Climate change plays at Toronto Cold Reads

I have been out late a few nights in a row now, and I am just catching up on the blog.  Last Sunday, I went out to Toronto Cold Reads.  I mostly go out of curiosity, since I don't have a piece coming up for a while,* and I have not had much luck winning the writer's challenge (only once so far).  The music guests have remained quite good, however.  And I usually am inspired to get a page or two of dialog down in a notebook while waiting for the action to start, so that's a good thing.  (I also seem to write well in jazz clubs, so I may start going on a more routine basis to The Rex, but maybe at this point waiting until the spring...)

I think I mentioned that I sort of got roped into reading a small part on the previous outing.  This time I didn't even sign up, but then they handed me a small part anyway.  Kind of odd.  I can guarantee you that I am not going to get stage-struck and start wanting to be an actor.  I've never had that particular ambition.  I didn't like the piece so much on the read-through, but it actually worked considerably better in front of the audience.  That is actually a useful lesson.  There was one other really strong piece (or at least strongly-acted piece) about a director kind of stuck in limbo (directing children's theatre) while his "discovery" is on the fast-track to success.

At the reading, I also met Brianna, who was on Team Tango with me for the 3Fest pieces, so that was neat meeting up with her.  I'm not sure she saw the full pieces either (I was out of town for the readings at Jarrett's place).  Anyway, it will be quite a surprise when they go up, probably in 3 weeks or so.  After the Cold Reads event ended, there was a sneak preview of the Seven Sibling's Future Fest.  I hadn't really planned on staying, but David Straus was there to do a short scene from his piece (written by Genevieve Adam), so I stuck it out.  Brianna (who is obviously a SF fan), David, Genevieve and I ended up on the same SF trivia team.  We did quite well on the books (no thanks to me) but not very well on the true/false questions.  I definitely cost us a point on the movie trivia, though others cost us more points on the true/false.  We lost by one point to another team, which is unfortunate, as Brianna and I would have scored tickets to the Future Fest.  At any rate, I haven't decided if I will see Genevieve's piece or not.  It actually starts this Friday and there are 5 or 6 shows over the next two weeks, so I have a bit more time to decide.  After this preview event wrapped, I finally made my way home and got a bit of sleep, trying to get ready for Monday.

At any rate, I thought I would mention that next Sunday (Oct 22) looks particularly intriguing, especially for those that aren't part of the inner circle.  There will be 5 shortish plays about different aspects of climate change, written by some fairly heavy hitters of the Toronto scene, including Jordan Tannahill, Anita Manjumar (author/star of the Fish Eyes Trilogy) and Marcia Johnson.  All are supposed to be in attendance, which would be incredibly awesome.  Also, there will be Jarrett Rusnak's TV pilot Humanity.  I'm very curious to see what this is about.  Finally, David Healey, who has a wicked sense of humour, will present his writer's challenge piece.  This looks like an absolutely can't-miss night.  Some additional details here.


* I am nearly finished with my short homage to Waiting for Godot, but I just don't think it would work at Toronto Cold Reads.  I think I will wait and submit it to the December SFYS, since I can't make the November one.  What I might do in the meantime is send off the opening scene of Straying South, which is in pretty good shape.  I also sort of "owe" the writing group a much tightened version of Dharma Donuts, but I just haven't had any time to really think about it lately.  After I do that, I can decide whether to work more on Final Exam or The Study Group.  I think it would be useful to see if they thought there was enough dramatic tension going on or the stakes are simply too low for too long (I guess I kind of already know the answer if I am asking the question...).  Anyway, plenty of things to work on when I can find the time.