-year-old actress while performing in a play by his friend Wilkie Collins. 

 

Shortly thereafter, when historian Thomas Carlyle allowed his good friend to explore the original documents from the French Revolution, Dickens did what any good writer does – made it hisown story.

 

Torn between the expectations his world had for the literary star, and by his need for real companionship, Dickens forged three characters out of his own torment:  DARNAY, the young man haunted by his family’s past; MANETTE, the healer recalled to life from his grave; and CARTON, the brilliant, dissipated lawyer who cannot find the courage to claim the woman he loves – except in sacrificial death.

 

This adaptation of Dickens’ play does not pretend to be historical fact – it is one woman’s perception.  Confusing in time and place, we know only one thing:  this is the love story of a woman abandoned by the man who loved her most – in order to save the life of her husband. 

 

Thus, at the end of the tale, nothing has changed.  We sit in a battered nursery, listening to an aged woman struggling to understand what the central story of her life could mean.  Surrounding her – on colorful toy blocks of wood that they’ve used to help tell this story – sit the spirits of her family.  They don’t try to explain the story’s meaning.  All they can do is try to return her love – imperfectly, awkwardly, genuinely. 

 

Perhaps that’s all one can expect from any family.