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The second production meeting was breezy and quick. No one at this point has entered rehearsals, so there is really nothing to report. Zoldessy was not there, but even if he was around there’s still only speculation about what’s coming.

Brief conversation about video in Patterns, specifically, an endorsement from Raymond that it should be present in the workshop production, if not as a fully-blown piece (with live and canned — produced — video), at least to get a sense of what the play will be like with that stuff in there.

Afterwards, playwrights, CPT, NEOMFA pow-wow about certain assumptions that have been made all around. This includes some things suggested by me in a previous post. I won’t go into details on this, as they aren’t for open discussion, but suffice it to say there was a clearing of the air and an understanding was reached. In this respect I’m confirmed again in my conviction that open, frank discussion/communication goes a long way to cutting off misguided assumptions (wherever they may lie). Unfortunately, open and frank communication is uncommon, a fact to which my wife will attest.

Looking forward to February 7th when rehearsals begin and the real task of getting the play made comes in earnest.

My good friend Peter Roth did something quite exceptional yesterday, well, he had probably been working on it and thinking about it for a bit longer, nevertheless, yesterday evening he convened the first meeting of the Manhattan Project.

By his own description:

Between 1942 and 1945, J. Robert Oppenheimer gathered the most brilliant minds of the age at Los Alamos, New Mexico to create something magnificent and terrifying. The Manhattan Project – Cleveland Lab seeks to do the same for the Cleveland stage.

Based on the Theatre Lab model taught at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama and inspired by The Brooklyn Generator in New York, The Manhattan Project wants to introduce Cleveland actors and playwrights to each other by organizing a monthly production of brand new 10-minute plays.

Participating artists will meet early in the month and will be broken into teams, each with one playwright. The playwright will then be given a writing prompt to write a new 10-minute play based on the prompt and including all the team’s actors. The rest of the evening the team members will get to know each other and get a feel for each other’s skills and voices.

The teams will reconvene later in the month to perform these plays for each other.

These 10-minute plays are not an end in themselves. Through these small collaborations we hope to build relationships between the two most vulnerable artists in theatre; the actors who put themselves on stage and the playwrights who pour themselves onto the page. Perhaps these 10-minute plays will grow into longer works or maybe these collaborations will become partnerships on larger projects.

I am pleased that Peter invited me and that I am one of six inaugural writers. Upwards of twenty people showed up last night and all were enthusiastic. This is an exciting project and will only grow with time.

If you want to participate, please RSVP at TrinityCrater@gmail.com.

The first performance will be Monday, May 6, at 8:00pm at Mahall’s on Madison Avenue, which is a kick-ass venue with a good beer selection.

Rock-on, Peter!