Thursday, May 31, 2007

Let's get things rolling...

Well, I'm never going to get to 500 posts if I don't start, you know, posting. So here's another one.

Casting for Dinner and Drinks just got a little bit easier, now that one of my candidates has dropped out of the running, leaving me with almost exactly enough people for the show (there is one additional candidate, who I'd have to reschedule to accommodate, but I don't think I'm going to be doing that, as a reschedule drops someone else out of the running). Now I just have to hope that everyone's schedule is free in October so we can take the show to Kelowna. If not, I have to spend some time sobbing into a frothy mug of beer, and that's never any fun.

I want to do at least one polish on the Dinner and Drinks script before rehearsals start. There's a sequence towards the end of the second scene that has never sat well with me. Something about it seems kind of awkward and forced. Maybe I'm just being too picky, but I'm hoping I can get two people to sit down and do a reading of the whole script so I can try to zero in on what -- if anything -- is bugging me about the dialogue, so I can do a major cleanup before actors have scripts in their hands.

Oh, we're set for sponsors too -- we officially have a business sponsor for each of the four performances we'll be doing, so that's one less thing my producer needs to be working on, and one less thing I need to be stressing about. Fewer stresses are always a good thing.

In other news, I'm going to be swamped in major ArtScene work for the next three or four days. Hooray.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Slowly but surely...

"Dinner and Drinks" is -- little by little -- finally coming together. Following two auditions, there is almost a cast in place. I just need to drag a few people back for callbacks, just to double-check how my gut is telling me to cast the show, then we'll officially be able to start rehearsals, after confirming the casts' availability for a performance in Kelowna in October.

That's the other piece of exciting news in regards to the show -- we just confirmation today that we are have been selected to participate in the Actoberfest one act festival that Theatre BC will be holding for the first time his year. Festival performances will run on the hour from 4:00 pm to 11:00 pm on Friday, October 12th and 10:00 am to 11:00 pm on Saturday, October 13th.

"Dinner and Drinks" has two performance slots -- 1:00 pm on Saturday afternoon at the Black Box Theatre and 7:00 pm on Saturday evening at the Black Box Theatre.

So, you know, if you happen to be in the neighbourhood, come by and check the show out.

So far, just about every facet of bringing this show to life has seemed a little surreal. This is without a doubt one of the boldest moves I've taken with something of my own creation. Trying to mount a local production of this show would be stressful enough as it is, but the Actoberfest entry seemed too good an opportunity to pass up, so I thought, why not at least try?

So I did.

And now we're in. And now I'm not only going to be showing this thing that I wrote to the local folks who come to see it, but a festival full of theatre junkies from around the province.

Good lord, I hope they like it.

Exciting news, nonetheless. A full report on "Dinner and Drinks" casting will probably arrive next wee.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Blog post #464

Yesterdays Moblog posts provide compelling reasons for why I should never be allowed to attend Karaoke-based events. They just make me sad. And they make me hate the human race.

Yesterdays Moblog posts also provide compelling reasons for why I probably shouldn't moblog if I've been drinking.

On the bright side, those two posts helped the blog get two posts closer to the magic 500 blog post number, which I've been thinking about for awhile now (at least as far back as last year).

With approximately 36 posts to go before I reach the 500th meaningless ramble in this space, I've been wondering if I'll make it across that line before the end of the year. It's certainly conceivable -- one a week would almost be enough to do it -- but I have to concede that this space has been a little dusty lately.

My attention has been diverted. Too many other projects. Writing my ass off for the ArtScene, being in a play, prepping to direct a play, and yes, on occasion playing video games when I should probably be doing some actual work, has sort of gotten the better of my free time lately.

Not that this is an apology for that. Sometimes life happens, and some things take a back seat to old things. Like this blog. C'est la vie.

Nor is this a promise to blog more. It's a promise I'd like to make, but I'm also pretty sure that the odds of my actually following through or on the slim side, so why bother with a promise I'm not likely to keep.

Instead this is...I'm not sure what this is, really. An acknowledgement, that I realize that there hasn't been much to read here lately, and that it might go on that way -- except, of course, for the 36 more posts I hope to do before year's end, so I can celebrate the 500th post.

Which makes me wonder...what should I do in celebration of the 500th post?

No need to stress right now. It's not like it's right around the corner or anything.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Dear world (Part 2)

No, seriously, I fucking hate you.

Your friend,
Todd
---
Sent via BlackBerry on the Bell Mobility network because I am teh kewlz0rz.

Dear world...

Dear world,

I hate you,

Best regards,
Todd
---
Sent via BlackBerry on the Bell Mobility network because I am teh kewlz0rz.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

It's Official

After more time spent on the edge of my seat than I'd like to admit to, I can finally announce the second secret project that I've been trying to pull together for the last few weeks. Or months maybe, it's hard to remember now.

Dinner and Drinks, a play written and directed by Todd Sullivan (that's me, by the way) will be on stage at the Limelight in August. Dates are tentatively set for August 10 and 11, and August 17 and 18. Here's the somewhat flowery synopsis I came up with a few weeks back:

"Four scenes involving three different couples, out for dinner on the same evening. The first couple struggles through the awkward aftermath of an unexpected one-night stand. The second couple, on the verge of divorce, find their attraction briefly rekindled by the most mundane of things — a post-break-up division of property. The third couple attempts to deal with the uncomfortable issue of stale bedroom activity after a few too many drinks. In the final scene, the first couple is revisited, ending the play on an upbeat note of hope, and a celebration of taking chances to achieve the things that are the most important."


This is obviously exciting for me, as a writer, to have the opportunity to actually put something I've written onto the stage, and see people go through the motions, reading the dialogue, and bringing it to life. This is also exciting for me, as a writer, because it should give me the opportunity to polish the heck out of this thing, because in seeing people delivering the lines, I'll be able to spot the lines that aren't working, that are clunky, that need to be fixed, or cut, or lengthened.

Hopefully it'll be exciting for the actors too, as they'll be able to have some input into the creation of the script. They'll be able to say, "You know, this line seems sort of awkward," and, with the playwright in the room, actually have someone there who can change it.

Of course, there'll be challenges for the actors as well -- if the script is going to be constantly modified, they'll be constantly learning new lines. But hey, we're not in this theatre thing for the glory, are we? No, we're in it for the challenge. And sometimes glory.

Given the subject matter of the play, there is of course the potential to offend, so the trick in the promotion will be to ensure that we're upfront about that subject matter, and make sure that we don't get people in the audience who aren't going to appreciate it. It's a problem I've had in the past (particularly with "Some Things You Need To Know Before The World Ends: A Final Evening with the Illuminati") when the marketing of a show didn't quite bring in the intended audience.

I've been nearly bursting at the seams waiting for this to become officially greenlit so I could make the announcement of it. That moment has finally arrived.

If you're reading this, and you want to take part, auditions will be held on May 19 at 7:00 pm and May 20 at 2:00 pm. Hope to see *someone* there.

Monday, May 07, 2007

The history of the Internet

Years ago, I started work on a book that would be, more or less, a collection of columns that I had written under the "Caught in the 'Net" banner. It was intended to be a sort-of history of the Internet, during its more popularized phase (meaning, when it broke out of the universities in the mid-90s) and was going to be titled something kind of catchy like, "The Internet: An Autobiography."

Nothing ever came of the few days of work I put into the book, because the few days of work I put into the book probably had more to do with it being therapy following the break-up with my wife than it being an actually decent idea for a book, though the memory of the idea is still bouncing around in my head, which is why my discovery of this strangely similar timeline of Internet history seemed so darn familiar.

I'm pretty sure that 90% of the stuff listed here was stuff that I covered, at one point or another, in "Caught in the 'Net" and is stuff that would have found its way into my own History of the Internet project. Thankfully, the fine folks at this site have done the work for me, in a far more concise form. And, also, in a far funnier way than my project likely would have turned out to be.

Anyone with more than five years of time spent on the Internet should give that link a quick look, for a walk down memory lane -- and a few chuckles along the way.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Holy busy, Batman...

So the first issue of the ArtScene -- formerly known as the secret project -- went to press yesterday, and is officially on the streets as of today.

It's not quite as beefy as I would have liked to see, but it's still a damn fine product that I'm damn proud to have worked on. I only hope we can kick as much -- if not even more -- ass with the second issue.

Work on the ArtScene has meant, somewhat strangely, that I've been doing a fairly good job of maintaining my New Year's resolution to write a whole lot more often, although I haven't been writing in many of the things I had been intending to. The novel is still stagnating and this blog is getting dusty, but I there's a fair amount of content from me in ArtScene #1, which is sort of cool, as it's something that's actually out and being read, and not something that's just sitting on my hard drive.

Secret Project #2 (the unannounced announcement from my last post) is still up in the air, and while I'm eager to spill the beans on what it is, I'm wary to until there's a 100% confirmation that it's going ahead. People who know me already know what this project is, so they don't have to feel left out. For the rest of you -- of which I suspect there might be two, maybe three -- you'll just have to wait. Sorry.

Those of you interested in keeping up with the goings-on at the ArtScene, we've cobbled together a blog dedicated to it. There's not much to look at for now, but we're going to try to keep a fairly regular flow of content their, whether it's behind-the-scenes goings on, articles that didn't make the final cut, or just random silliness, there'll hopefully be something new there every couple of days. Which is more than I can say for this space here.