Ha! Tracy Held Potter and I were interviewed on this past Wednesday about The 31 Plays in 31 Days Project! Want to check it out? I know you do… Check it!

Arts in The Valley Radio Show, interview with Rachel Bublitz and Tracy Held Potter

Being the luck that I am, and having won a flex pass for this year’s Bay Area Playwrights Festival I saw a staged reading of “Grounded” by George Brant last night. It was so incredibly good. It’s about a female fighter pilot who gets taken off the front lines and is forced to “fly” drone planes in Afghanistan. Mollie Stickney plays the pilot in this one person play (not a one person show) is captivating and holds your attention for the entire 90 minute show.

The script also weaves it’s way beautifully through this woman’s life. The imagery in the text is beautiful, and I found myself relating to the character with all of her turns and twists. The play is wonderfully current and brings aspects of the war in Afghanistan to light that most of the audience, including myself, were completely unaware of.

This is not a show to be missed. There is one more reading on July 29 (next Sunday), 2012 at 3pm. This was by far the best solo performance that I’ve ever seen live. Check it!

As I said yesterday, I won two flex passes to the Bay Area Playwright’s Festival put on by the Playwright’s Foundation and I am pumped! Here are the readings I’m going to this coming weekend:

GROUNDED by George Brant tomorrow, (July 20th) at 8pm.

BRAHMAN/I: A One-Hijra Stand-Up Comedy Show, by Aditi Brennan Kapil on Saturday (July 21st) at 4pm.

and…

THE HUNDRED FLOWERS PROJECT by Christopher Chen on Sunday (July 22nd) at 12pm.

Interested in any of these? I have two passes and I need dates! Email me.

Tracy Held Potter and myself were interviewed this morning for the Arts in The Valley radio show! Arts in the Valley, hosted by Kim McMillon on 1480 KYOS in Merced, CA, and we’ll be on it this coming Saturday. Oh man, I was so nervous this morning. But we did a good job. We were promoting The 31 Plays in 31 Days Project, which has gotten up to 167 playwrights! There are still 13 more days left until the challenge begins, so be sure to register soon.

In other news, I won two flex passes to the Bay Are Playwrights Festival! How rad is that? It must be my lucky day, I didn’t sound like a fool in my interview AND I won tickets to an incredibly exciting event. Not sure how I’m going to work out going to see four readings this weekend (I’m camping next weekend, yikes!) but I remain optimistic. Let me know if you want to babysit my kids! HAHA…. No, really, let me know.

The beautiful thing about theatre (and life really) is that one night you’re seeing a play that utterly disappoints you, and the next you’re seeing work that has you jumping for joy. Last night I went to Cafe Royale to see the San Francisco Theater Pub’s Pint Sized Plays III. It was fan-freakin’-tastic. You must go and see Pint Sized Plays III. It was en extremely fun night of theatre. My favorite piece (hard to pick one) was Megan Cohen’s play “BEEEEEAAR!”. People were practically rolling on the floor, unable to control themselves, they were so over taken by laughter. Allison Page, the beer drinking bear, gave a hilarious performance, she was so good, that I want to try and see everything that she ever does in the future… For ever.

Stuart Bousel is another one I plan on stalking, so far I haven’t been to something that he’s involved with that has disappointed me. I think he has a gift in making theatre more accessible and appealing to a larger audience.

SO, to sum things up… Last night was a total blast. If you enjoy having fun, go see the show. It is not to be missed. You can click on the link above for details, and here are the remaining dates:

July 17, 23, 30 & 31, 8pm @ Café Royale, 800 Post St. San Francisco, CA 94109

Special Touring Performance: Wednesday, July 18, 8pm @ The Plough & Stars, 116 Clement St @ 3rd Ave, San Francisco, CA 94118

Trust me, go and see Pint Sized Plays III! You will thank me later.

Last night I went and saw MARAT/SADE at Brava in San Francisco. I don’t have a ton to say about it… Here’s what I got, and take from it what you will:

1. Surprise musical. I really must learn read descriptions better.
2. Some of the solo songs were excellent, and Aaron Malberg, who played Jean-Paul Marat was quite good.
3. Mental institutions have lost their “edginess.”
4. Well made set and beautiful costumes.
5. No arc in the story, just confusion.
6. And so…. We left at intermission.

Not a must see, sorry to say. Tonight I’m seeing Theatre Pub’s Pint Sized Plays though. That will make it all better.

Scene nights are amazing. Yesterday I was ripping up and starting my script over, and over, and over again. I was in a trap, that looked endless and hopeless. I was about to give up on the script altogether, but I took what I had to Play Cafe, and after hearing it read aloud from the talented actors present, and the feedback from my fellow playwrights I was set free! I wanted to stay up all night writing (I didn’t), but since it’s a preschool day, I banged out the WHOLE SCRIPT! That’s right, oooh, oooh. It has some troubles still, I’m not going to lie. The ending is insane, and I’m sure there are moments of drag, but I have a first draft of my one act play and I feel pretty good about it. So good, that I’d love for you folks to tell me what I did wrong! Email me, and I’ll send you the script. Let me know what you think!

Sigh. I’ve been putting a lot of hours in on a one act play lately. It’s working title is “Mother’s Day” (I need a better one). I was tightening up the first scene when it struck me that I was doing something very wrong. Not wrong for everyone, but wrong for me. And even though I spent all night last night, and all of this morning getting it ready for scene night at Play Cafe, I’m going to have to scrap it. I have a great fondness for the story, and I’ve worked out how to fix my mis-step… But it does require me to go in and re-write nearly everything. I’m thankful I caught it now, instead of figuring it out tonight when it was read to me. Hopefully I’ll get the first scene written out in time for tonight.

I find it amazing that I could work on something for so long, and be blind to it… And I’m incredibly curious about what triggered me to see my mistake. Well, enough about this… I have some work to get to.

*Disclaimer, I’m feeling sick today. My review will be short and sweet, and this is because I’m feeling badly, not because I don’t have a ton of wonderful things to say about the show.

Last night I went and saw The Merchant of Venice directed by Stuart Bousel from Custom Made Theatre Co.. I was really impressed. This was my first time seeing The Merchant of Venice (I haven’t read it either) and I was able to follow along with the story with ease. It’s a far cry from how lost I was when I saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream the Opera in Rome. It was also made current in a seemingly carefree way. I’ve seen other Shakespeare shows that tried to straddle the line of modern and classic and failed miserably (haven’t we all?) and so it was refreshing to see it done so well.

While I thought all of the actors did a great job, I was especially impressed with Megan Briggs who played Portia, and Molly Holcomb who played Nerissa. I thought they especially shined during the beautifully staged court room scene.

Good job Staurt, cast, and everyone over at Custom Made! I can’t wait to see what you put out next.

The show runs July 9 – Aug 5; Thurs-Sat 8pm; Sun 7pm and is at the Gough Street Playhouse. It comes highly recommended.

A year ago I started writing my first play. Since then I’ve learned a considerable amount about how to be a playwright. How and where to workshop your work, getting in contact with actors, and I’ve even started to crack open the door to getting produced (ever so slightly). But there’s still an element I’m still confounded by; literary agents. This is not a post about literary agents, this a post listing my questions about literary agents, in hope someone will read this and show mercy on me and shed some light.

Here are my biggest questions:

Do you need an agent?

Do the agents find you, or should I be trying to find them?

And… What do they do for you? I know that there a ton of places that will only accept scripts from agents, and I imagine they’re involved with contract negotiations, but is that it? Not to say that isn’t a lot, I’m just curious what they’re services are in total.

Sorry to post something without any information but I’m very perplexed by literary agents and I’m ready for some answers! You can comment below, or email me the info. I’d appreciate it!