“Invincible Summer” On Stage

First of all…the blog is back! I hadn’t posted anything since August, and its hard to keep up during the school year. But things really got away from me this year!

Thus, I have some catching up to do. I never wrote about the production of my play “Invincible Summer” last May at the Hole in the Wall theatre in New Britain, CT. I also completed an entertaining and successful film festival “tour” in the fall (that brought me from Mystic, CT, to Philadelphia, Hamilton, Ontario and then back to Philadelphia again.) And I also made my film acting debut in a short film. Oh, and I have a play premiering in Kentucky next month. So there is much to report.

As the school year winds down, I expect I will have an opportunity to catch you up on all of these. I also have been ruminating on some posts about the current state of education since, oh, around January 20. So look out for that as well. But until then, let’s go back about twelve months…

It’s Finally Produced…!

As I detailed in my last post in August, getting this play to the stage was quite the journey. I won’t rehash it here, but feel free to take a look if you’d like a reminder. Now, we had three performances in front of a live audience, plus a talk back on Sunday. We had a stage, a stage design, props, costumes. Not a zoom screen to be seen–a real performance in front of real humans. I recall the first time that something I had written had been presented in front of a live audience–it was instantly thrilling, and knew right away I wanted to be a playwright. That was one performance of one short play. This would be different.

And how did it go?

The cast (Mark Gilchrist, Allan Church, Valerie Solli, Christie Maturo, Lois Church, Jerry Rankin, Liz Harnett and Frank Dicaro) did a terrific job. They worked so hard to ensure every scene was infused with all of the heart, humor and pathos required. Our director, Dana Sachs, worked closely with the cast to be certain the blocking and the pacing was used to maximize the performances, and his better half, Cynthia Parisi, assembled the props and the stage design, making sure it took advantage of the L shaped space of the audience. It was all a thing of beauty to behold.

And the audiences were great. Friday and Saturday were approximately 2/3 to 3/4 filled–and Sunday was a sell out! All of the crowds seem to respond well to the energy of the cast. I was touched by how many people I knew personally attended: not just many local friends, but several of my work colleagues, former students, members of the Connecticut playwriting community, cousins from as far away as Maine, members of our hiking club in New York, other friends from as far away as Philadelphia and Virginia–even two members of my old Sea World crew came down from Boston. It represented quite a mosaic of the various aspects of my life. And, everyone seemed to react very positively to the play, which was intensely gratifying.

On Sunday, the final performance, we had a talk back with the audience, which was incredibly enjoyable. I really liked discussing and reflecting on the work, even knowing we had finished. I appreciated what the audience had to say, enjoyed answering their insightful questions, and it was fun to essentially be on a panel with the cast.

And then it was over. Everybody went home, and while we are all still in touch, and I have seen several cast members doing other productions since, I do miss the weekly rehearsals, the performances, the camaraderie. I had only done 24 hour play festivals, so I never really had a chance to learn so much from this process and bond with a cast and crew. I know it won’t be my last time, but I will always cherish the first time it happened.

Just gotta keep writing more plays.