{"id":7532,"date":"2017-02-13T00:17:02","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T00:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=7532"},"modified":"2017-02-13T00:17:02","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T00:17:02","slug":"new-year-new-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/new-year-new-work\/","title":{"rendered":"New Year, New Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in Decem\u00adber I released the lat\u00adest install\u00adment in the Dako\u00adta Stevens Mys\u00adtery Series, The Per\u00adfect Triple Threat<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I spent most of Decem\u00adber and part of Jan\u00adu\u00adary doing pro\u00admo\u00adtion for the book, and while the num\u00adber of reviews of the book so far is small, they have been over\u00adwhelm\u00ading\u00adly pos\u00adi\u00adtive.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to learn more about the book, the book page is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Com\u00ading out at the end of Feb\u00adru\u00adary or ear\u00adly March:<\/p>\n

\"the_ronald_cover_mockup\"The Ronald And Oth\u00ader Plays<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

From the Pref\u00adace:<\/p>\n

I caught the play\u00adwrit\u00ading bug in col\u00adlege. Although I majored in phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy and Amer\u00adi\u00adcan his\u00adto\u00adry, I took sev\u00ader\u00adal Shake\u00adspeare cours\u00ades and an act\u00ading class in which I adapt\u00aded part of The Great Gats\u00adby<\/em> for a scene study assign\u00adment. Inspired when I saw the clas\u00adsic farce Nois\u00ades Off<\/em>, I joined a short-lived Boston improv troupe and wrote some sketch\u00ades for us. I was also roman\u00adti\u00adcal\u00adly inter\u00adest\u00aded in the troupe\u2019s lead actress, a dri\u00adven, charis\u00admat\u00adic woman named Jules. Jules had a bale of curly raven black hair, glit\u00adter\u00ading blue eyes, and wore red cow\u00adboy boots every\u00adwhere; I also remem\u00adber her hav\u00ading thin eye\u00adlash\u00ades, which she tried to com\u00adpen\u00adsate for with copi\u00adous mas\u00adcara. Sad\u00adly, I can\u2019t remem\u00adber her last name.<\/p>\n

My inter\u00adest in play\u00adwrit\u00ading was reawak\u00adened in 2007, dur\u00ading a speech\u00adwrit\u00ading job for Pep\u00adsi Bot\u00adtling Group (PBG), when I was asked to write a play about Pep\u00adsi-Cola Inven\u00adtor Caleb Brad\u00adham. The result\u00ading Equi\u00adty pro\u00adduc\u00adtion, per\u00adformed by Broad\u00adway actors at cor\u00adpo\u00adrate meet\u00adings in Orlan\u00addo, Flori\u00adda and Scotts\u00addale, Ari\u00adzona, was a heady expe\u00adri\u00adence for me.<\/p>\n

For a nov\u00adel\u00adist like me\u2014a per\u00adson who labors in iso\u00adla\u00adtion for months or years, and whose only con\u00adtact with his char\u00adac\u00adters is see\u00ading them and hear\u00ading them in his own head\u2014few expe\u00adri\u00adences are more mag\u00adi\u00adcal than hav\u00ading your fic\u00adtion\u00adal cre\u00adations brought to life in per\u00adfor\u00admance.<\/p>\n

The morn\u00ading before dress rehearsals of the Caleb Brad\u00adham play, I was sit\u00adting in a drab base\u00adment office at the PGB head\u00adquar\u00adters in Somers, New York, hunched over my lap\u00adtop, mak\u00ading last-minute changes to the script, when a shad\u00adow appeared over me. I looked up from the com\u00adput\u00ader screen, eyes blink\u00ading, and there was a beau\u00adti\u00adful woman in an Edwar\u00addian peri\u00adod lace dress and broad-brimmed hat. There, in the flesh, as if she had mate\u00adri\u00adal\u00adized off my com\u00adput\u00ader screen, was my fic\u00adtion\u00adal cre\u00adation: Caleb\u2019s fic\u00adtion\u00adal niece, Char\u00adlotte Brad\u00adham. She began to speak, say\u00ading her lines with a North Car\u00adolin\u00adian accent, just as I\u2019d envi\u00adsioned the char\u00adac\u00adter.<\/p>\n

When she fin\u00adished, the actress sat down beside me and rest\u00aded her chin in her palm.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what do you think, Chris?\u201d she asked. \u201cAm I how you imag\u00adined Char\u00adlotte?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d I said. \u201cBet\u00adter.\u201d<\/p>\n

That expe\u00adri\u00adence taught me a fun\u00adda\u00admen\u00adtal truth about play\u00adwrit\u00ading: You, the play\u00adwright, might write some good dia\u00adlogue, but it is the actors<\/em>, with their mys\u00adte\u00adri\u00adous gifts, that trans\u00adform that dia\u00adlogue from mere words on a page into liv\u00ading, breath\u00ading char\u00adac\u00adters that make us feel<\/em> some\u00adthing.<\/p>\n

Since that expe\u00adri\u00adence, I\u2019ve loved see\u00ading my work per\u00adformed.<\/p>\n

Sev\u00ader\u00adal of the plays in this col\u00adlec\u00adtion have been per\u00adformed in staged read\u00adings. Dark and Stormy Night<\/em> & Micro\u00adbrew<\/em> & Kansas City This is For\u00admer Air Force One<\/em> were per\u00adformed by the Penob\u00adscot The\u00adatre Com\u00adpa\u00adny in Ban\u00adgor, Maine, dur\u00ading their 2011 North\u00adern Writes New Play Fes\u00adti\u00adval. Thanks to the over\u00adwhelm\u00ading\u00adly pos\u00adi\u00adtive feed\u00adback from the audi\u00adence, and the encour\u00adage\u00adment of Andrew Fro\u00addahl and oth\u00ader fes\u00adti\u00adval play\u00adwrights, I con\u00adtin\u00adued play\u00adwrit\u00ading, and in 2013, Front Page Above the Fold<\/em> was per\u00adformed by Half Moon The\u00adatre in Pough\u00adkeep\u00adsie, New York, dur\u00ading the company\u2019s 10-Minute Play Fes\u00adti\u00adval.<\/p>\n

Two of these plays were inspired by ideas that caught my inter\u00adest and wouldn\u2019t let go. The Clean-Shaven Sec\u00adre\u00adtary with the Pis\u00adtol<\/em> came about when I read that Russ\u00adian short sto\u00adry writer and play\u00adwright Anton Chekhov had writ\u00adten an ear\u00adly play with that title, but that only the title of the play sur\u00advived; the text was lost short\u00adly after the play was first per\u00adformed. Kansas City This is For\u00admer Air Force One<\/em> came to me when I saw pho\u00adtos of the day that Richard Nixon resigned the Pres\u00adi\u00adden\u00adcy; he is last seen in pub\u00adlic smil\u00ading and wav\u00ading on the steps of Marine One, and I began to won\u00adder what might have hap\u00adpened behind the scenes on Air Force One dur\u00ading his flight home from Wash\u00ading\u00adton, D.C.<\/p>\n

Oth\u00ader plays in this col\u00adlec\u00adtion are based on per\u00adson\u00adal expe\u00adri\u00adence. Dark and Stormy Night<\/em> was inspired by many late nights in my youth spent at din\u00aders in New York and Maine, flirt\u00ading with wait\u00adress\u00ades. Micro\u00adbrew<\/em> is based, almost word for word, on an after\u00adnoon that my friend and I expe\u00adri\u00adenced with his grand\u00admoth\u00ader; and before it became a play, it was a short sto\u00adry: \u201cAll the Young Fel\u00adlas Are Lin\u00adin\u2019 Up.\u201d Final\u00adly, Front Page Above the Fold<\/em> is a spoof of my expe\u00adri\u00adences writ\u00ading for two Dutchess Coun\u00adty news\u00adpa\u00adpers in the ear\u00adly 1990s: The Pough\u00adkeep\u00adsie Jour\u00adnal<\/em> and The Mill\u00adbrook Round Table<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As for what inspired The Ronald<\/em>, that is a sto\u00adry all its own.<\/p>\n

One morn\u00ading short\u00adly after the 2016 U.S. Pres\u00adi\u00adden\u00adtial Elec\u00adtion, I awoke with a vision of how Don\u00adald Trump had won the Pres\u00adi\u00adden\u00adcy. His strat\u00ade\u00adgy, his tac\u00adtics, how he per\u00adsuad\u00aded the elec\u00adtorate, how he gamed the media\u2014it had all come to me in a dream. It was a mirac\u00adu\u00adlous moment of Gestalt.<\/p>\n

Con\u00adtrary to what many read\u00aders might think, these moments of divine inspi\u00adra\u00adtion are extreme\u00adly rare for us writ\u00aders. So, when a book (or in this case, my first full-length play) comes to us ful\u00adly formed, we have to drop every\u00adthing<\/em> and write down the sto\u00adry unfold\u00ading with\u00adin us. In my case, I\u2019ve had short sto\u00adries, arti\u00adcles and poems come to me overnight, which I wrote down in the course of a few hours, and which required very lit\u00adtle edit\u00ading after\u00adwards; but I\u2019ve nev\u00ader had a long work sim\u00adply giv\u00aden<\/em> to me the way The Ronald<\/em> was. I didn\u2019t write it so much as it wrote itself through me; I sensed this sto\u00adry float\u00ading in the col\u00adlec\u00adtive uncon\u00adscious, and it chose me to draw it out of the ether and bring it to fruition.<\/p>\n

Two weeks lat\u00ader, the first draft of The Ronald <\/em>was fin\u00adished. I put the play in a draw\u00ader and returned to my nov\u00adel-in-progress. When I took The Ronald<\/em> out again a month lat\u00ader to reread it, I found it need\u00aded very lit\u00adtle revi\u00adsion. The com\u00adplet\u00aded play appears here almost ver\u00adba\u00adtim to the ver\u00adsion that emerged from me dur\u00ading those two weeks of intense writ\u00ading in Novem\u00adber 2016.<\/p>\n

As of this writ\u00ading, The Ronald<\/em> and The Clean-Shaven Sec\u00adre\u00adtary with the Pis\u00adtol<\/em> have not been per\u00adformed by actors, but I believe that will change. By offer\u00ading roy\u00adal\u00adty-free per\u00adfor\u00admance rights to ama\u00adteur the\u00adatre com\u00adpa\u00adnies (high schools, col\u00adleges and com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty the\u00adatre groups) of all of the plays in this vol\u00adume, I\u2019m hop\u00ading to make these plays\u2014especially the polit\u00adi\u00adcal satire The Ronald<\/em>\u2014avail\u00adable to as wide an audi\u00adence as pos\u00adsi\u00adble.<\/p>\n

I hope you enjoy the plays in this col\u00adlec\u00adtion. A por\u00adtion of the pro\u00adceeds from the sale of this ebook or print\u00aded book will be donat\u00aded to char\u00adi\u00adties.<\/p>\n

Chris Orcutt
\nFeb\u00adru\u00adary 2017<\/p>\n

*     *     *<\/p>\n

\"the_ronald_cover_mockup\"<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Ronald And Oth\u00ader Plays<\/em><\/strong> fea\u00adtures a full-length polit\u00adi\u00adcal satire and five one-acts.<\/p>\n

The Ronald<\/em><\/strong>: \u201cFab\u00adu\u00adlous\u00adly Cau\u00adcasian\u201d bil\u00adlion\u00adaire The Ronald decides to run for Pres\u00adi\u00addent of the Incor\u00adpo\u00adrat\u00aded States of Free\u00addom\u00adland. Aid\u00ading him in his quest are his sexy genius daugh\u00adter, his accoun\u00adtant, a con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive pro\u00adfes\u00adsor, a Broad\u00adway pro\u00adduc\u00ader, his idiot sons, a TV enter\u00adtain\u00adment reporter, a piz\u00adza deliv\u00adery\u00adboy, and the Cork Brothers\u2014a pair of 1,000-year-old vam\u00adpires.<\/p>\n

The Clean-Shaven Sec\u00adre\u00adtary with the Pis\u00adtol<\/em><\/strong>: What hap\u00adpens when a the\u00adatre com\u00adpa\u00adny attempts to stage a short peri\u00adod dra\u00adma, and the pro\u00adduc\u00aders decide, with\u00adout warn\u00ading, to insert a com\u00admer\u00adcial break?<\/p>\n

Dark and Stormy Night<\/em><\/strong>: An autumn night, a des\u00ado\u00adlate din\u00ader, and a lone\u00adly, beau\u00adti\u00adful wait\u00adress. Enter a man dressed like an L.L. Bean mod\u00adel and car\u00adry\u00ading a split\u00adting maul. Is he a mur\u00adder\u00ader or her roman\u00adtic sal\u00adva\u00adtion?<\/p>\n

Front Page Above the Fold<\/em><\/strong>: At a local city dai\u00adly news\u00adpa\u00adper, com\u00adpe\u00adti\u00adtion between reporters for the front page sto\u00adry is fierce. So fierce, it\u2019s per\u00adson\u00adal.<\/p>\n

Micro\u00adbrew<\/em><\/strong>: Two 20-some\u00adthing slack\u00aders live above grand\u00adma June, but they aren\u2019t get\u00adting any\u00adthing past her. What she isn\u2019t pre\u00adpared for, how\u00adev\u00ader, is her grandson\u2019s bewitch\u00ading home\u00admade beer.<\/p>\n

Kansas City This is For\u00admer Air Force One<\/em><\/strong>: August 9, 1974\u2014the day Pres\u00adi\u00addent Richard Nixon resigned his office. Oh, to be a fly on the wall dur\u00ading his flight home! But wait\u2026in this play, you are.<\/p>\n

Look for The Ronald And Oth\u00ader Plays<\/em><\/strong> at the end of this month or ear\u00adly next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in Decem\u00adber I released the lat\u00adest install\u00adment in the Dako\u00adta Stevens Mys\u00adtery Series, The Per\u00adfect Triple Threat. I spent most of Decem\u00adber and part of\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,3,18,20,303,76,304,14,233],"tags":[316,218,94,315,311,295,318,155,305,307,306,309,312,313,317,308,310,319,314,221,93],"class_list":["post-7532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chris-orcutt-books","category-craft","category-dramaticwriting","category-journalism","category-plays","category-process","category-the-ronald-and-other-plays","category-writingexperiences","category-writing-life","tag-amateur-theater","tag-chekhov","tag-chris-orcutt","tag-comedy","tag-donald-trump","tag-drama","tag-nixon","tag-orcutt","tag-plays","tag-playwright","tag-playwriting","tag-politics","tag-president","tag-presidential-election","tag-professional-theater","tag-satire","tag-the-ronald","tag-trump","tag-united-states","tag-writers-life","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7532"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7541,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532\/revisions\/7541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}