OK, I'm really excited to announce that my full length play PARADISE KEY has been named the winner of the 2010 Trustus Theatre Playwrights Festival. This is a national competition for full length plays, that receives hundreds of entries each year. I knew I was a finalist a few weeks ago, and now I've been told I won! That means they will have a reading of the play this fall (August 15, 2009), I believe, and then a full production next fall.

Check back for dates, times, more info, and more jubilation!

The Public Theatre presented a new work-in-progress last night by the amazing Suzan-Lori Parks as part of their Lab series. The piece, titled Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1 and 8) was the start of a nine-part epic retelling of the Iliad and Odyssey from the perspective of a newly freed slave living in South Texas, 1865. Although we only saw part of the story, I'm assuming that we will see the slave, Homer, journey to freedom, and then return to his love, Penny, as suggested by the archetype. There were hints at other time periods, and multi-media elements, but the core we followed was the immortal tension between the hope of freedom, and the agony of experience.

And it was a beautifully crafted piece, full of intricate language and astounding performances. The subtle musical accompaniment and rhythmic movement (direction by Jo Bonney) counterpointed the text without distraction. And the generous asides and humor (including a wonderfully loyal dog) brought us in to the mix easily and naturally. The audience sat as the lights came up, clearly wanting more, (the ushers had to tell us it was over – please go home now) and I couldn't help feeling like I was a part of a unique moment. I can hardly wait to see this whole thing come to completion, and I'll be proud to say "I was there when..."

I'm getting excited about the opportunity to workshop a new play this summer during a residency at The Studios of Key West in Florida. TSKW is a unique place offering residencies and facilities to artists for project development. I'll be down there from late July through mid August, working with some of my favorite collaborators of all time on a brand new piece.

The play is a campfire tale about life after the Zombie apocalypse; it offers a meditation on survival, family, and cost of being human. After a few months on other projects, I'm finally turning my focus back to this one, and I think it's going to be fun.

Now that school is finally done (for a few months, at least) I can focus on some other projects that have been simmering away in the back of my mind. One of these, a yet-to-be-titled psychological thriller, will have some further development in Florida during July and August (more details to follow). All I can say is it's good to write things that excite you.

I'm excited to announce a reading of my new full length play, PARADISE KEY, coming up in exactly two weeks. It will be at the CMU School of Drama, on the third floor in the Brown Studio, on Wednesday, April 29th at 6:30 PM. No tickets are required, but you can contact me to learn more.

This past weekend I was in beautiful, blooming South Carolina for a few fun events. I was able to see the stage version of BRICK, based on the original film written and directed by Rian Johnson, at J.L. Mann High School in Greenville. It was adapted by my buddy Chris White, a phenomenal actor / teacher / director / writer / collaborator, and I heard that Rian's response to the piece was equal in excitement to mine. Well done, Chris!

I was also able to hear a reading of a new play of mine that's still in development. It's about Zombies, and I'm working with some of my favorite all-time partners at Trustus Theatre in Columbia. This project has been simmering for a while, and will come to full boil with a guest artist / residency planned for later this summer in at The Studios of Key West, in Key West, Florida. We're taking the script through a development process down there, and hope to put on some readings / staged performances of it, and see what we've got. I'll post more about this opportunity later - this is just the sneak preview!

A short tele-play that I wrote called CAFE UNDEAD will be shot tomorrow at the Pittsburgh Public TV affiliate WQED. This piece follows two survivors who find themselves trapped in a dead end situation. Things go from bad to worse when company arrives.

UPDATE: Here are some great photos on Flickr from the shoot.

My 10-minute play, JOY OF COOKING, had a staged reading this week as part of the Actors Theatre of Santa Cruz "Best of the Rest" short play competition. JOY OF COOKING is the story of a woman who must learn to cook in one night, or risk losing her marriage and maybe her sanity.