EXTRA CRITICUM

"Have you got a video?" vimeo.com/pinkplot/nagfeel

Have you got a video, he asked.

And then I showed him this.

Nag_Feel_3min from Pinkplot Productions on Vimeo.

/p>

And now he's bringing half his office.

#thepowerofvideo #naggingfeeling #spreadtheword #jan6july6

Why my next play had to be a solo show performed on Zoom.

In March of 2020 mankind was thrust into a new paradigm. With virtually every aspect of life squeezed, stretched and stuffed into shapes that many found virtually unrecognizable, the essence of what it means to be human was called into question. And change was all but inevitable.

Change can be painful, frightening, frustrating and uncomfortable. And so for the better part of two years everyone has to some degree found him or herself wrestling with uncertainty and a gnawing question regarding all our life choices pre-CoVid_19.

I feel that my exploration of this challenging and dangerous moment in human history absolutely calls out for a presentation within the confines of the Zoom black box theatre.

Opening 2 min. of the February 7th reading to an invited audience.

This has left us at once hungry for human connection (as the oxygen of life) and wary of it. We have found ourselves surprised by our own behavior. How many friends have expressed the same confusion regarding an acute loneliness and yearning for human connection coupled with an inexplicable paralysis when it comes to returning phone calls, emails and text messages. How odd it has been to observe oneself letting 2, 3, or more days sail by while phone messages or emails went unreturned even as we wished for nothing more than the back and forth of a chat with a friend. 

Zoom is the perfect architecture for this moment.

How'd They Do It? 2021 Hear Me Out Winning Writers Share Their Secrets: Patrick Mulcahey

Over the next few weeks several of last year's Finalist Winners will share their process of getting from the festival prompt to a monologue they felt excited to submit to Hear Me Out Monologue Competition.

Today, we hear from:

Patrick Mulcahey, author of Ecce Mom (winner of the Silver Ear for long form monologues)

Here's what Patrick had to say about the 2021 Festival Theme: Borders.

For at least twenty years I’ve been carrying around a character and a story I didn’t know how to tell. A close friend who’s a physician told me about a patient of his (anonymous, of course) whose life ended in tragedy, and tragically alone, because her children refused to believe the illness she complained of was anything but a cover for alcoholism. Since then I entertained the vague notion I’d write something about her someday — which became the day Roland announced the theme of the next Hear Me Out Monologue contest would be “Borders.” 

 

Why did that bring the character into focus for me? I’m not sure I can explain it even to my own satisfaction. Yes, “Borders” as a theme had some political currency at the time, but I wasn’t thinking politically. In my own life I’ve always had an awareness of the boundaries we draw between each other, even — or especially — in our closest, most intimate, most enduring relationships. And when we make a conscious decision to breach those boundaries, those borders, we do so because we want to accomplish something: revelation, persuasion, a provocation to a response which may or may not be the response we want. What else is drama is made of?

 

I struggled with the writing at first. In the real-life story told to me, the woman didn’t conceal her illness from her grown children: they just didn’t believe her. I had no room for them and no way to explain their skepticism; maybe the reason I never could write it in another form was the prospect of creating a character group with no function but to be wrong.

 

So I invented another boundary, a full and fully concealed intimacy in which the character’s diagnosis was understood and appropriate measures taken. Which became another loss, another secret to tell, another border to cross. 

Watch Mulcahey's winning monologue as performed by Alley Mills at the 2021 Hear Me Out Labor Day Festival & Awards Ceremony. 

2022 Hear Me Out Monologue Competition Call for Entries.

Announcing this year's Festival Theme & Competition Prompt:

WHEN WE NAME IT

In a world in which  social norms, political systems, economic laws and the natural environment are all facing existential challenges, the language we use to describe the world around us takes on new urgency. In order to change a thing, we first need to name it.  In order to care for something or someone it matters that we name it. If we want to understand something that confuses or frightens us, first we must name it. 

Since human beings created language, the labels we assign to things, people, places, activities, relationships, complex issues, etc. etc. have influenced our view of them. There are things we carry with us throughout life that feel so important, so powerful, that sometimes we dare not name them for fear that naming them might invite them to consume us. And yet, oftentimes the act of finally naming something we’ve been living with results in a newfound freedom. And, yes, we also name people, pets, places, projects and creations. 

And sadly, these days, our choices regarding how we identify certain things can even threaten to tear apart our most treasured relationships. 

Your 2022 Hear Me Out entry must in some way refer to some naming and its impact on the characters you’re revealing. As always we hope you will find your own way into our festival theme and we do not require the use of any specific words, language or stylistic choices.  

We only ask that your character grapples with our festival theme in some way.

And remember: your monologue must introduce us to a character who is talking to another person (or group of people). Short stories and essays will be disqualified.

Click here to get started.  Early Bird Deadline June 15, 2022 at Noon.

Title treatment for: A Nagging Feeling Best Not Ignored

So... what do you all think? How does this make you feel? Would you buy a ticket to this thing? 

How'd They Do It? 2021 Hear Me Out Winning Writers Share Their Secrets: Kate Cortesi

Over the next few weeks several of last year's Finalist Winners will share their process of getting from the festival prompt to a monologue they felt excited to submit to Hear Me Out Monologue Competition.

Today, we hear from:

Kate Cortesi, author of I Love Parties (winner of the Golden Ear for long form monologues and the Most Memorable Character Award)

Here's what Kate had to say about the 2021 Festival Theme: Borders.

The Hear Me Out invitation to think dramatically and expansively about "borders" was one of my favorite things: a call to write. I used the prompt the way I use most rules: as something to subvert.

What comes to mind easily when we hear the word 'border'? You bet that's the very thing I'm going to avoid. There are borders we cross, border-crossing as an identity or a formative experience. I found my mind wandering to those borders that call to us, that we don't cross.

I submitted a piece about an elderly woman who is assumed to be harmless, and even vulnerable, who then turns out to be the potentially dangerous transgressor. Her decision not to transgress - to preserve a border - ends up being the definitive action of my short monologue play. The ultimate action is one of restraint, that forgoes gratification in the name of love.

To the writers who submit to the upcoming Hear Me Out competition, may the prompt inspire and unleash you. And if it doesn't, throw it away and see what comes of it.

Watch Cortesi's winning monologue as performed by Marnie Andrews at the 2021 Hear Me Out Labor Day Festival & Awards Ceremony. 

If a script lands in a forest with no one to read it, can it make a noise?

In 1922, an unknown composer who supported his family by working as an insurance man, did something audacious. He self-published a collection of songs he'd been writing over several years and proceeded to mail out complimentary copies to practically everyone of some importance he could think of. His name was Charles Ives and today, thanks to the efforts of another composer of a younger generation who championed his work, he is widely regarded as one of American music's greatest composers.

It would be easy to take this little anecdote as evidence that all we need in order to succeed is perseverance and a touch of audacity but the sobering truth is that of the hundreds of copies of Mr. Ives' 114 Songs that he sent out, most sat on desks and languished unopened for years, if not decades. Had it not been for the passion of the young composer Henry Cowell who made it his personal mission to get the establishment to recognize the great leaps of imagination made by the older man, we might never have heard much of this groundbreaking music. 

Those of us who write for the stage do so in an environment in which the discovery of something wonderful and new is well on its way to becoming nothing short of miraculous. With virtually no meaningful governmental support of our theaters, there is no place really to which a playwright can send his or her script and be assured of a thoughtful read. 

The sad truth is when you send your full-length play or screenplay to the literary department of a target theatre or the development department of an independent film production company the odds are stacked against you.

A Unique Opportunity to Study Songwriting with One of the Best

Some of you may recall reading about the couple of Halloweens I spent teaching Ear Training and Music Theory to a wonderful music-loving community of folksingers and songwriters gathered by my pal Cosy Sheridan in the Utah desert. I learned so much about Music, something I thought I understood in every which way, by attempting to teach certain principles of how its put together to students who did not know how to read music notation. There really is something eye-opening about diving into a language without the usual visual markers we're used to referring to. 

Anyway, anyone who has attended one of the Hear Me Out Monologues Labor Day Festival and Awards Ceremony will recognize the name Cosy Sheridan because it is she and her husband Charlie Koch who have provided our incredibly moving musical interludes in between the presentation of Finalist monologues. I consider Cosy to be one of the finest lyricists of our time. There is an economy to her songwriting that surpasses any other I can think of. When you enter into a Cosy Sheridan lyric the words will creep up on you as she chooses carefully to collect the seemingly simplest possibly prosaic words and phrases to spin her tale. And then just when you're lulled into thinking that everything there is to see has already been seen she somehow shifts our focus and the whole world is alight with something unexpected. 

In a nod to CoVid and the disappointing need to put Moab Folk Camp on hiatus these last two years, Cosy is offering a songwriting retreat called Desert Song. It'll run from Tuesday May 31st through Friday June 3rd in the gorgeous setting of Moab.

Desert Song. A Songwriting Retreat

It's Monologue Season.

It's that time of year. 

Time to start polishing your monologue writing skills.  On Mother's Day the 2022 theme for the Hear Me Out New American Monologue Competition will be announced along with all the submission guidelines. Now in its third year, the Hear Me Out Competition seeks to celebrate and elevate the art of unforgettable monologue. Top prizes put thousands of dollars into the hands of gifted scriptwriters.

The next RT Advanced Monologue Workshop will provide participants a 9 hr. deep dive into the craft of creating powerful character through monologue with a focus on this year's competition prompt. 

May 6, 7 and 14

Join us at our monthly showcase, Some1Speaking. On the first Monday of each month we introduce you to 5 characters through 5 monologues written by 5 outstanding writers. 

Up Next:

This play has legs: THE INTERVIEW by Faye Sholiton turns 25.

In 1997 a modestly titled little play by Faye Sholiton was a winner of Dayton Future Fest. If you just heard the title, THE INTERVIEW, it's possible you'd make the mistake of expecting a simple narrowly focused piece about an interview. But Faye Sholiton's play is full of surprises and runs deep and wide. It reminds me a bit of another Holocaust play, Ida Fink's brilliant one-act, also modestly titled, THE TABLE. Both plays will creep up on you and will not let go. That may explain why today, some 25 years later, THE INTERVIEW continues to be produced all over the map. 

On the occasion of the latest production, at Sarasota Jewish Theatre, I wanted to celebrate the accomplishment of this play by putting a few questions to the author. Sholiton was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule to speak to some of the elements of THE INTERVIEW that caught my eye.

My not-so-hidden agenda here is that this quarter century success for this play might remind all the writers reading this of two important truths:

1. The play that we care most deeply about will usually be the one that outlives us 
   and...
2. There are plays being produced all the time that are not playing in Broadway houses and those plays can have long lives making a lasting impact on thousands of theatre lovers all the same. 

brief synopsis:

Fifty years after her liberation from the Nazi death camps, Bracha Weissman still suffers the  aftermath of her old trauma. When she allows Ann Meshenberg, the child of other survivors, into her suburban Cleveland home to take testimony for an archival video project, Bracha reviews the legacy she has left her own daughter. THE INTERVIEW is a story about mothers, daughters and memory – about forgiving and being forgiven.

The Interview took top honors in three national new play contests and won a coveted Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence grant. It is featured in Gene A. Plunka's book Holocaust Theater: Dramatizing Survivor Trauma and Its Effects on the Second Generation (Routledge, London) 2019. The play has been performed more than three dozen times around the U.S. since its premiere at the 1997 FutureFest in Dayton, Ohio.

Questions for the author:

Tec
You wrote this play in the 1990s? And it's been produced dozens of times in theatres of different shapes and sizes. Now, for the first time we are entering a world which pretty soon won't have any Holocaust survivors left. How do you feel that fact changes the way the play is understood?

This one's personal. Some1Speaking tonight.

In November 2020 one of the most important people in my life finally lost what had been an incredible 11-year battle with Stage IV Ovarian Cancer. At the time of her initial diagnosis one of the docs she consulted urged her to "get your affairs in order. I give you six weeks."

And so I've been remembering things I either overheard or that she confided in me about various battles she fought and have been turning them into monologues. Jenny Bacon read one of the first ones at a Some1Speaking last year and I must admit that sometimes when I miss my friend just a little too much I head on over to Hear Me Out YouTube just to spend a few minutes with her words, her energy, her fire. 

I don't think I've ever quite had this kind of intense umbilical connection to a script of my own. The only thing that sort of comes close was when my play The Wreck Behind Us filled the upstairs space at the Duplex for a summer. The play explores the impact of the sudden death of actress wife and mother, a family I grew up with, the mother of my best friend growing up. I guess it felt like it was a tragedy I knew in my bones. I'll never forget how David's older brother came up to me at the end of a performance, shook my hand and suggested that I had given him an extra 30 minutes with his late mother. 

It's a strange thing for me now. In a way I feel I'm still having a relationship with her, although unfortunately her ability to surprise me has suddenly vanished.

If you're free tonight, please come by and check it out. The fabulous Marnie Andrews will be breathing life into the text. And for that I am already grateful beyond my own understanding.

House opens at 5:45PM which is when ticket sales stop. Some1Speaking usually runs about one hour from 6PM to 7PM and a ticket'll set you back $5.  Click here for tickets and more info.

Still Fighting My Most Unhelpful Inner Skeptics

So I started working on a new play not so long ago and decided to gather some of my favorite members of the RT Inner Circle to hear me give it a read and see what's what. It's a solo Zoom play and for now at least, while I figure out what shape I want it to take, I'm reading/performing it myself.  Because the play is a kind of response to the January 6th Insurrection I had the inspired idea to schedule its first reading for 1PM, Thursday January 6th, exactly one year to the hour when the angry mob breached the Capitol. 

On Monday, riding a wave of confidence after a particularly good day of writing, I hit SEND on an email to the Inner Circle inviting folks to preregister for the private Zoom meeting which I decided to frame as a lunchtime first read. Within less than 24 hours I heard from a significant number of folks begging me to pick another day due to various prior commitments, many related directly to efforts to mark the historic anniversary.

As often happens with me, on the first whiff of complaint hitting my InBox I began to consider moving the date. And I fell right into seriously unproductive self talk along the lines of:

What were you thinking?

Who do you think you are offering people barely enough lead time?

Could you possibly have handled this any more poorly?

And those thoughts quickly morphed into:

What do you think is so great about this piece anyway? 

If it possibly just belongs in a drawer you might be better off saving yourself the humiliation. 

Maybe its best you cancel the thing entirely.

I got myself so tied up in knots over it that the only thing I became certain of was that with each passing hour, there was little to no chance in hell I was going to be able to perform the thing. 

I wrote an email apologizing for the inconvenience and letting folks know I'd be looking for a better date since so many had complained about the inconvenience of January 6th.

Almost within minutes of my hitting SEND on the correction about 10 people emailed asking if it was too late to register for Thursday's play reading.

Arrgh! I wanted to scream. But instead of screaming I let the anger and frustration turn inward as I told myself I must really be wearing out my welcome with members of the RT Inner Circle. 

I was just about to move the date  to January 18 or 19 when Suzanne, my director, asked if I really wanted to start something new with Mercury in retrograde. 

Without really quite knowing what that meant, I heeded her advice and picked Monday February 7th also at 1PM, EST. 

And now, looking at my calendar recognizing that I have just stumbled into 3 weeks of extra lead time, I find myself having to consciously resist with every fibre of my being the urge to trash the whole thing and start the play over from page 1.

However I will say this: I had the main character's journey moving in one shape and as of this writing I decided that he needs to end the hour in a completely different emotional and moral position than what I'd originally mapped out for him.

So, I suppose if I end up pleased with this absolutely fundamental revision to the piece I will only have one person to thank: my deeply neurotic and fearful inner child.

Any writer who's taken one of my workshops knows how relentless I can be in reminding anyone who'll listen to please never make the mistake of stopping the initial writing of a first draft to consider the first few pages.  And, like an idiot, I recently did that before I had properly fleshed out the last scene of the play. So I am here to fess up to the magnetic power of this, to acknowledge just how tempting it can be to stop, turn to page 1 and take stock of what we've got so far. 

The moment I noticed that I had sort of started to do this on this play, I really had to make a conscious effort to very intentionally write my way free of that burden. How did I manage to write and escape the crushing silence of having just taken a peek under the hood of scene one?

I told myself I had to write at least two completely different paths to the finish line. And by doing so, by giving myself an assignment that contained within it the absolute certainty that at least one of my solutions would end up tossed into the circular file, I was able to shrug off the crushing burden of wanting desperately to insure that whatever I might be creating would eventually find its way to absolute brilliance.

There is no greater enemy to a writer's creativity and productivity than the determination that for whatever ego reason, this piece you're working on must be brilliant. Once I tell myself I'm just playing with ideas, just writing something cause I want to have it laid out. Period. Then the real work can begin. And it happens in my peripheral vision when it might seem as though no one at all is even looking. 

If you're wishing you could join us Feb 7th to hear this first draft of a play I'm tentatively calling Now is the Time For All Good Men to Rise to the Aid of Their Country, you should join the RT Inner Circle. It's free and painless and you may unsubscribe whenever you like. 

A December Tradition: The RT Holiday Email Stuffer

As the end of the calendar year approaches, members of the Roland Tec Inner Circle are treated to my longest email of the year full of cultural content and career opportunities for anyone who cares deeply about the performing arts, specifically theatre and filmmaking. Here's a glimpse into this year's. If you haven't yet signed on as a member of the RT Inner Circle, membership is free, you may unsubscribe at any time and since March of 2020 (as of this posting at the end of 2021) RT Inner Circle members have saved a combined $1,250 on workshop tuition and online ticket sales. 

 

Click this Button to Sign Up Now

Recently Asked Questions re: RT Advanced Monologue (Dec. 26-28)

Registration is open for the upcoming installment of my popular workshop, ADVANCED MONOLOGUE.  And over the past week or so several questions have made their way into my InBox that have the potential to become Frequently Asked Questions so without further ado, here are a few Recently Asked Questions about the workshop and my answers.

Q: I noticed that on December 26th, the workshop begins at 4PM and runs for 2 hrs. If there's a chance I may have to miss all or part of this first 2 hour session would I still be able to participate fully?

A: The Advanced Monologue Workshop always begins with a 2-hour session followed by two 3-hour sessions on the following days. Day One is devoted primarily to an introduction to Roland Tec's theory of the case, sharing the 5 Essential Ingredients which I've always found to be present in the strongest most enduring examples of monologue. Days Two and Three then get down to the fun and excitement of you putting these principles to the test through targeted in-class writing prompts. Because all three sessions are recorded in Zoom and made available to you as a participant, you could easily miss the first 2 hours, watch the video before Day Two's session begins and not be at any great disadvantage in terms of your ability to understand and implement the approach.

Q: It says on your website that the last six hours of workshop are devoted almost entirely to participants' writing. How much of our writing will be done in class vs. at home as homework between sessions?

A: Most of the writing you'll be doing will be fast and dirty in response to targeted prompts I've developed over the years to address what I see as some of the most common problems in the generalized approach to the form.  However, you're definitely invited to take something first created in workshop and develop it more fully in the time between Day Two (Dec. 27th 5-8PM, EST) and Day Three (Dec. 28th 1-4PM)

Q: I've taken this workshop before (and loved it!). Would it be silly for me to sign up again?

A: The first 2 hours of the total 8 hours might be similar although I'm always evolving in my remarks. The bulk of this workshop is devoted to your writing in session so absolutely, I encourage people to repeat whenever they like. And, if you are planning to take Advanced Monologue for the second or third time, please first send me a private email so I can send you a repeat offender discount code!

visit RolandTecTeaching.com for more info.

My RT Inner Circle Emails are way too long. What should I do?

It's a problem.

I know it.

I don't deny it.

Yet month after month I find myself starting out to compose the RT Inner Circle E-Notes with the clear intention of sending out something light and breezy and easy on the eyes.

And month after month I fail.

Why might that be?

I have some theories.

Because I'm weaning myself from all social media (I decoupled from Facebook after the 2016 election and have occasionally wondered whether I'd made a marketing mistake and so have allowed people to promote my workshops on the platform with serious reservations and angst). Twitter remains a mystery to me. LinkedIn, as I've said before, feels like the Cinderella to the wicked step sisters of social media (FB & Twitter) in that it's more transparent, less sexy and therefore gets most of my attention. Despite the fact that I don't know how many of you actually go there.

So every time I set out to send information about things I think are important in the world of theatre and filmmakers (including but not exclusively limited to workshops of my own) I feel a kind of burden cause I doubt folks are stumbling upon posts of mine on social media.

So that I think contributes to my unconscious need to put every possible dish on the menu on the table. Just in case. God forbid the one person who doesn't eat meat or gluten forgets that I always prepare a rice veggie medley no matter what.