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So, here it is! 20 years in the making. I’m going off script today to not talk about playwrights or plays or theater but instead to announce the release (Kindle format) of my book.

I started writing this book, or a version of it, when I was an undergraduate in college and it was fully underway by 1995. The book has been professionally edited on two occasions, substantially re-written at least three times, professionally reviewed by Kirkus_online_020115, and the cover art done by the talented Amanda Almon. My photo for the book jacket was done by Steve Mastroianni, another talented friend, and my good friend Jared Bendis has assisted in too many ways to enumerate. I’d also like to thank Atbosh Media for publishing the work and taking the leg work out of all the formats, isbns, lc numbers, etc. And last but certainly not least, my wife Kirsten, who read the book more times than she probably liked and who contributed significantly to my consideration of layout and design elements.

The print version of the book will be available from both Ingram and [amazon_link id=”B00TCI8ZVC” target=”_blank” ]Amazon[/amazon_link] in the next several weeks, and then I will begin attempts at consignment distribution to local stores and I’ll start pushing for it in local libraries.

Huzzah!!

Attended a staged reading of Christopher Johnston’s play Nude Reclining into Shadow at Dobama. The reading featured the talents of Lara Knox, Dana Hart, and John Busser.

The following description is from the event listing from Playwright’s Gym:

“Keegan is a middle-aged artist who once reveled in national acclaim for his paintings and photographs. He’s been away from the limelight for many years, however, and survives by teaching a college class in painting at his decrepit studio. Now, just when he’s at a new low and the university is forcing him to retire, he meets Amaris, a beautiful, young, fiercely independent model who is equal parts inspiration and exasperation. She could become the new muse he so desperately desires to start painting again – or his worst nightmare.”

The role of Keegan was read by Dana Hart and that of Amaris was read by John Busser, just kidding, it was Lara Knox, with Busser handling the stage directions.

The eventual performance will be a mix of media, including screen projections (text and video), studio space action, and movement through time.

I have to say, from the reading, that I did not pin Keegan as a middle-aged artist. This had nothing to do with the reading itself, but more to do with the predicament of the artist, the unfamiliarity with more modern communication devices, and perhaps the social disconnection that were both of his own making and the passage of time. I imagined him as more early to mid sixties or later, perhaps. More specifically, it seemed that the artist character was reclining into shadow, shadow of a more permanent sort.

I’m not going to discuss the play too much because I’m still thinking about it and it has not been staged, which will make a pronounced difference. I will say that I found it intensely engaging and, through a series of intimate encounters, a play about longing with a heightened eroticism that I haven’t experienced in many plays before.

I do hope that it finds it’s path to a full production.