I guess I forgot to title it.
I’m just glad it came together in time!
Happy Holy Days!
❄️
If I have your address you’ll get a card in the USPS mail.
xoxo
Ali 💋
I’ve written dozens of versions of this same advice to beginning screenwriters.
It takes reading a lot of scripts over many years to understand the form but here’s a tip I hope you can use now.
Every word of a script should convey valuable information. Writers hung up on facial choreography aren’t trusting the actors will know how to perform if given insights to character through specific behavior and choices. They forget to leave clues in description detail. They lose sight of the bigger picture while telling the actor how to time his exhalations. -ag
It’s coming … I promise you.
The first three episodes of The Ferment will be fully scripted (revisions pending further development, of course) by the end of winter break (before the Spring 25 semester).
And for as much as the recent election results suck in so many ways, I will use the dark emotions to fuel the art. Just like I do personally when painful feelings arise. I will make something out of this suffering, too. Perhaps you will join me?
We will make something of value out of the ongoing tragedy – because bad things have been happening and they will continue to happen. We pray they won’t escalate too quickly. We pray the country doesn’t veer too far off-course of Progress while we inject as much positive value into our communities as we can.
We will remain diligent- on watch for abuses of power, corruption, harm, and injustice. Over the weekend, I finally made a donation to the WVIA newsroom because I’m not sure where else independent journalists are working and democracy needs to protect them.
Who has the $10 billion that was spent on political campaign advertising this year?
How many Americans have been made anxious, distrusting, and ill from the bombardment of thought bombs falling for months on our global mind? Pennsylvania, at least, feels harassed and violated. Can some of that gross profit be used to fund independent journalism that cannot be controlled or regulated by the government?
If not, what can be done to put our nerves at ease? Uncertainty, they keep saying, it’s what fuels the fear.
Can we do something with campaign spending that benefits all of us? Can we engage in our communities- give back- generously nurture shared experiences- create opportunity for those without capital who given time and space will envision innovative solutions and writer better stories?
Anyway …
I’m working.
But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t count.
By it, I mean video. I’ve been taking advantage of summer outdoor adventures to practice cutting together videos of our hikes and cycling. I suppose there is some sense of visual storytelling. Some cinematic training of the mind?
I’ve learned GoPro AI is terrible at picking clips and the only way to use their app is to make your own edits. Some of the music is good, though and it’s nice to make highlight reels relatively quickly (without spending hours in Adobe).
Just in case you thought I forgot about my own creative work … I am still processing life and practicing the skills to share it. It just doesn’t look so much like script at the moment.
Patience.
-ag
Maureen McGuigan’s Remember, You Must Die: a comedy is back this month as one of two solo plays performed by their author in the Scranton Fringe Festival summer mainstage production Acting Alone. The show will also feature Mandy Pennington’s new work Girl Walks Into A Movie Theater under the direction of Simone Daniel.
Although I’ve been working at Lackawanna College in Scranton for eight years as an adjunct professor in the humanities, the school has not had its own theatre program for a long time. Acting Alone will only be the second time I’ve staged a show in that gorgeous old theater. Fun fact: The first time was the second production of The Vagina Monologues we produced in Scranton (2003) to raise funds for the Women’s Resource Center and Domestic Violence Services Center. I got to act in that one (“My Angry Vagina”) and connecting with that packed house was exhilarating. When I complain about how much I don’t enjoy acting, I try to remember that show because it was a clear exception.
Back to the present.
Performances of Acting Alone are scheduled at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, June 25-27. Masks are required at Thursday’s show. There will also be a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday.
Tickets can be purchased NOW directly from ScrantonFringe. org.
Hey, my alter ego, Kitty Belle Burbank, was caught chatting with E.W. Conundrum Demure at Radio Free Brooklyn again! On ep. 576 of Troubadours and Raconteurs, we discuss: “Sense of Entitlement, Raising Children, the Creative Economy & Technology, the Sitcoms of Norman Lear, Maude, Civility When Handling Disagreements, the 1970s, Innocence, the Orange Orangutan in the Room, the Darkside of Fear, Being More Empowered, Stolen Focus, the Value of Work, Making Things from Scratch, and the Farm Arts Collective.”
Episode 576 also features a poem by E.W. titled “Innocence” and music by Thelonious Monk, Lena Lovich, Bonny Light Horseman, War, Branford Marsalis and Terence Blanchard.
xo
I’ve been cultivating image ideas to pair with these words for a while … part of the Ferment series or a new one? Maybe the trigger for a spin-off. Maybe the cover of my next volume of poetry? Maybe a sequel to Banger’s Elixir?
But first … does it look like the android/robot is juggling or do I need to mess with the hands? Are they too fisted?
Gregarious Expressions 